Hero Age : The Powers That Be

[ArlEammon]

An Alternate Universe, 2057

Armin Shimmerman
"And in other news . . . wait, this just in. . . we have just received reports that. . . aliens. . . have attacked and destroyed Venus colony. . . There are, no survivors. Oh, God it's not a joke." The view screen zooms in to see people being hunted down through the narrow corridors, some being tortured and others being chased outside life support zones with the word "Recording" in the right hand corner. "I know that man. . . " The reporter screamed unprofessionaly, before calming down. He took a drink of water, and suddenly the view screen was back on him, he was visibly shaken. "Never in all my years of reporting have I ever seen something this shocking. Tailor out."

Earth:
The entire cast of Heroes and Villains/and perhaps Others had seen the broadcast from Mars. Eventually, a mysterious voice enters all of their data banks with a mono-tone voice message, along with text. It is an invitation, mixed with a sense of urgency and imperious demand, that everyone who had received the message meat a strange benefactor at Mt. Olympus. The voice, although mono-tone, has a strange sense of holiness and divinity about it.

[Plerumque]

Karos had heard the voice not through any computer, indeed, he shunned such modern devices. Instead, he felt a disturbance in the divine part of his essence, taking the form of words. He sighed. He had been well these past few years, alone to contemplate the path stretching before him, far enough away from any others to practice using his abilities without spilling more blood. Yet such a summons could not be ignored.

He thought for a moment, then reached inside himself and found the wellspring of Light that flowed from him. He pulled, and wrapped it around him, giving himself up to the power of the Light. An instant later, he was no longer there, having taken the shape of pure light. It took him less than a second to reach the top of Mount Olympus, where he rematerialized in his normal form.

[ArlEammon]

Armin Rommel, Karos

The man wearing a toga waited at the top of Mt. Olympus Summit. . . all sign of tourists were gone . . .mysteriously, there were no guards, no nothing to be seen anywhere. Athens below was quiet, with the bustle of the city life being far below them. Meanwhile however, Armin Rommel, CEO of Rommel Industries was dressed rather oddly. He looked at Karos. . "Are you the one who called me here?'

[Plerumque]

"No," answered Karos simply, turning from the man to look out upon the leagues of decadent palaces and grounds that covered the landscape.

[ArlEammon]

Claiming Bold Black

Armin Rommel
"Interesting." Rommel simply said again. "I'm afraid that I must insist you tell me what is going on unless you don't. You may not be the one who called me here but your here. I'm a little confused about what's going on and I'm tired of living in the Weird World ever since last month's events." He followed his vision to see whatever Karos was looking at. He saw the vehicles down below, the flying machines above, and then back to the summit. "Oh, the memories of Gaia flow within the blood of my very veins. Why does everything remind me of the glory days I have never lived?"

[Plerumque]

Karos simply flicks a finger, imbuing Armin with peace and tranquility in an effort to get him to shut up.

[TheDireWolf]

Claiming Blue for Kyle.

Kyle sat at his laptop, in his condo. "Okay, that's weird." He opened his hand, telekinetically causing his coat to fly into it, and put it on. He called up his power to teleport, and his surroundings changed from a condo to the top of Mount Olympus. "Uh, hi."

[Hazuki]

Far from touching any form of computer for any of her life, The Sister would have never heard the message sent through monotone were it not for walking the streets of Thessaloniki in her civilian guise. A lucky coincidence, though fate had its way of manipulating things to be just so. As she strolled the streets, eyes peeking out from behind a clunky wooden mask and hidden further beneath a baggy black hood, her attention was caught suddenly by a voice emanating from a nearby speaker, though one that none took notice of. It seemed that Mara Beechwood heeded this call, as her actions suddenly took a turn from simple stalking and became a fast-paced walk towards the borders of the city, where streets turned to greenland and she could move freely.

Muscles tightening around her bones as each and every one of them doubled in size, packing each empty space with muscles that grew only denser with each passing second to allow her to sprint rapidly without becoming some form of hulk. Invigorated by the pure muscle power that her limbs could now provide, The Sister began to sprint across the vast countryside of Greece, with an invisible aura covering her form to cause nobody she passed to want to see her; a person rocketing across the country would have gained news coverage and unwanted attention, both things that posed no issue to her before, and would no longer.

The climb towards Mount Olympus' peek was no different, and over in a short enough time for somebody that failed to truly teleport, but still with supernatural speed. The Sister's pale blue hand clutched the edge of the rock that would take her to the peak and pulled the rest of her weight onto it with ease, landing on gangly limbs. The others gathered would see a solitary figure against the skyline, dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants, just watching the gathered trio, and listening.

[Hamste]

The announcement about the aliens sounded very interesting. He wondered if he knew them or at least what race they came from. The other thing sounded ok as well... it would be good to check out those who would stop him before he actually tried anything. First though he would need to fix up his flying machine again.

After a quick check at the dump to get supplies he fixed it up...he hated this world's technology, would it be that hard for them to make some technology that could actually last centuries instead of a year or two. I mean they hadn't even discovered Chemoshion yet... how the heck do they even get anything done without Chemoshion. After choosing out some choice supplies like his heat gun, healing ray and some rats for food. Now only a long fly and he would get to the meeting.

[ArlEammon]

Armin
Rommel looked across the city below, the lights blinking on and off, the people walking back and forth, and then looked back to the others. "My apologies to our second newcomer, but I have to speak now. . . um, I"m getting kind of nervous. Does anyone here know why we have been brought here?" After he finished talking, and everyone had made it to Mt. Olympus Summit, the Earth seemed to shake, although it wasn't. . . a magical portal had opened, and flashed a blue light. Everyone who had assembled there was pulled into the light. . . None of them had reason to be frightened, exactly, as the light had a soothing, happy feeling.

Around ten seconds later after the pull into it, the Portal closed, and the team of heroes and villains found themselves in an enormous building, lit by magnificent torches which seemed to be filled with Divinity. Suddenly, a man with a black beard with strips of grey approaches all of you. Armin Rommel frowns for just a moment. "Zeus?"

Zeus had smiled. . . "You are all here now. . good."

[Plerumque]

Karos turned, an expression of resignation on his face. "Why have you brought us here?"

[ArlEammon]

Zeus/The Others
"There are gods we have never seen coming to the Earth. There has been no new gods coming to the Earth for two thousand years. On your former Venus Colony. . . we need you all to go there. The gods are concerned that we will be unable to return to the Earth if these new peoples from across the stars conquer you. For some reason this new species has halted it's advance. Venus is as far as it has gone. They could conquer you all easily with your technology, yet still they remain idle. This is our chance to stop them before they destroy you, and shut the door for our return."

[Plerumque]

Karos sighed. First he had been tuged from his peaceful solitude by the urgent message, then he had to use a power he hadn't in years, now a god barely older than he was was demanding he go try to save humanity. Every inch of him wanted to turn around and head bak to his forest. But the Light that sprang up from within him would not permit it. He sighed again, deeper. "Fine. Teleporty-Boy and I should probably go scout out the Venus Colony. We can be back here in a bit to tell you what's going on."

[ArlEammon]

"You're going to need all of you for this." Zeus stated. "The energy coming from Venus was enormous. I can sense that even Gaia's heir could well be out-matched." He said in a low cautious tone. "I further suggest that you begin to watch your steps. It isn't very likely that after this you will not be watched, we have reason to believe the new gods could be watching us even now. Apollo, however, senses that they are unable to do anything about us. If you agree on infiltrating Venus for us, we will block out their remote sensing once you reach the planet. Venus should only be mere moments away from the world. Please be careful. "

"For all of you, I think that we shall have rewards prepared for you should you accept. That is why the more selfish among you would agree."

[Plerumque]

"Why aren't you and the other gods attacking them, then?" inquired Karos, striding up to the god. "If you can influence their machines, surely you can stop them. Why aren't you? And if you can't why can we? I'm a demigod, he's a Primordial somehow, and the others reek of pure power. This whole thing sounds like you're playing games with the lives of billions of mortals, and if you don't explain in the next five minutes, I'll not only not aid you in this 'quest', but try everything I can to stop you." He glared directly into Zeus' stormy eyes. "Go ahead, blast me. I'll just come back. Go on, either thunderbolt me or explain."

[ArlEammon]

"Why aren't you and the other gods attacking them, then?" inquired Karos, striding up to the god. "If you can influence their machines, surely you can stop them. Why aren't you? And if you can't why can we? I'm a demigod, he's a Primordial somehow, and the others reek of pure power. This whole thing sounds like you're playing games with the lives of billions of mortals, and if you don't explain in the next five minutes, I'll not only not aid you in this 'quest', but try everything I can to stop you." He glared directly into Zeus' stormy eyes. "Go ahead, blast me. I'll just come back. Go on, either thunderbolt me or explain."

Zeus smiled. "It's not their machines that can see us in this place. This place isn't even on the Earth, or the same dimension, for that matter. So that argument has been blasted. You know, Gaia, that man's mother," Zeus pointed to Armin "Has left us. . . she was the only thing that could have directly intervened on your behalf that carried the spirit of the divine on the Earth." He smiled.

"You, and a few others may have somehow remained on the world, but over the millenia, we gods have been slowly pulled into the Spirit Worlds against our will, and the world below has become less spiritual over the centuries. As I said, we can do nothing. And with Armin's powers being as new to him as walking is to a newborn babe, we have no way of projecting our power to protect the world. None of the gods do, not even the Loa."

[Plerumque]

"Strike one," Karos said camly. "If you can bring things into this realm and eject them, you could eliminate the aliens or at least the leaders. Also, why the hell is this only happening to some gods? I know a lot of gods, am related to quite a few of them. None of them ever menioned this to me. So... care to try a different pitch?"

[ArlEammon]

"Any of them Olympian gods?" Zeus retorted. "Or why do you think the Roman Empire had so much ease in defeating the Celts, ecpsecially followers of the gods of the Sacred Shrine in Gaul? Charlemagne conquering the Saxons in the Holy Roman Empire? Or fighting the Wends?" Zeus continued. "The defeat the Native American tribes in what is now the United States. . . know any Native American deities? I'm sure that the medicine men were happy that their gods were with them when White Man's disease brought their population to Post-Apocalyptic levels." He paused for breath, giggled and continued. "The Australian Aborigines and their Rainbow Serpent? The Celestial Beuracracy and the Han's conquest by the Communists and Japanese? The gods of Tibet's conquest by the Chinese? I could go on and on for hours on how so much of the Earth doesn't seem to make sense."

[Kayne650]

"Now now, dear. Don't go recanting all of that history; it's clear that these people aren't here for that." A woman's voice rang out besides Zeus, heralding the entrance of a woman as majestic as he was. Golden hair tumbled down from to her waist like waves, and a beatific smile graced her impeccable features. Hera turned her gaze to the assembled heroes.

"What my husband means to say is that their power is at least equivalent to ours, and as such, we cannot control them to the extent that we can effect you. I assume you know of what power we possess, and what that means about our potential foes. I say 'potential' because we know nothing about them. Whatever they are, they are capable of blocking our Sight completely, and we know pitifully little about them and their actions." She sighed then, a sound like a bird's song. "In truth, we are helpless. Our power is kept here, influencing the mortals and alerting more of your kind to our cause. We ned you."

Her husband cleared his throat suddenly, the noise ringing through the vast chamber. "What she means is that we need people to act as our eyes and ears, as we have done across history. We need you all to go to Venus and determine just what it is that we are fighting. I would go myself, but I am...noticeable, as are my brethren. Thus, we turn to you. Each of you, who answered the call, has something that is needed for this mission. Whether that is strength, or versatility, or skill, or even a sharp wit, we ask this of you." His eyes, suddenly clouded with rage, turned to Karos. "And though you do possess power, whelp, do not consider yourself equal to me. Weakened though I may be, I still possess power FAR greater than yours. If I chose, you would perish, and you would NOT return." The chambers shook with the god's raised voice, and the sense of incredible power resonating in the air told of his remaining power. The gods of old did not bluff.

Hera took his arm then, and seemed to support him. As she did, he leaned on her slightly and his form seemed to diminish somehow. He looked old then; older than could ever be comprehended.

[ArlEammon]

Armin Rommel
'Zeus. . ." Armin said, astounded. "You knew Mother Gaia. . . Maybe your people can tell me how I"m supposed to cope with all of this divine power of hers, and Damballa's even, maybe. I'm a little confused. Could you at least show me how to use my power without going out of control?" Armin asked. "I don't want to get in everyone's ways or ruin anything."

[Kayne650]

Zeus paused, taken aback by the question. His eyes looked pained for a second before he hid the all-too-human emotion. "I do not know why the Great Mother chose you to inherit her power, child. Nor am I aware how to control her power, or even to what extent you possess her power. I am certain, however, that you do not possess it in full. If you did, it would have obliterated your fragile mortal body long before now." Zeus stated, very logically and coldly.

"As for how to cope with it, child," Hera said, her voice calm and placating. "That is up to you, and the strength of your will. If you can withstand it, it will be a great boon to you, and to those around you. But be careful. You carry within yourself the will of two beings far greater than yourself. Take care that their powers and personalities do not supersede your own. Beyond that? Trust that you will know what it is you should do. We gods got to where we are now not by dictating the actions of mortals, but by guiding them. Trust in that aspect of yourself. Mortals have a way of figuring things out."

[Hazuki]

The Sister's journey through the sudden portal was perhaps more comfortable than that of the others, with her personal mastery over emotions allowing her the knowledge and experience to either recognize the effect or resist it. Upon arrival to the pillar-lined chamber, her stance didn't change much from whens she'd been standing on the mountain's peak, though her eyes were cast across the torches and the various ledges that made up the room. Whether she recognized the words of Zeus or not was left up to whoever watched her to do decide, but it was only when Hera entered the scene and finished her dialogue with the male god that she finally spoke up.

"Artifacts." A peculiarly piercing voice came from the gangly woman, stuck somewhere between whale song and beautiful speech, as she drew back her hood to reveal the clunky piece of ancient wood that served as her mask, and appeared almost melded to her sticky pale skin. She tapped the mask, as though demonstrative of her words.

Translation: The Sister is asking whether artifacts of the Gods could be used effectively, and whether they could have any if so.

[Kayne650]

"Artifacts?" Hera repeated, confused. A moment passed, and Mara would feel a light, incorporeal caress, as if something feather-light had just touched her mind. "Ah," Hera sighed in comprehension, "I see. Unfortunately, in our current state, we have little to give you. Many of us have left as the world turns away from us, and so take with them their gifts. The Sword of Ares, Athena's Shield, even great Hephaestus and his forge are no longer with us. And the few gifts that we have to give bear our signature, our mark. They would make you more noticeable, easier to see coming. That is a risk that we cannot afford to take. No, I believe that the powers you hold within you should be more than sufficient for the trials ahead."

[Hazuki]

Following Hera's explanation of the relevance of their artifacts for their mission, The Sister made no further movements or statements, as she re-drew her hood across her brow and stood motionless for the events to continue. However, Hera would feel a similar brush against her mind, not seeking any information or an attempt to use powers on her, but seemingly a polite reciprocation of the strange feeling she inflicted on the strange hooded woman.

[ArlEammon]

Armin
"Lord Zeus, and Queen Hera, what were these gifts you were referring to? I am curious." Armin asked curiously. "I only ask because the stories of your Greeks regarding treasures and the like are quite tantalizing, even if we would not possess your great artifacts, made by Hephaestus." Jake was curious. He had wondered what the Gods had to offer the group. Of course he was tantalized by the mysterious wealth, or whatever else these deities had to offer.

[Plerumque]

Karos, matters having been explained to his satisfaction by the god, turns away from the conversation, this time out of no malice or misunderstanding but simply a desire to be on their way. He looked back down at the mortal world below and felt tired. Yet he was unable to give up this quest, if the gods' motives were mostly pure. He summoned hope, and happiness, weaving the emotions into a net and casting it over the people below. They didn't deserve this pain and fear. He then turned back to the others.

[Gem_Knight]

((I Shall be claiming Dark Orchid as my color of choice...))

Aric blinks, getting his virtual ass nailed as he curses checking the vibration in his pocket. He removes the VR helmet and mutters a string of obscenities at the interruption. He gets the message telling him to go to Mt Olympus. Frowning, he rolls his eyes at first.

He thinks for a moment, not about Olympus, but whether or not to swipe his card for another game. He stares at the card slot. Then back at his Cellphone, muttering general discontent this time.

A kid standing behind him speaks up, "Hey, are you gonna play or what?"

Aric turns and glares, "I'm thinkin' all right, your spoiled ass can wait five minutes while I decide if it's worth throwing in another 3 bucks a life."

He sighs, that moment having decided it for him. He pushes space around him until it curves and with an audible ~pop~ he teleports. Dropping down he glances at the decor of Mt. Olympus, just wandering idly until someone finds him.

[Kayne650]

Zeus turned his gaze to Armin, his expression unimpressed. "We have given you your answer, child. You would do well to understand its finality." His tone echoed, and it was clear that the decision was final.

As Aric appeared in the chamber, Hera turned and took in his appearance. Her expression gave away nearly nothing, save for a slight upturning of her nose. She returned her attention to the group already gathered before her.

"Now that there are a fair number of you, we can send you to your destination." She gestured to her right, and a shimmering azure portal appeared in the air. "This will take you to the Venusian colony. I urge you again to use caution; the abilities and hostility of these beings are still unknown to us. Go not in anger, but in understanding."

The portal glimmered in the air next to them, awaiting entrance.

[ArlEammon]

Armin. . . "I understand Zeus. . . Hera. . .I think." Armin responded. . . and then headed into the portal, determined to win, no matter what the cost. He wasn't sure if he would go in to fight, or just to perhaps argue. This was to be an infiltration mission for now. Whatever that meant. Still confused. . . Armin ventured into the portal ready for whatever conflicted awaited.

[Plerumque]

Karos sighed, watching the air shimmer with divinity. If he went through the portal, he would be forced to return to the life of occasional heroism and constant betrayal he had once led. His decision had been made for him, yet that was driven in even more forcefully by the portal. Stiffening with resolve, he strode through.