A New Chance

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"There will be many who have that desire, Joshua," said Professor Dark. "We may never know exactly how many have been affected and in what ways. We wont see spiders on the street every day -" here Dark makes a slight but acknowledging tip of his hat towards Nosferatu "- but it would be unwise to imagine that evils have been not been birthed in great numbers and are not now biding their time".

Dark had a voice that could bend spoons with the strength of its conviction. and it was impossible to doubt that Dark believed completely what he would say next.

"Just as there are those here who see a better world, so there are those elsewhere who have other dreams. The difference between one outcome and another could be as simple as the toss of a coin. There will come a time when one person will make the difference - this is not something new, nor is it contingent on the greatness of their power".

"All those people we may regard as heroes were products of circumstance - the world presented them the opportunity and they took it, while a hundred others declined. But it was not fear that divided one from the other: every one was afraid. And it is not fear which will see some of us here today choose one path over another. The difference is, and has always been, courage".

The sunlight seemed to pour down on Dark in adoration, as if heaven itself gave credence to his words, like a prophet touched with divine light. There was art and craft to his every gesture and nuance, to be sure, but it was from nothing so crude as practice. He formed the perfect expression of his thought in the physical world and the turning of his hand - just so - could catalogue the rise and fall of storied Rome in an eloquence beyond words.

"It may not be possible to live as we have before; the world will continue to present us with circumstances and every day we must ask ourselves to be their equal. I will not give my life to any lesser purpose than my own potential; I would rather the risk than waking every day to the defeat. Do you really feel otherwise? Do any of you?"

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, understandingly toward the young man. "It's all right Joshua. We are participating in our own 'call for heroes' but nobody is required to join. In fact, not joining this Guardian group bears no stigma whatsoever. The only thing I would ask is that those who have no desire to join at all, also not participate in the vote we have going." He looks at the as-yet undecided heroes. "Anyone else wish to express their opinion on the matter?"

[kpenguin]

Ryan Tran/Ace

Ryan pulls up his bright red Lamborghini Diablo to the hospital parking lot. A visit with his brother would clear up his mind a little. Plus, he should probably check in with that kid he brought in last night and leave a message for Oblivion. It was such a rush to get the kid admitted that he didn't have the time.

Ace enters the hospital and walks up to the front desk.

"Excuse me? I'm visiting patient #4386?"

[geez3r]

Introductions

Erica introduces herself saying "Aside from the whole looking like a tree thing, I got 3 powers. I can turn into any animal on the planet (that I've tried), and some fictional ones as well. My senses are like a thousand times better than they used to be. And last but not least, I can get the phone number of any man I choose."

Inferno looks down at himself for a moment before saying "I have the ability to save everyone except orphans apparently."

Jen says "I'm just really fast, so I've got a lot of time on my hands to perfect other talents that I would otherwise neglect."

Hex, while still flying about on that broom of hers says "I gots magic, I can do just about anything, I think."

Riff plays a few penatonic scales on his guitar and slowly begins floating off the ground, surrounded by a bubble of "shaking" air, and some of the rocks and soil below him are pushed away. He stops playing and lands "Riff."

Smoke just glares at anyone that tries to get him to talk and is seemingly able to do it to more than one person at a time.


The Vote

When the motion to require registration comes up, there's quite a bit of disagreement.

Smoke merely holds his arm at his side, parallel to the ground and gives a solid thumbs down.

Jen says "Aye. We need to ease the transition from our old world to this new one, and regestering could help."

Inferno says "Sure, why not."

Hex replies "I don't think I'm old enough to vote. Besides I only came because there was food, and nothing was on TV."

Scarab only replies with a strong "Nay."

Riff says "No way. Don't trust them that much." (OOC: Finally a teenager disrespecting authority :smallwink:)

The most radical reaction belongs to Erica of all people. Every single shred of playfulness or cheerfulness is replaced with an insurmountable tenacity and stubborness. "Nay. There is no way in hell I'm registering. I don't have a secret identity, or any mask or costume or anything like that, but I didn't have a choice. My powers were out of control, and I had to go to the hospital for both my own safety and that of everyone around me. My name, and my abilities are well documented, but not because of any document I made, and it will stay that way. It may be a futile gesture, but to me it's an important one."

The Hospital Which means...!

"Why hello there deary. 4386, huh? Awful lot a numbers der duncha know. Ah that'll be room 255. Take that elevator over there up a floor, and hang a left, ya can't miss it. Have a nice day now."

OOC: I love that help desk person.

PS: Look at all the pretty colors.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Continuing to indirectly observe those present, his focus sharpening as he closed his eyes, he realized suddenly that the face of one who had identified himself as "Nosferatu" did indeed posess the feral cast of a vampire.

Although, it was much more reminiscent of the modern imagining, and not the more probable legends of old, it was definitely something to look into at a later point, and he noted it as such.

Tempted as he was to fully open his senses and observe the true power of those around him, he resisted the urge, not only for the sake of privacy, but also to avoid the risk of possibly having his senses completely overloaded.

He did not fail to keep a sharp watch on the one crouched below the umbrella nearby. Even here, in an environment least suitable to his nature as it would seem, he could still prove dangerous, and none of his former actions suggested that he was a being able to be trusted.

Lifting his head and sweeping his gaze around once before returning it to what appeared to be contemplation of a far off stone outcropping, he said "It would seem that I have gained near perfect control of my personal energies, as well as limited control of those in which I come in contact with".

The Vote

There was a long pause after the one who called himself Pulse asked the remainder of the attendees their vote.

A distinct feeling of disappointment and unease passed through him as he prepared to rise and speak his part, but at that moment the tension seemed to break and the remaining votes were cast.

He nodded once, and having considered his words for quite some time, rose slowly to his feet and looked around, casually crossing his arms.

"I came here, first and foremost, because I believed that those who I would meet with this day recognized, on some level, that the human governing system can no longer properly support our emerging culture, hence, necessitating a new order being established.
It would seem though, that the very real risks in not doing so have not become clear to all of you.

I assure you that any further cecession of control to the established governing powers only encourages further encroachment upon our rights, born, pure and simply, of fear. The final results of which potentially being as catastrophic as outright civil war.

The establishment must come to recognize that we are not willing to allow them to be the primary or sole governing force over us as a newly emerging culture any longer, but that we, as a people, are willing and able to govern ourselves, as we continue to coexist among them and emerge as a new culture and people.

Our voting on this very issue proves that we are capable of this.

...It would be my wish to join any such group with a desire to facilitate such an orderly transition, but will not if registration is made a mandatory statute of initiation.

My vote is a decided and decisive nay."

Although not as artful as some speakers present, his voice, depite it's otherworldly quality, posessed a power, distinction, and resolution unique unto itself.

He continued to stand, attempting to gauge the responses of all present, focusing primarily on the Professor, all the while physically looking directly ahead.

For the time being, he was satisfied, as the motion had clearly come to a decision against such a foolish notion.

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Five for, eight against, one sitting out, and one yet to vote. Well, I guess we'll never find out if there would have been an arena combat to resolve a hung vote. He looks over at Josh and Oblivion, the two to not yet have cast their votes, saying nothing at the moment (as he assumes the others can count as easily as he, and sees no need to announce it).

[kpenguin]

Ryan Tran/Ace

Elevator music.

Ryan hated elevator music. So dull and generic. Who the hell came up with the idea anyway? If you're not going to put some decent tunes on, why put music at all? Elevator music sucks.

Yes, concentrate on the music. Don't concentrate on why you're visiting that kid first. Don't concentrate on why you're not visiting your own brother first. Don't concentrate on why you're avoiding him. Don't concentrate on your shame for what you did last night. Don't concentrate on-

DING!

Ryan heads left until he reaches Room 255. He grasps the knob, turns it, and opens the door into the room of the kid he dropped off last night.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "Five in favor, eight against, one abstention. Well, it seems the die is cast. I don't mean to disenfranchise Joshua here, though his question suggested a lack of interest in superheroics; however even if he chose to vote now, if I've counted correctly, then it seems we have a majority decision against. I've nothing against anyone here for chosing to vote the way they did, and I think we have engaged in a fair and democratic process." He pauses, "I know that someone will think sour grapes with me, and if that is how you feel you must summarize and minimize my beliefs, do what you will, but I'm afraid I cannot be a member of the Guardians." He looks slowly at each member of the group, "I wish you all well, but I have made an agreement with the city that I will engage in superheroics only under the auspice of a very reasonable registration procedure. I cannot in good conscience belong to a superheroic group that has a majority opinion against that agreement." He smiles, "But I'm sure you will all make excellent Guardians, and my fervent hopes go with the group. I'm sure my meager talents will not make a huge difference one way or another."

[BloodyAngel]

"Josh"

It's cool, guy. I don't need a vote. The young man will say, looking about all the eclectic characters in attendance, I don't really want to join the crime-fightin' thing. Even if I wanted, I don't think my power... or whatever... works like that. I mean, I can't even fly. Why kind of super-hero can't even fly?

Inside the boy's head, Tasha tried to get over the shock of reaper's psyche. At the very least, she resolved to stay out of any group that would include him.

I'm with green-chick though... er... Erica, right? And this other guy.... He said, gesturing towards Oblivion, I don't trust people enough to think they're gonna take this well... and I don't wanna wear a bullseye when they decide to put us in labs or prison. Screw that noise. So should I... go or something? If this is a secret meeting for the super-friends, or whatever... and I'm not one of ya... I don't want to "Know too much", or anything.

Despite the intentional exaggeration to his tone, suggesting a less-than-serious attitude towards the entire thing (Not to mention the difficulty of taking any group consisting of a dryad, a vampire, the little witch riding a broom and a boy who destroys you with the power of rock, seriously...), "Josh" honestly seemed concerned about going public, as it were.

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper moves slightly closer to the rest of the group, though still far enough away to avoid making anyone uncomfortable. He says, "I respect your decision, Pulse, just as I respect a decision to voluntarily register. I simply do not believe that we should deny possible allies simply because they, for whatever reason, are opposed to registration in general or in their specific case."

He pauses, taking a deep breath before continuing, "Regretably, I will also not be joining the Guardians. I would not want my reputation to adversly affect the group, either by scaring off potential recruits," he glances at Kid Zeus, "or by drawing negative attention from the public. I will of course offer my aid whenever or wherever it is needed, but I fear my formal presence may do more harm than good."

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"I think," dark says, speaking quickly after Reaper. "That the list of people who wish to be of use - in some way - is greater by far than the list of people who can or will sign up to membership of any single group".

"Perhaps it might be prudent to consider what elements of an alliance are useful to all of us? For example, I'm sure that we would all see the benefit in being able to contact one another individually and as a group without having to use traceable communication methods or cans tied together with string. I would be willing to develop secure communications technology - and so as to offset the fears of the more paranoid amongst us, I would invite others to assist in such a project. Perhaps Jen and Pulse, given their technical inclinations?"

"Longer term we may need to consider such mundanities as legal defense, political advocacy and, lest we forget, threats to the future of the world. Under such circumstances we would always be strongest when acting together. These fundamentals must be the foundation of our co-existence".

"Quite separate from this, I would be willing to render whatever assistance I could to a group whose stated purpose was the defense of our city of rebirth. As such, I would be proud to describe myself as a Guardian of Rainport".

[geez3r]

The Hospital

As you enter the room, you notice a nurse making the first bed, and a curtain is drawn across half of the room, obscuring the second half of it. She says "I'll be out of your way in a moment to give you some privacy." The nurse finishes up and then leaves the room, giving you a small smile on the way out. When you draw back the curtains, the kid on the bed stirs. After a moment the kid's eyes flutter open and he looks at you half-asleep as if he knows you and yet can't place the face. "Whazzit you want?" says the kid groggily rubbing their eyes.

The Meeting

Still on her rediculous broom, Hex glides forward saying "I might be able to help with the whole 'cans tied together with string' thing." She hops down off her broom, which shows how young she really is. She can't be more than 14; she's only about 4'8" or so, 80lbs soaking wet with a brick in her pocket. She raises her hands high over her head forming a sort of Y, with her palms facing the ground. Her eyes then begin glowing bright pink and an energy field surrounds her hands. She then begins speaking in a voice than sounds very old and powerful in what some might describe as a precurser to Latin. The ground on which you stand begins moving as though it were water spinning down a drain, except that it is funneling up. Despite this no one feels any force trying to move them from their spot, which also has the optical illusion of making everyone seeming to spead out. From the tip of this funnel, a fist sized blob of earth detaches itself and hovers in air before Hex. The rest of the ground returns back to the way it was, as if it had never been touched.

The hovering blob transforms itself into a rose in full bloom. Each of the petals seperate from the flower and one petal goes to hover in front of each person gathered. Hex stops chanting and her eyes return to normal and she graps the petal in front of her with her left hand, and says to it "I need help." at which point the petal in front of everyone else begin pulsing red. She looks at everyone else with a little smile on her face "What'd ya think?"

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks at the hovering petal, "So it responds to anyone saying they need help by glowing? Or does it do more? How, for example, would I find you to help you?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu mentally sighed. This should have been so simple...
Form a group, help each other, unite and fight as one. Of course some clashes were expected, but a vote leading to people stepping out was a pretty bad result.

Still, the idea could be realised yet if these petals Hex could produce enable communication.

"Very nice. Is there any way to be able to speak through them?"

[geez3r]

The Meeting

"You can touch them ya know, they won't bite, I think. If you hold onto it, you can tell where I am, and can talk back, kinda like a phone. I didn't make the voices come out immediately cuz that's weird. The down side to this though is that anyone touching one of the petals knows where all of the other petals are."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods slowly, not taking a petal, "Well, that sort of throws secret identities and hidden bases out the window. I'll pass for now... I'm working on a way for people to contact me through rather mundane channels, and I'll let one of you know it, and they can inform the others." He smiles, "I think its a wonderful system, Hex. I'm sure you Guardians will get a lot of use from it."

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

Dark looks about as impressed as if someone had said, "Please welcome our keynote speaker, Peewee Herman".

"Magic?" he says, filling the word with contempt.

"You expect us to trust to the offer of magic flowers from a witch? A better and more dangerous definition of proprietory technology I have never heard".

Dark makes no move to touch the petal.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks at Dark, one eyebrow raised. "What makes Hex's magic any less reliable that mine or your technology?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu completely fails to surpress a small chuckle.

"Are you okay, Dark? You seem almost intimidated by the little girl on the broom."

There is still a wide smile under the mask even as he realises what kind of response this is likely to generate.

[harmonictempest]

Gust

How interesting...and dangerous. If the explosion gave me power to exert my will over air, it seems to have given her power to exert her will over anything. He reaches out to grasp the petal, closing his eyes as he touches it. Giving a wry smile of his own, he says to Pulse Out the window indeed - what defense has technology against magic? Dark won't be the first to be concerned about it. To the girl, he adds Have you found any limits to what you can do yet - are you able to read minds or turn people into frogs, for instance?

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Watching as the group continued to discuss matters, he stayed silent, noting his being mentioned by the out of place youth, scowling ever so slightly at the boys inclusion of him as one who harbored human distrust.

As the incredibly young witch cast her spell, summoning the arcane communication device, he smiled beneath the dark twisting energy that swathed his lower jaw.

Yet another individual that decidedly works in favor of my theory...first a Vampire and now a true Craft user. It would seem that many of the legendary creatures of old were made manifest by this accident. An expression of the subconscious mind made manifest...
As for the rest, he regarded the Professor casually for a moment with his physical eyes before looking back at the rose petal and taking it out of the air, their place in all of this is beginning to take shape as well.

Looking over at the unobtrusive young man as the rose petal rested lightly on the palm of Oblivion's hand he said "If we begin down that road, viewing humans in light of such a simplistic them versus us mentality, the end result is identical to that of incremental submission: division, discord, and eventual outright conflict...the former simply being more violent than the latter."

He looked around at those gathered, raising his strange voice, "The unfortunate truth is that for the time being we are, and likely will be for some time, dependent upon human society. The best option to ensure our long term survival is careful, wisely managed, coexistence with the human race."

He raised his open hand a little as he continued, the petal seeming to glow with it's own inner light, "First though, we must learn to coexist peacefully with one another.
Misgivings notwithstanding when presented with an arcane device such as this, a level of trust will be required if we are to develop and maintain even the simplest degree of solidarity."

He looking down at the small girl with his ebon gaze for a moment before continuing, "I believe that Hex's offer is genuine. My concern is, rather, the risk of outside sources using such devices, whether arcane or technological, against us.
The question then is: are any methods of safeguarding against such an eventuality readily available?"

Closing his hand carefully around the petal and lowering his hand he concluded, "Regardless of this, I believe we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves.

If I could be so bold to ask, who organized this meeting, as I would like to have a brief word with you."

[geez3r]

The Meeting

When some of the group metaphorically stomp on Hex's flowers, her head slumps and she looks genuinely sad and put out as she pokes the ground with one of her toes. But when some of the others make light of the situation, and put Dark in his place, she perks up immensely, getting a wide grin on her face and clapping her hands vertically in front of her face. "Yay."

When asked what she can do she gets a contemplative look on her face, her left hand on her hip, and her right hand is touching her lips as she formulates what to say. "Magic is umm... well its... Okay, it's like umm... oh, DDR! You know that game right?" She waves her hand and then the dance pad for DDR is etched into the ground in front of her, and some pink arrows start floating up. Hex hops onto the "pad" and starts matching the "beat", which steadily gets faster and more complicated while saying "There's like just a few steps, but ya gotta do em just right. And if ya do something like waaaay hard you'll just flail your legs about until you slip and hit your head on the table and then you'll have to listen to dad's lecture again and then he'll go and tell mom and you'll get yet another lecture and then cuz everybody's been yelling at you all day, you ain't got enough time to do your homework and then you'll have to go to school without your homework and then the teacher will give you yet another lecture and then she'll call home and lecture my parents on how to lecture me and then I'll get "A Talk" from the both of them which takes so long that I can't finish that project I've been working on for two weeks and then I've got to go to school being the only dork that hasn't finished the project and while everyone's calling me stupid I get to sit outside the office while my parents have a meeting with the principal and my teacher like I don't know what they're talking about! Like I don't know that they think I'm some sort of delinquit who hates their family and is comfortable being stupid! Never mind the fact that I love my family more than anything in this world! Never mind the fact that I remember everything in my life, from the name tag on doctor who took me out of my mother's womb, to the time it was on the clock, to the first words my parents said to me, to ever single insult anyone has ever thrown at me, to every word I've ever heard, read or seen; ALL OF IT! Never mind the fact that no matter how many specialists and physchologists I've said this to, none of them have ever believed me, not for ONE SECOND!"

Hex has stopped her dancing, and stands resolute, panting for a moment to catch her breath.

"But Magic? ...Magic changed that. For the first time, my parents really, really listened to me. For the first time, anyone listened to me. Look at me now. I'm surrounded by about a dozen people all of whom have powers and abilities far beyond the ken or mortal men, and I've held their attention raptly for 3 minutes now."

"So Mr. Dark. If you ever, EVER, speak about Magic like that again; I swear to God Almighty Himself, that I will give you reason to fear Magic! ARE WE CLEAR!?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

KZ hadn't been able to follow more than half of Hex's rapid-fire speech about school and parents and memory and psychologists. It was like someone had just hit Fast-Forward and he was seeing Hex go into squeaky overdrive. He had to stifle a chuckle so Hex didn't try to curse him or anything, studying the petal intently instead of being drawn into some technology vs. magic debate he wouldn't be able to follow anyway.

He liked that they'd be able to call the others for help with the petals, but to have everyone here know where he lived? Not a chance. Not with guys like The Reaper and "Oblivion", whoever he was, running around. He didn't want to take the chance that his family would become involved in what he was doing. "Uh, so anyway, I like that we can talk to each other and stuff, and knowing where someone else was when they were in trouble would come in handy, but I don't really want everyone knowing where I live just yet...no offense. Is there any way you could make it so that the petal only broadcasts its location when you want it to? Like an emergency beacon?" he spoke up, trying to derail the argument before it got started.

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"It's Professor Dark," he replies calmly. The contrast between the unruffled scientist and the petulant witch could not be more pronounced.

"The point I make, which I'm sure you all understand, is that technology is something which can be subjected to reason, can be adapted, combined and improved and which no one person can ever have exclusive control of. It also tends to have a rather useful on-off switch".

"But if we can put this to one side for a moment, I actually came here today to tell you all about the man responsible for yesterday's explosion".

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu was grinning once again at the rant aimed at Dark, and was not surprised by the cold reply. The last sentance however, grabbed his attention. There was more stuff to discuss about forming a group, but that could wait.
Dammit, Dark knew how to get people focused again.

"You seem to have everyones attention. Go for it."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse smiles at Hex, but also gives his attention to the professor. "Yes, please. Tell us about this person." More than capable of following two conversations simultaneously, and trusting to Professor Dark to understand this, he looks over at Hex and speaks to her quietly. "I'd just like to say that it's good that you stand up for yourself, but if you do plan to put yourself on the side of the heroes it would probably be better if you didn't use your power to threaten other people, even if you don't agree with them. It's just a suggestion, mind you; but I do think that those who abuse their powers will, pretty quickly, be identified as villians in almost everbody's minds."

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"I was about to have lunch," he says conversationally. "The diner had the news on tv - it showed the fire in the centre of town, not far from where I was. I got there as quickly as I could, but found that several of the people here today were already on the scene. Pulse, Nosferatu, Gust - and others - ferrying people to safety".

"I applied my talents elsewhere".

Dark took a beat.

"There are two kinds of watchers. The ones who watch the fire and the ones who watch those who watch the fire - " and here he flashes a smile towards Gust " - I noticed a man standing in the alley opposite the building, behind the crowd and out of sight".

"He was quiet; perhaps on reflection one might call it expectant. I approached him and attempted to deceive him as to my identity to gain some insight into him. He was studying all of you, your behaviour. However my deception was for nothing; he already knew exactly who I was. He spoke to me through my telephone - or seemed to. Given only one instance I am not convinced of what he actually did; perhaps telepathy, perhaps a halucination. However I am not - " here his eyes land on Joshua " - easily prone to such things. Control of technology is the most likely of several likely abilities".

"I introduced myself and I shook his hand - at this point he was yet to do anything more outlandish than everyone here has done over chips and dip. I received a sensation of two things - enormous power and a destructive urge for which the English language has no fit descriptors".

"We spoke for a moment. He checked his pocket watch. He vanished into thin air - like smoke - no offense - and then the building exploded".

"He set the charges, it is my belief that he inspired the fire and he did this because he was testing us. All of us".

"But that is not why I went on television last night; why I asked for heroes to step forward. You see if I am correct then the man responsible for yesterday's events is not simply a terrorist, he is someone who will bring the whole world tumbling into the microcosm of our growing powers. He made certain intimations leading me to believe that he considers himself to be... the Devil".

"Those of you who understand the subtle operation of the human mind will immediately grasp the implications of such news becoming public".

"Clearly what I'm telling you all is fantastic. I am a man of science, not faith. But we are all here, and this is happening now".

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Raising an eyebrow while scowling slightly with the other, Oblivion watched as the the girl ranted about her past at turbo speed.

Is this meeting going to become a childhood abuse intervention session now?

But, as she made her rather overt and direct threat to one of the most influential, and most unknown, figures present, he forced his expression, with some effort, to go blank, but not before his eyes widened in suprise slightly before looking towards the Professor to carefully observe his response.

Suprisingly, the blue eyed youth spoke up first, obviously trying to defuse the situation.

Oblivion took a moment to examine the petal closely, trying to recall his memory of the arcane and what he had read and researched formerly on the subject.

Knowledge- Arcane Lore:[roll0]

Absorbed as he was in his rumination, that it took a moment for the glowing man's final statement to full register.

Did he just say....?

But the one calling himself Nosferatu confirmed his unspoken question.

Excellent redirection, the man is quite astute. But I'd be blatantly reticent to miss such a decidedly important piece of information...

Glancing at the young girl he added in a neutral tone, "I second Pulses statement young lady. I respect your forthrightness, but such threats are unecessary and ill advised in such a forum as this, regardless of the how rudely certain parties may comport themselves.
Aside from the current topic for a moment, what can you tell us Dark?"

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper examined the floating petal briefly, deciding that he would gain no insight into its workings from staring at it blankly for ten minutes, and then listened passively while Hex vented at the debonair Professor Dark. Dark's revelation, however, cut through him like a knife. He said, in a tone that combined hatred, pity, and fear, "I most certainly know what such beliefs can birth. I killed more than four hundred men to save myself from death; how much worse when one kills not from fear but pleasure? This man must be stopped, turned from his wickedness. We must save the world from him, and save him from himself."

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu slowly nods his head at the revelation, not through a thorough understanding, but through needing some way to demonstrate he heard it.

"So, this guy has to be stopped. Does anyone have any ideas how?

...

Heh, you know, he could be telling the truth. If I were a semi powerful demon who could only influence things indirectly without getting smashed by its creator, I would go this route. Pretending to have 'newly aquired super powers' would be a great cover while manipulating powerful beings to do your bidding.

Of course, thats pretty unlikely. But then again, these are uncertain times..."

Nosferatu mused mildly. He never believed super heroes actually existed. He never believed Gods and Demons existed. Now at least one belief has been proven inaccurate, so what of the other?

[kpenguin]

Ace/Ryan Tran

Ryan leans back against the door frame. He'd seen it happen it a few movies and it looked pretty damn cool.

"Hey kid. I just came in to check in on you. I brought you here after you got knocked out last night"

[Wiz]

Pulse

The archaic costumed crimefighter looks over at Dark, "Do you think he was teleporting, or temporting, Professor Dark? The use of a watch to house his technology suggests the latter... and I have had some inklings that this super-hero effect might be based on some kind of future technology. I've wondered if the chemical was in fact some kind of genetic engineering nanite that gets its instructions from the brain of its victim."

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

The Professor nods at Pulse's question. "For all I know it may simply have been a watch. But he was aware of precisely what would happen; and I am quite certain that none of your, if you'll pardon the cliche, secret identities are proof against him. From what I understand of the explosion, and I understand a great deal, it would not have been practically possible for him to acquire powers in the explosion as we did and then construct the devices in strictly linear time. While Jen may be able to move quickly, creating and manuipulating explosives at very high speed would have significant consequences".

"I am investigating the possibility of obtaining more information about the explosives used; and I expect this will reveal a great deal about the identity and the capabilities of this man".

"But effectively the only answers possible are a) that he knew of the events of the last few days in advance through precognition, b) that he brought about the events of past few days or c) that he was aware of them because they had already happened for him and he was able to travel backwards in time to affect them".

"It is not impossible in the third case that the person we're dealing with acquired their powers in the explosion and has travelled back to effect events from some future point. In the most radical terms, the individual in question may actually be a future version of one of us. Although it is unlikely to be me, since direct interaction with a former self risks causality problems".

"As to what we do about him, Nos, that is more complicated. I hope my investigations will prove fruitful and will give us some clue as to where to begin. But as it stands we know nothing of the plans, motivations or identity of the vanishing man. In the short term we must wait for his next move".

[geez3r]

The Meeting

Pulse hears a little voice in his ear although Hex's mouth is not moving "Mr. Dark is a simple man. Smart, but simple. All he values is power, I just wanted to point out that there is always someone stronger. No more, no less. That and I really don't like him."

To Oblivion:
The Petal appears to be exactly what Hex said it was. A magical beacon with communication abilities. Nothing odd about, other than you know... its a flower petal... that glows... that was made by pink magic... used by a teenager... But as far as this sort of thing goes, normal.

As a reaction to the news of who caused the bombing, most of the crowd stands stunned. The first of the "other" crowd to act is actually Smoke. He takes a few steps forward, rubbing his chin thoughtfully "Now that's interesting. The Devil himself walking amongst us, or at the very least a being powerful enough to take the title. That is quite the turn of events.... Oh will you people stop looking at me like that!? If the Devil himself isn't going to get a response out of me then what the Hell is? Oh god, I've been around them too long, I've started making puns."

In the wake of Smoke breaking his vow of silence, Jen turns around and dashes off into the distance. A moment later she returns with a bunch of bottles of alcohol. She looks at the crowd a little wearily and says "If we're going to discuss how to take down the Devil, then I need a drink first." As Jen starts pouring some drinks Scarab walks forward "Best idea I've heard all day." "Right behind ya."

Riff meanwhile looks like he's about to be sick; he's gotten quite pale and is sweating a bit more than one should, unless of course you happen to be discussing Satan himself walking the earth. Inferno steps up and says "Some of you may have realized this by now, but I'm not exactly a tactical genius, but I'm with you guys through and through." "*Sigh* Guess I'm in too; you'd all be lost without me." adds Hex in a joking manner.

The Hospital

"Oh, then I guess I owe ya one. So, like what happened, I'm still a little fuzzy on the details?"

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks thoughtful, he nods to Jen and smiles. "Thank you."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper politely declines a drink, due to his lack of mouth and possibly an entire digestive system, not to mention a liver. He says, looking at Rift and Jen, "The key thing at this point is to not give in to fear. I of all peopl know how potent and compelling fear can be, and how devastating the consequences. If this man, Devil or otherwise, was all powerful, he wouldn't need to study us. If we are of notice to him, then we are a potential threat. He sees something to fear in us. That gives us the advantage. But I agree with Professor Dark. We can do nothing until he tips his hand, save show him that we are truly a force to fear."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Smiling inwardly as Dark made mention of his meeting with the individual claiming to be the "Devil".

Like minds, and birds of a feather no doubt...

But, as the concept of temportation was expanded upon, the realization of the full possibilities of such a power slowly began to unfold before him.

It seemed though, that the concept of such a power was more sobering for some in the group than others, as Jen returned with a bottle and was joined by several others.

He glanced up at the still bright sun and shook his head slightly.

Throwing himself into a graceful standing back layout onto one of the rock outcropings ten or so feet up the quarry wall, he sat down crosslegged, positioning himself under the shade of one of the rocks that jutted from above.

All this socialization and sunny weather is slowly starting to get to me.

It would seem that even superhuman capabilites has done much to lessen certain human weaknesses of character, he thought as he looked down, even as his memory immediately flashed back to two evenings prior.

...Athough certain allowances can be made, I suppose, now just seems entirely...innapropriate, he thought darkly, glancing at the fairly generous number of masked minors in the small crowd who was obvious regardless of their appearance or costume.

Checking himself he scowled. Is that my paternal side coming out? Or is all this "with great power..." cliche actually starting to make it's way into my subconscious?

He took a deep breath, clearing his mind of distraction, trying to focus on the situation at hand.

Check to determine if Darks description of said mysterious individual matches what I know of, or would be have a strong likelyhood of being, a or the, devil. Arcane Lore: [roll0]...yep, I'm glad I took this skill.

[BloodyAngel]

"Josh"

Booze? Yo, deal me in. Josh will say, more than a bit overwhelmed with the situation.

Yeah... I could really use a drink. This is crazy. Let Michael Mc Stoner deal with the consequences later. She thought to herself, getting a soda to mix with some alcohol.

This is all way too crazy for me. Super powers and the devil? Wouldn't that make us angels? That's not right... I'm just a normal guy. I work at a Best Buy for god's sake!

Josh looked over the booze collection for some vodka... and mixed himself a potent vodka and coke... grimacing slightly when he brought the thing to his lips.

Whew! A bit strong... Thanks.

Taking his drink... Joshua wandered off towards the ever-serious professor, giving him a worried look.

There's no way this guy is really satan, right? I mean... he's probably just one of us who got his powers sooner... right? And he set this all up to make more of him? "He" asked Dark in ernest concern, Now he's trying to see which of us are gonna be with him... and which of us are going to be against him. Cuz... he's crazy, maybe? I mean... you're a smart guy. You don't really believe he's the devil, do you?

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"In the sense of an immortal, indestructible entity castigated by a more powerful being and banished for all eternity to a pit of fire?" Dark asks. "No; that's clearly mumbo jumbo".

"But that doesn't really matter. The notion of the devil, the lord of the underworld, the spirit in the dark wood, is anthropological - every culture on earth has an understanding of who this being is. The thought itself is power".

"Have you, in your life, ever seen anything which looked more like an angel than I do? Imagine I'm wearing a toga. Or more touched with a divine fire than our flaming friend? More sinister and intrinsically evil than the Reaper? We may not have the ability to shape public interpretation of this story; so regardless of the truth, regardless of our wishes, we may be the angels and demons of a thousand years hence".

[geez3r]

The Meeting

Jen replies to Reaper saying "Just because he was watching us doesn't mean we're of any threat. All powerful or not, this "devil character" has never seen anything like us before. To him we could be nothing more than an odd rock formation or an unsually bright star in the sky; interesting and possibly worthy of note, but not a threat.

To Oblivion:
You vaguely recall rumors of a mysterious cult that dealt with strange paradoxes and delved into the realms of the unnatural and impossible; one of which being this Devil figure. They seemed to believe a stick was an important symbol as they always held their meetings in the presence of one. This cult was rather fanatical in their gatherings and would gather at extraordinary intervals. When their leader mysteriously disappeared for an extended period of time, they even continued their meetings, forming a second group so that they may continue their rituals. The group was organized by a skilled old man, or as some texts refer to him as a 1337 geezer, a Geez3r if you will. Though these may be nothing more than rumors.

Erica then speaks up a little, having apparently gotten enough beer into her system to tolerate saying the following "Whether or not this "man" is in fact the Devil is a rather moot point. As Dark has already pointed out, the concept of the Devil is what matters. Let us say that this man was endowed powers at the same time we were, but because his powers are so far beyond even ours, that his mind simply could not handle it, and utterly broke his mind. In his desperation he found a personality, an identity that could, unfortunately for us, he picked evil incarnate. Majored in pyschology if you're wondering where I pulled that from."

Inferno looks at Dark for a moment after his talk of angels and devils. With a bit of concentration he manages to "contort" his fire into a pair of wings stretched far over head.

[MountainKing]

A remarkably handsome man stood on the sidewalk, a lit cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he waited patiently for a taxi. Idly, he drew out his cell phone and flipped it open, thumbing through his contacts list until it settled on a number he'd never called. He'd only met the guy once, but... Jack Pretto, while being fairly easy to get along with, wasn't a guy who tended to let anyone close enough to him to really, truly call them friends. What he needed now was somebody to talk to, somebody detached from the situation, a neutral second party.

Jack smirked at that, smoke rising lazily from the end of his cigarette. The irony of a psych major needing somebody to play shrink for them didn't escape him. With a little bit of vindication, he hit the Send button, dialing out to the number of a guy he'd only know from across a blackjack table.

It's ringing... still ringing... come on, Draven, I need to shake up somebody's sense of reality today...

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu's face goes a little sour on Jen's comment.

"I know I am straying a little off topic, and most have you would have already considered this... but, has this happened before? An explosion leading to people like us.

I know I have not heard of such a thing. But then, does the world outside of Rainport? Has anyone actually tried to leave the area around the city, or tried to call someone who does not live here and tell them of what happened?

And I have not seen a single international news crew, only the local ones. You would think that by now word of super powered beings would have reached the wider world. This place should be swarming with major news companies trying to catch a glimpse of us. Instead ... nothing.

This whole incident could already be a cover up.
And if they can do that, this may have happened before."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Listening to Erica dissertate upon the theory of "the devil" that they now all pondered, he felt his eyebrows rising ever so slightly in suprise.

So, it would seem that Clora-Flora is not quite the vacuous feather-head I'd had her pegged as. Not an "air plant" you might say. Psych major to boot. Good to know, I could always use a study-buddy.
Keeping Natasha on her toes would just be icing on the cake.

Chuckling darkly and quietly to himself, he readied himself to respond, but was beaten to the punch by Nosferatu.

At first dismissive of such an unlikely theory, as he listened, he became increasingly sober as it began to make more an more sense to him, a heavy sinking doubt coaleasing within his chest as he considered such dire possibilities such as the government having already betrayed them as citizens, humans and Neo-Sapiens alike, effectively quarantining all of Rainport.

He felt the darkness twist and rise, barely restrained, the dull empty hunger begging to envelop him, if only to give reprive from this onslaught of soul shaking portents.

Not...now, not here, he thought with grim determination, digging his fingers into the stone before him.

His phone started to ring. Or, rather, pulse.

Letting out a sigh, half relief, half frustration, he dusted his hands together as he pondered a moment.

Judging by the rythm, it seemed it was an acquaintance, but one which he had not spoken to in a rather long time. Intrigued by this, he decided to take the call.

"Excuse me, I will return shortly," he said simply before leaping clear of the quarry to land on the land above, stepping a few yards away to stand in the shade of a oddly shapped outcropping free of cacti.

Pulling the ear piece from the case clipped to his belt and wrapping it around his ear, the dark twining mass receeding unbidden to accomodate his efforts, slowly moving back into the neckline of his highcollared costume.

I could really use some good news right now...but I'm definitely not holding my breath

He touched the recieve button lightly, and said, listening to the name relayed before speaking the acceptance command and saying in only slightly strained informal tones, "This had better be good my friend."

[kpenguin]

The Hospital

"Oh, then I guess I owe ya one. So, like what happened, I'm still a little fuzzy on the details?"

Ryan Tran/Ace

Man, this kid didn't look too dangerous. Maybe Ace was right and maybe Oblivion was wrong... No. Stop. stop, stop stop. That kind of thinking is what got you in trouble in the first place. This was the new Ryan, not the old. This was Ace, not some arrogant playboy/adventurer.

Oh right, an answer for the kid. What to say? What to say?

"Stuff happened."

[MountainKing]

"Heeeeey guy, I hadn't had the chance to call since I lost three grand to your lucky hit on 17; I still think the dealer was cheating, but hey, it happens to all of us. It's Jack, an-" at that moment, the fact that Jack had ceased to focus on his cigarette became clear as the sound of what sounded like a loud whoosh of fire and several seconds of cursing came through the line.

"...-and these were my favorite **** shades! Look, you busy? I uh... need a willing ear."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse seems to be thinking to himself aloud. "Perhaps I can find a way to create a tachyon detector..."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Scowling as he listened to the usually slick and composed individual he knew Jack to be, on the handfull of occasions they had met, suffered from what sounded like a fairly major lighter malfunction...or very possibly the Rainport equivalent of one.

"In fact, I am busy.

In the middle of a business meeting in fact.

Now, besides the fact that I won that money fair and square, or that you won it back with interest a month later as I recall, you should know that I'm not exactly the first, or best, person to go to for sympathy or advise. That's what you pay your shrink for.

So, to reiterate. This had better be good my friend."

He leaned back against the warm stone with the sole of his boot, holding himself away from touching it's suface with his body in an almost futile effort to keep himself cool.

Thank the Great Spirit that it's almost fall, or I would have probably spontaneously combusted by now. Some modifications to this costume are definitely in order...

[MountainKing]

"Fine," Jack's voice dropped all friendly pretense, all jocularism; Draven was obviously in his "serious mood", something that... really, kind of irritated Jack to no end. It's not like his fellow gambler had stuff blowing up in his face... literally...

"You know this mayhem on the news, right? The chemical explosion, the mutates/mutants/superhumans/*whatevers*, all that? I have at my count had thirty seven cigarettes, two lighters, a pay phone, my apartment key, and the bottle of Scotch you sent *back* to me with a note attached telling me that it wasn't what I'd been told it was," Jack took a breath, "...I've had all of these things burst into flames, in my hands, without warning." Jack paused, composing himself a little, trying to wipe the dust off his mirrored sunglasses, which now had a few scratches on them.

"That sound serious enough for you, guy?"

[geez3r]

The Meeting

Scarab turns to Nosferatu saying "You know I thought about that myself and I did a little investigating. A few international crews have made it out here, but a few are being stopped from coming through. Firstly, the military is starting to arrive on site, and they're essentially saying "We break for no one." so they've kind of taken control over the high traffic areas, so they can freely bring in supplies, meaning all of the direct routes are cut off.

Also any media types here are calling in every single favor they have to slow the arrival of any competition. Like booking every seat on an international flight and having no one getting on board. I mean if you've got the story of the milenium, would you want anyone horning in on it? And lastly is response time. All of our reporters know the area upside down and backwords but the people hopping off the plane have no clue. So our reporters get their first and just so happen to park their news vans in such a way to impede anyone else arriving on scene. I've seen that last one with my own eyes. But they're only going to be stalled a day longer at most before there'll be more camera flashes and microphones than we know what to do with."

Ditching the wings Inferno pipes up "I vouch for umm -wait don't tell me- it was a bug... um, beetle, no. Ummm... ah never mind. I ran into a German news crew the other day. Couldn't understand a word they were saying. They seemed really excited to see me... either than or they were angry because I kinda melted their tires accidentally, long story."

The Hospital

Jason blinks a few times, utterly stunned. "You rescue me from a wack job and all you can say is "stuff happened"? You're either very modest, secretive or an imposter; which is it?"

[The_Snark]

Judy

Waking up is a relief. Firstly, because she has woken up on time, and won't be late for work today. And secondly, far more importantly, there was no sudden new perspective. She had been half afraid she would simply keep multiplying, every morning, until... well, she didn't have the faintest clue what would have happened. Now she didn't have to find out, and it was a reasonably good day.

She makes herself breakfast, and ponders buying a second toaster to make this go faster each morning. But no, she was stretched for cash now as it was. She could afford to take a little time to eat each morning. In the minutes before she left—partly left—for work, she experienced again the strange feeling of being cramped, restless. Her flat wasn't that big, but even so, three people shouldn't have felt so crowded. It wasn't just that. She felt like she wanted to be doing something, not just... sitting. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was experiencing boredom from multiple perspectives at once.

A quick call to Alex—she wasn't sure why; she didn't have anything new to report—got her nothing: no answer. She hung up without leaving a message, since she wasn't sure what she would have said. One of her headed off to work; she also decided to get a paper and check out the news. She was supposed to be finding information for several people. Not knowing what was commonly known wasn't going to help that. Okay, then. Time to check out this Nerros Balchem's produced for everyone.

It takes her a good half-hour to take the bus to the library. By the time she gets there, she has settled in at work and started settling in at home with the newspaper. Unless she thinks about it, doing three things at once is starting to feel normal.

It's also very useful. She gets up—at home, that is; at the library, she's just settling into one of the chairs in front of their stodgy old computers—and gets out the phone book, looking up Mr. Nerros's name and address. At the computer, she boots up the Web browser and starts into the Balchem company website, checking to see if they have any employee information online. You've got a leak right out in front, Balchem... tried to paint over it, and hope no-one would notice.

This is probably Research, rather than Gather Information. Judy'll take 10 on the Research check, for 15, and she'll also aid another... herself... you know what I mean, for a result of 17. She's looking for general knowledge about Nerros, in particular his address and photographs.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse seemed to be occupied by his own thoughts for a moment, but suddenly starts looking around the group. "So, it looks as though we have an official grouping of heroes, the Guardians; and we all, whether members or not, will be keeping our eyes out for this Devilman as we go about our days and nights." He pauses, "It is my preference not to take one of the rosebuds, not through mistrust of Hex's abilities." He smiles at the young girl. "On the contrary, I trust them to work exactly as advertised, and I'm not ready to reveal my secret identity to all of you or let you know where I live at this point. However, I promise that once I have set up my contact method, I will reveal it to one of the Guardians, and they can feel free to pass it to the rest of the group." He looks around. "Were there any other matters that we needed to discuss at this meeting as a group?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu raised a hand.

"Hey, I think these petals still have potential. Here is my idea: Do not bring them home. Set them somewhere far from where you live, but where you can find it without anyone else getting at it. Whenever you suit up in costume, head over and grab the petal. When your are going back into mundane mode, set it back in its hiding spot.

This way no one can track your location unless you want them to, and everyone will know who else is available to help if an emergency arise, and can contact them instantly.

I know thats what I will be doing."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Listening to Jack spill his guts, despite his efforts to maintain an unflustered front, he could hear how close the man was to really losing it.
Try as he might to be impassive about it, he couldn't help but be reminded a little of himself only two nights prior.
Although, as he recalled, he had no desire or intention of revealing his abilities to anyone at the time. Not until he had fully discovered and understood them.
He wondered for a moment how different things would have turned out if Natasha had not aquired any abilities...or better yet, if he had never gained the ability to detect them.

Realizing that the silence on the line had streched out longer than he had intended, he responded in a tone as offhand and natural as possible, hoping that Jack hadn't picked up on it.
He prefered that Jack remain as unbiased as possible until he was able to speak with him in person.

Chuckling lightly, Draven's deep voice echoing off of the stone surfaces surrounding him, he pushed himself out from under the shade, running a hand through his sunwarmed raven hair as he spoke.

"Yea, I remember that. I'm not much of a Scotch drinker though, no offense. But, if I recall correctly, the rest of the note went something like 'A good Scotch is like a good woman: Hard to find. Best of luck on your search', or something to that effect.
Regarding your little problem, as suprising as it might be that I'm being so nonchalant about it, believe it or not, you're not the only person I know who picked up some...new tricks.
I'm not sure how much I can help, but if you want to talk about it, preferably away from flamable material, we can meet up some time tonight after eight. I understand the risks, but I assure you that I'm up to the challenge. I'll give you a call around then with the when and where ok?
Now, I need to go, I'm sure you can keep it together until then."

He pauses for Jacks response before hanging up, reorganizing his phone, and returing to the group by way of twenty foot drop to the stone floor of the quarry, landing like a cat in a small puff of sand and gravel.

"I apologize for my absense. What did I miss?"

[BloodyAngel]

"Josh"

@#$%ing trippy man. Was the young man's only reply to the professor... That, and a second swig of his vodka-heavy drink.

I guess if it's just to stay in touch... I could take one of those petal things too... Josh will say with a slight nod. But I agree with Nos... There's no way I'm keeping that thing near me. No offense all, but I'm frayed enough without knowing that three dozen people who can all kick my butt all can find out where I live.

He finished his drink and put the cup down on the table... looking to the assembled people and all their wildly diverse costumes as he picked up a petal and looked it over.

Since I'm not part of the team... I think I should really go... Maybe I'll get home and find out this whole thing was some weird dream. It certainly looks like it might be.

Josh slipped the petal into his jacket pocket and slid his hands in to follow it, giving a casual shrug and one last look around.

It's been cool, all... Good luck with your super... thing. I hope you find the devil-man and kick his butt.

And unless one of the assembled has cause to stop him... the denim-clad stoner shall take his leave and begin the long walk back to his car.

[MountainKing]

He's quiet. Too quiet. He's staring at his hand, and doesn't like what he sees... Jack told himself, managing to keep himself composed enough to tell himself that he still knew what was going on in other people's heads. Finally, Draven spoke up again... and while it wasn't exactly what Jack wanted to hear, it was a start.

"Alright, yeah, that works just fine. Sorry to interrupt your meeting; I'll uh, let you get back to that. Catch you later." For the love of God, where is a taxi when you need one?! Finally, a cab pulled up, and Jack jumped in.

"Downtown, guy, and uh, make it quick." Jack knew the ride from his apartment to downtown Rainport was ten bucks. He dropped a twenty into the front seat, "I'll double that if you can make it there really quick without getting us killed."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods to Nos4A2's comment. "That makes sense, I suppose, if you're willing to deal with the possibility that one of the petals could then fall into someone else's hands." He takes a petal and holds it, thinking to Hex. So, is this a secure line between individuals or can anyone with a petal hear me... or is there more than one line?

[harmonictempest]

Gust

With a nod to Nos, he takes a petal and declines a drink.

Excuse me for returning to business, but will our group have a stated purpose, or limits? No crime too small? Only crimes the police can't handle? Even if we don't agree, it would be useful to know what everyone's planning on.

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu pockets the petal as he starts to speak, setting it snuggly beside his D10.

"Yeah, there is the risk of it falling into others hands. But that always existed. All they would have to do is kill one of us."

"Hmm. Well, my thoughts for what we do were for some kind of priority order:
First: Forces bent on destroying multiverse
Then world eating entities staring hungrily at Earth.
Then more city scale threats that police and army may have trouble with, such as giant spiders or renegade Supers. If we end up with some Magneto wannabe they wont be much use unless they custom build some gear.
Then we have the mundane stuff that others could do, but by us doing it fewer could be hurt, such as the fire and 'normal' criminals.

Of course this is just an idea. We can improve on it, but I think its sound.

That, and I think we should keep it local for now in relation to Humans. We should avoid becoming any kind of military force."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper nods at Nosferatu's suggestions, then adds, "Everyone should also try to aid where their help would be most appropriate. I know it is fairly obvious, but, for example, Inferno should stay away from volatile chemicals and orphanages."

[kpenguin]

The Hospital

Jason blinks a few times, utterly stunned. "You rescue me from a wack job and all you can say is "stuff happened"? You're either very modest, secretive or an imposter; which is it?"

"Wack job? From what I hear, you almost put a nurse into a fear-induced coma!"

Ryan walks in and puts his hand on the bedrail.

"I met the guy you fought with last night. He knocked you unconcious and nothing more. He isn't so bad. Just rough around the edges and a little condescending."

[MountainKing]

Jack stood, grinning with satisfaction, on the sidewalks of downtown. He'd just finished buying a new pair of shades, and had made a point of putting them on quickly. As he walked, he lit a new cigarette, pondering the ponderables as he wrestled with the decision of the afternoon:

Lunch.

As he stood before a trio of consecutive restaurants, he momentarily forgot that he had been smoking, lost in thought as he stared at the three potential candidates. A sushi joint, popular with the college crowd (Ha, co-eds!), a bakery/sandwich shop that specialized in really good soup, along with anything involving bread (Little warm for soup today, but think of the artsy types!), and a burrito joint, also popular with the college crowd (And wildly unpopular with ladies afterword). Suddenly, as Jack flicked his cigarette subconsciously, lost in thought as he was, there was a flash of fire and heat that erupted from the sidewalk where the cherry had hit the ground.

Startled as he was, it really shouldn't be surprising that Jack suddenly looked a lot more upset than he had a moment ago.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Oblivion nods thoughtfully once, a brief scowl shadowing his features as the general disorganization and general disregard of those present, became more and more apparent.

He glanced at the young man as he departed. It had been only a few hours, but he had almost forgotten the other misunderstood teen he'd come across the day before.
Thinking back, he realized with a darkly ironic sudden clarity that despite what he had said to the masked gunman, if the authorities had arrived on the scene instead of him, they would have surely fired on him, just as readily as the man who had called himself 'Ace' had.

Perhaps, if they were to survive and live harmoniously, he would have to be the one to start demonstrating such ideals, instead of just talking about them.

"Excellent. It seems that we have made some small progress towards devoloping a degree of stability.

If I may, I will recap as I understand things to be: We have discovered that the majority here are opposed to registration, we have been offered a functional method of communication that is sufficient for our purposes for the time being.
Finally," he looked around to see how his statements were being recieved "It seems that we are willing to take responsibility for threats that are more easily dealt with by those posessing our newly aquired capabilities.
These threats primarily generated, directly or indirectly, by the very explosion that empowered us. The greatest one among these threats being the 'Devil Man'.
Have I missed anything, or is that about the whole of it?"

Pausing a moment for any immediate responses he continues.

"Now, for my part, I will regard all of you gathered here as neutral parties and potential allies if I encounter you again, provided that you appear generally the same as you do today.
I would be glad to coordinate my abilities with each of you on a case by case basis. It is a important facet of our integration and one that I believe should be brought up again, but perhaps at the next meeting, when a greater degree of rapport and trust has been established. After all, knowledge is power." he looks around, his eyes falling on Dark first before traveling around to all those present.

"I will now take my leave. As I mentioned before, I would be greatly interested in speaking with the organizer of this event. Whoever you are, please contact me by the petal at Midnight tonight if you are able, good day to you all." he says, the liquid quality of his voice unmistakeable as he bowed and prepared to depart.

Now, I do believe this may be a good time to put some of those altruistic statements into practice, starting with that standoffish young man that just left.
There's no way it's safe walking around alone out here, particularly if he's as powerless as he made himself out to be. Which does bring up some interesting questions regarding how he arrived safely in the first place...

I just hope he's more reasonable than the last kid I tried to help.

Sinking into a crouch, he waited for any final response before leaping out of the quarry in a puff of rock dust and flapping black leather, landing nimbly above and beggining his efforts to follow the young man, his black eyes slitted against the bright sun.

In case I need this to help find "Josh", Survival: [roll0]

[geez3r]

Judy

You find Nerros' page easy enough. However, that particular section is still under construction, as Nerros was only just hired and Balchem now has more pressing matters to attend to. It gives a quick bio about Nerros. He was formerly a scientist, and a brilliant one at that, having 4 doctorate degrees in various sciences, promently Chemistry and Biochemisty. He was promoted to higher controller positions because he had great management and people to people skills. It has his picture, and looks much like the Nerros you met, but it may very well be the Nerros you met. It doesn't list a residence, but it briefly mentions that he's "settling right into the North End".

The Meeting

Hex responds to Pulse using the petal It follows your intent. If you want to just talk to just me, you'll just talk to me, but if you wanna like shout to everyone, it'll do just that.

At the mention of taking on threats to all of humanity, Jen, Erica and Scarab all take another shot, Scarab so far being the only one showing any effects of the alcohol. The three drunkards look at one another for a second before saying in unison "We're in." and taking the petals that had been following them around. Scarab says, "Might not agree with ya on with everything, but we all need to stick together. So me and Erica here are like freelancers or something, okay?"

Inferno goes to grab one of the petals but stops himself half way, shooting a quizzeled look at Hex "Are these things fire proof?" when Hex shakes her head, Inferno hangs his head with a dejected groan.

The Hospital

"Look what happened with the nurse was total accident. I didn't want to be in the hospital so I left, she got in my way and then something happened without me doing it. She freaked, so I freaked and ran like hell. Then the wack job came and beat the snot out of me."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, thinking to Hex...

Well here is what I was thinking before when you made your sending to me, since I didn't realize that wasn't two-way communication... *he repeats thoughts sent to Hex via a PM to geeze3r* - ooc. Hey, this was to Hex only {therefore should only be read by geez3r, why are you looking at this spoiler? ;)}

He looks at the group, "I suppose for me the meeting is done... especially, if you have any private 'Guardian's' business. Do let me know if you all need any assistance or if you find out anything about our devil man."

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"Well, it's a start," Dark says. "Should anyone need to contact me I won't be hard to find".

"It was a pleasure to meet you all," he smiles and heads off after Josh.

...

"I don't suppose I could trouble you for a lift back into town, could I? It'll take half an hour to get a taxi out here again".

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Seeing the darkly clad Josh outlined against the horison, he walked casually to catch up with him.

Mentally urging the plasm that covered his features to receed to the top of his neck and doing his best to supress the alien quality of his voice he said, "Hey, I thought that you might care for some company on your walk back into town. Besides the rattlesnakes I saw on my way out here, I have a feeling it's not entirely safe to be wandering around out here by oneself...not a lot of hard and fast rules seem to be working like they should after that blast. You know what I mean?

He pauses for a beat, easily keeping pace with Josh as he searched the city skyline with his eyes thoughtfully before continuing.

"Although, I don't doubt you could probably take care of yourself as I'm guessing you walked out here alone on your way in, I'm also admittably curious about your experiences after the exp..."

Sensing the approaching unmistakable presence of the Professor, he said in a low voice to Josh while the man was still quite a distance away "Speak of the devil...it seem I'm not the only one who you've draw the attention of".

He waits as the professor approaches, the dark plasm drawing back over his features subconsciously.
Standing silently with a mildly quizical expression, he took a good look at the massive man and kid in turn, stretching out with his senses, his professional curiosity taking precidence to any kind of unspoken Neo-Sapien social mores.

Power Detection, which, depending on how long the interaction goes, may not reveal all that much, but this would definitely be the "now or never" moment.

[The_Snark]

Judy

Well thattells me a lot. It's no big loss, though, she reflects; she could always just ask Nerros. She contemplates calling him, decides against. He was probably having a hard enough time adjusting to nocturnal life without her waking him up in the middle of the day. Browsing the rest of the website for a while, just to see how complete their information usually was, didn't give her much to work on. He was a recent hire, after all, so maybe they really didn't have all that much on him. And Balchem had had better things to do than update the company website even before the explosion.

At home, she is hungry again already; her increased appetite was one of the most irritating aspects of the changes in her life, even if it wasn't nearly as serious as the others. Judy briefly considers joining herself for lunch, but rejects the notion as soon as it comes up. She was already restless at home from not having enough to do; the paper had been thoroughly read and re-read; she knew from experience that having more of her together, without anything to do, was a recipe for more of that restlessness. It was time to eat out. I might have to think about finding a second job, if this keeps up...

She loses herself in thought as she walks downtown, considering how she might start snooping on Balchem—preferably without doing anything illegal, or at least not very illegal. She really did want to stay away from that. Breaking and entering was out, posing as a journalist was unlikely to get her anything what with how tight-lipped they were being; perhaps she could find some other Balchem employees who might be willing to spill some of what they knew...

A smallish explosion startles her out of her thoughts. Glancing across the street, Judy realizes firstly that she's reached the downtown area, and secondly that there's a man in sunglasses across the street, staring at a black mark on the ground with a sour expression.

She crosses the street casually, walking up behind the fellow in such a way that he didn't see her until she spoke. "That's a hell of a thing to have happen to you. You do it yourself?" She was pretty sure she knew the answer already: if somebody else had set fire to the sidewalk next to him, he should be a lot more freaked. But she was talking to a complete stranger, it wouldn't do to start off accusatory.

Funny how this is starting to seem familiar.

[MountainKing]

"Huh?" Jack turned sharply, eyebrows raised quizzically over his sunglasses, "Oh, hey, hi, yeah, me? Blowing stuff up? Naaaaah." Inside his brain, Jack was sweating bullets. This whole "going into public" thing had not been a good idea, no, not at all. Even if his pyromantics was attracting women.

Women are good listeners. They'd better be, anyway. I watched waaaay too many friends be the nice guy during high school. Poor, witless idiots... just like me, once...

"You know, things've been going crazy lately," Jack said, running a hand through his hair, "People running around in costumes, messed up stuff on the news... stuff blowing up... it's nice to know that there's still some normal lookin' people in town. You, uh... you busy? I was just about to get some lunch, and I'd kill for some company right about now." The gambler smiled.

"Name's Jack."

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Judy," she replies, not quite sure what to make of him. Except that he sounded about as shell-shocked as she felt about this whole deal. "And sure, I was getting hungry anyway. You have someplace in mind?" Oddly enough, she had close to the opposite problem; she had too much company. Non-her company, however, would be nice.

And at the very least she was getting lunch out of this.

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

"Actually Pulse, if I can detain you for a little longer, I have a favour to ask. Or at least repeat in case it could help anyone else."

With a fluid motion, Nosferatu draws the katana from his back scabbard.

"It seems most of the combat powers here require nothing else to work, but I have found myself relying on this mundane sword. Having seen the amazing things you are using, I was wondering if there was anything you could do to give my weapon a little more technological punch?

Who knows what creatures will appear next, and as soon as one is immune to a cutting weapon, I am pretty much useless. Having thought about it, I was hoping you could put some kind of electrical current through it either with lethal force or a toned down stun-gun version.

There is some urgency in this request, since another creature could pop up at any time."

I think this was discussed a little bit at the army base. Now I have the Cps to spend on it though so its a better time to try it. :smallbiggrin:

[BloodyAngel]

"Josh"

Ok.... that went well. I suppose. Tasha thought to herself as she guided her proxy body along the long walk to her car. It's insane how quickly people have taken to this. A few days ago, they were all normal, and now they're discussing how best to fight crime. It's like the blast hit three dozen nerds who read too many comic books.

Tasha squinted into the sun, and looked downwards. It was way too bright out for her taste... and she was glad it wasn't her body that would have the sunburn from it. This guy she was in seemed like he tanned pretty well, but she knew from experience that she was either milky white or lobster red. She didn't get much time to ponder the situation further, before a familiar face landed beside her.

Joshua jumped in shock, and in all honesty, would have regardless of how gentle his landing had been, or how much he had announced himself before hand. Draven had caught up with her.

Oh @#$%! Does he know? Was all she could think before he spoke to her. If he does, he's pretty god at BS'ing that he doesn't. But if I take him to my car and he sees "me"... then what? Would he understand?

Tasha's mind reeled, with the unintentional side effect of making Josh look nothing short of nervous and flustered.

Uh... Yeah. Hey, guy. You're.... Oblivion, right? He stumbled through in obvious discomfort, I'm cool... actually. I was kinda... um... You guys are a bit creepy... you know? If it's cool... I'd rather not have...

And then her life took a violent turn to the left, with the emergence of one Professor Dark who (I'm assuming, if he's asking for a ride) was walking towards her intently. His face seemed nothing short of calm and civilized, but his words were what frightened her. A string of obscenity so foul it would likely have surprised even her, where she not otherwise distracted, played through her head.

$%&*ing hell! Draven might understand! Knowing him, he might even think it's cute... He seems to like being clever and sneaky. But Dark? Her mind ran, No way, this could ruin everything! Think Tasha... THINK!

Josh pulled his hands out of his dirty grey jacket and held them up in mock defense.

Woah! I... really don't want a part of the Superfriends, guys. This is all a bit much for me. He stammered out, staying put as he spoke to lure them no closer to the car. No offense, but you all creep me out a bit. I just want to... you know... go home... and forget this all ever happened. No offense guy... er... guys... C-can't you get one of the guys to like... fly you home?

[MountainKing]

Jack

Jack grinned, relieved.

"Well, I was thinking about the sushi place here, but really, I'll let you decide." Inside, Jack was a riot of relief; she seemed normal! Nothing crazy was going to happen... as long as he could pay enough attention to his utensils...

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Sushi's good." Not actually her favorite, but it wasn't something she had very often either. A little something different might be nice. "Let's get away from the exploding sidewalk, then. Before it does it again." Judy makes good on her words, starting towards the sushi joint. "What the hell was that, anyway?"

[MountainKing]

Jack

"Ahhh, I didn't catch it. I was just standing there, minding my business, trying to decide on what to get for lunch, then *whoosh*, there's a flash of fire erupting from the ground right next to me," Jack shrugged, opening the door to the sushi joint and holding it open for Judy, "After you," he said, putting on his best charming smile.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse pauses, frowning, "Yes, I suppose I could. If you want me to take the sword now and start as soon as possible, I can get back to you when it's done."

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Weird," is Judy's only comment as she passes him. "Go ahead and order for me, I've never been here before," She waits for him just inside, not really sure whether this place has waiters or a seat-yourself system. This time of day, it looks more like the latter.

"You see a lot of that sort of thing these days? Mysterious explosions, flying men dropping out of the sky?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

With a quick flick of the wrist, Nosferatu flips the blade in the air and catches it by its blade, before handing it hilt first to Pulse.

"Thank you. If I ever find a way to help you in return, just give a shout.
Use the petal to contact me, or you do have my mobile number for more mundane means.
I hope you are a fast worker. I feel almost naked without it!"

[MountainKing]

Jack

"I normally just get the sampler; comes in six or twelve piece varieties, and it's basically a bunch of random items off the menu that the chef feels like preparing. Hasn't been bad to me yet!" Jack said cheerfully; the sign said "Please seat yourself," so he simply lead the way to a table, tactfully pulling a chair for Judy before seating himself.

"The way this last couple days has been going, I think I could go for a drink or two though; sake's got that strong, wonderful manner of bringing things into... or out of, perspective." He said with a grin whilst he and Judy waited for a waitress.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

His mind churned as he contemplated the situation as rapidly as he could, and the longer he stood there, considering the overly confident and vaguely condescending air of the Professor, juxtaposed with the insecure and now openly rattled Josh, some dark unamed doubt began to nag at him.

Something doesn't add up. Josh I can understand, he glanced at the young man as he responded, the over-dressed man towering over him.
A bad case of the ostrich mentality, but who knows, two years ago I probably would have reacted to this the same way. It's not like I haven't met more than a few people with a similar outlook already...
But this guy, he looked back over at Dark, waiting for him to respond first, He's a complete mystery. He's out here in a three piece, but he's asking a teen age kid for a ride. He's mingling with beings posessed of unknown power like it's just another alumni dinner, yet he's downplayed his own at every turn.

...He met "The Devil" himself, but talks about the experience with less concern than most people do when discussing their favorite sports-team going on a losing streak, or a nasty weather patter hovering over their home state.

The mans words rolled around in his head like great mill stones, grinding on each other, until finally...a flaw appeared.


Professor Dark
...
"I don't suppose I could trouble you for a lift back into town, could I? It'll take half an hour to get a taxi out here again".

Before the silence could qualify as truly uncomfortable he said, his voice once again barely being recognizeable as human, "I'm a little suprised Professor, well off guy like yourself couldn't afford to leave the meter running? Or even bother with public transportation at all for that matter...", giving the Professor a once-over as he spoke.

"...And how do you know how he got out here anyway? I didn't hear him mention anything about it and somehow, I'm doubting that he would have", he raised an eyebrow, the dark energy rippling once as he regarded him with a questioning look.

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Good plan," she agrees readily. "Honestly, being right at ground zero is weird as hell. Can you imagine living in Montana or something, and hearing about this on the news? Or in another country? I bet there's people who think the whole thing's a hoax."

Judy thinks about that a moment. "I might've. If I didn't live here."

[MountainKing]

Jack

"I feel just about the same way about it," Jack replied, "I mean, if stuff wasn't blowing up and all, it'd be pretty hard to believe. This whole thing is just a mess," Jack paused as the waitress stopped at the table, letting Judy order first before ordering sake and a glass of water to drink with his twelve piece sampler.

"So, what brings you downtown today?"

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

The Professor looks as if he might respond to Josh's refusal, but as Oblivion speaks he replies to the shadowy stranger.

"Two reasons, really. Firstly I thought our meeting would be attacked with lethal force and I didn't want a deathtoll of bystanders to begin on day one. Secondly I'd hoped that someone else would have transport and that a shared journey would provide the opportunity to talk in a less formal setting".

Dark spreads his hands in supplication. "You cannot, as they say, win them all".

"As for Josh - we'll his reluctance to employ his powers meant he certainly couldn't or wouldn't fly. If he overheard Nosferatu's thoughts and then acted on them, that meant he had no real notice and so certainly couldn't have walked here. He seems, I hope you'll forgive me if I say so Josh, a little jumpy to hitch and, to use your own observation, he does not look like he would spend the money on a cab ride. That really only left two plausible possibilities".

Dark held up his glowing hands as if to represent scales weighing up the alternatives. "Either Joshua brought his own car, or everything he said at the meeting was a lie. And as you're here as well Oblivion, I'm sure you can't blame me for being curious".

Dark reaches into his pocket and takes out a cell phone and accesses the recent contacts list.

"It was nice to meet you Josh; and if you change your mind I'm sure you'll be able to find me - yes, hello, I need cab...."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Silently looking the Professor in the eye as he spoke, he remained impassive.

Arrogant, supercilous, blowhard. At least now I have an idea why.

Dfpiii, I'll need some numbers on Paragon a.k.a. Prof. Dark, per the Power Detection rules after 3 rounds of observation. "Here's lookin' at you kid," only, not at all like that.

Waiting until after the glowing man had stepped a few paces away, he turned to Joshua and said "I completely understand and respect your desire for privacy and your interest in avoiding entanglements with certain members of our kind..." he made the briefest of looks in Darks direction to emphasis his point "but for better or worse, we're in this together. A great man once said, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing'. Now I'm no altruist, but that saying still rings true for me. I hope it does for you as well."

With that, not really expecting a response, he turned away and began the long journey back to the Mag rail train, calling information as he made his way in an effort to coordinate his "boarding" at the nearest station that would eventually take him back to his vehicle.

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

As your senses extend to consider Professor Dark it becomes immediately clear that his body is massively enhanced in every aspect; to a degree that gives real meaning to the phrase superhuman. And on deeper probing this only becomes more significant. A measure of power which is nearly as great is being held in reserve and the combined effect is a power of staggering magnitude.

Despite the Professor's protestations of combat inadequacy, he is clearly the most powerful being ever to wield a laser pointer.

((Or in the words of the rule book: Organic, constantly active powers rate as "Major" + unused powers rate as "Moderate" = all powers rate as "Run")).

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Part One: Exit Stage Left

Ummmm... yeah. Josh will say awkwardly, backing a bit from the two mutates.

Thanks for the save, babe. Tasha thought to herself as Draven took the pressure to Dark. The boy's innate suspicion of everyone would be her saving grace for the moment.

The man was a LOT more intense in person than on television... and truth be told, she was a little awed by him. Draven seemed as unimpressed as ever though. Then again, he was likely far more capable of defending himself than she was.

Sorry about the... you know... ride. Josh said, slipping his hands into his pockets, Nothin' personal... y'all just kinda... creeped me out. I think I'm just gonna go home, sleep... and pretend this whole thing didn't happen.

She debated on telling Draven... A quick thought that wasn't his would be all it would take.

I probably SHOULD be honest... but who knows how he might react? She mused to herself, Wait a minute. I do! I know the boy better than most people could. He's not going to be mad. He might even think it's cool. The only part he MIGHT have an issue with is that I'm using some poor schmuck as a disguise... but I'm not even sure he'll care too much about that! Still... better to not risk it with Dark here.

So Josh left the two to their own devices. Giving some time to make certain no one was following him before he finally circled around to find his car. Unlocking the thing with a weary sigh, she looked into the back-seat to ensure that her body was safe and sound. She seemed fine, though the surreality of looking at her own unconscious body gave her a slight shiver.

Don't worry babe, I'm back. She said to her own unconscious figure in the back seat, Ugh. You look like hell... Let's get you home.

-------------------------

Part Two: Good to be back!


Tasha drove back to Rainport like an old lady... obeying every traffic law and staying the limit or lower. All she needed now was some cop pulling her over and asking questions about the unconscious young girl in the back seat. She briefly laughed at the idea of being arrested for kidnapping and/or molesting herself. Still... better safe than sorry.

Parking the car on a lonely side-street not far from the deli she had first found poor "Josh", she went several blocks on foot before she felt safe abandoning the body. She briefly considered leaving him to come back to his senses in some random club or even a nearby walmart... but ultimately, she was eager to get back into her own body. This one was hot, itchy and awkward. The only real upside being that she had learned the proper way to walk as a man without accidentally smushing anything important. It had been a learning experience.

With a moment's concentration, she willed herself to drift off... her mind rising from her poor, confused victim's mind and rushing back to her own form. For an uncertain bit of time, she felt no body around her, and heard the muddled overlap of untold thousands of thoughts and voices... feelings and instincts. The minds of Rainport assailed her as she drifted back to her own body... though mushed together as they were, she could understand nothing about them... or even whom it was she could hear, or what they were thinking.

Then, with a loud shriek... Tasha bolted up from the backseat of her car, her body around her again.

AHHHH! @#$%ing pins and needles!! She shrieked, slowly moving her limbs to spur them back to normal after so much inactivity. I NEED to find a way to stop that from happening everytime!

She rubbed her limbs a bit, trying to chase the pins away... and checking to make certain everything was there. After being a man for the last few hours, her own body actually took a little getting used to.

Let's see... Arms... Scrawny. Legs... Smooth and shaved. Butt... firm, yet supple. Breasts...

It was at roughly that point that she noticed the older man outside her car, watching her with a mixture of interest and sheer, unfiltered confusion. His hands were full of grocery bags, and he seemed lost in the moment trying to figure out why some young woman was feeling herself up inside the back seat of her car.

Tasha stepped out of her car, flashing the man a smirk as she walked past him to the driver's door.

What? If you had them, you would too.

And a few moments later, the car purred to life, and she was gone, leaving a very confused man on the streets of Rainport as she headed for home.

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Lunch. Trying to get away from things for a little bit, you know? Work, and all that." She shakes her head. It was hard to articulate why it became all but unbearable to lounge about in the same room as herself, especially when she didn't want to mention that particular change at all. Here she'd found a nice spot to laugh and make fun of the changes with someone, while the rest of the normal, rational world collapsed into spectacular flaming ruins around her.

"How about you? You have a job you're taking a break from?"

[MountainKing]

Jack

"Well, sort of," Jack confessed, "I'm something of a professional player of games of chance. I've got a degree in psychology I could fall back on, but... it's just more interesting to use people reading at a card table," Jack broke off then, as the waitress brought out the bottle of sake and glasses of water for both patrons, as well as small cups for the liquor.

"It's kind of rewarding, in its own way... as a shrink, you either get the people who don't actually want your help, but show up because they have to, or you get the people ultimately can't be saved, because they end up dependent on you to hold their hand through every little thing." Despite Jack's rather callous blanket statement, it genuinely sounds like it comes from somebody who fell into the former category... someone who sat in the waiting room, irritated and bored, waiting for whoever was the earlier appointment to finish their business so he could get out of there.

"So, what do you do?" Jack said, changing the subject as he took a sip of water, motioning with the bottle of sake as if asking if Judy would like some, pouring her a cup before he pours one for himself if she wants it.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse takes the katana and nods to the rest of the group before climbing onto his glider. He activates the engine and rises into the air. "Take care, all... good fortune."

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

"I think it's time I headed back as well." Kid Zeus frowned, remembering that he had only been able to skip out because of lunch period and that was quickly drawing to a close. Good thing he had a study hall right after lunch or he would catch hell for skipping class. He snatched his petal from where it had still been floating in the air, intending to leave it somewhere other than at his house as Nos had suggested. Then, waving goodbye to the others (and making sure to spare a flirtatious grin for Dryad) he showed off by starting a dazzling lightshow around himself upon liftoff. Then, streaking out and away trailing strobing lightning bolts he congratulated himself on a sufficiently cool exit.

Sigh...now back to boring old civilian life...

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu nods to the leaving parties.

"Safe journeys"

"I will have to head on soon also. If you want to grab any other snacks, now is your final opportunity."

While standing waiting, Nosferatu held the petal is his pocket, focusing on a single individual.

"Oblivion. You asked to speak to the organiser of the event, so here I am. I assume Petal Instant Messenger is okay for you?"

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion
Afternoon
Part I: Return home

He stopped in his tracks, his mirad dust-devil of thoughts disrupted, even as his rythmic breathing and fluid passage across the land was as well.

He had been in a trance, although it couldn't have been more than ten minutes since he'd left the gathering, it had felt like an eternity.

The city skyline had crept closer and he could almost smell the warm concrete.

For the briefest of moments, he thought he heard Tasha's voice in his mind, but quickly recognized it as someone entirely different.

Images of the Ents of Tolkien legend played through his mind as he processed the statement, considering his reply, even as he reached for his petal.

The deep voice perhaps? Definitely not the context...strange.

Stepping into the shade of a large scrubb, he replied mentally, "Yes, I did wish to speak with you, although I expected to have done so in person.
I am speaking to the one who calls himself Nosferatu, am I not? You did not seem so...shy at the meeting. Why did you not speak up then?"

He paused for a moment considering, then looking around and spotting a fairly prominent rock formation he once again projected his thoughts through the arcane device, focusing on the twisted visage of it's intended recipient.

"I have a proposal, what say you to flying me back into town where we could continue this conversation in person?"

He traversed the hard ground and high rocks rapidly, seating himself and resting in the shade of it's eastern side as the sun continued it's descent toward the horizon, waiting patiently for the strange myth turned superhuman to reply.

First the "witch" and now the "blood-drinker"...vegitarian though he claims to be, the irony does not escape me. Rather, it seems to stalk my every step.
The greatest of these being that they would both wish to befriend me! At least, it would at least seem so thus far...

Evisiron OOC-
Yea, it was only a matter of time before the same text color issue came up in a game this large.
I noticed you were bolding yours, but it does make it more complicated when we're trying to portray mental communication.
You could continue to bold (even when "Petal Instant Messaging"), or one of us could change color...any suggestions (Geez3r, feel free to drop your two cents).

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper had stood silently for some time, his mental state less stable than he let on. Here was the devil on his shoulder, with no angel to balance it, and it took his greatest self-control to resist its whispered demands.

Never again, he thought. I am not a monster.

As the meeting broke up, he secreted the petal within his shadowy form, still human shaped but insubstantial enough to incorporate a pseudo-pocket of intangible flesh. Without a word, he pulled an umbrella out of the ground and walked back to the city.

The recent revelations about his identity pained him, but it was a wound that would heal cleanly. Now he had other concerns. Josh had done his best to salve his mind; now he would see to his soul. And so an hour later, the Reaper found himself standing in front of the Rainport Roman Catholic Church.

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Nothing so interesting; I'm a desk clerk at one of the warehouses." It was exactly one step above unskilled labor. You needed to speak English, and that was it; organizational skill was mostly optional. "I've been thinking about trying to start up a business of sorts, but getting off the ground is hard." She felt like she was already running an impromptu information service; that wasn't so far off what she wanted to do.

Judy takes a drink. "So that really works for you, huh? You make a decent living off it? I'd have thought too much chance was involved for that to help all that much."

[evisiron]

OOC: Problem solved easily enough, I will keep using using bold. Just for clarity, I will pop a triple dash --- before and after the words when using PIM

Nosferatu

Nosferatu restrained a shrug at the shy comment, and responded to Oblivion.

---"It sounded like you wanted to talk in private, since you did not outright ask who started the meeting. And yes, just to clarify, this is indeed Nosferatu.

A proposal, eh? Sure, I can give you an airlift. Although, you may need to wait in the sun for a little bit. I started this meeting, so I will be the one clearing up after it." ---

_________________
OOC: Since it is just talking and little is likely to happen, I was going to start the talk with Oblivion here so he is not waiting in real life for the day to shift into the next phase. If you want to talk to Nosferatu before he flies off, he will be the last to go, so that should be fine. me and Oblivion can shift this to the Alt thread if it becomes confusing.
_________________

Later...

Nosferatu picked up the last of the meeting supplies and secured them in the various bags. Dusting his hands off, his hand drifted towards his scabbard and he remembered his missing sword. Feeling almost naked, he scanned the area, spotting a discarded metal pipe. Scooping it up, it was encrusted with dirt and starting to rust. Still, a heavy pipe is better than nothing. With a few test swipes, he placed it in the straps of the scabbard to hold it through flight.

---"I'm on my way"---

It did not take long to find the lone figure from the skies. Nosferatu dropped beside him.

"Greetings, we meet in the flesh at last. Again."

[MountainKing]

Jack

"Oh sure, chance is involved but... in the real "money" games, there aren't any cameras, no commentators... It's always a risk you run, but the real chance isn't what cards you've got in your hand. The chance is seeing just how far you can push somebody without ending up running for the car," Jack smirked, "Or at least, that's how "professional gamblers" do it in the movies, isn't it? In all honesty, it takes more patience than luck. Patience, and paying attention... not much else." Jack took a sip of his sake, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly, but his face otherwise not reacting in the least.

[The_Snark]

Judy

"I think that has to be the most unromantic description of professional gambling I've ever heard," Judy says wryly, although she has to admit that it doesn't have a lot of competition for that title. "But I guess most jobs are like that when you get down to it, you know? The trick is to find one you like enough to tolerate the boring parts." She takes a drink, content to wait for the sushi quietly, and does her best to lean back against the wood-backed chair. It doesn't cooperate, threatening to tip her over on her back when she pushes it, and she concedes defeat and leans forward again.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Watching the man reborn into a creature from myth effortlessly cut through the air to land beside him, Oblivion could not disregard the how truly surreal the moment was.

A feeling only enhanced by the fact that the creature that touched down beside him was operating in broad daylight and seemed to actually enjoying it.

I wonder if he fully realizes the irony of his psudonym choice...

"Yes, in the flesh once again indeed my sharp fanged friend."

Is that a green tint he has to his skin? Perhaps the sun is affecting him...or perhaps it's just a bizzar side effect...

Glancing at the rusty pipe slung on his back he commented, raising an eyebrow in bemused fashing "A souvenier? Or were you concerned about my sincerity of interest? Let me assure you that I am merely interested in discussing how best to organize the next meeting, nothing more."

It occured to him distantly, as his ears registered the sound of his own voice, that this Nosferatu seemed to share more in common with him than just an appreciation for dark clothing.

Their voices were suprisingly similar as well.

"Unless you had a specific destination in mind, I'd suggest we continue our discourse at the Hospital...St. Michaels if I remember correctly.
And I must admit, I am looking forward to the trip. I have a feeling hang gliding doesn't really hold a candle to your prefered method of transit."

Turning around and raising his arms a little he added over his shoulder, "And in case you were wondering, I'm not riding piggy-back. Parachute style will work just fine for me thanks."

[MountainKing]

Jack

"Romanticism is for people who play craps or baccarat," Jack replied with a smirk, "But hey, I can't really knock the ideal." Jack paused as the food arrived, making a mental note that this place had really *good* sake, and really fast service. He glanced over his plate, waiting a moment for the waiter to leave before pulling a face.

Jack Pretto liked a lot of things... but he did not like octopus sushi. Squid, yes, octopus, no. He glanced briefly at Judy's plate.

"Hey, uh, not to impose but, I'm not much a fan of octopus. Care to swap me for that one with the red snapper?"

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper entered the steepled building, its interior shadowed sufficiently for his comfort. The building was mostly quiet, and the Reaper's light footfalls echoed loudly throughout the chapel. The rows of pews were mostly empty, save for one man, head bowed in prayer.

He was clearly the pastor of the church; heis garb revealed as much. He was middle aged, brown hair faintly streaked with gray. No lines of worry marred his peaceful countenance. If a man could live in the world of the divine while his fleshy shell remained intact, this man did. He murmured faintly, the words of his prayer to faint to make out. Slightly in awe, the Reaper approached.

The Reaper knelt in the aisle beside the pastor's pew, and said, "Forgive me, Father, for interrupting your communion with the Lord. I seek your guidance as I try and piece together what remains of my soul." He kept his head bowed, eyes on the floor, waiting for a response.

[evisiron]

Oblivion

Glancing at the rusty pipe slung on his back he commented, raising an eyebrow in bemused fashing "A souvenier? Or were you concerned about my sincerity of interest? Let me assure you that I am merely interested in discussing how best to organize the next meeting, nothing more."



Nosferatu

Nosferatu threw his head back with a surprised laugh.

"Hahaha! Nice one, but its not for you. Less than 24 hours ago I saw a spider big enough to catch a full size car in its web. These are strange times.
But my apologies. I have never seen you fight, so there is a decent chance you could tear me limb from limb. I guess we won't find out unless it turns out that you are violently air-sick and aimed at me at the time of discovery."

Still, curiosity peaked, Nosferatu altered his perceptions to 'taste' Oblivions powers, straining to keep the green from rising and changing his flesh tones while talking to Oblivion.

Power detection until nothing new can be learned. Feel free to describe what your power 'tastes' like. My gues would be a mix between an energy drink and liquorice... :smallbiggrin:

"And never been hang gliding, so can't compare. But yeah, this is truly exhilarating. Hmm, than hang glider thing might work though..."

Shuffling some of the gear about and floating off the ground, Nosferatu ended up hovering horizontally holding the bar in both his arms in front his chest. Overall he looked like a human(ish) zip line handle.

"Speaking of the powers and fighting ability, what exactly can you do? I remember 'control of body energies' but nothing more specific than that.

Oh, and grab onto the bar when you are ready for takeoff."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse is flying over the city, keeping an eye out for trouble as he works toward his home area. He is also looking for a good place to stash the petal he's holding in his gloved hand.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Dropping his arms, turning around and gave a the darkly clad monstrosity a guarded look, although the corners of his eyes crinkled ever so slightly at the smile that he remained mostly concealed beneath the dark translucent energy covering his lower jaw.

Right back at ya. Heh. I knew this would happen eventually.

Activatable: currently only one activated power registering as Minor, but many more registering at Major levels.

Active: Moderate

Total: As you might have guessed, well into the Run category thank you very much.

Truly, your guess on how they "taste" is completely off (but I'm sure you knew that).

A much more accurate description would be: The taste of wrought-iron, rymed with black ice in the dead of winter...with just the faintest hint of something else. Something raw and alive; undoubtedly organic in nature but what more than that is impossible to determine.

Eat your heart out Maynard James Keenan.

Feel free to describe the color and "texture" of your aura, as Oblivion's Power Sense is more sight and touch oriented. :smallbiggrin: (This should be good).


"Speaking of? I made no mention of powers or fighting ability and for good reason my oh so very new friend.
But I conceed that, try as I might, I have not manifested the power of flight. I imagined you might have guessed as much."

Looking up at Nosferatu as he moved to hover above him, he contined, his tone growing ever so slightly more serious.

"These are tenuous and dangerous times for our kind. Although I respect your professional interest and trust that your question is completely without malicious intent, it still amounts to the equivalent of asking a woman her bra size...or a man about measurements found elsewhere.

A question far too personal to be asked at this juncture.

Suffice it to say daywalker, my powers are great enough that I consider our interaction an acceptable risk, but limited enough to respect you as a peer."

Gripping the pipe above him and placing his legs into the full lotus position, he nodded and inclined his head, looking sideways at Nosferatu with one black, depthless eye "Let us leave it at that, and proceed from there."

[kpenguin]

The Hospital

"Look what happened with the nurse was total accident. I didn't want to be in the hospital so I left, she got in my way and then something happened without me doing it. She freaked, so I freaked and ran like hell. Then the wack job came and beat the snot out of me."

Ace

Ace's lips curl into a slight smile.

"Well, I guess you're in the hospital now"

Adopting a more serious look, he stares directly into the kid's eyes.

"Listen, kid, have you contacted your parents yet? I'm sure they're worried about you"

[evisiron]

Ditto, of course, for the power detection.

The aura itself, is strange. Texture and sight wise it almost seems to act as if made from millions upon millions of tiny threads. They never stay still, and seem to shift together in an odd pattern, like a net in the wind. Using colour, it would fluctuate between deep browns and greens, so dark a first glance would recognise them as black.

Nosferatu

Nosferatu let the 'taste' was over him. It could be summed up as... watery metal. Yeah, that pegged it pretty well.
An irritation built up as Oblivion spoke though.

"Just a heads up, you are being freakishly suspicious of the person who is literally letting you hang below his vulnerable underbelly for the sake of friendly convenience.
And don't talk about the powers like an etiquette lesson. There are no set rules for this, and from where I stand, its like asking a climber how good he is or how accurate a cop is with a gun.
Feel free to be honest and just say "I am willing to risk your life, my own and others for the sake of my powers a secret" instead of hiding behind a 'too personal' excuse."

Nosferatu seems to slide slowly back from his small rant as he calms down.

"I guess its more honest to keep quiet than feed me lies. But in case something comes up, serious stuff, answer me these questions three:
1. If I am forced to drop you, can you catch yourself or land well, or should I try and catch you?
2. Do you have any powers you cannot control that are activated in certain situations?
3. Is there anything you want me to pass onto hospital staff is you get seriously wounded?

When a lack of info won't get someone killed, then we can 'leave it at that', but ask me anything you feel is important before we stop."

As he asked his questions, he started picking up speed flying across the land. He could not be moving much faster than a slow-ish driver, but close to the ground, the speed seemed much greater. He thought away to himself while awaiting a reply. In this new world so little is known of each other. How could people risk so much just to keep their powers secret from their peers?

[harmonictempest]

Gust

So it goes. After a while, human nature is too obvious to be worth pondering any more, fascinating as that may be. The board is set, and no amount of commenting will change the game from chess. Now's the time to play.

Rising slowly out of the quarry, petal in hand, Gust quips What, no Mutant Olympics? Well, next time, perhaps. Turning and observing the leaving mutants already breaking up into small groups, he sees a solitary figure leaving by himself. With a grunt of recognition, he flies after him, quickly catching up to the slower-moving figure on the glider and flying alongside him for a few moments. Unsure of where to begin, he simply begins mid-thought.
It's oddly like a game, don't you think? At least, that seems to be the average reaction. Do you wonder what will happen when the first one goes down because his superpowers couldn't stop a bullet?
Catching himself, he offers Sorry to just start in like that; I hope you don't mind if I fly along for a while. I've been thinking about things a lot more since the explosion - much more than I used to, anyway. Everyone still seems to be reacting like this is a movie.

Gust is also pretty aware of the surroundings, in case something's going on in the city underneath.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Inwardly suprised at the young man turned creature of legend, he did well to hide his reaction.

Slowly giving his transporter another sideways look he said casually, "Interesting...because from my position," he takes a moment to glance towards the ground far below as it sped by beneath them, "I appear to be at the disadvantage."

Nodding thoughtfully in agreement, he continued "From whom the question originates makes all the difference. Hence my retisence to answer your question directly at this current juncture.
But, for the sake of facilitating a more amiable tone to our interaction, I will gladly answer your further questions."

Pausing a moment to gather his thoughts he began, "As I have not fallen from any great height since my transformation, I am unsure of exactly how far I could fall without injury, but I believe, due to certain indirect evidence, that I should be able to handle falls from several stories up.

As to the other two questions, I would advise that you and anyone else avoid direct skin to skin contact with me, something which I have taken precautions against occuring", glancing at his gloves pointedly as he said as much.

Looking back at the rapidly apporaching city skyline, his raven hair whipping around his head, he concluded, "I am not one who would purposely put you or anyone else at risk without carefully weighing the cost, never mind being so irresponsible as to not inform others of such risks.
If you are the type of person that you have implied you are, then I assure you are in no danger from me".

Scowling slightly he said "My questions are fairly straight forward.
First of all, what is the reason for your asking me these questions? Second, what was your primary aim in organizing the meeting?"

If a Diplomacy check is necessary, I'm willing to roll it.
Also, the question of whether or not Nosferatu was sincerely concerned about colateral damage, or mostly himself occured to me several times. If a Sense Motive check is in order, let me know.

My apologies for the long wait in reply. It's been a crazy week to say the least.

[evisiron]

Nos is being honest at the moment, so a sense motive check on that is not really needed. He really is more concerned about collateral damage than his own safety, though the reasons for that may not be completely obvious to Oblivion. I am not sure if that would warrant a SM check, since Nos is not bluffing about anything.

As for Diplomacy, Oblivion is answering the questions so Nos will be okay to talk some more. :smallsmile:

Nosferatu

Nosferatu looked down at the skimming ground below them. Oblivion could not have been more than 2 meters from the ground, so an unfortunate drop would not injure him too badly.

"As for the questions, its pretty simple. If someone is in trouble, I intend to help them. And if I am still carrying you at the time I want to know if I am putting you in danger or not. For example, if I had to have my arms free and dropped you, assuming you could take the fall but couldn't... You might end up injured or dead. Then if I took you to a hospital but as soon as the doctor touched your skin you set everyone within 10 feet on fire, that would also suck. I don't want to end up in a situation where people are hurt and I am saying "How was I supposed to know?". I would ask any mutate with me the same things.

As for the meeting, also pretty simple. We as a 'race' could be under threat, and there is greater safety for all of us in numbers. More importantly, all the people at that fire wanted to help, and if we band together and organise, we can work better to protect people. I hate to bring up the spider again, but if it was just me there without Kid Zeus, I might have been unsuccessful or other people could have got caught in the crossfire.

Everyone working together is better for everyone concerned.
Of course, now we are already divided on the simple issue of registration..."

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Sure, I've never had it before," Judy says, switching the little roll. She could handle little new things fine. "Squid, yes, but not octopus."

She forgoes talking for a little while in favor of eating; she's rarely full for long these days. The sushi is fairly good by her standards, the sake better. Considerably more interesting than the sandwich she had just finished at home. Boredom and hunger were the two most irritating results of her odd triple existence, although hardly the most worrying. It's a relief to have the odd food to concentrate on; she resolves to start picking up books at the library to occupy her spare time, if she ends up deciding against a second job.

[MountainKing]

Jack

"Hey, new things really are well and good," Should I be honest? Should I spring the fireworks on her?, "But uh... sometimes, they're a little hard to take. Like, trying to feed horse pills to a dog, sort of hard to take..." Jack sighed a little, eating his food, not saying terribly too much... and finally, he seems to make some kind of decision.

Holding one of his chopsticks in his hand, he lets go of his focus for a second.

"You know, you're really pretty lucky... walking away from this whole crazy mess with nothing wrong with you..." Jack glanced at the chopstick, holding it away from the table, near his face.

A few seconds later, there was a flash of fire just as Jack winced...

Just remember, it's not a colossal fire! It only effects Jack... and... doesn't effect Jack, because he's immune to it...

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Nodding once slowly and thoughtfully as Nos spoke, he responded "Indeed, threat asessment is always a wise decision, particularly in our rather unusual positions. Not only to ensure our own personal safety and that of others, but also to avoid any situation which might cast our people in an unfavorable light."

He tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, considering his next words carefully.

Banding together and working as a team to further our goals as a new race is, of course, ideal, but unfortunately is, at this juncture, a rather niave aspiration.
I'm reticent to say so, but I believe Kid Zeus is an exception. Each and every one of those who have been effected were once normal people. These people had normal failings, some more than others.
So while you might think of us as two 'cops' compairing our last score on the range, I am fully aware of the possibility that the next Neo-Sapien I speak to, even you, could really be a 'drug lord', or worse, someone of equally ill repute disguised as a 'cop'.

So, one of our primary goals then will be to separate the sheep from the wolves and I for one don't believe registration is the method by which to do so.

The matter is then futher complicated by those individuals who are a risk to the community or themselves by attempting to remain neutral. Either through denial, or simply stubbornly clinging to some eronious and very likely purely ignorant idea or believe regarding their current condition".

Like the guy I'm minutes away from meeting with he thought to himself wryly, as the flat roof of the hospital came into view.
He unfolded his legs, readying himself to land.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse glances over and nods, "Thinking is a good thing... it helps you avoid things like that bullet circumstance. I'm engaging in more and more of it as of late... since my mutation... or at least my adaptation to it, still seems to be progressing."

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

Hadyn didn't usually realize how slow time passed in school until he gained superpowers. Yeah, school was boring for normal high school kids, but when you knew you could simply blow out the window and fly away it just got ridiculous. The blue-haired, old lady teaching the class just droned on and on as if she was in slow motion, or the teacher from Peanuts making strange trumpet noises. He had been watching the same minute count down for what seemed like hours. If he could only have blamed the phenomenon on some kind of time-altering neo sapien instead of his own boredom...

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap...

"MR. SCOTT!"

Startled out of his reverie by the harpy with the teacher's edition and her dry erase marker, Hadyn nearly fell out of his seat. He could feel a pop of static and his power bubbling toward the surface of his skin at the surprise, but he wrapped an iron hand of control around the impulse, knowing what would happen if his classmates saw. He looked up at Mrs. Farnsdale sheepishly as the class had a collective chuckle at his expense.

"Mr. Scott, if you continue tapping your pen I will make you write all of your notes with a block of marble and a chisel, I kid you not. Now, as I was saying, the Sugar Act...blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah..."

Hadyn looked over at his friend, Kyle, who always sat next to him, only to receive an eraser to the back of his head as he turned. Hadyn whipped his gaze around to the back corner of the room, where Shaun Jacobs, the captain of the school's basketball team and his gang of cronies were laughing at him. Hadyn narrowed his eyes in irritation and turned back around, catching sight of Jessica, a girl he'd had a crush on for awhile giving him a look of sympathy. It almost made him forget how annoying Shaun had been nearly every day of Hadyn's life. They'd all gone to the same schools since they were in kindergarten, and Shaun had always been a pain in the ass. He was always taller and stronger than the other kids and good-looking to boot. Hadyn figured that Shaun liked to pick on him since Hadyn had been gaining steadily in popularity for the past few years and he needed to remind the upstart of his place every once in awhile. Hadyn had just about had enough of taking the abuse. For now, though, he shook it off and tried to pay attention to class.

Afterward, Jessica and Kyle had approached him, both to gossip about either how boring Mrs. Farnsdale's class was or how much of a jerk Shaun was. Hadyn hadn't liked being the brunt of the joke, but the side effect of Jessica's attention wasn't a bad result. He tried to play it cool while Shaun and his idiot friends caught site of him from the other side of the hall. It was well known that Shaun had been trying and failing miserably to get Jessica to go out with him all year. From the look Shaun gave Hadyn when their eyes met, Hadyn figured that today wasn't going to end without another run-in with the bully.

When he was thinking about what might happen, his concentration went slack once again and Jessica had to bring him back to reality. Unfortunately, when she grabbed his hand there was a strong buildup of static electricity that suddenly shot up her arm with a small pop!. "Hey, don't mind him. Listen to meeAAAH!!" she yelped, shaking out her suddenly numb hand. It didn't stop there, though, since the shock had caused all of her normally straight reddish-blonde hair to completely frizz out to look like the teacher from "The Magic School Bus". Hadyn's mouth dropped open just about the same time hers did and she made a bee-line straight for the girl's bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Ah damn..." Hadyn cursed, crossing his arms real quick and power walking out the door amidst many an amused laugh and quizzical stare.

He really had to get a handle on his emotions if he was going to do this whole secret identity thing! All he had done was dwell on his irritation and the feedback had caused a small, but noticeable mishap...with a girl he liked, no less! How was he ever going to get her over that? Would she ever like him now? Oh man! Hadyn went around behind the school, to the parking lot where he'd parked the minivan. Even though there was still one more period, gym, to go before school let out, Hadyn figured he'd had enough today.

"Hey, douchebag!"

F%$#!!

Shaun and his goons had taken advantage of another introspective moment to surround Hadyn and corral him against the nearest wall. There was no way out except through one of them and everyone had gone back to class by now. There weren't even any windows out by the cafeteria kitchen where they were.

"Hey, you think you can step up on my girl, douche? You know me and her got a thing. What, you think you can just come into my territory like that, huh?" Shaun started in aggressively.

In his pink, popped collar polo shirt and Aeropostale shorts, Shaun cut a menacing, if disgustingly rich and preppy, figure at about 6'7" and 225 lbs. At a good half a foot or more shorter and about forty pounds of muscle less, Hadyn looked easily outmatched by the basketball player, but he stood his ground. He'd never let up an inch, usually just ignoring the torment the bigger teen dished out, which was probably what made him such an interesting target most of the time. Maybe it was his transformation, or maybe Hadyn had just had enough finally, but this time he pushed right back. "Please. Everyone knows she wants nothing to do with you. The only way you'd have a chance with her was if you spiked her drink, you worthless piece of preppy $#]%."

Shaun's eyes widened in sudden anger as his friends gave out a chorus of "Ooooh's" behind him and began egging him out with a few chuckles. Shaun didn't even try to answer that one, he just came on, fist leading. Hadyn saw stars as the punch landed square on his right temple, knocking him to the ground, but at the same time he briefly lost the tight leash he'd put on his powers. There was a bright flash and a crack of thunder and when Hadyn sat up he saw that Shaun and all of his cronies were on the ground as well. To a man they looked like they'd been hit by lightning: hair frizzed out and burnt, shoes exploded at the toes, metal jewelry burnt black along with some skin, singed eyebrows. Miraculously, they were all breathing, but none of them had regained consciousness.

Eyes wide, heart suddenly going a mile a minute, his breath coming faster, Hadyn was shocked at what he'd just let happen. He didn't get to think about it since at that moment an adult rounded the corner of the building about two hundred feet away and yelled something at him. Hadyn was already moving, though. He sprinted around the building and then leapt into the air, disappearing into the trees that lined the side and back of the school. By the time the faculty had come upon the gang of unconscious students, the figure they'd seen standing over them had disappeared.

Once clear of the school, Hadyn had flown straight up into the clouds. What had he just done?!? Would they remember what had happened, that he'd shocked the hell out of all of them? Would they tell the school? The police? Hadyn's friends? His family? Hadyn smoothed a hand over his face, having his own private meltdown about how things had gone to hell so fast. In the instant he'd lost his concentration, his power had come roaring out of him, looking for targets. He'd wanted to hurt them to. He'd wanted to put out Shaun's lights...but he could have just hospitalized the whole gang! What was he thinking?

Hadyn let himself drift on the currents, letting his energy wrap around him and flow through the water that was heavy in the air, jumping from cloud to cloud nearby as he thought. They probably wouldn't remember a thing. It wasn't like it had really happened slow enough for them to actually see anything, right? Still, even if they assumed that he'd punched them all out in the blink of an eye, he'd still be labeled as a freak. Hadyn's only hope was that Shaun's pride would keep him from spreading any story in which he had been beaten. He was like that. Hadyn laughed nervously. To think, he was hedging his entire bet on whether his enemy would lie for him.

Oh hell...his mother was going to kill him if she found out.

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine


Tasha sang along to her music as she wheeled into the city proper. "Tearing Away" by Drowning Pool... somehow it seemed fitting, giving the day's events. Rainport had never seemed stranger than now, knowing that there were some two dozen mutates with who-knows-what powers running about. And that was just the ones that chose to show up for the meeting. It was a sobering thought.

On the other hand... she'd gone to their little meeting, and no one had been the wiser. The little petal she'd been given was gracing the ground out by the meeting site, and as far as she could tell, no one had followed her. She felt, for the moment, like she had won something. Courage, perhaps. She'd even stood face to face with the mighty professor Dark. Intimidating though he was, she'd managed to hold together and keep up her farce. Even Draven hadn't known it was her, as far as she knew. She'd have to check with him later.

The whole thing left her with a feeling of confidence she had been without before. If she could fool that many people who all had powers... what couldn't she do? Maybe it was time to get a little more pro-active with her abilities.

Perhaps it was fate that only a few blocks later she noticed a most unusual thing... as something streaked into the sky at high speed. She drove past, and checked out, a handsome devil of a man walking along the sidewalk. Little more about him would have caught her eye, save that out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw a small burst of fire leap up from near his feet.

It was almost enough to make her stop dead in the street, but instead she kept her cool, and just slowed a bit, watching him in the rear view as he stared downwards... all but confirming for her that something had, indeed, happened. Feeling confident with herself, she lifted a smirk and decided that this was something that merited further investigation. She swung into the parking lot of a nearby McDonalds, and headed for the area she had seen him as quickly as she could.

Crap. Stupid traffic, he's gone!There was a scorched spot on the ground, but no one else present. He can't have gotten far....

She spotted him only a block away, heading with a woman into a sushi place. She sighed to herself, checking her purse and finding it a bit sparse.

Sushi... crud. I don't even like Sushi. She said to herself with a roll of her eyes, Seems a shame to waste my last twenty on it...

She mused it over for less than a minute. You only live once, after all, and she felt like going for it. She followed the two into the place, only a few minutes behind, and got herself a seat, as the sign said. She didn't sit close enough to listen in to them... intentionally keeping her distance and looking over a menu containing every form of raw fish one could hope for.

Ugh... I can't believe people like this stuff. She thought to herself. The things I do for science.

As if science had anything to do with it. She ordered herself the least disgusting-seeming item on the menu, and settled in for what she had really come by for. She sat down, facing away from the pair... and shut her eyes for a second... reaching out with her mind for that of the man she'd seen. She heard the muddle of voices and feelings that she always did when she focused... Indecipherable mashes of thought and emotion... and did her best to sort through for her target.

Sorry it took so long guys... I was at a con all weekend trying to make a few bucks for rent.

I'm back! Let me know if I ad libbed a bit too much, I can retract. Also, as if it wasn't obvious... Tasha is attempting telepathy on Jack... a simple read of surface thoughts and emotions. It's a will save to resist. Fail it, and I have some questions for you. :smallbiggrin:

[The_Snark]

Judy

Hah, right. Things would be so much simpler if I did—Judy jerks back in reflexive startlement as the chopstick flares for a second, staring first at the flaming wood and then at a slightly sheepish-looking Jack.

"Oh," she says, toying with her empty glass; her former bafflement at his rambling comment about new things and horse pills has been explained. "So... I take it this has been happening to you a lot recently." It was a tactful way of saying "So, you were lying about not being affected by this yourself."

Judy didn't mind that lie at all. It would be more than a little hypocritical of her if she did. She hadn't told anyone, or elaborated to those who already knew: not the two 'heroes' who had somehow sensed something about her earlier, not Nerros (who had done the same), not even Alex (who knew she lived quite close to the warehouse, and had said he thought she might be). Maybe I ought to try telling someone this time. What's the worst he can say?

Maybe later, she decides.

[MountainKing]

Jack

The added tension from some... outside influence? What the Hell...? was pretty much indecipherable on Jack's face, given that he now had a really, really embarrassing situation on his hands. Once again, the coating on his brand new shades had taken on a glossy, it's-raining-and-someone's-car-is-leaking-oil mirage of colors, and were no longer charmingly perched on Jack's forehead, but rather, had haphazardly fallen over his eyes.

"I... you know, you could say that..." Jack muttered sheepishly; could he salvage this? "It's... it's not exactly something that I like, and it's definitely something I need to get used to. It's just not something you come out and talk about if, maybe you shouldn't." Jack's face had gone neutral now; his voice, previously charming, cool, and collected, was now straight edged and calm.

"If... it's a problem, I can just... go ahead and leave. I'll still pay," Jack made no immediate physical indication that he was getting up, but he intended to do as he said he would, "I'll uh... just, leave that to you."

Oooookaaaaay... well, I'll pass on the telepathy save, but if you do try to go farther than telepathy, I'll go right on ahead and resist that... unless I have to resist NOW, or you've got your hooks in and there's no way for me to save against possession later. In that case, the save is below. If I CAN let it slide and resist possession if it comes up, feel free to ignore the save result and ask away.

Will save: [roll0] (This should be correct.)

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu mulled the information over in his mind.


"Yeah, I would agree with you for the most part. Still, as naive and idea as it might be, its worth a shot. And I guess any wolves in the herd will at least know there are a bunch of people who could stop them if they try anything malicious, so that's something.

As for the neutrals, I guess all we can do is give them time.

By the way, we are nearing the city proper. Any idea where you want dropped off?"

[The_Snark]

Judy

Had she been like this when Nosferatu casually asked her what she could do? She didn't think so. She'd been a lot more defensive about it, not nervous. Jack was covering it up pretty well now (a card-playing reflex, she suppose), but she could see he was really unnerved about revealing himself; nervous, and a little embarrassed. She felt kinda bad for him. If his changes hadn't been as immediately obvious as hers, he was probably still just getting adjusted to this.

"Hey," she says, reaching her hand across the table. "It's all right. Believe it or not, you're not the first guy I've talked to who's had something like this happen."

[MountainKing]

Jack

Jack hesitated as Judy spoke, and when she reached across the table, he looked at her, only a glance, but in he eyes slipped through the most sincere relief and gratitude Judy may have seen in a man in at least a long while. He gently took her hand and gave it a brief squeeze, smiling faintly.

"Well... I'm glad you've at least adjusted to people like me a little quicker than some people have... thanks for understanding." Jack let go of her hand, feeling completely out of his normal element. Quietly, he took another drink of the sake, followed by a sip of water.

"Well... where does the conversation go from here?" Jack said, looking genuinely unsure on where the conversation really should go.

[The_Snark]

Judy

Judy sighs, leaning back again. "I'm really not sure." Evidently not with me sharing. "I guess it depends on what you want to do about it. I'm guessing you're not one of the guys who grabbed a costume and went out to find some crime or whatever to fight as soon as they found out. As long as you can keep stuff from, you know, exploding..." She lowers her voice, just in case anyone nearby can hear them, "then you've got it easier than some. The others I talked to could mostly get by, with a few precautions."

She pauses. "I mentioned I live in Southport, right? That's where the blast was, so there's a fair number of people who got hit. The first one I talked to was an old friend, and thinking about it I'd be willing to bet I've seen a lot more mutants than I know about, just on the streets. I guess I've just gotten a little more used to it than most people."

She grins lopsidedly. "Or I've just gone into shock. You tell me."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Nodding minutely in agreement to Nosferatu's statements and adding a simple "agreed", the faintest of quizical expressions crossed his features as the fanged hero asked their destination.

Letting go with one hand, he pointed across the cityscape towards the hospital, and said in a mildly sarcastic tone "I believe my flight was slated to disembark at the hospital my good man. If you don't mind my asking, and in light of our general conversation, what general field of professional interest were you pursuing, prior to your transformation? I'll understand if you decline to answer. In additon, unless you have somewhere important to be, do stick around, there were a few things directly pertaining to the meeting, specifically the next one, that I'd like to discuss with you."

As they navigated the last several blocks to the hospital roof, he let go early, somersaulting twice before landing agily on the gravel, cigarette strewn rooftop before looking up calmly at Nos.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks over at the silent Gust... one eyebrow raised. "I had assumed you'd wanted to talk... something on your mind?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu’s head was filled with a flashing montage of Professor Dark deducting like crazy to seek out his identity from just showing up.

“Ehh, I think I will keep the job info to myself for the moment. But it does leave me open at the moment, so we can discu---GAH!”

The sudden strain of the passenger flipping himself from the bar combined with the sudden lack of any weight at all is enough to tip Nosferatu’s flight out of control. With an shout of exclamation he tumbles once and slams heavily into the raised stair entrance, a loud popping sound clearly heard by all as an indent is hammered into the wall. Recovering quickly and getting to his feet, Nosferatu lets slip a string of curses.

“AAHHHhhh, sonnoffa…”

With oblivion staring at him, Nosferatu also looks to his limb left arm hanging loosely by his side. With a grimace, he lifts it up and pushes it back in an attempt to relocate it (as seen in almost every action movie). He fails.

“AHHH! WHY? Why did I think that would work?!”

The resilience of every fibre in his body did little to help a bone that had slipped out of place, and the sappy blood was of little use either.
At least it had killed the pain a bit.

“Ugh. Well, I guess I couldn’t have picked a better place to do it. Lets head inside. And what did you want to discuss?”

With the question in the air, Nosferatu opened the door and started down the stairs, hoping to find someone who actually knew how to pop the arm back in place.

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Flying in an upright position to match Pulse on his glider, Gust starts slightly as Pulse verbally prods him. Yeah...sorry, that caught me off guard; I've actually been noticing about the same thing. I've got my own thoughts on why that might be, but I'm curious - do you have any theory why it might be progressing? Seems like your IQ got a boost there, which seems like a pretty enviable superpower.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse shrugs, "Electromagnetism. I was caught in the EMP of an exploding transformer - seems to have boosted my brain power quite a bit. As far as the adaptation to the brain changes - I've been sleeping less and less. In fact, I may have stopped completely, which is a little troubling. In a normal human, no REM sleep leads to paranoia and various psychoses..."

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Shrugging, Gust gives a nearly humorless chuckle. In normal humans, superpowers are likely to lead to large egos and reckless behavior. I haven't paid much attention to what the experts have been saying, but what most of the docs seem to agree on is that the biggest changes have happened in the brains of the affected, us. I wouldn't worry so much about old limits applying anymore.

What I find more interesting is that it seems like the powers most of us have gotten are in some way related to their deep feelings, what they think about themselves. I'm not much for technical science-y stuff, but almost all the changed people I've met seem to have deep desire or or part of their personality expressed in their powers. It's like they chose their powers, without realizing it.

And if that's something you have some part in affecting, why not have it develop over time? Those who see themselves as heroes, or have some grand plan for their new life - seems like their powers might develop as they do. I'd bet someone who tries to hide their power or doesn't use it will find that it doesn't change anything like what you and I experience.

Shrugging again, he adds but I'm sure the docs will have the final say.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "You're right on one count... there is nothing I respect more than the power of the human mind... than intelligence, and that seems to be what I've had boosted the most." He looks thoughtful, "What I find most interesting about our meeting is that now we have independent confirmation that the change has happened on a genetic level. It's not some form of energy dwelling in our tissues... it's an actual DNA modification. Which, naturally, will lead to some interesting issues of what happens when some of the changed reproduce, and pass their alterations on. There will no doubt be some who will paste the comic book lables Homo sapiens and Homo superior on the whole thing and suggest that conflict is inevitable."

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Gust turns sharply at Pulse's last sentence. No doubt? I'm sure you're right, but that's exactly the sort of thing that's baffled me since the explosion - people don't seem to be reacting realistically at all, and their expectations are creating a surreal situation. I mean, what do you expect someone to do when they wake up with a superpower? Is your natural reaction really 'great, now I can go out and help people'? Of course not - most people would keep powers to themselves and use them for personal gain. I know the first few things I used mine for were petty theft (though the sacristy had a whole closetful of robes and I don't think they'll ever miss this one). It was two days before I did anything heroic, and even then, it was mostly to see if I could - I don't yet know what I want to or should do with...this.

I guess what weirds me out is how much people react like this is a comic book. They expect people become heroes and villains, and so they become heroes and villains. I think the explosion is so far outside what Rainports citizens are used to that the whole city is still basically in shock - it's not quite real to everyone, and they're still living in a comic book. And I...I don't really know what wil happen if that changes. I mean...what was your first reaction to having powers?

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse shrugs, "Well, I did my fair share of roleplay when I was younger. I've always played ideals higher than my reach... I suppose when the power came, I decided to put myself out there to see if my ideals ever were something true."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Rising from his landing, his senses picked up, even before his feet touched the gravel, the erratic flight pattern of his transporter, his full senses combining to sense in full spectrum of the vampires careening descent and crash upon the roof of the building.

The brickwall giving way, the mortar turning to dust, the bricks shifting, followed instantanously by the sickening crunch-pop sound and the sensation of his arm coming out of it's socket, the gravel then shifting to recieve his weight as he landed upon the shads of rough stone.

He stood in utter shock and horror for a full second as the scene unfolded before him.

At least it wasn't a window...

As Nosferatu picked himself off the stones, a strong of expletives issuing from between his clenched fangs, a dark tide of concerns welled up within his mind.
Is he really that unpracticed in his capabilities? Did he do that on purpose? Is he faking it? Has this happened before? How did he manage to survive this long if a brick wall hurt him that badly? Is this just an excuse to start a fight? Is this fight going to end up on the air? Does he really think he can win with only one good arm?


Lifting one hand, palm out, in a placating gesture, he felt his body instictively begin coiling in preparation for the seemingly inevitable conflict, the plasm shrouding his form coilding tighter, slithering beneath his skin in an intricate defensive webwork, the Oblivion smoothing from his momentarily chaotic thoughts and concerns but those before him.

Keeping his voice calm he said, "My apologies my friend, I had no idea that little move would throw you off so badly. Stay calm, I'm sure..." he trailed off, as the irritated young man turned creature simply suggested that they go inside, offering to pick up their conversation as they had barely skipped a beat.

Oblivion actually blinked twice, once again taken aback a the unusual behavior of his new aquaintance, before replying guardedly, "Yes, of course, where were we...right, the meeting, there's actually a few things I think could really be improved with just a little planning...I hope they'll be ok with us arriving is such an unorthodox fashion, although I'd imagine they're probably starting to get use to it."

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu steeped down into the hospital stairway as Oblivion talked. There was an odd not in his voice, as if he was expecting something...
Shunting the thoughts away for the moment, they were only filled by thoughts of the minor crash. He was reminded that back at the fire, he could only slow someones fall, yet now he could travel great distances with a passenger. He scolded himself for assuming that he would have mastery of such an ability with literally no practice since the power changed. Then again, with the ways things were going caution seems like a luxury that won't be readily available.

"Yeah, planning would be good. Still, went well considering it was a fairly impromptu idea amongst the group on the rooftop. But any improvement would be great for the next one, so advise away"

Reaching the bottom of the short steps, Nosferatu opened the door and stepped through, startling a nurse standing beside it. She gave a surprised shout and dropped her clipboard, only to scoop it back up.
She stared and took stock of the new arrivals, the scenes on the news and their arrival from the roof and regained her balance impressively quickly. Well, at least enough to shift these people onto more capable hands.

"*ahem* So... how can I help you?"

"Well, my friend has business here and I would greatly appreciate meeting someone who could reintroduce my dislocated shoulder to its socket."

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Rolling over onto his back, Gust floats along as if lying on a beach, both hands behind his head, and considers Pulse's words. And? Any results yet? I must say I was very pleased at my own small share of heroics, but I'm still unsure if that's simply because I felt I had power over my own life and surroundings for the first time in a long time, or because I was glad to have done well. I'm not sure a more confident person would have turned to heroics as readily.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse chuckles, "I know I'm more intelligent... but do you know how hard it is to gague yourself to figure out how smart you are... I think it would burn out even my new brain to try to figure out why people do what they do."

[harmonictempest]

Gust

A wry smile. Agreed. I was only asking how your own efforts in following your ideals had been going; whether they were what you expected, or as rewarding as you'd hoped.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "I feel I'm doing fine with things for the moment. I had more hopes for interacting with the team... but hopefully it, and other things will work out."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Raising his hand palm out in a gesture of peace for the second time in only minutes. I wonder how long this will go on before I just stop caring how they react...Oblivion spoke in as calming a tone as he could muster, all things being considered.

"Good afternoon miss. I had intention to visit a patient here before my new friend here suffered an unfortunate accident. His health is first priority, my visit can wait. If you could be so kind as to direct us to the ER?"

Taking a moment to process the unusually courteous request, the nurse recovered quickly and said, pointing as she did, "1st floor. There's an elevator ri-" she paused, her eyes widening, glued to the energy encasing Oblivion's throat and lower jaw as it adjusted itself of it's own volition, before forcing her eyes away to gaze on the only slightly less disturbing twisted visage of Nosferatu "right around the corner."

Smiling wanely, she walked quickly away, glancing only once over her shoulder as she headed towards the nurses station.

Looking at Nos, Oblivion made an offering gesture in the direction indicated by the nurse.

"After you sir."

Taking a moment to adjust his costume and smooth his hair after the long arial trip, he fell in line behind his now injured new friend.

An interesting turn of events to be sure. I believe that was my first encounter with a normal that I had no negative intentions towards.
Facinating experience...

Passing over the elevators threshold, he experienced the briefest brush of vertigo as the sudden sensation of height was picked up from beneath him.
Leaning against the inner wall, trying to play it off, and pressing the 1st floor button, he said over his shoulder, "Just hope we're the only one looking to get on this elevator at the moment...if you know what I mean."

He did his best to focus his attention of the sensation of the cool burnished aluminum siding he was leaning on and not the bizarre combination of claustrophobia, vertigo, and the sensation of his elevator companions dislocated shoulder and it's unatural movements.

I suppose that's another perk of not having to eat anymore...

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu nodded to the nurse and turned to Oblivion with the successful guidance as they waited in the elevator.

"Go teamwork, WoooOO!"

With a sluggish motion Nosferatu swung his limp arm towards his friend, only to have it slap lifelessly against his own chest. A moronic laugh escaped his limps.

The sudden behaviour caught him by surprise, and with a will he tried to focus better on his bearing, shutting up in the process to avoid further embarrassment The elevator seemed to be spinning a bit, and the movement was making him feel odd. Oblivion seemed not to notice, so it must be from within.

A thought back to Biology reminded Nosferatu of a plants ability to respire anaerobically, and the ethanol created by it. Could the twisted flesh be cutting off 'blood' or air circulation? He didn't seem to need to breathe anyway... perhaps the waste ethanol became became trapped in the arm and built up in concentration before being released in a shifting movement.
This realisation didn't slow down the elevator one bit, and it continues spinning, and spinning, and spiiiiinnnnnning...

Slowly but surely it felt like Nosferatu's hold on his lunch was becoming more and more tenuous.

[harmonictempest]

Gust

Yep, I think we're all still holding our breath for a bit to see about those other things. I'm hoping to fall in a more regular rhythm eventually - for now, it remains fascinating even to be around to see these things unfold. I can't say I have any expressed plans, but that shouldn't be too problematic; we've all got lots of options now. Perhaps we'll run into each other at the next incident. His manner is clearly the standard polite opening to end the conversation, affably open to either continuing or ending the conversation.

[Wiz]

Pulse

The caped hero nods, "I just hope that the next "incident" isn't something caused by our mysterious manipulator."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Standing in the elevator, he glanced up from his concentrated observation of the burnished metal to check what floor number was lit up. He wanted out pretty badly, but at least the claustrophobia and vertigo were slowly abating as his sharp focus won out over his briefly disconcerting perceptions.

Just then, a moronic noise excaped his compainions lips, prompting Oblivion to turn around, only to witness him swing his dislocated arm in a lazy arc.

Despite his stomach clenching reflexively, he felt far more concerned than ill.

Are you quite alright? Might there be something you need to tell me? Hold on ok? We're almost there, so try and keep it together for just a little longer."

Without looking up, he considered the maintenance panel in the roof of the elevator.
If something bizzar were to happen, that would be his only means of escape.

He positioned himself directly underneath it, concern on his face, but determined to not be trapped in a metal box with an injured vampire who's behavior was becoming more and more erratic.

Ding!

The elevator came to a smooth stop and the doors slid open.

Perfect. Just what we needed.

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

Professor Dark had stood in still, contemplative silence by the side of the road for what seemed like an eternity. He considered flying - he even considered walking; that's how long it had been.

In the distance a trail of cream dust sprayed into the air. A car was approaching.

The afternoon had been a disappointment. All these beings with their fantastical abilities had failed to agree to anything even in the face of pressing danger. Clearly his Plan B would require more effort to bear fruit.

Smashing the giant hadn't been enough. Forging an alliance of these feckless titans would require something more... emotive. A common cause. A project that would give them all a chance to shine.

It was time for the professor to set some coursework.

As the taxi pulled up in front of him the idea was already fully formed in his head and he greeted the driver with a dazzling smile.

[harmonictempest]

((Important: I have the following people down as having petals: Jen, Erica, Scarab, Hex, Pulse, Reaper, Oblivion, Gust, Nos, and Kid Zeus. Use that for reference if you want to use the petals, and if the list is incorrect, let me know))

October 17, 2014: Tuesday, approximately 1 p.m.
Day 3 since the explosion


The Meeting

Hex/Jen/Erica/Scarab/Inferno/Smoke/Riff

With the last useful exchanges ending and mutates bowing out one by one, the meeting seems to be effectively, if not officially, over, and the rest of the group breaks up accordingly.

Scarab picks up a last shot, then pauses before putting it down. Much’s I wish it was 5 o’clock already, I got a bit more to go today. With a casual wink towards Erica, he adds Mebbe we c’n meet for happy hour later, talk about the freelance business. With no more than a “that’s how it’s done” glance at Riff, he rises over the quarry wall and disappears the way he came.
With a giggle, Jen and Erica gather up the alcohol bottles and head back toward the hospital, carrying on a lively conversation (likely about boys or some such).
A bit crestfallen, Riff walks over to Smoke, shrugging slightly. They exchange a few words, then, with a nod, clasp hands in a quick handshake, disappearing in a puff of smoke a moment later.
Hex, happy that at least a few people took her petals, pockets her own. Huh, that was over fast – you guys are all like way serious about this. Anyway, if you guys hear about that like Devilman guy, lemme know. With that, she pulls out a plastic wand, and with a few more words in that strangely deep harsh voice, she draws a vertical circle hanging in the air around her. With a wave of her hand, she starts it spinning, and as the edge of the hoop passes between you and her, it seems to wipe her away like a windshield wiper.
Inferno, working on a last handful of chips, looks around and sees that everyone else is pretty much gone. Taking flight, he heads off after Gust.
((I know we’ve kinda moved on from this scene, but given the lag we’ve had in the game I won’t cry foul if someone wants to react to any of this))

Pulse/Gust

Turning over so that he’s flying in an upright position, Gust concurs. Agreed. Well—
At that moment, Inferno cuts in from some ways behind the two of you. Hey Gust, what happened to the Mutant Olympics? Raising an eyebrow, Gust responds Is that a challenge? Inferno laughs, retorting Only if you think you’re faster than me, dude. Gust turns to Pulse, bowing slightly. Well, I was about to take my leave anyway, but it looks like Inferno needs a flying lesson. After listening to your reply, he flies off toward Inferno, and looks like he’s likely to catch up in short order.
((You said at the beginning of this convo that you were also keeping an eye on the city below. With the conversation over, I can just consider you still on patrol, or (obviously) you can do whatever else))


The Hospital

Ace/Jason

((gnome’s sheet is in the now-defunct old OoC thread, so…we wing it))
Hah. Worried? The nurse said they showed up already. Bet they left as soon as they found out I was in the explosion. If they’re all worried, they can come back and see me. Not that I'll be in here much longer.

Oblivion/Nosferatu

As the doors slide open, the pair of visitors waiting for the elevator start nervously at the two supers inside. After a moment, they decide the stairs might just be the ticket for them today, and walk quickly away from the menacing-looking duo. The second floor is laid out pretty intuitively, and 255 looks like it should be just a bit around the corner to your left. The bathrooms are opposite the elevator column on this floor.

((Are both pairs on the second floor at the same time?? Tune in next week and find out!))


Nondescript Cloud

Kid Zeus

This cloud looks to be about the same as the last five you’ve dodged through.
((Die roll says…option #2 of 4: your day gets more interesting))
As you focus on the area around you, looking for a quiet spot to land unnoticed, you hear a loud laugh from a short distance away. Looking for the source of the sound, you see Gust and Inferno flying in tandem a few hundred yards off. Get back here, you skinny punk! I’ll catch you eventually! Inferno is clearly flying at his top speed, gouts of flame coming from his feet in irregular bursts as he laughingly tosses a few firebolts at Gust, which miss by a wide margin. Gust, with only the faintest of amused smiles on his face, floats by Inferno with his arms folded, performing lazy circles around the fiery super.
They are headed in your direction.


Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church

The Reaper

The pastor remains unresponsive for a moment. Just as you’re about to repeat yourself, you realize that he’s merely finishing his prayer. He crosses himself, then turns to you, freezing as soon as he gets a look at you. Wide-eyed, he slowly responds, No need for apologies, my son, the Lord welcomes every sinner back with open arms, whenever he chooses to return, clearly still wondering if this is a bizarrely theatric lead-in to another killing. A bit more calmly, he adds Perhaps the confessional would be more private.
((If you assent)) He leads the way to the humble triplet of doors at the side of the nave, entering the middle one and gesturing you toward the open door next to it. Inside, there is the expected kneeler next to the screen, but also a chair to the side for those who wish to speak face-to-face with the priest. Once you’ve settled yourself, the priest begins, having regained his poise in this familiar setting. Now, tell me what brings you to seek the Lord’s comfort today?


Taxi #43

Professor Lachlan Dark

The taxi driver looks at you with slight incredulity that he’d be called out so far, and can’t help but glance at his meter, which is already running up a tidy sum. To where?, he asks in thickly accented English, over the radio's murmur of some vaguely foreign music.


The Sushi Joint

Jack/Judith (lunching), Tasha (spying)

*watches with interest from the table in the corner* Carry on, carry on.


Lazarus Pit

Alex

((Feel free to reinsert yourself wherever appropriate. Your last post, as far as I can tell, is here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3757028&postcount=646) – you were finishing up your conversation with Dark. It’s been approximately 12 hours IC since then.))

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse waves as Gust goes off to test the relative speed of fire vs. air. "Take care!" He continues his criss-cross patrol of the city, generally working his way toward home.

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper kneels, his head bowed, and speaks, quietly yet still eerily easy to hear, "The secular authorities have forgiven me for the lives I have ended. Now I come to ask the Lord's forgiveness as well. Between my previous life as a hired assassin, and my time since the mutation before I attempted to kill the mayor, I have killed four hundred and seventy two people. I killed them not out of greed or anger, but fear. I feared that death would overtake me, and so I sought to slow him down with my 'offerings.'"

He pauses for a moment, disgusted with his own past actions, his cowardice and selfishness. He then continues, "I wish to redeem myself. I want to make good the wrongs I have done. But look at me. My body is an instrument of death, my hands are brutal weapons, my very touch inspires supernatural fear. I am forged for war, but sworn to peace. What then can I do to make things right? When the harvest is forsworn, what task is there for the reaper?"

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

"The Randolph Institute," Dark replied. He sunk his head onto the steepled fingers of his hands as a billion neurons fired in his supercomputer brain. The ride back to his house was over in a flash. He had dreamt away the universe and folded all space into his head.

Inside. At his computers. Working in tandem. The screens illuminated his face and his face illuminated them in return.

"An experiment," Dark said to himself. "I do so enjoy an experiment".

The number he had been given on the previous evening came into his mind and Dark punched it into the keypad of his cellular phone.

When the phone was answered it was Paragon who replied. "Terra. It's time to meet". The deep rasp of the black knight's voice continued even as the professor gazed at the image on the screen before him - the well-tended lawns and bright, crisp paintwork of the Quiet Orchard Rehabilitation Center. In his mind Dark had written in red letters across that picture a single word - Beta.

Dark chose an area of light woods near a prominent highway billboard a few miles away and stated a meeting time of 8pm.

"I have a proposal for you".

With that Dark ended the call with a contraction of his fist - the circuitry and casing of the device crumpled and snapped into non-functional fragments. Either she would come, or he would have no further need for her. He hoped that the Raven would have the good sense to contact him through the main switchboard again - presuming the Raven contacted him at all.

He dialed 0 on his house phone with one hand and with the other brought up the confidential student records of everyone at RIT.

"Good aftrnoon Professor Dark, how can I help you?" said the voice of a woman Dark did not know.

"I'm sorry to say that I've misplaced my cell. Can you please ensure personal calls are diverted to the house until I get a new one".

"Of course Professor -" there was the sound of typing "- will there be anything else?"

"Thank you, that's all".

Dark hung up and turned his full attention to the search of the students. What he needed was someone gifted, someone malleable, someone with a background in chemistry.

[harmonictempest]

Pulse

As you pass over the city, you see little amiss except the weather, which is slightly cooler than the month would suggest. People seem to have recovered from the shock of such an enormous change, and though you catch sight of the occasional purple figure on the sidewalk, or a few stores still Closed despite being midday, not much is overtly out of the ordinary at 1:30 pm on a Tuesday.

On a whim, you pass over the block that the police department is on, and here you notice that there are fewer than normal cruisers parked in front; clearly the quietude of the city is at least partly a façade. An officer exits the building as you fly by, headed toward his cruiser. Catching sight of you, he pauses for a moment, and then awkwardly waves you down, clearly a bit nervous and unsure whether a shout, call, beckon or wave is appropriate for hailing a passing superhero. If you land and greet him, he offers “Are uh, you – you that Pulse fellow? Chief said if any of us saw you, we should tell ya he’d love to meet. He’s in his office now.”

((Let’s assume you make your way inside – if not, I’ll edit and get all red and embarrassed-like))

As you walk in, you draw a fair number of glances, but most everyone seems to be too busy to worry about too much. Besides, you figure they’ve had a few dozen mutates walk through already to register. A red-haired receptionist points you toward the chief’s office, and as you open the door, you hear a small crash from inside. The overflowing inbox on his desk seems to have chosen this moment as its bid for freedom, but only made it as far as the floor. The chief is cleaning it up immediately, muttering a few curses, and at first all you can see is his salt-and-pepper hair. He looks up after a moment, not having heard you, and sticks out his hand, abruptly withdrawing it slightly a moment later. “Chief Henry Brellan—it is, uh, safe to shake hands, right? We’re looking for a mutant to help us out with a little sumpin’, if you’re up for it.”


Reaper

There is a pause, no doubt for the priest to prayerfully consider his answer. When it comes, it is in the warm and soothing voice of a thousand confessions. “The task left is that of beating swords into plowshares and reaping a harvest of life, not of death. It is clear you have already repented of your sins, and though they are grave and numerous, there is no limit to the forgiveness of the Lord. If the parable is true that says there is more rejoicing in Heaven over one repentant sinner than for ninety-nine righteous men, then they must be partying hard in Heaven this evening.

God can bring good of anything – even Adam and Eve’s disobedience was turned into the cause for the Son of God to walk among us. If these are the powers and form your heart gave you when exposed to those chemicals, then you must pray to the Lord to show you what good he will bring of them. Your fellow mutants, if you have befriended any, may well be a source of support during this time.” As he continues, his speech changes, though in what way it is impossible to say. Tone, timbre and inflection all remain the same, but just as during a movie an innocuous speech may be given a menacing quality by the context or the background music, so do the pastor’s words take on a certain darkness. “The real question is: do you truly believe that you can change your essence, that a weapon forged in the hottest of fires can ever be beaten into another shape? I should not like to be wrong about you, Reaper, and I had such high hopes."

((Check your PMs :smallbiggrin:))


Dark

The light of the monitors flickers quietly across Dark’s face as he draws information from the computer more effortlessly and masterfully than a composer draws music from an orchestra. To a dean of a department, many doors were still closed. A lesser man could likely have hacked the system and collated the data needed; nothing he was searching for was too private, after all. Dark, however, merely wove the strands of publicly available information into a net fine and strong, with which to catch the student he needed. Reading more from absent information than displayed data, he inferred, cross-referenced, and catalogued, with no need for anything so crude as a program to script it for him, or even paper on which to take notes. At the end of a half hour, three students had risen to the fore. There was no need for a longer list – each student displayed certain attributes more strongly than any other candidates, and there was no need to consider any runners-up. He need only decide which attributes would be most useful to him.

Robby Lessard – Tousled black hair and a knowing smirk dominated his picture, and gave support for his rather reckless history. The rules of academia rarely successfully confined what he wished to do. The most noteworthy entry on his record was having been suspended for making and testing thermite during a lab class, but there were a host of similar incidents. The papers he had submitted showed a quick wit willing to ask any questions necessary to come at a particular subject, and his preliminary senior research in biochemical engineering already showed promise. His teachers were almost universally torn between admiration for his talent and disgust at his disrespect. Originally from a state or two over. History of Ritalin when younger - allergic to penicillin.

Susan Miller – Not a single hair out of place in her picture, or in her entire life, as far as anyone could tell. There wasn’t a grade on record that wasn’t an A+, and while her work was nothing that would ever make the New York Times, her junior proposal for the senior year research she would undertake showed signs of a methodical, persistent approach that would consistently turn out modest gains in whatever field she chose. For the moment, that field was cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on neurotransmitter reuptake mechanisms, but her history showed a penchant for the rare sudden switch of focus, into another area at which she immediately excelled. Teachers’ recommendations universally held the most positive polysyllabic adjectives the professor in question could summon. Perusing her works shows her to be, in all likelihood, the most intelligent student currently enrolled at the university who has ever come near a chemistry lab. Originally from Rainport. No medications or allergies on record.

Dave Blanchard – There was no picture under his name, but from what Dark could find, it didn’t seem like many other people had seen him, either. Unlike the other two, who had at least enrolled in the local chapter of the ACM or SWE or some such (though of course no record was kept of how often they actually attended meetings), Dave’s record showed only a thoroughly consistent 21-credit course load ((standard in America is 15)), its clean expanse broken only by his part-time job in the chem lab. The only note on his record came from the incident in which he was found to be doing unauthorized work on his own at the lab, and some nameless set of stereoisomers and akaloids were discarded over his protests. His teachers tended to praise his work as precise and often innovative, but most also expressed that they weren’t even sure they could recognize him in the hallway – he had apparently almost universally taught himself without coming to class. Little else on his record explained his seclusion, as there was simply little to record. Originally from Alaska - traveled to Rainport specifically for RIT's excellent neurochemistry program. No medical information on record except his insurance info - apparently he doesn't use the free student medical facilities.

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper begins thinking on the priest's words, then stops. Something is not right. He bursts from the confessional and tears open the door to the priest's side. The room is empty. He mutters to himself, "High hopes....You! Fritz! But that is not your real name either, is it? Whatever foul fiend you be, know that I will never turn back into the monster I once was! No more blood will stain my hands! Not even yours!" He stops, the echoes of his voice fading in the dark recesses of the church.

Look at me, he thinks. Talking to an empty room. I need something to do. Something to keep my mind off this. With that, he heads towards the police station, a few blocks away. There was bound to be some problem for him to handle there.

((OOC: Hey Wiz, mind if I join you? If you don't feel like company, I'm sure there's something else for me to do there. I'm a PC. I can't go anywhere without walking into plot :smalltongue:.))

[BloodyAngel]

Tasha

Ugh. I forgot... I hate sushi. Tasha thought to herself, picking at her hastily ordered meal, No more ordering things without knowing what they are. Gross.

Tasha fussed with her meal, trying to work her chopsticks with only middling success. Her mind locked on to that of the man she was watching, shutting out the din of other muddled thoughts floating about the city. That was the irritating part about telepathy... walls and windows didn't seem to shut thoughts out, and the most difficult part was sorting through the disjointed murmuring of a few dozen, or worse... hundred... thoughts from the people around her.

Alright, got him. She thought to herself with a smile of triumph, Now let's see what secrets you've got for me, handsome.

I'm back baby! It's been a while, but I think I can get back into Tasha. Let's start with a little violation of someone's thoughts! YAY! Incoming PM for you MK.

[dfpiii]

(Nice post btw)

Professor Dark

There was nothing in Dark that did not vibrate in harmony - did not sing! - at the fractal possibilities of each of the individuals before him. In his mind's eye he held the future as geometric patterns - gazed at them as a child might kaleidoscopic light; as man heavy burdened with years peers through the tiniest bead of glass and beholds distant worlds. Wonder and knowledge of the infinite unknown.

For all that he was great, Dark loved no power more than the potential energy a mind. And Dark was reminded of a sports metaphor. The genius of sporting metaphor was its universal applicability - goals, measures, skills, victory. As a young man Dark had always enjoyed films about American Football, despite being completely inept at it, and even now he could appreciate the microcosmic world present only on the field.

From two athletes equal in achievement, you pick the one with the worst form. Because if you teach him the right form, he beats the other guy.

But he wanted them all. How much they could learn from him, and from each other. He wished he could take these molten forms and breath into them his own genius, like a divine glassblower. Without him what would they be? Merely extraordinary: only remarkable: praised by their peers.

But with him... Ah... Wonders!

The girl was clearly the most brilliant of the three. As to her conduct and achievements, his own mentor, Professor Turpin, had said it: "plenty of good work is done by workmen". Though she was considerably more gifted and capable than Dark had been before the explosion. She might be ideal.

But not for this.

Mr Blanchard was, in the areas where Dark had most pressing need, the most obvious candidate. He began writing an email.

From: Professor L. Dark <[email protected]>
To: Dave Blanchard <[email protected]>
Subject: Attention required
Priority: Urgent

Mr Blanchard,

I am working on a special project which requires the assistance of an individual with skill in the field of neurochemistry. I would like to discuss this with you at your earliest convenience.

Your earliest convenience will be 10pm this evening at my office, level 2, the Fermi building.

I look forward to working with you.

Regards,

Professor Lachlan Dark PhD., MSc., BSc.
Dean of the School of Applied Mechanics
Randolph Institute of Technology

After a few moments opening up various programmes Professor Dark then followed the email up with a call to campus security routed through his Skype. He was not entirely sure what an Alaskan accent sounded like and instead opted for a Bostonian, which he was much more familiar with.

"Hello, yes, my name's Henry Maguire, I'm Davie Blanchard's uncle. I know this is a bother, but I've been trying to call him for a couple of days and I think something's wrong with his phone. I'm going on vacation - on safari actually - and I wanted to speak to him before I went, but I don't think I've got time now. Would you mind asking him to check his email. Actually, what am I thinking, he'll be working in the lab. Would you mind just slipping a note under his door reminding him to check his email. I know it's a bother, but I'm gonna be out of touch for a month and there's some important arrangements I need to make sure he knows about. You will, thank you very much. Yes, it's David Blanchard. No, no message, just need to make sure he checks his email. Thank you very much, sir. Goodbye".

Professor Dark ended the call and went down to the basement.

If Mr Blanchard didn't check his email regularly then surely the note from a non-existent uncle would at least prompt him to do so. And the coincidence of this message next to one from a professor he didn't know would surely spark his curiosity. This, at least, was the idea.

In the basement the only illumination necessary was Dark's own pearly white glow. As he strapped himself into Paragon's black armour the light changed to red, being filtered through the layers of semi-transparent red padding he had placed at the joints. When he moved occasional shards of red light cut out of the armour. He put his head into the helmet and vanished into the Dark Knight just as the sun dipped finally below the horizon.

In a moment Paragon would be sky bourn and heading for his meeting with Terra.

((I do feel I'm time stretching here, but I don't think everyone playing is back up to speed so I figure - have the conversations now so I can get back to long Dark monologues))

[Wiz]

Pulse

The tall hero nods, "Of course I would like to help Chief Brellan." He takes the offered hand and shakes it firmly, "Please tell me what I can do for you."

ooc: of course you can join me Reaper... but be careful... people will say we're in love.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Time moves differently for some people. Did Dark slip something in my tea? I don't even remember leaving his house...or returning to my own. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure how I made it to work this morning. There is a gap following the end of my conversation with Dark until about two hours ago, when Mrs. Smethfield buzzed into my office to remind me about the meeting this afternoon. There is something deeply troubling about this whole situation. Dark...that man is a bigger threat to my power than any of the others. Heroes can be defeated by an intelligent villain, but, when it comes to mindgames with another person just as willing to sacrifice pawn after pawn after rook in order to capture the prize, it becomes difficult to "win" in the conventional sense. We could spend years, fighting a war of attrition between ourselves, leaving the door open for those who would be heroes to swoop in and crush us both with a united front.

I suppose it would be best to play along. This is just like business. Seize your opportunities when you can, but bide your time. Stab him in the back when he is most distracted. If the fool is too stupid to see it coming, he deserves to fall by the wayside...and when I get to that point, and a trusted follower kills me, I'll know I've passed off the reigns to someone who is willing to preserve power by any methods necessary.

The chill of the fall greeted Alex as he left the office in search of lunch. Tightening his coat around himself, he walked down the streets toward what had become nicknamed "the food court;" a hotspot for most of the major corporations to dine at lunch. Often times, it was crowded, but the businesses understood the importance of prompt, efficient service. In truth, those who worked behind the counters at the larger establishments made more than their counterparts in most other parts of town.

Selecting a large burrito and drink from a vendor he had made good friends with, he saunters down the street at a leisurely pace, his walking cane making a soft "tak" sound. Damn, it's bright out here...there MUST have been something in that tea... He digs in his coat pockets and pulls out a pair of sunglasses to shield himself from the now harsh glare of daylight.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

"Heh, I don't know about shock... maybe you're just a little jaded," The gambler smiled... no, grinned. Almost like he'd caught on to a cat-and-mouse game, "Or maybe, I'm not the only person at this table who's had some... crazy revelations this past couple days." The grin shifted to more of a thoughtful smile, and no matter how Judy reacted, she could see in Jack's eyes that, for the first time during the meal, the gambler was sizing her up... taking a read of her, if you will.

Well, I won't be the only one here getting stuff used against them! Feel the awesome fury of... a Sense Motive check! I've already passed on the chance to actually oppose any kind of Bluff attempt, so I'd like to go for the "sense of trustworthiness" flavor of check, if I can... but expending whatever PP is necessary to make my roll a 20, via Probability Manipulation. :smallcool:

[roll0]

Hah, righto, 6 PP then, to make my result a 33. Well Snark, whattaya say? Cave'n confess? Or try to put on your poker face?

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

With the wider space open to him, Nosferatu fought down the urge to spill his insides and carefully continued his search for medical aid.

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

Hadyn grinned at the sight of Inferno and the neo-sapien wearing the white sheet he remembered from the meeting. A series of thin bolts leapt from the teen to the cloud as he prepared to meet them, maybe join in on the race, but then he remembered that he was out of costume. "Ah sh*t, they're heading right for me!" he realized, looking around frantically before taking off ahead of them. He poured on the speed and tried to disappear in the next cloud bank, hoping to race out ahead of them and disappear before they could catch up or see him. Problem was, he wasn't sure how fast they were...

My cruising speed is 80 ft/mph per turn, so when "running" I'm moving at what? 240ft/turn? 320ft/turn? I can't remember if it's x3 or x4.
Hide: [roll0]

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Hmmmm... let's see. youngish... single. Pretty normal. Tasha thought, sifting through the flood of thought, emotion and deep-held subconsciousness that made up the man's mind. What else have you got for me Jack? Gambling... Into blondes. No, wait. Brunettes... Alright, into women in general, it seems. Wow... a dancer? Now that IS interesting.

She pushed past the fairly normal, mundane thoughts and issues, to find the source of the deep-held sense of panic his mind was full of. Everyone was a muddle of thoughts and emotions... half of them conflicting or deeply buried. For a gambler, Jack seemed to play himself fairly open. He didn't really lie about who he was. About almost everything else under the sun at one point or another... but not about himself. Interesting.

The real questions she was looking for came easily enough. The man was a mutate, and well aware of it. Apparently with some form of... pyrokinetic combustion power. He didn't understand much of it... knowing only that it happened on it's own if he didn't keep focused on shutting it down. Jack was understandably a bit frayed over the whole thing... and it had thrown his life upside down.

Tasha evedropped mentally for a bit... not needing to hear a word of their conversation to pick it up as it passed through Jack's mind. She wondered if it was worth trying to get in touch with him. After all... the poor guy was lost and confused and didn't know what to do or what was going on.

It's not worth losing my cover. She told herself with a soft sigh, Draven already knows... and that's still one person too many. But maybe I can help the poor guy out without doing it directly.

Tasha pushed her plate away from her... grimacing at her food as she stood to go. She paid her tab on her credit card, and was halfway to the door before she stopped to consider something.

Maybe I should read the girl too? She mused, He doesn't know her... but... who else would take so much interest in a random guy who's clearly a mutate blowing things up in the street?

Tasha spent a moment torn in indecision as she paid for her food. If the woman WAS a mutate, she could be dangerous. If she wasn't, it was a massive waste of time.

Oh, to hell with it. Let's see what little secrets you've got, Miss Judy.

Attempting a Telepathy on Judy... which should be utterly hilarious whether I succeed or not. Time for a will save!

-------------------------

Tasha reached out to connect with the woman's mind... trying to push aside the din of other voices. She sunk in, as before... but could not seem to shake all the other thoughts around her. A handful were persisitant and ever-present... no matter how hard she focused. And strangely enough... their thoughts were all fairly similar. It was like normal... with two faint echoes of others that she could not connect to. Every thought rung out in triplicate... creating an unusual echo that quickly began to give her a headache.

Ow... seriously. Tasha said, putting a hand to her temples.

I said it is $21.67. The man behind the counter said to her, impatiently.

Ok... um... Name is Judy... I think. Mutate... That might be why the extra thoughts... A thief. Interesting. And something about someone named Alex?

Can I have a napkin and a pen? She asked the clerk, her head aching from trying to listen in despite the odd interference.

Here. Now, 21.67. The impatient man told her, passing her a pen.

Tasha scrawled a few numbers down on her hand, beside the ones she plucked from Jack... but the headache only got worse. It was like the migranes she had as a child... only in surround sound.

4201... ok. And Alexander... Carth... something... 521... Ugh, this is hard. She muttered, unintentionally out loud.

21.67. Is not hard. Give me 22. I make change.

Shut up a minute. This is hard to hear. She muttered to him backhandedly before suddenly realizing what she'd said. Crap, I mean... I've got it. Hold on.

22 dollars... Alexander Artham... no Cartham... 850-5022. No. That's a ten. 850-1022? Crap! Too many things at once. Her mind raced as she dug through her purse.

Here. Keep the change! She muttered, giving the man thirty dollars, Cartham... 4071! Ok, got it!

Crap! I said that last part out loud. Her mind raced. If she heard me, I'm toast!

Tasha cut the link, letting the sweet, sweet silence wash over her. Well... just the normal sounds of the city... but somehow that was more manageable. She hurriedly excused herself from the place... hoping the woman had not heard her.

[harmonictempest]

((Here we go. Dang if posts don't always seem shorter in my head. Oh, and whew, right on time. :smallcool:))


The Reaper

Like Pulse, as you walk into the police department, you turn a few heads, but otherwise receive a studied lack of attention – they’re getting used to mutants here, and actually murderers don’t faze them nearly as much here as elsewhere (you know, being the police department and all). After you realize that no one has gold question marks over their heads, you’re about to ask a receptionist for assistance when a stoutly muscular middle-aged officer walks by with a acne-afflicted teenager in tow. He nearly passes you before he turns, sizing you up as he runs a hand through his salt-and pepper hair. You’re the Reaper. This is not a question; he might as well have said Interesting... A moment later he makes up his mind, and you get the impression he doesn’t often take long to make decisions. You also realize that he is almost totally unafraid of you, which is almost *completely* unprecedented. A’right, if you came looking to make yourself useful, follow me. Might have something that suits your talents. He turns and, kid still in tow, heads back to his office. As you follow, you realize that every pen pusher in sight has put their computer to sleep, and is watching the kid (the one with the chief) nervously.
((If you follow, please consider yourself in Pulse’s update. :smallbiggrin: ))


Jack/Judith and Tasha

I’ve been imagining this scene for some reason as: Jack facing the general direction of the door, Judith facing him, Tasha also facing the direction of the door, but one or two booths closer to it. Any case, depending on how far away the register is, you can probably notice the girl clutching her head and saying weird stuff over there, especially if she suddenly says the name of your employer. Let’s see, she’s a few dozen feet away in a restaurant: let’s say DC 10 Spot check to notice her, DC 20 Listen to make out what she’s saying. Listen DC drops to 15 if you Spot her. Have fun.


Dark aka Paragon

((Hmm, you are a few hours ahead, but conversation takes a while. Also, forgot to say before, but you got answering machine when you called Terra.))
Paragon, that effortless juggernaught of bristling steel, rose into the evening air, the glow from his armor matching that last glints of the evening sun. Precisely at 8pm, he landed behind the large Tropicana billboard, and strode majestically a few yards into the forest. Almost immediately, the stately Amazonian statue he remembered rose up through the ground exactly at his feet, nearly nose-to-nose with him. Way to be on time, hotshot. You ever answer your phone? I called twice, all of five minutes after you left your message. I wanted to tell you to come at 7:30. But then, I figured you’d keep me waiting. So, let’s hope you’ve got a good reason to bring me out here. She folds her arms, clearly waiting to be impressed and not expecting to be.


Pulse (and Reaper eventually)

The chief grins as you proffer your hand, and takes it in a hearty grip. Glad we got a hold of you – dunno what piker instituted the registration system without putting any contact info on there, but we have little to no way of getting in touch with the folks who have registered so far. We’re gonna remedy that starting tomorrow, but in the meantime, we’re getting old fashioned – got lucky enough to flag you down. As far as what sort of help we could use…well, we’ve got our hands full here dealing with any number of things caused by your kind. Clearly, you’re an honest and aboveboard sort of guy, but given the area of town in which the explosion happened, the numbers aren’t favoring us as far bad guys go. We’re working overtime just putting out brush fires, Johnny Mutant tryin’ out his new fireball on his old workplace, that kind of thing. I know we’ve got a couple time bombs ticking on the back burner, and considering that they’re mutant-related, I think your skill set might be just the ticket. Hang on a sec while I go get Exhibit A.

He tromps off rather abruptly, leaving you alone with your thoughts for about two minutes in his *very* cluttered office. A closer look shows that the snowstorm of paperwork seems to be covering a very strictly ordered desk somewhere under there – clearly, the chief has been getting dumped on pretty consistently for the last three days, but he doesn’t seem in the least fazed by it.

He returns presently, dragging someone behind him. The kid is a normal-looking teenager, at least, more normal than a lot of things you’ve seen in the last few days. Black hair, spindly and a little pudgy in the gut at the same time, and that shade of pale you can only get by avoiding the sun really consistently. He’s missing the glasses, braces and acne, but you can complete the picture in your head easily enough anyway. ((The Reaper may follow them in.)) The chief sets up chairs for whomever doesn’t have one, quickly moving the papers covering the chairs to a new and equally unstable pile. He quickly catches the Reaper up on what he’s told Pulse so far (if necessary), then begins.

You guys are likely aware of this, but the police have been working on the gang problem here in Rainport for over a decade, with only middlin’ success. We’d settled into a pretty stable situation, where we knew about how many mugging and drug runs to expect every week, and they knew about how many busts to expect a month. We weren’t making much progress, but we were keeping the numbers down. Helps that they mostly go after each other, too. Then the explosion happened. Considerin’ it was in the southwest part of the city, where the gang warfare is heavier than elsewhere, we figure each gang has at least a few ‘supers’ now, y’know? Now, we ran name checks on the ones in the hospital, and we’ve got two of them already. If they weren’t in such bad shape, they’d be in custody, too, ‘cause they got good long records. Now, here’s the bad part. Since the explosion, we’ve seen almost no gang activity, aside from the looting and mugging free-for-all that first day that everyone was getting in on. Now, they may be keepin’ their heads down ‘till they figure out what superheroes are gonna come after them, but what’s more likely is that they’re figuring out what their mutants can do and planning. And that’s not good. We’ve got enough officer injuries just dealin’ with the occasional rogue, but a mutant attacking with the resources of a gang behind him? Now that’s bad news.

So, if you’re up for it, we need info. We need to know what they got, and who they got, and what they’re planning. I can give you some of the information we know, but until someone thinks to put in a fast track for mutants who want to be licensed members of the police force, there’s some things I’m not allowed to share. That’s why this guy’s gonna help you out. He turns to the kid. We’ve got his real name and all, but for anonymity’s sake let’s go with what he does: One…Three…uh... The kid cuts him off. Dude, it’s 1337 (pronouncing it “leet”, naturally). Geez, what a dweeb. It’s simple, guys. You need intel; I can do intel. The chief chimes in. He may not look like much, but he downloaded half the DoJ database in his head somehow before we knocked him out. Considering the severity with which we could be prosecuting him, he’s been cooperating nicely since. We just keep him a good bit away from any operating terminals, and that seems to cure most of his problems. Anyway, he might be able to help you ferret out a few things. Looking through the registrations we have, *your* way with electronics and gadgets and *your* stealth skills seemed like they’d be useful, too. That sound like the kind of work you folks might be interested in? What questions you got?

He will offer you the following information regarding the gangs, though you can of course ask further questions:

For the past few years, there has been a gang war raging in the streets to the south of Rainport. The war is between 3 main gangs, whose colors are blue, black and white. The gangs call themselves: The Suits (blue), The Neo-Mafia (black) and the Lost Angels (white). Each gang has somewhere between a couple dozen and a couple hundred members – finding specific numbers is hard, both for obvious reasons and because loyalty to and involvement in each gang varies.

Gnarly Coyote – A popular hangout of the Suits. It is also a very popular night club, which also happens to be known to traffic heroin and cocaine. The police raid the place about once a month, but they’ve never really been too successful.

Neo-Mafia – Their primary business is in arms dealing, and while the police have a general idea the section of the city they’re most active in (an area about a half-dozen blocks in size), they haven’t been able to track down much else about their specific business dealings – they mostly run into them when a deal goes bad and there’s a shooting.

The Lost Angels are known to make most of their money off of an illegal casino operation. Though the police haven’t “squeezed” anyone yet willing to divulge its location(s), they do know that it’s run pretty legit, as such things go. This puts the Lost Angels as the least of three evils, as far as they’re concerned. The best clue on the casino they have is that it’s somewhere in the docks area.

((Pulse – you can sense this guy in the same way as you can sense your computer at home. It’s as if he’s actually a computer terminal; however, the “login” page you sense says only “If you can read this, then you’re just barely cool enough to know how much more badass I am than you. Loser.”))


Alex

As you saunter on, munching your burrito, your thoughts are suddenly interrupted. Oy! Catham! C’mere for a sec. You recognize the paunchy bald fellow sporting the opulent scarlet power tie as Marcus Salter, board member and executive VP of AlacraStore, one of Forthwind’s smaller local competitors. As usual, he is holding court at a table of lackeys and junior businessmen, lecturing between mouthfuls on The Sorts of Things Every Businessman Should Know. Always with an eye out for potential talent, Marcus was never averse to giving it a boost on its way up. The sort of man with ambition, but not *too* much (something Alex naturally considered impossible), he was happy with the position he had obtained some twenty years ago, and from that comfortable seat entertained himself handing out wisdom to each year’s fresh blood.
[optional text=”only if OSG7 wants to keep it”] Alex had warmed a seat at that table for a year or two near the beginning of his career. He had never worked under Marcus or even in the same company, but few who came to lunch with Marcus had. Marcus had taken a particular fondness to Alex, especially after his career began to succeed so excellently, and regarded him as a teacher might regard a prize student of yesteryear. Truth be told, Alex had realized the value of nurturing young talent from Marcus, whose network of contacts in the city was quite impressive.[/optionaltext]
Right, glad you showed up, Catham. You numbskulls are about to hear some real business sense, so listen up and try to get it through your thick heads, Marcus chided jovially. I’m tryin’ to teach ‘em how to take advantage of the word on the street – business intel, as we say, he chuckled. How ‘bout you field this one? If I’m a proper businessman, and I happen to have a friend on the board of Forthwind who heard during coffee breaks at a hush-hush meeting that the mayor is formin’ up a committee to hash out the legal implications and necessary steps of having mutants as a working part of society, how do I take advantage of that? What if I know it’ll be headed by the Director of Public Works, Andrew Sellars? How does the smart businessman react to them kinda clouds on the horizon? He looks at you with a grin that says "Go to town, buddy."


Nosferatu/Oblivion (and Ace, in the wings)

There is a nurse station down the hall straight ahead, across from the bathroom. You can see the nurse on duty, and while she’s dealing with a green-skinned, gangly fellow in a wheelchair, she doesn’t seem terribly busy, if you need something. The bathrooms are also in sight, and Room 255 (and Jason) is somewhere nearby. Go crazy.


Kid Zeus

You dart frantically into the next cloudbank, peering over your shoulder to see if you’re being noticed or followed. The duo behind you are both going nearly as fast as you; though Gust is clearly the faster of the pair, both are pretty speedy fliers compared to most you’ve seen. They take a curving path that stays in sight of you for a moment, then disappear through another set of clouds a hundred yards away. You hear Inferno’s still-loud interjections continue into the distance as you turn and fly further in the opposite direction, growing more confident that you’ve lost them.

About a minute later, something in the background noise behind you makes you turn around, and you spot Gust about 40 feet away, with Inferno not in sight. Seeing how well his white robe blends into the clouds, you realize he could’ve been right next to you, and if it weren’t for the breeze always whispering around him, you never would have noticed his approach.
Startled by your whirling around and hiding it badly, it’s clear that Gust would have preferred to get much closer before making his presence known. Flustered, he raises his hands in a “hang on” gesture, then brushes the damp hair back from his face. Hold— hold on, don’t be scared. I just wanna help.
((Sorry, you could’ve gotten away from most supers, but I rolled Gust as your random encounter. You’re about 50 feet apart, both in a cloudbank, but with clear sky between you – aka you can see each other, but not easily be seen from the ground.))

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "I've been thinking about gang activity Chief... and not sure how to crack it, but together we might do something." He nods to the dark figure, "Reaper... good to see you again." Strangely, he sounds like he means it. He looks at 1337...

What he projects on computer frequencies is:

Okay, young man, this is just to let you know that even though I don't posess a fraction of your finesse with computers, neither am I headblind to what you can do. We are going to work together, and we're going to support the fine men and women of the police force who go to work on our behalf every day without an ounce of super powers to back them up. I don't know what the full situation is with you, but if you deal straight with me, I'll deal straight with you, sound reasonable?

What he says aloud is:

"So, partners on this project?"

[dfpiii]

Paragon

The absolute control of the mind over the body: the tyrany of thought, gave Paragon a mechanical stillness. Not a twitch, not a breath out of time and the metronome in his chest beat a constant, untroubled rhythm.

Paragon, by contrast to Professor Dark, was not big on small talk. "Two nights hence the inmates of the Bayview Correctional Facility medium security prison will be released into the streets of Rainport after being given high doses of a consciousness altering substance making them violently insane".

"All law enforcement, all military personell and all the city's new heroes will be occupied chasing down hundreds of lunatics before they tear the city apart".

"The heroes will succeed. But the prison is in the city's docklands and dealing with this localised problem before it becomes a national emergency leaves the rest of the city undefended. In a night we will take enough from the city to purchase wild imagination".

The armoured man, appearing no different than when speaking, left a pause.

"Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?"

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Alex smirks some. What's his game here? Why should I give away my secrets?

"Theoretically, it would require verification. There needs to b a level of certainty and validity to the statement before moving on it. A rumor is a poor way to invest. Look at the various stock market fluctuations and businesses that have gone under in the last several years. Poor management, bad speculation, and other tactics have ruined many of the long standing corporations throughout the ages.

"It would be difficult to verify this rumor until it was almost too late. Good luck getting in on the ground floor of whatever is being planned."

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

Oh, wonderful...he wants to help. Hadyn thought as he banked into the nearest thick cloudbank and quickly pulled his shirt over his head. Using what he remembered from a YouTube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ifK9lqNPVA) on how to make a ninja mask out of a t-shirt, he fashioned a makeshift identity-obfuscating device so that he could hold a conversation without giving it away. "It's alright, Gust. It's me, Kid Zeus, from the meeting. I'm just not in costume and I kind of spazzed out back there." he explained, letting his power come to the fore in a quick sizzling that set the clouds into a brief light show. "Uh...it's okay, now. Well, sort of." Hadyn couldn't help but chuckle at his own predicament. "Wow, it's suddenly really cold and wet up here." he realized aloud as he hovered closer. "Where'd Inferno go?"

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper follows the police chief into his office. He nods at Pulse and answers his greeting, "And you as well." He then turns to the chief. "I would be glad to help your investigation. Before the explosion, I worked as an assassin, and I had a standing deal with the Neo-Mafia to sell them whatever weapons I found on my competitors, should they cross my path. Depending on how public the knowledge of my reform is, I might be able to infiltrate their ranks. Should that prove impossible, stealth and surveillance would be simple enough. I suppose what I'm asking is, how common is the knowledge that I am working with the government and police department?"

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Relief flooded through Nosferatu as he found the nurse. Thankfully he did not need to speak much, the nurse had seen odder things and the strange angel of the arm was a clear indication of why he was here. Within minutes, the nurse and an assistant positioned the arm and popped it back into place, and within seconds after that, his tissues had knitted themselves back into place. With a grateful thank you, Nosferatu returned to Oblivion. With his body back to 'normal' his head quickly cleared.

"My apologies for earlier. I believe that impact earlier must have jarred me a bit more than I thought. I think I'm okay now...
So, who is it we need to visit? You mentioned wanting to discuss improvements to the meeting, but I can leave that for now if you want to visit this person with privacy. "

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

What is this really? Floating in a dark sea of revery, his past, present, and future, both hoped for and secretly feared, the waters upon which his mind drifted.
Faces forming in the undulating waves, the taste of sweat, the taste of blood.
Did I kill those men? How long have I been here and where is "here" anyway?
Emotions lapped at his mind, familiar and alien, permeating his conscious, swells great and small. Affection warm for a raven haired stranger, longing for one long dead and lost, gentle but penetrating.
Pain, rage, sorrow, smashing, thrashing him under suddenly turbulent waters, submerged and swelling to surface, unknowable and reasonless in origin, no less savage in their assault.

I will not go under.

The waters stilled, the roiling darkeness above subsided. But the questions, the unshakable doubts, lingered on.

Polished obsidian stare slowly became somehow more defined as Nos' statement brought Oblivion's present situation back into focus.

Not a bead of sweat on his marble hard cool flesh. Strange...

Leaning on the wall of the small sitting room adjacent to the elevator.

Is this even real?

"Natalia" he hissed between clenched teeth, failing to choke it off before his subconscious could be subdued by his conscious mind.

Shaking his head slowly, he looked away from the young neo-sapien before him, his eyes and senses tracing the almost indistinguishable pattern and texture of the hospital carpet.

Yes, yes, the elevator. He'd never imagined a vampire nearly getting sick.

"Are you quite alright? Was that episode brought on by vertigo, or something else? Never mind, I don't want to pry. Privacy?...No, I don't think that will be necessary", he said in an almost distracted way, glancing at the abomination-teen, smirking wryly at the irony of the thought.

"I apologize, it just seemed like forever for those elevator doors to...de ja vu doesn't quite cover it, but it's close.
Please my friend, your curiosity may well be a boon in executing my visits objectives."

Smiling ruefully and pushing off of the wall into a casual walk towards the nurses station, he added "nothing too confrontational...or so I expect. Something I imagine that your presence may also ensure as well.
To be more direct, I am here to pay a visit to a percoscious young man. All that I ask is that you remain openminded and uninvolved if possible. He has a tendency to push one's buttons."

With that he halted smoothly infront of the nurse at a more than respectful distance and said "Pardon me. I am here to visit a young man who arrived here yesterday," following his statement with a brief description of the boy.

Irritation flaring briefly, his skin involuntarily undulating, as he realized that he should have checked the kid's wallet for id, then remembering Ace's interference, followed by the immediate regret that he had not changed out of costume before making his appearance.
Of course, Nosferatu...no matter, he would make due.

"I can understand that this is fairly unusual, but as he seemed rather troubled when last I encountered him, I thought it best if I paid him a visit." he spoke calmly, but failed to fully supress the alien ripple effect within his voice, his hands crossed calmly infront of him as he awaited the young womans response.

Keeping tabs on the "green-man" and his erswhile companion with his other senses at the same time, he found it mildly suprising that doing so, for once, felt completely natural.

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu waited patiently for a response. Maybe the new found speed distorted his senses, but it seemed like everyone was having a quick monologue between sentences.
Natalia…? Yeah, this guy was monologing.
Or maybe just deep thought. He had that look about him that reminded Robert of his granddad in the hospital after his grandmother died. It was as if the ghost walked the halls sometimes.

Finally Oblivion answered the question.

“You expect nothing too confrontational, in part because I’m here. Heh, sounds like one of you beat the piss out of the other, and only a neutral party will stop you two going for each others throats. And he’s the one in the hospital…

Not saying it’s like that of course, just that it sounds like it.

I take it your visitee is another mutate?”

[harmonictempest]

((Fun fact - it's surprisingly hard to remember your NPCs' text colors.))

Pulse

1337 is fully blocked off from you, like a blank screen with a message written on it. However, he senses what you’re trying to do and, with a quizzical eyebrow raised, opens up a text box into which you type your message. When you’re finished he nods, answering verbally. Sure, why not.

The Reaper/Pulse

The chief shakes his head at The Reaper’s suggestion. Your reform was made rather public by the local news, so they’ll probably all know already. Ya might be able to make the case that you only did it to save your skin, but it’ll depend on how good yer poker face is. Any case, I got a lotta other stuff to tend to, so unless you’ve got any more questions, I’m off. I’d like to hear back from ya by tomorrow evening at the latest if you find anything, sooner if possible. No telling how fast they’ll recover and start wreaking havoc, but it can’t be long.

He answers any lingering questions you may have, then excuses himself, leaving you three in the office. Feel free to make plans, head out, or whatever.


Paragon/Terra

The statue looks at you without expression, though she withdraws slightly and sinks back into the ground a few inches until she’s level with you. After a moment, she speaks with a sort of shocked calm. That’s…that’s heavy. You can do all that? I…and you want my help? Geez, that’s…I mean, that’s illegal, right? She pauses for a second, then continues without looking at you. Look, I’m just a grade school teacher, okay? I mean…I was. I thought this was so cool at first, I was always so shrimpy and I thought man, people will pay attention to me now! …but they just fired me, and I don’t know what to do now. You know, robbing a bank or museum or something like that would be really cool, but I don’t know about those prison break shenanigans. I’ve never even hit someone before that fight with Titan. I…I… I thought I’d be a hero, not a villain. She hesitates, clearly torn and full of frustration at her circumstances.


Alex

Marcus chuckles, turning back to the table. An excellent response, Alex – not that I expected anything less. Now, you all had good instincts when I posed this question to you: consulting firms gear up for legal contracts, contracting companies begin anticipating product changes that will accommodate mutants, brokers take the public pulse to guess market influences caused by public feeling toward mutants, lobbyists scramble to figure out where politicians stand on mutants. But Alex has the important part – this information is only useful to you if you know how good it is, and you know who else knows it. That always holds; while there are times that cooperation may be best, in almost all cases it’s best to keep your cards close to your chest. And that—he checks his watch—should be enough for today. I’ll see you all again on Friday.

As the gathering begins to disperse, he catches hold of your arm. Catham, mind if I walk with you a piece? Wanted to discuss our round of golf last Saturday – I may have found us a fourth for next week. Now, you and Salter have never played golf before, but you did discuss some rather interesting business developments over a drink on Saturday, so you immediately guess his veiled intent to talk shop. As you stroll down the street back toward your office, he speaks in a confiding tone, his words easily covered by the bustle of the city.
Good kids – one or two of ‘em show promise, too. Now, what I told ‘em was true, but I don’t expect any of them to realize it before it hits the news in a day or two, and I only told half the truth anyway. I’ve got a good drinking buddy on the board of Balchem (not Forthwind, heh), who assures me that the committee is in fact real. They’re not letting Sellars run it, though – they haven’t actually decided on the chairman yet. But that’s where the movin’ and shakin’s gonna happen; they’re gonna have reps on that committee from the NSA and FBI and I don’t even know where all else. If you’ve got any weight to throw around to get yourself or one of your associates on that committee, I’d do it in a heartbeat. I’ve got a contact or two I can put you in touch with if you don’t have any good ones in the top floors of City Hall.


Kid Zeus/Gust

A dry chuckle comes from the next cloudbank. The big goof was too busy to notice much—I told him I had other stuff to attend to once I noticed you, and he sailed right off toward the center of town. Look, I’ve got no interest in holding this over your head or anything. I’m sure it’s embarrassing enough; I actually came by to see if you wanted me to make some kinda distraction or…something. I’d guess you’re supposed to be down at that school right around now, and that a guy sailing down from a cloud is usually pretty noticeable, but I think I can make a tornado or something over that way a bit if you’d like. Should give you a second to make a graceful exit, I think.


Nosferatu/Oblivion

The cheery nurse jumps up with concern as you approach the station, but quickly grasps the problem (literally) and pops your arm back into place with a some effort. The gangly green guy in the wheelchair looks on apologetically. I’d offer to lend a hand, but I haven’t figured out how to stop bouncing when I stand up yet, and I think I’ve busted enough ceilings for today.

((You’re cleared for takeoff – if you head into 255, you will in fact find Ace there, talking to Jason))


Jack/Judith/Tasha

As if this conversation wasn’t already confusing enough, Judith suddenly hears her employer’s name distinctly spoken from the register near the door, and turns in time to see the thin, black-clad girl stop clutching her head and run clumsily out into the street.


Ace

((Jason has responded to you, just so you know – I don’t know if you’re waiting for Nos/Oblivion or just haven’t had time to post recently :smallsmile: ))

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

"Since your ear is closer to the ground on this matter, what would you say the chances are that they are looking for an outsider? Someone who knows business, but is not connected to the government, Balchem, Forthwind, or any other group that stands to gain." Alex sighs some. "Your words intrigue me, but I have done my best to stay away from the political end of things. None of the groups over the last several years have appealed to me much...but my political views are a completely separate issue from where we are now. If you've got some people in City Hall and can pass my name...as well as my clout...around, I think we can work out some sort of arrangement.

"Since we're talking in confidence, I'd like to mention something that I want you to keep under your hat, so to speak. I'm growing tired of working for others. I'm organizing some of my people into an investment group. There are some companies out there that I figure we could grab up their stock, create our own board of directors, etc. etc. etc. You know, hostile takeovers without the hostility." Alex muses some, visions of grandeur dancing in his head. "I could use a man like you. Your wisdom from the years is still viable and a more cautious voice is always good to have when working with large sums of money."

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks at his other two companions in this venture. "All right... Reaper. You have your shadow abilities, do you want to try to get some preliminary intelligence on one or more of the gangs? I suppose the most important things we need to know are what are their immediate plans and what mutates they might have with what powers." He looks at 1337, "I guess we need to gather whatever intel you might have on the gangs. Finances, memberships, and such. If you think there might be any way to do it it would be good to confirm any gang members who might have been at the docks on the date in question, or eliminate any who definitely could not have been."

[The_Snark]

Judy

Jack's mannerisms became less flustered, and as if he'd channeled his nervousness into Judy, she started to fidget a little. He had an odd look in his eye... Got to stop walking up to so many of these people. He's suspicious.

"Hasn't everyone?" she said, laughing a bit. Not her best effort, but it'd do. The knowing look in Jack's eye did not go away, though; she was sure she wasn't just imagining it now. Damn, does he actually know for certain? Seems like half of them can tell just by looking.

She avoided meeting his eyes for a moment, and an awkward pause descended on the conversation for a few seconds, as she tried to think of what to say. She didn't know whether she was being paranoid, whether she was already outed, or if she'd made him suspicious already just by acting odd. Her first instinct was to play innocent, and she wasn't inclined to go against it—she just didn't know how, and something was niggling at her—

Alex? What? Someone had just mentioned him. Judy half-turned, just in time to see a girl leave the store, hand raised to her head. "Weird," she muttered. Who was she talking to? The cashier was staring after her oddly, too.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

Jack's thoughtful smile returned to it's friendly self. He'd been right... and he definitely couldn't blame her.

"Hey, that's alright. All in all, it's just like you said. "I wouldn't believe it myself if I didn't live here"," Jack watched Judy casually as she suddenly glanced aside, over at the cash register. Jack's gaze followed, but didn't stop at the counter. Instead, Jack scanned the room, before returning his eyes to the table, and signaling a waiter over for the check.

"Hey, Judy... you're staring."

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Crap! She looked! Tasha thought to herself as she rushed outside, Stupid, stupid, stupid! Ok, is she following me? It doesn't look like. Thank god!

Tasha hustled down the street towards her car... trying very hard not to look back. She had no idea how she'd explain herself if she got asked anything. If she claimed she was a relative of his, that might come back to haunt her. She doubted she looked the part of someone who might WORK for the man... he was apparently big-time money. Reaching her car, she fumbled with her keys before hitting the button that unlocked her door. Sinking into her car seat with an audible sigh of relief... No more sneaky work for a few hours. That was a little too close for her comfort.

Unless something comes up, or Judy or Jack hunts her down... she's getting the heck out of dodge. Just giving everyone ONE more chance to catch her. After all, it's hard to move fast in clunky black boots.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Raising his hand momentarily toward's Nosferatu with a brief warning glance as they moved towards the nurse and listening attentively to both her and the green man.
Smiling faintly despite himself under his self created half-mask at the revelation of the oddly colored man's powers.

I wonder why sitting in the chair prevents the power. Is it the chair, or the sitting position? Considering that the building is still in one piece, makes one wonder what happened to the serious risks...

As the young nurse, after only a brief pause, checked the patient log and directed him towards 255 with a subtle warning that she would making her rounds shortly.

Offering a small bow of thanks and moving off towards the door, he spoke quickly and quietly to his newfound friend, "The boy is an upstart and little more, and yes, to answer your question, he is. I would advise that you avoid physical contact.

You misunderstand my words. My hope is that your presence will deter him primarily from lying and as a fellow perceptive soul who may fairly arbitrate our encounter, if the need arise.

The faint possibility of collateral damage is last in my list of concerns, as he is not a formidable opponent, not destructive in his nature.
Of course, if you'd prefer to sit this one out, it is entirely up to you." he concluded with a rueful hidden smile and a raised eyebrow that all but said 'you and I both know there's know way you'll be able to pass this up'.

After pausing a moment for Nos' response, Oblivion turned towards the door, and pushed it open slowly.

Now we see just how much my young 'friend' learned from his first lesson

[kpenguin]

Ace

"Listen, kid. Don't count out your family just yet. Don't make the mista-"


Ryan turns as the door opens to reveal Oblivion.

Well, damn. This just what we don't need.

[dfpiii]

Paragon

"Would you turn aside so easily from everything you have ever wanted? Then you deserve nothing. Power, wealth, the baubles and trappings, the trinkets and the secular beatifications. These are meant only for those with the courage to take them. But I have so much more to offer you than these things".

The steel gauntlets, barbed with sharpened blades, rose to the edges of the hood and of the blank mask of Paragon's true face. With patient care the hood was swept away and with both hands the helmet lifted.

Radience shone forth, for a second blinding, and the dark knight bestowed a gentle and beneficient smile. One deadly hand cupped her stoney cheek with the tenderness of a father.

"The work we do together will save the world," he said and the words on his lips were the perfect conviction of a saint. His voice was a steady, almost hypnotic meter; soft and deep with a resonance like whale song, something felt as much as heard.

"We are at the beginning and at the end. This world we live in now is perishing - all the industries of man conspire to his destruction. All his frail gods are dead and their truths are ashen lies fit to choke. Hatred, fear and ignorance will cover the land until all that remains is darkness".

"But there is hope. A trial lies before the heroes of this city, those who have been gifted, you and I included. Through our actions something can arise from this age of the world. A limitless future. You will not be scorned by lesser creatures, you will be worshipped by them. We must prepare the crucible that will allow the forging of a great destiny from these broken shards - it is the most necessary and the most dreadful of tasks".

"They will call you villain, they will call me worse. I will break the police, I will break the army, I will break the government - because they are obstructions to a better future. I will be drowned deep in the blood of innocents long before my work is done and I flinch from none of these duties. Because without me the world will be altogether extinguished and the light of hope will vanish entire".

"I ask nothing of you that I would not ask of a child - to do that which is right and to trust".

And then he said nothing.

His angelic face showed only love, even as the unfathomable mind behind it held in place the deadly thought. Without word or sign he could release through his gentle touch the power to blast a fist-sized hole in the stoney amazon's face. Dark had revealed his hand - but Paragon could not permit an enemy to live with this knowledge.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Personal Journal Entry, October 31, 2014

Times have changed so rapidly in the last fifteen days. So many things have happened that it has become difficult to catalog. All I can tell is that those who have these abilities seem to be inclined to either keep their abilities hidden as I have or they tend to heroic actions. It's a funny thing. Many people have thought it and I will also echo their sentiment: these people could have been heroes before this accident. Do they feel that because they are "special" now that their power grants them the right to act above the law? I don't care how others see it, they are no better than vigilantes or even criminals themselves. I will see them expunged...wiped clean from the face of the earth. Yes, this means that I may have to, at some point, give up my own powers. That is fine; after all, I feel these new abilities carry less weight than power over many. I will happily, in a public ceremony, give them up if I can prove an antigen...especially if we can reproduce the reaction and it can give me back what I lose.

Make it mandatory. These heroes must hang up their capes and subject themselves to the antigen or be branded as criminals. Those who wish to continue to serve will be offered money to gain the skills needed to serve in legal ways, of course. I'm not completely heartless.

[harmonictempest]

Alex

((Making your Diplomacy roll…success.))
Marcus scratches his eyebrow and considers your dual request. Well, I sure wouldn’t of told you if there were nothing you could do about it. They’re likely to want a range of advisors on the team, make their analysis comprehensive so they don’t miss anything. You know the government’s approach: throw enough money and people at it and it’s sure to get fixed. It’s not subtle, but it should give you an in. As far as recommending you, that’s a bit tricky, as no one’s supposed to know about it. However, I’m sure you’re already at least on their list, and an enthusiastic word about what a business wizard you are might help you come to mind when they get around to making the call. Can’t make any guarantees, but I’ll be able let you know tomorrow how it went.

As for your investing company – well, I haven’t felt the need for much more than what I’ve already got with AlacraStore. However…you make an intriguing proposition, and everyone’s thinkin’ a bit different with the way things have changed in the past few days. So why not? I’d be happy to lend a hand where I can, and you can be sure I’ll keep it under my hat, if only so that the ((AlacraStore)) board doesn’t find out. I assume you’ve already started planning out where your capital’s coming from, method of incorporation, that sort of thing?

(If you don’t have further questions or attempt to extend the conversation, he will politely excuse himself, as your walk has brought you back to your office building.)


Pulse/Reaper/1337

1337 nods, drawing a sheet of paper and a pen off the desk and twirling the pen idly while he talks. A’ight, let’s be organized about this. Reaper can probly get ‘bout anywhere, but until we know where to look, that might not be useful yet. BUT you have contacts with the Neo-Mafia that might still be usable. Pulse…if you built that thing ((pointing to your glider)), what else can you craft? Could you make us bugs to deploy? There’s a lot we can hack, but we gotta know where to begin. Intel gathering’s like a stone in a lake – if you start in the right place, the ripples just keep going and going until they cover the whole thing. What do you guys know so far? Any names or places would be fine, even pseudonyms. If I can get a name, I can run a broadening sequence of interlocking searches, find what cred numbers and other names it touches, where, when, and for what the cred’s used for, what address the cred is billed to and who lives there…see? Each set of ripples gets wider. Now, the police know this, too, but they have to be a tidge more legal with their searches, plus these gangs are too much to keep all their info online. Still, might give us some stuff to follow up, track down. So, thoughts? His eyes glitter with all the enthusiasm of any nerd diving into this month’s Hot New Game.


Judith/Jack/Tasha

The cashier stares after the departing girl for a moment before shrugging and sorting the cash into appropriate drawers. After a moment, the patrons turn back to their own tables, satisfied that the drama is over.

A few mutters of “lunatic”, at varying levels of audibility, follow Tasha out the door as she departs, but though a few of the glances she spies are less than friendly, it’s the middle of downtown in broad daylight, so she has little to fear.

As she sits in her car for a moment, attempting to catch her breath, a meteor hits the middle of the street. A moment later, that shocked impression quickly resolves into Inferno. The slapdash mutant makes a sloppy landing in the middle of the street, skidding a few yards like an out-of-control figure skater, and leaving the mother of all tire marks in the pavement. (Traffic is very light on the street at the moment, so this landing, although messy, is rather obviously without much danger to anyone). Apparently pleased with himself, he catches his balance and looks around. A moment’s effort sees the flames die down to about an inch high, as opposed to, well, an inferno, and he strides toward the hot dog vendor he has spotted. It’s difficult to make out his face, but the conversation seems to be going nowhere quickly.

Your choice of Spot, Listen, or Sense Motive (choose one) will reveal the following:DC 10: *Everyone* within sight is paying attention. Their reactions seem split between interested and fearful, with interested holding the clear lead, since he doesn’t seem that threatening.
DC 15: Just a few people display unreasonable annoyance, the shadow of which was displayed toward Tasha when she began to act strangely at the register. “Ugh, do they *have* to come out in public?”, and that sort of thing. A rather larger percentage think this is about the coolest thing ever, and would be the type asking for autographs in another situation.
DC 20: Inferno has tried to request a hot dog, beginning to apologize that he can’t pay at the moment, until he figures out how to carry a wallet again. The vendor, though frightened, is laboriously explaining that he can’t just give hot dogs away, even to superheroes.
DCs reduced by 3 for any significant action to get closer/see better, like rolling down a window or walking out of the restaurant.


Oblivion/Nos/Ace/Jason

Catching Oblivion’s glance, the man amends his words. Well, it’s not so much the standing, but my new feet seem to prefer bouncing to walking, and after my first three attempts at walking to the bathroom all got my head stuck through the drop tile, I gave up. Can’t imagine what’ll happen if I tried it outside.

Just before they enter the nondescript hospital room, they hear a loud gasp and a yell from within. As they walk in, Jason’s eyes are already locked on Oblivion, and he shouts You…beast! What’re you doing here, trying to kill me again like you did last time? Spotting Nos, he quickly adds the rather obvious appeal, This guy tried to kill me, and all I was doing was trying to leave the hospital!

((Remind me what form/appearance you’re in at the moment, TOA?))


Paragon/Dark/Terra

Her previously doubtful eyes glow with inspiration as you finish your speech. Tell me what to do.
((Yep, Dark leads people around with a leash made of words. :D))

[kpenguin]

Ryan Tran/Ace

Ryan quickly puts a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Jason! Calm down! He's not going to hurt you..."

He turns his head to lock eyes with Oblivion in a cold stare.

"Right?"

The highstrung emotions he had last night were gone, replaced by a concern for the kid's well-being.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

"I've got some firm ideas, but I do not have a written business plan as of yet. It has been a busy couple of days and I'm still working on gathering my resources." Alex smiles...his winning, charismatic "trust me" smile. "You wouldn't have brought this to my attention without good reason. I offer this to you as much as in the spirit of being allied as repayment for the information.

"But the lunch hour is over and it is time for me to get back to the grind. I've got some meetings later this week to finish prepping for." He smiles again, slapping the older man on the back. "It's been good talking to you."

The rest of the afternoon passes uneventfully. Papers to go over, inventory lists to pass on to his middle management, memos from the folks upstairs. Incredibly dull, but it was the cogs that made business run...and he loved every second of it. If you changed just one thing, here or there, you could conceivably change the entire face of the company.

Odd windfall, don't you think? You are looking for a way to get your foot in the door and one just falls into your lap. Who...or what...is responsible for this? Perhaps Dark was right and there is some sort of puppet master pulling everyone's strings, leading us inexorably toward his or her goals?

Maybe it's Dark himself, throwing people off the trail by pointing to another leader. I'm certainly inclined to believe that after blanking out for better than twelve hours...

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse smiles, "I can make any standard electronic gizmo you might need, and a few that aren't currently on the shelves as well... for standard electronics, consider me at the level of the U.S. Military, about 5-10 years ahead of what the general public gets. Other things that I could make due to my expanded intellect, and using my own unique magnetic based technology well, those would take things to a very different level, each device would require careful research and planning. Electronic listening devices are no problem, just let me know what size and casing you want for them. I'm thinking that after we plan things out, I may be able to use some specialized magnetic devices to buy us some odds with our gambling group. Maybe if we break their bank we can either force the gang's hand in a direction we want... or take it over in a limited way. If we ran one of the gangs, what would be the increased likelyhood for gathering intel on the other two."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper nods, saying, "I know of one member of the Neo Mafia beyond the disposable grunts, Edmund Zelinski. He was a high-level enforcer for the Neo Mafia until he crossed paths with me. We had both been hired to eliminate one Wallace Eingelmyer, an unaffiliated arms dealer. Things did not go his way. He ended up in an alley with one ear and a leg so badly broken that he was left with a terrible limp. For a man of his profession, that could have been the end. But the Neo Mafia leadership smiled on him, and he ended up managing a safehouse somewhere in the industrial district, I'm not sure where."

He pauses, then says, "He, ah, doesn't like me much. Especially after he tried to take his revenge on me and I cut of three of the fingers on his right hand. Man could hold a grudge, that's for sure. So, um, can you work with that?" He directs this last question at 1337.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion


Ryan Tran/Ace

Ryan quickly puts a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"Jason! Calm down! He's not going to hurt you..."

He turns his head to lock eyes with Oblivion in a cold stare.

"Right?"

The highstrung emotions he had last night were gone, replaced by a concern for the kid's well-being.

Pausing just far enough into the doorway to allow Nosferatu to enter as well, he inclined his head thoughtfully, closing his eyes as he did and sighing patiently. Despite the slightly inhuman tone to it, the slight irritation was unmistakable.

Looking quizically at the unknown visitor, his eyes narrowed as he made his reply "Do I know you? Regardless of your interest here, it is quite clear, that I would be have to be quite unbalanced, reckless and foolish to invite a well known figure of our community to serve as a mediator" he gestured slightly toward Nosferatu without taking his eyes off of the stranger,"only to attack anyone in a hospital staffed by powerful Neo-Sapiens in the middle of down-town in the middle of the day, without provocation."

Then, looking directly at Jason he said "Truly, childish name calling is beneath even you. For my part, I refuse to be reduced to such an exchange.
Be assured, I do not intend, nor have any interest in, apologizing to you or arguing with you. Simply put, the punishment fit the crime. I only hope that you will now be more...agreeable to discussion."

Then, moving fluidly to the other side of the room, giving both the paternal Ace and the bedridden teen a respectable berth, he sat down on one of the visitors chairs beneath the drawn curtains of the rooms window, leaning forward and steepling his fingers thoughtfully.

Looking sharply at the strangely familiar interloper, as if he had expected him to have already departed he said flatly, "Now sir, might I ask what your personal interest in this young man is? You don't appear to be family and judging by your reaction, well, you seem a bit too certain of my motives, not to mention your own ability to protect the young man, than would be...reasonably expected."

I wish that Natasha were here, she does seem to have such a way with people...

Diplomacy: [roll0]...if it helps :smalltongue:

EDIT: You asked for it Kpenguine. Way to make this scene far more complicated than it alredy was. :smallannoyed::smallwink:
I'll never catch up to Dfpiii at this rate...

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Focusing on the young man at the boys bedside, Oblivion took particular care to assess his response...as well as he himself.

This guy acts like he knows me, but, barring the attendees at the meeting today, which this man is almost certainly not one of, less than a handful of individuals have even seen me, let alone recognize me...unless.

The deep ebon pools of his eyes seemed to ripple, dark tendrils squirming languidly beneath his pale russet flesh.

Despite his relaxed pose, Oblivion readied himself as subtly as he was able for combat. If this man was the thing he suspected it could be, he was extremely glad that Nosferatu was in attendance as well.
He only hoped it would be enough.


First, Sense Motive: [roll0]
Second, Power Detection, starting this "round"
Third, he'd probably activate another power (not one obvious enough to notice I assure you)

[The_Snark]

Judy

"What? Oh... sorry," she said, returning her attention to Jack. "I thought I heard someone I knew." Judy tried to remember what he'd just said. Her earlier awkwardness seemed a little silly, now.

"Didn't recognize her, though," she went on, trying to restore a semblance of conversation. Seriously Judy, you're getting jumpy. It's not like other people can't know Alex, even gothy students. That he hasn't told me about.

How the hell would Alex have met her, though? I'd bet he hasn't been to a club or bar since grad school, his friends always used to have to drag him out... Maybe she's an intern or something.

Inferno's attempt at buying a snack jarred her out of her thoughts; she turned to watch. "There's a guy who's got things harder than you, anyway," she muttered to Jack without really thinking. "You think he's like that all the time?"

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

"Eh, I disagree that it'd be harder," Jack said quietly, his tone smacking a little bit of hurt feelings, "He's on fire all the time... it's not like it's a surprise anymore." To his credit, when the bill came, Jack was prompt, yet smooth, about picking it up... though look at it, he did not. It was important to show that the price wasn't important, after all; he was Jack Pretto. The gambler smiled, and took one last drink of water.

"Well Judy, I'm really glad you happened to be in the neighborhood... I really appreciate you taking the time to talk," Jack looked about to stand up, but didn't do so until Judy moved to, "Maybe we could do this again sometime? Without the fireworks," Jack gave Judy a smile... not one of those filled with glittering white teeth, "I'm your white knight" romantic smiles... just a smile, one that was handsome at best, and friendly at the worst.

[dfpiii]

Paragon

Paragon's black helm was clasped back into place, turning the white light back to beams of red, before he spoke again.

"I go tonight to acquire the substance we will use. Tomorrow night I will test it to ensure that what we get are motivated prisoners, rather than sleeping or dead ones. You're job is two-fold. Tomorrow I need you to scout locations - high value goods, large volumes of cash. Our raids must look opportunistic - we must seem to be taking advantage of the situation and not to have caused it. We'll take what we want by brute force - no clever thwarting of security devices, no piercing of bank vaults".

"Tomorrow evening I need you to scout out the prison itself. You need to find access to a delivery route - food storage, the water pipes. Something into which we can deposit the drug. Then the day after tomorrow, in the morning we will meet here again. I will give you the drug and we will finalise the plan".

"That afternoon you will smuggle the drug in and once it takes effect I will release the prisoners. Once that task is accomplished we will meet at a predetermined location and begin the thefts".

"Clear? You should not contact me until we meet here again in exactly 32 hours. First thing in the morning. If either of us fails to show we'll know something has gone wrong and the plan must be delayed".

[harmonictempest]

Ace/Oblivion/Nos/Jason

The teen seems at least somewhat reassured by Ace’s presence. Giving up for the time being his search for the nurse call button, he glares at Oblivion. Yeah, sure…we can talk. Just don’t pretend that you beating me within an inch of my life was at all fair. All I did was run away and try to defend myself when you went all creepy slime-tentacles on me.


Alex

((DM’s roll = 7 = normalcy reigns for the time being))
Towards the end of the afternoon, Mrs. Smethfield raps lightly on your door before poking her head in to ask if you need anything, since she’s about to head home.


Pulse/Reaper/1337

1337 has clearly only picked up the pen and paper to have something to fiddle with, as he makes no obvious notes. A’ight, that should be enough names to get me started, keep me busy for a few hours. If you think of any more, even gang names or pseudonyms, that’d be useful. As far as bugs and gadgets, well, you’re the expert – I asked because they should be useful if we figure out where to put them, or if we can sneak them in on a gang member or one of us, but I’m sure you can design ‘em and stuff much better than me. As far as the probability stuff, that sounds seriously wicked. How well it’ll work…your guess is as good as mine, but I say give it a go when we get a chance. The gangs probably try to keep as much from each other as they can, but who knows, mebbe they still know more than the cops do. Anyway, we’ve only got a day – you guys think it’s better to get started now, or wait a few hours till we have more info, and mebbe some bugs? Seems like we could do either. Chiefie didn’t really put any one of us in charge, y’know? He shrinks slightly, as any teen trying not to earn the annoyance of a pair of adults might.


Judy/Jack(/Tasha)

Inferno’s conversation with the vendor continues to go nowhere, with Inferno growing more upset, until one of the nearby pedestrians takes pity on him and hands a few bills to the vendor. With a grateful thank you and a hastily withdrawn offer of a handshake, Inferno takes the loaded ‘dog from the vendor, and is happily chomping on hot dog flambé a moment later. He wanders toward a nearby empty park bench and sits down, apparently oblivious to the possible consequences.


Paragon/Professor Lachlan Dark/Terra

She nods slowly as the outlines of the plan become more clear. After a moment, she responds slowly, the grade school teacher returning as she breaks down the plan and repeats to him, albeit with pauses as the massive illegality of the operation continues to stick in her throat. Tomorrow during the day I look for jewelry stores and electronics places, without being suspicious…as an eight-foot tall statue. I think I can manage that. Then I guess you want me to do the earth-swimming thing to get around under the prison, see if there’s a way to get the poison in. I…don’t know much about architecture, but I can hang around for a while, see what I can find out. Then I meet you here at 6 am day after tomorrow, and we share how successful we’ve both been.
…Okay, I’m in. If nothing else, it’d be great to have someone to help me out who can look normal when they choose to. Could you…possibly…help me find somewhere to stay? My landlord kicked me out after I fell through the staircase at my old apartment – he wasn’t mean about it, but I’m too heavy for a third-story apartment any more, especially in that cheap place. I paid him to let me keep my stuff there for a little while, and for repairing the staircase, and that’s nearly cleaned me out for now. I don't have the money for much more than a down payment, and most landlords are going to want to wait until this stuff settles down a bit before they'll take on a mutant boarder with such obvious liability problems. The ones I've asked so far are nice, they just want to keep their apartments intact, and a half-ton boarder can't guarantee that.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

After dismissing his secretary for the evening and thanking her for the assistance she provides, Alex suits up and heads back towards his apartment. It would be a long trip, as usual, but with these mysterious abilities he now had, confidence was running high that he could take care of any threats that came his way.

As he headed for the fast transit line, thoughts began rolling through his head again. This all feels too convenient for me. Someone...or something...wants me to take this road. We must be ever cautious and ever patient. After all, who can really stop me? Some hero looking to make a name for himself? Hardly; I wield such power, both through my own skill and through my new powers, that they cannot touch me. That and I'm not going to register on their radar of threats. Time is my ally.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "Go to work, I'll be back in a few hours with several bugs, and perhaps tracers... with only a day before us we don't have enough time to enact the "break the bank" scenario on the casino - so perhaps you'll have an idea of who we need to bug by the time I'm back, and perhaps Reaper can deploy them from the shadows." He nods to the other two and the chief, then turns and leaves the office and heads out to his glider to head home to his lab and begin preparations.

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus/Gust



A dry chuckle comes from the next cloudbank. The big goof was too busy to notice much—I told him I had other stuff to attend to once I noticed you, and he sailed right off toward the center of town. Look, I’ve got no interest in holding this over your head or anything. I’m sure it’s embarrassing enough; I actually came by to see if you wanted me to make some kinda distraction or…something. I’d guess you’re supposed to be down at that school right around now, and that a guy sailing down from a cloud is usually pretty noticeable, but I think I can make a tornado or something over that way a bit if you’d like. Should give you a second to make a graceful exit, I think.

"Actually, I...I don't think I'm going back today, Gust." Hadyn said as he drifted along in the cloud bank aimlessly. "The reason I'm up here is that I just turned the school bully and his friends into light bulb filaments. I don't think I killed any of them...it was just a reflex when they tried to beat me up, just...BOOM. I think I want to get as far away from that as possible right now. I think I'll just head home, grab my costume, and look for someone breaking the law so I can vent my frustrations. Heh. Don't suppose you've got a lead on any mob bosses or supervillains you need help with?"

[BloodyAngel]

Tasha

You're kidding me. Tasha said out loud to herself as she watched the fire-laden man make a huge show of himself.

Looking back to the sushi place, she still seemed not to have been followed. Figuring the woman would have been here by now if she was coming at all, she popped her door and stepped from her car. To heck with it. At this point, the human bonfire was going to burn half the city without meaning to.

Hey! Don't do that you idiot! She yelled to him from the nice, safe distance of about twenty feet down the sidewalk. She certainly didn't intend to get much closer than that. Wooden bench! You're going to set half the block up! What in the @#$% made you think this was a good idea?

[The_Snark]

Judy

"Sure." Judy stood, and smiled back a bit. "Good luck with... that, by the way." She meant the "fireworks", of course. "If you ever want to talk to someone for a while, just give me a call." It was, occasionally, nice to have someone to chat with. Alex was a busy man, her mother was... her mother, and she didn't have many other friends she'd remained on good terms with.

And it was comforting to talk with someone who had some of the same problems she did, too.

She walked out with him as far as the sidewalk. The flaming mutant was still there, and she figured she might as well stick around and watch. Not talk to him—the last time she'd done that had made her realize it was a bit too high-profile than she liked—but since she'd only gone out to get away from her apartment, she didn't have much better to do here.

[kpenguin]

Ace/Ryan

"Didn't want to suggest you did."

Good. This dude... Oblivion... he doesn't recognize me.

Ryan considers, for a moment, excusing himself and leaving, but decides against it. Jason could use the support here.

As Jason begins to calm down, Ryan gives him a reassuring weak smile.

"Now, kid, that's not completely fair. He is certainly not slimy. I'm not sure if there's much moisture on him at all."

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

"Heh, thanks. Take it easy, Judy... I'll give you a ring sometime, be sure of it." The gambler gave her another smile, paying for the meal with his credit card, before stepping outside. He stared at the man engulfed in flames with... half amusement, half disbelief in his eyes; the guy had gotten his way after all, it seemed... and then a very attractive brunette started shouting at the fire mutant concerning his decision to enjoy his lunch. Jack couldn't help himself, and started to laugh. Not at Inferno, but at the girl... it wasn't a mean sounding laugh, just one that rang clearly of amusement, and adjusting his sunglasses, Jack walked over.

"Hey now, that's not very nice. The guy's just trying to eat his lunch. It's not like the city can't afford to put some cash into urban renewal," Jack smirked, "Not to mention that, really, half the block? From a park bench? Don't you think maybe you're overdoing it?"

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Raising one eyebrow quizzically at the stranger as he made his strange, seemingly unrelated response, he slowly lowered his hands and craned his neck forward slightly, indicating his expectation for further response. With substantial effort he prevented the look of complete incredulity to erase his currently serene appearance of equanimity.

Simpletons both; the old saying seems to have proved itself quite true about birds and their flocking habits, he thought, clenching his jaw in mild irritation as he considered simply leaving them to their, more than likely, grim fate.

His senses continued to bore into the stranger, the familiar sensation of untapped power clearly emenating in irregular waves from the man's body.

As I suspected. It would certainly explain his confidence to stay with the boy, although for what reason is still only speculation...but the list is short and growing rapidly shorter.

Taking a deep breath, it seemed his body still required that human need, he paused to consider...
For now, he decided to press on and speak his part, despite his waning hope that either one of his audience would, or even could, comprehend him.

What exactly do you mean by that sir? No matter, I will let it pass for now, although I find your choice to purposefully ignore my inquiries quite rude. Your manners certainly leave something to be desired.

Now, allow me to introduce myself, I am the one known as 'Oblivion' and this is my newfound friend 'Nosferatu' whom you may have already heard of as he has been rather busy the last few days.

He paused, letting his attempt at formalizing the meeting sink in before concluding with the obvious question, "and your names are?"


Still have Power Detection ongoing.
Sense Motive roll to figure out wtf Ace is talking about and another to determine if they're lying when they give me their "names".

SM1: [roll0]
SM2: [roll1]

[harmonictempest]

Alex

The fast transit line, the somewhat ironic name for the by-now comfortably middle-aged yet still reliable metro system, was a locale conducive to thoughtfulness. As the stations slipped by, Alex’s thoughts roved restlessly as he considered his next move. One could almost imagine the stock tickers behind those calculating eyes, numbers juggled with the ease of the practiced business acrobat as he idly considered the possibilities, probabilities, obstacles, and opportunities that might arise in his newest endeavor. Patterns emerged, were manipulated, reformed into more amenable layouts, and Alex could almost palpably feel his pocketbook getting heavier as he plotted the rise of his little cadre of world-shapers.

And then, something interrupted his thoughts. As they pulled away from the stop one of the commuters who had just boarded the lightly-filled car caught his eye. The otherwise unimpressive young man in jeans and a plain black Tshirt was also, Alex realized, wearing a ski mask. Unoriginal though his costume and plan were, the handgun he carried was readily convincing the dozen or so commuters on the car to part with their wallets, hastened by the young man barking threats at them when they moved too slowly. If Alex remembered the route correctly, it would be another two or three minutes before the next stop was reached, which would be…well, enough time for the robber, who had either gotten lucky or planned for that. There were another two or three people before the robber would reach Alex. No one else on the car appeared to be offering resistance, handing over their wallets with the resigned air of someone who evisirons several calls to their credit card company in their near future.


Pulse/Reaper/1337

1337 nods. Good by me – I’ll be here, or nearby, whenever you guys need me. Speaking of which Pulse, the chief did want to get some secure contact info from you, so he doesn’t have to flag you down again. Reaper, they already have your number, so you’re good. Do you know what you’ll be up to? I don’t want to get pushy or anything like that; so, uh, if you do know, that’s cool. If not, I may be able to come up with some locations that need watching and stuff, but it can wait till tonight too if you’ve already got plans.

((OOC: Pulse, don’t worry about “handles” or anything like that – it seems to have been more confusing than I intended. Feel free to stick with what you know and assume that secure email addresses are pretty easy to set up. Reaper: 1337’s attitude is mirroring mine – if you want to decide what you’ll contribute for the afternoon, go for it. Also: Is the D-Train stuff supposed to go down tonight?))


Kid Zeus/Gust

Gust emerges from the next cloud over and nods, his white costume unobtrusive in the bright autumn sky. Funny how it’s always the mundane stuff that’s the hardest; you should’ve seen what happened to my bathroom when I accidentally turned up the wind while shaving. As far as supervillains or mob bosses…well, I’m afraid I’m not the best contact for that. The biggest villain I’ve fought so far turned out to be an underage shapeshifter going for a joyride.

But keep your eyes peeled. You’re a fresh-minted god in a world that just got Pandora’s box dumped onto it. You won’t be able to take two steps without running into adventure, even if you deliberately hide from it. It’s going to be an exciting time, and for good or ill, they’ll be writing our names in books for centuries to come. But I doubt you planned on listening to philosophy in the clouds all day, and it’s chilly up here if you haven’t dressed for it. I’d say most of the larger city buildings would have something for a young hero to do by now – off the cuff, I’d guess that the hospital, police headquarters, the National Guard camp, probably have more going on than they can handle by themselves, not to mention that you could just fly over half the shady alleys in town until you find a mugging. So…enjoy it! But be who you are, and don’t ever be something just because it’s expected of you.The important question I guess is, who do you want to be?


Town Center (Tasha/Judy/Jack/Inferno):

((I think Tasha has black hair, not brown?))
Hearing Tasha’s shouted warning, Inferno jumps up from the bench. Fortunately, he hasn’t been sitting long enough to cause any permanent damage, though there is an admirably cartoonish black outline on the bench. Hey thanks, he says with somewhat rueful amusement in your direction. Though I don’t think I would’ve burned anything but the bench. I been reading old Fantastic Four comics and watching the movies, trying to get some ideas. “Flame on!” doesn’t work that well yet, since I can’t ‘Flame off’. I’m getting closer, though. He exerts himself, and flickers of not-flame run over his body, exposing thin slivers of rather average white American skin along his arms and neck.
((Jack shows up and speaks.))
Well, that’s nice of you to say. Hey cool, didn’t expect to draw a crowd just during my lunch break. Gotta tell you what I told the kids earlier, though – unless you’ve got a piece of wood, I can’t do much in the way of autographs. By way of example, he draws a fiery finger across the bench by his silhouette in an unintentionally Mosaic way, leaving “Inferno” in black block letters next to his outline.


Room 225 (Ace/Oblivion/Nos/Jason):

((To Ace)) Yeah, well they sure felt slimy when he wrapped ‘em around my throat, though he didn’t let me stay conscious long enough to be sure.

((To Oblivion)) My name’s Jason, if you care. What’d you want to discuss, anyway?

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

"Who do I want to be? I know that, already. Problem is, a lot of the 'superheroes' at that little meeting we were at earlier don't share my beliefs. I think we should be using these gifts, however we got them, to help people, make the world a better place. You called us 'gods' and I know you didn't mean it literally, but we are powerful...and I've been reading my comic books since I was old enough to enjoy the pictures. 'With great power, comes great responsibility.' It's our job now to watch over them from up here in the clouds, to make sure that nothing like what happened to...to keep horrible things from happening to good people." he corrected himself noticeably. Something had obviously happened to the people he cared about to make him feel that way so strongly.

"I just wish I could get through to the rest of...our kind...Nosferatu and the heroes that showed up to stop Reaper at City Hall seem to be the only ones doing their part. Most of them, I think, only see it in terms of how this could benefit numero uno, and that's frustrating, Gust. Why do we have these powers if not to do some good with them? What kind of a madman would use them for profit? Or to hurt others?" he shook his head. "I'm going to go get this t-shirt off my head and my costume back on. I think the National Guard station might be the best bet on tracking down the biggest problem, something that even the police don't want to handle. I'd love the help if you want to meet me there. We are two gods of the sky after all, right?" he grinned, showing it in his eyes.

"Seeya!" he said in parting and zoomed off towards his house, trusting that Gust wouldn't try to follow him. He made sure to come down in some trees behind his house to minimize the chance that someone might see him, then went in through the back door. His mother would still be at work until much later, so he was free to get suited up in relative peace.

Feeling much more heroic, Kid Zeus took off from that same forest behind his house, his airstream whipping the trees into a frenzy upon his takeoff and leaving a trail of dead leaves in his wake to spin lazily back to Earth again. Lightning crackling around his entire body and leaping from cloud to cloud then back to him again he flew straight for the National Guard station. Upon reaching it, he touched down upon an empty helicopter pad as noticeably as he could while not letting his "aura" jump around too much and scare people. "Hi!" he greeted the first soldier to approach. "Take me to your leader!" he grinned boyishly.

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Yes... Tasha'a hair is so dark it's for all intents and purposes... black. But I thought brunette WAS the term used for black hair too, isn't it? I can't think of one otherwise. Brunette, Blonde, Redhead..... and ?. Is there a term for black-hair?

Crap! It's the guy from inside.

Tasha tried to keep from looking shocked as Jack emerged from the sushi place, drawn by the very obvious sight that was Inferno.

I knew I should have just left... Now I can't just run, of he'll wonder what's up. If he gets my plate or something... I'm @#$%ed. She thought to herself, keeping her fair distance from both parties, Ok... ok... relax... You can do this.

Tasha took a deep breath and stepped a bit closer to the highly combustible man, trying her best to not look nervous.

Sorry about that. But you're causing a lot of damage without meaning to. A house I lived in caught fire once so... I'm kind of paranoid about it. She explained, arms slid behind her back with a sheepish look on her face, You can't turn that off at all? That must suck. I can't even begin to imagine.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

All right, a little restraint is in order here. Perhaps I can scare this thug off without collateral damage. It would be a crime, literally and figuratively, if I were to blow out the side of the train and send people sprawling. Note to self: learn how to focus this force energy into a single target attack. Alex visibly relaxes himself, cracking his neck softly as he waited. In truth, this was mostly for show, but much could be accomplished with a threat as an attack...and he had left his sword cane at home today. Next time I see Dark, I'm going to have some serious words for him...

In the moments before the thug approaches him, his personality...the force of it....seems to grow and fill the area around him. Those standing near him begin to become uncomfortable and do their best to avoid what they believe could be a coming storm.

At the thug's approach, a low growl, almost inaudible, slips from his throat. "All right, kid, you had your fun. Drop it all and surrender now or you may find yourself in a world of hurt. With recent events, I would have thought you petty criminals would have given up the trade. More of these freaks with powers keep crawling out of the woodwork every second." I need to keep myself unknown, but I'd rather people think I'm a defender of people than a villain. It's so delicious when someone's hero turns on them.

Activating Frightful Presence (Will DC 19) and reserving an action to activate Force Field if that fails to affect the thug.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse shakes his head, "No, you can contact me at the email LEP/[email protected]. My current plans are to go make the devices and return... we'll see how quickly I can put this stuff together."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper says, "I had some plans, but I haven't been in touch with my associate, so it's a no-go for now. Actually, I've got some things I'd like to discuss with you, Pulse. If it would hinder your work, or you'd rather I not intrude on your civilian life, it's perfectly fine. It's not of pressing concern. If that's the case, 1337, then I'd be grateful if you could find that warehouse so I can look up my old friend." His face has no mouth, but you can still almost see a grin on his face. "I think he still owes me twenty bucks, too. Maybe I should call it even."

((OOC: There isn't really anyone else in the D-Train plot, so I'll leave it alone for now. Feel free to bring it back into the mob plot later, though.))

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse gestures for Reaper to come along, "We'll be back in a few hours, 1337, use the e-mail if you need me, I'll check it hourly." As you approach the doors of the station, he opens his cape. "If you need shadows, you can ride with me as before... or if you have another means, we can use that. I told you once that I believed you, and I offered you trust - you responded with the same. Whatever you think of yourself or your former deeds, I know you to be a man of honor. The fact that you denied a connection to the other mutates in the group to preserve their reputation... The fact that you asked if sharing my identity bothered me when I know you could easily fathom it if you only put a little work into the matter, reaffirms that opinion in me."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The shadowy being is difficult to read, but is noticeably affected by Pulse's trust. "I...thank you, Pulse." He is silent for a moment, then says quickly, "I'll ride in the cloak," before vanishing from sight.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse steps out into the sunlight and nods to the officer standing by his glider. He climbs on and it rises slowly into the air, the engine whining slightly as it heads off. "If it's easy for you to talk from there, you can start telling me... otherwise we'll talk when we arrive."

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper's silence indicates either that he can't hear Pulse, or can't reply, neither of which is conducive to conversation. Attempts at such are met with no response.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Shrugging, the flying hero glides in his usual pattern home and taking a somewhat stealthy approach, he finally arrives. Getting to his home he turns the lights down extremely dim, unhampered by the lack of light because of his magnetic senses. He goes into his workshop and begins assembling various listening and tracking devices.

[roll0]

[kpenguin]

Ryan/Ace

"And I'm Ryan, Ryan Tran"

Looks like a caught him off-balance... or something.

Oblivion is a nice guy. Well not, nice. Noble? Okay? Acceptable given the circumstances? Whatever. Point is, I'm cool with him, or at least Ace is.

I'd rather not he find out that I'm Ace though.

Ace gets up and begins walking towards the door.

"If you excuse me, fellas, I've got someone else to visit here. Plus, I'm sure you wouldn't want me listening in on your superheroey stuff."

[dfpiii]

Paragon

Professor Dark considered that perhaps this woman might not have been fired for being a statue, but could perhaps benefit from strip lighting in the attic.

"Your obvious physical form presents problems. When we're raiding you'll need to keep your earthen giant form, it will act as a disguise. Recent events in Rainport have probably caused a small run of students - I'll secure you ground floor accommodation in dorms in the short term. We'll say you're a research subject if anyone asks. I take it you don't need anywhere to stay tonight? Longer term we can talk about later - but you'll be taken care of".

"Now, I have another meeting".

Paragon is quickly skyward again. Professor Dark needed to work his magic somewhere else. And he knew convincing a statue with no job and house to get involved in a criminal scheme was going to easier part of his evening.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

Jack smiled in a friendly fashion.

"Well hey, that's great, we're all at least neutral again. Good luck with figuring out how to turn that off," Jack put a cigarette to his lips, only to find, troublingly enough, his lighter was out of fuel. Holding the cigarette in one hand, Jack made sure to pay attention to what he was doing as he looked at Inferno almost sheepishly.

"Hey bud, think uh... I could trouble you for a light?"

[harmonictempest]

Kid Zeus

((mumblegrumblehavingtolookuppoststwentypagesoldto seehowtheOTHERdmdescribedthisplacemumblegrumblewor kworkworksuccess))
You haven’t seen the abandoned airstrip on the outskirts of town before, but you’d bet pretty safely that it looked nothing like this a few days ago. Many of the older buildings have been bulldozed and are being rebuilt, and there’s already a contingent a few hundred strong, unloading trucks, adding to the small tent village, and generally digging in for the long haul. By the time you touch down, all five of the closest soldiers have their rifles firmly trained on you, and seem undecided whether your words are a greeting or a threat. Almost immediately, though, a sergeant comes running up. You idiots! Get you !#*@$ guns away from him! He’s on our side! Stepping up to you, he apologizes. Kid Zeus, right? We’ve kept ‘em too busy to watch TV, so sorry ‘bout the itchy trigger fingers – they haven’t see any of yer antics. Also, we had some smartass try to walk in this morning – had pheromones or something that convinced everyone he talked to to agree with him. Took us a while to figure it out, then we had to hit him with a tranq gun from full range. So yeah, we’ve kinda been jumpy. Anyway, “our leader”, huh? The Lt. Gen’l’s off at the other end, inspecting some of the new equipment, but I can have him meet you at his office in…15, I think. The office is that way- I gotta run. He points at one of the buildings about a hundred yards away, then jogs off again, speaking into a walkie-talkie as he does so.

There are various soldiers standing about, some on guard, some unloading trucks. The half-dozen buildings in sight are a mix between hangars and smaller building (offices, perhaps?). To one side, a 20-foot tall Titan is helping a crane set up some stacks of materials near one of the in-progress buildings.

You have a 15 minutes or so on your hands. If you want to talk to anyone or wander about, ignore the following. If not, the Lt. Gen. meets you in front of the admin building in 15, walks you inside to his office, sits down, and says All right, what can I do for you?


Tasha/Jack/Inferno

Inferno shrugs. It’s not as bad as you might think…though I’ll def be glad to control it better. See – he holds up one hand, and his index finger goes out, leaving what unsettlingly resembles the finger of a charred corpse behind – this is easier, not much, and it’s safer. He swings his arm at the bench, knocking the index finger completely off where it hits the armrest. It leaves a small cloud of ashes behind, but sweeping his hand through them, he quickly reforms the finger. This – with concentrated effort, he turns the finger back to a normal pink – is a lot more normal, but I can jam it or bust it just like you could. He said I woul—err, I mean I should have it under control by the end of the week, I think. Anyway, that’s my introduction. Who’re you guys? You already know each other, I guess.

((At Jack’s request)) Umm…sure. Gimme a sec. After an alarming practice cough or two, which almost make you reconsider, he gives a small ‘tuh’, and spits out a foot-long flame that lights your cigarette. It’s a bit of overkill, like lighting it with a blow torch, but it gets the job done…and for some reason the first few puffs taste like cinnamon.


Alex

The robber’s grin fades as he nears you and realizes you aren’t quite the pushover the rest were. It continues fading as your words and presence strike him, and a trace of fear enters his eyes, like someone who has heard a ghost. What? One of them, here? I thought I checked, before picking this car. Nervous now, the gun comes up, but not pointed at anyone in particular. Look, everyone just stay chill and no one gets hurt. Just stay cool, all right? Train’ll be at the station in a minute, and you all just piss off. He seems to be reassuring himself slightly too – he’s clearly unnerved, but with no obvious way off the car, he’s in a bit of a corner, which is probably why the gun is up.

Pulse/Reaper

1337 nods as you depart.

Your Craft check beat the DC of 30, which gets you “a little something extra”. Basically, you can make “standard” devices, and you beat the DC by enough to add one “something extra” to each, if you choose, such as extra-small, motion-triggered recording, etc – feel free to be creative. If you have to design more or less yourself, then making a new design will take about an hour, and making more than one will take negligible extra time, as you can pretty much just set up a magnetic-telekinesis assembly line. If you have or can find schematics, that time frame goes down a bunch (and I found some basic listening device schematics online in about 5 seconds). 1337 didn’t state a specific time, all he really said was “after dark”. You got home around 2pm (and local sunset time is 5:49 p.m.). This is all just fyi, as it looks like you two have plenty more RP to go.

Fun fact: I actually looked up sunset tables to find that out. I love the Internet.


Ace/Oblivion/Nos/Jason

Ace exits successfully. The door, biding its time, decides to wait for larger prey.
Jason turns a look on Oblivion as if to say “well?”.
((I…have little to add to this scene at the moment. Carry on!))


Paragon

((Strip lighting in the attic? I’m…missing something I think.))
Your newest protégé nods, and that mighty sculpture of steel is swiftly airborne again, cutting the air with an awful majesty. Precisely on the stroke of ten, Professor Dark sweeps through the door to his office with a cool, professional demeanor that could not fail to impress even the most lackadaisical of unworthy followers, a look reminiscent of a thousand— Huh. The office is empty. Damn, all that perfectly good demeanor, wasted.
((Feel free to add RP if you were planning to go somewhere else first, or change or some such.))

Whenever Dark next checks his email, he finds the following response:
To: Professor L. Dark <[email protected]>
From: Dave Blanchard <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Attention required
Priority: Urgent

Professor Dark,

Though your attention is interesting and I am grateful for it, I am not currently your student. Therefore, I must regretfully report that my earliest convenience is not the time and place you have specified, though I chalk up your error to the fact that we don’t know each other well enough yet. I have a project that will keep me in the lab until late tonight, and requires my attention too closely for me to leave before I finish. I am already conducting research under Dr. Olsson, but if you wish to discuss a possible additional project, I’ll be available in the lab until late.

~Dave

On Tues, October 17, 2014 at 3:18 PM, Professor L. Dark <[email protected]> wrote:
Mr Blanchard,

I am working on a special project which requires the assistance of an individual with skill in the field of neurochemistry. I would like to discuss this with you at your earliest convenience.

Your earliest convenience will be 10pm this evening at my office, level 2, the Fermi building.

I look forward to working with you.

Regards,

Professor Lachlan Dark PhD., MSc., BSc.
Dean of the School of Applied Mechanics
Randolph Institute of Technology

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

Hadyn had a miniature heart attack when all the guns were turned on him, but calmed down in short order when the sergeant intervened. He gave the soldiers a sheepish grin as he rose two feet off of the ground and started to hover in place. "Sorry for the scare, guys. Uh...my bad?" he tried. "Anyway...uh...yeah, I'm gonna just go uh...bye." he said as he floated off. Then with a crackle of lightning he whipped out and over Titan's head, running a full circuit around the 20-foot tall guy.

"Hey, Titan! How're things, big guy?" he said, proceeding to make small talk with the behemoth of a mutate for the next fifteen minutes before he was scheduled to meet with the Lt. General.

When he'd made it over to the administration office, Kid Zeus set down in a nimbus of electric energy. When asked to come inside, he politely declined. "Sorry, General, but if you have a computer in there it's probably best if we talk outside. I've fried most of the consumer electronics in my house already...one of the downsides to being a walking, talking billion-volt battery." he explained as he scratched his head through the top of his mask. "Anyway, I actually just wanted to come over here and see if there was anything you guys needed help with. I don't exactly do heavy lifting like Titan, but if you've been having any problems with any of the new mutates or need something zapped, I'm your man!" he grinned.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse sets up the basic schematics for his listening devices and makes sure each one of the tiny devices acts as a voice activated bug. Once the devices are being made, assuming Reaper hasn't come out yet, he says, "It's safe, if you want to discuss what you came here for."

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

That's a bit.... gross. Tasha said, making an odd face as Inferno snapped off his charred finger.

Then the conversation turned to the newcomer, and she briefly panicked. She hadn't realized that he'd followed her outside. Running away now would just look shady. Her mind raced to think of something to say.

I'm... Claire. She said, giving him the first name that came to mind. And I.... I don't THINK I know him. I just live near here, and was afraid you were gonna start a fire on me.

She turned to Jack with a curious tilt of her head. I'm sorry, but remind me where I know you from. I don't remember you.

If a bluff is needed, taking 10, for a 26. :smallamused:

[harmonictempest]

Kid Zeus

Lieutenant General Brian Kerrigan steeples his fingers for a minute and considers. Well, come to think of it, we could actually use your help, depending on how much power you can generate. He leads you towards one of the hangars as he continues. We have some rather...power-hungry equipment, and have had trouble getting the city officials to allot us enough power for them, which is understandable given the sizable percentage of the city's power budget they'd use. If you're up to it, we could certainly use an alternative energy source. We're using generators and a hookup to the city power grid for the time being, but I don't doubt we could get some industrial-sized batteries if you don't want to just sit out here all day. Here, have a look. The building he’s leading you to has a couple obvious, large generators outside – he gestures to the wires leading from them into the building, not sure if you can juice up the system from there or not.

As far as new mutates that we need help putting down, I can think of one or two cases we could definitely use the help with. The police department’s been collaborating with us, forwarding us info on the cases that seem to be mutant-related. You’d be surprised how few of them we’ve actually had to call in superpowered aid for – most of ‘em are still vulnerable to a bullet in the leg. We’ve been using a lot of tranq guns, I can tell you that. We do have one, though, that’s the police are done with. They’ve had a few robberies yesterday and today, all in the same area. Each time, it’s the same – there’s no sign of any actual robbery aside from the things that are missing. Forensics finds nothing, which freaks them out. And any guards or employees who were there at the time have been found bludgeoned to death, which freaks the police out. If you’d like, I can get you the file?

Pulse/Tasha: Both of you seem to be waiting more on other players than me, so I'm holding off for now.

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

"Hm...I've never tried to charge up anything like that before but I suppose I could give it a try. I'll help you with both problems if that's alright. I subconsciously leak so much energy on a regular basis I could probably power your generators pretty much forever if I wanted. As for the robberies, I'd like to take a look at the files once I'm done here. I'll have a rest, look at the information, then head out to hunt him down." Kid Zeus nodded to the Lt. General as he approached the wires leading out of the generator. Bending down, he took one and examined it. "I think it's best to bring in those batteries. I don't want to be here all day. Besides, we'd have to strip this wiring of its insulation so I could actually touch the metal."

[Assuming the batteries are brought in.]

"Okay...everyone step back. I've never done this before, so I don't know what'll happen. There's a chance the battery might explode if I give it too much juice or something." Hadyn advised the homo sapiens in the room as he approached the trashcan-sized industrial battery. He rubbed his hands together and took hold of the positive and negative contact points as small arcs of electricity started to spark around him and to the ground, the battery, and anything metal close-by. "Well, here goes..." he said, clenching his teeth.

What happened next was awesome, like watching an intense thunderstorm at night. The connection between Kid Zeus and the battery lit up like an overloading transformer station as the buzz of electricity suddenly got sharper and louder. It was hard to look at the contact point without some kind of eye protection like welding goggles. Kid Zeus tensed up and let open the floodgates just a hair, sending thousands of volts into the battery. The entire time a nimbus of bluish-white electrical energy sprang up around his body, causing him to rise off of the ground about half a foot. Arcs of lightning snapped and popped off of the walls, took out overhead lights, and bit into the ground at onlookers' feet like a striking snake.

This reminds me, Hadyn thought with increasing enjoyment as he let the raw current pour out of him, I need to head out into the wilderness one of these days and just let loose, see how much I can really let out.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

"...Jack Pretto. I'd shake your hand man, but uh, I don't want to put you to any trouble, y'know? Maybe some other time," Jack glanced at "Clair" and raised an eyebrow. He'd seen her table as he walked past it and went to pay for the food he and Judy had eaten; she'd barely touched her meal, which was... odd. Nobody Jack had ever met had willingly gone to a sushi place, alone, in a state of not loving sushi, let alone just going out to try it by themselves...

It was... well, it was weird. Most anybody who loved sushi, wanted to try it to start with. Everybody else, just hated it because they didn't like fish, or had allergies to it, or what have you... and sushi was just that level of weird in the general public's mind that, it was something you tried out in groups, because that way, everyone felt more secure about themselves. It wasn't weird in groups, because everyone in the group was trying it all at once.

"You know, I'm not really sure either; hey, look over there!"

I'll play your game, friend, but... I'll cheat. :smallcool: Alright, Sense Motive in the "round" that "Clair" attempts to Bluff me, followed by a Bluff of my own. Basically, trying to get her to turn and look at something potentially exciting.

...and of course, I'll be using Probability Manipulation on both my checks. Muahahahahhahaha!!! "You call this information retrieval?!" "I... don't... know." "You're lying!"

Sense Motive [roll0]
Bluff [roll1]

Sweet Jeebas, that'll be 5 PP for the first, and 19 PP for the second... Quit lying to me people! I'm gonna run out of PP soon! :smallsigh:

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper emerges from his shadowy concealment. He glances briefly around the room, grateful for the dim conditions. He says, "I apologize for not replying in transit. It appears that I cannot be heard when melded with the shadows. A good thing to know."

"Now as for what I wanted to speak to you about, I've been ding a little bit of empirical research into my light sensitivity. While all light disorients and sickens me, only natural sunlight causes physical harm. And it's not the UV either, because UV lights cause me no discomfort. I don't have the scientific background to make anything of it, so I need some help. Would you mind doing some in-depth research into the matter? Hopefully your research will lead to a cure. If not, then perhaps some other use will come of it. Either way, I would like you to try. Will you do this for me?"

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

"You never know where they are. Your best friend could be one now, but you may never know it. Such is the nature of the events of the last several days. It moves in blatant ways...and in ways far more insidious." There seems to be something different now. It is as if observers were looking at him through a smokey lens. It added a new ambiance to his already imposing form. "If you continue down this path, I will assure you that you will burn for it. You have no idea who you deal with." He glares at some of the other commuters, both as a warning to stand away from this punk in any direction and to show his distaste for the people here who he knows from experience will not stand up and accuse the would-be thief.

Alex moved slightly, lining himself up to put the thief dead between Alex and the outside wall of the train...just in case he was forced to take drastic measures. At least we're not on a bridge. There isn't a bridge between here and the end of the line. That would be even more dangerous.

Force Field says it's visible, if translucent. I've chosen to give it a smokey color. Activating said power now.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse nods, "I've been considering conducting what analyses I could of existing mutates should it become necessary to ever try to assist someone with an unbearable condition. I have a few thoughts for a multiscanner that I might use to that effect, but haven't built it yet. Until then, I can do a few more standard tests on your physiology and we can try to find out what is causing your reaction to sunlight. There might be an exotic energy wavelength to the sunlight - or it might also be a partially psychosomatic component. I think many of our powers and limitations have been shaped by both our conscious and unconscious minds. Naturally I would keep any information I gather confidential... but are you sure you wish even me to have that information?"

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Looking after the swiftly departing man as he exited the room, he opened his concealed mouth, intending to speak, but, with a moments further consideration, leaned back in his chain and watching as the door shut behind the man.

Perhaps it is better that he not know that I know that he is one of us. As he did not show up at the meeting, by accident or design and is currently in street clothes, I suspect he would be more receptive to my ideas at a later date.

"Another time then Ryan. I'm sure we'll meet again soon."

Glancing at the surprisingly silent Nosferatu, he wondered for the briefest moment how he would react. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Rising up to his full height and striding the two silent steps to bring him to the edge of the boys bed, his gloved hands folded calmly infront of him, his face unreadable, he looked down at Jason silently for a long moment.

A terrible feeling isn't it? To be hospitalized, vulnerable, forced to cared for by others? But you and I are different and you know it.

Listen closely, for I will only say this only once.

I am here to offer you a choice. You can remain upon the path you are on, the path of denial. Or you can embrace a new way and find true purpose.

In the first, you may feel like you're free, like you have a control of your destiny, but at best, you will simply survive. At worst, well, I can imagine much...

You see, I understand that beneath your carefully constructed brave front is fear. Fear of the future, fear of being controlled by circumstances beyond your control, fear of loss, fear of failure.
I understand because I have faced all of those fears and although I still must face them, I do so without hesitation because I know that to do so is the only way to truly be free.

You see, I admire you Jason. It took courage to leave the Hospital, to stand up to the nurse, to stand up to me despite having little knowledge of your capabilities.
Unfortunately, your choice, to pursue your denial rather than to simply be honest, forced my hand."

Pausing, Oblivion's demeanor became grave, although with a hint of what might actually be concern was evident to the more observant if they only took the time to look.

"What I can promise you Jason is that if you remain on your current path, I fear for your future. But, if you join me, join us, although it will not always be easy, it will be worth it.
Even though I don't know what you're capable of, but I do know that you have something worth contributing and I'm willing to help you learn what exactly that is.
The choice is yours..."

Stepping back from the bedside, he continued in a subdued tone.

"My time grows short. I imagine that your injuries will be mended by no later than tomorrow morning. If you choose to contact me, notify...Nurse Jenny. I will leave instructions for my contact with her.
I bid you good day and regardless of your decision, good luck."

Giving Nosferatu the slightest of nods, he calmly exits the room after the monstrous mutant, heading for the stairs, and ultimately the front desk, his dark silhouette filling the door-frame for a fraction of a moment before disappearing behind the maw of the closing door.

* This is all assuming that Jason says little or nothing in response. I just wanted to get out as much as possible, but am more than willing to edit to match what might be said/done.
In addition, let me know what, if any, rolls might need to be made.
My apologies for the long pause. I look forward to seeing where you take this HT. Cheers.

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine


I see your bluff with... a sense motive! [roll0]

We've never actually... Tasha will begin, backing away from Jack slightly and wondering if she should just make excuse to leave... when Jack turned to something behind her with a start.

Perhaps it was all the madness over the last few days that made her willing to accept something actually was about to happen. Maybe it was the apparent shock in his voice... or perhaps it was just a knee-jerk reaction that only came on due to her over-stressed brain at the moment. She would kick herself for it later... but for now...

Wha...? She said, turning quickly towards the apparent commotion a bit panickedly.

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper looks Pulse in the eye, but it seems less like he is looking at Pulse, but rather offering up himself. He says, "I trust you to keep this information safe from the enemies of justice, and from the overzealous crusaders who yet seek my end." He pauses. "And if I fall, if I become the monster that once was, I trust you to do what must be done. I place my life in your hands without reservation. Whatever the situation, I trust you to do what is right."

[harmonictempest]

((Okay, I've been struggling to get this up for a day now, so if there's typos or mistakes, it's probably because I couldn't edit to fix them.))


Kid Zeus

(('Tis lengthy - feel free to insert your own replies wherever.))

The general raises an eyebrow at your belief that you could power them indefinitely, but nods to a sergeant to have the equipment brought out, then excuses himself for a moment to go get the file from his office. In a few minutes, soldiers are wheeling out dollies with huge crates on them, nearly five feet square. The half-dozen crates are revealed to each have a single giant lithium-ion battery in them, which are quickly unpacked, and the techs get to work splicing assorted wires together. Within five minutes, the connections are complete and the lieutenant general has returned. The soldiers linger, and expectation is heavy in the air as you approach the first battery. One or two soldiers take an unconscious step backward, clearly unsure what is about to happen.

You grasp the contacts the tech has pointed out to you, and let loose. The drain is immediate and noticeable, like pouring water into a bottomless pit, the battery greedily accepting all of the power you pour into it. It is perhaps the first time you’ve felt an actual drain when you’ve fired up your juice. Instinctively, you throttle back until you're keeping up with the output so that it doesn't drain you. After longer than you expected, you sense the battery fill up, and move on to the next one. Each battery takes significantly longer this way, and most of the soldier start dispersing once you start in on the second battery. By the fourth one, the general’s words about amount of energy required strike home – whatever you’re powering up seems to literally need a noticeable percentage of a large city’s energy budget. Two-thirds of the way through the fourth battery, the general motions that you can stop - it's been over twenty minutes, and he may be starting to get bored. That should hold us for a day or two. The air around you is starting to feel flat and dead, and remembering feeling the variations in that feeling as you flew around, you guess that you’ve simply used up a significant amount of the local supply of whatever it is that your body converts into energy.

Congratulations – if you did nothing else with your time, you could probably power a medium-sized city as a full-time job. In general terms, you’ve used up about a third of your energy/PP (or you would have if you needed to spend PP). If you go more than about 40 feet from where you are in any direction, you’ll sense a normal amount of energy in the air. Also, you notice vaguely that you’ve been working at the side of the hangar this whole time, and there’s a framework in place that looks like it’s on its way to becoming a shed around the generators/batteries. The hangar itself is closed, and there seems to be relatively little activity around it.

The general then pipes up. Impressive – this will make the mayor’s energy council significantly happier with us. We'll likely go through two or so batteries a day - think you'd be up to providing us with that kind of juice? As the soldiers disperse and the light show appears to be over, he walks over to you and hands you a file. I’m afraid it’s a little thin – it’s precisely how little we’ve been able to find out that’s got the authorities so worried. As you leaf through the file, you find police reports on a pair of robberies, one last night and one the night before. The first one was a bank and the second a jewelry store. In both cases, relatively little was taken, a few dozen thousand from the bank and perhaps two dozen pieces from the jewelry store. What disturbed the forensics techs enough to get this sent here, however, was the total lack of physical evidence – the only proof that there had been a robbery at all was the missing items, and an unlined index card at each crime scene that had “Thanks!” printed on it. Both businesses were smaller and local, and both actually somewhat local to you, in that they’re about as hard for you to get to from home as the high school or the grocery store or the local move theater would be – they’re in your general area.


Jack/Tasha/Inferno

Inferno immediately turns to look, nearly dropping the last bite of his hot dog. Where?


Reaper/Pulse

*munching popcorn* Just poke me if I miss my next entrance cue. :-) Oh, and Reaper, in case you are interested, it is common knowledge that St. Paul’s is using part of the $10 million from Forthwind to start up a research program to answer questions similar to yours. No mutate has yet reported being mistreated in any way by participating.


Alex

If you were dealing with a frightened mugger before, you’re now dealing with a terrified man, who’s clutching his gun like it’s his last friend in the world. You…you’re one of them! Look, I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. But I ain’t goin’ to jail again, man – I *ain’t*. And they’d put you away for just as long if you kill me, man. The gun is now pointed at you, and a close look at his face shows that he’s about a hair away from pulling the trigger. The train begins to slow down as it approaches the next stop.

You have [roll0] rounds until you get to the stop and the doors open. You can tell that your Intimidation is working great – if you were in an alley, he’d be running for his life. But he has nowhere to run in this train car, so he’s reduced to the semi-randomness of desperation.


Oblivion/Nos/Jason

Jason’s wary eyes dim slowly as you speak to him; he nods slowly at your assessment of his feelings at beings hospitalized. When you finish, there is a moment of silence before he quietly mumbles Yeah…yeah, that sounds nice. With an attempt at wry smile, he adds Just, uh, no more chasing me down, all right?

As Oblivion exits the hospital, his unfathomable face conceals an equally impenetrable mind. Who may know his next move, or any of his plans or designs?

((Well, mostly only him, but partially the DM. Check your inbox.))


Ace

((You're visiting...your brother? Wanted to make sure before I posted. Unless of course you weren't waiting for me.))

[Wiz]

Pulse

After a few hours, some portable listening devices are finished and a short battery of tests are concluded on Reaper and his powers.

Harmonic TempestLet me know if you want me to make a roll for any of the Reaper stuff.

The scientist nods. "Well, that's about all I can do with the equipment on hand... I'll be working on the multiscanner and coalating results for you." He gathers up the tracers and hands them to Reaper. "I suppose we should see what 1337 has found and if he has any targets for you to place these on."

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Alex's voice softens some, taking on the smooth tone he had used in countless business deals if things got a little too heated. "Just put the gun and what you have taken down. This need not end with anyone getting hurt or anyone going to prison. All I want is to get home after a long day at the office. I think the others here would agree with me that we want nothing more than to go on our merry way.

"The next stop is coming up. If you drop it all and depart, this event never happened. Understand?" He smiles wide, infinitely glad his hat, glasses, and jacket made for a decent makeshift disguise.

Even though the roller tends to hate me when it's time for critical rolls, I'm going to manually roll Diplomacy: [roll0] to talk him down and end this without bloodshed.

I'm no hero, but it's somewhere people can see me. Murder is bad form if there are witnesses.:smallamused:

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

Once he saw the back of her head, Jack knew, for a fact, who this girl was... well... not specifically "who", but he knew for a fact that he'd just seen this girl clutching her head and mumbling a few minutes ago. She was in fact the girl who'd left the majority of her plate un-eaten, who'd made the guy at the counter more personable than usual, the lot of it.

Jack, for his part, just smiled.

"Thought I saw a really neat looking bird over there; must've been a trick of the light, or something. My bad," Jack exhaled his latest puff on his cigarette, "Tell you what, I could make it up to you; we could meet up sometime for a couple drinks, maybe a dance or two. Sound good?"

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine


Neat bird? Tasha said questioningly.

That's the oldest trick in the book! What the heck was I thinking?! Tasha thought to herself, What did he do while I wasn't looking?

The girl kept her eyes on Jack as she took a step back from him and slid her hands into her pockets, checking her wallet and belongings. Cell phone, check... Wallet, check. Even with the distance between them, she didn't want to take the chance that he'd swiped her ID somehow. The man WAS the shifty sort, and who knew what other powers he had.

No thank you. I just ate. She told him hurriedly, I really need to get home, in fact. But thank you for the offer...

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

Jack raised his hands placatingly and chuckled.

"Alright, alright, fair enough, no need to panic. Just trying to be friendly, y'know?" The gambler, though smiling disarmingly on the outside, was laughing his diaphragm out on the inside. This girl was acting like he'd just swiped her grandmother's engagement ring behind her back, when really, he'd done little more than crack her facade and poke around inside. It felt good... no, great, to see somebody freaking out more these days than Jack had been; one doesn't blow up a bottle of aged scotch without some kind of distress, after all. Her behavior was screaming all kinds of possibilities at Jack, but the gambler decided squarely that it was best left alone.

"Well, I've got nothing important to do this afternoon, but I'm going to go act like I do. Nice meeting you, Clair; try to take it easy, huh? You seem a little jumpy. See you around." With that, Jack gave Inferno a nod, turned, and started walking. He had nothing planned, nothing pressing... perhaps he'd stroll the town for a while.

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Yeah... Ok, Jack. Thanks? She said, a bit confused... There had to have been more to that trick than that, right? Well good luck with your explosion... power... thing.

In her best attempt at being non-chalant, she turned to head off. She figured it a better idea to walk around a bit before she got to her car, and make sure no one was following her or trying to get her plates, and so, with a quick farewell to the burning man, she did just that... and tried to calm herself down.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! That was way too close! She chided herself inwardly, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. Espionage is difficult.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

There come moments in our lives when, somebody says that one, simple remark, that leaves your blood running cold. No, cold isn't the word for it; it's like someone made a shower that is cooled with liquid nitrogen, yet still emits water in a true liquid state... and then they stuck you in the tub, naked, and turned it on.

That very chill shot up Jack's spine, and he stopped dead in his tracks. The cigarette fell from his lips, and he whirled around, staring at the back of "Clair's" head.

"How do you know about that, Clair?"

Seconds later, the lost cigarette burst into a ball of fire behind him.

[harmonictempest]

Pulse/Reaper

After sharing your results with Reaper, you gather up the products of your labor, hide Reaper in your cloak, and make your way back to Police HQ, where you are directed to the side room they’ve given 1337. As you enter the sparsely furnished room, you find 1337 sitting a few feet away from the laptop, eyes closed and lips moving. The sound of the door closing behind you seems to register, and he opens his eyes, though it seems to take a minute for his mouth to slow back down. HeyaguyssweettimingIgotgoodnews—woah. Um, anyway, I got more than I’d bargained for in my search. I started with the names and aliases of the guys the police have checked in, then tracked their electronic trails out to see what else they intersected with. Didn’t get as many names as I hoped, but they weren’t smart enough to mask their IPs, so I have a few locations for you.
You already know that the Gnarly Coyote is a popular hangout of the Suits, but given the amount of email traffic 1337 has found routing through there, they probably have meetings there, too.
You confirm the police’s suspicion that Edgar’s Pawn Shop is a front for the Neo-Mafia.
The only useful additional info you get on the Lost Angels is that the casino is in fact at a consistent location.
As far as plans and stuff, we’ll have to get closer to get details, ‘cause they’re mostly smart enough not to say anything incriminating in emails. But…they’re not all as careful as they should be. I’m working on connecting email addresses to names, but it’s way too easy to make an anonymous email these days, so that’s going slowly. I can read most of the emails, fine, though. The Suits look like they’re planning a big meeting tonight, and they do the worst job of keeping a tight lid on their email. Some idiot got the day wrong because it’s at midnight, and the guy who corrected him confirmed the time as midnight tonight. They haven’t said the place, but it sounds like a “usual” place for them, so I’d put good odds on it being at the Gnarly Coyote…somewhere. Neo-Mafia’s better about the email stuff, but I did catch a complaint in one email about having to be up “so late it might as well be early” for a special shipment. Again, I couldn’t be sure, but it looks like they do business out of Edgar’s, so that’s my guess as to where the shipment’s coming in.
The Lost Angels are…well, they’re kinda vanilla. There’s a little bit of the tenseness you see with the other two, people emailing each other privately and worrying about the explosion and stuff, but it’s otherwise exactly the same as their email traffic two weeks ago.

Anyway, I could look into this for weeks and probably find out anything I wanted to know eventually – it’s all just patterns, and patterns always lead somewhere eventually. But that’s what I could do in an afternoon. How’d shop class go for you guys?


Alex

As you begin to speak, you raise your hands in a placating manner. The gesture is small, but enough to set off the man’s hair-trigger panic. The gun goes off, and at this range, he’s not about to miss..
Need a Will save of at least [roll0]: [roll1] should only fail on a 1.
..which he doesn’t, but the bullet ricochets off your force field, invisibly deflected into the ceiling. Several passengers scream, but the man just looks at you blankly before sagging in the knees, the impotence of this last act of defiance having taken the fight out of him. As you finish speaking, he nods, resigned and terrified in equal measures. As the train slows to a stop, he scoops wallets out of his pockets by the handful, and as soon as the doors open, he takes off. Sprinting through the station, he causes no small amount of hubbub, as he’s still holding the gun in one hand. There is a small but controlled as the passengers collect their wallets and purses from the floor of the car. Then they turn to look at you.

If you’ve shut off your force field:
They crowd up to you immediately, thanking you profusely and badgering you with questions. “That was amazing!” “Thank you, thank you!” “Weren’t you scared?” “That was awesome!” “How long have you been fighting crime?” “Are you single?!?!”
Otherwise:
They all smile and shout their thanks before leaving the train, but none get too close to you, clearly unsure what exactly that smoky field would do.


Jack/Tasha/Inferno

As the cigarrette bursts into flame, Inferno instinctively takes a step back, with the air of a kid caught raiding the cookie jar. "That...that wasn't me, promise."

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

It takes Alex mildly by surprise when the thug actually fires, but maintains his composure. It would take more than a gun now to rattle him. The field drops the instant the thief flees the scene and he sighs heavily. What I wouldn't give to pursue him and give him a lesson or three...but no.

As the people begin to crowd, he holds his hands up some and clears his throat in an effort to silence the clamoring crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen, I do not fight crime. I am not a hero. All I am is a person, just like you all, who wants to get on with his life. I work the same hours as you. My skills are no greater than yours. In truth, all I had working in my favor was the element of surprise. You may be amazed at how fast some of these people will flee if you show them a firm hand. There is a risk, yes, but most of you take greater risks on a daily basis.

"I would put the call out through you. Gather what strength you have. Simply because there has been a shift in humanity is no reason to resign yourself to being powerless. If someone threatens what you have worked hard for, you have every right to defend yourself and your property. Take a class in defensive techniques. Know how to avoid being scammed. Stand up for your own rights within the courts. These criminals continue to act because they know that people in your position tend to be pushovers. Ask yourself this: if they know, do these new people in spandex playing hero know it? Exploitation is a powerful tool.

"All I ask is that you have a care. Do not sacrifice what is rightfully yours in the name of freedom or security. You've earned the right to live and succeed. How many years did you put in through school? At your job? In your personal life? How much work have you put into yourself? Do not let the world take that away.

"I'm just a man. Take that lesson to heart. Just because I can deflect bullets does not mean I am anything but. Beware, though, of those who would say otherwise. They are men and women, too, and can be brought low just the same, if need be." Alex sighed heavily again to give himself the appearance of someone who has been greatly wearied by the events. It helped to perpetuate his previous statement. Humanity versus those changed. Let the games begin. The most evil smirk you can imagine threatened to cross his face, but control kept it buried.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks at Reaper after reviewing the data. "You're affected by all types of light, but your most sensitive area is your eyes. A pair of good sunglasses should help with that... you should be able to tolerate normal artificial light completely with that protection. Sunlight is a little more complicated, you are abnormally sensitive to Ultraviolet C. Most sunscreen and other solar protection focuses on Ultraviolet B. Give me a little time and I might be able to come up with a special type of sunscreen - chemical solutions aren't what I'm best at, but I'm confident I can figure something out in a fairly short period of time."

After Reaper responds, the two return to the station to get 1337's report. "Sounds good... perhaps we should have Reaper attend this meeting with me on standby in case anything goes wrong. He can distribute the devices to the most promising targets he observes." He tosses a box on the table, "The devices are inside, I have to shield them if I carry them on my person - most of my personal technology is immune to the flux of my magnetic radar, but if I get to close to active electronics I can short them out, and since they are voice activated for transmission and motion sensitive for tracking I didn't want to carry them in my pocket."

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu smiles at the response beneath his mask, and nods to the bedridden youth before heading out the door.
Waiting for Oblivion as they walk, Nosferatu is still smiling and lets out a relieved cheuckle.

"It's good to know we already have a recruitment center up and running.

Seriously though, nice job in there. It's amazing what an effect some well placed and well timed words can have.

So, any other errands you would appreciate assistance with? If not, I think I will test out the Petal Network, see how the group is doing."

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Well that seems like a silly thing to ask now, doesn it? Tasha said, spinning around with a smile. Besides, I saw you out here before on the street. Before you went in to the sushi place.

She flashed a disarming smirk, his sudden shot-down confidence making her feel a bit more bold. She could play this off easy... Slick gambling man or not.

I was curious. I'd never seen a real, live super... guy... before. So I followed you. And then this guy here came along and... well... you should team up or something. Call yourselves the Brothers of Flame, or something.... She shifted slightly, arms behind her back, as if unafraid of the two, Anyway. I'm sorry I bothered you. I just wanted to meet a mutant up close. I keep seeing you guys on the news and all that. But I can't really stay. I have a paper due and my teacher is a real jerk about things being on time... so I've got to go. It was nice to meet you though, Jack!

Ok, two things. First, my bluff! Taking ten on it for a 26. MOST of that is true though. :P

Second... it's Claire with an e! That's been bugging the crap outta me. :smalltongue:

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

"Saw me on the street, huh?" Suddenly, Jack was grinning again... but this time, it wasn't an especially nice grin, "So lemme get this straight, "Claire". You saw me on the street, decided to follow me into a restaurant, wherein you watched me eat a meal while pretending to eat food that you didn't like... and then you tried to leave before I did, so that it wouldn't be suspicious?" Now it was Jack's turn to put his hands in his pockets.

"Man, Claire, that's quite the story. In fact, it's so good, I bet the cops would love to hear the one about "my stalker named "Claire"". Whattaya think, eh?" Jack's grin had vanished at this point; now, the gambler was serious, and he walked a little closer to "Claire", lowering his voice a little, "So how about we make a little deal, kid. You go ahead and forget about what you saw today, and leave me alone, y'understand? I didn't ask for this. So you forget... and nothing bad'll happen."

[harmonictempest]

Alex

There is a single beat of silence before the small crowd roars its approval, then makes a hole for you to be the first to exit the train.
[roll0] to see if anyone you know is in the train station.

Edit: Nope - no one you see, anyway.


Pulse/Reaper/1337

1337 nods. I mean, good by me – whatever you guys wanna do is cool. I don’t know how late the delivery to the pawn shop is, but it sounded pretty late…there’d probly be time to go to there after the Suits meeting at midnight, assuming we find it. Suddenly struck by a thought, he pales. Oh…did…did you want me to come with you? I mean, it might be really useful if they have a computer we can get close to or something, but…man, I don’t wanna get shot at. He seems torn.

Y’all are in charge. 1337 is pretty much gonna do what you tell him during this adventure, so it's completely up to you whether you want him along or not.

[Wiz]

Pulse

Pulse looks at the young man, "No, of course not... you're going to get the electronic tags off of those bugs and you'll be monitoring the movements and the conversations of those who are bugged. While continuing to do your other research of course."

[BloodyAngel]

Natasha Verraine

Did.... did you just threaten me? Tasha said in shock, recoiling from Jack as he advanced on her, but not stepping away, and not bothering in the least to keep her voice down so others could not hear her. I... d-don't even know you... why are you threatening me?

That said, she lowered her voice to a quiet, sinister tone, and glared the cocky gambler in the eye.

I feel bad for you, Jack... but don't push me. I don't want to hurt you, but I could ruin your life if I wanted. She said in a low whisper, waiting to see how he reacted as she feigned her fear of him for the witnesses to the scene.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Simple minds are the easiest to affect. Any one of them could have attempted what I did...maybe not in the same way, but they could have just as easily been the hero instead of me. It matters little; I have spent enough time trolling the internet since high school to know how this goes. This is a giant comic book and I get to play Lex. Of course, knowing this, there are two ways it can be played. I think I know how to best do it.

As he exits the train, a wide smirk crosses his face as images of power cross his thoughts. Doors opened, windows closed, and the path branched twenty different times in twelve different directions. Each one would lead him to his goal, but each was also fraught with peril of a different sort. It was all a matter of risk versus reward.

A massive thought hits him, as if the bullet had actually struck home. Alex, you bloody fool! He had forgotten that his company, Steel Widgets, had done a fair amount of work with Forthwind until about three months ago when they had found a more economical shipper who took better care of precision machined parts. There was a guy, Leonard, who might be able to get him something to work with here. That sounds like the first order of business tomorrow at the office. I can easily do that; most of my work for the week was done last week, thank gods. Cracking his knuckles, he decides to head for The Ugly Monkey, a bar about five blocks from his apartment complex.

Despite the name, The Ugly Monkey had become a very classy place where the 9-to-5 crowd of younger businessmen went after a long day to knock back a few mixed drinks at a reasonable price. You know, I could create this bar without the aid of that..."Man" character and make it an actually respectable place. Alex walked in through the heavy oak doors slowly, nodding to the patrons who raised their glasses to him in salute. Most of them knew each other in some way or another. Regardless of if they worked for rival companies, The Ugly Monkey was neutral ground and the work of the day was left at the office. This was a place for people to be people.

The bar itself was decidedly uncrowded yet, most people choosing to eat dinner before coming by. As well, it was a Tuesday night. Not nearly as many people would come by. "Rum and Coke," Alex chimed as he slid his debit card across to the bartender.

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

Jack sneered.

"Look, you ever have pieces of your life blow up in your face? Literally? Huh? I'd like to see you ruin my life worse than it already is. In FACT, I don't believe you at all, and I don't have much of a reason to," Jack pulled the pack of cards out of his pocket and started shuffling them one handed, then two handed, then one handed again as he spoke. This girl was pissing Jack off to no end.

"But see, I've tried to be reasonable here. All I did was state a fact; I've told you what I can do, and all I've asked in return is that you keep quiet about my little problem... so now, who's threatening whom?"

Bitch.

[BloodyAngel]

Removed... due to the fact that it didn't happen. :smallyuk:

[MountainKing]

Jack Pretto

(OOC: Since Jack won initiative, should I assume that this occurs before Natasha starts her little scene?)

Jack, for his part, gave "Claire" the sort of venomous glare mixed with an almost... smug, certainty that he was, in fact, right. This stupid, insipid girl was going nuts complaining about a stupid old bench; given that she supposedly lived around here, she was probably some kind of lame art student, the kind who brought in misshapen lumps of dirt and proclaimed that it was art. The worst thing she had to deal with was term papers; Jack, in the meantime, had his environment literally blowing up in his face.

If only something would just... shut her up.

Jack's head jerked at the sound of panicked shouting from above; the gambler had barely enough time to jump backwards and cover his face as a window pain came hurtling down from a third story apartment...

Alright, you've already failed your Reflex save... let's see how much hurt you take.

...and yes, I know. It's spelled "pane". Natasha takes: [roll0], [roll1], [roll2], [roll3], [roll4], [roll5] equals 19 damage, and luckily for me, PM effects rolls IN combat as well, though I need a GM ruling on whether or not using Cause Accident counts as using Probability Manipulation for the turn. I can see it either way, but if I *can*, I'd like to enhance whatever d6 roll is the lowest to its full potential of 6, bringing the damage total to 24.

...and if anyone can tell me the forum code for making it show individual rolls out of a group of dice, that'd be awesome.

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Nosferatu

Nosferatu smiles at the response beneath his mask, and nods to the bedridden youth before heading out the door.
Waiting for Oblivion as they walk, Nosferatu is still smiling and lets out a relieved cheuckle.

"It's good to know we already have a recruitment center up and running.

Seriously though, nice job in there. It's amazing what an effect some well placed and well timed words can have.

So, any other errands you would appreciate assistance with? If not, I think I will test out the Petal Network, see how the group is doing."

Oblivion

After pausing at the front desk to write out a note and then provide instructions on which patient was to receive them, he walked out into the cool afternoon street with his erstwhile companion.

As Nosferatu spoke, a scowl creased Oblivion’s brow, his eyes tightening into narrow slits.

We!?! As if “we”, lacking even a group consensus on a name, were already part of something more than a rag-tag group of mutually, and randomly, affected acquaintances. “We”, less or organized than AA, who have at least a guide-book and a specific goal!

Not responding for a long moment as he fumed inwardly, he finally replied without looking at young Neo-Sapien beside him on the sidewalk, speaking in starkly neutral tones “Yes, amazing. I was certainly glad for the…opportunity.
Well, I suppose our conversation on greater organization of the meeting can wait till another time. I would make one suggestion though, in future; catering. Good day Nosferatu, until we meet again.”

With that, he headed off in the general direction of downtown, intending to make his meeting with CJ before the day was through.
Prudence suggested he gain as much information on his next target as possible before making any decisions one way or another.

I must remember to call that gambler fellow Jack as well. He sounded like he was having a bit of a hard time keeping things under control, despite, if my memory serves me correctly, his seeming debonair sensibility.
Hmmm…perhaps dinner…I wonder if I should invite Natasha, I do always appreciate her “insight” into such matters…

He continued his musing, even as he leaped, climbed, and ran gracefully across the rooftops of downtown, cocooned in dark energy and darker leather, in the general direction of CJ’s club.

Now, I don’t necessarily expect any random encounter at this point, but if Oblivion were to catch a hint of, oh I don’t know, explosions, huge bursts of fire, or loud screams, feel free to let it happen. Never a dull moment in Rainport it would seem. :smallamused:

[evisiron]

Nosferatu

Catering...?

"Are you kidding?! NO-ONE EVEN LEFT LOoSE CHANGE TO HELP COVER THOSE SNACKS!"

Nosferatu stopped shouting to the departing figure, unsure if he was even being heard. The guy was ...odd. And even in the best of times a loud demonic yell may not be the best thing...

With that, Nosferatu took off into the air, stopping off to purchase a sturdy looking baseball bat in a nearby sports store. Several seconds are spend pondering a black hockey mask. "...nah. Too slasher-flick"

After departing, he dug into his pocket and grasped the petal, moving to a quiet area to be more discrete when using it. Holding it, he mentally formed the words through it, hoping others had procrastinated as much over hiding their petals.

[Petal Network] ---Hey. Nosferatu here. I am free and patrolling if people need assistance with anything important. ... Over"

[Tar Palantir]

The Reaper

The Reaper listened carefully to Pulse's diagnosis, and the subsequent conversation between him and 1337. He adds, "It should be easy enough for me to plant the devices. After that, did you find anything on MY OLD FRIEND?" He frowns, then coughs, an echoing sound that sends a chill down the spines of his companions. He shakes his head. "I don't know what came over me. A side effect, perhaps? Never mind, it's not important now. What's the address of the Suits meeting, 1337?"

[harmonictempest]

Pulse/Reaper/1337

As Pulse delivers his decision, 1337 nods vigorously, clearly relieved to be the Disembodied Voice rather than the Mostly Hapless Sidekick. He nods in satisfaction as he examines the devices you’ve created. These will work fine. Okay Reaper, so the little button ones are trackers - you can stick one on anyone you want to follow, and I’ll be able to track ‘em from here, but you don’t get audio with that. The quarter-sized ones are personal bugs - they carry audio instead, but have a pretty short range, so you’ll have to carry the amp. It’ll pick up the audio from any bugs within about a hundred yards and both record it and relay it back to me. I have no idea if it’ll work while you’re in a shadow, but I guess we’ll find out. The phone-sized ones are recorders. They’re bigger because they keep their tape internal, but that lets them not use radio signals, which makes ‘em near impossible to find with sweepers, in case anyone is smart enough to be using those. It also means we’ll have to pick them up again to get results, so I dunno if you’ll wind up using them. Anyway, the meeting’s likely in some back room at the Gnarly Coyote. I can look up blueprints while you guys are on your way, but they’re probably not going to have “Secret Meeting Chamber” marked, y’know?

As far as your old pal, Reaper, looks like he didn’t really fancy managing the safehouse for the rest of his career. Seems he taught himself to shoot with his left hand after your last little incident, and was actually pretty good at it. He was graduated from enforcer to “security”. Like, the kind of security that sits in a fourth-floor window two blocks away when an important exchange is going on, just in case it goes sour. He still runs the safehouse, but he’s called off for special assignments a bunch now. I’m still working on tracking down the safehouse.

You guys need anything else, I’ll be in Reaper’s ear.

((Pulse, that was my guess at a clarification on the form and function of the devices you made. You're welcome to determine how many of each you made, though I don't think you had time to make more than 6-8 total.))

If your petal is on your person, it begins pulsing, which you can immediately notice and respond to if you so choose. You will hear Nos's message above. If it's not on your person, would you let me know where you're hiding it, either by PM or in OOC?


Tasha/Jack/Inferno

A single pane of window glass falls from a scaffold, spinning like a crazed jumbo shuriken. Fortunately, instead of decapitating Tasha, it hits her broadside on the head and shoulder, smashing and giving her one or two scratches to remember it by. ((Tasha’s turn))


Alex

The interior of the Ugly Monkey was anything but ugly. The cool, dark, restaurant and bar boasted the sort of quiet lighting and mahogany-paneled bar of the archetypical good ol’ boys club, though of course in this day and age there was a fair sprinkling of young businesswomen mixed into the crowd as well. Maxwell, the bartender, takes your card with his usual aplomb and begins pulling your drink. Glancing around, you see that you know a fair percentage of the people here, more so those at the bar than those eating dinner. Oliver and Martin, two of the younger managers at one of your competitors, Titanium Widgets, are eating dinner near the door. James, one of Marcus’ protégés and a rising star at AlacraStore. Brendan from AKZO, still a frat boy at heart. Mike and Skip from Genentech, speaking in hushed tones over their slightly-pretentious scotch. Madison, Beverly and Jill, along with some of their other girlfriends, sipping girly drinks before heading home to their cats because their careers intimidated too many potential boyfriends. A junior architect from Lockheed Martin whose name you can’t quite recall. And a half-dozen other businesspeople you don’t know, sitting at various spots along the bar to enjoy a quiet drink before heading home. The two most noticeable are a stunningly beautiful young woman sitting by herself and sipping bourbon on the rocks, and a slightly rotund young man with wispy black hair, engrossed in a newspaper.


Oblivion

Let’s see. I’d say…20% chance you happen to notice something. [roll0]

Edit: Yup, a lovely day. Birds chirping, sun shining. You make it to CJ's with little incident. If you go inside, you'll find him cleaning up and getting ready for the rush later. He greets you with a casual nod, and continues cleaning, knowing you've got some explaining to do.

If your petal is on your person, it begins pulsing, which you can immediately notice and respond to if you so choose. You will hear Nos's message above. If it's not on your person, would you let me know where you're hiding it, either by PM or in OOC?


Nos

You hold the petal in your hand, and focus your thoughts. It seems to work, though you can’t be sure, never having used the Petal Network before. In a few seconds, about as long as it’d take to get a text message response, you start hearing answers, which are fortunately easily distinguishable from one another.

Jen: An audible sigh, though not too frustrated. Just another day at the hospital, though you know how far from ordinary that is these days. We’re not dying or anything, but if you’re lookin’ for work, we could easily find something for you to do, and there’s definitely a situation or two with our newest patients that we haven’t had time to resolve yet. (Location: hospital)
Erica: (No response)
Scarab: After a longer response than the others, his answer comes back strangely muffled. Uh, I’m fine. Just fine. Uh, don’t need help with anything. I gotta go. His response cuts off abruptly, and his voice sounds subtly different in a way you can’t quite pinpoint. (Location: north end of town)
Hex: A sulking voice immediately replies. No, I’m fine. I got noticed skipping lunch at school, and my parents like, totally flipped out and grounded me. So unless you wanna like, bust in here and save me from them, then I’m good. (Location: west side of town)
Reaper*:
Oblivion*:
Gust: A quiet voice with a dry smirk in it comes back. Well, I just finishing tackling a particularly troublesome cloud, but that’s been the toughest challenge in the neighborhood so far. (Location: the big blue beyond)
Kid Zeus*:


Kid Zeus (1/25), Paragon (1/22), Judith (1/18), Ace (1/21)

The world’s your oyster, guys. I’m on the verge of PMing some of you, since all of you except dfpiii have been active on the boards...just not here.

If your petal is on your person, it begins pulsing, which you can immediately notice and respond to if you so choose. You will hear Nos's message above. If it's not on your person, would you let me know where you're hiding it, either by PM or in OOC?

[ChronicLunacy]

Kid Zeus

Kid Zeus spent as long as he needed to finish reading the file, poring over it for any small detail he could pry out of it before putting it down. He slapped his hands on his knees before he finally got up. "No physical evidence at all?" he mused. "Did he leave the cases and safes he took these valuables from locked or was he able to open them first?" he asked curiously. He had to think outside the box here, take into account the kind of powers this guy might have. Was he a teleporter? Did he just...zap the stuff out of their cases? Or could he become immaterial and just reach through it? Both ways might explain the lack of physical evidence. Ghosts and magicians didn't need to leave fingerprints to steal something.

There was one ray of light, however. The calling card that the thief left at the scenes of his crimes meant that he had an ego. He was taunting them, wanting the police and the national guard and anyone else who had hopes of ending his spree to know that nothing they could do would help. He thought he was untouchable. Kid Zeus was going to show him just how wrong he was.

Just then the petal he was carrying in a pocket went off and he started hearing Nosferatu's voice in his head. Grinning, he grabbed the petal and thought at it in response. "I'm heading to (location of most recent robbery) to investigate a mutate thief who's been stealing stuff without leaving a single trace at the scenes of his crimes. I'll tell you more about it if you want to meet me there, Nos."

[Thrall_Of_Ao]

Oblivion

Moving down to street level a full block's distance from CJ's club, he considered his options, even as he made certain the alleyway in which he stood was indeed deserted.

Satisfied with his assesment, his dialing up CJ's bar was interrupted by the odd pulsing of the petal he had aquired at the meeting.

He sure doesn't waste any time...just one big happy family now I guess...no wonder that psychic kid didn't take his.

Ignoring it for the time being, he listened to the BB King "wait music" for a few moments before hanging up, knowing CJ would see the number and know he was calling ahead and would be arriving shortly.

Satisfied things were properly arranged for his visit to CJ's, he pulled out the glowing petal, even a devious concept slowly began to bloom in his mind.
His lips curled as thought the message through, then deliberately projected the message into the magical device.

I doubt this would be so easy if not for my...training...with lovely Natasha, he thought with a rueful smile, wondering for the briefest of moments where she was and what she was doing.

[Petal Network:Nosferatu] "Trivia Question for you Nos: Which deceased major historical figure's picture am I looking at right now? Hint: This person's image is seen by many people all across the country every day.
You have one hour to think it over during which time you cannot answer.
If you get it right on the first guess, you win a mystery prize. Hint: The answer to the question comes with the prize. Lesser 2nd and 3rd place prizes for if it takes more than one guess.
Now don't bother me unless it's an emergency"

Satisfied that he would have at least one uninterupted hour to meet with his long time friend, he moved stealthily through the remaining block to enter CJ's by the back entrance.

No point in attracting unwanted attention in this part of town...


***

As he walked into CJ's, his self imposed half mask melting away almost without a thought, he could help but smirk, crossing his arms briefly and shaking his head.

Man doesn't miss a beat. He's not even a little suprised.

Wordlessly taking a seat at the bar, he pulls out his wallet, sliding a ten across the bar and saying "bartender, White Russian on the rocks please."

Wating until CJ had poured his drink, he pulled out the envelope he aquired the night before, he laid out CJ's cut on the counter before replacing the envelope in the dark folds of his leathers.

"Here's your tip, with my thanks sir."

With a grin, he dropped the facade' and said "So, tell me a story about our new mutual friend, then we can talk about my new...social position."

He took a swig of his drink, appreciating the taste perhaps more now that so little passed his lips anymore, and calmly listened to his friend, his black eyes lost in the drinks murky deptsh, while a ghost of a smile played upon his lips.

Gettin' paid, dealin' with gun-running scum bags, diggin' up dirt. Just like old times...well, almost.

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

Are they new or simply been traveling under my radar so far? That redhead is a seriously beautiful woman, but it is bad policy to mix business with pleasure. As well, the guy reading the newspaper could be pumped for information after a few drinks, but that goes against standing policies here. If we are seen leaving together under that pretext, there is a good chance we would be banned for life. That, more than anything, would put me on a huge taboo list. No, no. Time will tell on what should be done.

Cold and refreshing, the first couple of sips from his drink slithered down his throat. Alex was home. The atmosphere of the place, free of smoke and only one screen showing sports, was quite soothing. Light jazz, intermixed sometimes with a rousing big band number or three, was piped in through the sound system.

Alex mused some about how the place evolves. During the week, The Ugly Monkey was a place to mellow after work and shed the stress of the day. Once Friday rolled around, though, the whole bar changed. Loud, heavy rock music would pound through the surrounding sidewalk and reverberate through the street. Few groups let their hair down further than a group of upper-middle management with time off. Alex had even come down several times to feel the vibe of the place. It was frantic, eager, yet oddly calming. It was something completely natural and primal within the steel jungle of Rainport.

Swirling his glass softly, Alex takes one more look at the two notables down the bar. Time to roll the dice once more. Who's on deck tonight?

I have no idea which I want to talk to. Consider this filler and flavor to set up possible later events. Another post will come later this weekend when I decide how I want to move on.

[harmonictempest]

Oblivion

CJ, ever capable of playing cool, takes your ten without comment. Folding it over, he uses it as a coaster, pushing it and your glass back to you. The “tip”, however, he counts carefully, eventually pursing his lips, putting the money back on the counter, folding his arms, and leaning back against the shelves to study you.

What I tol’ you ‘bout keepin’ yo’ fights in da ring?
Like I tol’ you, this Gabriel fellow’s been in wit da wrong crowd fo’ a long time. Used ta be hot stuff, a freelance dealer, but lost his edge ‘bout a year ago. He came in here las’ night, beggin’ ta be in da game – tol’ me he need’d the money real bad. I think he was getting sourced through one a’ da gangs, and if he tells ‘em he *had* their money and some punk called Draven stole it offa him…

He gives you an even stare.
*skin check* Nope, still not black

Alex

Some more filler and flavor, while you wait. :-)

General note: The world is an interesting place, whether or not there’s a PC around. Everything that’s happening and about to happen was already planned before Alex walked in. You are not compelled to talk to either of them, or anyone else here - like I said, no penalty for not following every potential plot hook you see.

The redhead finishes her drink, and with an elegant toss of her hair, hands the glass back to the bartender, who cracks an incredibly uncharacteristic smile. He pours her a SoCo and lime, which she throws back with a practiced hand, then turns to put a few things back in her purse, presumably to get ready to leave. You’ve seen no money change hands, though it’s conceivable she’s on a tab.

The wispy-haired young man starts suddenly as if jolted, and stuffs his hand into his pocket. It might have been a cell on vibrate, but there was no visible bulge. Furrowing his brow, he appears to concentrate as if in deep thought or prayer, and his lips move slightly (DC 15 Spot to read lips, doesn’t require a conscious action). After a few moments, he removes his hand, and taking a breath or two to calm down, he smirks, and orders a Blue Moon.

Mildly uninteresting as this people-watching may be, it’s about as interesting this bar gets; you’ve had drinks or eaten dinner with most of these people before, and could easily do so again. A few new faces is also pretty standard – if they’re still showing up in a week, they’ll begin integrating into the “usual crowd”.

[dfpiii]

Professor Dark

The dark core of Paragon, the imperial pride, twitched and lashed like a beast in a pit. Professor Dark watched the emotion objectively, as one might observe the explosion of distant stars.

He switched off the lights in his office and headed through the quiet campus. He had memorised the layout of the buildings during his tour. There still were distant noises; laughter, urgent running, beyond them cars in the city. Dark loved the sound of a campus at night - which was just as well as he'd spent the last ten years studying, living and working on one.

Inside again Dark searched through the selection of overall coats on pegs for one in his size, and donning it he entered the lab.

"There's really only one question that matters at this point," Dark said, entirely without preamble. He pulled out a tall metal stool and sat on it with his hands, relaxed, resting on his thighs.

"How long did it take you to decide not to come and see me?"

[OldSchoolGamer7]

Alex

She's outta your league, kid. If she's here Friday, then approach. If not, then it was a mere chance to enjoy some eye candy. Maybe the balding one has something to make tonight more interesting. Alex slides down the bar some, not bothering to read the man's lips beforehand. "Forgive my intrusion, but I couldn't help but notice something is bothering you. It is...well, I have a problem when other people have problems of the nature you seem to have. If you are willing, I might be able to lend a hand." Offering his hand gingerly, he smiles wide. "I'm Alex."

That's right. Lay it on thick. Curry his favor and use whatever resources he has...then drop him off, preferably a bridge. The smile never fades, though someone might be able to see that it is ever so slightly sinister.

Diplomacy: [roll0]