A Heroes Challenge IC (Worm-Verse Game)

Cams, Cams Everywhere!

The guard grunts, all friendly demeanor falling away at the mention of the previous team. "Ya I remember, me and the other guards who work the security here were all investigated by the brass. As for who has access I dunno, I know the director and department heads have clearance here as well as the guards who work the booth and you guys I guess. But people from other cities can access the info so a couple dozen directors, team leaders, and various other higher ups would be able to access it."

Patrol 2

The man jumps as he sees Sharp knocking on his window "What the hell!" He cowers a little as he's questioned, not used to capes being polite.

"Has something happened? I've just been watching TV here I didn't heat anything until you came knocking on my door."

Heating Up

Deft bursts out of the smoke drawing the attention of the trio of villains left. Pyro growls and gathers some fire in his hand before blasting it towards the quick moving women, however he couldn't account for Defts reflexes and speed which cause the fiery blast to shoot overhead as she dodges. As Pyro turns to try and track Deft he completely misses Force who quickly makes her way out of the smoke with a raised baron which she smashes into Pyro, catching him in the temple and dropping him like a stone. However as the strike hits him a nimbus of fire forms around him even though he's unconcious and strikes out in Forces direction. It catches her in the blast and knocks her several feet back onto the ground with several impressive burns on her front.

As Deft is dodging around the outer perimeter of the villains dodging Pyro and Force is knocking him out a crack sounds through the air. Barricade starts to let out a string of curses in Spanish and English as she's knocked clean onto her back by Patches shot. She manages to get back up but she's standing awkwardly and her right arm in pinned to the expanding orb of containment foam on her chest. As she gets to her feet she gestures with her remaining arm and suddenly more small earthen creatures and puffs of air start to form in the area around her to join the small handful she has. All but a pair of the earthen minions flow into the ground, building on each other to create a small wall for her to shelter behind. The air creatures drag the unconcious form of Pyro over to her little wall to take cover with her.

However as Deft comes up from her dodge Wind Fist sees an opportunity and quickly rushes foward throwing a punch which thumps into her gut and pushes her back. Wind Fist start to follow this up bythrowing air punches and slashes to keep her back from the more wounded members.

On the other side of the road Avatar tries and fails to hit the two beastly minions that rush up to him. They dart around his strikes, to agile to be hit easily, and claw his forms legs. He roars in frustration as he's unable to hit the beastly little creatures.

A day on the streets

‘No, it’s just smoke. I use it more to confuse my opponents than for anything else. Always usefull if they don’t know exactly who they’re facing.’ Echo answered Patch

---

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.’ Sharp said holding her hands up in a placating gesture.
‘I’m with the protectorate and one of my colleagues was attacked just outside. I was hoping that you’d seen or heard something.’
She caught sight of the man’s television then continued
‘Or maybe you know of any camera’s or atm’s around here?’

Heating Up

Echo had learned a lot from her fellow protectorate members in the few months she had been with them. Devising strategies and ways to use her unique abilities to confuse and beat an opponent, or opponents. Two things were constant for any combat though; keeping the pressure on and not giving their opponents time to react was a good tactic and plans changed the instant the first punch hit, beam was shot or flame explosion, well exploded.

Force flew back with the power of Pyro’s boobytrap. A definite non-heroic squeak of surprise escaped her lips when the flames came for her, followed by a more fitting grunt of pain when she crashed onto the ground and rolled with the impact. She shook her head once and quickly got to her feet, doing a quick check of herself. The burns hurt, but they’d be reduced as soon as she reformed with the others, so she didn’t worry too much about them. She made sure not to dwell on what would have happed to her without her shield and armour, not to mention what would have happened to the others that don’t have her ability to take punishment.

She quickly took stock of their situation, momentarily surprised when she caught sight of the containment foam on Barricade, then she realised it must’ve been patch.
Containment foam sniper? she thought to herself, feeling a lot better about Patch’s choice of weapon. When she realised that containment foam expanded the more it made contact with air and seeing that Patch had hit the villain in the arm and body, her estimation of him rose a few notches. He was a good shot.

Deft backed up, grunting at the punch Wind Fist had gotten through. She hated fighting without Sharp calling the shots for her and Force. Every moment she spent looking around to keep track of their opponents, was a moment she wasn’t dodging what they were throwing at her. Without her other self, they were just reacting. She gripped the shield and her baton, quickly looking around and seeing the same situation Force had already analysed. Echo had already realised that they each almost thought the same, so their reaction to things would be close to each other as well.

‘Nice shot Patch. Could use one of them here.’ Deft said, then stepped forward using her reactions and shield to avoid or deflect Wind Fist’s attacks enough to keep his attention firmly on her. She didn’t commit to any attacks, just feinting and concentrating on not being hit. If Patch hit Wind Fist, he’d probably be distracted enough for her to land a hit or two.

‘Good work Alfa Girl, try and keep Avatar occupied for a little longer. Pyro’s down. Going for Barricade.’ Force rattled off the words quickly, then ran forward. Her toes forcing themselves into the road for more grip, trying to put as much power into her forward momentum as she could. She dropped her baton and grabbed another flashbang in her left hand, the pin easily flipped out with her index finger. Then she lifted up her shield with her right arm. She pushed off at the last moment before hitting Barricade’s barricade as high as she could with the shield covering her arms and shoulder. Hoping the base wouldn’t be enough to hold it upright with the force of the impact and hopefully sending it crashing down on them. The flashbang in her dominant left hand she simply flipped over the wall when she impacted. She liked redundancy and while the first might not have had much effect, a flashbang at close range with a wall to reflect the sound and shock would probably give whoever was behind the wall a bad day.

‘Flashbang.’ she warned the others.

Heating Up

"Got it," Alpha Girl nods, still hiding in the van. She pokes her head out to survey the situation. Alright, her pets are still doing some good work, just keep them on it and- flashbang? She eeks before tucking her head back into the van, ordering her pets to close their eyes while it goes off. Though at that point they didn't really need their eyes open to attack considering how close they were to the enemy.

When the van finally made its way to the destination and the doors opened, Robert was horrified but what he saw. A pyromaniac was setting apartment buildings on fire, and laughing while he did so. Josie's comments assurances that it was necessary to fight were unregistered as he stood there in shock. Robert wasn't used to violence, and the scene in front of him was overwhelming. While he hesitated, the fight started in full force.

The warning about the flashbang was enough to pull Robert out of his stupor. When Josie called it out, Robert stepped out of the vehicle, closed his eyes and put his hand on the concrete. The surface beneath him rippled and appeared as if it was a liquid, before it flowed upwards and into his form. The faux-right of arm on his costume suddenly became animated, as the newly absorbed matter created a replica of his original arm.

As he registered the scene and its combatants, one horrified thought struck out at him. Where was CJ? Fear giving him alarcity, he sprinted towards Wind Fist, the one villain who hadn't been placed in check yet. While he was distracted with pressuring Echo, he took advantage of the distraction to charge in. As he moved, his old high school days came back into him and he fell into the form for a football tackle.

Spoiler: OOC:

Show

My apologizes for the delay, Canadian thanksgiving is this weekend.

Also, Snap is pretty much a hard counter to Barricade.

A Day on The Streets (Patrol 2)

The man just shrugs "I didn't even know the Heroes were back in the city let alone that one got attacked outside. Sorry can't help you with that. As for cameras I dunno there might be an at in a convenience store a couple blocks away and there's a red light camera 4 blocks to the west of here but it doesn't face my house."

Heating Up

Wind Fist yells out as he gets caught up with Deft, he couldn't land any blows what with Defts enhanced reflexes and Wind Fists short range. "Avatar disengage, we need to bail!" Right after that he follows up a a heavy flurry at Deft to give himself some room as right as he has some room he turns to run and gets a shot right to the face. Patch comms in to the others "How's that Deft?" with a grin easily heard in his voice. The shot breaks over his face with a small spatter of blood visible from a broken nose before the containment foam expands to cover his face. He didn't pass out and started to try to stumble away from the scene to his teammates but is instead struck by the bone crushing tackle of Vanguard which tosses him like a rag doll to the ground with one of his legs bent in a strange direction.

At the same time as Wind Fist is getting tag teamed Force crashes against the wall while tossing the flashbang. Force crashes against the wall breaking most through but losing her momentum and stopping amongst the demolished wall. However the flashback, instead of flying over the wall, strikes what seems to be a condensed block of wall of air and falls behind Force and going off harmlessly. As Barricade sees Force break through the wall she screams and gestures to the women among the rubble. As she gestures her remaining pair of earthen minions flow past and each grab a leg before melding into the ground trapping a foot each and another pair of air wisps float in front and then seemingly vanish.

As Wind Fist shouts to Avatar the enlarged man turns and sees half his team crumpled on the ground. He quickly turns trying to shake the monstrous creatures hampering him and runs over to Barricade. As he nears he just stoops to grab the wounded and containment foamed women and keeps going. He leaves Wind Fist and Pyro behind turning to the right to go between the group around Wind Fist and the road with the van into residential territory. He jumps and slides over the one story house breaking parts of the roof.

Patch comms Snap as he watches the pair make their way out "Snap we need you to follow." Snap just responds with a sob. She's curled in the back of the van "I can't do this, I can't fight people like this"

Spoiler

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OOC Containment foam can cover the face and restricts movement but doesn't smother so Wind Fist can breathe. He won't die if you leave him.

You are welcome to pursue if you so wish but the van can't follow. Also with Silent_P out its your guys call.

A Day on The Streets (Patrol 2)

‘Thank you for your time and information sir.’ Echo said, not trying to hide her disappointment.
‘I’m sorry for disturbing you. Have a nice evening.’

She turned away from the man, but the talk of camera's had given her another idea. She walked past the windows on the ground floors looking inside to see if anybody was using laptops, desktops with camera’s or tablets. Chances were slim, but nowadays many people used some version of a skype-like program to talk to others halfway across the world. IF somebody here...
She stopped following that trail of thought before it led somewhere hopeless and continued with checking the windows that might have provided a view on the place Spook was attacked.

‘Captain.’ She said after tapping her commbead
‘How long before we can get some kind of CSI unit here?’


Heating Up

‘Perfect sho...’ Deft started to reply to Patch’s second excellent use of his containment rifle, but before she could finish or capitalize on Wind Fist’s weakness he was hit by a freight truck in human form.
‘Owh Shi....ps.’ She started, barely censoring herself. She continued almost automatically narrating what had just happened for the benefit of her other selves (and whoever was listening and recoring).
‘Patch and Vanguard just took down Wind Fist.’


‘Gha!’ Force yelled in frustration, unable to move to intercept their opponents with her feet stapled to the ground, when Avatar strode past her, picked up Barricade and ran.
‘They’re getting away!’ She yelled and started slamming her shield into the material that had gripped her feet, trying to make it release her.

Deft held out her hand to help Vanguard to his feet, listening to Snap’s breakdown. Her own hand shook a bit. That was insane. She thought to herself, slightly spooked at the twisted leg and what she heard on the comms.
When it was clear that Snap would be unable to stop the last two, she pulled her shield into it’s position on her back and drew both her short swords.
‘I’ll stop them.’ She said, almost reluctantly. The tremor in her hand now under control, but it had migrated to her voice. She’d just try and hamstring the giant villain and hope that she would be fast enough to avoid his swords until the others arrived.

‘Echo, was there any sign of Spook?’ Sharp came in over the comms, she had been listening in while investigating the area where Spook had disappeared. The use of her own name in directing the question sounding weird even in her own ears.

‘No, not that I could see.’
‘Me neither.’

‘Then hold off Deft, we have wounded...’

‘That was Wind fist, not us.’ Force interjected, still angrily hacking at the road that held her feet. She knew that Sharp would’ve heard the snapping of the Villain’s leg over the comm. Heck, everybody probably had.

‘Unless I’m mistaking I heard one of us screech.’ Sharp said, then waited for a moment. When there were no other objections she continued.

‘We have a burning building that might have civilians over there.’
‘We also have a missing team member.’
‘And taking down two members of the most dangerous crew on our first night out is more than we could have hoped for.’
‘I also heard something that sounded like part of a building collapsing.’
‘We can’t get caught up in chasing them when there are so many things we need to handle.’
She sounded like she was ticking off a list. She probably was with her way her mind worked.

‘So Deft, follow, but only to make sure they don’t circle back for their teammates. Keep hidden.’

‘On it.’ Deft said and with a quick look around she started to follow Avatar, sticking to the shadows as she did and keeping up a narration of where the villains were.

‘The rest, I suggest you split up between getting Pyro and Wind Fist in containment foam, keeping a watch out for the Wreckers or any other capes that might interfere, helping the civilians and getting the fire under control.’

‘I also suggest in that order. No use in loosing what we gained tonight. Those villains might know what happened to Spook and helping the civilians might do as much in showing the people we're here to help as arresting the villains.’

Spoiler: If Force get's loose this round

Show

Force stalked over to Pyro, holding her shield up defensively before tapping him with it to make sure that if another booby trap went off it would be (mostly) caught on her shield.
She then grabbed the man and dragged him towards Wind fist, tossing him forward in such a way that his face splattered into the containment foam expanding from Wind Fist's face.
She then pulled some zipties from her utility belt and ziptied Pyro's Arms and legs, and Wind Fist's arms. She looked at the villains leg and started to get a little green around the edges, swallowing back bile. It reminded her of the accident, and she wasn't good with things that reminded her of that.

Heating Up

Okay! So no chasing... that works, Alpha Girl had no real interest in chasing down the enemy anyway. She mentally ordered her pets to lay off of their attack and instead enter the burning building and bring out any civilians they find to safety. A dangerously broad order, but considering the alternatives it should be fine. Alpha Girl herself reluctantly leaves the van to keep an eye on their prisoners.

Heating Up

The devastation was too much. Fires just like she'd started herself in the past which had left her burned, bruised and scared. Rubble all over, shouting, the odd improvised projectile shooting through the air all brought back the worst days of her activism. What the hell had she been thinking?! She couldn't jump into this! She didn't have enhanced strength or durability, the ability to create copies of herself or minions to dispatch against virtual powerhouses. She could barely teleport down the street without causing property damage and, if something interrupted her? Jarring shock back to the real world leaving her vulnerable.

Snap didn't even leave the van. Some kind of request comes over the comm but, by that stage, she was a mess and couldn't even recall how she responded - if she responded.

Once everything is over, all anyone who approached her could hear is: "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I can't..."

Vanguard was surprised at how little he was staggered when he ran into Wind Fist. He winced he heard the sound of his leg snapping. He hadn't meant to hit him that hard.Oh S***! he said over the comms. He glanced over at the burning building, clearly torn between helping the person he had just injured and ensuring no one else was at risk. HQ, We need an EMT, and the fire department. Seeing that Wind Fist's life wasn't in immediate danger, Vanguard turned around and sprinted into the building. Remembering his talk with one of the PRT scientists, he tapped his power and as he did so, the heat felt much less oppressive. He went around trying to help people evacuate, and looking for casualties.


OOC: Vanguard is going to try to increase the specific heat capacity of the concrete that he is made of as much as possible. The consequence of this would be that it would require more heat energy to raise the temperature of his body, so he should be able to last longer inside the building. Not to mention that if he needs to carry someone out, hopefully he wouldn't burn them just by touching them.

A Day on The Streets (Patrol 2)

The captain working the comms chimes back in after a few seconds "Well we can get a team out there in maybe half an hour. Shouldn't be too long to get out there and they're bringing their full kit to figure this out. We'll do our best to find Spook."

Spoiler: OOC

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I'll report their findings next post.

Memo

To: Vanguard
From: Director Sanderson

There is a budget for the team that s eight thousand at the moment for the teams expenses and whatnot. Any medical costs are covered by extensive health insurance though.

Regards
Director Sanderson

Spoiler: OOC

Show

So totally missed this one and just saw it so I'll address it here. The arm cost, if just essentially a slightly better prosthetic can be covered by medical costs with up to five replacements but any special prosthetics will cost extra ending up about a few hundred at max.

Heating Up

Deft manages to follow the pair of remaining villains as they try to escape through the neighborhood but Avatars leaps over smaller houses tends to through off pursuit and at one point about a kilometer after they escaped the scene Avatar put his last ounce of effort into scaling a larger three story apartment building and Avatars large form dissipated on the roof and Deft lost sight of the pair. Several seconds after they got to the top the fire alarm of the building went off and all manor of civilians started to exit the building. Back at the sight of the battle Force manages to pick up Pyro with little trouble and tosses him alongside Wind Fist, getting some foam on his face as well. Alpha Girls minions start to circle the pair of fallen villains, snapping at them when ever either of the pair of unconscious villains twist or turn.

The captain on the comms responds to Vanguards frantic call "Don't worry Vanguard EMT's and a squad will be on sight in ten minutes tops." Then as the massive concrete man charges up the stairs the heat starts to get intense, though not enough to bother him with the changes he had made to his body, and as he searches through the building he finds most of it abandoned but as Vanguard starts to head back down through the flames he hears a low cry for help. Following the small cry he manages to find the apartment it's coming from, which is on the bottom most floor of the fire.

PR Princess (Alpha Girl)

Spoiler: PR Session (Spoilers for Length)

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Foreword

The tech guy tries to get your attention by snapping on his side of the screen "OK Alpha Girl just adjust your cam so we catch your upper body and head in the shot and then we should all set for interview... Ya just like that perfect."

Once the cam is set up on your end you see through the computor your using that a tall blond women with a sharp face and tasteful blazer and skirt combo appears and sits down in the chair that the cam on their end is showing. "Hello Alpha Girl I'm Marsha May I'll be the one leading your interview today. Don't worry viewers love capes and I can tell you give off the kind of vibe that just draws people to you. We'll start in 5 minutes but do you have any questions before we start?"

---------------

Alright, just adjust the cam a bit... no too high, you couldn't see her cleavage... there we go, perfect. Or maybe if she angled the camera up a bit to make her look tall? No, that' look intimidating. Maybe angle it down a tiny bit... no, just head on, that was a little disorienting.

Questions huh? "Yes I do. Does the make-up department do your hair, or is that something you do yourself? Because it looks DIVINE," Alpha Girl gushed. Buttering up the reporter before the interview always made things go just a little bit smoother.

--------------

"Awww that's so sweet. You know what I'll send you some samples after this so you can try some. I'll just send them to the HQ for Alpha Girl, is that OK?" She smiles at you with little blush high on her cheeks.

-------------

Ohhh, was that a trace of a blush she saw? While she wasn't interested in women Alpha Girl did like to have every advantage she could take. Though she could be misreading it. "That would be amazing. If it looks half as good on me as it does you I'll need to thank you," she smiled somewhat sultrily.

------------

The women's blush deepens further and she waves her hand "Ohhh stop you. We'll it seems like we're ready to start so we'll be live in ten."

Questions

Marsha leans forward with a small smile on her lips "Well Alpha Girl we're glad to have you on the show, I'm a bit of a cape fan honestly, and I'm sure the city is glad to have you around as well aren't they." She punctures her question with a small laugh and then pulls up a grainy shot of the team gathered in the outskirts. "It seems like the team is already making waves and this leads into my first question of why you decided to become a hero? Every hero has their reasons and we'd love to hear yours."

---------------

Ah, the classic 'why are you a hero question'. Alpha Girl had been expecting that, which was why she'd come up with a convincing lie in advanced.

"Good to be on the show Marsha," Alpha Girl smiled demurely. Which turned somewhat sad as she answered the question. "You probably know I was a Rogue before I became a Hero. Fighting Villains was always something that scared me. I love my powers, but it isn't exactly all that great against someone who can shoot fire or summon things four times their size to fight for them," she chuckled. "But this city needs Heroes right now," she went on, a spark of conviction entering her voice. "After most of our city's Wards left - good luck to them in all their endeavors - the-" Protectorate have been short staffed. No, she couldn't say that, that puts the blame on the Protectorate. She'd get chewed up for that. "-Villains have been getting bolder and taking advantage of our fair city's flagging morale to get away with far more than they should." Just a minor hitch and she saved that nicely. Damn she was good. "As a citizen myself I felt it was my civic duty to become a hero and help our city in its time of need."

--------------

Marsha nods along with Alpha Girls answer, responding to all the right cues to make sure the audience knew she was listening to the answer intently. Then pauses for a second to check her notes before continuing "Yes you were a Rogue for a while but you made the leap. Still though it must be a big difference to go from working alone to fighting crime with your new teammates right? What are your thoughts on the team, in this picture it seems like you all managed to work together in the field but tell us the real deal with the be team protecting our streets."

--------------

"It's a huge difference! I freely admit I'm the baby of the group when it comes to age and experience," Alpha girl smiles. "So it's good that they're all so professional. Patch can be a little focused, Tinkers you know? But he freely offers his tech to the others of the team, he's a generous soul. Echo... well if she hasn't been made official team leader yet she's probably going to be so soon. She's confident, and her power is really convenient for keeping everyone focused since she can do three things at once. Snap-" Oh, damn, she'd barely interacted with Snap or Vanguard at all. She knew her background at least. "Is a bit of an idealist and is trying to do the best she can in being a hero. And Vanguard, well I suppose he's a bit like the father of the group. Which would make Echo the mother. I suppose we really are like a family in a lot of ways," she laughed.

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Marsha coo's a bit as she heats the description "That's so sweet." She then clears her throat before continuing on, squaring herself towards the camera "Now as everyone in the city knows, and as you yourself mentioned earlier, villainy has been on an enormous rise. How will you and your team of relatively new heroes handle this? More specifically how will you handle the man responsible for your predecessors untimely unmasking?"

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Alpha Girl gives an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry but investigation isn't my specialty. I just provide the team a bit of muscle. I CAN tell you however that those on the team who do have such skills are looking into tracking-" Was it public knowledge that Insight did the unmasking? Better not say the name just in case. "-the culprit down and bringing them to justice. The explanations on what they're doing go way over my head though," she giggled. "Tinkers and Thinkers. As for the general crime wave, I'm confident that just having us be visible and stopping crime as it occurs will be enough to scare the little fish back into hiding. As for the big fish... we're making plans, but those are classified," she apologizes. Such plans didn't actually exist, but if they did they would TOTALLY be classified so it wasn't really a lie.

-------------

The women nods to you, signalling the wrap up "Well we're all rooting for you here and I'm sure the city is as well Alpha Girl. Good luck and stay safe."

Afterword

Then after a few seconds she relaxes a bit and let's a much more real smile break onto her face then the one on the show. "Not bad Alpha Girl, you would not believe the amount of Capes I get on here that just can't handle the pressure of being on camera. You though, you really work the camera. Let me know if you have a story you want out there and I think next time we could get the story to go provincial if not national. Miami is full of story and the public is dying to hear it." The women nods to you, signalling the wrap up "Well we're all rooting for you here and I'm sure the city is as well Alpha Girl. Good luck and stay safe."


Twisted Nightmares

After your interview with the news station you go to bed feeling great but your actual sleep is full of terrible nightmares and horrible sensations that ruin your sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night though you wake up in a cold sweat and look out to your pets that are laying over where you directed them to as before you went to sleep. However right as you were falling back asleep you feel something near the foot of the bed move and you glance down to see another pair of dark scaled and monstrous minions, watching you with their jaws hanging open and mocking you with their visage of the old you.

New Kid in Class

The morning after the fight with Shining Path happened Director Sanderson calls the team to one of the briefing rooms to go over some new resources, as she termed it, she had for the team "Sit down everyone, I know you had a pretty serious day yesterday and I know that it was tough on all of you. However I don't think we can afford to leave the gap left in Spooks... absence unaddressed for right now. I would like to introduce a new cape that has been brought in to join you from the research division, this is Graham."

As she says that last part a man walks into the room and joins the Director "He will be joining the team and hopefully you will all make him feel welcome."

"Uh, hello." I said as I waved to the group in front of me. They were... eclectic? I didn't know. Back in the police there had been a strict line of people that you saw and in R&D there had been nerds. I was counting my blessings that I was allowed out and about to say hi to them. Last I'd heard, my papers for a transfer had been denied again. Something about not having another incident. It was frustrating, but fair enough. Now I just knew that these heroes were ****ed enough that they needed ME to step in. That had to be some next level of ****ed, the kind you payed a lot for.

"I'm Graham," I started, "you can call me PinPoint, or Graham, I don't really think it matters here. Sorry about the name I kinda came up with in on the Jet ride here between the rundown and sleep deprivation. I'm from RnD like the- uh- director said and yeah... God this is like showing up in school halfway through the year right? Who's the-" the sullen faces of the group told me that now wasn't the time to joke. I was the replacement of a missing person on the REPLACEMENT team. "Miami just can't keep people around can it?" I asked.

The director shot me daggers. My mouth had already lost me a job, **** me with a stick. At leas the PRT couldn't fire a hero for gallows hero within the walls. Could they? I really should have read the contract before signing.

Heating Up

Vanguard looked around nervously as he made his way through the building. Thankfully, the building seemed to be mostly abandoned. He shunted aside some debris that blocked his path as he carried out his search. Just as he was finishing his sweep, he heard the low cry of someone in distress. Once again, Vanguard was terrified. His imagination went wild, and he couldn't help but think of his own kids.


He made his way to the door, and thought about what to do. If the fire damaged the building's structure, he might make things worse if he forced his way in. But the longer he waited, the worse it would get.Protectorate. Stand back! Vanguard grabbed on the door and used every ounce of his enhanced strength to force it open.

Once inside, Vanguard tries his best to get to the trapped person and carry them out of the building.

New Kid in Class

Robert barely managed to get to the briefing on time. He looked exhausted, and he was nursing a large cup of coffee. He felt as bad as he looked. After work was finished, he went straight home to spend as much time with his family as he could. He felt scared. He promised his family that he would always be there for them, that he could balance his Costumed life with looking after them. After what happened to CJ, Robert wasn't sure he could keep that promise.

In another time and place, Robert would have stepped up and done his best to help in the transition period. It wasn't the new guy's fault that he had to join at such a crappy moment. Right now, he felt like hell, and this stranger's attempt at humor was not appreciated. He just looked over at Graham and gave a noncommittal grunt.

Twisted Nightmares

Ugh, that sleep had not been pleasant. Her vision was blurred and she could barely process what she was seeing. Maybe she should have just slept with her pets, but Jenny always had mixed feelings about that. On the one hand it was physical comfort she could unconditionally trust. On the other hand they were hideous and she wanted to rip them apart with her bare hands and impale their heads onto pikes for being so ugly and taunting her with their ugliness. Still she could use some comfort about then. Huh, why were they at the foot of her bed when they were...

"Fudge!" she cursed, scrambling back further in the bed. Wh... what?! Why did she suddenly have FOUR pets?! She'd had her powers for YEARS and they'd never done anything like this before! What had changed? Was it because she'd actually fought with them? Was it because she was an adult now? There were too many possible explanations... aside from the possibility of this being a trick by some stranger or changer. Deciding to get that possibility firmly out of the way first, she mentally ordered all of her pets to stand together and salute to make sure they were following orders. Before grabbing her PRT phone and pressing the panic button. Unexplained developments in her powers DEFINITELY qualified as an emergency after all! She just hoped they wouldn't initiate Master/Stranger Protocols, those sounded boring...

New Kid In Class

How hard was it to get two new costumes on short notice?! She had four of the sheep costumes, though they were in different sizes. Which is why she had four to begin with. Maybe she could be a shepherd until this was all sorted out. She NEEDED to get her full suite of pets onto PHO ASAP, but until she had costumes for them that was impossible. Oh, ghosts! All she needed was sheets, and she could dress up as a vampire! A sexy vampire... yeah that'd work.

Focusing on her phone Alpha Girl sent off another text, before looking up at the new guy. "Hm? Right, the Miami PRT has kind of sucked lately," she agrees, too distracted to be tactful about it as she returned her eyes to the screen. "Anyway I'm Jenny, aka Alpha Girl. Sorry, bit distracted, fashion emergency. Just follow whatever the older people tell you should be doing and you'll be fine, it's what I do."

The materialized arm of the law

"Right so here you go, was faster than expected. I made some design choices to make it fit better than your theme and I hope you like it" The arm that Patch hands Robert looks almost identical with how his other arm looks when costumed. It had matching panels and the fact that no skin is exposed on the other arm made it easy for Patch to make it matching. "So I don't know if they told you this but I'm barred from directly working on living people." He looks questioning and continues after seeing Vanguard's reaction: "As such I had to dump the performance a little to be sure that whichever amateur that the PRT sends to help you attach it wouldn't mess things up. It's still better than anything you could find on the market but yeah."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

So we can use diamond?
If not then what about Boron Carbon Nitride or aggregated diamond nanorods

Cams, Cams Everywhere!

Patch was momentarily stunned. This was crazyness. With that many possible possibilities for security breaches how could this system be anything but set up to be abused? He mentally sighs at the prospec of keeping up the act for a long time but his decision doesn't waver. Even if it would take a lot of him he wouldn't allow the remaining of his family to become targets because of what have happened to him.

"Honestly I'm more conserned with things the system. Would you be willing to provide me with the technical details as to what meassures are being taken against infiltration? Obviously the system can be accessed remotely with other directors and all, how do they keep that from being hacked?"

A day on the streets

"In that case it shouldn't be a problem for me. I should be able to see their heat signatures through the smoke"

Heating Up

"I can't help in the building." Patch calls, "But I can make sure that FireCrazy and Wind Slap doesn't move so Alpha Girls minions can go inside to help civilians." He then aims his rifle at the two villains and prepares to take a shot if they move too much.

Cooling Down

Patch couldn't really bring himself to celebrate their victory or even feel good. With all the action happening he had briefly been able to forget about their lost teamate and now that the adrenaline was leaving his system it the hollow feeling was comming back. He hadn't known CJ well but still, that could easily have been him! Worse yet, he had run to the place where she had disappeared like a retard, anyone could have held a trap for him and he hadn't yet made anything that could let him get away from a close combat.
"Sharp, did you find anything?" he asks one of their two missing members.

Amateur Psychologist

Patch wasn't really much of a people person but he needed this team to work out, otherwise the director would never lift his restriction. "How are you feeling, Ji Yu?" he asks in private.

On the way to the teammeeting

"Hey Jenny" Patch says, finding himself stumbling into the local celebrity. "A generous soul? I feel flattered." He says with a playful smile. Watching the interview had been interesting. It had made him wonder how much of Alpha girl's "childish beauty" personality was an act. "Good job on the interview, I think you handled that extraordinarily." He praises, still genuinely. His face then shifts to a slightly more serious look: "I have to ask though, was it intentionally that you promoted Josie over Vanguard for the leading position?"

He then glaces over her shoulder he looks suprised. "How many minions are you keeping stashed away?" he asks, not able to hide a trace of jealousy.

New kid on class

A replacement, already? They hadn't even confirmed CJ's death yet and the director was already acting like she had lost a pawn in a game of chess. Even then he had to keep being a good boy and play along.
He breathes in and makes a smile appear on his face by thinking happy thoughts: "Hey Graham", he says while extending an hand. "Jack, Patch in costume, generalist thinker. I'm not gonna dig into your story but I'd like to know what you can do?"

Heating Up

Somehow, the fight was over. Fire still raged in the building that had been attacked and Snap caught a mention of the fire brigade being en route. The immediate threats diminished or gone, she found herself able to take some deep breaths and gradually bring herself back into the moment. It had been years since she last had such a severe panic attack - her first time being tear-gassed in a protest - and the experience left her ashamed. Rationally, she knew that was rubbish: she'd been thrust into an extremely violent scenario with fairly minimal training and time to prepare, it was a perfectly human reaction to such immense stress. It didn't really change her emotions, however, only added anger at herself on top of it.

Rising to her feet, she took a final deep breath and got out of the van. Vanguard seemed to have taken it upon himself to enter the building to presumably begin rescue operations. Carefully, Snap approached the building. "Vanguard?" She asked over the comms. "You find anyone? Need help?" Her voice quavered slightly but she forced herself onward - not yet entering the building but ready to do so. Fire. Fire she could handle. Well, she would handle it; had to, she thought, pushing her fears down.

Amateur Psychologist

Ji Yu tried to quietly keep to herself after her cowardice. None of the others made any immediate comments and she was relieved that she had some time to work through her thoughts. Was she really cut out for this job? It would certainly involve more danger and potentially even bigger threats into the bargain. It wasn't impossible she'd freeze up again on any of those occasions. She supposes it really was a lot like being an emergency responder: dashing off into danger at the drop of a hat to save lives. Framed that way, though, she felt even less up to the task - those people were heroes.

As she was mulling things over, she noticed Jack approach her. She thought the guy looked a little awkward and could guess why he was there. And yep, there it was. In fairness, his question seemed genuine and Ji Yu was touched despite her lack of enthusiasm for discussing the matter. "Hey, Jack," she said, tiredly. "Honestly? I don't even know." Summoning up some bravery, she glanced around and lowered her voice a little. "I mean, how do you guys do it? You saw the same chaos I did, right? I just... couldn't. And who knows what happening to CJ..." She trailed off, shuddering a little. There was still limited information regarding their teammate and that was frightening in its own way.

"That could've been any of us, y'know?" She continued after a moment. "All it took was her being out of sight for a few minutes and bam! she's gone." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I wasn't really there, Jack." Ji Yu eyed her colleague, trying to get a sense of what he thought, how he saw her now.

New Kid in Class

Ji Yu listened to the Director quietly, sitting off to the side. She focused on the new information, mentally brushing past the mention of the events of the day before. She knew that Sanderson was being practical but it still felt cold to be replacing CJ so quickly. This was a world that had little time for sentiment. Among the last things she wanted to do was interact with a lot of people, especially someone even newer than the others.

Graham turned out to be a little insensitive but it didn't seem malicious and, besides, Ji Yu was in no place to be throwing stones. She looked away, pretending to study her finger nails for imperfections. The others made various introductions but she was in no mood to make small talk and be friendly and welcoming. She stayed where she was and listened instead.

On the Way to the Team Meeting

"What else do you call someone who wants to install upgrades in your minions?" Jenny teased gently, playfully slapping Patch lightly on the arm. She was clearly preening under the compliment. "As for the leadership position... it just seems Josie is a better fit. It's pretty hard to compete with someone who can do three things at once." There were other reasons of course. Josie was more photo-genetic, had a more interesting power and was a girl. But all of that was personal preference and not something she should bring up for a decision like this. Besides she felt it was pretty inevitable she'd get the job anyway.

Alpha Girl looks at her minions dubiously. "I wish I knew. I've never had more than two before. I'm kind of worried about it..."

Heating Up

Vanguard breaks through the door with ease, weathering the flames that roll out with ease, as you enter you see that most of what seems to be a small apartment is in flames but the cries for help are coming from a closet on the far side of the room that is not in flames... yet. As the people in the closet hear you they pull it open a bit and look out, it seems to be an older teenage girl with a younger preteen girl that looks to be her sister.

The young women run to you as you near them babbling at you in a mixture of Spanish and English begging you to help them. It takes a few seconds but you manage to calm them down enough to ferry the both of them down and out of the building with only a few burns and some smoke inhalation. The medics that are arriving as you get them out manage to take them and start to help them with a mixture of burn treatment and oxygen. As you're turning to leave you catch the youngest one giving you a weak wave from her gurney in the ambulance with an oxygen mask strapped to her face.

Materialized Arm of the Law

Spoiler: OOC

Show

You can't make one from diamond. The health insurence covers normal arms and in turn will cover one you make if it is the same or similar cost. Essentially you can make a slightly better arm for no cost but giving the pair of you a nice IC moment or you can shell out the money from the fund to make a better arm which you can run by me. No diamond though, that would be crazy expensive.

Cams, Cams Everywhere!

The guard shrugs "Well I don't know the in depth technical details, Dragon does and maybe one or two of the scientists. However as far as not being hacked you can't access the footage except from a PRT approved computer, which are only in the various HQ's, and you need an approved account which all have passwords that change daily and are questions that re specific to each person based of off in depth background checks. We run the background checks every six months and the info is run through the AI's of the home city and any suspicious changes are flagged for us to check out. Any attempts to hack in would be immediately fought against and would instantly warm Dragon who would take a personal hand in the matter, this however only counts for normal hacking and not any special tech powers. However any capes with powers that would want to help them would need to get to a linked computer first, which in turn means breaking into HQ and I'd like to see them try." the guard grins and pats his side arm with confidence.


Cooling Down

The CSI unit arrives within the hour and start to set up around the sight of the blood and have some other members screening the surrounding area for clues. They preserved the site while taking samples of the blood and surrounding area but could not find any unique footprints or any biological samples. The unit stayed for most of the day, keeping the team informed the entire time, and spent the time casing the place an searching for anything that could help the investigation but could not find anything.

Twisted Nightmares

The console quickly answers you call "Is everything all right Alpha Girl what's the problem?" they listen to describe the situation before they calm down, the officer on duty calls one of the on staff R&D and they say you can come in to check on the new minions but if they follow you commands like the others then to not worry to much for now.

New Kid on the Block

The director sighs "Look guys I know its been a rough start and Spook is missing but it's not Grahams fault, no matter how tactless he is, so take it easy on him. We're keeping up the search right now but it seems like she has completely disappeared off the face of the earth, we'll update you if we find anything. Local and provincial forces are investigating the disappearance so hopefully she'll turn up soon." Director Sanderson wipes her hand under her baggy eyes and sighs.

Her face hardens though "Moving on for now. You will need to keep up your patrol schedules, with Graham joining Echo and Patch, but start planning some active raids or missions against some of the gangs in the city, we need to show we're still a force in the city."

Spoiler

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I'm excited to see what the teams next step is! :smallsmile:

Amateur Psychologist

Quote:

---

"Honestly? I don't even know."

---

Jack forces himself to send a reassuring smile and puts a hand on Ji Yu's shoulder and gives it a squeze before he removes it. His vaguely remembers from his side studies on human psychology that physical contact released endorphines in the brain that helped people who were feeling bad.

Quote:

---

"Hey, Jack," she said, tiredly. "Honestly? I don't even know." Summoning up some bravery, she glanced around and lowered her voice a little. "I mean, how do you guys do it? You saw the same chaos I did, right? I just... couldn't. And who knows what happening to CJ..." She trailed off, shuddering a little. There was still limited information regarding their teammate and that was frightening in its own way.

"That could've been any of us, y'know?" She continued after a moment. "All it took was her being out of sight for a few minutes and bam! she's gone." She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I wasn't really there, Jack." Ji Yu eyed her colleague, trying to get a sense of what he thought, how he saw her now.

---

"Honestly it's pretty dang scary." He admits genuinely, shivering at the thought of her scream. "I have no idea what happened and what really gets me is that I probably could have made counter meassures to whatever happened if I knew what it was!" His frustration and sadness are obvious.

"As to how I think everybody have different reasons. Robert and Josie might just be like that, wanting to save other people, idk. I'm not sure about Jenny. For myself I have something more important than myself that I need to do and being successfull here is the only way I know how to." He manages to finish the sentence before memories of why he has ended up in this misserable situation flashes on his inner eye. He sighs and turns his attention outwards: "Why did you join the PRT?" He asks spontaneously, realizing something he adds: "If it's private you don't have to tell."

On the way to the team meeting

"For your money" Patch responds with a wink. He consider her words and does his best to see whether it seems like she's leaving something out or not. "You don't really need to do too many things at once to tell other people what to do though. And we don't yet know the personalities of her doubles yet, I don't know if they are all suited to be a leader. Also what happens if two Echo's give different orders?" Patch thinks out loud, eyeing Jenny to see her reaction when lightly pushed.

"Huh? Interesting. I wonder whether your power is innately capable of producing more minions or... Well, if two is good then four must be double, right?"

Materialized arm of the law

Spoiler: OOC

Show

In that case I don't really know how to interpret "any special prosthetics will cost extra ending up about a few hundred at max."
Any particular material you feel like roflcoptor?

Heating Up

I've got one victim inside. Vanguard said in response to Snap's query over the radio. She might have been able to bypass the door, but she wasn't in any position to help.I'm going in. Vanguard pulled the door off from its hinges and entered. He scooped them both up with his left arm, and proceeded to carry the girls out of the building. After he handed them over to the EMTs, he slumped down to the ground. He barely registered what was going on around him, but he looked up and waved back in response to the young girl.

Materialized Arm of the Law

Err.. Robert was taken aback at Patch mentioning his probation conditions. I'm not sure if the Director would be happy if I asked for diamond. Couldn't we just use aluminum for a skeleton? Aluminum's a good metal, I've worked with it before. It's light for its strength so it shouldn't cause any strain. And then maybe carbon fiber for the panels? He stood there for a moment, his desire to be polite was competing with his concern. So when you say you can't work with people. Your stuff doesn't have any... side effects, right?

New Kid on the Block

Robert had enough decency to look ashamed at the Director's chastisement. He stood up and offered his good hand to the newcomer. Robert Cunningham, Vanguard in costume. It's good to have you with us.

Director. With all due respect, I don't think it would be a good idea for us to go out on patrol today. He put his coffee down on the table and looked up at the director. It's clear that there are a lot of problems with how we responded yesterday. I put a guy in the hospital for Christs sake. Robert spoke the last part with obvious distaste. It was clear that what happened to Wind Fist weighed on Robert's mind.I think we need a breather, do some training or team building or something. I'm new to this whole business, so I don't know what the best approach would be.

Cooling Down

Alpha Girl felt rather detached from the entire situation. It was an consequence of her power really. She told her minions to attack the enemy and they did it. She told her minions to try and rescue the people in the building and they did it. Poorly, but they did. She got no feedback from them, there was no consequence for her for their successes or failures. Fire and forget. She might as well be back at base at the console for all the involvement she personally had.

Still there were things she could do here. She didn't have any knowledge of crime scenes or anything like that. She was a PR Queen, devoting her life to looking good and gathering fame and adulation like a dragon gathers gold. She couldn't do anything for working out the next step... but she could at least walk around a bit while they did the work. Talk to people gathering at the edges of the crime scene, giving a few statements so they wouldn't worry too much, upping their reputation a bit. It wasn't much, but it was her and that was enough.

On the Way to the Team Meeting

"Echo still seems the best fit to me. I like her. Power envy aside," Jenny shrugged. "Seriously her power is a PR goldmine. I'd be lying if I said that didn't play a part, having a leader that's popular is important, but I like her and she seems to know what she's doing. Not like me. My pets freak me out a little, to be honest," she frowned at the four trailing at her sides. "I can command them and all, but there's a lot I don't know about them. Plus they have a very hateable face." She considers a moment expressing that she occasionally brutal destroys them with her bare hands for stress release and to get them to stop freaking looking at her like that, but even if they were just meat puppets to her that seemed like something even Patch with his whole Dr. Frankenstein thing going on might find disturbing.

New Kid on the Block

"Seconded. I don't have a costume good for public with the new ones," Jenny idly gestured with her head to the pets. Screw it, sexy shepherd it was. Just had to get those sheep costumes refitted and her old outfit loosened on the bust and arms a bit. It'd be a fair bit shorter on her now than it was back then, but that was probably a good thing. Ugh the PR department was going to take ages to sort this out, she was texting Mom.

"Fashion emergency, I... I think I understand." I held out a hand for a second before thinking better of it. She seemed busy texting. That was an interesting thing to say about a hero. Never thought I'd need to wait for that. Either way, not the main point.

"What do I do?" I repeated. "I shoot things with my... well beams. I would show you but I got in trouble last time I took out a light. Works better the more I hit someone, yada yada," I spun back to Vanguard, "don't worry about the hospital thing, I have a tendency to do that too. Can't really control how hard these things," I held up my hand and started charging a silver beam to show off, "hit." I dismissed the charge.

"Look in terms of going on patrol, I'm eager, and at the same time we still need to establish that the PRT is back in Miami. Maybe we don't go after anything BIG, but we need to represent the people out there, take down a mugger or two, tell the kids not to do drugs, kick women off street corners, all that jazz." I knew the police still existed, but we still handled petty crime sometimes, right? The heroes had done that back in Seattle but- well I

God Alpha girl was young, was she even going to pick up the 'all that jazz' reference? Did I need to jump to something more modern? Snapchat? Skype? ****, was skype new? Mom used it so it must have been pretty old at this point and...

New Kid in Class

The director listens to Robert as he talks and graces as she hears the end,"Robert I know you feel bad about Wind Fist but the job foes mean that sometimes people get hurt and we're the one who do the hurting. No one likes it but it's a reality we have to accept when both sides are running around with powers."

The women stops and looks around at the group of heroes, both old and new before continuing "However you do have a point about taking the day, we'll postpone continuation of duties until tomorrow. For today you should all get to know your newest teammate and get in some training."

Echo raises her hand and nods to the director "I think Vanguard is right and we should take a day, I'd like to maybe get some combat instructors in today for a few lessons. As far as making ourselves known in the city we do have Alpha Girls interview going for us. It looked like a big hit for us."

She then smiles at Graham "Sorry about that I'm Josie Reynolds, Echo in costume. It's nice to meet you. Welcome to the team and I'm happy to see a new addition to our team, not just a replacement for C.J who hopefully you'll get to meet very soon."

The director stays for another few minutes to answer any more questions for the group but soon leaves you for your devices. Josie turns to Jack and nudges him with her elbow. "Hey Jack I actually wanted to talk to you about some gear for the team if we have the time. I was thinking some protective gear or somethkng along those lines for Ji Yu, Jenny, and yourself."

Spoiler

Show

Sorry guys busy weekend and my computor is beine held together with duct tape right now.

I'm not losing any sleep over Wind Fist. Robert explained. The a**hole had just been standing back and laughing while Pyro attacked those people. Ha paused for a moment, struggling with how everyone had responded. It seemed that the Director and Josie were trying to make him not guilty. It wasn't unappreciated, but Robert was frustrated with his failure to get his point across. As for Graham... the man seemed to have a casual acceptance of violence that made Robert feel uneasy. I didn't explain myself well. My point is that I didn't choose to do that to him. It was an accident. He could have landed funny and broke his neck instead. I don't know how to incapacitate someone safely when I'm using my power.

He thought about for a moment, before turning in his chair to look at Echo Can I borrow Force later? It might be good if I can try to practice with someone at my own strength.

I have something I need to get done. Robert said. He got up from the chair, before looking over at the team. He wasn't aware of the conversation between Jack and Ju Yi, so as far as he knew, no one had taken steps to try to recover from yesterday. Anyone want to meet up for lunch today? He tried to make it sound casual. I saw a nice looking Italian place a couple of blocks away from HQ. I know we can't talk shop off base, but I'd like to have the chance to get to know you all better. He made a note of looking at Graham when he said that, to make sure he felt included.

Checking In

Robert fumbled with his costume in the storage room. He grabbed the helmet, and took it under his arm. He looked for an unused conference room in the protectorate building. He ducked inside, closed the door and put on the helmet. He picked up the phone on the desk, and dialed the number for Mercy Hospital. Once he reached reception, he turned on the voice synthesizer in the helmet to protect his identity. I am the Protectorate Hero Vanguard. He was startled by how easily how referred to himself with that name. There were two latina girls that were brought to your hospital after the incident yesterday. I... I wanted to know how they were doing.

Team Lunch

Robert sat at a table in the cafe at Salumeria 104. The place was clean, and the pictures of sandwiches and pasta on the menu outside had looked appetizing. Maybe it was the job getting to him, but he picked a table with clear access to the fire exit. He wasn't sure how many people would take him up on his invitation, or if anyone would care to. People responded to stress in different ways. For Robert, a chance to get away from the source of stress always helped him feel recharged. To pass the time, Robert looked up at the news displayed on the t.v. in the corner.

Heating Up

Snap could only listen and then watch as Vanguard saved the children. It did little for her confidence that even now, with the fighting done, she was useless. Why, oh why couldn't she have stepped out of the van? Just snapped over to clear some civilians out of harm's way or something?

She knew she should probably go and give Vanguard some emotional support but couldn't find the energy. Dejected, she did her best to stay out of the way as her colleagues and the various city professionals did the real work of rescue and clean-up. How was she going to face her teammates?

Amateur Psychologist

While it was nice that someone was still willing to talk to her, Ji Yu was surprised when Jack squeezed her shoulder. She knew it was supposed to be reassuring but it was pretty familiar for someone she'd only known for such a short time. Deciding to brush past it for the moment, she listened as he expressed his own concerns about the job and frustrations about whatever had happened to CJ. She nodded, grimacing briefly in sympathy.

His comments about their teammates force Ji Yu to suppress a wince - she'd yet to really talk to any of them. Sure, they'd gotten into the thick of it and done a good job but that didn't mean they were doing well. They could be just as stressed as she'd been, or more, and able to handle it better in the heat of the moment. She knew she'd have to talk to them... just later.

"Why'd I join?" She gave a rueful laugh, shaking her head and looking away. "'Atonement', I suppose. Try to make up for what I'd done. Up until yesterday, it felt like I got off lightly. Now? It's sinking in, y'know? I'm expected to run into danger. Stop the bad guys. Save the day." She looked back at Jack. "I want to stay and get through... or over this," she added, gesturing vaguely, "but I'm struggling to work out how..."

New Kid in Class

Despite herself, Ji Yu perked up when Robert mentioned getting lunch together. It would be a way to unwind and maybe even get to know the others but a niggling part of her brain made her wonder how welcome she'd still be. True, Jack had been supportive and no one had admonished her at all yet but was that the same as forgiving and moving on? She wondered if she'd feel better if they just yelled at her for a while... Probably not.

Any other day, she'd have jumped at the offer and likely tried to make a few jokes about splitting the bill by now. Today wasn't any other day, though, it was the day after she'd let everyone down. The day after CJ had gone missing. The day that they'd found someone to replace their teammate - they could phrase it differently but that's how it felt.

Finally raising her eyes, she looked around at the group, doing her best not to stare. From the little she'd interacted with them, they were fairly decent people. Maybe getting a bite to eat with them would be okay.

Team Lunch

Based on the directions Robert had provided, Ji Yu found the restaurant easily enough. She'd yet to try any of the local establishments and this one looked nice. She ran her eye over the menu before entering. The gnocchi sounded good.

Once inside, she quickly spotted Robert and, with a small smile that might not quite have reached her eyes, made her way over to the table. "So. Is it assigned seating or can I just perch wherever?"

The materialized arm of the law

A brief image of his grandmother's sick face appears on his inner eye and Patch's fist momentarily tightens and a look of guilt flashes on his face. He looks down at the advanced equiptment on the table beside him and takes a moment to steady himself.

"No, no side effects." He responds after a moment in a neutral tone. "The PRT just used sloppy police work to force me to work here. And to appear like the good guys they framed me as the bad guy and put restrictions on me." He says, only the faintest of bitterness slipping through his defences. He sighs, "Or maybe they are just limiting my options so they have some carrots to give me. A tactical move I probably could be appreciative of if the situation was different." He adds looking thoughtful.

"Anyway" He says with a head shake: "Sure, let's do aluminium and carbon fiber. Both good materials. "

Amateur Psychologist

Jack is a little suprised that they would put two probationary members on the same team. Wasn't that super risky with the chance of them ganging together? Was this a test that he wouldn't try to convince Ji Yu to try to escape? Were she in reality just acting because the PRT had told her to? She had been doing nothing during the combat right? Had they tried to bait him into reaching out to her because she was the most vulnerable member and then handed him an opportunity on a silver plate? Cute, but he was one step ahead of them.

Jack nods in understanding. "I don't think I can tell you anything that suddenly can make it easier to fight. I guess training can help you but at least remember why you joined next time we're in combat." he says with a friendly smile, not letting any of his thoughts shine through.

On the way to team meeting

Jack is a little displeased with how Jenny neglected to adress any of his arguments and finds her arguments weak at best. Who cared if a leader were appreciated by the public or liked if they were shouting contradicting orders while fire was being thrown at the group?

"I don't think they look particularly hateable. Why do they freak you out?", Patch asks deciding to let the leader conversation rest for now.

New Kid on the block

"What's your range like?" is the first question in a longer sequence of questions that Patch asks Graham, trying to understand how his power works.

"Director? Can you find someone who can teach me how to shoot this thing? It went fine yesterday but I would feel a lot better if I weren't just winging it." Patch asks gesturing towards the case with UTME written with white letters.

Patch takes a step back when touched. "It's possible but you'll need to be a little more specific. Protection against what and how? I personally think that reinforcing our bones so something like what happened to Wind Slap didn't happen to us but that's not allowed." He manages to say without it sounding like a complain. "On the topic of tools and trinkets I think the counter measure against Insight has top priority and I expect to start that later today. One of your alter egos suggested something to make us flying and I think that's an excellent idea. I also think that throat mics would be a huge advantage so we can talk without being overheard while in combat, sorta like we all had telepathy." He does not share the other reason that he thinks that throat mics would be good for the team, hoping that this would be enough to convince the group.

"Thanks but I'll skip on this one" Patch responds to Robert. "Don't think I'll have enough time today to do a long lunch. On the topic of being outside on the streets you should all remember what happened yesterday. We just took down two members of Shining Path and chances are they're looking to retaliate" He leaves the warning hanging.

New kid on the Block

'Sorry, I misunderstood then.' Echo nodded at Vanguard's explanation of what was bothering him.
'But I think I understand what you mean. When I'm Force, I have to constanty temper myself or I'll break things and hurt people. I wrecked my boots when I tried to batter down Barricade's wall, ripped right through the soles and dug my toes into the pavement.'

'Anything I can do to help.' She said when Robert asked to 'borrow' Force, then thought for a moment.
'I think we should start somekind of training rotation where we each spar against each other. We'll eventually be facing a lot of parahumans, so might as well train against each other to get as versatile as we can, right?'

'Director, would it be possible to get some hand to hand trainers in by tomorrow morning? I think we'll all feel a lot better if we know more about the basics when we get into another scrape. And starting sooner would be better than later.'

'Sorry.' Josie said when she saw Patch flinch at her touch. She briefly wondered what the story there was, but she kept the questions to herself. He'd share if and when he felt like it.
'I don't realy know what kind of protection. Anything to improve on what you have now I guess. I'm hoping it'll help people at least feel a bit safer and might help everybody feel a bit less trepedation about combat. I know I would feel better at least.'
She shrugged and smiled at Patch's mention of an alter ego
'I asked about flying. I know it's weird, but they're all me and I'm them. Only one who might be a bit different is maybe Sharp, because I'm smarter when I'm her. A lot smarter. But it's not that I don't understand what she knows and thinks of, it's just that when I'm her my brain is a lot faster, connects more dots and makes leaps more intuitively than when I'm me, Deft or Force.

'Insight is definitely top priority and the throat microphones sound good. Like I said before; You'll be the most valued member of the team before lomg.'

I'm hoping you can come up with something for additional protection, otherwise I might be able to think of something when I next split and can focus Sharp on the problem. Maybe we could bounce some ideas of each other when my brainpower gets a bit closer to yours?'

Team Lunch

Josie stepped into the restaurant and looked around, she spotted Vanguard, Robert, and Snap, Ji Yu, easily enough and made her way over to them. She made a conscious effort to switch mental gears and call them by their civilian names in her head. She had been told that making the destinction between cape and noncape life was a good practice to get into as soon as possible.
'Hi Robert, Ji Yu' she started then floundered a bit, looking at the other two and the seats. She then gave a tiny shrug and said
'I usually hug people I know hello when I see them, I'm not much for the kissing hello thing. But not everybody likes the familiarity, so I'll just ask: how do you usually greet people? Just so I don't mess up.'

Spoiler

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all i have time for. I skipped a few scenes for now, Had to choose. But i think i got the two most important ones for me to weigh into for now.

New Kid in Class



"Well um thanks," I said to pretty much everyone once they switch their tone. It wasn't the greatest that the director needed to tell them to play nice, but whatever, better than nothing. Plus a Lunch!

"I can shoot about 300 feet," I told Jack before he moved to asking the director. I gave her those puppy dog eyes. I could teach him! I could show him the world behind a scope and "What about me?" I suggested before I really thought about being behind a rifle again. Maybe I wasn't going to be allowed back there, I didn't know.

Team Lunch"

"Well um," I started on the side of the street that I SWORE the place was supposed to be on. It wasn't across the street either. Dammit. What was the app that I needed to call a car to bring me places? Umbra? **** if I knew. All I knew was that I shouldn't have insisted in walking in a city I'd been in for a total of three hours. "****."

Late. Awesome.

New Kid In Class

The Director purses her lips as Robert explains himself "Fair enough, Force would be able to help you practice more then any of our forces we have on hand since they're not as tough." She then looks to the rest of the team as well "Well we have a list of retainers for anyone who wants to brush up their skills, though Graham may be able to help you out with your shooting Jack, and I'll send you all a list with the contact info for them. They've all had background checks and are vetted every 6 months but you should all still wear your masks when they come around. We do have several hand to hand experts that specialize in various fighting styles for those who want it."

Check In

The women on the other end of the phone sounds a little surprised at having a hero on the line "Ohhh hello sir. Yes I can check up on them for you just give me a second... here we are. Yes Sofia and Mariana Valquez were checked in for smoke inhalation and some light burns. They seem to be recovering just fine and should be out of here within a day or two, would you like their room number to call or visit?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Like all the back and forth between everyone! :smallsmile: Keep up the awesome roleplaying and I'm going to roll a possible random outcome for the disappearance of a hero and the arrival of another in the city.

New kid on the block

"It's fine" Patch shrugs, clearly contradicting his previous moment.

Patch frowns when Josie mentions her echos being the same person: "That.. That doesn't really add up. During the fight one of you told another of you what to do, that doesn't make sense if they all think the same way."

"Sure, I can come up with something for additional protection." He sinks into deep thoughts for a moment and after some quick calculations he speaks up: "I've got an idea for something that would make us pretty save against most capes but we don't have the budget for both that and the counter-meassure against Insight, so we'd have to wait for next month for it." He then turns to the director: "Unless the PRT feels generous after we caught two villains on the first day and a member was taken down." He felt sort of guilty from using spooks disappearance like that but he too would feel a lot better if he wasn't going to die from a stray bullet.

He looks at Graham trying to figure out what the new member feels about the prospect of teaching a rookie to shoot a rifle.

Mad Scientist and his unnatural creations

Not long after the team meeting screams of death and agony loud noises of indistinguishable origin can be heard from lab 2b as the sleep-derived idealist begins the dissection for parts to his frankenstonian creations. It never felt really good to do this sort of work, he though as he with precise movements cut the donor open. There was a lot of things that felt really good about it but the feeling were always muddied by the fact that he was destroying something and that he sorta was cheating by not making his creations from scratch but merely was stitching pieces together from various donors.

Spoiler: OOC

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The is just fluff. None of it is incorrect, at least strictly speaking. Patch is beginning the creation of Sir II: Creation.

Spoiler: OOC:

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My apologies for the delay

The Materialized Arm of the Law

Robert knew that Jack was on probation, but he wasn't familiar with the details. Jack's view towards the PRT was still startling. Do you want to be here? Work as a hero? Robert asked curiously.

Checking In

Robert breathed a sigh of relief, which would have been audible over the phone. That's... good to hear He was bewildered by the nurse's suggestion. Visiting in person? That seemed like something... well, that someone else should do. Someone's who presence would mean something. If you could give me the room number, that would be appreciated. I just want to wish them my best

Team Lunch

Although Robert noticed Jack's absence, he was still pleased with the turnout from the people that were present. Hey, I'm glad you can make it! Robert said when Ju Yi entered. He gestured to the whole table. Sit wherever you want.

He couldn't help but chuckle at Josie. She seemed to be quite different out of costume. It was shocking to see the defacto team leader so unsure of herself, considering she faced down a group of rampaging villains yesterday. Do whatever feels comfortable. He said. Where I come from, people just say hello, but let it never be said that I'm not willing to try something new. He smiled and joked. Just don't get too friendly in front of my wife!


Realizing that Graham hadn't shown up, Robert wasn't sure what to do. He had left his PRT issued phone back at Headquarters. That probably wasn't a smart idea, in retrospect. Can any of you text Graham? It's getting late

While they waited for the last person to show up, Robert ordered an onion soup to start. Was onion soup Italian? Robert wasn't sure. He settled comfortably, and turned to look at Ju Yi. So what did you do before you moved to Miami?As far as Robert was concerned, the fact that they couldn't talk about 'work' was a bonus, as far as he was concerned.