Inferno: La sovrumana commdeia

The summer sun burned hot in the afternoon sky. The air waves over hot pavement, glass towers blind the citizens below, brownstone buildings bake their tenants like brick ovens, and the tracks the elevated trains run on sizzle with heat and electricity. This is a summer in Engelheim. For a city named after angels, it sure was hot as hell, and had the equivalent moral fiber. Gangs fight for meaningless territory, kill and rob the innocent, and plot their schemes both below the city in tunnels of stone and mortar, and above it, in spires of glass and steel. In the entrance tunnels to the city, an Italian poet's immortal words are spraypainted on their walls.

Dan leaned against the wall of the skyscraper. The tallest building on his partol route, smack dab in the center of it as well.

"See or sense anything, Claire?" He said to no one in particular.

" Negative." A female voice in his head replied. " Don't sense any danger near you at all. I've been talking with the others, and it seems its a slow day on their ends as well."

Claire was Dan's personal Op. Her telepathy and clairvoyance skills made her a perfect fit for the job. Being his girlfriend didn't hurt either.

He looked across the rooftops near him, looking for a good target. He leaned forward, but kept one hand, and his feet magnetized to the building.

"Hmm. Quiet day, considering what's about to go down."

He spots a roof directly across from him, about 70 feet out, 15 feet down. He jumps.

" Perhaps because of what's about to go down. The Fortunates may be criminals, but they aren't dumb. They want as many."

He glides down to the spot. This is about the most his electromagnetism can do with the Earth's weak magnetic field.

"Perhaps."

He narrowly misses, instead grabbing a pipe two feet below his target. He winces in pain as he hits the wall.

" You okay?"

"Yeah, just misjudged my angle again."

" I warned you about angles bro, I told you dog!"

"IT KEEPS HAPPENING!"

They both chuckle, as they manage to squeeze another reference into everyday conversation. Dan swings his foot up and places it on the pipe, reaches for the ledge of the roof, and gets a good hold, places the other foot on the pipe, stands up, and pulls himself onto the roof.

"I'm heading back to the warehouse, I'll see you there."

" Take care. Love you."

"I will, love you too."

Dan runs looks for the large lake to the east of the city, and runs to it, making his way across the rooftops.

She had taken the form of a Saurus Crane, though loaded down with well down. She saw smoke from her height and called out.

She landed down to the ground regained human form and used her phone to dial in a distress call.

"Fire on 84th and Luther.". Calling out she took to the skies again.

"Fookin' Beautiful," Jack gave a long sigh. Dan was off again playing the hero and he'd be stuck cleaning up the mess. He had two jobs, scouting and infiltration and cleaning up the mess afterwards. Never any credit. He was the only mask in the operation and even they it was exclusively to keep his face out of view between jobs. A handshake told him everything he needed to know, the guys plans, his reasons for it, his wife and kids, the whole shebang. The difficulty was getting him close enough to actually shake hands. The city seemed mostly under control right now, no major gangs and a decent balance of power, he had told Claire to keep him posted for any jobs but honestly he had a distinct dislike of anyone screwing around with his head.

edited 8th Nov '10 3:55:36 PM by Fauxlosophe

The good news was that he had all his contacts, the bad news was he had no workers. He had everything he needed to get his pathways project up and running except people to make it a smooth operation. surrounded by papers and books and a small lamp. He was tired of crunching numbers in his parents' basement, he wanted a cute secretary.

Oh well, he still put in a nice day's work for his own endeavors, now it was time to help the city. Paul put in his blue button down short, and combed back his hair. He strolled up the stairs of the large and empty house. His parents were working, though with all the money they made they could probably retire now. Paul had no reason to want to leave, but not having his own place just felt to... un-American.

He was out the door and in the cab he had called earlier, driving to the warehouse. He stared out the window with mild bemusement. Something was going to be going down today and you could just tell by the tension in the streets, the foreboding silence.

Soon he had arrived a few blocks away outside of his favorite cafe. He tipped the cap driver generously and he strolled down the street whilst drinking green tea, though it was really more like dancing down the street.

He finally was outside the warehouse where he took one long deep breath and had an even bigger grin.

A dark shape bounded from one rooftop to the other, climbing gradually higher into the Engelheim skyline, until finally reaching an altitude it deemed practical. Once watching over the streets from high above, the shape pulled up his hoodie, revealing a young man with a mischevious gleam in his eyes. The city was his plaything, his playground, for that matter. Sure, it had some bullies, actually quite a lot of them and some of them had guns or superpowers, or both,, but it was nothing that couldn't be rooted out. If Joseph had to do it by himself, then so be it.

"Attempt twenty-three, skyline running to warehouse, standard airtime restrictions." He said, as if speaking to a camera, it was most out of old habit, but it also helped him focus, running like this took more than a little concentration. He held his wristwatch up in front of him, staring at it in concentration. "Three... two... GO VERTIGO!" He shouted as he clicked the timer function and took off into a running leap off the building, leaping farther than what seemed possible, given physics and other such petty restrictions, landing softly, already in a sprint, on the next rooftop. For a short burst of hectic sprinting, he ran across the skyscraper before bounding diagonally over to the next one, missing the edge with good margin, plunging to the street below.

"Down, down, down, down." Joseph mumbled to himself as he realigned himself along the side of the building, running on the concrete between the rows of windows. Leaping between two parallel buildings, he concentrated towards his next big obstacle, the train tracks, and the rapidly approaching train that he had made it a tradition to try beating to it's destination, not too far from The Guardians' HQ. He had wasted a jump or two there, he wouldn't make it, he thought as he let himself "fall" forwards and down on a lower roof. "Oh fuck that" He said to himself as he redoubled his efforts, quickly approaching the end of the roof, closer to the train tracks that most cities' building code would allow.

Deep down, Joseph knew it was madness, if he misstepped, he'd trip and fall straight in front of the speeding train, hell, it'd happen so fast he probably wouldn't be able to use his powers properly. Boom. No more Joseph, no more Vertigo, thank you for playing. Incidentally, he also knew, deep down, that he wouldn't miss. Especially after he leapt, the train close, almost in his peripheral vision, he know he could make it, or that turning back no longer was an option.

Joseph felt the tailwind of the train as he rolled, unfortunately it nudged him just enough to make him take the fall more on his left hand, and the moment it happened, he knew the aftermath of this would hurt. Fortunately, he was running on adrenaline, and even when he reached the warehouse a short while later, his wrist had not started hurting. As he made the final, feather-light touchdown, he checked his timer and, much to his dismay, found that his record remained unbeat. Exhausted, he leaned his back against the wall of the warehouse and sat down. "Record still unmatched, think my route might be less than optimal, or maybe I jump too much." He recapped to himself.

edited 8th Nov '10 4:06:14 PM by slowzombie

Feather was at that moment on the kitchen of the headquarters listening to some nice 50's music while it worked. Those were some nice and colorful years. The silent hero had recently gotten notice that most of it's companions would soon arrive and so it was making sure everything would be ready.

Feather had already cleaned the meeting room and at the moment was finishing the preparation for everyone's drinks. In such a diverse group ther were those who liked some hot tea after kicking drug dealers in back alleys, while other prefered the stronger taste of coffee or some soda.

It was all a matter of knowing who you worked for.

With it's hood on a tray full of drink and some cookies Feather walked into the meeting room.

Jack took out his cell, dialed up Claire, "I'm dying of boredom out here. I need a job. What have you got? Your boyfriend's bustin' up faces so evidently something's brewin'. Or 's he just taking up a new hobby?"

edited 8th Nov '10 6:41:14 PM by Fauxlosophe

" He's just headed back to the warehouse. Sorry, but there's nothing that needs doing I can see near y- Wait, there's a little old lady trying to cross Main and Baker, maybe you should give her a hand."

Claire snickered.

" In all seriousness, nothing special today. The Fortunates are saving men for tonight, and the rest of the gangs tend to stay back when it looks like they're up to something."

edited 8th Nov '10 6:47:56 PM by lockonlockon

Later analysis showed she was a bit rash. Apparently there was only smoke on that building because there was some kind if show going on. She sighed and returned to her crane form. Flying really was something special to get. It let her see the big picture in this city. There may be suffering and crime but from above you could see a majestic history reflected in it's buildings. Ever since her abilities had manifested she'd taken advantage of the opurtunity to conduct experiment. He'd lasteat run was a census on the effectiveness of Perigirnes as pest control. Her rough census indicated that the pigeon population was decreased by 25% since the introduction of the falcons. "If only our group did that to the other pests.". Crime was decreasing slowly in Elnhien but the town was far from a haven. Today was a slow day, a day of relative calm.

Paul had decided he would practice his abilities while he waited for the presence of the others. He entered the warehouse and turned on the lights and felt himself soaking up the florescent lights. The were weak but he could make it work. He opened his left palm and a high pitched sound wave came out from it.

he stopped becuase he hurt his ears doing it. "Worst music I'd ever heard," He chuckled to himself.

Jack grunted, he was about to hang up the phone, "I'm masking up, making a hit. All I need to do is tap the neck on one of these punks and I'll have all the intel you need on tonight. Cures the goddamn ennui at least, any objections before I take out the old ski mask?"

"I dunno, I could dance to it," said Zombz. The woman lay on her back atop a stack of crates, her head hanging off one side and her feet off the other as she idly kicked them in the air. She rolled onto her belly and propped her chin up on her hands so she could look down at Paul without craning her neck and kept kicking the air, but now above her posterior. Her red mask was pulled down around her neck, and she wore a faded white shirt with patched black pants today.

"'sup, Home Boy?" she added, using her nickname for Paul, whom she considered pampered.

(Site acting wonky for anyone else at the moment?)

". She heard speech and music from the warehouse and decided to fly in. She squawked forgetting for a second to resume human form.

"Sorry about that guys. Sometimes a can be a bird brain."

She turned into an oversized gibbon and slid down turning back as she landed.

"I could be worse," Paul said with a smile. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his pinwheel beanie and messed around with it. It was a sort of good luck charm.

"But how about you? I mean you look dead," Paul said in mocking concern. It was ahis favorite thing to say about Zombz since it was so simple and simple jokes tended to work "But then, you pull it off beautifully, like those Twilight Vampires." He was interrupted however by the arrival of Mina.

"Ms. Sanchez, so good to see you, catch anything from a bird's eye view recently?"

Twas a bit funny, yeah.

In a somewhat decent section of the city of Engelheim lies a small soup kitchen. The workers are all friendly folk consisting of some regulars and some volunteers. The air is light and most people are cheery due to the wonders of a hot meal. The house was a bit packed today so Ron's usual plan of sit at the empty table and eat quietly was a no-go.

He slurped his clam chowder and read today's newspaper provided by the shelter while a few men laughed at funny stories shared by themselves. A grizzled old man crept up on Ron in the meantime and had a seat next to him. Ron looked over briefly and the man faked a small smile and a nod. Obviously there was something major on the man's mind. If the look of dread didn't give it away then the trembling hands definitely did.

Ron returned to reading the front page article - the story of the Firebranded gang. A bunch of punks led by some pyromancer basically. A sharp crash jolted the table as a load of pepper spilled on Ronald's lap. The old man dropped the pepper from trembling hands as he reached across the table. Ron yelled above the man's frantic apologies

"How about we lay off the damn coffee grandpa?! Sound good to you?"

"I-I-I'm so sorry! I just-I-I'm a wreck. I'm just scared for my daughter's life and my own. I-I'm sorry."

Ron's expression and voice softened a bit, "Who's after you?"

"These kids...I-I don't know who they are but they're ju-just there causing chaos. They've threatened me and my neighbor's before and have even broken into houses. I-I don't feel safe and me and my daughter just can't go back and-"

"You're going back."

"What? Didn't y-you hear me?"

"You're going back there because tonight," Ron had a quick sip of soup, "you aren't going alone."

" I saw some smoke from the sky but it turned our to be some kind of show. The only other interesting thing I can report is that pigeon populations are down by 25%. There seems to be a deficit on actual crimes unfortunately.". She looked at the crowd joking around. She sometimes wished she could let herself relax enough to join their fun.

"Have any of you picked up anything on patrol?"

"Patrol? You know that's not how I roll, the patrol is for people who know how to roll and I don't have the wheels for anyone to see me rollin', or hatin'," Paul said in rapid fire as he donned his little beanie hat and spun the pin wheel and a small spark of electricity popped at his fingers.

Mei claps slowly as Paul finishes.

"As eloquent as ever, I see."

"What a shock.". She said deadpan.

". I personally believe that with great power comes great responosbility' if the line wasn't rather cheesy. Practice is of course a valuable asset but try to multi- task if you can."

She sometimes hated being the killjoy.

"Well someone's gotta keep the good P.R. around here, and with those attitudes it isn't you two," Paul said cheerily. "While you keep the streets safe I keep our operations safe... Financially."

"Play nice, kiddies," said Zombz, wagging an ironic finger at the group below her vantage point. "I have a hot tip from a little batty that the Fortunates are going dancing tonight, and we get to play chaperon."

"Chaperon?" Joseph said as he entered the building, his wrist was starting to hurt by now, but it was nothing he hadn't survived before. "That sounds suspiciously light on the explosions and the punching." It wasn't that Joseph only felt comfortable with violence and danger, it just so happened that violence and danger was pretty goddamn good fun when it came to it.

edited 9th Nov '10 1:48:31 AM by slowzombie

Dan walked into the kitchen. "If I can help it, we can probably put their operations in the gutter for a month or two. The Fortunates are some pretty high-class criminals, but that means they wind up being easy to interrupt, seeing as they plan everything out. Which reminds me. Claire, could you tell Jack to get a read on one of the Fortunates? Nothing drastic, just have him head to their cover offices on 25th and Baker and shake the manager's hand. That should give us a clue to their backup plan."

" Roger."

Claire tuned herself back to Jack.

" Just go to 25th and Baker, they've got a bank there they use for cover. Just shake one of the tellers' or preferably the manager's hands, and you should be in business."

"Tsk tsk. I see you kids still stay up past your bedtime."

Shay had appeared right next to Zombz, unbalancing a crate in the process, but managed not to fall before getting into a more comfortable position. As usual, her sense of style was lacking. The combination of a gray Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt, black cargo trousers, and her favourite trenchcoat with its pockets hidden everywhere was about as fashionable as she'd ever been.

Just as Feather was leaving with it's tray Dan came into the kithen of their headquarters. The hooded hero stood on the entrance waiting for him to finish his conversation and maybe failing a bit at not eavesdropping.

Once Dan was done giving instructions Feather walked to it's side, taking his usual drink from the tray and offering it to him.