Everyone relax... Grey, the Nonchalant Man is back!

No one's laid back like the Nonchalant Man!

Grey never asked for these powers... if it were up to him, he'd just be living on the beach, slaying the girls, and writing philosophy books (really).

But an alien abduction changed all that, and after a forced technological upgrade, a rather precarious escape from their clutches, and induction into a galactic squadron of space cops (long story), Grey found himself living in SHC and constantly embroiled with foiling alien invaders and nefarious villains.

Now, as the new-found guardian of a long-lost 9yo daughter that he didn't even know he had, Grey's never had more to protect. Maybe he WILL retire to the beach one day, and finish his masterpiece... but as long as his little girl has to live in this world, he's gonna for damned sure protect it.

Powers: Grey's body has been infused with advanced nano-technology that allows him to create or implant many different power configurations. More importantly, his intelligence has been highly accelerated, making him a strategic and tactical genius that is rarely taken by surprise, and capable of adapting to nearly any foe.

As a member in good standing of the Star Guardians, an intergalactic peacekeeping force organized by a federation of sentient suns, Grey has access to advanced technology and military hardware (I mean, he lives on a spaceship, for cryin' out loud!). He is responsible for the entire quadrant surrounding Earth, but you'd be surprised how quiet it usually is out there, so he's able to base himself on his home planet. Especially now that the Legion had arrived, finally ready to reap Earth after flooding it with Morphon Particles so many years ago.

As the Earth is desperate for champions to face the mighty Villains of the Legion, Grey's quite happy to be working with [fєαя 5¹], a stalwart group of heroes of impressive heart and power. Might doesn't make right, but it does make the rules, and Earth will need to muster every bit of its power to thwart the Legion's invasion.

Good Job, Grey! Earth needs more protectors like you! ;)

"I'm a Gryffyndor, Daddy, just like Harry and Hermione! What house do you think you'd be in?"

Grey and his daughter just finished watching one of those movies (he could never keep track of them), and cuddling on the couch. Adelina was SO into Harry Potter, it was just adorable. Not that the precocious 9yo had any trouble being adorable.

"I don't know, sweetie..." Grey replied. "Ravenclaw probably."

"Naw... you're totally a Hufflepuff!" Adelina said, giggling.

"Hufflepuff! I don't know about that..." Grey said, a mock frown on his face.

"Totally Hufflepuff! 'cause you're so huggable!" Adelina pounced onto her daddy's belly and gave him a big hug.

"Ha ha," Grey laughed. "Whatever you say, darling. Hey, are you hungry? I could go for some pancakes."

"Yeah! Pancakes! I make the best pancakes!" Adelina proclaimed proudly. "And I can make eggs now too!"

"Awesome, why don't you whip up a few for us?" Grey said. "Daddy needs to check on something in his office."

"OK Daddy! I'll shout out when they're ready!"

Grey smiled as she flounced off. Being a Dad was pretty awesome, it turns out. He felt blessed to have found his daughter, despite the unfortunate circumstances involved (long story).

He turned off the TV, and went down the hall to his "office". Of course, walking through the door actually activated the dimensional portal that brought him to his spaceship, orbiting Earth directly above, where he'd previously lived before acquiring this house in SH City where he lived with his daughter. Now it was more of a second home, but still, here, he was the Star Guardian of Earth sector, and he had a job to do.

"Status report, Jeeves" he said, as he entered his command center, the dimensional portal remaining open so he could hear his daughter banging away in the kitchen. "Start with Earth sector, prioritizing Legion activity. Then check in on [fєαя 5¹], and I suppose let me know if those B.A.D.G.E. people need anything important."

"All is quiet in the sector, sir," the disembodied voice of Jeeves, his ship's AI, replied. "No sign of the Legion... they are still able to render themselves undetectable to my sensors."

"Damn..." Grey muttered. "Well, I'll continue to update your algorithms. We'll find those bastards soon enough. Continue."

"[fєαя 5¹] are continuing to defend the city with great effectiveness, and none are currently embroiled in a crisis which might demand your attention, sir," Jeeves said. "You do have a meeting with them tomorrow morning for routine updates and such. EvoLucian also wanted to remind you that it's your turn to bring the doughnuts, and that you didn't get enough of the cream-filled last time."

"Noted, Jeeves," Grey said.  "Picky bastard, everyone knows that you can't go wrong with a good old-fashioned sugar glazed. What about my old colleagues from Battle Born? All good with them?"

"Indeed, sir," Jeeves replied. "Though it seems many of them have formed a new team, which they are calling 'the Avengers'". They seem quite powerful, indeed, and are not dealing with any major threats at this time."

"Avengers?" Grey snorted. "How original, Rakly... I swear, I don't know why I keep working on this philosophy book when everyone is so obsessed with pop culture! I mean, the movies were great, but if I called myself Superman or something it'd be SO lame.  Anyway, what's up with B.A.D.G.E.? They need anything?"

"They've been requesting updates on Dracula and the Crooked Man, and otherwise just pestering us with minor requests," Jeeves said.

"Right, right..." Grey said. "Tell them I'm on it and should get back to them soon. How is the analysis of the Astral Armband coming along."

"Most excellent, sir," Jeeves replied. "In fact, we've completed logging its analytic profile, and have moved on to the Mind Bender, which seems most intriguing."

"Great, download the data to my cortical computer and I'll review it tonight while I'm sleeping." Grey liked to let his subconscious sift through the data before actually reviewing it with his conscious ego, a useful trick enabled by his mental enhancements. "Any luck finding more artifacts?"

"Nothing new has been detected or discovered beyond the 60 or so currently catalogued, sir," Jeeves said. "However, I've managed to acquire another one of them for your arsenal. The 'Mondo Gauntlet'. And we've also collected an addition 78 ounces of Energy Crystals."

"Great," Grey said. "I'll retire for the night then, and see what I can do about Dracula tomorrow morning. Keep probing for Legion activity... I'll update your search algorithms in approximately 3 hours, see if that helps. And hey, keep up the good work!"

"Indeed, sir," Jeeves replied, sounding somewhat pleased.

"DADDY! PANCAKES!" Adelina's childish voice rang out.

"Be right there, sweetheart!" Grey called out. He smiled, as he hopped back through the dimensional portal and closed the door. Everything seemed in order for the moment, so he had nothing to demand his immediate attention. And she really DID make good pancakes!

Contest entry
ID: 11128

"Status report, Jeeves," Grey said. He'd spent the day on the beach with Adelina, thankful that there were no interruptions that called for his immediate attention. Now back in his ship's command center, he was eager to see if they'd made any progress. Things were getting pretty rough out there, with the Legion starting to take the offensive and attacking on multiple fronts.

"Good news, sir, we’ve managed to acquire 3 Mind Benders for your arsenal, sir” Jeeves intoned, his disembodied voice cordial as usual. “Also, analysis of Tyrannor and Fasttrack's capabilities is coming along quite well! It's more or less complete, though of course they may have some tricks up their sleeve held in reserve."

"Oh, excellent!" Grey said. He'd been waiting for this. "Download them immediately, I want to look at the data right away. And put the Mind Benders in my lab, I want to see how they react with each other."

As the data about his Legion enemies flooded in, Grey immediately became disheartened. "Well, this is just lovely..." he thought to himself. These power levels were extremely disturbing... no wonder he'd gotten his ass handed to him by Tyrannor during their first encounter.

"Well, that explains why our agents are having so little success against them," Grey said aloud, somewhat glumly.

"Indeed, sir," Jeeves replied. "In that regard, I have collated the latest reports from your Area 51 agents. EvoLucian experienced the most success, though keep in mind I use the term in a relative manner. He encountered..."

"Later, later..." Grey interrupted. "I get it, we're not strong enough. Dammit."

A heavy silence hung over the air.

"Sir, if I might suggest, perhaps you should consider..." Jeeves began to say.

"I GET IT, shut up, dude," Grey barked. He frowned. He really only had one option left, as distasteful as it was. He drummed his fingers against each other, an old habit, as he desperately tried to consider other options, but ultimately came to an inescapable conclusion.

He was gonna have to reach out to Super Rakly.

Grey had once rolled with Rakly, back in the days when he was just starting out and running a group called Battle Born that had garnered considerable acclaim. Super Rakly had, of course, gone one to become perhaps the most powerful Hero on Earth, but Grey had departed BB on, shall we say, heated terms (long story). They hadn’t spoken since, and Rakly had gone on to form The Avengers, the world’s most powerful superhero team. And now, Grey needed to enlist their help.

Bah.

“Jeeves, locate Super Rakly and open a door 2 miles above his current location,” Grey ordered.

“Immediately, sir,” Jeeves replied.

The portal opened, and Grey flew through, hovering high over the city a moment before soaring downwards towards it, as he scanned it with his enhanced senses for Super Rakly’s unique energy signature.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, he was slammed by twin energy beams, causing him to careen off course!

“What the…?!” Grey gasped as he stabilized himself and peered towards the source of the attack. His force field held up, but barely, and he began to direct some of the nanotechnology in his body’s cells to start creating mini-wormhole energy absorbers on his skin as a backup defense. “How the hell did anyone get past my detection arrays?”

“Ha ha ha,” a booming, yet feminine, foice rang out. “Foolish Star Guardian! All forms of energy are at my command… it was a simple matter to absorb your detection fields and strike you unawares. For I. Am. ARCHON!!!”

Grey winced as there was a flash of imploding energy, which coalesced into a (surprisingly attractive) female form comprised of glowing, crackling blue energy. Her eyes flashed, and her pretty features twisted into a snarl.

“You’ve been a thorn in our side, Star Guardian, and have been very clever at hiding from us,” Archon declared, “but I knew that if I monitored for your distinctive Federation portal technology's energy signature, I’d eventually find you. Now DIE!!!”

And with that, she lifted her arms and an immense energy blast at Grey!

“Aaargh!” Grey grunted. Holy God!!! This energy discharge was of FAR greater intensity than before! Again, his force field held up, but only because of his freshly-created wormhole generators being able to siphon off approximately 60% of the blast’s energy. Grey’s eyes widened… she wasn’t screwing around! That blast would have vaporized him had he not bolstered his defenses. And she might yet!

It was ON.

Grey maximized his speed and flew in an evasion pattern, as she continued spraying him with energy blasts. Occasionally, Grey would take a shot with one of the many weapons that his nano-tech could fabricate, but she was too fast. Even the couple of lucky hits he managed to land seemed to be largely ineffective against her energy form.

The worst part was her constant gloating. “Hey, baby doll,” he shouted with exasperation. “You’re a pretty girl, but you’re gonna talk yourself out of this date if you don’t put a cork in it!”

“Nice try,” Archon sneered, “but your date tonight is with DEATH!” And she launched yet another ludicrously powerful blast, while flitting around the sky honing in on Grey like a heat-seeking missile while easily evading most of his attacks.

After several minutes, Grey started to get concerned. She didn’t seem to be slowing down! And her blast intensity was becoming ridiculous… Grey was glad to be engaging her high above the city, or the collateral damage would have been crazy bad. And nothing he was throwing at her seemed to be working!  EMP, sonics, dimensional disruption, concussion blasts, zero-point bursts, solid projectiles… even some magic! It was all too slow to connect with her, or she was immune to it.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Archon laughed. “You’re WEAK, Star Guardian! Your friends are weak, your planet is weak, and you shall fall before the LEGION like so many other planets under the protection of your Federation of Suns have fallen! You’re insignificant! You’re nothing! We shall kill all of you ‘heroes’ and destroy all you hold dear, as we take this planet for ourselves!”

All right, Grey finally started getting pissed off. Screw this jerk! Suddenly, he had an idea… her energy form was ridiculously fast and durable, but there was still a mind controlling it all. So maybe a psychic attack might be effective! He activated his communicator.

“Jeeves, collect those Mind Benders and teleport them onto my fingers immediately,” Grey said, dodging another blast.

“How many of them, sir?” Jeeves replied.

“ALL OF THEM!” Grey grunted, as Archon managed to hit him again, straining his defenses. “This thing is going south in a hurry!”

“Very good, sir,” Jeeves replied. A couple seconds later, the powerful rings appeared on his right hand, and Grey felt a surge of psychic energy burst through his mind, both invigorating and disorienting him.

“All right, bitch, let’s finish this!” Grey cried out, clearing his head and flying towards her at top speed, his eyes narrowed. He could feel the Mind Benders pulsing on his hand, and in his brain. They could emit a localized sphere of psychic energy that disrupted the psyche of anyone caught within, so he just needed to get close enough and pop her with it.

Grey concentrated. These rings were so powerful, they were hard to control… if he didn’t focus, they might not work at all, but if he could pull it off, the disruption field should be more than powerful enough to put Archon down for the count.

“Sorry, darlin’!” Grey shouted, as he zipped into range, psychic energy building up in his fist. “You’re cute, but you ain’t my type… I don’t date fat girls!”

Archon’s eyes widened, then narrowed with anger, and she began to hiss a reply… but just then Grey activated all 3 Mind Benders!

Yes! Grey could feel right away that he got off a good one… the energy surge was one of the strongest he’d managed yet!

Archon, quite simply, blew away as the event horizon washed over her. Her face took on a shocked expression, and then her eyes rolled back, and her energy form dissipated into nothingness.

Grey hesitated, the air suddenly silent. Was that it? The psychic shock wave was unlikely to kill her, but Grey figured that it’d probably be a few hours before she could reintegrate her energy form, after a psychic wallop like that one. Unless he was wrong, of course…

But as the seconds, then minutes, ticked by, it looked like his gambit had worked. Archon did not return.

“Jeeves, I’m returning to the ship,” Grey said, activating his communicator. “I can talk to Super Rakly later… got some great data on one of the Legion generals that I want to go over. Open a portal at my location.”

As Grey waited for the portal, he smiled with satisfaction. The Legion was powerful, but they could be beaten! Now, he just had to figure out how...

Good work. Thanks for entering the contest. Could you post the contest entry as a separate post with the proper formatting for the title. It helps keep everything in order for judging when the time comes.
Thank you.