Golden Age of Heroes - Now It's Showtime!

Joviality: Fairground

Niko gave a nod of understanding. "Perfect. I will return shortly." He said, before making a beeline to the abandoned office. 2 minutes later, he returned carrying a first aid kit.

"The LCPD said that the police and ambulances were on their way, and should be arriving shortly." Niko informed the Mayor as he opened the kit. "Xорошо(Good), I can use this to dress the burns." He muttered quietly, pulling out small tub of burn ointment, along with a roll of medical bandages.

Joviality: Jupiter High Fairground, Away from the Action - Mayor

"Thank you." Eileen managed a weak smile as Nico treated her wounds. "For a metal man, you're pretty good at this. Good thing I had you watching out."

Footsteps approached the two, casting a shadow over Nico's shoulder. Eileen's expression changed immediately and the injured mayor backed away with a start, bringing herself up on her injured elbows.

"You, on the other hand, can stay the hell away from me! About a dozen people and I almost died because of you and your recklessness, you- ungh..." Aggravating her wounds, Miss Burke had to lie back down as she continued glaring angrily as Phosphorus.

Phosphorus gave the mayor a flat stare, his dark eyes cold behind the mask. "Madam, I don't care."

He turned from her to face the android. "Courier, was it?" he asked, eyes growing bright. "Care for a pint? I know a wonderful place in Civility stocked full of Russian alcohols." Phosphorus grinned before saying, "It'll be on me."

edited 18th Jul '15 7:33:40 AM by Collinicus

Modernity, at a rather idle street south of a red-light district

A hearty lungful of fresh air is just the thing for a knight after centuries and centuries of writhing helplessly under tons of earth and rock.

"Aye, how I missed thee, world above ground!" Kingsley spun Arbiter on his hand as he made his way down the forsaken sidewalk, then snapping his finger as the sword vanished into a thick cloud of white smoke. His head pulsated in pain intermittently, as his mind assimilated his new host's memories, trying to absorb a massive deluge of jarringly dissonant information: bygone sensations and remembrances he didn't own, conflicting with his own eons' worth of thoughts. The strain of the effort stabbed him keenly, but at this point in time he has gotten used to it.

He thought it rather strange, walking in this new body. An enormous, beefy brute in life, Kingsley felt as if the host's spindly frame would crack and collapse with every step. He would've gone for some other guy with more flesh in him than bone, but he really didn't have much of a choice at the time.

He scanned his surroundings, rather bewildered at the alienness of the landscape encompassing him—the edifices too tall to take in a single glance, the people attired in accouterments too strange for him to recognize. Hundreds of years would surely do that to a world. He thought of his old home—his long-lost kingdom—and realized that it was most likely buried deep into the earth like him, replaced by these titanic steel towers and quaint new peoples. Unlike him, though, it isn't going to see the light again.

The haze over his brain lifted a bit, bringing a few new things into focus. The host is Malcolm Smith, apparently some penniless young tramp, suffering from a few rather grievous wounds on his thighs and chest when he found him. The place, the foreign memories tell him, is somewhere called "Modernity"—a rather strange name, he thought. The host's memory of the date and time was still rather hazy, but frankly, he couldn't care less about that right now.

The memories told him that someone's after him.

Joviality: Jupiter High Fairground - Mayor Eileen Burke

Eileen laughed, bitterly, continuing to glare at Phosphorus when the sound of sirens approached. "No, of course you wouldn't..."

As the paramedics rushed on over to get her, the mayor softened her expression and looked over to Niko. "Well, not that I'm one to get in the way of you enjoying yourself, but could you come with me to the hospital? It's nice to have someone to talk to on the ride over."

edited 30th Jul '15 12:28:14 AM by Starbound2

Johnathan's office.

Another super comes to me, interesting. Johnathan lit up a cigarette and leaned further back into the shadows. People who came to his office usually had a rough idea what the expect but knowing and seeing were different matters. "I'll hear anyone out. If the money is good I might even see fit to do something about it. What's the issue, you're havin'?"

Addisu gestured towards the exit from the park. "If you've got any ideas, lead the way."

"Y'know what, man? I don't even need to hear her opinion. I think that I...should..." Wyatt lapsed into silence. There was no way he could trust Death Grip to really uphold any sort of bargain, especially whatever this "frenemy" bullshit was. He was hesitant to ask for more clarification, even, as he already had asked the man backed up with 4 machine-guns aimed at his head to spill already. Rather rudely, he subconsciously added. This whole thing was just ridiculous. He didn't want to be watched at every corner by some mafia goon, he didn't want word of his involvement to be known 10 years down the line, he didn't want someone he loved to end up dead when he took a wrong step. Most importantly, he didn't want to die. He feared that above all else, and though his costume hid his emotion well, he was still shaken to the core.

...But that wasn't it. He also wanted more out of life. He'd been working for a couple of months, working his ass off trying to bust low level criminals. And for what? Nobody knew who he was, he'd never been payed, he lived in a hovel and most people crossed to the other side of the street when they saw his ragged suit. He wanted to take a girl home to a nice house someday. He wanted to get paid. He wanted security. He wanted to be recognized. He wanted...

After a tense silence, he raised his head and looked Death Grip where he imagined his eyes would be. "Should...work with you. I'll do it. I'll join with you. I've got nothing to lose, as is. And...and it should be nice working with someone of your calibre. I'm just not killing anyone, or helping you kill someone. Does that sound good, Mr. Grip?"

Joviality: Leaving the Jupiter High Fairgrounds - Bartholomew Forrester

"Hmm, there's a café diner sort of place a few blocks over that serves a pretty mean Monte Cristo," Bart suggested, walking out the gates of the park and ignoring the panic involved. "Or if you want something with a bit more heft, they also got pretty good burgers."

Without a care in the world, Bartholomew started heading down the sidewalk towards the restaurant, not knowing it was recently attacked by giant spider monsters.

edited 30th Jul '15 12:28:29 AM by Starbound2

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good. Heh, here's hoping there aren't anymore super shenanigans there, eh? I, for one, have had enough for the day. In fact, let me tell you about something that happened on the way over..." As the two walked to the diner, Addisu regaled Bart with what happened with Hetep-here's and the flying lightning death train.

Johnathan's office.

The detective leaned forward giving Felix a full view of his face.. "If you're hoping I'll be able to get in and out without being noticed, you may have come to the wrong place." The pseudovampire stood to his full height and moved over to stand just short of the window as the sunlight rapidly disappeared. "Of course, Rent day is coming up and my most recent case was a bit of a bust. So I suppose I can't really turn you down if you can guarantee the check will clear."

Johnathan took another long pull off his cigarette. "Ah, if most people could taste all the crap in these...Sorry, got distracted there for a minute. Now this does sound like something up my alley. Ran into a vampire towards the tail end of my deployment who was pulling crap like this. People working this joint acting like they had lost half their brain by any chance?"

edited 18th Jul '15 5:53:02 PM by guyshane

Civility-Wrecked Train

"There was no one but him here, and there are no other cars but this one," Durga answered Lloyd. Why did others ask so many questions? She thought it was all quite simple. After handing the criminal off to the police, the burning desire to fight evil had dimmed enough for her to call it a day...for now. Without waiting to see if anyone else wanted something form her, she climbed back onto the rooftops and started back towards the History Museum.

Lucid stumbled back as the poison bomb exploded, though her helmet stopped it from getting at her face, making it nothing but a smokescreen. It did serve to blind her though, something she didn't take kindly to.

"Who threw that?" She slowly stepped backwards until she was out of the cloud and looked around, locating the familiar shadow that was her weapon. Good, it was still intact despite her outburst. But the more time she wasted here, the less time she had to get the medicine. using the bomb as a distraction, she ran down the hall, looking for a staircase to the upper floor.

The shadow of the beast followed after her, looming large on the walls.

Pauline's escape was...disappointing for Strike-Back. All that energy built up, all that anger ready to be taken out, and what did it all build up to? Nothing. He walked up to the pile of metal that the mafioso had left behind and gave it a good thwack with his baton. Surprisingly, it didn't break when he tried that, but it definitely didn't feel like a good release. If only he could figure out who Pauline was working for...

Fuck it. He didn't have anything better to do. Without thinking about how he was supposed to catch up to a man who could fly, he started running in the same direction Pauline had escaped. If he found Pauline, he'd get some closure. If he didn't find Pauline, he'd at least find some other opportunity to dispense justice.

Joviality: Jupiter High Fairgrounds

As Skullface reached the bottom of the roller coaster just as Strike-Back rushed past in pursuit of Pauline. It began to follow him out of curiosity. It was not fast enough to catch up with him, but it was fast enough to keep him within its sight. Was this individual truly a hero? He had attacked Skullface, and he did carry a gun. But then he had told it about Pauline's villainous nature...

Skullface decided that its new mask could wait. This person intrigued it. Skullface kept up its awkward pace and trained one of its eyes on Strike-Back. It did not tire easily; eventually it would catch him if all went well. Perhaps they would even be able to stop Pauline.

edited 18th Jul '15 10:24:30 PM by Elyzian

Unfortunately, for all involved, a large and freakish spider-person burst out onto the sidewalk with a much more modestly dressed spider at his side and a very frightened waiter hoisted up in the air with one hand. "You there, peasants," Namacuix boomed at the only two men foolish enough to not have run in fear, "call your militia before I sunder this man in twain!"

Stanley's Offer

Hurricane made her way over to Stanley, wondering about his offer. "You mentioned payment? What for? And what are the details?" The only thing that caught her attention was payment. Now she was interested. Figures.

Addisu sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes; he had just gotten to the part where the train crashed. Can't ever catch a break, can I. He called out to the weird spider-man, ''Why would you have us call our... militia?"

Fleeing the Scene - Pauline

Pauline kept on flying, right over the bridge and straight into Civility, still tailed by police cars and two supers who were disturbingly persistent.

Shit, shit, shit, where do I go, where do I hide, shit was his general thought process; the criminal didn't think that far ahead and his lackluster planning was catching up with him. His flight path faltered; he'd been exerting his powers near constantly for a while now and it was beginning to wear on his concentration, his eyes getting blurry and unfocused.

Figuring he could stop and take a breath before continuing his escape, Pauline landed on the rooftops of one art gallery or another, not that he cared, having a little lie down on his back.

"W-Why... does everyone... want to... give me... shit..." he panted to himself.

"Sounds like someone's having a rough day~ Need a little rest~?"

"No shit... wait."

Pauline lifted his head toward the direction of the voice and spotted a strange woman, bronze skin shining in the sunset, black sclera eyes obscured by the twilight. She wore a grin as wide as the horizon, and as sharp as the blade she held to her side.

"I can help with that! Though it'll be a little longer than a nap...~"

Joviality: Just Outside the Café - Bartholomew Forrester

Bart had a good chuckle at Addisu's story, so much so that he almost didn't notice all people fleeing the café. But if he had missed that, he still most definitely did not miss the spider-person suddenly jumping out with a hostage. He blinked dully at the spider, then looked over to Addisu and casually commenting, "Militia, huh? Don't think I have that number. Do you have that number?"

edited 30th Jul '15 12:29:03 AM by Starbound2

Lincoln Museum

Stanley held up his comic book, flipping through it towards Hurricane. "Check it out. I especially like the double-page spread of the train-crash. This comic generates itself once I draw a cover for it, starring... anyone." He slapped the comic shut. "In this case, the shape-shifting Egyptian zombie Nazi. I have a certain amount of cash to throw around as a Detective, so I can pay you guys an initial 50 bucks to sign on in the investigation, with 10 an hour during any active pursuits or fights with the target, and then another 50 upon arresting her... them. Sound good, all involved?"

"That sounds better than good, that sounds great!" Death Grip exclaimed. "I was proposing the frenemy thing as a compromise, but hey, this is even better! Now, Silver Light, come with me. I think we should get you done up in some better gear, really trick out your costume!"

Death Grip attempted to stand up, and immediately yelled in pain, crashing to the ground. "Right, right! Uh, fractured ribs and shin!" He snapped at one of the girls, got his hands on some first aid, and started getting his leg splinted. "Now, while I do work with the Calzaretta mafia, lots of my work is also just freelance leg-breaking or opportunistic scores." He finished tying his leg up. "What is it you want to get out of working with me, exactly? I think I could help us both have more successful careers if I knew what you wanted out of the job."

Fairground

Niko turned to glance up at Phosphorus, giving him a nod in greeting, before stepping back to let the medics tend to the Mayor. He appreciated their offers-especially Phosphorus' offer for drinks, but he still had job to do.

"Sorry, but I will have to decline both offers today. I have a few things to attend to, and Pauline's interference put me a bit behind schedule." He said, bowing his head slightly in apology (this was more for the benefit of both Mayor Burke and Phosphorus, as his monotone made it somewhat difficult for others to tell how he was feeling). "It was nice to meeting you, Miss, Phosphorus." the Android continued, shaking their hands. "I hope the next time we meet, it will be in less...hectic circumstances."

After bidding the two farewell, Niko began making his way to the carpark, where he parked his motorcycle. After verifying that nothing was missing from his rucksack, Niko turned out onto the main road, and headed for his next delivery.

Hopefully Lady Calzaretta will not be too upset by the slight delay...

edited 19th Jul '15 6:46:02 PM by svenorzokarkoff

Phosphorus' smile faded as Niko spoke. "Ah," he said as Niko shook his hand. "That's quite alright."

He stood there for a moment near the mayor, his hands clasped before him. "Well, unless you are placing me under arrest, Madam, I am going home." Phosphorus made as if to leap, but hesitated before turning to face Mayor Burke. The eyes behind his mask showed a bit of guilt.

"I...erm...apologize for injuring you. It wasn't my intention for you or any normals to be hurt. First time doing this outside of the War, you see." He chuckled darkly, gesturing toward the surrounding wreckage. "Civilians will take some getting used to in these...encounters." Phosphorus sighed, tiredness creeping into his voice. "I won't be so reckless in the future, you can count on that."

He stood, silent and awkward for a moment. "Sorry for that. I...I'm going to leave now." Phosphorus began to limp away, his left leg aching.

Joviality - Within the Besieged Cafe

In a booth of the back of the cafe slumbered one alien fugitive, in her mind she was dreaming of better days. Co-ffee that dark dirt tasting liquid always calmed her after any rough day out. But then again almost everything in this backwater worlds tasted like dirt. She had slipped in under during rush-hour, concealed by a hat, a long coat and a pair of shades. Her gray skin was easly waived off as she said she had a "condition". The inhabitants of this rock were so naive. And yet so noisy, the one pleasure this planet could bring and it was utterly soured. She sat up, scowling at the hostile takeover "What in the eleven hells is going on!?" she demanded an explanation.

Art Gallery

The Queen of Diamonds looked up as someone else landed atop the art gallery. Shitshitshitshit. She quickly hugged the wall and disappeared into the shadows as best she could. Then the thief began slowly gathering a stone gauntlet around her right hand. ''I will bash the face in of the first hero that comes my way.

Johnathan's office.

The pseudovampire moved closer to the window. "Alright, give it another fifteen and we'll head out. No reason to put it out after all. But I'll warn you now, boss: You may not like all of my methods, keep that in mind if you come with."

The Rabbit Hole

"Well you see, it's a thankless job, being a super. I've found that out real fast. I thought people would be noticing me for what I did, right? Thanking me for my hard effort. Turns out, you gotta be good looking, gotta be rich already. Nobody wants some man in an overcoat to save them, they want someone pretty in a tightsuit." He sighed deeply, and concluded, Someone they could fall in love with, I guess...I want you to make me famous, sir."

He strained to get up before realizing he was still very well bound. "Ah, yes, just a second..." He disappeared, the ropes falling limp on the chair, and in the blink of an eye he was standing and uninhibited. "Sorry, I, uh, just don't like being tied up like that, partner."

"What am I doing you ask, dark woman? I tell you..." he paused briefly, blinking, before coming up with a clever idea. "I am declaring war on your world! I am Namacuix, King of Bunoul, Seventh in the line and inheritor of the divine seed of Xolotl!" He tossed the poor waiter at their feet, and pointed at the duo before him. "The many forces of the Tzahualli shall bring the world of Man to its knees! Now go, warn your kin of their incoming doom, before I make examples out of the lot of you!"

edited 19th Jul '15 9:53:11 PM by wikkit

Lincoln Museum

"Lemme see that," Jerry leafed through the book quickly, muttering to himself and tapping the page.

"I got records in the library about someone who might match your perp's description. Not to mention did my bit during the war too." He flashed Stanley a grin.

"Most importantly, we got any word on what she might've been doing here?"