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Project Oddity

Capetown, Texas

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a part of Project Oddity, by NethanielShade.

Welcome to Capetown, Texas, the nation's 5th in population density of parahumans to humans!

NethanielShade holds sovereignty over Capetown, Texas, giving them the ability to make limited changes.

5,935 readers have been here.

Setting

In 1979, the first parahuman, a human with "super powers", appeared. It is widely believed that they did not come out of hiding, but simply started existing then. Today, roughly 1 in 7,000 people on the planet are a "parahuman." Capetown, Texas, is the nation's 5th in population density of parahumans, these super-powered individuals, to unpowered humans.
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Capetown, Texas

Welcome to Capetown, Texas, the nation's 5th in population density of parahumans to humans!

Minimap

Capetown, Texas is a part of Project Oddity.

24 Characters Here

Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) [80] "Hey! Hey! HEY! Do you think it'd be fucked if I ate your face? Like, literally?"
Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) [61] "Capes live double lives. Hard to keep people close in either life. Make things... lonely."
Mara Haruka Black [47] "We're all human."
Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush) [45] "Heroes should inspire and bring hope to those who need it most."
Vic Martel (Nobody) [45] "It's not my responsibility to be your hero."
Alexander Dalton [43] "I swear I sort of know what I'm doing"
Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz) [38] "There's a lot of villains out there, a lot less if you don't count the heroes that could avoid the leash called the HLA."
Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) [30] "Hahahaha! What the fuck?!"
River Riley (Zero) [29] "Domain of infinite possibilities, how can I help you?"
Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) [25] "Hero, Villain, what does it matter? In the end, I'm going to break you."

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Setting

1 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black
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#, as written by Lin
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When Mara awoke, everything was surprisingly calm. No frosted walls, no frozen bed, and no rubber balls bouncing around her room at what seemed like 60 miles per hour. Today, she was permitted to rest. They were "worried" about her. Mara remembered yesterday. It started like any other normal day, and she never expected anything but normal. Yesterday, her parents were finally satisfied with the consistency and strength of her shield.

Like the little girl she was, she thought that maybe they would let her free like they did Ace. That night, she was strongly reminded why exactly she hated her parents.

They... poisoned her. She didn't need Ace to know that was bad. Just like before, they hurt her with smiles on their faces. It was creepy. Mara was perfectly fine though, much to their delight. Her shield working on the inside the same way it worked on the outside. The only thing was that it gave her night terrors. It felt like how it did when she first felt like when she felt betrayed.

They were her parents, loving her in their own way. She thought they loved her enough, maybe like those fictional parents on her computer. Six years of complacency seemed to have made her too lax. Her body didn't even let the poison into her system, but the little trust she had in her parents broke. Akira and Abel could be murdered in front of her. Mara didn't think she could bring herself to care.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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A slow, visible blink was given by Jericho as the originally invisible cape made her appearance. His face originally was going to pull into a snarl, something resembling anger- But it was quickly wiped away by the sudden shout that came from the other parahuman. He barely caught hold of her warning before he stumbled back just a bit; two tiny steps. His ears, sensitive that they were, heard the way the air rushed and pressed into the other girl's chest. He wondered if 'Skirts' was in pain, but ignored it when a wall of wind roared to life around him and the recently invisible cape. Wow.

"Don't bother trying to break through it. The walls don't come down until yours do," A small, quick thought found some inane irony in her statement, and that was definitely a familiar voice... And oddly sultry to the ears. "Tell me where your friends are, and you can go. If not..." For just a moment, a truly idiotic moment, the Changer actually considered telling this terribly familiar cape that he didn't know where Vic or Alex or the guys were right now. "Go ahead and intimidate me, bad boy."

He caught the wink. And for a moment, his tongue nor mind could bring up anything to quip back to her with... But only a moment, in the next he immediately popped off his first question. "Uh... You, comin' onto me? What're you, the vaguely sensual fun police? I ain't too keen on breath play so uh." He drew a blank for another few moments, staring with an equally blank face. His voice remained crackly, but now was underlain with a curious amount of, well, curiosity. "Where did you even come from? Oh! Do I know you from somewhere? Your voice is REALLY familiar to me!" A quick, flashed smile, "I mean, I met this chick yesterday who sounds just like you, but not muffled you know? But maybe that's just me being really forgetful.... Anyways! OH WAIT!" He perked up rapidly, his form melting to ink and flesh again as he thought over her voice.

The head of the nightmare beast stayed where it was in relation to the flesh mass that was now forming, the new shape showing almost immediately. It stood up tall, shoulders reaching where the original head had been before. The face there kept speaking as the undefined shape began... Defining, itself. "Did you get a note thing too!? Man it would be so coincidental if you did, you know? Like some sort of divine coincidence! But that's dumb huh. Oh man I should've asked Vic if she got a message on her phone or something, do you think she has a phone? ... Wait, do you even know who Vic is? Aw man, she'd have a field day if she knew about this! Then again, she'll probably see it on the news huh? Do you think we'd make the news?"

Oh jesus he was babbling, and all the while he was still changing, just as rapidly as before. Six elephent thick legs were holding up a body that was as long as the other form was long, curving upward just slightly as a new skull formed around the original shape of the first. Scales flickered into sight, slick with ink before darkening into ink-blue. Muscles pushed up under those scales, giving the form the real weight that Jericho carried around with him at all times. A vaguely reptilian skull began talking in place of the first; though fur and lips were formed on it instead of scales and hard skin. "Oh man, I hope you like fire by the way, I almost never get to use this form!"
... That exclamation was random, and it didn't seem to follow any of what the shapeshifter had been saying before; and apparently he didn't even notice the jump in conversation that he had made. Were they conversating? Eugh, focusing was hard.

For a moment, the changer stopped shifting forms entirely, staying still as he quickly finished off the features he needed. A wide, broad body that suited the six legs that held it up, scaled and furred alike, with the fur following the spine; spiney protrusions rising up from the fur itself. A tail formed last, curling up into the air with chintinous segmentations. The tail tip was cruelly curved, eerily reminscint of a scorpion, if only on the 'tail-end'- ahahehehe... of some biologically dubious dragon... Beast. Thing. Jericho had stopped talking, and as soon as the tail finished it's formation- he had forgone the wings for now- a gout of heat erupted from his mouth. Preceeded by a long hissing exhalation; the dragon-like beast sent a wave of heated air over the vape in front of him.

The lips of the monster pulled into a smile, one that was entirely too excited considering the actually somewhat dangerous form he had taken. The tail whipped around, dancing in the wind wall for a moment before rocketing back out of the shearing force of air behind him. He was missing the stinger, having let it become detached from his body to gauge just how powerful the wind was... And found it a tad much. Fun.

Apparently, fun enough to pull a short bout of excitedly hysteric snickering out of him. Jericho was nervous! A fight against another, relatively powerful, parahuman! It was a first, and quite frankly it was just a little terrifying! However, a smaller part of himself; one that found existence in his mind after the first true act of cannibalism, was even more excited than the rest of the Changer. That tiny part was the part that drove him to 'swing first' as it were, lashing the stinger-less portion of the tail in Vic's direction, unknowing that it was her. Should it strike, it would be a strike that would've knocked the air out of anyone not prepared for any amount of combat.

A grand amount of passing thought was given to the status of the other girl, the skirt, before all his attention was once again back on the cape across from him; adrenaline fueled as he was, it felt as if time had stopped altogether! Which obviously wasn't true but...

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz)
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Capetown, TX. 09/19/2017, 11:18 AM. 61Ā°F,
Overcast. Arc 2: Confluence.



SƤhkƶ blinked, in a daze. So much had happened, it was hard to comprehend, especially with her concentration being slammed against by her over-capacity storage of energy. The plan hadn't gone as, well, planned. Chrysopoeia was supposed to transmute the terrain, SƤhkƶ was to shock and disable everyone immediately after, when the leaders came out of the warehouse, Sandstorm was to kick up a sandstorm, and SƤhkƶ would manipulate the charges from the friction in the resulting cloud, and use it to shock and disable the blinded Adept Mages. It was supposed to last ten minutes, maximum. Instead, something went wrong, and she had tapped into the grid without realizing it, and lost control of her power as it blitz'd this half of the city. It would act as an EMP, frying and ruining circuitry, shattering light bulbs, and draining batteries and capacitors. Even backup generators within range would have failed.

The hospital... She thought dimly. Capetown Memorial Hospital and West Tex were both within two miles, in opposite directions. So was the Capetown Police Department, and so was Fire Station 1. How many lives would be affected in the coming days by the electronics that had just been ruined?

She was dimly aware of an Adept Mage member who had gotten up and stumbled towards her. As soon as he touched the shimmering ionized air around her, a connection between the two flashed blindingly for a second, and he was on the floor. She understood that she no longer sensed his bio-electrical processes, and she hoped it was because of the amount of energy around her dimming her senses, like looking for a flashlight against the glare of the sun. Still, she felt doubt that he was alive.

She felt far away, with little control of her body. She felt super-heated air enter her lungs like breathing straight out of an oven. Isn't the air poisonous now that it's ionized? She wondered internally, not even registering the fact that her skin was reddening and blistering from the heat, and her lungs weren't likely to fair better.

Milliseconds went by as aeons as she was alone with her thoughts, her perception increased by adrenaline and her innate ability to focus at literal lightning speeds as each arc of electricity flowed through the air in coils around her. She watched and counted individual grains of iron, or tiny flakes or rust, as they were pulled out of the dirt and dust below her and atomized by plasma. Soon she had belts of metallic sand orbiting her. Is that something I can control? She wondered. She flexed her power, and suddenly her head exploded with pain.

She heard a voice as if far away. She recognized it. A team mate? No, not that familiar. Some one she had met before, been close enough to talk to. Who was it? What did they say? She couldn't think; couldn't focus.

Then she watched something else happen. She felt several connections as glass exploded in the sky, gushing out clouds of purple. She felt and watched the sky fragment, triangular shards reflecting blue and white, and watched as cracks of cool hues slowly burned through reality. She was losing it, losing her grip on herself.

Her body moved on it's own, as if some other force were controlling her, something subconscious, or even instinctual. It wasn't a bond, it wasn't healthy. It was parasitic, controlling her, forcing her to go somewhere when she couldn't tell herself. She almost felt violated, but it was causing her to back up and retreat to safety, away from the purple mist. Then she forgot about that, as something told her to. Many things were telling her to forget other things. Some things told her to forget themselves. Neurons fired in her brain, electrical impulses, and she suddenly realized her memory had been altered. What did that? Then, quick as it came, it went, and she forgot. Where did that come from? Glass, then purple clouds. Vials? Potions? Who made potions? What caused that to happen? Chemical reactions, movement of electrons from one atom to another as they bonded, changes, stole energy, or changed levels. Chemistry was physics on a smaller fundamental level, and she almost understood it.

How could she understand the movement of non-physical charges through a spacial field, but not comprehend the bigger picture? A name jumped to mind. Recall. What did she have to do with it? Did she control her? Something told her that wasn't it. What was her significance?

Recall sent her on a mission. To where? Why? What had happened during it? When did it even happen, how long ago?

Was it happening right now?

Another name, then. The Congenial. Who was that? Weird name. The Adept Mages. Ah, the target. She remembered. She felt a tiny spark inside her head as neurons connected. She was part of the Congenial, and they were going after the Adept Mages. Who was the leader of the team? Merlin? Myrlyn. Leader of the Adept Mages. She hadn't seen him yet. Who made the purple mist? Alchimyst did, he was a chemical Tinker, he threw the concoctions. She was in battle, she had hurt people.

Oh. She killed someone. That jolted her, and reality came back all at once, in a wave. She looked around. Mere seconds had gone by, and to her it had felt like hours, days, weeks. The Adept Mage who had walked up to her and gotten zapped hadn't even hit the floor. neither had the glass shards. Then, they did. Time had resumed normally. What was she supposed to do? Her body was still moving, as her first step backwards completed. Only one step? She took another. Then another. Her fingers twitched. He chest moved as another breath entered her lungs. Had she been holding it? No, she was hyperventilating, breathing really fast. Her perception had just slowed enough to make that last breath feel like an eternity ago.

"-lightning rod at your 3 o'clock, on the steel smokestack! Aim for it!" The familiar voice said. The same one as earlier. Did he repeat himself? No. Speaking took longer than breathing, and he was still in his sentence. She understood him, and looked to her right.

Woah! She was startled. The connection was so easy. All connections were easy. She had so much power in her that drawing a path through rubber right now would probably feel like drawing a path through copper or gold before. Nothing resisted her power in this state. Electromagnetism, movement of electrons, it was physics. Matter bows to physics, and right now, she was Lord of it. She felt every conceivable connection. She could zap people's hearts, melt the chain link fence, explode that car. No, what had he said? Lightning rod? What lightning rod? EVERYTHING IS A LIGHTNING ROD RIGHT NOW! Ah, there it is. She felt it. The path of least resistance. It was what her power was based off of, one of her fundamental abilities is altering the path of least resistance to allow her lightning to go where she willed. But the natural path was there, if she didn't think about it. Right to that lightning rod on the smokestack where he had pointed her. She'd almost lost her senses again.

She cracked the world in half. Then, nothingness. For a moment, the world was white, like looking at the screen of a computer monitor, every pixel pure white. Then, she could see. Lightning never blinded her, even if it could permanently blind others. She felt the vibrations rock her cranium and her whole skeleton as thunder shook the buildings around her. She gaped, her jaw would have hit the floor if it were physically possible, as the
glow of the ionized plasma where the air had been destroyed to the lightning rod. The glow extended around the rod, and the rod were melting like a stick of butter upright in an oven.

And she could think. I'm back to normal. Oof, even when she snapped out of the trance, she didn't have complete control of her mind, body, and abilities. Like looking through your eyes covered in tissue paper with earmuffs on and moving through molasses, her senses and mind had been muddled. Now, she was clear once again. Back to the fight.

Myrlin, Jeu and Drow followed Alchimyst out of the warehouse, each flexing their respective powers on the battlefield. The congenial flew into the fray, Sandstorm and Chrysopoeia collaborating to make solid obstacles in front of people, Seraphim acting as a personal force field, jumping in front of attacks and dissolving them across countless dimensions.

Jasmin tried her powers. Iron sand clung her her face through magnetism, forming the same spikey iron-filing mask she wore in this cape identity of SƤhkƶ. A tiny arc jumped between her fingers, the air snapping and crating the startling crackling sound of a taser. She wasn't drained, she still had tons of energy, but not enough to leak out. She felt good.

An Adept Mage wearing a red cloak with black cloud pattern blew flames from his mouth, SƤhkƶ sidestepped and punched him in the side. He convulsed and dropped to the ground crying out. Her taser hands worked, and she had enough control to not kill. Just as before. Good, she had been worried that maybe her control over her power had been damaged. She saw a man with jet-black chains walking around like Doctor Octopus with them, throwing people with sweeping motions, and tying others up. Then he darted through the battlefield, propelling himself with the chains like a slingshot, before grabbing one of Chrysopoeia's transmuted shield-structures and crumpling it with the shadowy limbs. His power is very similar to Tendril's. Jasmin thought. And he doesn't appear to be a friend. She kept in mind.

Meanwhile, she watched as rubber bullets flew through the sky, blue flames enveloping them as they altered trajectories. A few made it closer, but Myrlyn dodged them in ways a teenager shouldn't be able to. Right, he was a precog. Maybe she should go after him. She looked around again, to see Jeu doing acrobatics, back flips, handsprings, and more as he dodged attacks flying through the air, heat-less flames exploding around him. Another part of the battlefield looked like the jizz of a Green Lantern, with Drow's green energy constructs everywhere. Besides that, most of the other Adept Mage members were down and out of the fight, already having been dispatched easily, or taken out with SƤhkƶ's initial attack. She decided to go after Drow. Myrlyn had too many attacks aimed at him, and Jeu was out of her league in close combat. If she could zap Drow's energy constructs, she was powerless against SƤhkƶ.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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#, as written by Tanman
ā—„:Terry ā€˜Tessā€™ Farina:ā–ŗ
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No. No no no. Tess backed up to the wall as the flesh that had coated the walls withdrew and sucked back into the centre, pooling and growing into a mass before beginning another horrific transformation into a nightmarish being. Tess wasnā€™t good with this squeamish stuff. Or horror in general. So why did the person robbing the bank have to be so scary? Blood and guts just didnā€™t sit right with her, and even though visually the creature was terrifying, it was the damn noises that freaked her out the most. It was the unnatural, bodily noises of pain and disfigurement that really set her off. The bones snapped and creaked with the stress of the way they were bent. Liquid splashing and squelching as it squeezed out of fractures and broken pockets of flesh. She really wanted to hurl.

A piercing screech ofā€¦ God, she didnā€™t know how to describe it, but it rang in her ears and rattled her brain. It was strained, gargled through liquid and rising into a crescendo as the beast finished its transformation, Tess opening her eyes to the eerie silence, not even remembering when sheā€™d shut them. Thankfully, the new monster that formed wasnā€™t nearly as gross or disgusting as the previous one. Still, it was all the more intimidating with its large stature and haunting appearance: A ghostly skeleton demon with long and sharp blackened claws. Tess didnā€™t really pay too much attention to those however, as the most gripping feature of the new creature was that of its face. She stood, transfixed as she watched it, unable to tear herself away as her legs refused to work. Glowing, soulless orbs for eyes that bored into her mind and another macabre smile that seemed to delight in her fear were bearing down on her as it began its approach. Ink dripped from the cavities in its face, like blackened blood tears; leaving a stained trail of darkness where it walked.

With another of its bone-chilling roars, it stalked closer, though with no sense of urgency. Like it knew she was cornered and had nowhere to run. Prey. Then, it spoke, pausing in its steps every now and then to punctuate its words. "So... A skirt?ā€ Tess visibly paled as the being spoke more and more. It was creepy. In more way then one. Perhaps she wouldā€™ve been more embarrassed at the mention of her underwear had she not been so terrified. There was no witty comeback or answer to his questions. Just shivering and fear, amplified as he roared in the face of the boys that were nearby, spitting blood and goop over them. As the beast turned back to her, clearly focused on her rather than anyone else, the rest of the people in the room fled as fast as they could. Abandoning her to it. Not that she could blame them.

More questions came her way, bellowing from the beast as steam wafted from its nose and mouth. It had mistaken her for the one behind those hands earlier, and seemed none too pleased by her ā€˜heroicā€™ display. It was right that she was a cape, but it had completely the wrong idea. Obviously it didnā€™t realise how scared she was, or maybe it thought she was just acting, because even if Tess wanted to, she wasnā€™t in the mindset to answer or do much of anything. Still, she could listen. He was a distraction for something bigger and apparently, he had no intention of harming anyone. At least, not in his eyes. The unconscious people and the dizziness sheā€™d felt from the screaming earlier apparently didnā€™t count. The way he was speaking, she was beginning to see a strange immaturity, but in a way, that was even more worrisome in that she wasnā€™t sure she could rationalise with the guy.

Then, before Tess had much more time to think on it, she was sent flying. Though not by the monster as sheā€™d expected. Wind swept her clean off her feet and to the side, slamming her somewhat painfully into the wall, but at least she was clear of the creature. Squirming a bit against the wind pressure that held her there, suddenly, she was dropped, coughing a bit as she tried to catch her breath from being winded.

"GET OUT OR HOLD ON!" Was the command as Tess sat up, looking to the source. Evidently, this was the cape that had attacked the monster earlier, clad completely in white hiding most of their features. Given the situation, Tess was quick to trust and follow her advice, holding onto the doorframe while simultaneously going to move through it. Thankfully, sheā€™d been quick enough on her reaction to stop the newly formed whirlwind from sucking her in, though it still took a fair bit of effort to pull herself out and free, unable to see what was happening in the middle of the storm. Struggling out to the doorway, Tess took shelter behind the wall, still peeking around the corner to try and judge what was happening. With that crazy wind wall flowing, sheā€™d probably be more of a hindrance than a help if she changed and got in there. Giving a soft yelp and ducking as some sharp black stinger appendage impaled itself in the wall she was hiding behind, Tess hoped that was a good sign that Whiteout or whatever they were called was winning.

For now, sheā€™d watch and see if she needed to step in, perhaps once the dust of this initial scuffle settled.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia)
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A full on battle.

Kayle hadnā€™t been in one of these in a long time, in fact this was not normally his go to method. He could count the rumbles he had gotten into on one hand, usually finding isolated targets and making them regret their life decisions that way. As several Mages ran at him, different powers in tow, his eyes darted every which way to assess the situation. There were plenty of people here, but due to the three way battle of things, no one could present a unified front which worked for him. As a solo agent, he needed the chaos in order to prevent being ganged up on and inevitably outnumbered. His chains lashed out with the speed of a whip, smashing into the ground hard enough to cause small fissures in the surface, throwing dust and rubble into the air with every smash. The Mages who werenā€™t fast enough to avoid the chains were nearly crushed or thrown aside from the kinetic force, while those who managed to get inside Kayleā€™s guard found him no mere easy prey either.

One such Mage managed to duck and weave his way to Kayle, which admittedly wasnā€™t all that hard considering the amount of people he was attempting to fight at the same time. When he got close to Kayle, he could see that his hands, specifically his palms were glowing red. The air rippled in front of them and confirmed Kayleā€™s suspicion. Some kind of heat power associated to his limbs, something Kayle took into account as the man swung first. His strike was wild, driven by instinct and adrenaline rather than any form of training. ā€œSMOKING PALM!ā€ He yelled as his attack went wide. Kayle had to resist the urge to roll his eyes as he dart to the side, delivering three quick blows to the manā€™s kidneys. The Mage doubled over as Kayle took that moment to roll over his back, landing, and backflipping. His feet connected with the manā€™s face as he was doubled over and carried enough force to the Mageā€™s chin that it forced him up and landed him squarely on his back. A moment later, a couple of chains were bound around his arm, and a second later a sickening crack was heard as he screamed in pain and agony.

Just stay out of the fight dimwit. Kayle thought to himself as he turned towards the others who were either trying to get past his chains, or fighting the chains themselves. Idiots, they wouldnā€™t be able to do anything against them, but honestly Kayle wanted to focus on the big fishes in the pond at the moment. With a tiny flex, the number of chains sprouting from his body doubled and a few moments later had overwhelmed the lesser class of Mages that had been attempting to take him down. Now, who should he go for next? There were still a number of people in the fight, any of which would be decent targets. Kayle took a step forward, only to hear a slight ā€˜whooshā€™ behind him. He ducked, but it still wasnā€™t enough as he felt a blade carve through his sweater followed by a kick to his side that sent him tumbling. It was a weird sight as the chains seemed to convulse, shaking with Kayle as he rolled with the dirt. He quickly stood, feeling the burn from the wound now seeming to pulse on his back with his heartbeat. He grimaced, it hurt but it wasnā€™t something that was unknown to him.

He looked at his attacker, covered from head to toe in black garb and a ceramic mask covering his face. One of the leaders? Jeu, if Kayleā€™s recollection was correct, although his powers were somewhat up for debate. Enhanced battlefield cognition? Maybe some athletic boosting abilities? Didnā€™t he have fire or something? Kayle couldnā€™t spend time trying to remember everything about the man as Jeu launched forward, his speed pretty impressive as he ducked and weaved between Kayleā€™s shadow constructs. Kayle took two steps backwards, buying himself exactly one extra second as Jeu lashed forward with his blade. Kayle palmed it to the side, spinning and ducking to deliver a leg sweep which Jeu spiral rolled over in what seemed to be an impossible maneuver . When he landed, his blade was already lashing at Kayleā€™s face, forcing him backwards and into an unstable footing. Jeu pressed the advantage, slashing away at Kayle and landing a couple of blows as his sweater was torn and blood started to stain the blue material.

Kayle summoned chains from his chest, pushing outwards to keep Jeu at bay but was dismayed as he front flipped onto the chains rather than being pushed outwards, jumping over his head and lashing out with fire. Kayle instinctively went prone, falling on his back as the blade missed his head by mere inches, rolling backwards to hopefully land on his back. The moment he did, he heard the subtle crunch of Jeu landing behind him and threw up a wall of chains. The moment he did, he heard the ā€˜clangā€™ of the blade ringing off of them. Kayle snarled before balling his fists and feeling the darkness expel from everywhere at once.

Like an explosion, chains launched from Kayle with varying effects as they landed several yards away and impacted with anyone and anything that got in there way. There were easily a couple dozen chains of differing sizes strewn about the battlefield. Kayle looked back and was surprised to see that not only had Jeu avoided getting hit, he was moving on the chains with precision and expertise, getting closer to Kayle through the maze that was his power. Kayle gave a smile as he collapsed the chains in on his opponent, who once again displayed his skill as he jumped and weaved through the moving chains with supernatural ability. Flipping out the top like a ninja, Jeu landed a few yards away in a crouch, his blade held at the ready as Kayle retracted his chains back into his person. Once again utilizing a manageable number, Kayle stared at his target. A worthy foe, if nothing else, but he wasnā€™t going to win this way. Kayle was learning and it wouldnā€™t be long before all of Jeuā€™s tricks were used up. Kayle raised his hands into a fighting stance, but was dismayed to find that they were actually covered in fire. He probably hadnā€™t felt it due to the adrenaline, but immediately went about trying to put them out. In that moment of surprise, Jeu closed the distance quickly, throwing his blade ahead of him.

It only took a couple of seconds, but Kayleā€™s mind processed it as minutes. The fire was still burning, but it was secondary as the blade that was clearly aimed for his heart made itā€™s way to him. He started falling to throw off the trajectory, but it wouldnā€™t be enough. His chains were too slow to summon from the front and wouldnā€™t put up a satisfactory shield. He brought his arm in front of him and felt the white hot pain as the blade embedded itself up to the hilt in his forearm. As Kayleā€™s back hit the ground, he felt Jeu reach the blade and violently rip it from where it had impaled Kayle, earning a grunt of pain as Kayle did his best to suppress the instinct to scream. With yet another feat of acrobatics, Jeu jumped over Kayle and slashed for his neck, but was met with yet another clang as chains formed into a choker for Kayle, preventing the lethal injury.

Kayle was on the defensive, he was not used to this. Enough of this kind of game, he was done trying to play on his field. Jeu landed with a slide backwards, his hand gripping the dirt and his feet attempting to move forward even as he himself moved backwards. He was trying to finish this quickly. Kayle rolled to his feet, staring at Jeu as he started to close the distance rapidly. Despite the blood that now pooled beneath him, Kayle gave a smile that stood out against the darkness enveloping his head.

ā€œPanic.ā€ He whispered as he summoned a vast amount of strength and sent out an Empath pulse that affected everyone within range. He didnā€™t want Jeu overcoming it so he put more juice into the attack than what was probably necessary. It must have hit Jeu like a ton of bricks because he stumbled, barely keeping his footing but it was enough. With that moment of hesitation and now that Kayle could properly think about his moves, chains surrounded the battlefield master, encompassing his limbs and held him in the air for everyone to see. Jeu seemed, well, panicked by this change in battle, and next thing Kayle knew he was completely encapsulated by fire. Kayle held his breath for a moment, before quickly realizing that, aside from his previous injuries, the flames didnā€™t actually burn him. He gave a smile and a small laugh, realizing how much of an idiot he had been before looking up at his hostage.

ā€œFor what itā€™s worth, you gave it a good shot.ā€ Twisted Smile stated, before squeezing the chains and hearing the telltale sound of bones being shattered followed by Jeuā€™s screams of terror and pain. With what looked like barely a thought, Kayle tossed him aside, letting him land in a heap of tears, blood, sweat and screams. Fucker, could barely think with him launching himself at me like that. Kayle thought to himself as he checked his wounds. All of them had dark red blood flowing out of them, but that was a good thing. None of them had hit an artery, so he would be fine for awhile. In the meantime, he looked to the other combatants.

Who was left, who else could he take out?

Setting

3 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

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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Holy shit, Vic thought, It IS him.

She stared at the babbling mess in front of her, feet slowly lowering to the ground. She barely took notice of the distorting body horror as Jericho transformed, being too absorbed to gawk at it.

"Did you get a note thing too!? Man it would be so coincidental if you did, you know? Like some sort of divine coincidence! But that's dumb huh. Oh man I should've asked Vic if she got a message on her phone or something, do you think she has a phone? ... Wait, do you even know who Vic is? Aw man, she'd have a field day if she knew about this! Then again, she'll probably see it on the news huh? Do you think we'd make the news?"

Vic facepalmed. This guy. Words could not express...

... how annoyed she was. She almost just sat down then and there with her arms up. What was she supposed to be doing here again? Jericho wasn't going to rob the bank, probably no one was. What was he supposed to be the distraction for? Did he even know that himself? Yeah... something about him made her doubt it.

"Yeah, maybe," she mumbled distractedly, "She'll be ecstatic."

"Oh man, I hope you like fire by the way, I almost never get to use this form!"

She raised her gaze to properly take in the furry, dragon-scorpion thing that now stood before her. Wendigo deserved props for his creativity. This form was better than any B-grade monster she'd ever seen before. She flinched at the heat that came too close to her face and watched as his stinger come loose and was swept up in the overpowering wind-currents.

Wendigo's tail came hurtling towards her. She felt the disturbance as it cut through the air almost too late. She shut her eyes as it cleaved through her stomach. Her legs and chest hovered, the clear gap between them wispy, mist seemingly rising from the "wounds". The gap increased as the mists crawled up her torso and down her legs, seemingly eating her away into nothing. Anyone could tell she was smiling from her eyes, which only opened briefly as she was sucked back into the wind wall, flashing for a moment before she was completely gone.

She burst through the other side, her torso and head appearing as she looked around wildly for anything to help her situation. Her eyes immediately fixated on the stinger embed in the wall, and the violet head of hair poking out from behind it. One arm formed and pointed at the stinger, while she looked directly at the girl.

"Chuck that here, will you?"

She snatched the curved blade out of the air as it was promptly tossed to her, letting the wind part for it so it could make its way to her rather than be deflected by the winds pushing out from around her wall.

"Cheers," she said, giving the girl a casual salute with a finger gun, before merging back with the whirlwind. This girl was awesome. It made her consider how handy a sidekick could be.

She was spat back out on the other side, materialized as she shot from the wall to hover over the back of the monster. She dug the point of the stinger into the base of Wendigo's neck, restraining herself from piercing through.

"Want this back?" She mused, "Tell me about the note - and you don't feel your own poison."

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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  1. WIP WIP WIP

    by StorminJericho

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An excited, if terribly annoyed, sigh echoed out of Jericho's maw; just the memory was irritating, like he had forgotten something important! Oh well. Might as well explain... and get this chick off his back! Jeez. The spines standing in the fur of his skull twitched, sinking into the flesh as the head itself turned completely around, a long oil black tongue lashing out and impaling itself on the stinger. Ink swelled from both objects, merging and then vanishing back into the main source.
In Vic's hand, she felt the change from solid to liquid; incredibly warm, near scalding, before it pulled itself out of her hand. Jericho kept his head turned towards her, voice crackling as it had been before, as if liquid was caught in the throat. "That was weak. Your quips are weaaak," The changer drew out the vowel, rolling the human eyes that sat in the skull of a reptile. "But hey, if you really want to play all rough and tumble, maybe I'll jus' play along hey?" The sentence ended on a question, just for a moment. Then the tail was again lashing forward; chitin segments bursting in fountains of odd gore. Strings of some goopy material lashed out from where the segments ruptured; flaying out into the air like silly string. He had aimed to attach it to Vic's arm; her chest and her hair. Her mask, Jericho was thankful, would have kept most of it from actually getting on her face, if he didn't miss.

The strings remained connected to the tail, dripping oily ink as well as some... Oddly clear liquid, giving the already iridescent ink even more of a sheen than it garnered. He thought about his plan for a second before pausing entirely, suddenly remembering that she was asking about the note. "Oh right! Anyways, so, I spent the day durin' the morning wandering around! This guy on a motorcycle almost hit me, and I may or may not have done a loud in his face... anyways! So! After the fun bike guy, I was hiding out in an alley to calm down and get my thoughts back... but then this fucking 'Pekah' bitch," whoa. That was some intense anger; the kind of intensity that surprised even Jericho, "decided that to give someone a note, she had to kick 'em down and then leave 'em with a bottle. 'M supposed to go back tonight to get my 'pay', but honestly, I don't trust it. If she shows up, I'll eat her as soon as any funny gamboling starts."

It hadn't occurred to Jericho, that while he disliked to do so, grudges were a thing he apparently was capable of holding. Especially against shadowy individuals who couldn't be 'civil' as he saw it. A long sigh left him, mind leaving the memory behind as he instead turned his attention completely back to the flighty cape. "You know... This is actually a breeze, I figured you'd actually be trying to kill me or something! Most people don't ever mind trying to slaughter me... when they're capes at least, or when they're scared enough, I suppose. I would appreciate it if you didn't though! I gotta figure out if Vic's band'll be playin' anywhere anytime soon! I haven't really heard their old music just yet!"

The Changer was rambling again, strings of ink swaying in the gale that surrounded him and the- still unknown- cape. But... he thought it was nice! Having someone to talk at, who seemed to take this just as seriously as he was; which was to say, not in the slightest. His furred head turned away from her, though a mouth opened just where the stinger tip has been, smiling away while the skull itself twisted around to look at the wind wall. Maw opening wide, there was nothing but the sound of Jericho giggling up the windy one. "This'll be fun, hehehe."

That was random. He hadn't MEANT to say that, but... eh! Oh well. Ink sprayed out from his mouth, sets of spinnerets hidden under the tongue and extending from the roof of the mouth; rope-thick webbing. Black and shining like the strands that flew from his opened tail, if immensely thicker, coated in a chitin that . The webbing flew into the wind wall; getting spun around and flung every which way into the bank. All of it still connected to Jericho's monstrous skull. His tail began sinking back into him, and as it did, the mouth that smiled and talked up at Vic suddenly burst forward; becoming a club of bone and chitin that rocketed itself toward her chest, just as the stingerless tail had before. Now, speaking of the tail, the strands of ink that were attached to everywhere near he and Vic in the center of the cyclone, were now connected to the space just between his 'hips'.

There was no pausing, no warning even; for one moment, all that the Changer did was spread webbing and ink everywhere... Then, with a hissing sound; with the formation of one bladder growing in his tongue itself, stretched tissue rapidly swelling a skull the methane produced by his constant digestion filling the new organ almost immediately. Jericho focused then, concentrating with a disgusted face as he brought another, new organ to life right by the air bladder. A sickened cough echoed out of Jericho, body lurching to the side just for a moment, before a intimately familiar sound echoed its way into Vic's ears.

scrape-scrape-SHCK, and then fire. Gouts of fire, lines of fire; traveling up and along the webbing spread about the room. Then Jericho's head turned and the stream of fire that came from the methane-potent saliva abruptly cut off, the Changer giving a ever so slightly manic grin as it did. "Trial by fire~!" Came the elated shout, focus turning to the ceiling as powerful legs sent him rocketing upward, a sheathe of bone forming around his shoulders and skull as he broke through the tile on the ceiling. Scrabbling and clawing his way to the roof, whether or not the two capes on the ground floor followed him didn't matter.

He couldn't help the cackling laughter that erupted from him abruptly, dizzied for a moment from the amount of blood he had manipulated inside his own system. His power, while it allowed him to morph his biology at will, didn't really agree with the formation of metal through his blood. He had only ever tried to form a blade of iron once, and only once. It took a while for the ink to result his body with the iron missing from him, and once he made it, he couldnt reconsume it.

Jericho coughed, letting the makeshift spark striker fall out of his maw. He stared at the metal there, his eyes focusing on the inherently wrong creation there. He shuddered and turned his attention out to the skyline; ears taking in the wailing sirens of the PCRT vans on their way. More cackling laughter, and then a burst of terrifying sound. 'Here I am!' Screamed the shriek that tore out of his throat; multiple mouths and vocal cord sets opening on the reptilian body he wore, adding onto the sheer volume he was giving out. A keening bell- again- mixed with what sounded like an air-raid siren; once again underlain by some terrifying chattering gurgle. After he finished his scream, he snapped up the makeshift spark striker again, swallowing it and taking it back into the whole of his being.

By sheer luck, or by the whim of nature itself; wind pushed from behind Jericho, carrying his 'voices' out just a bit farther than he was capable of pushing them. A challenge to every challenger who attempted to usurp this king of the hill. The Changer, in his roaring and shrieking, had forgotten all about Vic; forgotten that he was technically fighting with someone... So, he dove back down into the room; roaring and cackling all the way down as the bulk of his body thrashed about at random. The fiery lines of silk and ink that he had strewn about the room were still blazing, some even caught in his fur and set that ablaze as well! Which... normally would've concerned Jericho, if he weren't totally expecting it.

Now he was a blazing monster, fur ablaze and reeking horrifically. Maybe... the fire was a bit much. Some of the things inside the bank were catching fire as well, oops, uh... "Oh. Hahaha whoops."

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz)
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Devon watched as the girl launched a bolt of electricity at the lightning rod. While it was clear that she had overcharged quite a bit given her previous state, the severity of her overcharge only became apparent when the bolt hit the rod and turned it and part of the top of the smokestack it was attached to into a mess of molten metals. But what followed was much more interesting to him as metal flakes collected themselves on the face of the girl, very much like the mask he had seen in the sandwich shop a few days back. Now he had even more questions to ask her when this fight was over.

Then there was the more pressing matter at hand, the floating candlewick. From the bullets he had fired at him a large percentage had been forced onto alternate paths and the ones he hadn't taken control of he had managed to dodge either being able to react on the rather slow bullets or his precog being the driving force behind his matrix moves. Well what were the chances that a spray and pray attack would work on a precog with telekinetic powers, but it was mostly to keep him on the defensive and unable to hurl more crap, which it apparently did do splendidly. Seeing as dual wielding an assault rifle and a sniper rifle wasn't exactly an effective fighting method as it didn't play to either weapons strengths, he slung his sniper rifle onto his back figuring that volume of fire might give him the edge, making it harder to avoid and advert all of the projectiles.

He aimed his assault rifle at Myrlyn and unleashed a large stream of sandbag ammunition, not only did this ammo type fire with a much greater speed and have more mass behind it, with the properly aimed fire the homing properties of the rifle kicked in. However it was not to be, as Myrlyn quickly diverted many of the projectiles again whilst avoiding remaining projectiles that he didn't manage to control in time or didn't feel the need for. It even seemed he was aware of the homing properties of the projectiles as the projectiles he had initially dodged were dodged once more on their return flight. But with how he was still holding a grip over the bullets he had diverted instead of slamming them into the ground or something else solid, it seemed he didn't have all the answers. The thought of it being a ruse ran through Devon's head, but the likelihood that a brat with little real combat experience would concoct something like that on the fly seemed slim at best. The fact that he hadn't tried to launch the bullets back in Devon's direction showed that he felt that it was some sort of risk, what exactly that risk was he couldn't tell at this point, but slowly the cracks in the precogs defenses started to appear.

With a devilish grin hidden under his mask he looked at Myrlyn up in the sky, the homing strength of a single of those bullets wasn't all too great, but with the distance to the ground and the open air around him given the chance every single one of those bullets would find it's way back to their target time after time. However there was one weapon in his possession that excelled at homing. With his left hand Devon pulled the revolver from his holster and trained it on Myrlyn who was still battling the other bullets in the air. With a sharp crack similar to the lightning that had roared prior a bullet was released from the gun and as expected Myrlyn's attention had shifted to this new projectile releasing his grip over some of the others to try and divert this new threat. However he immediately found out this one wasn't going to let the telekinetic bend it's route as his powers failed to make the bullet veer off course before he had to dodge the bullet, and even then barely managed to as the bullet ripped a new hole in the robe on his back

As the first bullet passed Devon took aim for another shot only to notice Myrlyn making a twitchy move as he was pulling the trigger, one that would have been impossible to react to in time had his opponent been just a regular gunman, but with fortune being on Devon's side his overdrive improved his reaction speed quite a bit beyond that of a normal human. With a half pulled trigger Devon watched what must have been panic situation for the precog as Myrlyn realized that Devon could keep up with his preemptive dodges, and not only that he could do it faster than Myrlyn could react upon what his precognition was telling him. A feeling of glee passed through Devon as he now understood the limitations of his opponents precognition, and with that new knowledge he fired his shot just as Myrlyn was in the middle of another preemptive dodge. The bullet connected and sent a wave of electrical energy through Myrlyn, causing him to lose control of his muscles and more importantly his powers for a moment.

He managed to save himself from injury as he regained control over his power just in time to slow his descent from a bone breaking drop to one that would only leave one sore for a couple of days. But his problems weren't over yet, there was still the swarm of homing bullets to content with. The mage hadn't even gotten the time to get his bearings before the bullets had come too close to dodge. In a blind panic he diverted as many as he could, causing the bullets to slam into the ground hard enough to leave small craters in the copper below, and hoped the left over ones wouldn't kill him. At the same time however another shot sounded and Myrlyn flew a few feet backwards as if someone had just thrown a medicine ball at him with full force, allowing the remaining bullets to burrow themselves harmlessly into the ground. Well not completely harmlessly as some of the others on the copper may have noticed with a slight tingle of electricity passing through their feet as the first revolver shot hit the ground.

The mage wasn't exactly in the best of shape, quite a few sore spots to attent to and perhaps a few bruised ribs. The sudden strike to the chest seemed to have knocked the wind out of him as he lay there unmoving, but quite clearly still breathing.




He then turned his attention to the others on the battlefield, it was hard to not notice the mangled man left behind by the shadow chain wielding entity. While some injury during battle wasn't uncommon, this seemed more like mere brutality and cruelty. Devon gritted his teeth in anger and frustration as he felt forced to let the man operate for now as at this point securing the metal faced girl for some question was the prime objective. And she seemed to be intent on tangling with the one female among the adept mages leadership. He holstered his revolver and in a fluid motion slung his assault rifle to his back while taking his sniper rifle back into his arms. At this point the rag tag team had a solid upper hand and he wanted to see a bit of miss 9volt in action, he'd just keep an eye on anyone trying to butt into that fight or step in to protect her if she had bitten off more than she could chew.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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There was a muted grunt of pain as the stinger slipped through Vic's fingers, dissolving into burning, black gunk. As Wendigo insulted her quips, she felt honestly offended.

At least I don't blab out my life story in the middle of a FIGHT, she thought indignantly, right before she heard a disturbance behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see a spray of some gory substance being discharged from his tail. She immediately turned ethereal as it lashed out at her. She split around Wendigo, becoming one and visible again in front of the monster's eyes. She was prepared to punch him in his reptilian face, but he began to answer her question, so she just floated out of biting range and listened, hands in pockets.

"So! After the fun bike guy, I was hiding out in an alley to calm down and get my thoughts back... but then this fucking 'Pekah' bitch -"

Vic visible stiffened then, her brain whirring as she took in the rest of his story. What the hell was the person wanting her to stop the bank robbery, also the one enlisting the person to rob the bank? What was the point of that? Were they just curious about what a stand-off between Nobody and Wendigo would be like? No - Jericho said he was supposed to be a distraction... she was part of the distraction too, wasn't she.

"... honestly, I don't trust it. If she shows up, I'll eat her as soon as any funny gamboling starts."

"You better share," she muttered under her breath, her fists tightening within her pockets.

Her grouchiness was watered down as Jericho kept doing what he did best - rambling. Vic smirked as he brought up her name again. He's obsessed, she internally sighed, shaking her head.

"Is that Vic from I Really Hope We Don't Crash? Heard that they're gonna be playing at Connections tonight," she said, her amusement showing through, when suddenly that icky, black silly string burst from Wendigo's mouth. She didn't bother becoming untouchable. She simply weaved through the slick black projectiles, whipping her head around to get a glimpse of what was happening. The chords were getting through the wind wall and were attaching to things on the other side. Vic frowned beneath her mask. The sticky matter was strong enough that the wind couldn't dislodge it from whatever they were attached to. Wendigo, despite projecting bits of hit matter through the wall, was having a perfectly fine time keeping on his feet. Vic focused on the wall, trying to boost its speed and mass, when Wendigo's skull crashed into her chest.

She made no noise at the pain she felt. She was pushed back, then let herself drop and crouch on top of the thick vines protruding from Jericho's body. She went into a coughing fit, hand on top of where the biggest impact was made. God, she wished that Capes had the common decency to not go for the fucking boobs. I mean, yeah, she did her best to make people forget they existed on her, but they were still there.

In the moments she was recovering from the hit, she heard the hissing. She looked up just a second before fire was blasted from Wendigo's mouth. She changed forms too late. Her energy was being exerted on reinforcing the wind wall to try and dislodge the black cords, causing her disappearing act to be delayed. She was caught up in the initial blast, screamed, then leapt up in the air off the cords to avoid the next wave of fire rushing down them to greet her. She disappeared as she jumped, hurriedly zipping low to the ground where the cords weren't present. Fire wasn't the healthiest thing for either of her forms.

She involuntarily materialized belly-down on the ground, smouldering. Her white hoodie was darkened with flame damage. There was a crash as Jericho broke through the ceiling and Vic barely glanced up at the plummeting rubble before throwing her arms out and dispersing the wind wall with a loud WHOOSH. She crossed her arms over her head protectively as the wind came roaring back to her.

Her eyes opened and she looked up to see the floating rubble above her. The place was practically destroyed - a hole in the ceiling, fire, rubble smashing craters in the ground... but it wasn't robbed. Yay.

Vic stomped her foot down and threw the rubble that had been sent down to crush her flying. Chucks of ceiling slammed against walls and a miniature whirlwind formed around her, snaking her upwards through the hole like a worm. She came out on the roof just in time to hear the terrifying battle cry of Wendigo, right before he scrambled back into the hole. Vic's brow twitched. Did he just ignore me?

The whirlwind around her narrowed into a arrow-like shape. She pressed her hands together in front of her and let out a little puff of air from her lips, before her projectile came down full force. The concentrated wind slammed into Wendigo's back, grinding him into the ground despite his mass. Vic blew out again, this time adding to the force of the current. Wind tugged on her clothes roared in her ears. She pushed harder. Hard enough to break bones. Suddenly, she stopped.

The strength of the wind faltered until it no longer weighed down on Wendigo's back. She lowered herself down to stand by the edge of the hole, leaning over it and peering down at the monster.

"If you're not going to rob the bank, I'm just gonna go," she called down, "This was fun. We'll probably have to do it again sometime. See you 'round, Wendy."

And she began to fly away. She swept over the top of PCRT vans making their way to the bank to detain the creature inside, quite happy to let someone else deal with it. She was getting hungry.

Setting

8 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz) Character Portrait: Teen Heroes of America (THA) Character Portrait: Splatterblood's Crew
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Capetown, TX. 09/19/2017, 11:25 AM. 61Ā°F,
Overcast. Arc 2: Confluence.



SƤhkƶ 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 SƤhkƶ. SƤhkƶ 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, SƤhkƶ broke into a run, charging her opponent. Drow stood her ground until SƤhkƶ was a foot away, and as SƤhkƶ 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 SƤhkƶ dropped to avoid a second hit, kicking at Drow's legs, only for her to take a few steps back. SƤhkƶ 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 SƤhkƶ'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 SƤhkƶ'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.

SƤhkƶ 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 SƤhkƶ stumbled, grabbing her face. Unconsciously, as a reflex, an arc jumped between SƤhkƶ and Drow, and a loud crackling sound louder than a taser made SƤhkƶ 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. SƤhkƶ reached down with one hand, still holding her face with the other, and tagged Drow. She spasm'ed, and went limp, unconscious.

SƤhkƶ 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 SƤhkƶ, FreischĆ¼tz, 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. SƤhkƶ noted that Alchimyst had also surrendered laying on the floor after a stray projectile from FreischĆ¼tz'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. SƤhkƶ 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. 57Ā°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

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush)
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ā—„:Terry ā€˜Tessā€™ Farina:ā–ŗ
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ā€œWowā€¦ā€ Tess murmured to herself in mild awe as the white cape emerged ā€“ Or at least, a part of them did. It actually was pretty amazing with the wispy nature of their being, swirling haze suddenly giving way to a figure. Whoever he was, he was pretty cool. Forming out of the nothingness once more, an arm and hand gestured to her with an open hand. "Chuck that here, will you?" He asked, and Tess immediately obliged, wrenching the stinger from the wall and tossing it across the room. Almost perfectly, it landed in his hand, and with a quick salute and thanks, he was off to fight the monster once more. Tess wondered if she came off that confident to others when she was Hush.

Continuing to observe the action from the safety of her position, it was still incredibly hard to tell what was happening in there, even for her. The whirlwind was still roaring, which was probably a good sign for the white cape though. From amongst the cyclone, more of that creatureā€™s body was flung out, though this time as thick strands of black goop. Spiralling about the whirlwind, they seemed out of control until they hit the walls, floor, ceiling, anything they could attach to before holding steady, shuddering amongst the force of the wind. Was it trying to anchor itself to better strike at the white cape? Briefly, she heard the sound of a scream from within the wind wall, before things suddenly got a lot crazier.

The inky wires that had affixed themselves about the room began running flames down their length, setting ablaze like fuses, yet remaining strung about as if becoming a web of fire itself. The room turned red and orange with the hot light, the inferno whipping about and remaining furious even amongst the intense winds they were subjected to. Naturally, more than a few cinders and sparks were flying about the room now, setting alight to furniture and scraps of paper caught in the cyclone. If the sandwich shop was bad, this bank was going to be a whole lot worse. As the shadowy figure of Wendigo leapt upwards and broke through the ceiling, it seemed ā€˜worseā€™ was a bit of an understatement.

Shrinking back through the doorframe, both to avoid the fiery heat and the rubble falling in the wake of the shapeshifters destruction; Tess kept an eye on the white cape as he came into view once more. Dispelling the whirlwind that he had formed, in a quick motion of his arms above his head he forced the wind into a protective barrier of sorts, the air pressure holding the stones above him as it continued rushing upward. Then, with little more effort, he tossed it all to the side, though the fact that the powers seemed to rely on physical motions was an intriguing factor to note. A necessary component of the ability? Or just something to help them focus? Without any hesitation, Tess watched the young man form a cyclone around his lower body and fly upwards to continue the battle.

Beginning to make her way back outside so she could continue to watch the fight, Terry stumbled at the loud thud behind her as Wendigo hit the floor of the bank once more, fur aflame andā€¦ Ughh, that smell really reeked. Why did she have to have a sensitive nose? Pinching it to block the stench, Terry didnā€™t have to worry about it too long as Whiteout made his presence known again. This time however, it was a blast; a reckless amount of air forcing down into the monsters back and driving it into the ground so hard it splintered the concrete. Falling backwards from the air that rushed past her in the aftermath of the strike, Tess remained where she was seated as she listened to him speak from somewhere high above them.

"If you're not going to rob the bank, I'm just gonna go. This was fun. We'll probably have to do it again sometime. See you 'round, Wendy." With that, she could only assume that the hero of the hour had left, leaving the shapeshifting monster toā€¦ Ah crapbaskets! The PCRT! Sheā€™d been so focused on the battle she hadnā€™t heard the approaching sirens, nor thought about the fact theyā€™d be on their way here! She had to get out of here before they started asking her even more questions about what she was doing hanging about the scene of another crime!

Moving to the corner of the room, Tess was thankful the place was so dark and destroyed that no one would see her transform. Even the technology around seemed down for some reason. It was nothing particularly flashy ā€“ at least, not to her - Just a quick shimmer of blue-white light pulsing over her body before dispersing in a swarm of particles, morphing her clothes and leaving Hush where she once stood. Moving up to the window and glancing out to the rooftop, Tess briefly pictured it in her mind before forming her lightblade, making a quick vertical sweep to cut open the vibrant azure portal. Quickly stepping through, Hush vanished from the bank and reappeared on the nearby roof, immediately ducking down to avoid being seen before looking further up ahead. With another quick slice, she was away, zipping past the PCRT vehicles without even being spotted. Leaping off the side of the building to slide into the dark alleyway below, Hush did a few quick checks to ensure the coast was clear before ending her transformation.

Returning back to regular old Tess, the girl gave a soft sigh of relief as sheā€™d once again managed to preserve her secret. Now she just had to work out how to get back to school and explain where sheā€™d been and what had happened.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz)
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It seemed like the battle itself had wrapped up fairly quickly, with the Adept Mages taking the brunt of the damage. It seemed their leadership was either incapacitated or in the process of surrendering, and even then Kayle liked the thought of breaking the Alchimyst in half. He was a villain after all, and had done his fair share of things that put him on Kayleā€™s list. Unfortunately, as the blood dripped off him like a faulty faucet, he recognized that he was at a disadvantage. He could still fight, but the others didnā€™t look like they had taken any injuries worth noting, or at the very least, they were good at hiding them. Kayle looked between them, but it obvious just from FreischĆ¼tzā€™s stance that he would side with the group that had actually instigated the fight and had shocked the entire city into a standstill.

Typical hero, thinking to the short term. Kayle thought to himself as he relented and realized that he couldnā€™t take all five of them in an engagement, especially wounded the way he was. He also couldnā€™t inflict more casualties on the Mages without the Cape stepping in to stop him either, so there was only one avenue of approach left to him. With nothing but a smile, the chains launched out of him and impacted the ground. With a quick movement, Kayle was thrown through the air past them, the chains lashing out every so often to keep his momentum going but in moments he had removed himself from the situation.

When he did finally land, he was several blocks away, and noticing that there didnā€™t seem to be any kind of pursual, took a moment to catch his breath. His blue hoodie had been dyed red by this point as the shadow fell away from his face. His hood was still up, making it nearly impossible for someone to get a good look at his face, since he didnā€™t want to be caught off guard once again, but he was starting to feel the effects of the blood loss. He had to get himself patched up...luckily he had a guy.




Kayle pulled up to a walk in clinic on his bike, doing his best to hide his injuries but it was getting harder with every passing second. His breathing was ragged and sweat had started to bead on his brow. His eyes had been getting heavy and he had noticed that his body temperature was starting to drop. He would last a few minutes longer, maybe. As he managed to park his bike, somehow not toppling over and not letting the bike crash on itā€™s side, he stole a glance at several people who stared at him and whispered among themselves. They were unsure what to do, he could be an injured cape or villain, and no one wanted to risk getting put in the same boat as a ā€˜bad guyā€™. Cowards, one and all, too self absorbed to help those around them without worrying about their own benefit or risk.

Bypassing all of them, he pushed open the door to the walk in clinic with his shoulder. Inside he was greeted with one of the lower ends of a doctorā€™s workplace. The walls were painted a weird shade of green with chipped pieces falling off at irregular intervals. The chairs were cheap and plastic, deliberately made red to avoid the blood coming off of some of the patients here from staining any of the furniture. A couple of magazine stands were set off at regular intervals, filled with all the latest literature from 1960. All of this would be visible from the window that covered the entire front of the clinic, save that the window itself was tinted black with the letters ā€˜Southside Clinicā€™ printed in red ink, with ā€˜Dr. Lucio Corvaxā€™ written underneath. At the far end of the front door sat a circular desk with a young, somewhat pretty secretary sitting there staring off into space. A couple of people sat in the chairs, either absorbed in their own little world or taking enough time from their busy lives to stare at Kayle as he stumbled in.

Kayle wandered past all of them, including the secretary who finally noticed him after he was already half past the desk. ā€œHey wait, you need to check in and wait your turn!ā€

ā€œMake me.ā€ Kayle uttered as he continued to walk past her, the words enough to make her stop in her path as she wondered what to do next. Her hand hovered over the phone, but something made her switch ideas and instead ran after Kayle as he walked down the hallway, opening doors until finally he found the one he was looking for. In the room at the far end of the hallway, Kayle opened the door to find your standard looking clinic room. There was a counter and sink off to the side with cabinets filled with all sorts of medical looking crap. A desk with a computer sat next to it on the adjacent wall, and opposite of these necessary components was fold up patient table that currently had a middle aged man sitting on it with his shoes and socks removed.

The doctor looked up from his inspection of the manā€™s foot. The man seemed to be of spanish descent, older but definitely not refined looking. His hair, a mixture of grey and black, wasnā€™t so much distinguished as it was all over the place. Yes, his hair was gelled back to avoid looking like a cartoon Einstein, but gray streaks ran through his hair at random intervals. Wrinkles and creases smothered his face, indicating age and his eyes had the look of someone who was simply looking forward to retirement. His coat was open, revealing a rather unprofessional t-shirt that was a reference to some soap opera that Kayle couldnā€™t be bothered to remember or comment on, which also happened to be covered in some sort of stain...most likely spaghetti. Lucio, the doctor, stood up and looked at Kayle. He was fairly tall, at least 6ā€™2, but he never carried with him any air of authority or pride, if anything his size made him seem even more done with this life than anything else.

There was a brief moment where no one said anything, including the secretary who was standing behind Kayle. Finally, Lucio looked to his patient and slowly blinked. ā€œIā€™ll be back in a moment.ā€

ā€œBut Iā€™ve already been waiting two hours to see you!ā€ The man retorted angrily, trying to grab Lucioā€™s arm. Lucio shrugged it off.

ā€œYes and a few more minutes wonā€™t kill you.ā€ Lucio made a note to bend over one more time to look at the manā€™s foot, which Kayle was just now noticing had a weird growth on it. ā€œHopefully...maybe...try not to breathe too fast.ā€ The man looked incredulous, then scared, then started holding his breath. Lucio rolled his eyes as he stepped into the hallway.

ā€œI tried to stop him Dr. Corvax, he just barged right th-ā€

ā€œIf you had truly tried to stop him Grace, I doubt you would be conscious enough to even explain.ā€ Lucio stated, motioning towards another one of the rooms, which Kayle entered. ā€œJust go back to your desk and deal with the other incoming patients.ā€ She gave a brief nod, stealing a glance over at Kayle before speed walking back to her spot. Lucio walked into the room after kayle, slowly closing the door as he did so and giving a slight sigh. ā€œYou could try to be a bit more personable when you come here.ā€

ā€œKind of hard to do when every time I come here Iā€™m in enough pain to rip the tongues out of everyone who looks at me wrong.ā€

ā€œPleasant.ā€ Lucio stated as he motioned at Kayleā€™s clothes. Kayle started taking them off, but required aid from the good doctor about halfway as the pain forced Kayle to grit his teeth to the point of crushing them. Once the clothes were off and Doctor Corvax could see what was going on, he let a couple of spanish swears roll off his tongue as naturally as water flows through a river. ā€œLooks like you had a fun time.ā€

ā€œAs much as I generally enjoy your apathy, Iā€™ve been bleeding for a great deal of time now and everythingā€™s starting to get sleepy and cold.ā€

ā€œYes yes yes, one moment.ā€ Lucio made his way back to the door, ensuring that it was securely locked. After that, he pressed another button and there was a slight ā€˜chunkā€™ as some other precautions were put in place. With that, Lucio cracked a couple of his knuckles and rolled his neck slightly. ā€œAlright, first thingā€™s first.ā€ Lucio walked over to the cabinets, pulling out a collapsible bag holder and a package of plasma. Putting the cords into place, he stuck it into Kayleā€™s arm and made sure it was good to go. Once that was done, he took Kayleā€™s arm first, giving it a good once over. ā€œYou got lucky, this looks like it was inches from puncturing an artery.ā€

ā€œTime of the essence Doc.ā€ Kayle stated, looking over at him. Lucio gave a sigh, holding his hand over the wound. There was a brief tingle, like all the hairs on Kayleā€™s hand were standing on edge, but as Lucio pulled his hand back Kayle could see that the wound was starting to close. Lucio then moved to the other wounds even as that one was closing. His hand passed briefly over each of the wounds, and in turn that slowly started closing. As Lucio finished with the last one, he wandered back to the cabinet and pulled out several towels. He threw them to Kayle, who plucked them out of the air and started wiping away the blood. Another quick search later and Lucio was throwing Kayle another shirt along with a hat.

ā€œMight I suggest you invest in some actual armor?ā€ Lucio stated, leaning against the counter. Kayle shrugged.

ā€œHarder to wander around incognito if Iā€™m decked out like a power ranger.ā€

ā€œNot saying power ranger, but there are such things as ballistic vests, or even some metal padding under your hoodie?ā€

ā€œThey slow me down.ā€

ā€œOh right, wouldnā€™t want to get stabbed cause you were too slow.ā€

ā€œIā€™d be dead right now if I had been even half a second slower.ā€ Lucio gave a shrug.

ā€œWhatever, just saying, you could stop visiting me so often if you did something to protect yourself.ā€ Lucio reached to the wall this time, instead of the cabinet and slid back a hidden compartment. Inside were a number of pictures, which he retrieved and flipped through. He settled on one, and put the rest of them back into the compartment before sliding it shut. As Kayle continued to wipe himself up, Lucio placed the picture beside him.

Inside was a semi-blurry photo of a white man in his mid twenties, skinny and looking very much like an addict with sunken eyes and a hunched back, not to mention his clothes were not exactly top of the line and he looked to be walking through an alley. ā€œStory?ā€ Kayle asked as he continued to wipe up.

ā€œAsshole robbed me, took about a month of pharmaceuticals. Donā€™t even think he needed it all, was probably looking for something specific but rather than spend the time to read the labels, just jammed it all into a grab bag.ā€

ā€œWere you around when it happened?ā€ Kayle asked, picking up the photo and inspecting it more carefully.

ā€œNo, he came after hours.ā€

ā€œSo how do you know itā€™s him?ā€ Kayle asked, looking up at the Doctor.

ā€œI have more ā€˜Special Careā€™ patients than just yourself Smile.ā€ Lucio stated, narrowing his eyes slightly. ā€œThey got me the information, but thatā€™s as close as they could get...the guy is slippery but it doesnā€™t seem like heā€™s a paranormal.ā€

ā€œSo why not have them just deal with him.ā€ Lucio gave an exasperated sigh.

ā€œBecause their abilities werenā€™t geared for combat, because heā€™s surrounded by a gang of some sort or at the very least seems to hang around them a lot, because I knew that someone like you would show up eventually who would be better suited to the task.ā€ Kayle paused for a moment.

ā€œYou donā€™t care about the drugs or money.ā€

ā€œThat part has already been taken care of, but I donā€™t like the idea of someone robbing me and getting away with it.ā€ Lucio grabbed the picture out of Kayleā€™s hand and held it up. ā€œFind him, hurt him and make sure that he, and anyone else who thinks they can rob me thinks twice about doing it.ā€

ā€œBe scary, seems easy.ā€

ā€œDonā€™t care if it is or isnā€™t, get it done. Thatā€™s your payment.ā€ Kayle slipped on the shirt and hat, unplugging the plasma long enough to do so, and put his bloodied clothes into a bag that Lucio grabbed from the cabinet once more.

ā€œIā€™ll be sure to notify you when the jobā€™s done.ā€ Lucio shrugged.

ā€œDo it when you can, but no more special care until itā€™s done.ā€

ā€œI know the rules Doc.ā€ Kayle stated as he pocketed the picture for later use. After that conversation was done, they sat in amicable silence for several minutes as the plasma worked its magic and replaced Kayleā€™s bodily fluids. Once that was done, Lucio unlocked the room and opened the door. Kayle gave a nod as Lucio let him pass, moving back to his previous room while Kayle made his way back out the front door. A couple of people, including the secretary stared at him as he left, but they all wisely kept to themselves as Kayle exited the building. Kayle didnā€™t like being indebted to Corvax, often times having to target people who were well below his ā€˜worth itā€™ radar, but his ability made him a perfect doctor...to those who knew and could afford his price.

Whatever, he had done some work today and earned a meal. Maybe some lasagna? Oh he could go for some lasagna.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Heroes League of America
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Jericho was blinded by the pain for a moment too long. Vision spotty and chest struggling to inhale. He had felt the wind press down on his spine, before his legs gave out painfully. Then pressure built and slammed him against the concrete hard enough to shatter more than enough ribs to send him into a state of quiet shock. "Oh..." Breathed the beast, 'oh', whimpered the larger than life monster.

Then he focused and mended his ribs from the inside. Ink pulsing along with his heart beat as it whipped his ribs back together and began shifting his form again. Nothing fancy this time, nothing terribly horrific. Horns sank back into the head as a new organ grew in his throat; eyes narrowing on the fleeing white hoodie in the distance. Fur receded, abruptly cutting off the stench of burning hair and ink. The changer slowly stood back up, the middle pair of legs sinking back into his body as two equally thick arms sprouted from where the 'shoulders' would be on a humanoid form. Four talons extended from the four digits that came with the arms as they pressed flat along his sides.

Hissing came from the scaled form; luminescent eyes squinting as he took note of the three vans that were barreling towards him... Jericho took a deep inhale, thoughts churning with the need for more- Ah. An idea.

On the next inhale, Jericho created a secondary digestive system, two 'stomachs' coalescing to life through the ink, pouring changed mass into it as the organs filled with churning ink. A quick smile flashed over the changers scaled face, lips pulling back all along the skull to reveal teeth in the shape of shark-like triangles. His skin, the pigmentation in it, began pulsing and throbbing with ink; brightening, darkening, flashing and sometimes even bursting upward to change the texture as rapidly as could be. Which... Was pretty rapid. At the end of every limb, mass flowed and concentrated, becoming heavy and thick like clubs with grabby bits.

He was done creating what he needed, and so rocketed forward; scales vanishing and becoming feathers that pressed themselves flat against the body as the thickly muscled legs gripped the ground as best they could and launched him forward. Ain't as good as when I'm flyin' but... it would have to do. Inside the vans, the PCRT officers had all of about three seconds of warning before their first van was rocked by the form of a monster. Ahead of them, the other two teams could spy the form of a car sized dragon charging forward, mouth opened as the windshield shattered. They watched, as all they could do was watch; having been caught in the act of just getting TO the bank, as the feathers that covered the beast became scales again. A clubbed tongue rocketed out of the Changers maw, striking the officer in the passenger seat straight in the face before sticking. Jericho's head yanked back and threw said officer over his shoulder, mass fading from the legs and tail for just a moment as the muscular tongue became even more muscled. Instead of being dragged, the non-cape went flying into the side of a nearby building; slumping and staying down on the ground once there. The man in the drivers seat had no time to move either, as a sudden club of bone rocketed into his face from the forearm of the right leg. He slumped in his seat, sent into 'sleep' by the sheer force.

Jericho, as he charged the first van he came upon, jumped onto the hood and roof of it; roaring now and leaping over the other vehicles as they came to a screeching stop and began opening their doors to get at the bounding dragon beast. They were swept aside and left gasping for air, a tail of muscle and heavy bone slamming into their bodies and tossing them aside. The stricken were treated to the sight of the chest swelling up. When the beast landed on the street behind the two cars, he swiveled about and raised the two arms that were pressed against his sides; two more sticky-clubbed tongues rocketing out and slamming into the chests of two officers as they raised what Jericho took to be some oddly designed fire-extinguishers. He yanked the arms back as the tongues retracted as well; sending the two men flying and tumbling down the street, one of them actually flinging past the retreating form of Nobody before coming to a stop against a parked car.

To the PCRT, Jericho wasn't pulling punches, and those that went down could be counted dead. To Jericho, this was a lot of restraint, and it was vaguely irritating. But! These people were merely doing their jobs. The Changer's reverie was broken by the sudden appearance of some foam-like substance that landed on his shoulder and spread down his arm to the asphalt. He gave a blink, then rapidly detached the limb from his body once he realized that the 'foam' was nigh impossible to break free of.

Needless to say, Jericho began ending things with the officers quickly. He grabbed another with one of the tongues; yanking the man into his grip before flinging him into the form of another, causing them both to crumple against a nearby PCRT van while they scrambled to get up. Their movements were thwarted by the sudden appearance of webbing that held them against the van and the asphalt; just as the containment-foam would've done to Jericho. The beast sighed, jumping out of the way of another spray of foam before he retaliated by grabbing, catching, then slinging the same officer who sprayed him down the street with the others.

While none of the PCRT officers would die today, they most certainly would have broken bones, and bruises tenfold. He thought, at least, that they would have broken bones, and be mostly fine. Granted throwing human beings around like toys when you had almost three times, if not four times, the mass they did... Well, they would be fine right?

When the last officer no longer stood up, Jericho turned around and charged down the street towards Vic, screeching a battle cry the whole way. He dropped the dragon form halfway there, opting instead for his namesake shape instead; battle-cry becoming the screaming wail that deer and elk were so oft' known for. Other than the imposing rack of antlers that sprouted from his head.

Officers down, out as they were for the count... One reached for his radio and called it in as it was. "HLA assistance required, prosperity bank robbery escalating. Cape on presumed rampage." A quick response was sent in return, and yet another force of the law began it's approach to Jericho and Vic. Though these were parahumans as well. And they were prepared for his tricks. The officer who gave the call, in turn gave a quick rundown of what Jericho was capable of, having only seen the webbing and the chameleon-like tongues, and the shift from reptile to humanoid elk beast.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Heroes League of America
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Vic heard the commotion of Wendigo tearing the PCRT a new one behind her, prompting her to slow down a bit and watch from over her shoulder. It looked like they really needed a hand. She considered going back there to help out, but didn't make the move towards the chaos. She simply turned her head back and resumed flying away, that was until she heard the nightmarish shriek coming for her. She turned around and watched as a giant lizard charging at her was replaced by what looked like a skull faced deer monster. It wasn't a clean transition. Antlers burst out from fur and scales and his skull-shaped head condensed and narrowed - Vic could imagine the crunching and cracking sounds of contorting bone. It shed its dragon form like a thick, wet skin, sloshing down and dissolving into ink that trailed after Wendigo like a homesick shadow. Vic stopped moving away, instead opting to settle back on the ground. She stood there with her hands in her pockets, waiting for him, in the most daring game of chicken she'd ever played.

The monster wailed, just over a hundred feet away. She whipped a hand out of her pocket, striking the most dramatic "attack ready" pose she could. Air whirled in her hand, forming a decent sized projectile, while strong winds tugged on her clothes. Fifty feet. She could hear him breathing. Forty feet. Twenty. She could hear his matter writhing. Eight. He's right there. Five. Head tossed, he's going for the hit. Four. Three -

Wendigo's antlers were an inch from her chest when she disappeared. He felt a gust of wind swoosh past his ears as she weaved around him, reappearing behind him with her heart hammering in her ears. She almost went for a kick in the ass there, but he was too far away as he pulled the breaks.

"... DID YOU JUST MATADOR ME?!" Came the incredulous response to her stunt.

Vic didn't bother replying. She simply disappeared again, this time, for good. She went slower this time, looking as if she was melting into the wind. The last of her to disappear was her right hand. As the wisps traveled up her arm and seemingly ate up her matter, her hand closed into a fist and her middle finger flipped up. Her hand dispersed into nothing and she took to the sky, trying to get far away from her insistent opponent. As far as she was concerned, their fight was over - and yeah, she totally won.

Setting

5 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile) Character Portrait: The Adept Mages Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz)
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The battlefield lay silent for a moment as the Adept mages that were still standing surrendered to the quite clearly superior forces of the three parties combined, however most had experienced that force first hand and were no longer in any shape to resist. Devon had scratched his head mentally as he pondered for a moment whether the shot Myrlyn forced away and as a result hit Alchimyst would be considered a hit or friendly fire, not that it did matter as a philosophical conundrum. There were things that did matter though, there was the matter of the shadow cloaked villain who by all standards had overdone things. His victims had truly been brutalized, Jeu in particular who been reduced to abstract art. While they were villains and criminals, they were also just kids and didn't actually have any severe crimes on their names, not some rampaging group of violent criminals. If the situation had left him a chance to engage he'd gone after him, but it seemed he wisely chose to just leave as the chains carried him into the sky in a fashion that made it look like he was being flung by the chains every time they lashed out at the ground. Without a shadow of a doubt he'd have to report him to the PCRT, if only to keep tabs on him. Also Tendril would be just thrilled to know his villain twin was in town.

As Tendril's evil twin made his exit Devon walked to the body of the adept mage that he watched get zapped by miss 9volt in her supercharged state. It was pretty clear to him that he was just going to be checking vitals on the charred remains of some pour soul, but unless the head is at least 2 feet away from the torso you have to check for vitals first. As he leaned in to check the pulse it was clear the boy wasn't breathing, and there wasn't a pulse either. With the time that had passed and the fact that he had been hit with a charge of electricity strong enough to melt a lightning rod there wasn't any use in trying reanimation either. He got back up and radio'd in: "FreischĆ¼tz requesting PCRT assistance at the adept mages HQ, industrial lot 207. I need medical assistance for 14, a few in critical condition, one confirmed death."

With a sigh he turned to the four that had caused the whole situation to begin with. Things are simpler when it's just some idiot rampaging through the streets. "Well then, would you mind following me for a bit. I'd love to have a little chat to clear up the situation here." Devon said pointing at miss 9volt. "As for you three, I know she has no criminal record, but I'm not too certain about you lot. And given that PCRT will be here in about 10 minutes, I'd suggest you make yourselves scarce." He said to the other three. While the girl was only tense for the most part the other three showed some hints of hostility towards him, which meant it was probably better to have them make a clean get away before PCRT showed up rather than having that turn into a hot mess as well. In any case he wanted some answers this didn't seem like a random attack on a hostile faction, he was sure there was something behind it, some bigger picture he just couldn't figure out yet.

Setting

2 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul) Character Portrait: Heroes League of America
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Jericho glared at the retreating form; facial features changing as rapidly as he could get them to do so. Snout elongating and filling with flesh and fur, and hair; a dog's nose. Air rushed in, and with it came the soon to be familiar scent of... Well apparently licorice. The changer stood still, head tilted to the air as he tried his hardest to memorize the smell of candy. Oddly enough that someone would smell like candy when they could vanish into thin air, but hey, who was he to judge? He was an eldritch beast shapeshifting thing-a-ma-bob. Eheheh. The Changer's thoughts came to a sudden halt, his head jerking up into the air as paranoia washed over him.

"Leave before the HLA get... Oh. Fuck." The skeletal head turned, staring at the horizon before the jaw fell open at the sight of a trio of blots appearing in the not so far distance. Just down the street really. Panic filled his body, prompting him to throw his head and make another entirely unnecessary screaming wail as he fled back towards the PCRT vans. He slid to a stop beside the two bound and awake officers, looking them in the eye with his otherwise invisible ones... Before spraying their faces with webbing from his open mouth. Then he turned and took off down an alley way; having blinded and muted the two so they couldn't give away where he was running of to.

He hid there in the alley for a moment, compressing his shape into an amorphous blob of near perfect black. His eyes disappeared, and throughout his 'skin' opened a multitude of holes as he drew air in as rapidly as he could. He had thirty seconds, and just barely, before he slid up behind a dumpster nearby and closed the holes in his 'skin', below that, three pairs of lungs were inflated with nothing but air, and the heart that thunderously beat earlier slowed to a quarter of the speed at which it had been beating earlier. A pair of ink black eyes formed where his 'shoulder' would have been, staring as he watched one of the heroes step into view. A woman who's hands glowed; her touch melting his ink away into nothing-ness. Something he was wont not to deal with. Another man walked over, and Jericho would've sworn that his pulse slowed to a full stop. He looked like an owl, and the blinding white of his costume struck some vastly uncomfortable chords in Jericho's gut.

The blob tried to sink further under the space of the dumpster; panic filling him when yet another hero walked in on the scene, his costume dark black, reminiscent of the very ink that Jericho used to change shape. The mask he wore had no holes for a nose or mouth, instead being a black slate with lines of non-uniform white that went from top to bottom. The eyes that showed from the holes in the mask for them, were a bright, intense blue.

The blob slipped outta dodge immediately when the black-costumed man came into sight, flowing over the ground like water as he pulled himself down the alleyway and out of sight. A quick wrap around the corner, and then taking a cue from his earlier prospects, he shifted into the form of a large dog. He went down and laid still on the spot; taking no chances and instead choosing to wait the heroes out...


==================================================

One hour later...

Jericho was panting with exertion by the time he landed back in the alley where he received the note from 'Pekah', his form shifting from that of some bat-like creature back into human shape. It had been a hassle, running all over the city in multiple different forms, just to be sure that he would throw off the HLA. The three heroes he had seen weren't exactly awe inspiring by any standard, but they were real heroes, those who had been working in a team longer than Jericho had been in Cape Town. And honestly it-- Oh that smells divine.

His eyes flicked down the length of the alley, spying the duffel bag that was lain on the ground as inconspicuously as dust. Jericho took a sniff of the air, skull changing entirely as he modified himself to take in every scent around him. No surprises this time around. As the changer stalked towards the bag, he shifted his form again and took on the shape of the monstrously sized bird that he first met Vic in; snapping the bag up in his beak and then taking to the roof to rife through its contents.

The tacos were eaten without hesitation; paranoia immediately soothed by the gift of food. The money under the tacos also helped with that. There was a note there too! 'Open a bank account immediately. Deposit AT LEAST five hundred dollars today. Then more after. Don't deposit too much now, or withdraw too much later. Use the rest as you want. Phone in the bag, no more surprise letters.' and then those greek letters again. Pekah. Or... Something like that.

There was... A lot of money in the bag. Fuck. Yes. Tonight, Jericho would dine like a horrific king. And find that club that the windy-cape said Vic would be playing at! What? He wasn't obsessed! It was just something easy to remember- considering that the other guy... girl... person, didn't really say anything to him at all!

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz)
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Capetown, TX. 09/19/2017, 11:37 AM. 61Ā°F,
Overcast. Arc 2: Confluence.



SƤhkƶ looked to her teammates on either side of her as they took defensive poses, after FreischĆ¼tz suggested she follow him and her teammates abandon her. She half-expected them too, too. She was, after all, a very new addition to the team, with this being her first job with them, and being new to the villain scene, she had no idea how much camaraderie they might have. The other Congenial's body language proved her doubts wrong. Then, she caught it, the faintest of movements, as Seraphim and Sandtsorm locked eyes and nodded briefly. An unspoken agreement, instincts that only came from being teammates for a long time. The same way Chrysopoeia and Sandstorm had had a sort of battle-synergy, Sandstorm and Seraphim have the same sort of thinking symmetry. None of them were Thinkers, but as human beings they were exceptionally smart and tactful, SƤhkƶ realized.

Then, hundreds of circles in reality appeared, looking like green-screened photoshop over a video, foot-wide portals to different realities began opening and closing all around them, looking like windows in a wall, showing scenery on the other side. Jungles, oceans, snow, buildings, and more, as portals opened and closed less than a second later, only giving her a glimpse of the other realities. Then one stayed open, as the rest flashed in and out of existence. Then another, then another. She's keeping specific ones. SƤhkƶ realized, impressed. She may not be able to control what realities her portals open to, but she can cycle through random ones until she has desirable ones. All the portals that were staying open had one thing in common; they were opened to deserts. SƤhkƶ also realized that she was smartly opening all of the portals in between them and FreischĆ¼tz, so he couldn't rush them and try to stop them without decapitating or otherwise dismembering himself on the portals. Portal-cutting was as dangerous as tele-fragging.

Then, Sandstorm displayed his titular power; control over sand. His power, like post powers, didn't extend into the other realities across the portal barrier, but several of the portal's deserts had ongoing sandstorms when the portals were open, and sandy or dusty air began to flow into this reality, some fine and light, like powdery flour floating in the air, but some granular and large,
with force that looked like it'd sting to get hit by. Regardless, the sand flowing through was enough for Sandstorm to start making a vortex out of sand, causing the low-pressure system to suck even more sand out of all of the portals. The sandstorm swirled around them violently like the walls of a hurricane, and SƤhkƶ knew touching it would not feel good at all. Before long, there was a sandstorm so thick covering the block that it looked like it was night time out, now. Sandstrom created a small sphere, a safe-zone like the eye of a storm, around the Congenial. Outside of the storm's walls, SƤhkƶ couldn't even make out the silhouette of FreischĆ¼tz.

Then, they began to leave, taking their vehicles, Sandstorm managing to keep them working by not allowing the sandstorm to come to close to the vehicles. First a blackout of a quarter of the city, then a multi-block-spanning sandstorm. The Congenial were making a mark today, for sure.





Parahumans Online



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(ā†‘644ā†“) ā™¦New studies at CERN reveal Parahumans are more dangerous than you may think.
In: Boards ā–ŗ Discussion ā–ŗ Parahumans ā–ŗ Articles
Posted on September 19th, 2017, 6:23 PM by Slant-Index:

Link to the full article: https://home.cern/about/physics/parahuman-studies/
"Quantum physicist Karl Moore at CERN has expressed deep concerns about Parahumans possibly being the key ingredient to causing physics to reach a new energy level in a process known as vacuum decay. Before the advent of parahumans, the main worry about vacuum decay was that it could happen at any moment due to quantum tunneling of a particle in a metastable vacuum to a true vaccuum, which doesn't exist in physics at the moment. Currently, the fear is that parahumans, with their entropy-defying, thermodynamics-defying, fundamental force-defying, etc. abilities, could accidentally cause a reaction lethal to not just life on earth, but chemistry itself. All physics in the observable universe would change drastically, and earth would cease to exist as this new true vacuum spread out at the speed of light.

All parahumans studied today have limits and blockers to their abilities that are not fully understood where they come from. Some scientists are studying these for the purposes of removing limitations. A few years ago, a big focal point was Tinker Tech, and trying to come up with ways to remove the need for owner-maintenance on Tinker constructs, a limitation that around 75% of Tinkers have, so that Tinker-build creations could help make the world better, technologically. After the explosion in Lavrentiya, Russia caused by a Russian (civilian) Tinker-made Antimatter Bomb killed everyone in Lavrentiya and Loriono, Russia, gave people in Diomede, Alaska, first-degree burns, and the heat was felt as far as Wales, Alaska, people are thinking twice about removing parahuman restrictions.

Another cause for concern is that it is known that parahumans are able to fight off Abhorrents, who kill thousands of people each year. Yet, despite this, there has never been released footage of parahumans fighting off the Abhorrents. Putting aside all of the crazier conspiracy theories this has caused, it is widely regarded that parahumans are much more dangerous than publicly shown."


ShortiaShocking [M] [Cape] (ā†‘547ā†“) points 1 hour ago
Thank you for sharing this article. Very interesting indeed, though there seems to be some strong opinions by the article-writer. For any commenters, please remember to keep posting according the the community guidelines.


hotr0d (ā†‘-16ā†“) points 1 hour ago
haha great now parahumans are a threat to the universe, insead of just the world
[User reports: 4. [show]]


bigBOat5 [|||] (ā†‘-7ā†“) points 1 hour ago
"there has never been released footage of parahumans fighting off the Abhorrents"

say all you want about conspiracy theorists being nutjobs and such, but ive said it before, ill say it again, parahumans caused the abhorrents. they didnt exist before capes did. think about it, the first parahuman recorded was in 1979, the first abhorrent attack in the history of mankind was in 1988, almost ten years later.
[User reports: 6. [show]]


ShortiaShocking [M] [Cape] (ā†‘51ā†“) points 1 hour ago
/u/hotr0d, please keep the discussion on topic. My comment before yours literally just linked to the community guidelines. As for /u/bigBOat5, your account already has one strike against it, so I'd be careful. Your post here is technically on topic, even if everyone disagrees with it, you're entitled to your opinion.


Krombopulos_Michael [CCC] (ā†‘142ā†“) points 43 minutes ago
Wow, lots of cape-hate in here. How about we discuss the actual science of the article, shall we? Current measurements of the Higgs bosonā€™s mass estimates, around 125 giga-electron-volts, imply a borderline possibility that the Universe exists in a metastable state. It is of interest, therefore, to refine the theoretical calculations and the associated predictions. State-of-the-art analysisā€”arguably the most reliable to date, have calculated the Higgs potential using very precise approximations. Their conclusion is that the best theoretical fit to measured parameters, including the Higgs and top-quark masses, points to a metastable Universe. However, their analysis also concludes that values of parameters are closer to a region of absolute stability than suggested by previous studies: it is possible for the Universe to be fully stable (and for the standard model to work all the way up to the Planck scale), if the true values of measured parameters are only 1.3 standard deviations away from the current best estimates.

TL;DR: New studies and math (which I consider more important than the scientific method) shows that the universe is probably-most-likely stable, and that we aren't going to all die due to vacuum decay, parahuman-caused or not.


MightyFallenOne (ā†‘14ā†“) points 26 minutes ago (edited)
Wow, /u/Krombopulos_Michael, not only do I love your nickname, but that was impressive!


mlekk [Cape] (ā†‘1ā†“) points 15 minutes ago
/mlekk oozes in
mlekk thinks that capes try their hardest against abhorrents
mlekk thinks they lose lives and family to abhorrents like everyone else
mlekk thinks about accusing capes for causing something they didnt
mlekk decides BAD IDEA
/mlekk oozes out


End of Thread.



(ā†‘24ā†“) ā™¦Question about black hole generating capes.
In: Boards ā–ŗ Discussion ā–ŗ Parahumans ā–ŗ Powers
Posted on September 19th, 2017, 6:44 PM by calamari87:

Okay, so I saw a video about a cape, wasn't able to find her on the wiki, but her power was to create small black holes that could suck in and destroy thing around it, including buildings or even the ground. The black hole looked about the size of a coin, but could destroy things up to ten meters away. After seeing this video about black holes the size of a coin, where it was answered that a black hole with the mass of a nickel would evaporate explosively with the energy of a nuclear bomb, and a black hole with the radius of a nickel would essentially rearrange the earth, I have a few questions;

1.) HOW do the black holes made by this cape not, y'know, destroy the planet?
2.) How do they NOT decay from Hawking Radiation, and basically act as nuclear explosions?
3.) Are they even actually black holes, or her power simulating her vision of black holes?
4.) If she learned that this is not, in fact, how black holes behave, would her power fundamentally change?
5.) Has her power struck some intermediary black hole mass that is safe for a planet and only dangerous a few meters around it or something?


Biofiziks (ā†‘4ā†“) points 32 minutes ago
I'm unaware of this cape as well. There's been very few capes with black-hole generation, and all known ones (excepting Wiki:Novakid) didn't actually generate true black holes. And in Novakid's example, it's only theorized his power was making black holes, he could only generate them miles away, and they would decay instantly into nuclear-like explosions. Anyways, do you have a link to the video? Sounds like a nice find.


Ki113rCr0c|< (ā†‘3ā†“) points 24 minutes ago
To answer your questions:
1.) We don't know.
2.) See number 1.
3.) Most probably not, like you said, her power is probably simulating black holes, as we've never had PROOF of a cape capable of generating black holes, and how you described her power is not how black holes work.
4.) There is no evidence to support the claim that changing a parahuman's world views or perception on reality will affect their powers. In fact, in cases where parahumans' minds are inhibited, by drugs or alcohol, they usually lose finer control over powers just like they do over their motor skills. However, hallucinogenics like LSD do nothing to change a capes' powers.
5.)There is no process that would make a black hole smaller than a few kilometers in radius, or a few solar masses. There is no scientific inquiry into nickel or human size black holes, that question was just for fun. The answer is basically the same whether it's a person or a nickel: if you're talking about volume then it will destroy the planet, if you're talking about mass then it will fuck up a localized portion of it.


calamari87 (ā†‘1ā†“) points 20 minutes ago
I'm not talking about the size or mass of a human as a black hole; I'm curious if any black holes could theoretically exist or even be stable that wouldn't mean instant death for Joe Average standing a few meters away when it appears or travels past. If a parahuman generated a black hole, it would still follow physics just like how most parahumans that generate fire have fire that adheres to physics. So if it's possible to have a black hole safe for humans, a parahuman could theoretically have that as a power, right?
For example, in the other question, a very nickel's mass would be expected to evaporate explosively, while a nickel's radius would have the mass of many earths. What about a black hole with the mass of say, a dump truck? Ocean liner? Large building? Could the macroscopic effects be less than catastrophic, even relatively safe for an observer in the same area?


Ki113rCr0c|< (ā†‘1ā†“) points 13 minutes ago
Some basic equations for calculating the power from a black hole as a function of mass can be found on the Wikipedia page on Hawking radiation, but plugging in values it appears things start to get catastrophic below about 100 billion tons, which is the mass of a cube of lead two kilometers wide (however the black hole would have a smaller radius than an atom). This itself without emitting heat would be pretty catastrophic. Things much smaller than this would emit much, much more radiation. So, a parahuman with black hole generation would have to have tons of secondary powers modifying it so heavily, that it'd barely be recognizable as a black hole by physics. At 100 billion metric tons the power output is only a few kilowatts, but the effective surface temperature is still 1.2 billion Kelvin. On the bright side you're not instantly on fire, but on the other side it is so hot it is giving off quite a lot of x-rays from temperature alone. To get the effective surface temperature to a relatively eyeball-safe 5,778 K (same as the sun) it needs to weigh about as much as Pluto. Small black holes are (unsurprisingly) just inherently not very human-friendly. Or planet-friendly, for that matter.





. . .




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Capetown, TX. 09/20/2017, 9:00 AM. 72Ā°F,
Partly Cloudy. Arc 3: Obsolescence.



BEEP // BEEP // BEEP // BEEP
Jasmin Lehtinen jumped, her whole body jolting, as she was startled awake by the sound of her alarm clock. With a loud slap, he hand stung after hitting the snooze button. She threw her covers back over her face, her breath heating her face against the cloth. Mmmmmmmmmmm..... She groaned, muffled by her blankets. Then suddenly, she fumbled around in her sheets on her futon before finding her phone among them, and clicked the home button. Dead. Had she drained it...? No, she remembered now, she fell asleep browsing Parahumans Online. She glanced at her alarm clock instead. Nine o' clock. She hadn't slept in that late, in fact she woke up surprisingly early. She had work at noon, so she could go back to sleep. Or she could go grab breakfast. She grabbed her phone and plugged it into the charger, and watched the screen light up pure white after a few seconds. I hope one day I have enough control to charge my phone without frying it. She thought, unamused. She got out of 'bed,' stretched her arms up high, pulling her shoulder-blades along her ribs under her armpits, granting her a satisfying feeling, as a 'Nnnng!' emanated from her chest. "Ahhhh." She sighed, feeling better.

She pulled on some gym shorts over her panties, and threw on a too-large-for-herself tee shirt, so low it almost obscured her shorts. Then, she held her thumb against the home button, unlocking her phone with her fingerprint, before doing the same in her bank's app to check her balance.

"Wha-.." Her voice betrayed her lips, high pitched. "What!??!" She squealed, before realizing what Recall had said the day before.

The payment for the job is also larger than the last few. A hundred thousand dollars each.

She stared at her phone, and the tiny number indicating her bank account balance.
$100,142 She hadn't even given Recall her bank account info, even her number. How had she known to even route it to her? She shook her head in shock and awe.

I am definitely going out for breakfast.

Setting

1 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Victor "LTL" Stellianos
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There was no alarm blaring, no birds singing and no coffee pot bubbling with a freshly brewed liquid filled with the ability to awaken even the dead from pure slumber. Instead there was a single man who walked around the apartment in black and white checkered pajama bottoms and nothing else, scratching at his head as he sorted through the assortment of junk on the counter looking for a clean cup. Beer cans and bottles rolled around on the floor, with wrappers for different kinds of food and candy helped fulfill the look of a pig sty. Stains of differing variety covered the marble countertops and hardwood floor. Upon finding a cup that was only partially dirty, he went to fill it up with water only to find that the sink was filled with...some kind of liquid. There was a hint of disgust on his face as he reached through the muck, which was somehow thick and creamy, to drain the sink before allowing himself to grab a drink of water and scrubbing his hand down.

A snore erupted behind him as he took a large gulp, looking over to the living area. Once again, there was litter of every size, shape and color but the only body was a kid in his early twenties who slept like a contortionist. His feet were high up on the brown leather couch, easily slipping over the top as he lay vertically on the sofa. Somehow he was fast asleep, his clothes wrinkled and showing signs of a long night. The man stroked his black beard, contemplating his possible actions and all of them involved throwing something at the kid. Looking at the ground, he picked up an empty beer can, and with surprising accuracy, threw it directly into the kidā€™s face. The kid woke with a start, rolling off the couch and landing on the floor with a mixture of a thud and several crunches as cans and wrappers were crushed beneath him. ā€œRise and shine Victor.ā€ The man stated, turning his attention back to the kitchen.

ā€œFu-Dickbag!ā€ Victor cursed as he slowly stood up, holding his head slightly as he looked back to his Uncle. He looked around the place, grimacing at the mess but ended up smiling because of the memory that was created last night. His Uncle rummaged around the fridge, probably looking for something to start cooking while Victor took one look at his clothes and spit out his tongue. ā€œHow did...did I spill beer on myself?ā€

ā€œNah, I think is was...Vixen? Whatever she was calling herself that night.ā€

ā€œRight? Thereā€™s no way that was her real name.ā€ Brian gave a shrug as he pulled out a carton of eggs.

ā€œIf it was, her parents must have wanted her to grow up as a disappointment.ā€ Victor winced before giving a smile.

ā€œHarsh man, real harsh.ā€

ā€œTruth stings like bactine. Go clean yourself up, you look like shit.ā€ Victor ignored him, instead flipping through the couch and loveseat cushions to find the remote. Instead he found a number of drug packets and at least one used condom.

ā€œDude...did someone pork someone on your loveseat?ā€ Brian looked up before rolling his eyes.

ā€œOne fucking rule, and everyone breaks it.ā€

ā€œHeh...one ā€˜fuckingā€™ rule.ā€ Victor laughed before another beer can smacked him in the back of the head.

ā€œI said go clean yourself up! Stop looking for evidence that someone got luckier than you.ā€

ā€œIn a mo mo man, I want to catch up with current events!ā€ Victor stated as he continued to search the immediate area.

ā€œWhy? Looking for another villain for you to go parading yourself in front of?ā€

ā€œMaybe...also want to see what caused that blackout yesterday.ā€ Brian paused from his preparation of breakfast long enough to remember that event.

ā€œHuh, yeah. I can count on one hand how many times this building has lost power.ā€

ā€œYeah, Iā€™m just glad it didnā€™t happen during the party...could you imagine all those people in here without music or lights or anything?ā€

ā€œIt would be like herding cats...drugged out and horny cats.ā€

ā€œThereā€™s another sex joke in there somewhere.ā€ Victor said as he continued to search.

ā€œGet your mind out of the gutter, and cmon, if you canā€™t find the remote then go cl-ā€

ā€œFound it!ā€ Victor exclaimed as he flipped the tv on and flopped onto the couch, wincing as he pulled a couple of cans out from underneath him. There was an exasperated sigh from Brian as he switched channels to find the local news until finally the familiar news anchors were in front of him. It took a number of minutes before they got around to talking about the blackout, and while Victor knew it affected a large chunk of the city, the news confirmed that it was indeed caused by a cape. Victor snapped his fingers several times at the revelation, standing up and spinning around a couple of times before stopping and pointing directly at Brian. ā€œCalled it.ā€ There was a pause as Victor stared at the screen for a few moments longer, mention of a bank robbery that happened yesterday by what appeared to be a shapeshifter with a mind for the grotesque. Victor stared at the screen as some footage appeared from the battle, and he made a gagging sound at the sight of it all. ā€œMan...really? I mean, congrats on taking on a whole bank by yourself but do you have to look like something that was puked up by a sick dog? Do you see that Brian? That has to be more than a little fucked up, right?ā€

ā€œHow do you have this energy when you were dead asleep no less than a few minutes ago?ā€ Victor walked to the kitchen and sat down at one of the stools lining the standalone counter.

ā€œFilled with life, vigor, and more than a little spite fueled by my epically grumpy Uncle.ā€ Brian glared at Victor as he held the frying pan filled with eggs. Victor let his tongue hang out, pretending or maybe not to salivate at the thought of food before his Uncleā€™s hand grasped his entire face.

ā€œI said clean up, youā€™re not getting food until you have a shower and look presentable.ā€

ā€œYouā€™d make a great mom someday.ā€

ā€œFuck off and get your shit together.ā€




It took a number of minutes for Victor to get fully cleaned up, filtering through his room which was a disaster area on itā€™s own to find something that was partially clean after having his shower. Once that was done, he returned to the main area to find that Brian had cleared off the eating area at least. There sat a plate with eggs, toast and some orange juice. ā€œLorietta is coming by today right?ā€

ā€œSheā€™ll be here at noon. Iā€™ll probably have to give her a bit extra today, this place looks like a tornado went through it.ā€ Victor shrugged, sitting down beside his Uncle and immediately launching into his food.

ā€œSuch are the hazards of hosting your events in your own home, besides she likes getting the extra money.ā€

ā€œMaybe...so what are your plans for today? Do you have your own gigs lined up?ā€ Victor peered over at the DJ setup that Brian had for his own events. A top of the line rig set up in front of the dance floor they had installed so that Brian could make his home his workplace.

ā€œI have one in a couple of days down at Buckshire, but until then not really. Was just planning to cruise, see what trouble I could get up to.ā€

ā€œYou mean see if any villains happen to spark up beside you.ā€ Victor gave a smile, pulling up his backpack and placing it on the counter.

ā€œYou know me so well. Tell me, what am I thinking about right now?ā€

ā€œProbably about dicks...lots and lots of dicks.ā€

ā€œGoing straight for the jugular...I like it.ā€

ā€œThe joke or the dicks?ā€ Victor slugged Brian across the arm, earning a smirk from his legal guardian. ā€œThereā€™s been no decent mentions of criminal activity among the clients, so I donā€™t have any leads for you to chase down.ā€

ā€œEh.ā€ Victor replied, wolfing down the rest of his breakfast with amazing speed. ā€œItā€™s alright, sometimes just spontaneously coming across something is more fun! How could they expect me if I didnā€™t even expect me!ā€

ā€œThat sentence is a whole lot of stupid.ā€

ā€œYouā€™re stupid.ā€ Victor shot back as he grabbed his backpack. ā€œAnyways, say hi to Lorietta for me!ā€

ā€œStop off at the bank!ā€ Brian yelled at him, causing Victor to stop mid-stride.

ā€œFor what?ā€

ā€œYour part of the rent.ā€ Victor slapped his forehead.

ā€œRight, I knew that, I have the rent, you got it...but the bank got robbed yesterday.ā€

ā€œThereā€™s more than one bank Victorā€¦ā€ This earned a smile from the airheaded teen.

ā€œYouā€™re quick on the take this morning Bri Bri. Fine, I will stop by the bank and get your part of the rent.ā€

ā€œI mean it Victor, I will bitch slap the bills out of you if I have to.ā€ Victor continued walking towards the elevator, which acted as the front door to their penthouse.

ā€œNaw, I got this! Get money, pay my pimp, got it.ā€

ā€œDid you just call yourself a whore?ā€ Victor paused for a moment.

ā€œI didnā€™t think that one through.ā€ Victor shrugged, giving a two fingered salute as the elevator doors opened and he stepped inside. ā€œWhatever, Iā€™ll go get your money and shit sir! I got this!ā€ The doors closed, leaving Brian sipping at a cup of orange juice and doing his best to not throw something else at his charge.




The door to the underground garage opened and Victor drove his yellow 2015 mustang out from the doors, taking the corner a bit sharper than he probably needed to as he accelerated to the speed limit as fast as he could manage. The window was down and his arm was hanging out the side, douchebag style. As he drove, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his iphone, opening the internet app and navigating to PHO. His eyes shifted between the phone and the road as he continued, constantly flipping through articles to see what was being talked about, giving an upvote or downvote to people who deserved it. While he didnā€™t post as often as he would have liked on the site, he enjoyed reading the discussions and pestering cape haters whenever he got the chance. Once he read enough, he flipped his phone to music and started blasting it through his car stereo and placed it in his cupholder.

A constant smile was plastered on his face, his default setting, as his stomach growled. Even though he had just had breakfast, he was still hungry. First stop would be somewhere to grab some more to eat, and after that would be the bank...unless something more interesting came up.

Setting

2 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul)
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  1. WIP WIP WIP

    by StorminJericho
  2. Will edit as time comes around

    by StorminJericho

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Jericho's phone sat at his side, headphones plugged into it and his ears. The Changer sat at a lonely table in the restaurant, IHOP, to be specific. He had spent the night binging and eating food by the market full. Literally. Having thousands of dollars to spend made it awfully easy to buy out an entire isle of food from the local Walmart. He had saved some money by placing it in an account, or at least, that's what the people at the bank (not prosperity, that would've been too good.) had said. He didn't remember going to a bank, but... Hey. 'Pekah' saved him the trouble at least!

Either way, he was sat at a table in IHOP, scarfing pancakes and omelettes down like there was no tomorrow. He was focused on his (almost twelfth, Jesus) meal, so much so he almost missed the Ding! Ding! of the entrance doors. However, even with music rolling from the headphones hanging from around his neck, he heard the electronic bell. Igorrr was paused, and the silence from around his neck gave Jericho pause. A glance of his surroundings gave him the impression that perhaps, maybe, people were intimidated by the guy with the face tattoo. All around him were empty tables and booths, yet he could hear people chatting and eating across 'the way' in the restaurant. Oh well! Who cares anyways? Not him, that's who!

Jericho snorted at his own thoughts, amused by the blatant rambling that he found himself doing more often than not. Finally, after a few seconds of distraction, he turned his attention to the front door andā€“ Oh he knew that smell! Ink swelled under his skin, and the scent (stench) of ozone punched him in the face. Ahhh yeah, he knew that smell alright. And the chick it wafted off of was familiar too! Sandy brown hair, hazel eyes, pale skin... She was there at the sandwich shop too! The other girl, the one who walked in with her wasn't, but she was!

"Oh man I probably really stressed her out..." The boy mumbled aloud, rubbing his face with a small laugh at himself. He watched them a moment longer, promptly turning around and going back to his food when they began walking to his part of the restaurant; choosing a table far enough away that they weren't seated right next to him. He lifted his head, taking in the small pile of licked-clean plates in front of him, before his eyes roved over to the girl's. Eye contact was made, sparks flew... Hah! Sparks... there wasn't any sparking. Jericho stood up without much fanfare, withholding on the dramatic pushing of his chair, settling for just sliding out casually. He looked over his shoulder for a moment, a quick assurance that no one was looking, before he turned back and smiled at the two. The pale brunette stank of ozone to Jericho, but the smell wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"Hey!" He chirped out, pulling a chair over and sitting in it backwards, "Aren't you the chick who was at the sandwich shop?" With the question asked, Jericho laughed at the sudden surprise that flew over her face. "Heh... could say you're... shocked, to realize I recognize ya huh?" Oh god that was bad. Why did he do this, why were puns something he used? ... Why didn't he use them on the windy-Cape from yesterday? Fuck! "Yeah...?
" came her response.

This was good! She wasn't panicking or anything at least, and wasn't demanding he turn himself in. She looked paranoid, glancing around like that. Her friend was glaring at him, but eh... Anyways! "Are you okay? Like, I didn't cause a huge problem for you or something did I? D'you want me to pay for your meal or something?" Goddamit mouth, that's not what he wanted to say. Oh well- oh she's talking back. "Yeah I'm fine, nothing happened anyways. I like that shop, and I didn't want the owner to lose money or anything. It's a small enough shop as it is."

The Changer's face pulled into a concerned frown, words spilling out of his mouth before he could stop them. "You're sure? I didn't honestly think it would be that big of a deal! Eheh, you were pretty cool though! Smelled like ozone! Still do... Is that your power thing? Lightning or somethin'?"

Oops. Wrong thing to say apparently. Her friend stiffened, turning to look at Jericho with an emotion he couldn't really place. The girl in question blanched, looking around the room again before settling her gaze back on the tattooed guy. "Uh yeah... that's kinda... a secret." Huh! That was interesting, he knew that most people with powers didn't flaunt them or use them as constantly as he did, but for it to be a secret like she was saying... "Huh... Why? Did you rob a store or somethin'? Have a bolt go awry?" Her response was quick this time around, a simple 'something like those'. Leaving her lips.

Jericho laughed- cackled really- quietly enough not to draw attention, but loud enough to be obvious as what it was. Well, at least she was honest! The other chick was still staring at him, so Jericho gave her a quick wave and a smile; friendliness was key! And went back to his table, chuckling to himself quietly.

He sat again, digging back into his food like he hadn't just stopped to eat, facing away from the girls this time. His music returned to life, Igorrr's "Opus Brain" chattering out of his headphones, while a server came by to take the order of the two behind him. He waited for a moment, keeping his eyes on his food before he reached out and tapped that same sever on the arm, smiling politely and telling the guy that whatever bill came for the two, Jericho'd pay for it... Buuut they wouldn't be to know. He also gave the guy a $20 because hey why the fuck not. He had the money now, and he was maybe spending it a tad gregariously, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

Some passing thought was given to the night before, a tiny frown creasing Jericho's lips as he focused on one event in particular. He had gone to see Vic and her band play at that club the windy-Cape had mentioned, and it was a great time honestly! Granted you tend to get free admission when you slink in as a dog, "really need to choose a different form...", scamper to the bathroom; change into human shape and come back on out. The music was great, and actually hearing their band play a song for an audience was electrifying. Afterwards was... less than fun.

Setting

2 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Jericho Amile (Wendigo/Ghoul)
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Vic finished the set with a drum solo she can admit she got carried away with. Donovan often threatened to take it away from her, but it was the only solo she HAD. Fuck the audience for not having an appreciation for wailing on her drum set instead of Don messing around with scales.

Her final clash was met with a slight pause as people expected her to go on, then applause. Donovan told the audience that they'd be right back after the break and the club's usual music started back up. Vic laid down her drumsticks and shook the sweat from her hands, which was dripping down from her sleeve-covered arms.

"Hey, Vic, aren't you hot there?" Rudy called over to her. Yes, she was hot. But she was wearing this jacket for a reason. Rudy went off to buy drinks for them as Vic slunk her way to the back of the stage, tugging on the zipper. Oh, whatever. Let's just get it over with.

She shed her jacket and turned around to be immediately assaulted by, "JESUS CHRIST, Vic! How did you get that?!"

Vic glanced down at the burn spread across her chest and reaching up to her neck, smothered in aloe vera. "Oh shit, yeah." She faked disinterest in talking about it, hoping to lose theirs. "Y'know that parahuman blackout? Well I was in the area, and long story short, zap." She prodded Zach in the chest. It wasn't the best excuse she had thought of, but it sure beat "I tripped up and landed chest-first into the oven." In a way, she was thankful that the blackout happened. She'd have no idea what to blame her burn on if not a parahuman. "I'll tell you about it later." When I think up the details.

"What were you doing there?" Ah, Donovan, he always had to have her under the flashlight, huh? "You have classes after work."

"Didn't feel like them," Vic replied coolly.

"You should get a tattoo to cover it up," Zach enthused, "How about... an eagle with spread wings, or an angel with wings made of blades?"

"Very metal," Vic said without any of the enthusiasm Zach hoarded. She glanced back down at her scar then up into the club's crowd, where she caught sight of a familiar face. "But... I don't think I'll be covering up this one."

She waved Jericho over.


Jericho spotted the wave and gave a wide grin, waving in return and walking over as he sucked down a sigh; irritated with the constant bumping of shoulders and skin between himself and other people in the club. His skin itched, and he couldn't smell anything... Until he got closer to Vic and let out his sigh. "Hey there- Whoa! Wicked scar! What happened to you!?" He asked as he gave her a quick side hug, pausing at the scent of licorice that wafted off of her. Lots of exposed skin and the fact that she was sweating gave way to some body odor that even a nasally blind would've noticed.

Licorice... Licorice... Wait. No. "WAIT. YOU!? THE BANK!?!? WHAT THE FUCK!"

Oops. That was... Not exactly controlled. But honestly, what was he supposed to do? She was there! She got hurt! HE HURT HER! FUCK!


Vic stared at Jericho as he let out his outburst, same with the other two band members present. She could almost hear Donovan's brow furrowing. Shit. Shit shit shit shit. How did he know it was her?! Well, to be fair, it wouldn't take a genius to figure it out, but after fighting with Jericho that day, she'd assumed that he was... ah, how to put this... less than genius? No, less than... an idiot. She thought he was an idiot.

She cleared her throat, interrupting Donovan as he was asking Jericho, "What the fuck are you talking a-", then grabbed Jericho by the front of his shirt.

"You mind taking this elsewhere, mate?" She asked rhetorically, right before she started dragging him through the crowd. She walked him down the hall past the bar where the bathrooms were located, and hurriedly chose the place they were least likely to be interrupted - the disabled accessible bathroom. Feeling like a bit of an asshole, she glanced over her shoulder, saw nobody looking, and shoved Jericho inside the room before stepping in and locking the door. She turned to him, her arms crossed and gaze steely.

"Alright Wendy," she said, "What's it going to take for you to keep your mouth shut?"


The changer came to a full stop, tattoo receding to his cheek as his face flushed with blood and ink alike; giving him a maroon parlor over his nose and the tips of his ears. "I'm so sorry! I just- Sometimes my mouth gets away from me you know? I never- I'm so sorry!"

He was fretting, and the shame and embarrassment was overwhelming, he hadn't been thinking and now he had pissed her off and why did he keep fucking things up?! "This is my first friend and I'm- Oh shit sorry." He had been talking aloud again. Great. "Look I just... You don't have to pay me anything! Hell just give me your number or something so that way I can like, avoid ever encountering you like that again! Unless you want to spar like that or something? You're the first person to actually break something on me that didn't use like, a gun..." His tattoo wriggled some, shifting from his cheek to the entirety of his face as he shifted his stance.

"Is this a secret thing? I mean, well, you just smelled like licorice and the windy-cape did too so it's just kinda obvious... Ugh. I'm sorry!" Repeating, again, what his statement from before had been. Jesus Christ did the rambling ever stop- "It's like it just gets worse every time you- Fuck. Sorry! I'm just... Stressed!" Again was he talking aloud! Jeez.


Vic lunged out at Jericho to grab his cheeks with one hand, mushing them together to force his lips into a kissy-shape which thankfully, prohibited him from talking.

"Jericho!" She hissed quietly, "Just... shut up! That's enough, OK?!"

Her panicked brain whirled, but she managed to keep a straight face. She let go of him and slumped her back against the door, overwhelmed. First "Pekah", now Jericho. Her identity was coming under fire lately, and she didn't like it. In fact, it made her feel sick. Exactly how she felt now. She ran her hands through her hair and sighed, calming herself down.

"So..." she began slowly, rubbing the burn on her chest, "You don't want to expose my identity." She'd gotten that much out of his ramblings. "You... you don't want... revenge?"


Jericho found that he rather didn't like having his face squished, but, on second finding? It was good she did so. He wouldn't have stopped rambling otherwise. "No... No! Of course not! You weren't blatantly using your powers outside of the fight, and I mean, you were just doing a job too! I'm not that stupid! If anything I would like to fight with you again! But... no fire. I never ever meant to hurt anyone, and I think even with the uh, other form, I went a bit too far."

A nervous smile plastered over his face, anxiety riding high on his speech. Focusing was hard, trying to hold onto the topic was harder than holding onto an eel in the water, with lotion on your hands. And if the eel was super strong- wait fuck, doing it again. "Look, I dunno what you think I'm like, but I'm not a ... vengeance and hellfire kinda person! I just wanna eat, have some friends, and just live! Ugh. I'm rambling again, sorry."

A hand came up, plastering over his mouth as his form wriggled for a moment; expanding and then changing until he took human shape again. His skin was flickering with colors and shapes, cephalopod tentacles crawling up from his wrists, while talons and fangs loomed around his fingers and his face. They looked like tattoos, albeit they moved and then began to glow. Pulsing with blues, greens and reds alike, flickering as if under a strobe light... before going neon bright. The change wasn't wanted, but Jericho found that it helped with anxiousness. Hell it even helped get his energy out, expending it on useless changes, if they were rather pretty.


Vic's back slid down the wall until her butt hit the ground. She sat there, exhaustion from the day beginning to take its toll, as she just watched Jericho's change. It was gorgeous. Well, she thought so, anyway. She eventually smiled, the coldness of her face melting away, back into plain old Vic.

"Well... good," she said briskly, standing back up again. "Now we just need an excuse for your outburst, and we're cool."

She unlocked the bathroom door, wanting to get out of this room of intense emotion that made her feel so small and uncomfortable as soon as possible, but just before she left, she looked back at him.

"For a disgusting nightmarish abomination, you sure do look beautiful right now."







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When Kate Martel booked into work at Capetown Children's Hospital that night, she discovered the place to be in absolute chaos.

"Capetown Memorial Hospital was hit in the power outage," a coworker informed her hurriedly when she asked around, "Even the generators are down, and from what I've heard, many of their electronics are fried. We've agreed to have a percentage of the patients transferred here until they get the hospital running again."

"Do we have the resources to support this influx of patients?"

Kate's question was met with a grave look.

"What of those who were on life support?"

The reply that Kate received was even graver.

She was assigned a seven year old boy who'd been rushed through the emergency ward that afternoon, needing to have a glass shard removed from his right eye. A bulb had exploded next to his face in the parahuman induced power outage. Under the knife, it was determined that his eye had been lost and it was completely removed. Kate walked to his bed carrying a tray with his dinner. He was watching the TV, his one eye fixated on the screen while the other was covered in bandages, while he limply played with the action figures his parents had left him.

"Hello, Liam. You must be starving," Kate said with a smile and laid the tray out in front of him, "It's been enough time after your surgery, you can eat now. How are you feeling?"

"Okay," Liam responded quietly, still looking at the screen. Kate glanced over to see a news report playing. She watched as the shot of the news reporter cut away to shaky, vertically-shot phone footage of a monster screaming from the top of The Prosperity Bank before disappearing back inside. The cameraman was shoved back by a wave of some unseen force, as well as the other onlookers, when they steadied themselves and focused the camera on an ambiguous white-clad figure flying away from the bank. The narration over the footage claimed that "the other perpetrator" was unknown, but assumed to be an illegal vigilante. The report began jumping around to civilian witnesses and Kate internally sighed. Since when had children been interested in the news? A report on a terrorist attack was hardly appropriate for the boy.

"It's Nobody," Liam suddenly spoke up, pointing at the screen.

"Hm?"

"The vigilante. That's Nobody," he confirmed, rather proudly, "He's all white and can fly." He moved the heroic action figure down in a swooping motion, dive-bombing the monster. Kate bit the inside of her lower lip, holding back her concern.

"Oh, really?" She said, faking enthusiasm, "What do you like about him?"

"I don't really like him. He's okay," he gave Kate a half-gummy smile, "That Changer probably beat him up. He's much cooler."

The boy began ramming the monster figure into the hero, grinding him into his sheets. Kate watched on dully before leaving him to his own devices without a word.

Setting

3 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody) Character Portrait: Alexander Dalton Character Portrait: Teen Heroes of America (THA)
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Alexander Dalton




Yesterday could have gone better. It was supposed to be another simple patrol if anything. Finally finished costume, word of Splatter blood crew activity happening in the afternoon. It was going to be simple. Then an actual hero showed up. Not some other more well known vigilante. But Red Jet, one of the members of Capetowns THA team. He had landed on the other side of the roof where Alex had been staking out the current activity. The crunch from the crimson clad hero's landing and the sound that followed was lessened thankfully. The new sound compensaters were doing their job.

Unfortunately the landing had been loud enough for the wannabe Splatterblood Crew members to look up and see Alex. The one he had been tailing before had joined up with three others. All of them looking like they had raided a hot topic store. cursing under his breath, Alex ignored the Cape and leaped down from the building landing with a solid thud, cracking the concrete on impact. "You guys are a month early for Halloween, or do you just have no taste in clothing?" Two of the kids quickly made a run for it. Good, maybe this would scare some sense into them. He flicked a hand out after the two, causing an aqua wall to form just as they scrambled out of the alley.

Alex turned his attention the the remaining two kids. The girl he had previously followed was currently glaring at him,
while the boy next to her couldnt stop fidgeting and looking back and forth between the girl, Alex, and Red Jet. "Alright, since you two decided to stick around here's a bit of advice. Stay away from the crew."

The girl clicked her tongue. "Why should we listen to some no name Cape huh?" Her hand was reaching behind her. Fuck she must be armed. the guy next to her began stuttering, trying to say something, maybe stop his friend from doing something stupid. Gotta be quick about this. maybe nobody would need to get hurt or go to jail tonight. You know, aside from Alex once Red Jet decides to come down and join him. But that wasn't important now. He just had to focus on these kids.

" Well because for one Splatterblood only really cares about other Capes. and two, I've heard some nasty stories about what he does to non-parahumans that try and join up with him. Alex pointed to the wall he had made that trapped them all in the corridor, a wide hole opening up in it. The girls eyes narrowed but she still hesitated. Not looking too sure. She probably had heard similar stories but thought perhaps she would be an exception. "Go home. The crew doesn't Screw around. And be glad I'm the one who found you and not a more violently inclined vigilante."

Alex let out a sigh when the girl quickly grabbed her friends hand and exited out the alleyway. His moment of relaxation was short lived though as a familiar thud came from behind him. Right, time to see how this goes then. Alex charged himself up and turned on his heel to face the hero. Not entirely sure what was going to happen next.

"I wasn't expecting you to defuse that without causing a scene. Gotta say, nice work. Alex took a moment to blink. then blink again. Did Red Jet just tell him he had done a good job? Alex shrugged in response. " I do what I can."

Red Jet crossed his arms, looking Alex up and down. Sizing me up most likely. Wondering just how annoying it would be to try taking me in. What had happened next genuinely surprised Alex. The hero looked out towards the exit, still keeping an eye on Alex. "You could be a real hero you know? With a level head and decent powers, it wouldn't be hard. Wouldn't need to worry about avoiding the authorities either. Red Jet gave a bit of a smile. "Think it over?"All Alex could do was nod. The hero returned the nod before rocketing into the air and out of sight, leaving Aegis a little dumb struck.



9 - 19 - 2017




Become a real hero? Alex was leaning back in his desk chair staring at his Aegis helmet. He had no classes for the day thankfully so he had time to think on the heroes words from lat night. Wasn't that what he wanted to be, a hero? That's what all this training and patrolling was leading up too. The only thing holding him back was the thought that he would instead he thrown in jail for illegal vigilante work. Alex did break quite a few peoples bones over the past couple years. Mostly due to trial and error.
He had been spending a few hours thinking it over. skimming through Cape forums and the HLA website. He really needed to take his mind off this for a while. Maybe grab something to eat too while he was at it. A gurgling feeling in his lower torso followed by a loud growl came in response. Yeah, it was food time, sandwiches sounded nice. There was always that place just-oh wait. The local shop was probably still needing some work done on it. Guess pizza will do.

As Alex reached for his phone the thing suddenly buzzed. New text from unknown number. A sinking feeling came over him as he opened the message. And luck would have it, The text was indeed from Vic. Alex wasn't sure if he should be excited or mortified until he read over the text.


< Hey, Vic here. This Alex? If you wanted my number, you could've just asked.
Nearly threw this scrap in the bin.



Wait really? Didn't think you would.
Most people I've asked kind of brush me off. Shocking I'm sure. >



< Astonishing.
I assume you gave me this number because you want to meet up, am I right?



Only if you were cool with it.
I'm only busy in the mornings so I'm usually free.
We could go grab some coffee maybe. >



< I'm free 3:30 tomorrow.
< Oh and also "And I'm buying. Trust me, I can afford it.

Well then, got any favorite spots?
Anywhere in town is cool with me. >



< Pick the fanciest upper class high tea looking motherfucker.
Tomorrow, we're sipping caffeine like kings.



Alright then kings we shall be.
Copper Kettle it is. You know the one? >



< Not at all, but the internet should.
See you tomorrow, my number 1 fan ;)



See you then ;P >


Alex almost threw his phone trying to stop that last text from going through. Why did he send a wink back? Well the damage was done. Best to live with it now. His stomach growled in protest a second time. Causing him to pat it in an attempt to sooth the ravenous beast. " Alright alright I'm going!" pocketing his phone and essentials before heading out the window. Shooting a text to Dean once his shoes hit pavement.

Going to Tony's for a slice. Meet up?

Dude always! See you there. You're buying right?

Of course you freeloader XP

Alex chuckled and shoved his phone back in his pocket. Get a quiet day to clear his head. And maybe by tomorrow it will be easier to figure out this cape business. He grabbed his bag and was about to head out window when something in the back of his mind nagged at him, causing a glance to be made back at his helmet resting on his desk. The thing almost seemed to glare back at him with a judging look. Deciding it was probably smart to take it with him, Alex shoved it into his bag and headed out. better safe then sorry he guessed.

Setting

16 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Jasmin Lehtinen (SƤhkƶ) 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 Character Portrait: Terry 'Tess' Farina (Hush) Character Portrait: Lucas Eklund (Chrysopoeia) Character Portrait: Devon Metzger(freischĆ¼tz) Character Portrait: Teen Heroes of America (THA) Character Portrait: Nova Edinger Character Portrait: Mara Haruka Black

...and 4 others.

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Capetown, TX. 09/20/2017, 10:04 AM. 74Ā°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 FreischĆ¼tz 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

1 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Kayle Tallion (Twisted Smile)
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ā€œThat was A little bit of harmony by the Seven Numbers, Iā€™m your host, Kayle Tallion and wanting to let you know that the tunes are just going to keep playing reliably like old faithful. Iā€™m here to give you beats to listen to at work to liven up what could potentially be a dull day. Not to mention, coming up weā€™ll be taking calls for a chance to win two tickets to Ozzy Osbourne's concert as part of his last tour, which will be taking you all the way to Las Vegas. Thatā€™s right people, a chance to visit the city of sin with accommodations paid for and a free pass to go and indulge in all the things that make that city great. So stay tuned, that will be coming up in a bit. In the meantime, hereā€™s Iā€™m not here by The Mediocre Truth.ā€ Kayle saw the light in the studio go off as he looked at the window, there Melissa sat with a thumbs up as she pressed a number of buttons on her panel.

Kayle took the time to start looking through his notes which were scattered all over the table. He had to get the questions for the call in contest as well as make sure the tickets would be available. Plus the next break he would have to give a little news update to the people and so far a lot of these articles were small attacks, aside from the blackout which he had already covered this morning. Phillip would be talking about it again, his enthusiasm matching Melissaā€™s in a lot of ways concerning the parahumans. They always considered him an oddity, the fact that he wasnā€™t excited by people flying around with capes and causing mayhem with unthinkable powers. They did have a bet going for awhile that Kayle either was a cape or hadnā€™t triggered yet, but they let that drop after a year, finding something else to draw their attention.

Hmmmm, thereā€™s a bit here about the hospital requiring volunteers, Iā€™ll bring that up first next break we get. Kayleā€™s work phone buzzed with a couple of people texting in some accidents that he jotted down on a piece of paper for his next broadcast. Of course, there were a number of people texting in giving their opinion of the current song, but he largely ignored those. This wasnā€™t a ā€˜give us your opinionā€™ hour, mainly because he hated doing that. He would get stuck here for days on a single song if he truly went in depth with that kind of crap.

It was about halfway through the song when it started.

The air raid sirens started flaring to life and his phones lit up with the emergency warning system. He checked them for a second, his eyes darkening as he looked back at Melissa in the booth who had gone completely pale. ā€œKayle, we gotta go!ā€ She shouted through the glass, reaching for the door. Kayle got up, opening the door to the studio to catch her.

ā€œHead for the nearest shelter, Iā€™ll stay a bit longer and try to give the people some direction. Iā€™ll be right behind you.ā€ Melissa looked conflicted, looking back at her panel then back to Kayle, who had already pushed past her into the booth. Immediately he started flicking switches in order to bring the radio station back onto the air instead of the music. ā€œIā€™m not staying long, just want to make sure everyone knows where to go and how to get there. Do my part before cowering in fear.ā€ Kayle pushed Melissa towards the door, where everyone else in the building was already rushing towards. She hesitated again, but ultimately went through with the plan and made for the door. Kayle walked into the recording studio and sat down.

ā€œLadies and Gentlemen, this is not a drill. An Abhorrent attack is imminent and the capes around the town will need you to evacuate yourself and your loved ones to the closest shelter for your safety and theirs.ā€ Kayle pulled up the information on his work phone. ā€œThe locations of the shelters are as follows:ā€ Kayle listed off all the shelters, giving instructions as to how to get there as well, doing his best to relay police orders as they filtered into his phone at a crazy pace. When he felt he had said enough, he paused. ā€œI wish I could say everything was going to be ok, that weā€™re all going to make it through this but you know that would be a lie. All I can say is to take care of yourselves and those around you, weā€™re all in this together and if weā€™re going to see the other side weā€™re going to need to help each other. Stay calm, work together, and hopefully this will all be over soon. This is Kayle Tallion from 56.7 Kodiak...signing out.ā€ Kayle got up from his table, pocketing all the things he would need before walking out of the studio and into the observation booth to turn off the equipment.

He was one of the luckier people he supposed, considering his family was actually farther north of here, with enough distance that they shouldnā€™t be affected by the Abhorrent attack, meaning he could concentrate on the task at hand. His only regret would be that he wouldnā€™t have the chance to change, considering he didnā€™t want to ruin his blazer and polo shirt. Couldnā€™t be helped though, as he ran out the door, the shadow already covering his face as he met the crowd instantly once he was out the door. The streets were filled with people, abandoned cars and police doing their best to try and control the flow of the panic filled populace. Kayle took one look at it, gaining a few glances before chains formed from his back, impacted the ground and launched him into the air.

He threw himself across the city, keeping his chain impacts to buildings so as to not accidentally strike a civilian. His goal was to get to the HLA headquarters, where all the paranormals would be gathering to figure out what to do next. Kayle didnā€™t like the idea of working alongside villains, but he understood that many would be ā€˜heroesā€™ probably didnā€™t enjoy the idea of working alongside him either. As he got closer, he could see the crowd of capes standing around waiting for someone to start a briefing as police prevented people from pushing into the building. Kayle landed outside the cordon, since in order to land inside would require a concussive blast or to launch out with his chains, neither a good idea considering the circumstance. He pushed his way through the people, using his chains to bluntly move people aside and part them like the red sea.

The police saw him coming, but aside from a couple of sneers, let him pass into the throng of capes ready and waiting to fight the Abhorrent or help civilians in need. Kayle recognized a few faces, but now was not the time to be harboring grudges or trying to start a fight. He pushed those thoughts of brutally crushing these people into the back of his mind to focus on the bigger task at hand.

Fighting a god level beast.

Setting

1 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Vic Martel (Nobody)
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The scent of sweat was the first thing Vic was met with that morning, groggily raising her head from the mattress she had collapsed belly-down on. She lazily frisked the sheets for her buzzing phone and turned off the alarm, fondly named "Limerbitch 10:30". She grunted in disapproval, then began scrolling through any messages she could have missed that morning. There was just one Rudy sent to her, a photo of the movie he'd claimed to have found at his neighbor's garage that he wanted to give to her. Ah, Hell's Martyrs. So controversial at the time of its release, the director fled the country and the lead actress was apparently driven mad on set. Rudy's neighbor truly had no idea about the gem he was giving away for $3.99.

She texted back a heart and caught a glimpse at the texts between her and Alex the evening before, her face relaxing into a smug smile as she did so. Man, that kid had to be freaking out. Being invited to her band's practice then grabbing coffee with a member just a couple days later? To think what came from a simple, awkward "sup". She remembered finding his number, hovering her hand above the bin with it. Lucky for him, the company of adoring fans was always appreciated, especially when trying to distract herself from the sort of company her "other self" attracted. And yeah... about that.

It wasn't like covering the tab for two ridiculously overpriced coffees was anything to raise an eyebrow at, but now that she'd had a very sudden and very extreme boost in her funds, she'd have to be... careful. Funny how too much money was a problem in its own right. Jericho and her had settled their score, he'd told the band that he just thought he saw her get hit by a fire bolt at the bank (in his own bumbling way that made Vic have to step in and translate for them) and didn't seem to have any desire to expose her. Of course, considering how she'd dragged him off, not everyone was satisfied with the story they came up with. Donovan.

Finally, she had the strength to get out of bed and take the shower her body was screaming for. Right before she hopped under the water, she sniffed under her armpit. Licorice, huh? She shook her head exasperatedly and got in.




Vic creaked the door to her Aunt's room open a crack, then crept inside the room when she noticed something odd. Two crumpled tissues were on the ground next to her bed. She tip-toed her way over to bin them and took a moment to look at her. She was such a short and frail looking woman for someone as sturdy and resilient as she was. Vic placed her rent on the kitchen table and left the house, skateboarding down the road and towards the inner city.

9:23 AM. Coffee. A bit spilled on her pastel sweater.

9:36 AM. Joined a busker. Left him with the cash she drew in.

9:49 AM. Listened to Limerence's planned set for the recording.

10:02 AM. Tuned into the radio. Needed something to cleanse her ears.

10:05 AM.

Sirens.

The faces of the people around her only registered briefly, filled with fear, confusion, and some with defeat, before they began to blur. Some panicked and ran, who knows where, others hurried while talking urgently into their cellphones. A car did a screeching U-turn. A homeless man didn't even budge. Vic slowly - or maybe she wasn't moving so slowly, maybe it just felt too slow - brought her cellphone up and began typing her Aunt's number, when a call interrupted her.

"Hello?"

"Where is the skateboard?" Kate's urgent voice came through, "Did you take it?! Why didn't you take the van?"

"They... have a drum set at the studio," Vic replied distractedly. It was weird, getting reminders that unassuming Kate was the one who taught her how to skate. "The world is ending. Why do you need it?"

"Don't joke with me, Victoria. I need to get to the hospital, the roads will be too heavy to drive quick en-"

"Why?" Things finally started to speed up again and she began to swerve her way around people, getting home as fast as she could, "You need to get to a shelter."

"I need to shelter the people I have responsibility for," Kate snapped, "You get to a shelter, now. I'll find another way to get there. Text me when you're safe."

"K-Kate?" Vic flinched from her stutter, annoyed at the anxiety infecting her. As she took a moment to properly observe the mass panic happening around her, the dread finally set in. Now everything was moving too fast. I don't want to fight it, she wanted to say. But she couldn't. Because Kate didn't know. She could see parahumans flying above her, making their way to HLA headquarters. All parahumans were together in this fight. Why did she feel so alone in it?

"It'll be alright, Vicky. I promise."

"That's not up to you."

Vic hung up and strengthened her resolve, glaring at the panic before her. It was infectious. She needed to get home as quick as possible to her costume, and there was only one tactic that would get her there fast enough. She ditched her skateboard and ran into the crowd, her solid matter shedding away. She flew as air towards home. Her costume was not as white as it used to be, the scorch marks on its chest left there by Jericho's recklessness. She wondered what he would be doing in this fight.

Some time later, Nobody materialized above the crowd at the HLA, her demeanor calm and stance unnaturally still. She took out her phone. There was dozens of messages and missed calls, and she sent the same lie out in response to each one.

[I'm safe.]