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Splatterblood's Crew

"Splatterblood's Crew" is a violent gang in downtown Capetown that enjoys picking fights with other villains more than heroes.

0 · 1,146 views · located in Capetown, Texas

a character in “Project Oddity”, as played by NethanielShade

Description

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Splatterblood's Crew
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Villain Organization
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Splatterblood
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Clearer Picture
Name: Splatterblood Image
Civilian Identity: Unknown
Sex: Male.
(Apparent) Age: Approx. 30 years old.
Rank: Leader
Description: Splatterblood is the leader of the titular "Splatterblood's Crew," a criminal organization/gang in downtown Capetown, TX. His costume consists of a wrinkled dark grey/black leather pointed hat, a dark grey/black leather trenchcoat, with dark grey/black fabric pants underneath, and an overcoat of faux giant crow feathers split down the middle in the back to make him appear to have wings.. In fact, his whole costume is a very dark grey color, that can be called black, save for the brown leather straps connected to his gun holster, and his metallic plague doctor mask. His costume hides many blood bags filled with his own blood underneath it that he has pre-prepared so he doesn't usually have to draw blood from his body in combat.
Personality / Tactics: Splatterblood is famous in Capetown for being one of the more violent gangs, prone to murder and bloodshed. However, local law enforcement tends to not actively pursue his gang as they keep their violence and bloodshed primarily focused against local villains and competitors, only attacking civilians or law enforcement if provoked. They don't tend to commit heists/robberies, nor extort civilians for protection money, so some (small amount of) people consider them vigilantes, though they are classified as Villains instead of Rogues by the PCRT.
Classification: Tinker / Blaster / Striker
Powers: Splatterblood is capable of personal Hematokinesis, able to use his own blood as a weapon in various forms. Slashing with it in a liquid state, or launching it, is common but wasteful. Splatterblood is capable of forming his blood into weapons, and they seem to stay permanently without his concious effort. For example, he can make a blade out of his blood connected to a dagger's hilt and it will stay permanent. Another common thing for him to do is create various bullets out of his blood that he loads into guns to fire.


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Kuro-YĆ«rei
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Potential Forms (NSFW): 1, 2, 3.
Name: Kuro-YĆ«rei Image
Civilian Identity: Unknown.
Sex: Female
(Apparent) Age: Unknown. Could be minor or adult.
Rank: Inner Circle.
Description: Asian female with black hair. Other than that, on account of her Changer classification and her tendency to change her costume, she is hard to identify until she uses her powers. One telling thing about her is that all of her costumes have been lewd/sexual.
Personality / Tactics: Kuro-YĆ«rei commonly fights close-quarters, unable to use any ranged attacks. She also acts very typical for a Stranger-class, making use of her shapeshifting to always appear slightly different, sometimes as a child, sometimes as an adult, sometimes thin, sometimes fat.
Classification: Breaker / Striker / Changer / Stranger
Powers: Kuro-YĆ«rei appears to have a breaker form that, when she switches to it, turns her hair into solid darkness. She appears to have a measure of control over both this solid darkness, and her physical appearance when in this Breaker form, making her a shapeshifter. It is believed that if she isn't in her Breaker form, and her hair is normal, she cannot shapeshift. Kuro-YĆ«rei's shadow-hair is commonly seen taking the form of some sort of demon complete with teeth and eyes. She often times makes she shadow-hair cover her entire head to conceal her identity, though it's a bit redundant when she can shapeshift. Lastly, he shadow-hair can be shaped into weapons, and the solidness of the shadow is durable enough to trade blows with Brute-class capes. The rest of her body appears to have the durability of a regular human, even in Breaker form.


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Scarecrow
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Automaton Examples: 1,
Name: Scarecrow Image
Civilian Identity: Unknown.
Sex: Assumed male.
(Apparent) Age: Unknown.
Rank: Inner Circle.
Description: Due to having never been seen in or out of costume, his physical appearance unknown, but always accompanied by non-electrical scarecrow-like automata.
Personality / Tactics: Scarecrow him/herself has never actually been observed, and it is assumed that he/she always hides on nearby rooftops or in crowds in his civilian wear while using his automata to do all of the fighting.
Classification: Master / Tinker / Stranger
Powers: Scarecrow's powers draw a strange line between Master and Tinker. He has the ability to build scarecrow-like golems/automatons/homonculi that don't run off of electricity, usually out of wood, stone, straw, fabrics, and metals. They are almost always humanoid, but he has also been observed to make ones that appear to be crows. It is unknown whether his power is limited to humanoids and crows or whether it's a stylistic choice. After making/building his minion, Scarecrow has the ability to control it with surprising detail, and they are usually pretty quick and maneuverable, moving less like robots and more like living beings. Due to their non-living nature and materials, each automaton can be classified as a Mover 1 / Brute 1 if it were living. The automata commonly come equipped with weapons such as swords or sickles, and sometimes shields, other times they may be unarmed and use their wooden/stone/metal arms/claws. No two scarecrows have been observed to be exactly the same, though it is unknown whether this is a limitation of his ability or not. His Stranger classification is not a result of his powers, but his tactics.
During Abhorrent Attack, this is his costume.


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Mummy
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Name: Mummy Image
Civilian Identity: Unknown.
Sex: Assumed male.
(Apparent) Age: Adolescent
Rank: Inner Circle.
Description: Mummy appears to be a child-sized humanoid made completely out of a solid darkness with glowing red eyes. His "costume" appears to be gauze, toilet-paper, or whatever he can wrap around himself to make himself appear like a mummy.
Personality / Tactics:
Classification: Brute / Breaker / Stranger
Powers: Mummy has the ability to switch into a Breaker form. Mummy's Breaker form appears to be a small child-sized humanoid made completely of physical/hard shadow/darkness with large red glowing eyes. The breaker form is extremely durable, able to fall off buildings and get hit by vehicles without being harmed, lending the Brute classification. This form is also very hard to spot in darkness, lending a Stranger classification.

So begins...

Splatterblood's Crew's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black Character Portrait: River Riley (Zero) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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Capetown, TX. 09/17/2017, 6:56 PM. 85°F,
Partly Cloudy. Arc 1: Provenance.



Shit, Jasmin Lehtinen thought. I have to do something about this.

Jasmin watched with an intensity that bordered on awe as the Changer leapt over the counter and Jasmin saw fireworks,
and behind it swirling darkness, obscure the form of the Changer as her electromagnetic senses picked up the currents flowing through the Changer's body as he reconfigured his biology. In that split second, she looked down to her phone to note that both her cellular service and LTE data were cut out, displaying "No Service" at the top left of the screen. Can't look him up on parahumans online to learn more about him. She thought gravely. Time for Plan B. She pulled out a plastic container filled with very fine iron filings and poured the powder on her face. It magnetized, sticking to her face, leaving small spikes in the iron sand on her face to follow the magnetic lines. It was her temporary mask, when she was forced to use her powers, to help conceal her identity. She also threw up her hood, for it to conceal her short hair, and dropped into a boxing/fighting stance.

Then she realized something. Cameras. Shit. She looked at the nearest one, in a corner of the room, and she noticed, or more accurately felt, no current actively flowing through the wires. They're off. She wondered, thinking it was strange. They still had gotten her civilian identity on camera before they flicked off, but she didn't risk destroying them, as she didn't want a lightning strike to be seen as an act of aggression by the Changer. She would let him know she was armed, however, as there was a high-pitched zzzzzt sound as electricity crackled and popped in arcs between her two fists.


"If you are not a parahuman, leave the shop at once!" She shouted, startled at the sound of her own voice. First time she had spoken in about two hours. She saw a couple leave the shop, before she turned back to the Changer. "Let me guess, you named yourself something super-edgy." She sarcastically quipped, mainly to settle her own fear at the situation. "Like 'Inkdeath.' Nah, pretty sure that's a book. Hmm. That form looks more like a Wendigo. Is that it? 'Wendigo?' " She recived little more than what she assumed to be a grunt, in response. She changed tactics.

"Hey, look, I'm not sure if you don't know the unspoken rules between villains in this city, but before you go committing crimes, you gotta see what local gang owns the territory. Otherwise, you're causin' crime that'll potentially piss off the local kingpin. I don't work for the guy who's claimed these few block, villain named 'Splatterblood,' another edgy-as-fuck name." Jasmin paused her monologue, eye-ing Wendigo, noticing that he opted to ignore her and start eating all the food in sight behind the counter, virtually swallowing bread and various unmixed ingredients. "But I do like this shop, and would appreciate villains not robbing it for no reason." Lightning popped in the air around Jasmin filling the shop with the smell of ozone, blue light momentarily combating the shop's bright white light and lighting up the building across the street with blue flashes through the shop's front window-walls.

((All percieved power-gaming of me controlling Wendigo is premeditated between me and StorminJericho. I had his permission. No power-gaming/god-modding at play.))

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black Character Portrait: River Riley (Zero) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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The sound of crackling electricity reached Jericho's shifted ears before the actual sight of the girl who wielded it. He chose to ignore it, even ignoring the following shout of. "If you are not a parahuman, leave the shop at once!" He would've kept minding his own business if he could've... But of course, whoever the cape was decided that she had other ideas. He could hear the feminine voice talking to him, words that in the moment meant nothing to him considering that food was more important than whatever the hell this cape wanted. He wasn't hurting anyone, jeez.

"Let me guess, you named yourself something super-edgy... Like 'Inkdeath.' Nah, pretty sure that's a book. Hmm. That form looks more like a Wendigo. Is that it? 'Wendigo?' " Wow. That was pretty presumptuous and rude, wasn't it? What if he didn't even have a name made yet? Sure he was a parahuman but he wasn't a villain or anythin'. He made a single grunting noise, a mix between the 'mhh' that humans are capable of making and a crackling insect-like hiss that humans aren't. She kept talking at him, Jesus christ- "Hey, look, I'm not sure if you don't know the unspoken rules between villains in this city, but before you go committing crimes, you gotta see what local gang owns the territory. Otherwise, you're causin' crime that'll potentially piss off the local kingpin. I don't work for the guy who's claimed these few block, villain named 'Splatterblood,' another edgy-as-fuck name... But I do like this shop, and would appreciate villains not robbing it for no reason." Which, as he listened to it, Jericho found that the logic wasn't necessarily wrong or anything.

But then lightning popped and crackled in the air, and if that wasn't some amount of threat towards him then Jericho really hadn't a clue as to what could be considered so. If the little lady with the bolts wanted to be all big and threatening well hell. She could have her cake and eat it too. The 'Wendigo'- heh that name might actually stick, pretty good, even if he hadn't already thought of it himself -turned, finally paying attention to the monologuing cape that was so insistent on paying attention to him. A metal mask adorned her face, that much he could see, but her 'costume' was pretty lackluster. Oh well, he understood that enough too... Even if he was pretty ticked off that he couldn't finish his own 'cake'. Wendigo's voice- oh hell yes, that title will fuckin' do quite nicely, thanks very much -rattled out of the open holed barrel chest, sounding to the ears like someone threw a rock into a washing machine and set a muscle car engine to half throttle. "This form is hard to talk in, so I'll be quick," The I's in his speech were lost in the humming rattling growl of a voice, sounding more like 'ay's', "I don't want to fight, innocent people out there. Hungry, so back off." There, she was properly warned! ... When the girl stayed, Wendigo decided that there wasn't much point in continuing to talk, ignoring her once again and going back to his scrounging of a meal. He was annoyed sure, but if the lightning cape decided she was gonna just stand there, then that was fine by him. As long as there wasn't anymore threatening behavior, she was fine to stay there as she pleased.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black Character Portrait: River Riley (Zero) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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#, as written by Lin
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The parahuman said something, and Mara was reminded of a certain character from the Harry Potter series. What was his name again? Tom? Well, all that mattered was that the parahuman seemed a little pitiful. Someone not accepted even among his own kind. She didn't have much time to think.

As his very form started to shift again, the boy who came in with the dog looked especially alarmed. Scared, she corrected herself. Someone was screaming again and that annoyed her, but it didn't matter in comparison to what was happening right before her eyes.

Gazing upon the ink swirling and taking form from behind the boy, Mara was captivated. She'd never seen a power quite like this before. Then again, she was never out much so she might be lacking in knowledge. The transformation was completed, and the final result made her heart pound. It was ugly. It was something not human. It looked frighteningly dangerous. And yet, she still wanted to run her fingers through the fur swaying elegantly as the thing moved. She was sure that her thoughts were something her brother would disagree with.

Not soon after, the parahuman seemingly disappeared from behind the boy. There was suddenly noise from the back of the restaurant as if an animal was ravaging and running into things. It did well to snap her out of whichever trance she'd been in. And then, the girl watched in wonder as the room lit up yellow and white with buzzes and crackles echoing around the room. An electricity user. She was seeing all kinds of wonderful things today!

"If you are not a parahuman, leave the shop at once!" A voice shouted. Mara tore her eyes from the entrance to the back of the restaurant to the source of the loud voice. She saw a woman, maybe a girl, with her hood up and face covered by black. Her voice was confident, and she looked ready to fight. Mara thought along the lines that maybe she was a hero, but Ace obviously thought differently. He also dropped into a fighting stance, guarded against both the girl and the other parahuman.

Everything was silent. The clerk had screamed and ran out of the shop, and the boy had left too.

The woman (who was a self-proclaimed villain) talked. And talked and talked and talked. She was using words she didn't understand about things she didn't understand. Unspoken rules between villains? Local gangs? Local kingpin? Splatterblood? Wendigo? Unlike the tense residents in the shop, her confusion became more obvious. It was written all over her face. At least she had a name for the parahuman now.

Mara never did have time to ponder over these things (again) since something smelled funny before the lightning started doing weird things. She knew these things couldn't hurt her much, but she was worried about Ace. Lightning was deadly to even parahumans, and it looked like the villain finally had Wendigo's attention.

"This form is hard to talk in, so I'll be quick," the voice growled. It was a bit hard to understand. "I don't want to fight, innocent people out there. Hungry, so back off." Again, Mara was confused, but all she did was pull at Ace's shirt.

"What is it, Mara," he demanded more than asked. Ace looked really serious. Mara bit her lip.

"Ace... Wendigo said he didn't want to hurt anyone," Mara whispered more than said her sentence. "Can't we all just calm down? We don't need to use force to make him stop stealing food, right? Right?" Ace still didn't meet her eyes, more wary of the lightning woman than Wendigo now but he paused. Mara desperately hoped that he took the course of action that did not result in violence.

"Hey, you. The one with lightning. The lad looks like he won't hurt anyone. Let the heroes deal with this. We don't want any violence or destruction. I would appreciate it if you cooperated. It would make things a lot easier on all of us." His voice was clipped and tense, still on guard in case someone decided to attack. Mara noticed how Ace didn't try to address Wendigo and couldn't help but look in the parahuman's direction for a brief moment before moving to protect her brother. She could absorb things, he could not. He was also out of his element. It was obvious who would be doing the protecting here.

Still, even among this, Mara thought that she wanted to touch his fur...

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SĂ€hkö) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĂŒtz) Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black Character Portrait: River Riley (Zero) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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Last night Devon had been clocking a couple hours of overtime, searching for the last members of a group of parahumans. They were known for using their powers to rob people and small businesses, and they'd been sentenced a few times for non-violent crimes as the law hadn't exactly caught up with the fact that people didn't need to wave around obvious weapons to commit an armed robbery, not to mention the general difficulty of proving that someone actually used their power to threaten someone(let's just say unless there's 4 or 5 witnesses backing you up, it's pretty much pointless to persecute them for violent crimes). Yesterday however, they got sloppy and were caught red-handed by Devon's spying eye, he called for backup and what ensued was a wild goose chase, those kids knew those backstreets a lot better than the heroes patrolling the block. Around 4 am they quit their search figuring the last of them had escaped too far to be viable searching for, still 7 out of 9 that could now be properly persecuted for violent crimes felt like a big win to the heroes and the pcrt.

Today however, after sleeping in till 12 to catch up on sleep he had a lot of paperwork to look forward to until it was time to hit the road again at 6pm. Arrests like these always delivered a lot of paperwork, especially since the main witness in question was a hero on duty, he'd have to write every detail as best as possible otherwise those kids could still get off scot-free, well a couple of them. One had hurt himself badly climbing a fence trying to escape, another had been caught and roughed up the locals, and a final one had been shot with rubber bullets as he repeatedly tried to get away(that one was going to have sore legs for a couple of weeks). He turned on the radio for some background noise as he went about making him some lunch. As he closed the jaws of his contact grill around a bacon and cheese sandwich he heard about the accident on the 7-9. Good thing he could write that report on his home computer, driving to the HHQ would have been a nightmare with that traffic artery clogged up.

Waiting for his sandwich to be grilled to perfection he grabbed a glass of milk and set himself down in front of his keyboard. After a few minutes of reading up on the news he had missed since this morning, aside from something about a slaughterhouse being under investigation for mixing horse meat in the ground beef it seemed he hadn't missed much, he stood grabbed his sandwich from the grill and under the enjoyment of a salty and spicy sandwich he started writing his report of last nights events. After a couple hours of writing reports he looked at the clock, 2:23 pm, leaving some time to cook and eat dinner he figured he'd have more than enough time for a couple of games.




His patrol started like any other, just walking around looking for crime, troublemakers, parahumans out of control or any people who need his help, even if all it's just rescuing a cat from a tree. The neighborhood he patrolled today contained areas under the control of some nutjob who calls himself 'Splatterblood', a very imaginative name. While the chances were pretty much zero that he'd run into someone the local kingpin considered worth a damn, it's always smart to at least know who the local kingpin is. especially when the he is seen as either bloodthirsty or actually beneficial to the area.

6:47 pm The end of a so far peaceful patrol. A couple calls came in about a changer making a mess about a block away from his location, Devon was to check it out. From the information the callers gave there had been no signs of violence yet, but there was a PCRT team on standby just in case. He picked up his pace and rushed to the scene.

A short run later he arrived at the scene, a sandwich shop with the name "Which Wich". "No expenses spared on the name." He thought to himself as he walked to the door. From the outside he could get a decent picture of what was going on inside, it seemed that there were two... And a half vigilantes trying to handle the situation, and the changer in question seemed to be happily gorging on the shops stocks. "I might need a bigger gun for that." He thought looking at the changer. Safety off, rifle aimed at the ground, finger off the trigger, no need to look more threatening than strictly necessary. With his free hand he opened the door and almost immediately he went into negotiation modus.

"So I'm guessing you are the changer we got those calls about. Though going by the callers it sounded like this place was to be wrecked by the time I got here. Nope, just a couple bucks worth of veggie, meat and bread getting devoured." He said with a jovial tone of voice as he motioned to the two in fighting stance to calm down and back off. He walked a couple steps further into the shop taking a look around at the amount of civilians still inside the building, most of them looking scared, confused, angry or a combination of the three. Devon then leaned on one of the tables keeping an eye on the changer behind the counter. "I would like to ask you all to please leave this fine establishment for a moment. So this gentleman and I can have a couple of words without me having to worry about what any third party might be doing." He then asked addressing the people within the shop, but looking at the two who were standing like they planned to duke it out any second now. Last thing he wanted was to escalate a peaceful situation due to some loose cannon vigilante, or have a civilian trigger a violent response from the changer.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Teen Heroes of America (THA) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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Alexander Dalton




When the last bell rang Alex was wide awake and the first out the door. Wanting to head straight home, get some training done and have a night out on the town. Was he a little overly excited over having finished his costume? Maybe a little bit bit it was special to him. after all he made most of it from scratch and payed for the rest out of his own pocket. So what that it probably wasn't going to be the most amazing looking costume out there but again, it was his and he made it. Alex beamed as he did his best to avoid being stalled by students quickly crowding halls. His slight tunnel vision however did cause two people to get knocked over after he ran headlong into the poor hipsters. They were hipsters right? Well the two guys certainly looked the part as Alex apologized profusely and helped the two up and quickly went on his way. Now keeping in mind to try and pay attention to his surroundings more.

He had considered taking his usual route over the sidewalks as he pulled out his headphones. while it would be the quickest way home as usual he would be a bit tired by the time he got there and probably be in need of a nice hot shower afterwords. Which would lead to him having even more reasons to try not going out on patrol. After a sharp exhale Alex made up his mind. Walking would have to do for today. there was no rush after all. Headphones all plugged in, he went onto his usual playlist and hit shuffle. No surprise that a "I Really Hope We Don't Crash" song came up first. It was "Light pollution", one of their more earlier songs. Bit slower then some of their usual stuff but it still had that resonating feeling most of their songs had to them. Alex grinned and started blasting it through his headphones loud enough that anyone within four feet of him would probably be able to hear it. Wis steps lining up with the songs beat as he began his route home.




A sudden buzzing from his phone pulled Alex out of his rhythm. A quick glance at his phone made him reflexively sigh. Dean again. The dude had been sending him text after text since the middle of his last class. More of his usual cape info updates. He always liked to let Alex know about anything before updating his blog, "The Cape's of Cape." A damn near cringey name if Alex ever heard one. Dean was a parahuman nerd and theorist that liked to be on the up and up about anything cape related happening in the city. and he did a damn near perfect job at staying on top of the latest news. Wonder if he himself is possibly a cape . . . The thought soon made Alex snort as he made a turn. He was just about home now. Like anyone he knew was parahuman. Anyway. from Dean's excited texts it looked like today was a unusually active one. Lots of villain and average criminal activity going on on different sides of town. All a bit too far for Alex to respond too without running into any heroes. He scowled. He felt like that was an excuse. That if he really wanted to go out there and do the right thing. plain and simple. Yeah sure i could show up, without my costume and legal heroes ready to swoop in. Such a smart idea.He relaxed and quickened his pass. Itching to get out already.

In less then half an hour later Alex was once again climbing through his roof and went about business as usual. The grandparents didn't seem to notice he was home, which he decided to keep that way. "I really need to move out already. Not like I could get by on my own though." He changed into his usual underclothing that he wore with his costume. The then carefully took off his beanie and left it on his pillow. He was told it had been his mothers. A moment of sullen sentimentality washed over him before he went and grabbed the new helmet from his desk and shoved it in his duffel bag. "Keep an eye on me while I'm out there tonight . . . Love you mom."He stared at the old hat for just a moment longer before turning away. And like many nights before, he went out his window and made a wish that he wouldn't do something that could get him killed. It was time to suit up.




At the abandoned parking lot like clockwork. He felt like a badass, looking like some knight that walked out of a tron movie but with less of those cool lights in the clothing and a more urban style. Still, we was glad with how it all turned out. He dusted himself off and made some last minute adjustments to some of the straps. He hid his duffel bag like once again in the trunk of that beaten to hell truck. Alex was warming up his abilities now. Making various barriers and shapes. Trying to make stronger barriers from layers of many geometric tessellations consisting of mostly hexagons. supposedly it would be stronger then any of his sheet styled barriers he had been making before. It would take a little more practicing before he could even think of usung it in any realistic situation. The whole process was too long. Any construct he made would take time until he could make it at lighting speed. it was like working out a muscle for the first time. Satisfied with his progress, Alex went to warming up his body now, vaulting and leaping from the various rubble heaps that littered the graffiti ridden dump. Shattering some of the concrete blocks with his fists and kicks for good measure. "Alright, showtime." Aegis was ready to make his latest appearance.

He ascended to the rooftops shortly after and began his usual patrol around his side of the city. Nothing too out of the ordinary aside from an attempted mugging. That lasted little time at all when the guy started whining and apologizing the second Aegis bubbled the spineless man. Alex was strongly considering heading in the direction on the action Dean had informed him about when something caught his eye. A woman slinking into a back ally that wore what looked like a bloody Halloween costume if anything. And in this part of town there was only one group of people that usually wore stuff like that. Splatterblood crew. Alex kept some distance but began to follow up high. The woman looked nervous if anything. Possibly a newbie or wannabe member looking to get recruited.

As Alex began to stalk his latest target, he had failed to notice that he himself had been followed. His attention though remained on the woman. Oblivious too the fact that he had been tailed since he left school. He really needed to work on his observation skills if he wanted to stay out of whatever hole Vigilantes got thrown into when they were caught.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SĂ€hkö) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĂŒtz)
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Capetown, TX. 09/19/2017, 11:25 AM. 61°F,
Overcast. Arc 2: Confluence.



SÀhkö bent down, hands supporting herself on her knees, panting and slightly wheezing. Damn, she thought, they sit out here every day and fight each other, while I work as a cash register at a convinience store. I'm not fat, but they're in waaaaay better shape than me. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead, dropping onto the rough dirt-textured copper below. She felt tingles in her feet, the telltale sign of electricity, as her beads of sweat were likely carrying charges. She wiped her forehead and ran her fingers through her short hair, flinging wetness to the floor, before straightening and taking in a huge breath, her back cold from moisture and the shirt clinging to it.

In front of her, Drow, looking like an overdone highschool goth chick with jet black makeup and lipstick and dyed-white hair, smirked with a hand on her hip. Arrows of green energy slowly floated around her, trained on SÀhkö. SÀhkö had been on the defensive,
despite attacking Drow first, using her bolts to destroy the green constructs, but not able to get close enough to tag Drow.

Suddenly, SÀhkö broke into a run, charging her opponent. Drow stood her ground until SÀhkö was a foot away, and as SÀhkö threw a punch, she felt her arm yank, as it was tethered to the ground by a green strand of energy. Pain flared in her thigh as Drow swung with a green cackling mace, and SÀhkö dropped to avoid a second hit, kicking at Drow's legs, only for her to take a few steps back. SÀhkö discharged energy and the green thether tying her wrist to the ground dissipated into green mist.

This has been going on for the last five minutes. She loathed the fact she didn't trust her powers enough to just shock the creepy goth chick at range. She stole some glances, taking her attention off of her opponent, to survey the battlefield. Ten meters away, the guy with the shadow-chains fought Jeu, and both looked like professional martial artists in a movie scene, dodging attacks with reflexes much higher than SÀhkö's. Across the lot, the HLA member she had met a few days ago, the one with the german name she couldn't remember nor pronounce, was firing round after round at Myrlyn, who was redirecting flaming blue projectiles. Chrysopoeia and Sandstorm fought some of the non-parahuman members who had been given temporary powers by Rethliel, and the pair fought like a left and right arm, obviously used to each other's synergy, with Chrysopoeia transmuting different sections of the floor into various materials that Sandstorm could manipulate. Around them, a small localized storm of sand, dirt, a white powdery substance, and even shiny shard that looked like glass dust to SÀhkö's horror, swirled. Sandstorm would keep the substances out of his mouth and lungs and away from their skin, and Chrysopoeia wore a bandanna and sunglasses just because he was so used to fighting alongside Sandstorm. Seraphim war off by herself, virtually untouchable with armor made of portals, throwing up windows to other dimensions and using them as force-fields.

SÀhkö looked back to Drow just in time to see a baton of green whack her across the bridge of her nose, and across her eyes. Nerves screamed white-hot as SÀhkö stumbled, grabbing her face. Unconsciously, as a reflex, an arc jumped between SÀhkö and Drow, and a loud crackling sound louder than a taser made SÀhkö jump as the area was bathed in a glow of white and blue for a fraction of a second. Drow dropped straight down like a rag doll, and bounced at an angle as her legs stiffened from the muscles contracting. Upon landing, she relaxed again, breathing heavily, and groaning as she tried to turn over. SÀhkö reached down with one hand, still holding her face with the other, and tagged Drow. She spasm'ed, and went limp, unconscious.

SÀhkö then watched in utter horror as the shadow-chain-guy lifted Jeu in the air with the chains like Dr. Octopus, and crushed his arms and legs before flinging him aside into the floor in a mangled heap. Holy shit, is that even legal? She ironically asked herself in disbelief. He could die. He's just a kid. She thought again, unaware she had just taken a life minutes ago. The shadow-chain guy then stopped to survey the battlefield, as if looking for his next target, when both of them watched Myrlyn plummet from the sky, slow his fall, and plop against the ground. The mage regained his senses and forced the swarm of projectiles out in a spherical telekinetic explosion before he was knocked off of the ground and several feet back, landing and laying flat out, breathing but otherwise unmoving.

The batllefield went still for a moment as SĂ€hkö, FreischĂŒtz, and The Twisted Smile watched each other in a triangle. Chrysopoeia and Sandstorm were also done fighting, and the localized storm around them began slowing down. Seraphim had also dispatched some of the mooks, trapping them in prisons of portals that would slice them if they tried to escape. There were only a few non-powered individuals left, and they were on their knees with their hands up in surrender. SĂ€hkö noted that Alchimyst had also surrendered laying on the floor after a stray projectile from FreischĂŒtz's fight with Myrlyn had knocked the wind out of him. She looked between the two other parties. A hero and another villain. Her pulse quickened even more than it had during the fight at the thought of being taken in by the HLA. SĂ€hkö glimpsed back down at Drow, to make sure she was fine, and then looked back at the other two parties. What now?



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Capetown, TX. 09/19/2017, 11:30:25 Am. 57°F,
Partly Cloudy (Sprinkling). Arc 2: Confluence.



Josh's phone had been going off for the last hour, group-chat texts about several different fights around the city, including a parahuman-induced blackout, according to PCRT Thinkers. He didn't particularly care about going and helping, he'd do a job if told but not go out of his way to do more than required. But it did make him anxious. Five days ago, Capetown's HLA team had informed the THA that they were expecting an Abhorrent attack within the week. Red Jet had seen the carnage on tv, cities destroyed, mass evacuation impossible due to the natural disasters caused by each Abhorrent, and the Abhorrents killing indiscriminately, both cape and normal people. He himself was a regular on Parahumans Online, and every time there's an attack, hundreds of posts crop up, alongside megathreads for the disaster. Everyone knows about them. But unlike most people who haven't experienced an Abhorrent attack and may feel detached, he's been in cape fights and can imagine it scaled up to 11. It scares him.

As the end of the school day neared and arrived, Josh wondered what he'd do with his day. He had patrol at nine, but that was nearly five hours away. He sighed and picked up his red backpack, slinging it over a shoulder. At fifty pounds, most high schoolers would have trouble carrying it around all day, but Josh's powers made it light as a feather in his hands. As he strolled through the halls towards the front of the school, followed by a sea of clothes, backpacks, perfume, and heads of hair, on in particular caught his attention, way ahead of the crowd. Alex. What caught his attention specifically was Alex knocking over two students, and not swaying or moving against their force, as most would when colliding with another body. It's something so normal, that whenever it doesn't happen, it strikes Josh as weird every time. Alex had been in Josh's head all day, as he pondered whether or not to approach him.

After leaving the school and crossing the street, Alex put in headphones and seemed occupied by his phone. He was walking a different direction home than the HLA HQ, but he was walking nonetheless. After some internal debate, Josh decided to follow him, if for no other reason than to learn where he lived. Eventually, they reached his house, Josh almost missing him from half a block away as he climbed towards the roof of his house. Doesn't want to alert his parents. Josh realized. He understood the sentiment, because Josh had done the same at his parents house before joining the THA and living at the HQ. Josh decided to take his moment of knowing where Alex was and knowing he'd be there for at least a few minutes, to blast himself into the sky, and towards the HQ. The trip took five minutes, changing into his costume took a little more. In the end, he was back at Alex's house with time to spare, on the roof of a nearby building, watching the place Alex had used to enter the house.

A little while later, he was watching the unnamed... hero? Vigilante? Villain? Cape. He watched the unnamed cape that was Alex in disguise stall across rooftops, after some of the non-powered members of Splatterblood's Crew. He shook his head sullenly. Poor sods knew Splatterblood was a parahuman, and a scary one at that, and would do anything to get on his good side, but he didn't care for the lives of the unpowered. Red Jet thought about interrupting Alex, confronting him, stopping him from attacking. But who knew how that would turn out? He didn't feel like having a fight on his hands tonight, especially against someone he kinda knew. An idea burst into his head, then.

Red Jet was on the roof of a building three over from the one Alex was on. He launched himself at an angle, not towards Alex, but off to the side. After a few seconds of flying in that direction, he abruptly changed course, straight for the roof of the building Alex was on.

He landed with a resounding crunch, the asphalt on the rooftop buckling under the force of his fall, echoing like a gunshot. He wasn't facing Alex, instead he appeared to be oblivious of Alex, instead looking down from the edge of the roof, over a little section of the city. He'd just pretend to be on patrol and 'run into' Alex.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages
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Capetown, TX. 09/20/2017, 10:04 AM. 74°F,
Partly Cloudy. Arc 3: Obsolescence.



Ray Green narrowed her eyes at Jasmin Lehtinen, jutting her head forwards and raising an eyebrow in a really strange combination that made Ray's signature look of suspicion. "Who or what was that?" She asked. Right as Jasmin went to open her mouth, Ray reared back, her hand over her mouth. "Don't tell me you're cheating on Lucas!"

"I am not dating Lucas, and you know it!" Jasmin practically screeched as Ray sniggered. She was one of the few people who could actually snigger in real life. "And no.. We uh, met two nights ago at the Which Wich next to my apartment. He robbed the place, and I was about to stop him, but FreischĂŒtz showed up."

Ray nodded understanding. Ray gave her response, Jasmin took a bite of her pancakes, and somewhere in the restaurant, a baby began to cry. Jasmin gulped down her mouthfull, and responded, "What was that? I misse-" Jasmin was cut off by the look on Ray's face. Fear. "Wha...?" Then it registered. A whining noise, a low 'wwwwaaaaaaaaaaa' that slowly rose into a cresendo before lowering again, in a cycle. It was sirens. Air raid sirens. Seconds later, three long gutteral buzzes followed by a prolonged beep marking the signature gut-wrenching noise of an Emergency Alert System sounded from every phone in the IHOP. Jasmin looked to Ray, fear plastered plainly over the faces of both girls.
"This is real, isn't it...?" Jasmin asked, a dark suspicion at the back of her mind. The weekly tests hadn't been going on for no reason.
"Looks like it," Ray responded, her voice suddenly sullen. An expression came across her face, one Jasmin hadn't seen before. Ray had always been tough, especially for a girl. In the fight against the Adept Mages, she had been fearless, and as far as Jasmin had heard, she'd always been headstrong. Now, there was no trace of her usual confidence, but there was uncertainty. Then came a one words reply; "Abhorrents."
"Shit!" Jasmin stood up, her chair sliding across the floor away from her. Already many of the patrons of the shop were panicked, filtering out through the glass doors at the front of the IHOP. "I may not like them, but I have family here in Capetown-"
"They'll evacuate or get to a shelter like every one else. Look Jasmin, you haven't been part of the team for a particularly long time, and so you missed the conversation, but me, Lucas, and Mark have agreed that if an Abhorrent ever attacks... Well, we'd help. You missed the conversation, you never signed up for it, so I'd understand-"
"No," Jasmin interruped. "I'll go."

Jericho's attention was ripped away from his meal and his music by the sound of sirens wailing away. His head jerked up, and for a moment he froze with indecision. He didn't know where he was supposed to go, or if he even should go... Wherever he needed to go. The confusion was dispelled upon the realization that some people might not even have the ability to evacuate, as most were expected to when the walking apocalypses showed up to a city.

A safe choice could be made here, and was. The Changer stood, easing himself out of his seat as he stood up and stretched, a frown pulling over his face as he forced calm to his troubled mind. This evidentially wasn't a drill, as the two girls and the rapid exit of the IHOP proved. Jericho's attention roved over to the two again, feet padding over to them rapidly as his voice rose out of his mouth without his bidding. "Hey. What're you two going to do? I doubt I can really prove an apt combatant against...," Jericho gave a nervous flap of his hands, shuddering just enough to be visible, "One of them. I can help with evacuation though, or if you two need, I can get you to wherever they have Capes go?" His voice slowly rose in pitch, trailing off and rising as if he were questioning them and expecting answers. He himself had no clue as to where to go, but giving any help where he could would ease him. Or at least, Jericho figured it would.

"I don't have any family in town, and I ain't exactly in position to worry about a house, all things considered. So! Whatever y'all need from me, I wouldn't mind helpin' out."


Ray stared at Jericho hard for about five seconds before coming to a conclusion. "Fine, you and Jasmin come with me. We're going to round up the rest of the group, then head to the HLA Headquarters. We will be under the protection of the Unspoken Rules, since an Abhorrent is about to attack." Jasmin nodded, and she caught Jericho nodding also.

Jasmin, Jericho, and Ray stepped out of the IHOP, and chaos had ensued. Traffic was backed up on even the simplest of roads, and people ran en masse by foot to the nearest Abhorrent Shelters. Jasmin listened, but she heard no telltale explosions of a cape fight, nor the distant rumble of buildings being destroyed. Is he even here yet, or were they able to start the sirens ahead of time? She wondered internally. Overhead an explosive sound concussed as a cape broke the sound barrier, a trail of flames and smoke following him as he flew towards downtown Capetown. She noticed a few people in costumes going against the grain of the civilians fleeing. The crush of bodies was hard to fight, like pushing through a deep river, the current of people fought against them. Jasmin raised her hand in a gun-shape above her head, pointing at the sky. Suddenly, lightning struck her fingers and thunder reverberated throughout the area louder than even the air raid sirens, causing the civilians around them to pause and give them room. People parted as they made their way downtown, towards Jasmin's appartment, next door to the Which Wich.




That happened multiple times in the ten or so minutes it took to reach Jasmin's house, as the crowd was thoughtless in panic, rarely giving pause to the occasional costumed cape. When they reached Jasmin's appartment (as it was the closest meet-up point to the HLA headquarters between the Congenial), Lucas and Mark, in-costume as Chrysopoeia and Sandstorm, were already waiting on Mark's motorcycle, bands of sand swirling around them like personal asteroid fields, leaving them personal space against the panicked civilians. Jasmin looked down the street and took a moment of pity for the police officers established at the intersections, attempting to route the traffic, both automobiles and people on foot, towards the nearest shelter. Everyone knew where to go, though, as everyone was always informed. Pamphlets came in the mail, billboards would have locations marked on city maps, students in school would be taught during drills. People weren't supposed to use vehicles, too easy to cause an accident in the resulting panic, but people did nonetheless.

All the while, the air raid sirens blared in the background, piercing the ears and embedding itself in the mind, sounds engineered specifically to strike fear into humans, to tell you something is wrong.

None of this helped the fact that people were inherently stupid, one of the biggest faults of modern society. In the panicked crowds, every rule was broken as people pushed and shoved and tripped, shouted and cursed, pulling luggage on wheels, hitting people with cars. Everyone was driven by the primal desire to save themselves over others. Capes were no different, as was evident by Sandstom using his power to keep people at a distance, or Jasmin using it to part the sea that was the crowds. One of the cops at the intersection noticed the group of villains that was The Congenial, plus Jericho, and was about to say something. The cop nearest rested his hand on the shoulder of his fellow cop, and shook his head, and they went back to corralling the crowd.

As they reached the blocks around the Heroes League of America Headquarters, the crowd thinned and yellow police tape blocked off intersections heading towards it, and police cars stopped traffic. The cops were there to stop people from trying to seek shelter with the capes, and stop civilians from inhibiting the capes from gathering and strategizing before the attack. The cops let the group through, and Jasmin gawked at what lay ahead.

A crowd of roughly two hundred capes stand infront of the building, with more appearing every second, being teleported or flown in. The group reached the edge of the crowd, careful not to straggle lest they be in the way of incoming teleporters. Capes of all kinds, costumed in bright colors or dark colors, or not costumed at all, were present.

"Everyone is coming together." Jasmin realized aloud, almost in awe.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: [NPC] Bartender Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile)
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Capetown, TX. 09/20/2017, 10:36 AM. 73°F,
Partly Cloudy. Arc 4: Abberance.




Chaos. It was indescribable as anything other than complete chaos and pandemonium. The English language could try in vain, but there's no describing the utter devastation that was going on before Jasmin's eyes.

..... "Everyone is coming together." Jasmin Lehtinen spoke her thoughts aloud, in awe. All around her was a mass of capes, and more poured in, from around the world, like ants. There was a crowd of hundreds now, almost entirely made up of foreign aid and support groups from around the world. A large chunk was the United States' own HLA and THA teams from all around the country. The building's parking lot was large, but it could hardly accommodate the crowd that was forming. Jasmin looked at the HLA's headquarters building. You'd expect a team of heroes to have a tower or a skyscraper somewhere, maybe letter-shaped and on a perfectly-sized island nearby. Instead, Capetown's HLA HQ was more like a police station, no more like a fire station. There was a section of the building that was obviously large and box-shaped, like how you could always point out the gymnasium at a school. Probably a training room, Jasmin thought. The parking lot was also large, large enough to accommodate a lot of emergency response vehicles. Even so, the group swelled past the parking lot's perimeter, and into the empty streets. On the edge of the crowd, more capes arrived, through portals, flying vehicles, or carried by Speedsters. it was surreal. Capes of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities, colors of suits, villains, heroes, people made of fire or earth, capes with things floating around them, or Tinkers in suits of armor. Changers that look like monsters or animals, capes hovering above the head-line, or capes flying about. The murmuring from the surrounding crowd made conversation nearly impossible.
..... Until up ahead at the HQ, a large, flashy-green portal opened up. The portal threw out swirling green sparks at the edges of the portal-way, almost like Dr. Strange's portals. From inside the portal came a blinding white light, infront of which Jasmin could make out four dark silhouettes. Immediately, Jasmin knew who these four were, and in the same way it did when she heard the air raid sirens start up, her heart paused for a second. The Triumvirate.
..... The first to step out of the portal and come into focus was Legend. Leader of the Triumvirate, and aptly named, Legend had a blue suit with silver and red accents and a red cape. Legend, Jasmin knew, had a nigh-invincible body, could fly, and had mind-boggling strength. The next to step through was Hero, who, in Jasmin's opinion, was a lot less aptly named. He looked more like a villain, like Dr. Doom, than one of the most renown heroes in the world. Hero's powers' specifics weren't fully public knowledge, but it's known that he has access to virtually any power in the world that he wants' and is limited to three to four at a time. The next to step through, and last of the Triumvirate, was Suit. Jasmin didn't know much about his antics and tactics, but she knew he was the most impressive Tinker on the planet. Like a mixture of Rick Sanchez, Tony Stark, and Batman, he had a gadget for literally everything. Jasmin looked at him with the most interest, as he was possibly the most mysterious of the Triumvirate to her. Suit has never been seen outside of his suit, like Master Chief, no one knows what he looks like or even his skin color. He's known as the most powerful and versatile Tinker in the world, due to being able to copy a Tinker's specialty once he comes across another Tinker. As a result his gadgets are so much more complex and magical than even the most powerful Tinkers Jasmin has heard of. Suit's suit itself has thousands of different gadgets and things invisibly embedded into it, and the suit can morph between several different styles and looks, each with different specialties and functions. He has specific suits for specific Abhorrents, and today, he was in his Tangle suit. The last silhouette, though not officially part of the Triumvirate, was a famously strong cape named Synergy. Synergy was known to commonly accompany the Triumvirate during major threats like Abhorrents. Synergy, Jasmin knew, was a seriously powerful Trump cape with the power to copy the powers of other capes that he touches, up to two at a time. When he copies a power, he has the power's full potential unlocked as the original cape could possibly have. So, say there's a cape that isn't experienced with their power but has potential to learn a lot, Synergy, after copying the power, would use the power like a master. Synergy also has the ability to synergize two copied powers and have them interact in unpredictable ways outside of the scope of the original two powers. This combination makes him an extremely powerful cape.
..... These four were the veterans of the veterans, and while their being here did calm Jasmin a little bit, it also filled her with a sense of dread knowing that the situation she was in was very, very real. Jasmin watched ahead as soldiers began to flood out of the portal that the Triumvirate had walked out of. PCRT? That was the most likely answer, but they didn't have the normal black face mask and red-accented body armor that Jasmin was used to seeing, these soldiers instead had bulkier clothing with blue accents and half-gas-mask-like half-night-vision-like goggles.
..... "-and those are PCRT Abhorrent response members. Their suits are Tinker-made, specifically to resist Tangle's radiation, laser-beams, and his plant minions' attacks." Ray said, as Jasmin realized she had speaking to her this entire time, as Jasmin hadn't been paying attention. As Ray finished her sentence, Jasmin noticed that up at the front of the crowd, Suit took a large sleek black box reminiscent of a suitcase off of his back. He got on a knee and placed it on the ground. Immediately, it started coming apart as if made of hundreds of boxes that were seamlessly each a part of the original box a second ago. Then, rotors popped out of the tops of the black boxes, each perfectly smooth and the size of a rubix cube, and they began flying around the crowd of capes. Drones, Jasmin thought, as one flew to her and hovered in front of her. Jasmin looked next to her at Ray, and noticed that Ray had put her left arm outstretched in front of her, and the drone landed on her wrist, and began to transform, reconstructing itself into a wrist band, about two inches wide and an eighth of an inch thick. Jasmin did the same, and though the wristband seemed to be made of some sort of black metal, it felt curious to her, as she felt literally no paths of connection to it through electricity. For the first time in her life, Jasmin felt something she couldn't shock.
..... "Some kind of power-resistance material, probably made by some Tinker who is the only in the world who can make it. Besides Suit, I guess." Ray spoke again, confirming Jasmin's suspicions. Jasmin moved her arm around and was surprised that this amount of metal on her arm felt completely weightless. Jasmin looked to Lucas and Mark, or Chrysopoeia and Sandstorm as they were in costume, and they also had the wristbands. Systematically, every cape in the crowd began accepting the drones onto their arms. Legend, up at the front of the crowd, began a noble-sounding speech about how everyone here was doing a great service to humanity. Suddenly, Jasmin became aware that her face was naked, without her iron-shavings mask. Jasmin pulled out the bottle and unstoppered it, magnetizing the shavings to her face, conscious of the spiky configuration they fell into along the magnetic field lines. Ray, or Seraphim, wasn't in her portal-costume, but it was understandable as the armor of portals would be dangerous in this crowd of close bodies.

Jericho flinched, partially out of reflex and partially because he wasn't paying attention, when the sparking swirling amalgamation of green light and energy abruptly popped into existence ahead. His eyes narrowed, focusing in on the 'gateway' as it were, taking in every possible detail about the quartet of capes before opting to change his eyes into those that normally belonged to a raptor. Minute details, tiny features, everything possible to see with 'mundane' sight opened up for Jericho. Suit was taller than Jericho expected, and Legend was... Almost everything that the Changer thought he would be, and maybe a little not so.

It was Hero that Jericho immediately distrusted, if only because the costume that he wore was one that made Jericho think of villains from comic books and similar. Hero made the Changer... suspicious, but for no good reason, seeing as how the man put himself through harms gauntlet day in and out when it came to the Abhorrents.

His gaze slid over to Synergy, or at least the man who held the name, and studied him for a time. Tall, dark, bald and with a posture that seemed to scream “Regality.” Jericho was reminded of a lion when he looked upon the man. His attention shifted back to Jasmin and the rest of his ‘friends’. Multiple eyes sprouted into existence upon his skull, ink flowing and then fading into nothing as pupils contracted and dilated on each recognizable face. Jasmin, Vic-Nobody, The Gunman, The girl who stepped out of light, the ‘not-a-batman’, and then a blondie who seemed to arrive just a little bit later than everyone else on a disk of turquiose light. Jericho’s eyebrows rose at the somewhat familiar form, before furrowing in concentration as he tried to piece together where he may have seen the unknown cape from.

His attention was again yanked away, his focus turning towards a small scuffle between a man who dressed himself like some sort of medieval ranger, with a bow and arrow to tout, and a man who wore nothing but a body suit marked with digital numbers. The body suit man had the ranger held up by the collar of his cloak, and a small circle had formed around the two. Several other capes watched on warily, and as some others from the edge began to push to break the two apart, Jericho noticed a familiar woman making her way over.

A black, silver and magenta colored cape floated over to the two scuffling, their words and voices growing louder and a little more heated. The cape’s mask covered their face, adorned with with the magenta markings that covered their- her- whole suit. A helmet that was remniscent of a hawk’s head, along with a visor that covered everything except for the bottom half of her face. From mid breast and upper sternum, her suit was silver and seemingly armored, with two markings on her stomach and upper groin glowing with hot pink light. Her voice was nothing like her suit led Jericho to believe: firm instead of soothing, authoritive, and pissed. “Hey! Hey! Pull yourselves together. Don’t break the unspoken rules.”

It was those words that caused the commotion to come grinding to a halt. ‘Don’t break the unspoken rules.’ Every cape within hearing distance, even some of those who only heard the ‘...rules’ stood a little straighter, gritted their teeth- all manner of stress reflex. ‘The Unspoken Rules’ were rules between capes that were exactly as they sounded: unspoken rules that every known and unknown cape followed. To break them was to vilify yourself against quite actually every other cape in the area. Maybe even the continent.

The two scuffling capes separated themselves, one looking cowed and the other looking almost as if his pride had taken a direct hit. Jericho, on the other hand, recognized Laser Hawk the moment she began speaking. His mind flew back through time to the aftermath of the bank heist: an HLA woman who turned her hands into magenta light and essentially dissolved matter. A breaker who was... Scary to say the least. Respected to say even less. She had flight as part of her kit, but from what Jericho saw of her, not very fast flight. He could outrun her, probably... She only flew as long as her hands were glowing, maybe a part of her power?

He was nervous all the same, a minutely guilty part of his conscience poking its dirty, dirty hands into his emotions. The Changer hummed to himself, reflexively shuffling away from Laser Hawk and the group of capes around her. He bumped into Jasmin, muttering sorry in his passing as he disappeared just a little deeper into the crowd of capes. There were plenty of people around to take attention off of him, right? “Fuck.”

It was only after a short moment of getting into a comfortable enough space- (read as getting distance between himself and Laser Hawk) that Jericho turned back towards the ‘front’. A drone was in his face, and as he reached out, the automaton landed and formed into the bracelets everyone else was receiving. Legend was going on about something or another, Jericho wasn’t paying attention, far too interested in the metal bracelet around his wrist.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: [NPC] Bartender Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SÀhkö) Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile)
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Capetown, TX. 09/20/2017, 10:40 AM. 73°F,
Partly Cloudy. Arc 4: Abberance.




Jasmin Lehtinen caught a glimpse of something that made her heart skip a beat. A familiar sight, familiar capes. Myrlyn, Jeu, Drow, Alchimyst, and the rest of the Adept Mages bunched together. Curiously, she only saw two heads of white hair. Weren't there three brothers with white hair? Jasmin felt a moment's apprehension before remembering the Unspoken Rules. They were allies. For now. All of the local heroes were present in force. It wasn’t a surprising fact – skipping this fight, as a hero, let alone a team of heroes, would be unforgivable to the public. Jasmin was surprised that nearly all of the big villain gangs were all present. Gangs that brutally fought for territory and money, gangs with unbreakable feuds against each other.
..... That was the thing about the Abhorrents, Jasmin had learned. They were a much bigger threat to society, to humanity, to survival and extinction, than any amount of human-on-human hatred. It's why the Unspoken Rules exist. During Abhorrent attacks you take no opportunity against your fellow capes. Not to find out their identities, not to end their lives, not to bicker and fight. You focus on the common enemy. Or else.
..... "-all should know your chances going into this battle. Given the statistics from our previous encounters with Tangle, a ‘good day’ still means that at least one in three of the people present will probably be dead before this day is done. Tangle is an antediluvian horror capable of killing each and every one of us. The odds are likely not going to be as good as a 33% death rate."
..... This jolted Jasmin into listening to Legend's speech. It seemed to have caught the attention of the rest of the crowd, as uncomfortable shifting and a quiet murmur rippled through the crowd. Everyone knew that it was dangerous being here. But hearing numbers brought unease. One in three dead as a best case scenario. And that's not counting life-threatening or life-altering wounds.
..... “I’m telling all of you your chances now because you deserve to know. We're all humans here, we all have the right to live. We so rarely get the chance to inform those individuals brave enough to step up and fight these monsters. The primary message I want to convey, even more than briefing you on the particulars of his abilities, organizing formations and battle plans, is that I do not want you to underestimate Tangle. I have seen too many good heroes, rogues,” Legend paused for a fraction of a second, “And villains, too, die because they let their guard down.
..... “Tangle is the fifth and final Abhorrent to have shown up. I won't give a full history lesson, but his first attack was in 1992. At 75 feet tall, hes the shortest of the Abhorrents, but his body is shaped like a snake's and his tail trails for several hundred feet. Though he looks like a plant, his biology is something entirely alien to us. His body is made up of intertwines 'vines' similar to how a large rope looks. Each of these vines is layered like an onion, with the outermost layer being as hard as aluminum, the next one as hard as steel, the next tungsten, etc. until it quickly reaches harder than existing materials. Materials so strong virtually no one's powers can harm them. Though Tangle looks like a plant, he is not mindless. Do not underestimate him. The extent of his intelligence, and whether he is sentient, is unknown. But he can prioritize target, and has shown tactics and skill, as well as usually having an apparent specific location or target when he's attacking a city.
..... “As for abilities, Tangle is fast. Not speedster-level, but he can accelerate to 75 miles per hour in half a minute from a standstill. He's even quicker when he's already moving, turning, or thrashing. He has two auras. Two hundred feet out from him, all metal capable of rusting will immediately start to rust all of the way through. Not just a rust layer on the outside, but all the way to the center. Steel bars will be reduced to rust as weak as a sand castle. About a hundred feet out from him, a radiation aura starts. Getting inside this aura is an immediate death sentence within 2 weeks. Getting close enough to touch Tangle is enough radiation to kill you before the fight's over with. It's more dangerous than standing next to a melting reactor. If you aren't immune, don't get close.
..... “Tangle also has macro-scale control of both light, or electromagnetic radiation, and plants. He will shoot you with lasers. He will flashbang everyone. He can turn invisible. He can make you blind. He'll hit you with radiation blasts without you even knowing. His application of the control of light is extensive. After battle, everyone present should go through cape-powered healing and/or radiation therapy. Lastly, he can grow plants in seconds, and make them strong enough to constrict and crumble concrete. He also has minions made entirely of plants, that he likely controls like the command center of a hive mind."
..... As if the timing were rehearsed, as soon as Legend finished the speech, a loud crashing-crunching-explosion-like sound similar to a concrete building being thrown into another building was immediately followed by the sound of gasps and screams. Jasmin whipped her head to look behind her, and she felt the entire crowd do the same. Down the street, a giant mass of writhing and whipping tentacles coming out of a large snake-shaped form had just crashed into a building, failing to do the 90-degree turn at the intersection. It immediately turned, whipping its 'head' to stare at the crowd of capes.
..... Tangle's 'mouth' looked like a green bulb of a flower yet to bloom. Like the bulb on the Pokemon, Bulbasaur's back. Slowly, it peeled open, revealing a pink petal-like inside. And a maw inexplicably lined with teeth. Then a glass-shattering, ground-shaking shriek emanated from it.
..... Panic. Jasmin couldn't think as the massive abberation raced down the street towards the crowd. Already, capes were rushing forwards, providing a line of defense, whilst others ran in the opposite direction. Fight or flight. There was a third option, seizing up in the middle, as Jasmin was currently doing. The primal fear was something she'd never felt before in her life. It was similar to that time she had been 10 feet away from a mountain lion while camping five years ago, the heart-sinking deer-in-headlights feeling, but it was deeper, worse. The fear was not just the primal fear of a predator or a deadly situation, it was also the fear of the unnatural, the eldritch, the alien. Tears welled up in her eyes as her disabled mind and body were unable to react to the primal panic swirling in her brain. Jasmin's powers began to take over, switching to her electromagnetic vision, she could immediately see the electrical impulses lighting up like fireworks in the brains of other capes. Adrenaline. Hers came too, and suddenly, as her body tensed to jump, she was swallowed up by Jericho's shifting form.

Jericho’s heart dropped into his feet, maybe even fell out of his chest outright and onto the pavement below. Splattered like a water balloon or something. Panic flooded his system, his mind froze, his skin prickled with needles of numbing cold... Then he shoved it all out of his head, reflexively going so far as to begin shifting and morphing then and there, ink flowing around him as he took the biggest form he’d taken in... ever.

Long, moose-like antlers rose from the back of his skull, as his body shifted forward, his legs remaining about the same position as they were, his torso shifting and moving forward as flesh rapidly began extending backwards from his buttocks. His body swelled with flesh, muscle and bone, skull disappearing under a swirling vortex of ink for a moment before reappearing in the shape of an elk’s fleshless head.

From his waistline down, Jericho grew himself into a centaur-esque shape, flesh and muscle just barely obscured by a thin, thin layer of gray fur. It was more predatory, if only because of the paws with short, thick, blunt claws. His torso grew upwards just a faint amount more, and from just behind and below his original arms, grew a second pair. All four arms grew thick and furry, muscled and capable, as the rest of his body proportioned itself out a magnitude better.

His lower half was relatively horse sized, his upper shaped as if someone took a body-builder and made him both hairy, monstrous, and with a ‘crown’ of antlers thick enough to put an actual moose to relative shame.

Jericho reared back, twisting to reverse his position as his forelegs passed over the heads of the nearby capes easily, planting back onto the concrete below as a small space formed around him, he reached out, moving quickly as he shuffled some people out of the way, grabbed Jasmin, Seraphim, Chryssopea, and Sandstorm up into his arms, setting Chryssopea and Seraphim on his centaurid half as he turned and shouted with a voice that roared into the following silence of Tangle’s own screeching. The word hissed during the beginning, like a serpents’ call before rumbling and roaring out clearly despite the non-human maw it leapt from.

“SCATTER!!!”

Before making past anyone else in his way, getting the five of them as far back and away from tangle as possible. He took a sharp left turn once he cleared the parking lot, once he cleared the buildings directly adjacent to the crowd, ducking behind a three story and stretching his arms upward to knock out two second story windows with a branching pair of bone-clubs that sprouted from each radii, latching the appendages there and holding on tightly. The clubs then became hands, swirling with ink during the short transformation, before grabbing the bottom of broken window sills, more hands and arm like structures sprouted and grabbed the other edges. Secured. The hands that held Jasmin and Sandstorm stretched higher still placing them on the roof of the building while Jericho’s torso turned around entirely and spoke to Chryssopea and Seraphim. “Up? Yes or no? I’ll leave this body here as a stairway regardless... If Tangle doesn’t come here.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, choosing instead to focus on the entirety of the form he was utilizing. Every muscle, bone, fiber of hair, nerve, ounce of fat, all of it he dedicated to memory. He dedicated it to permanency, before a portion of his torso fell over and to the side, his hind legs bending so that the farthest back end was sloped towards the ground. A relatively normal sized, human torso sized, bulge moved through the bulk of the centaurid half. A human sized Jericho stepped out from the still straightened forelegs, before shifting into a smaller, eagle-sized form. Skyblue and white feathers sprouted into existence, before being replaced by a sporting of plumage that seemed to shift color spontaneously.

He took off, rising up into the air before continuing to soar higher and higher still. The crowd of capes back at the HQ had indeed done what he had shouted, and as he focused on the scene below him, Jericho relaxed. If only for a short moment, before remembering that Tangle was an absolute threat. Something that he knew, deep in his core, in his very being, he couldn’t hurt. Nothing he had, nothing he could’ve thought to grow or utilize, would actually hurt the Abhorrent. He couldn’t get close, he couldn’t stay far enough away... He was helpless and useless.

..... Jasmin, or SÀhkö as she was now wearing her mask, stepped onto the roof of the building that Jericho had brought her to and surveyed the scene with quiet horror, throwing up the hood of her blue hoodie. She watched as capes that presumably could survive close proximity to Tangle rushed forwards down the street, in attempt to stop the beast before he rushed into the crowd of more squishy parahumans. Then, a white line seared across her vision, leaving a black-fading-purple blind spot in her eyes. Immediately, she heard an artificial-esque feminine voice, similar to Siri or Alexa, speak from her new wristband, "Laser Hawk down." SÀhkö whipped her vision over to where Capetown's HLA team had been huddled. Already Cosmic's spheres and Tendril's tentacles were being thrown up as shields, but SÀhkö could clearly make out a place where molten concrete was. Presumably, Laser Hawk had been standing near. Elicitor was also right in the middle of the molten concrete, though Tendril was already lifting him up and out of it before any secondary damage could be done.
..... The female artificial voice started naming off more names, before Jasmin could even react to Tangle rushing forward and swiping his tail through a building and into a crowd of capes, like massive steel pipey-wires, destroying all in the tail's path. "Intellast down. Pluto down. Kuro-YĆ«rei down. Thirty-seven in critical condition. Two-hundred-and-ten capes with radiation poisoning." Jasmin balked at what she had just seen go down, and they were only a minute into the fight. Sheetrock, bricks, rust, and dust rained down on the crowd as the building collapsed. Jasmin noticed that concrete everywhere was crackling and crumbling as creeper vines sprouted, pushing cement apart. Metal streetlights instantly turned into rust, and crumbled like sandstone Jasmin used to crush with her hands at playgrounds when she was little. Loud explosions rang out as Suit and hundreds of other tinkers launched rockets and threw bombs. Lasers bounces off of tangle, but plasma and particle beams seared a paper-thin layer of the beast's skin. An unimaginable amount of cape attacks were being launched at range, with a few capes immune to his radiation aura closing in for close-combat.
..... "What can I even do to help?" Jasmin asked to herself, incredulously.