Robert Harrison
"Oh sweet! My turn!" Robert concentrated on his wings, thinking about them extending from his back. Then, he envisioned them flapping gently, enough to lift him a few inches off the ground.
Printable View
Robert Harrison
"Oh sweet! My turn!" Robert concentrated on his wings, thinking about them extending from his back. Then, he envisioned them flapping gently, enough to lift him a few inches off the ground.
Daniel Horton
Daniel stayed quiet with concentration for the first minute or so, but then he broke into excited laughter as he started to get the hang of it, swooping over the others heads in the stereotypical "Superman pose" with both arms outstretched. "Holy sh*t! This is the best feeling! You guys gotta try this!" he laughed, feeling for the first time as high and happy as his altitude since waking up. With the sheer, unbridled joy of flight he was able to almost forget his earthly problems and worries, even for just a moment.
Suddenly, Daniel pulled his head back and he climbed straight up towards heaven, wondering just how high he could take himself and how fast.
Robert
You flap your wings to fly, and within moments your are hovering quite steadily about a foot or two above the ground. Once you 'take off' - as it were - flying doesn't seem so hard. You don't even have to think about flapping your wings - they just keep you up in the air. They beat slowly - quite frankly you're not sure how they're keeping you aloft - but in perfect time, almost four seconds per 'flap'.
Daniel
It quite surprising how quickly you climb into the air. When you devote your mind to it - when you decide to push yourself - and you have, it seems - the world becomes a blur around you, and within a few seconds you are quite high - higher, you think, than you've ever been, except for in a plane. It's dizzying how quickly you got here, but what's even more dizzying is that you're still climbing at an amazing speed.
Nathan James
Nathan stares up at the flying duo, shielding his eyes from the sun.
"Call me crazy here, but maybe this isn't the best idea. We're sort of out in the open here, and we don't want to make the neighbours think they're hallucinating."
On the Roof
A 'pop' announces the arrival of Lawrence behind Nathan, Eric and the slightly airborne Robert. "I think..." he says, rather sharply "...that the neighbors are the least of our problems. You guys better come downstairs. And where's Daniel?"
Somewhere well above the roof
You're well beyond earshot of what's going on on the roof....
Nathan James
Nathan points up in the general direction of the distant, airborne Daniel.
"He's way up there. Hang on a sec."
Nathan cups his hands over his mouth, and yells to the receding figure.
"We have a problem! Get down here, fast!"
Eric McMahon
Eric frowns, wondering how to ensure Daniel gets the message. Then an idea strikes him. Concentrating, he imagines himself becoming a human torch again. If this works, it should get his attention. I hope...
On the Roof
((OOC: He's actually about 1000 meters up by now. I don't know how effective shouting is going to be))
Eric transforms into "living fire Eric" (for lack of a better term) but even the giant plume that accompanies such a transformation doesn't reach as high as the rapidly vanishing Daniel.
Daniel Horton
Daniel tucked his arms to his sides as he rose, holding his forearms out, fists clenched as he fought for every inch of altitude. His sane mind screamed at him about just how high he could fall if things went out, but at the same time an increasingly bigger part of him was telling him that he could push it HIGHER. His face broke into a wide, fierce grin as he reveled in every minute of it. He could FLY! He was flying so goddamn high! He could put himself into orbit at this rate!
SpoilerDaniel's going to keep climbing as fast as he can until he can't breathe or starts freezing, then he'll reluctantly head back to Earth.
Nathan James
Nathan stared up at the flying figure, by now little more than a speck. He tore his eyes away from the sight and focused back on Lawrence.
"I, uh, don't think Daniel's going to be back anytime soon. What exactly is going on?"
Eric McMahon
Eric damped down his flames and turned to Lawrence
"I turned on the television..." Lawrence said, half-excited, half-nervous "...flipped through a couple of stations. It must be a local station but... well - we're all on TV."
Robert Harrison
Immediately, Robert killed the wings. "What?"
Eric McMahon
Eric frowned, then nodded. I'm not surprised. We did make more of a spectical of ourselves than any of us thought we would. Especially me.
Robert dropped about three feet to the roof as he 'dismissed' his wings. His question, however was quickly answered. "I didn't stay long enough to find out what exactly, but it's the accident. I caught a glimpse of Daniel lifting the car over his head thing. It's... well... come see."
Nathan James
Nathan nodded. "Let's go."
Lawrence nodded and headed down to the door, and then down the stairs, as quickly as possible.
((OOC: I'm assuming everyone follows him. If not, just post what you're doing on the roof))
Ann sat in the room, her face half-buried in her hands, watching the television. Watching the news. A quick glance at the television told the entire story. A grainy video of Daniel ripping a car door off its hinges. Daniel lifting a car over his head to flip it over. Eric exploding in a giant plume of flame and fire.
"Again - we must stress that, as far as we know these images are not doctored. One of our camera men was on the scene and took a lot of these videos with his cell phone. But we have half a dozen other videos from other commuters who were also stuck. And moment ago we received footage from our traffic copter..."
The screen went blank for a minute, then flashed up a new video. From directly over head. It's tough to see much in it really - the angle makes it impossible to see fine detail. But it sure looks like someone literally flipped a car with his bare hands. And Eric's explosion is clear as day.
"You know Dina..." a male voice this time "...if - if there weren't so many sources confirming the same damn thing. If it weren't for Dave, and Chuck covering from the traffic. If it weren't for all that I'd swear we were being put on."
"I still think we're being put on Kevin. But... how do we dispute what we're seeing? For the folks just waking up - this - this amazing scene is what confronted commuters this morning on the way into work. A five car pileup, turned into... into an unbelievable tale. It's hard to see all of it. It's all been taken on cell-phone cameras. But it looks - it looks like one young man just lift a car above his head and flipped it in an attempt to rescue its passengers. And another man just... exploded."
"There's more Dina. Watch this." The screen goes blank, and then displays a freeze frame of the five "heroes standing near the first car. It's proceeds forward in slow motion. Daniel, Nathan and Robert make a bee-line to the car, and in another second Lawrence and Ann just vanish from the frame. "Two people just... they just vanish from view. And according to eye-witness reports they reappeared somewhere else a few minutes later."
Lawrence picked up the remote and muted it. "Wanna guess how pissed off the agent is going to be?"
Nathan James
Nathan sat down heavily on the sofa.
"From government secret to public knowledge in less than an hour. That's gotta be some kind of record."
He looked up at the others.
"This is bad, very bad. All it takes is one witness who saw the van we were in and they could trace us back here. And you'd better hope that no one you know sees this and wonders why you aren't dead. What were you thinking!?!"
Eric McMahon
Eric's engineering mind raced into gear. Humans are capable of amazing feats of strength when on an adriniline high. And while lifting cars might be a bit much, the angle we can see doesn't show the far side. Someone could have been helping him. As for my...explosion, well, I was leaning into a burning car. It could look like I caught fire. OK, yeah, you can't see my body, but you wouldn't be able to if I was completely on fire. That's the reason I rolled under the car - an attempt to hide the fact I wasn't burning alive. And that would explain why no body was found - I burned up. He turned to Lawrence and grinned sheepishly. Though I have to admit I'm not sure how we can explain your disappearing act.
Daniel Horton
Daniel is miles away...literally...and has yet to return to the suite the group shares, though he means to some time soon.
Robert Harrison
Robert stared blankly at the scene. "Pardon my French. But, f***."
Eric McMahon
Eric gave Robert a calming look. Don't panic. The NSA are professionals at covering up things. I've already given explanations of most of the events.
Nathan James
"I'm not worried about the NSA and the general public. What I'm worried about is that the guys who tried to kill us will know that their attempt failed. And if they find us here..."
Eric McMahon
Eric nodded. Yeah, you're right. Didn't think of that. Eric kicked himself mentally for playing the hero. He could have gotten them all killed. We just have to hope this place is as secure as Agent Andrews said it is.
Daniel Horton
The Upper Atmosphere...
Daniel wasn't sure what he was feeling at that moment as the air around him dropped into the negative triple digits and there wasn't enough oxygen left to sustain human life, yet he continued onwards and upwards. The blue sky around him was darkening with every second, fading to the black starfield of space. Was he scared? Yes, completely and utterly terrified...yet, he was exhilarated. No one in the history of the world had been this high without a rocket strapped to their ass.
He could see nearly the full curvature of the earth stretched out below him, cities stretched into countries and countries into continents. He didn't know what would happen when he broke into what was generally accepted as outer space, but he couldn't stop himself from finding out. Would he fly too close to the sun and burn his wings like Icarus? Would he fall screaming to the Earth when the universe reminded him that man was not meant to fly?
More importantly, he was struck with a sudden loss of identity. Who was he that he could do these things? Was he the same man that had boarded that plane and disappeared? Was he still Daniel Horton, unemployed stock broker? Was he instead some kind of E.T. made up to look like that man, filled with copied thoughts and feelings? Was he some sort of construct put on this earth for some alien purpose? Was he a god made flesh? For surely only gods could touch the heavens.
He would have gone out of his mind had the one thought not held him fast like a lifeline. The picture of Jessie and his girls that he always kept in his wallet, the thing that tied him to the sparkling blue jewel so far below his feet, drawing him inexorably back to it. Whatever he was, whatever he did, was for them and for what they would think of him. They were the Lois Lane to his Superman, the thing that reduced him to mere human that he wouldn't trade for all the powers and all the worlds in the universe. Ultimately it was that thought that made him turn back from the black void of space back into the atmosphere to begin his reentry.
Back in the suite
Images from the crash scene earlier played silently as everyone discussed the situation. "I'm not so worried about our previous altercation..." said Lawrence, trying to steady his somewhat strained voice "...I'm more worried about something you said earlier Nathan. Ann can heal almost any wound with a touch. Robert looks like something out of the bible when he turns on those wings and sword. Eric can turn into living flame. I can close my eyes, think of a place, an appear right there. And Daniel..." He paused for a second "...well, wherever he's off to, he's bullet proof, and strong enough to lift cars over his head. Nathan and Victor are the only ones that can't do anything - yet. But there are going to be people interested in what we can do. And what we can do for them. I'm not sure I like that idea."
Bump!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Robert Harrison
"I'm not so sure some of our 'excuses' are going to hold. Sure, some people are capable of amazing feats of strength through adrenaline...but consider Daniel's physical build. No one of his build, even with the adrenaline, could do what he is doing there." Robert pointed at the television as the video played once more.
"And with this impending doom from no where...I think we need to start learning more about or powers as soon as possible. We seem to be too much of a handful for Agent Andrews. He won't be able to protect us all at once, if at all. We need to train. How do we contact Andrews?
...also, how does Archangel sound as a cool super hero name? I mean, I know its copyrighted and all but come on."
Nathan James
Nathan looks gravely at Lawrence.
"Even worse, if some countries think that the US has exclusive access and control over people with, er, your abilities, they might strike first to prevent their use in military applications."
Eric McMahon
Eric stopped smiling at Nathan's last comment. You're right. He shook his head. You're all right. There is no way Daniel could have done that. And me rolling under a car would have just made it explode. He dropped his head to his hands, rubbing them against his face. Then he looked up at Robert. So how do you propose going about this training?