Justice Avengers: Jump City at Dusk

Majestic swallowed nervously. He hated speaking in front of large groups. Still, if it was what needed to be done...

"Then we'd better get moving." He said, then turned to Hawkeye. "Care to join us? We're a few short right now, so I'm sure there'll be a...um...a podium or two free."

"You've got a head on your shoulders and a good handle of that bow." The Flash added to Majestic's offer. "Apart from Starfire and maybe Thor, we don't have many ranged fighters." He rubbed the back of his head. "Sure hope I'm not making a rash decision by saying this."

edited 13th Sep '14 7:17:17 PM by Stratofarius

"Err, introducing ourselves -me and my partner I mean- to the public could be tricky" Knight said to Flash, "Given we look different everytime we appear. Maybe we should skip the ceremony."

"And you haven't told us what to do about Miss Strawberry Shortemper" Claw added. "Surely you aren't going to introduce her as part of the team, are you??"

"Nonsense! We'll just introduce you guys as the... the uh... Magnificient Hero Duo!" The Flash said, before leaning closer and lowering his voice. " As for Strawberry, she's interested on something I have a lot of information on. She doesn't totally hate me, so I'll use that to get her on our side- but I won't introduce her as a part of the team, not now. Even with how angry she looks, she still hasn't done any harm to civillians... could work. Or I could end up smooshed on the ground. "

edited 13th Sep '14 7:48:40 PM by Stratofarius

Claw would feel a firm, red grip on their shoulder. "I really, really hope you call me that again..."

Majestic was between Claw and Red She-Hulk quickly, his hand on Red She-Hulk's wrist. He didn't want to fight her, for several reasons, but he wouldn't let her threaten his teammates.

"Don't." He said bluntly.

The Flash was inbetween Majestic and Red She-Hulk, putting one hand on each other's shoulders and gently pushing them apart. "You too." He added.

Red She-Hulk glared at Majestic, and then rolled her eyes when Flash broke them apart. "Whatever. I couldn't care less about your little Jump City Cheer Squad. But I'll probably have a bone to pick with this She-Hulk chick...I have a...thing about green skin."

edited 13th Sep '14 7:56:15 PM by Saturn

Peter turned on Impulse without thinking, shaking his finger at him. “Hey hey hey, this is a perfectly respectable trench coat. Don’t go badmouthing my—” He said, before the muffling of his voice reminded him that his mask was still on.

He cleared his throat awkwardly before zipping his trench coat up the rest of the way in order to hide the sopping bills decorating the inside. “Just uh, protecting my identity while doing my uh, civic duty.” He gave the booster a final wrench before giving up on it, unwittingly pointing the activation switch right at Impulse.

Peter climbed onto the sideways car, trying to prop open the door so he could push the booster out from the inside. He was pretty sure that the longer this conversation went on, the bigger the chance of his good fortune turning into jail time. While already under sentencing. Prison time squared. “I mean, I was right there, and stuff just, oof, sort of happened. She basically started name-calling, can you believe that? How immature do you have to be to make up excuses for violence at the drop of a hat?” Just then, frustrated with the car door, Peter took out his Plasma Defender and blasted the hinge. He kicked the liberated door to the ground and began lowering himself in. “What was I supposed to do? Not fight back? I can’t stand it when people start telling me about who I am or what to do out of nowhere. Now get over here, and I’ll push while you pull.”

edited 13th Sep '14 7:58:13 PM by Uncandescent

Majestic glowered at Red She-Hulk, but said nothing, pulling his hand away. He looked around for Impulse as they waited. Why was he never around when Majestic actually wanted to see him?

"Impulse!" He shouted. "Come on, we have to get moving!" To the press conference...

Damien waved to the cheering crowd. "Got a word from The Flash, they'll be right over!" He said, covering up the phone before walking through the curtain as the crowd cheered. "Oh, Flasher, got this big speech planned to get the crowd really excited for ya. So, there'll be a big stage, with podiums for each of ya, and with a curtain and all the trimmings. Come behind the curtain first, so's they don't see ya."

White Claw gasped when she realized she was in danger, thankfully her friends came to her aid.

She was then grabbed by a wrist by Knight, who pulled her away. As soon as they way far away enough he whispered, "I thought you'd improved your people skills."

"Sorry. She just rubs me wrong. I guess she reminds me too much of She-Hulk- back when I didn't like her."

"Whatever. Hey Flash!" was his answer. "Wait for us. We are coming too."

edited 13th Sep '14 9:46:37 PM by Sijo

Impulse continued just looking, munching on his berries. "Yeah, no. I think I'm just gonna watch. It's funnier to watch." He didn't even look back at Majestic when he yelled out "I'll be there in a flash, just gotta finish this!" He munched loudly, raising an eyebrow. "That tech. Not really of this time period, is it?"

"Ho ho, I know what you mean." Flash snickered when Red She-Hulk mentioned her thing with green skin, before slowly stopping. "Oh, you don't mean it like that." He went back to the phone. "Uh, sure, although, it doesn't really have to be a big thing— ah, what the heck... we'll be right there." Turning off the phone, he sighed to himself. "I'm really regretting hiring a publicist. Red Shulkie— hope you don't mind if I call you that— I'll give you all the dirt on AIM you'll ever need. You just gotta stay around until the press conference ends. Can I count on you for that?" He held out his hand.

"Well, the lady's community service is already starting off great," Wolverine said after observing Majestic and Flash managing to restrain Red She-Hulk from further violence. Then to Flash: "Press conference?" A beat. "Oh right, that. Kinda forgot about it during the whole 'saving civilians from being trapped in love fueled crystal' thing," he said in an annoyed tone. He clearly did not like having to go to a public event almost right after dealing with a crisis. "I'll have to get my costume," he said as he turned to leave for his bike - *shnkt*. "Don't wait up."

"Normally, I would. But coming out of your mouth, it doesn't sound that bad. I'll stick around. Tell me everything you know about AIM and get me a talk with She-Hulk, and I promise I'll be a good girl."

Carol

"Public conference? I will be there in the audience, It's the least I could do after you saved my life from that crazy bang baby." Carol Smiled after them hearing talking with worry about the conference. "Who is the red lady is she a sister to our She hulk?" Carol asked with curiosity after looking at the crimson lady. Carol then took her cellphone to ask for her personal driver to pick her up.

edited 13th Sep '14 10:14:46 PM by RPGLegend

Just say no, Clint thought to himself. Tell them you're not a team guy. You want to keep it small time. They'll understand. "Uh... sure, I guess I could stick around for the press conference at least." Barton, you hypocrite.

Clint then turned to Carol and with a quick wink said, "be sure to arrive early so you can be in front of the crowd. I want to see you there, make sure you're safe." Still need to keep an eye on the girl, in case she goes all... alien again.

Peter’s mouth quirked in irritation as Impulse not only didn’t help him, but implied that he was actively keeping himself busy with not helping him. “Well, sorry to hear that being really unhelpful is getting in the way of hanging out with your cape pals. That hero thing is really, shining, through.” Peter punctuated his last few words with kicks to the nose of the booster, knocking it free with a tinkling of glass. He popped his head out of the car like a gopher, raising an eyebrow at the ‘time period’ comment, before coupling a smile with a shrug. “What can I say? They’re out of this world.”

Peter hoisted himself out and dropped back down to the pavement. He grabbed the wayward piece of equipment, shook it, and began to pick pieces of glass out of the harness. “Party’s over, kid. Scoot.”

Betsy seemed to shrink back a little; her lips flattened, and she looked away from Jennifer in an embarrassed manner. "...Surely there's something satisfying about legal work that makes it all worthwhile?" she asked, cradling her teacup with both hands. "If you don't mind me asking... why did you decide to become a lawyer?"

"Hey, that was a joke. You know, jokes? When we don't mean what we say?" Jennifer said, raising her hands defensively. "I love lawyering. I became one because I wanted to help my dad, he was, uh... the sheriff back at my hometown. Now I couldn't handle a gun for the love of my life and back then I couldn't punch a fly even if my life depended on it, so I went into Law. That's where I met a bunch of important people in my life. Matt, Dinah, Rachel, great people, I oughta introduce you to them."

She lazily stared at the tea shop, her sight eventually finding a rush of police cars heading somewhere, followed by a rickety news van. "Oh. Is it?..." Jennifer quickly reached for her phone, tapping on the multiple news apps she had to keep track of events. "... right, okay, this is gonna sound weird, but apparently I'm— sorry, apparently She-Hulk was on a rampage downtown." She stared up at Betty, narrowing her eyes. "I think I need to go."

"Uh, no." Impulse told Peter, sticking right next to him. "I'm gonna stick with you. I like you. There's something funny about the way you act. It sounds much better than going with my u— the Flash. I don't like these guys, they're not crash. You? You're crash incarnate!" Running up to Peter's side, he nudged him with his shoulder. "So, what do you wanna do?"

"Sure, I can give you that. But right now, you gotta stick with us. Hold on until this press conference thing ends." The Flash told Red She-Hulk. "If you can do that, I'll get you all the info you need. Consider this a favor to me in return to the favor I'll do for you." When he saw Wolverine heading to get his costume, he yelled out. "Meet us at the square in five minutes!" And then to the others. "Right. Let's get going?"

Approximately seven minutes later (and the Flash awkwardly asking a gawking civilian to borrow the car so those who couldn't run or fly got to the square on time), the group arrived in the square, in the backstage area of the stage that had been built for the press conference. Having caught a glimpse of the crowd, the Flash quickly searched for his 'publicist'. "Everyone!" He told the heroes. "This is Damien. I, uh... hired him to help us with all of this. Kinda like our PR guy."

Damien grinned wide enough to split his head in half, grabbing Flash's hand and shaking it vigorously as his people swarmed the JA.

"Love this guy!" He shouted, kissing both of Flash's cheeks. "Didn't I tell ya Flasher'd get 'em all here?" He said to his people as they assaulted the team with powderpuffs to their exposed skin, hairspray and combs to their exposed hair, and rubbed their costumes in what could only be described as....a cream, which made the materials shine almost ridiculously bright. Damien took a few steps back to do a headcount.

"All right, all right..." he muttered to himself as he started pointing at each member, counting them off in his head. "Impulse is off doing Teenager stuff, probably, no problem there. Panther's off doing "Prince of Wakanda" things, understandable..." At the lack of a Jade Giantess, his brain came to a screeching halt. "Hrm. I was really hoping Shulky'd be here. She gets a big response out of several key demos..." Damien said, voice wavering somewhere between his perpetually positive state and stress. At this point, Majestic had to interject, if only because talking seemed to be the only thing that made the people swarming him stop.

"I can call her on my communicator if you'd like." And just like that, a switch went off in Damien's head, and it was all smiles again. He leaned up quickly to kiss Majestic on both cheeks, which were quickly reapplied with powder.

"Love this guy!" Damien shouted, pointing enthusiastically as Majestic fumbled with his communicator and waited for She-Hulk to pick up. Finally, Damien came to Hawkeye and...stopped smiling. He sighed, looked down, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Y-you know, Flasher..." He said, laughing nervously. "I reeeeally wish you wouldn't spring last minute additions on me like this." Then he held up a finger sharply in Hawkeye's face. "Shhhh shh sssh! Don't say anything! I can fix this." He gave Hawkeye a once-over, muttering to himself. "All right, all right. Bow and Arrow, uh huh. Purple? No, no, purple's not a powerful word. Amethyst, there we go." He put the finger down, smiling again. "What's your name, sunshine?"

Peter’s exasperation and worry at the constant presence of a superhero was sidelined by his preoccupation with Impulse’s snippet of future slang. He furrowed his brow as he finished checking over the booster. “I’m… crash. You realize crashing is bad, right? Like, no one ever looks forward to a crash. No one ever goes ‘I can’t wait to crash today! This is going to be crashtastic!” He waved his hands in mock enthusiasm. “In any case, forget it. I’ve got important adult things to do and last time I checked,” Peter slapped the booster onto his leg at the same time he slipped on a smirk. “you can’t fly.” He followed the phrase by launching off into the sky, quickly orienting himself into a forward facing position. As Peter soared through the air, he reflected on how he actually had no way of knowing whether the kid could fly or not. It just seemed the right thing to say at the time.

Peter set down a few blocks from the nearest dry cleaner, landing in an alley to avoid civilian freak outs. “How’s that for crash.” He said to himself as he turned the corner.

edited 18th Sep '14 11:36:27 AM by Uncandescent

"Hawkeye," answered a very irritated Clint, "and the purple stays. It all stays." He then looked back at Flash with an exacerbated expression which screamed Why didn't you warn me about this guy? "If you don't think I look the part, I can just go," he explained to Damien. "Trust me, they won't be losing much."

edited 18th Sep '14 12:05:51 PM by LordGreyjoy

The heroes most annoyed by the Press-preparation process were the Hero Duo.

Because their current forms weren't costumes- they were their actual, transformed bodies!

Nonextential Knight didn't have it so bad as his body was technically made of steel. But White Claw had a lot of exposed skin (albeit armored) and all that cream tickled.

"Ahh! Noo! Cut that out! Cut! That! Out!! Or I swear, I'm using these giant lobster claws and someone's going to end up missing a member!!" *Snap snap!*

The crew quickly backed off.

"Not really." Impulse commented from right behind Peter, sitting on a dumpster, eating peanuts. "You took too much. I even had time to stop by my favorite peanut cart." He munched on it, looking around before grinning. "Did I mention my favorite peanut cart is on the other side of the city?"

The Flash waved off any crew members trying to do their makeup. "I appreciate the confidence, Damien. Now I had, uh... a speech. To introduce everyone. They would come out, maybe say a word or two. We can't forget the reason behind this press conference: so the people and the police know who we are and that we're on their side."