Easton City Mall

Immediately as she spoke a loud bang was heard beneath the semi-disassembled suit.

"OW!"

The blue haired teen rolled out on a makeshift roller that he had presumably taken from the suit's storage.

It made one wonder exactly how prepared he was for his creation to go wrong.

"O-Oh! Erm... Well, basically it's an external amplifier. I charge electricity through it, and it... well amplifies it. I've modified it to be more combat ready, with armour plating and the like, but er..."

He hammered at something with mild frustration, catching an unknown part coated in grease. He stared at it briefly before setting it down beside him and rolling back under.

"It has a tendency to overload. And maybe explode. N-Not that I've gotten that far with this model. Kaylee made sure that I fixed it. Mostly."

He glanced at her briefly from the roller.

"So what about you? Anything of arguable interest to tell like me?" he said with a hint of humour.

edited 21st Nov '17 6:08:30 PM by Enirboreh

Mall

Ember Maiden clapped her hands over her mouth when she saw the boy bump his head. Her posture did relax when she saw that he wasn’t really hurt.

“That’s really impressive. It’s amazing, I mean. You and Kaylee building this yourselves. I could never do something like that.”

She ran her hand over the cool metal of one of the suit’s pieces. “I don’t think I have anything really interesting to say. I’m Ember Maiden. I’m new here. At the superhero thing, I mean. It’s only been a couple of weeks.”

She sat down next to him, legs crossed. “Is there anything I can do to help? I could weld or something.”

Easton Mall

Rebecca gave Eldritch a nod of acknowledgment, and then turned to answer the newcomer’s question.

“Homicidal mannequins. Which is something I never thought I’d say. Thankfully, we were able to stop them before anyone was seriously hurt, at least as far as I know.”

“Hi! Who’s your friend?”

“Would you please stop doing that, Elly? You’re making me look even crazier than before! What are you even talking about anyway? She’s alone.”

“Nuh uh, she’s like us! I can see her friend right there!”

“... right.”

Rebecca sighed and directed her attention back to the teenage girl.

“I’m sorry about her, she’s just excitable. And apparently talkative now that she’s figured out how to use my mouth. I’m going to have to find a way to deal with that.”

Presto followed Eldritch, Sanderson, and the other heroes to the watch store, curious about who was behind the robot attack.

As he walked, he noticed the werewolf's transformation into something a bit less wolf-like, a million questions jumping to the front of his brain, all trying to come out at once.

"So I take it you're not the typical full-moon werewolf then. How exactly does it work? Do you just randomly turn into a wolf-like creature? Can you control when and where it happens? Are you still in control in that form or do your wolf instincts just, like, take over? Are you susceptible to silver bullets?"

Presto knew the questions were probably a bit intrusive, but he couldn't help but pry now that there no longer seemed to be any immediate danger.

Easton City Mall

Although quite surprised at her decision to sit right next to him, Alex was aware of his surroundings enough this time not to give himself another potential concussion.

"O-Oh... uhm..." he stuttered, shuffling away a little.

Once he got a comfortable distance, which really was only a few inches further, he continued.

"Er, yeah. Sure. Most of the steaming damage is internal, but there is some external damage on the plating that needs patching. You alright with that?"

The Chop Watch Shop

Kaylee silently followed along with her new investigative club, seemingly uninterested in the following conversation.

OK, she was a little interested. Especially the stuff about silver bullets. Maybe she could cast some in the shop in case of future fuzzball attacks...

It was quite an entertaining thought that only a few months ago she was worried about the mortgage, and now she was seriously considering making soft-metal bullets to kill evil wolfmen.

Sometimes she just adored working as a superhero.

She was surprising herself with her quietness towards other people. The only persom she felt as if she could freely talk to was Alex.

Strange. She would figure that out later.

edited 22nd Nov '17 5:49:15 AM by Enirboreh

Kyle jumped at the onslaught of questions, it's something he is not very used to. Explaining the whole thing wasn't easy when you yourself still have questions, but he's gotta try.

"I can transform mostly when I want" He started. "I had a few 'incidents' on the past, but I mostly have it under control. I am always mostly me, but every now and then, mainly on full moons, let's just say, it's harder to keep it together. In general, I can't touch silver with my bare skin. I need gloves or something" He stopped.

"No cursed bite either. But I try to be the good guy, so it's not important" And just kept walking.

edited 22nd Nov '17 7:59:33 AM by Blueace

"Homicidal mannequins, you say? Intriguing, very intriguing. Mind if I look around?"

<That girl, she's got a spirit bound to her. Like you and I. I'm not sure who, though, never met her before. I can tell you that's she's old. Older than me, even. Beyond that...>

[I'll keep that in mind.]

Jackie could feel the lingering aftereffects of magic having been flung around like crazy. There had been so many spells, it was difficult to tell what had actually happened. The mannequins were obviously just robots, no hint of magically infused circuitry or anything like that. "I have to give whoever built these some credit. They've got a good eye for craftsmanship."

Easton City, Near the Mall

Fyodor was also walking around, another normal day for him mostly, despite what he feared before, after the whole ordeal before nothing really had happened after it, as such he thought all was over at this point.

Near Mall

"Well, that was kerfuffle," said the stripper cowboy to Fyodor. His voice leveled out as the energy from his sudden transportation faded. "Good thing we all got out of there, eh?"

"I wonder what went down," Ryan said.

Tobias frowned. No doubt his lack of memory was an afteraffect of the Smoke. He kept that in mind and promised himself to never do that to Tobias again unless he had to.

"I'll go ask," Tobias said.

"Wait," Ryan said, but Toby had already left.

The first thing Tobias did was go up to a girl that was seemingly talking to herself. "Yeah, they do look neat," he responded to the statement obviously not meant for him. "Good gears, huh?" He took a step closer, then exhaled a little Smoke. The usual symptoms of the Smoke were confusion, memory loss, and susceptibility to Tobias's words. Then he asked the girl politely, "Could you do me a small favor?"

Mall

Ember Maiden noticed Alex’s discomfort, and she scooted a few inches away.

“Absolutely.”

She snapped her fingers, a tiny blue flame sprouting out.

Technically, she probably could have done it hands-free. But it was easier to concentrate this way, and it was probably for the best to avoid causing any more damage to the mall than had already been inflicted.

“Just tell me what to do.”

Easton City Mall

"There are a couple gashes in the metal near the arm joints where I've pushed the actuators too far in movement. I need to replace them with a weaker model..." he trailed off absently. Shaking his head from his inner and outer ramblings, he continued. "They should be an easy fix. Just weld the damaged plating to the base below so it isn't frayed and doesn't hinder movement. I'll replace the damaged plating lat- what's that smell?"

He sniffed the air, frowning, before suddenly gaining a worried expression. He reached over and clumsily detached a section from the gauntlet of the right arm, juggling it painfully before dropping it on the ground.

It was completely blackened, with an occasional spark coming from the inside wiring. Seeing this, he groaned audibly.

"Amplifier's fried. Typical. This suit is basically useless if it can't increase my output. Tell you what, we'll just weld what we can, I'll take it back to the shop when we're done, then I'll come back and tell Kaylee I screwed up again. Sound good?"

Easton City - Outside Mall

An unearthly, yet beautiful wailing (or at least it would be beautiful if it was in tune) echoed through the throng of the crowd, turning a few concerned/confused heads, before stopping abruptly.

It soon picked up again, eliciting a sigh from some of those who had been having the misfortune of listening to this abysmal noise for the past ten minutes.

The source of this bizarre sound was the same redhead that Kaylee and Alex had bumped into back at the mall, and was fiddling with an extravagant white instrument that was easily a good five inches taller than him.

Fiddling was a bit of an extreme word, actually. More like 'incredibly faint tweaking'. Nonetheless, the near indistinguishable adjustment affected the pitch of the output greatly, which for a normal person operating would eventually end with them tearing their eyes out and screaming in eternal frustration.

But, as it was clear from his short interaction in the mall, Ryan (or at least the name he had given to an indignant street performer who he had 'politely' asked to move) was most definitely not defined as normal.

So he continued to tune the instrument, either uncaring or unnoticing of the cringes and dirty looks from the unfortunate people walking by at the off-key sounds.

edited 24th Nov '17 5:03:08 PM by Enirboreh

Easton Mall

The girl who Elly had pegged as having a “friend” asked if she could look around and then proceeded to do so without waiting for an answer. It wasn’t like Rebecca had any authority to tell her not to, anyway. Now that everybody had either left to check out the watch shop or were otherwise preoccupied, it was as good a time as any to work on finding a solution to her newfound problem.

“Okay Elly, you can’t keep using my mouth like that. It makes us look crazy. Well, crazier.”

But I want to talk to people too! It’s boring just talking to you.

“... I’ll try not to take that as an insult. Isn’t there any way for you to talk to people without getting us sent to a mental hospital?”

There is one thing I’ve been wanting to try! I’m not sure if it’ll work though.

Rebecca paused at that.

“This won’t hurt us if it fails, right?”

Probably.

Rebecca sighed.

“Then go ahead, I guess.”

For a good minute, nothing happened. Then, with startling suddenness, Rebecca found herself staring at a very dirty little girl.

“Yay! It worked!”

“Elly, is that you?”

“Yup! I projectered myself out here so I could talk face to face! Cool, right?!”

Elly looked pretty much the same as Rebecca had always pictured her in her head, to the point where she had to wonder if it wasn’t on purpose. Physically, she looked about five or six years old, though her actual features were hard to make out, seemingly fluid and shifting. She wore a dress of soiled rags, and altogether looked (and smelled) like she’d been wallowing in filth from the day she was born.

Rebecca let out a small sigh of relief. This would make future interactions much less awkward. And then immediately realized the downside to this situation as Elly took off toward the downed power armor and started checking it out (without regard for the people working on it) the second she looked away.

edited 22nd Nov '17 10:53:49 PM by PossiblyQuiteInsane

Mall

Ember Maiden nodded and began welding. She wasn’t an expert by any means, but she had an idea of what to do and how to do it.

After a few minutes, she reached what felt like a stopping point. She extinguished her flame and stepped back, appraising her work. (It looked...fine? She wasn’t sure.)

“I think that’s it. Is your shop far from here?”

(In the distance, she could hear a sound like a cross between a bassoon, an accordion, and a dying yak, but it didn’t seem important at the moment.)

Eldtrich was now leading the officers down the stairs to the lab. "If you wish to know how I found this, I used astral projection. It's a very nifty technique, one which you probably wouldn't need. Out of curiosity, why did your men fire upon my familiars and the wolf man?"

He decided to keep an eye on the events above, so, discreetly, summoned a small fly familiar. It looked like an ordinary fly....until a person looked close enough and noticed its exoskeleton was made out of pure black ice, with eyes the color of raw strawberries. It wasn't noticeably active, just buzzing around upstairs, for all intents and purposes a normal fly.

''The dust down here is appalling, I must say. Wouldn't you agree, officer?"

After getting some answers from the werewolf, Presto seemed to noticeably calm down and start speaking a bit more slowly. "Whoops, sorry about that, I just get really excited about supernatural phenomena. I had a few theories I wanted to double check and I guess I got a bit carried away."

"By the way, I never actually asked your name. You can call me Presto, by the way", Presto said as he reached out a hand for a handshake.

Outside the Mall - Less Cool than the Movies

Fracture closed his notebook, satisfied with the results of his observations. In it were written the words "check for heroes first"; a good amount of sufficiently bored metahumans/superhumans/[prefix]humans can foil any plan.

His next issue was rather more pressing; he got up onto the rooftop... Somehow... But getting down would be a lot less convenient. Realising that calmly knocking on a rooftop door would be unlikely to end well while wearing a cloak embroidered with "I am a villain" subtext, he decided to try the fire escape instead, making a note to actually build his physical fitness at some point as he began panting around halfway down.

Easton City Mall

Alex stopped welding soon after, tossing his goggles aside and jogging over to Ember Maiden to check her work. He nodded, satisfied.

"Yeah, that's great. Obviously this is temporary, but that was a great help. The shop's only about three blocks from here, we bought one as close as possible to the mall so we had resources. I have a... quick way of travel, so it shouldn't take too long for me to get there and back."

He opened the chest hatch of the suit and began tossing his tools inside. It wasn't until he was about to heave himself in with them that he spotted the (rather grubby) little girl that had taken an interest in the suit.

Suffice to say he nearly gave himself more brain damage.

"O-Oh... uh... hi?"

Easton City - Outside Mall

Frowning at that last note (he wasn't quite sure how the sound of a dying yak managed to emanate from it) "Ryan" continued to tune his instrument, before spotting something out of the corner of his eye.

Someone was climbing down a fire escape on one of the buildings nearby.

Clearly, this incredible man had some sort of noise negation ability so that he could so easily cope with an untuned loetukin.

Or he was deaf.

Either way, he watched with his piercing gaze as he scrambled down, forgetting that it was bad manners to stare at people like some kind of ancient animal hungrily gazing at a juicy grub.

edited 23rd Nov '17 5:36:08 PM by Enirboreh

Kyle shrugged it off. "It's cool" His look went to the roof, he looked thoughtful for a minute "To be honest, I don't know much about this power. I just tried to stop a robbery and broke some weird talisman. I couldn't even identify it and this whole thing has been trial and error so far. If you find something out, it'd be nice to know" With that, the wolf man took the handshake.

"I am Crescent, just a friendly neighborhood wolf man"

edited 23rd Nov '17 9:46:03 AM by Blueace

Sanderson gave Eldritch a look that said, "You make me uncomfortable" but to his credit was very professional.

He pulled out a flashlight and illuminated the still-mostly dark lab. "Looks like something out of a Frankenstein movie" he said. "There's no one here, but someone must have turned these machines on. Do you have any idea whose place this is?"

"Not in the slightest," Eldtrich answered him. "Shall we get to investigating?"

Eldtrich himself was now brushing away the dust as he looked around, searching for clues. Frankly, he was bored right now.

Easton Mall

Elly beamed at the blue haired teen.

“Hi robot man! Your thingy is so cool! It went zap and then the manny kins went kaboom!”

Seemingly quite pleased with her description, Elly went back to leaving grimy handprints as she poked her head into the hatch the young man had been about to enter.

It was at this point that Rebecca finally caught up to her.

“Elly! You can’t just run off like that!”

“But I wanted to look at the cool metal thing! And It’s been like 4 thousand years since I got to run around!”

Rebecca sighed and turned to the blue-haired young man.

“I’m sorry about that. I swear, I’m more a babysitter than a superhero. Anyway, I’m Rebecca, and this is Elly.”

With this, Rebecca held out her hand for the teen to shake, seemingly uncaring of the fact that she was pretty grimy herself.

Kyle gave the dark place a look. It's obvious that no one has been in here in a while, but the robots were activated by someone, maybe even remotely

He closed his eyes for a minute, trying to hear something, anything that could appear and attack the group, but nothing else was working.

"I think there is nothing else on" Crescent commented "But if anyone is good with this level of tech they should see if they can find out who made the stuff, and if their creator did, effectively, send those things on a rampage"

Watchmakers

Stepping into the darkened room, Kaylee couldn't help but give an unladylike snort.

"Dirty, cramped, filled with junk with usefulness probably ranging from paperweight to dust ball. Yup, Blue would like it here."

She casually wandered through the shop, swinging her arms childishly as she made a beeline for a rotting table caked in dust. She had spotted a few papers on it, and leaned on the table, effectively blocking their view from the others. When she was sure no one was watching, she sneaked a glance at them.

The writing was cut off about halfway through, clearly the owner of this place had left before he could finish the papers. But what was interesting was the roughly drawn, yet detailed sketch of what looked like designs for those robots they had just fought.

Whistling innocently, she snagged the papers, screwing them up and stuffing them into the pocket of her shorts. She then quickly jogged to join the rest.

"Nothing here. I wonder what could have triggered them? Some kinda timer? Or maybe the guy who owned this is still around?"

Easton City Mall

Alex rubbed the back of his head embarrassedly at Elly's praise.

"Oh... uh, thanks. It was more flash than anything but... and you've gone."

Thankfully, an older woman showed up before the grubby little girl actually damaged anything expensive, which he had the bad feeling she would if exposed to it for too long.

"Oh no, it's fine. Suit's banged up anyway, what's a few more marks. I'm Alex," he replied, shaking her hand. He didn't care about the dirt, he was coated in oil so who was he to complain.

"I have to say, pretty interesting power. Literal garbage woman. N-No offense, I didn't mean like... I meant more in the sense of..."

He was rambling nervously now, cursing inside for messing up such a casual conversation in only two sentences.

edited 5th Dec '17 11:56:28 AM by Enirboreh

Easton City, Outside the Mall

Fyodor took a step back, rather surprised at being talked to by the stripper cowboy. "g-Got out? I am out here to get some herbs, I didn't got out anywhere, Mister."