Where Does the Time Go? (IC)

[lostsole31]

Mr. Ourobouros

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"Yes, counselor, that's when I said to the man who said he was a doctor, '...touch me.'"

The lawyer had a grave countenance, and understanding the embarrassment that might result with a less diplomatic means, he holds a Mr. Ourobouros action figure. "Could you please show the court where he touched you?"

Janos, humiliated and guilty, points to the part on the doll where he was touched .... looking away and crying at the same time.

He thinks for a second as he weaves magical power with his hands and incants in a strange tongue, and then he touches Mr. Ourobouros on the chest near the heart.

There is a few seconds of reeling and spinning, even nausea as Mr. O's world is turned topsy-turvy. After several seconds of his equilibrium furiously trying to self-correct, you get on your feet like a bad rubber band.

Mr. Ourobouros is now standing outside on the ground, and obviously in some abandoned industrial place, now mostly rusted over but still structurally sound. (Think of classic non-descript, run-down, action movie industrial area ... and you'll have the concept.)

Outside of the fence line of this side of the 'building' you see lush vegetation. You must be on the other side of the world or something, well outside of your own time zone, for the sun shines brightly and warmly here. There are some clouds in the sky, but they are more attractive and interesting in shape than any kind of stormclouds. The air has a sweet smell to it .... jasmine? hibiscus? You were never very good with scents.

Intuition alone drives you. There is nothing visible outside, so you figure you'd have to find something inside this old place.

Just as Mr. Ourobouros is about to cross the threshhold into the massive opening (y'know, those big hangar-door like things to the industrials space beyond, like a big warehouse?) ....

Whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack-a-whack!

Something hits Mr. O in the back, side, chest, back, side, chest, back, side, and chest again with impossible speed ... and he thinks he sees a figure there going around him with barely more than a blur. A blur, that is, that pops him for 35 STUN after your amazing defenses. He gets pounded prone by this onslaught. And even with his superhuman constitution, he is soundly STUNNED. It's not that he was hit by one BIG whallop that might normally do that, but he was machine-gunned by countless punches all around him that seemed to land nearly simultaneously.

"Wheeeeeeee!" calls a girl or a young woman's voice.

This surprise burst of activity over, his super-recovery kicks in and though he is still stunned, he gets back 20 of those STUN points.

T1S2D33: Before the amazingly fast Mr. Ourobouros even has a chance to clear his head to speak or anything (stunned), something grabs him by the arm and spins about so unspeakably fast that Mr. O loses his equilibrium and suffers 6 points of DEX!

T1S2D30: Mr. O begins trying to recover from being stunned.

T1S3D33: "Whooaaa!" sounds the girl's/woman's voice, impressed like she's looking at cool fireworks or something .... her voice sounds like someone speaking very close to a table fan.

"I'm impressed. You haven't lost your lunch yet! You must be feeling pretty sore by now, so I'll help you go beddy-bye, Mr. Ourobouros!"

Great, comes your slurring and difficult thoughts, she knows your na--

And as you try to finish the thought "name." ... you hear more whackity-whack-whack-whack---- and the lights go out as you are physically beaten into the ground, making a crater.

You wake up, having managed to sleep off during recovery.

You find yourself in a very big ... you guessed it, industrial style space complete with louvered floors. You are at the large hub that goes to four extensions, each of which are large in their own right, and you only see past the doorways, not the entire room, but you can tell from the outer walls that each is relatively sizeable.

On one end is a bank of computers with several smaller and two larger screens, all showing different things on them, and a very high-backed chair turned towards the screens.

On the opposite side appears to be all manner of arcane and occult knick-knacks from all over the world, but mostly Asian. You don't recognize the vast majority of the small bit you see, but it already is to your credit that you do recognize some, mostly various healing or charm (warding) objects such as you'd see being sold from peddlers of magic in Chinatown that actually have the "real thing."

To a lateral side is what appears to be part of a large ... laboratory? with all sorts of "chemistry stuff." (Best you can figure.)

The really, truly mind-boggling is the last space. You see a bamboo forest bathed in warm sunlight. That's right. Sunlight. And there is something in your intuition that makes you think that the top of the large space's outer shell is NOT the top of the internal. Well, there you have it. You are now in Weird 101.

Oh, and did I mention? You find yourself in some sort of cage made of light or something in the middle of it all. There is a very, very old man in an equally venerable wheelchair that sits staring at you. There's something about that stare that doesn't seem right. Something that gives you the feeling that he is either dead .... or catatonic. The gaping mouth surely doesn't help.

And on his lap sits that black cat. That cat, on the other hand, has a very sharp focus on you, and it is quite unsettling. The man seems to see nothing in the now, regardless of death or catatonia, but the cat seems to see nothing but you - as if inside and out.

Maybe you get ready to speak, but ... (here we have to wait for Bill)
.............................................

The Cloak

Despite Springbok's greater speed, Donovan surmises that it would risk further injury to Whisper if Springbok tried to carry both of you the way either of you would be held. Better that the mortally wounded be ladled in the big man's arms while he moves at much more modest speed (which is still impressive by mortal standards).

As if by some miraculous stroke of luck ... and good luck is hard to find in Cloak's life ... the two of you travel maybe a few hundred yards before you notice a building that looks like a combined home/ office. The most inviting words you've ever seen:

"Gammon, Niles A., M.D., TCM
Family Practitioner & Acupuncturist".

All of this on a small but brightly lit sign outside of this structure .... in the middle of nowhere, without having passed any sign of a town (neither a road-sign sign, nor a signs-of-life/population sign). You're not sure of the time, but it is easily in the o'dark hours of the morning. There is a porch structure, and there is a slight orange-red glow on the dark portion of the porch that appears briefly and then goes away. You have no idea what that is.

"No way," says Springbok with relief. "Could we have been any luckier? Hell, we don't even have to wake anyone up. There's a suit on the porch smoking a cigarette."

"Good evening!" calls the voice on the porch, one that decidedly has an attractive, humble, British accent. "Out for an evening jog, gentlemen? Oh, my, is that man hurt? Bring him here right away!"

Before Donovan even has a chance to stop Springbok, the big palooka turns and speeds to the porch. In doing so, Springbok sets off the security lights ... not obnoxious ones, mind you, but enough to light up the area even so.

The man steps forward on the porch to where you can see him easily enough. He is an unidentifiably-Asian man. About 5'8"-ish or so, slender figure. He is dressed in a nice suit and tie, impeccably dressed, with a nice hat. In fact, his mannerisms and custom tailored suit seem to be right out of a movie of men in business suits from the 1930s/1940s .... back when men had class and hats were in style. He has a thin-line tattoo of a dragon or snake of some kind coming up from his neck to include some of the left side of his head/face (back from the cheek, but including the eye). It is not thickly colored, and as a thin-line there is still more skin than ink. the tatto continues up under his hat.

He doffs his hat in greeting, and you see he is perfectly bald. The tattoo takes up the whole left side of his upper head. His demeanor, impeccable dress, his smooth skin and perfect lines betray what is a quite attractive man.

He calls out to Donovan, who is still in the dark of the non-streetlamp state highway road. "No need to stand out there, my friend."

He looks to the man just below the porch, the one held in Springbok's arms. "My, my, my. Gunshot wound to the head. That's speaks ill of someone who would do this to another, if you ask me. Bad breeding, no doubt."

Donovan, what do you do?

[BuckGodot]

Sometimes things have a tendency to be off putting.....Set your hackles off...make the hair on the back of your neck stand up....Does Donovan get any such vibe from this man? He is extremely wary right now and this seems just.....to good to be true......

Comeback. Let's bother someone else..... he says from the safety of darkness......

[lostsole31]

"The hell you say!" yells Springbok. "Stay out in the dark where you live if that suits you. But he's dying."

Dr. Gammon (presumably) motions for the big man and his precious cargo to go inside, which he does (and is now out of sight because he's in the building. He then looks out into the darkness searching for you, "Are you sure you will not come in, sir? You wouldn't want to be caught alone in the dark back-forests of the Garden State at this hour, would you? I'm sure you've heard of the New Jersey Devil.

"No, suit yourself..." and he turns to go inside.

[BuckGodot]

Donovan will follow.....Damn it.....

[lostsole31]

As you come into the light, the man says, "My word, but you do look like him. What is it that you call yourself?"

[BuckGodot]

Crane. Donovan Crane.....Wait.....What?

[lostsole31]

The man smiles and says, "Really? How ironic. The crane, in Chinese culture is a symbol of cleanliness and purity. I have a shower in here if you need one."

His voice now takes on a more mysterious, not quite accusatory, but definitely direct overtone. "Donovan, on the other hand, is not so simple. It is an English/Irish surname derived from an Irish surname which was derived from Ó Donndubháin meaning 'descendent of DONNDUBHÁN'. Composed of the Gaelic element donn "brown" combined with dubh "dark" and a diminutive suffix. And we have 'little dark brown guy.'

"You are not really little, though not very big. The brown I see is dirt. But you are dark, aren't you?

"And when we combine both names, you are so dark that the darkness within you is pure in its form, clean of anything remotely resembling anything other than entropy."

He immediately smiles again, his countenance fully friendly once more. "I guess your name aptly suits you, no? Please come in. You may shower and I can tend to your mostly-dead/ slightly alive friend."

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And no, Bill, bite your lip or post OOC, but you have never seen, nor yet heard of, the movie THE PRINCESS BRIDE. It's killing, isn't it, not to be able to return that one in character, isn't it? Mwu-hu-hahahaha!

[BuckGodot]

Donovan, desperately in need of a shower, will nod and look to Springbok......Keep alert, my friend..... before he goes where the man indicated, to freshen up....

[lostsole31]

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Per post #393, Springbok is already inside. But he might be able to hear it if you mutter that. You don't know the manner or the limit but Springbok bears the powers of many animals of Africa, and his array of senses are no less. Hopefully, he might hear you say that, but you don't know if his hearing is that good or not. Unless you say it as openly as you did in your post w/o noting a whisper or a mutter, in which you're pretty sure he must've heard it ... as did Dr. Gammon.

He leads you inside, and Springbok followed his intuition and went straight down the hallway to put Whisper on an operating table. As you come inside, Springbok simply nods as if in assent. Meanwhile, Doctor Gammon leads you to a shower. It's for patients, so it is more like a locker room shower than someone's personal rain locker. Still, there is a sandalwood incense stick sitting in front of a little buddha figurine on a tiny shelf to the side of the mirror. (It's not a medicine cabinet.)

He gives you a plush terry cloth towel, hangs a terry cloth robe up for you and sandals on the floor under the towel, and hands you soap, washcloth, hand towel, and some type of shampoo and conditioner. The latter two have Asian labels of some sort and he has to tell you which is which. You may have an excellent smattering of languages, but the only one that is remotely Asian is your fluent conversational Arabic, and that doesn't cut it. The fact that his name is "Gammon" and he speaks with a perfect, soft British accent doesn't help.

The overall feel of the place definitely seems to somehow promote a sense of peace and harmony. Just the way everything is placed seems at once efficient, and yet without the sterility of the same. (Though again, you are in a patient's shower, not a "home" shower, but still.)

Does Donovan give in, take a nice long warm/hot shower, scrub luxuriously (maybe sing a song in relaxation) and come out and dress in robe and sandals?

[BuckGodot]

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Sorry. Thought I had followed him in.

No. Donovan does not take a long luxurious shower....He will take a quick and efficient shower due to his concern for his fallen comrade......He will borrow the robe though......

[lostsole31]

When he finishes his shower, and he is still a little stiff for giving his body warm water but not letting his muscles soak, he opens the door to the bathroom.

But he's no longer in a doctor's home office.

He is standing on a metal-grated floor at some industrial area or something. Donovan just came out of a small metal 'office' that might just be a little smaller than you thought the bathroom was.

Through the grating of the floor, about 20' below, you see a fantastically old man in a wheelchair with a black cat on his lap. You also see Mr. Ourobouros in a forcecage of some sort ... but that cage is just dropping as you come out of the door. You also see Springbok milling about.

There is a pair of stairs that can take you down. There are also several other metal offices ringing a catwalk up on this level, and each leads to a central grate. Optionally, you could stay on the catwalk or move to the edge of the central grate and drop down .... 20' ... on a hard metal grate .... with a robe (regimental) .... and slippers.

Mr. Ourobouros, you don't hear the metal door upstairs open. However, a minute or two before, the big palooka popped in from the bamboo jungle with some unknown man with guns ... a couple smaller ones and one really big one. That second man looks like he's dead, shot in the cheek, but the old man casts what is obviously a spell .... the bullet pops out of the head, and the man stirs. The old man seemed to come to only as the palooka came out of the bamboo jungle.

Though Mr. O doesn't know of Donovan's presence (yet), the two of you are at least within sight again. The old man waves his hand, and the forcecage drops.

[BuckGodot]

Donovan will go back in the "closet" and look for his clothes......He'll change back into them if he finds them. Either way he'll make his way down to where the others are.....

[lostsole31]

He'll open up the closet, and there is a well-appointed bedroom there. There is a white-jacket tuxedo with everything needed for such garb (shoes, cummerbun, links, studs, etc. ... as well as a choice of undergarments) draped on the bed.

On the dresser are very expensive cigarettes, a humidor with fine cigars (including clip), and a two pipes with a selection of blends (as well as pipe nail/tamp) .... for those that like that tobacco sort of thing. There is also a small cart that has a small bottle of port (when you need something bracing) and a small decanter of scotch (single malt, 21 years old, for when you need something relaxing.

[BuckGodot]

What the.....Are they at least my size? he'll wonder before changing......

[lostsole31]

They are custom-tailored.

[BuckGodot]

Then he'll dress and head down to the others. After having a stiff drink of the bracing stuff.

[lostsole31]

Donovan, it's a very high-quality port wine. That said, if you don't like port, it doesn't matter.

Mr. Ourobouros, several minutes had gone by, and any verbal prompting you might have given the man failed ... and any check of the bars of this magical, glowing force are definitely well above your strength. (Hey, you're superhumanly strong, but far from brick-class strong.)

Still, the wizened old man finally snaps out of his state. He flutters his eyes, as if waking from a dream. Smiles at you, and out of the bamboo forest comes the 'rhino' with the man (as described above). The 'rhino' looks at you with intense distaste. His half-mask allows you to see facial expressions quite easily. He says nothing though, and you are entranced by this magical spell that the old man casts.

You're not sure of the culture or source of the spell. You're not sure if he brought this man from the brink of death, or from death itself. Either way, the man comes to and the rhino picks him up. This new player, one you never even saw in the battle, is 5' 11", and a very lean buck-fifty or so. His eyes are ice blue, and he is mostly bald, but with very fine white hair around the sides of his head (pattern balding). His pale skin and coloring make you figure he's probably an albino, but that makes placing his lineage extremely difficult.

The equipment carried in with him is impressive. In shoulder straps are a pair of large-caliber handguns with lots of clips attached to this type of cross-shoulder holster. You're not sure of what make those guns are, but you ARE sure that his main weapon is a Barrett Light .50 rifle with flash suppressor, silencer, and one hell of a scope. With a scope like that, you don't doubt it has DVR capabilities or can make a sandwich. On top of all this, he has lots of pouches of this or that on his belt, his jacket, and the like. He wears a basic gray-blue shirt, cinched with a bolo tie with turquoise as a centerpiece. He has a large belt buckle, wears faded blue jeans, cowboy boots (though no cowboy hat) with obvious side-sole protection for motorcycling, and he wears a half-duster reminiscent of the modern cowboy-style biker.

There is no doubt he is from the American West. There is no doubt he is a biker. There can be no doubt that this guy really, REALLY likes guns.

Once the new guy is fine, the rhino looks at Mr. Ourobouros in the cage and says "Well, you did what I failed to do. Looks like he's pretty caught. Not that smart after all, huh, Redeemer-Man?"

Then, to his surprise, the old man waves his hand and the forcecage is gone. Considering you were able to fight this guy to a relative draw before, the rhino holds his tongue to see what this is about.

The old man speaks. Though his voice quavers with age, it has such drawing power that nobody dare interrupt him.

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He speaks haltingly as well, with his age and breath, but I'm not going to try to mimic that with how I type his speech. Though his face is impossibly old and wizened, making his nationality nearly impossible to determine - Asian or Caucasion, hard to tell - his voice betrays a British-American mix.

"I must apologize for my grand-daughter's exuberant 'security.' She so rarely gets new playmates, and it was a great way to test exactly how 'invulnerable' you are. Don't be ashamed, Mr. Ourobouros, for you made a fine showing indeed.

"Welcome to the Redoubt. I am Professor Sang. This is my home. Time alone may tell if it might be your home as well, or if you wish to return from whence you came to being a model hero of Law and Good as a Redeemer.

"This honorable fighter here, whom it seems you fought quite admirably, is named Springbok. Aptly, he wears the green-and-gold of his native South Africa's rugby team. But his powers are all the strength, speed, savvy, and senses of Africa's most dangerous animals - including man. For his high agility and superhuman speed, they don't come close to your own. He is also quite capable of taking a hit, but his body is superhuman flesh ... not the Universe-bolstered darkmatter that protects you. Had he not been so surrounded and focused on trying to create a diversion for Cloak to escape, you would have had a different battle. Though far stronger than yourself, his fists do very little against you, but allow him to build up speed in open ground, and he will batter you like ten-pins.

"This man here is Whisper. He is a mutant and ex-Navy SEAL. Though his body is capable, his agility matches your own. Which by now you must know since your apotheosis that your agility nearly tops the chart of all known heroes except what we refer to as 'true speedsters.' However, as fast as his reflexes are, they simply cannot match your own, which likewise is one of the best in the world. But still, he is close, and his mutant dexterity and devoted training to gunplay makes him one of the most dangerous men ever to handle a firearm. Honestly, though, his true 'mutant power' is his diverse and disciplined skill set - from demolitions, to survivalist training, navigation, infiltration, and the like. Oh, yes, add to that some powers of telepathy that make him an outstanding interrogator."

Zipping into view so quickly that you were barely able to register motion, almost as if she simply appeared there (but for the whoosh of air from her motion, is an Asian girl in costume. She wears colored goggles of light pinkish hue over a pink domino mask, that flares to cyane on the side to attach to the ear. Though much of her hair is braided into a pony tail, it is still enough hair to cover the back of the mask. The mask does not go entirely down, as you can see her neck. Her full-body costume (starting at lower neck) is mostly pink, covering fully her left side and going over to the right. A good portion of the right side of her body is cyan, and there is a vague sawtooth pattern that goes up the entire inner right side of her body where both colors meet. She has a cyan belt with a thich pink pouch on her right side. She is 5'2", a slender 100 pounds (at the very most, and possibly less since her suit includes some protective padding), and smiles broadly. You can tell she is quite attractive, but you aren't sure of the age. ("But officer, she said she was 18!")

"Oh, no, my dear. I wasn't going to forget you. Mr. Ourobouros, this is my granddaughter, Synapse."

She says in a vivacious young voice (fully Americanized), "I hope I didn't hurt you too, bady, Mystery-O. I made sure I pulled my punches so I wouldn't do any real harm, and you sure took it better than anyone I know! You got my respect. Can we keep him, Grandfather?"

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Kinda' funky, because with her costume this girl and exuberance, this girl could be anywhere from 15-25, hard to tell, but no more. Meanwhile, this guy looks like Rip Manchu ... nearly impossibly old, but somewhere in his 90s! Grand-daughter? More like great-great-granddaughter.

"Being a true speedster, she is one of the few people in the world whose agility and speed exceed your own. You've already been the brunt of her hyperkinetic combat, based on scores of punches launched across the body while she moves. You also got to feel, I understand, her 'dizzying spin' where she simply spins you around until you lose your equilibrium.

"As you can guess, her mutant powers rely on fantastically fast movement. She doesn't try ramming things like Springbok, but she does alright. Unfortunately, she is still young and her powers can overwhelm her, causing her to burn out very early on in a combat. Standing still, she is extremely vulnerable. As long as she can keep moving, however, the super-friction that builds up around her body can protect her far better than even Springbok's tough hide, yet still far below your own shell. She has further to go with her studies, but she is beginning to show some real talent for computers and mathematics; not quite fully developed, but solid potential. Meanwhile, her speed makes her even better at stealth than Whisper, and her ability to move her limbs so quickly as to barely be detected makes her great at .... shall we say .... legerdemain?

"I would like to invite you to a formal dinner. If you go up those stairs and into what appears to be a small closet. That one there. See? Good. Well, go in there and you shall find a well-appointed room, full bath, and some clothes to make up for what are likely torn up civilian clothes. Please come dressed appropriately - everyone out of costume or form, that is - and my black cat familiar here will call on each of you when it is time to serve dinner."

Mr. Ourobouros, you may well be overwhelmed by everything. Do you start counter-grilling with questions now? or, do you see how this plays out, go upstairs and enjoy a much-needed hot shower (being KO'd does NOT equal having slept, and it's been a long day), get dressed in whatever this nutjob has, and attend dinner .... in the vulnerable form of Janos Gehlewaht?

[srgonzo]

Dinner sounds great, but I would like to have an opportunity to shower and sleep. If you don't mind, I'll go ahead and attend dinner as myself, rather than as an avatar of Balance. Sure, it's a villain trope, but if you'd wanted to kill me, I'd be dead already, right?

[lostsole31]

The old man leans forward the very little bit that his frail form can allow, and with a mischievous gleam he says, "Of course, it could just be that we don't want to kill you ..... yet."

Springbok is the first to look up, but the old man is not far behind him in noticing that Donovan is up there. "Ah! Mr. Crane, how good of you to accept our dotage. As soon as Messrs. Gehlewaht, Wimund, and Suarez enjoy a shower and the comfort of good clothing themselves, we shall dine. Gentlemen, if you would please, for the night has been long and you will wish good food to send you off to as long a sleep as you wish to enjoy, but let's not keep my grand-daughter and Mr. Crane waiting?"

Each of you (not counting Donovan) seems to intuitively go up one of the several staircases to find these metal closets. You require no searching, as if drawn to them. Mr. O finds etched in his, appropriately, a picture of an ourobouros. Springbok finds a sprinbok leaping on his door. Whisper, for his, sees something that is familiar to him .... but if any of the rest of you saw it, it would seem rather abstract and simple.

Mr. O is now gone to shower, with his room appointed as before, including a room set off from his that has a phenomenal full bath.

"Please, Mr. Crane," says the old man motioning to an empty spot. Barely any sooner than he says that then there is a whoosh sound and your hair is disturbed ... but there is a parlor table and chair for you where he gestured. Another whoosh, and a tea service is there. Then you see the young woman .... as described previously. The teakettle has a stone trivet, but the kettle seems very still. She puts it on a hook that curves out and up and over the kettle. She then rubs her hands together impossibly fast, and there is this amazing heat that causes the kettle to start whistling in only a few short seconds.

.... and that occurs in relatively all the time it takes for the old man (remember, halting speech, but I'm not typing that all the time) to finish: "Won't you please join me for a cup of tea before dinner while the others ready themselves? I am sure you have questions for me."

The assumption, given you have taken to preparing yourself for dinner, is that you would accept this hospitality. Now's a great time for any questions you may have privately that you do not wish to ask once the group is together.

[lostsole31]

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Phonecon was held with Bill that went over their private conversation.

Mr. O, you come out looking sharp in your tux and Professor Sang and Donovan - both drinking tea - look up at you. Whisper comes out at about the same time.

You make your way down to the "main deck" (which is not the bottom, but merely where most of these things are held), and Whisper follows as noiselessly as his name. Synapse serves you tea ridiculously quickly as you wait for Springbok.

He comes down, and like the rest of you he is not in costume. However, he is not in a tux. He is in some type of fine African or Asian garb (hard to tell), very free-flowing (good given his freakish build), and with a type of brimless hat that sticks up some. Despite the flowing nature, imparted by this costume is a sense of formality.

Synapse is no longer in costume, either, though Donovan has no idea when she stepped out to change. She also seems to have showered because her hair looks nice. She wheels her grandfather through several feet of the bamboo forest until you get to a large dining hall with wonderful artwork and decor that is a mix of Asian mixed with art deco, but without being tacky. Several servants scurry to and fro.

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If you have any RP you wish to do, go ahead .... but I need to go to bed.

[BuckGodot]

So.....Janos. I'm assuming by your presence here that you are not working for those.......Agents......any longer?

[srgonzo]

From what I can surmise, the agents in question were making use of the Redeemers for their cover. Whether or not the Redeemer hierarchy is teamed up with that is another story. Those "guys" exhibit the worst quality of zealotry.

[lostsole31]

"First things first gentlemen," says Professor Sang. You note that he is in a gray suit with a black tie, slightly rumpled. In his state, it would be hard to get him in and out of a tux.

"Please introduce yourselves to each other: how you got your powers (if you know), some of what you can do, maybe a little background, and any weakness(es) that you might be willing to indulge just so we make sure we don't do anything to hurt you accidentally."

"Hi, I'm Bob Suarez," says Whisper. "I'm from Las Cruces, New Mexico. My dad was Mexican-American who married a Tesuque woman from northern NM.

"My mutant powers manifested, like they do in most people, in my teens. There was really no visible sign other than incredible reflexes (which I learned to control), some enhanced strength (top of human, but not really "superhuman"), and unshakeable will - nobody could stare me down.

"I'm pretty bright, and that and a decent football scholarship got me into UNM-Las Cruces. But soon, Desert Storm and Desert Shield broke out and I wanted to do my part. Also, my scholarship wasn't enough because I came from a poor family and it was still tough. So, I enlisted in the Navy because I was tired of being in sand my whole life ... and a sand-based ground-pounder really didn't suit me ... and being a radioman seemed alright.

"I heard about SEALs, and I thought that would be the coolest thing ever. I made it through BUDS and follow-on and became a SEAL. I finished my enlistment after 6 years as an SO2, and was already being courted by the whole gamut of alphabet soups. Of course, the CIA seemed the best way to make use of my talents.

"Got my training at Langley, and that's when I found out I through their mutant screening program - hell, I already knew I musta been - that I had limited mental powers. My mind is crazy defensive, pretty much a mental bastion. I only really have two offensive powers: a touch-based neural overload, which is great for stunning a normal guy with stealth; and a very powerful psychic interrogation - but that can't be used in battle, just with a helpless captive.

"I wasn't a spy, mind you, but an insertion/ extraction/ combat specialist. They capitalized on my SEAL training and mutant reflexes and taught me pretty much every gun trick in the book. On an unconscious level, my mental powers helps me to keep out of harm's way just a little, and I can keep my focus even if surrounded on all sides by the enemy - which is a great way to cause havoc when I'm using my machine pistols. I don't have a glass jaw when dealing with normal berks, but my powers do not include any kind of supernatural toughness, just my speed and kevlar weave costume.

"I'm your all-around skill guy. Can't fly planes or charm people, but if you think of something that special forces should be able to do, chances are that I can do it. I have a lot of utility equipment for medical, B&E, and basic survival gear.

"Here are my weapons. The first is a Barrett Light .50 Sniper Rifle w/ flash suppressor, silencer, and super-scope, good out to a range of about 3 clicks. The scope is so good that it's just like shooting something from a few yards away. I can switch it for IR, UV, or Starlight, and it has great range for visual. Modular rounds can pierce hard armor, blow like a grenade, act like a sabot to circumvent hard structures to get to a target underneath, or pop to create a shockwave to get some damage through the hardest armors.

"These other two pistols at my shoulder holsters are .50 Modified Machine Pistols, with retractable studs on the pistol grip back if I hold it from barrel; good for beating the hell out of someone that I don't want to kill or if I run out of bullets.

"Because of my higher brain functioning that moves as fast as it does to protect me from mental attacks, it can be overloaded pretty easily by electrical attacks. Not deadly, but a taser can really drop me."

Wow, it seems Bob really got into the spirit of sharing ... especially considering his code name (Whisper) gives the impression of not saying much.

[lostsole31]

Springbok starts, "My name is Londisizwe Wimund, but I go by Londi when I'm in plainclothes."

The man that goes by the name of Springbok isn't a bad-looking man, given his physique. Londi is a tall and imposing figure: 7' tall and weighing in at around 300 pounds of muscle. He is a light-skinned African man with obvious signs of Caucasian influence, which causes no end of problems for him in Africa, some places in America, and elsewhere. His skin tone actually lends as much to a gray as a light brown, owing to his thick hide and the fact that the rhinoceros is what influenced his armored hide. His back, legs, arms, and chest, however, are covered in a fair matting of black hair, almost like that of a gorilla.

"I'm the son of a British explorer and a Zulu woman, and I was born as mutant. I expressed a connection with animals at an early age including the ability to mimic their strengths. I was separated from my family during the South African border wars and ended up conscripted at a young age as a child soldier. When my mother died from an easily treatable malady (she was neglected as a result of Apartheid) I deserted to India with my father who gave up his entire estate to save me.

"For the next 10 years we illegally poached rare game and amassed an amazing wealth. Eventually we were raided by mercenaries hired by an extremist animal rights group and while we managed to kill off the mercenaries, my father was crippled as a result and ended up in a coma. I spent nearly all of my fortune hiding my father in a top secret medical facility, so I now travel the world as a mercenary-for-hire to pay for his medical expenses.

"All of my senses are very heightened, especially my hearing. Compared to a normal, I'm agile and pretty fast .... but nothing compared to the rest of you. I have pretty thick skin that can withstand most small arms, but those agents had high-caliber armor-piercing rounds and were amazing shots. I can lift close to 14 tons, so I at least am the strongest guy here, and I can take a lot of punishment and just keep going. Other animal powers Mr. Ourobouros here saw - chameleon skin and feline movement, fast healing, extremely hard to knock around, a roar that can frighten a normal man - or even stun a group in front of me, though that can be tiring.

"My best power is like a rhino or my namesake or any other charger. In combat, I can run over 30 MPH. My body hardens more when it runs so that I am protected from when I run through or over things. In that battle we had, Mr. O, I'd'a squashed you even with that insane invulnerability you had if I could've brought all my powers to bear .... but I wanted to be surrounded by as many agents as possible - and you 'cause I thought you were one - to keep the heat off of Donovan.

"Equipment. You saw the electro-shield a merc company I ran with fitted me for. Helps me hit even harder, or defend myself. I have a 9mm Browning HP w/ silencer and flash suppressor when I need stealth from a distance, a tranq derringer with 4 shots, and my assegai - an African throwing spear which in my hands is as deadly as it gets.

"Animals, especially predators, are physically dangerous and efficient. I have studied how various ones fight and I consider myself an expert hand-to-hand combatant. I speak several languages - mainly Afrasian ones, and I'm pretty familiar with a lot of the major cities around the world. I've built up a pretty good rep in the merc world as being dependable and honest. Unfortunately, those that are considered 'law enforcement' don't care about my merc rep and have labeled me as 'brutal' .... which, I guess, isn't entirely undeserved.

"Some things you have to know about me. I was able to hold it together in that fight, but when I'm actually wounded - rather than just knocked around - I might lose it. I don't go berserk, but like an animal I focus on what hurt me and if I can get to it I'm taking it down regardless of pre-planned tactics. I can only eat fresh foods and drink fresh water. If I drink or eat anything else I get sick. My senses get overwhelmed easily, which is important for Cloak to realize - I can't be in an area where he is flashing it with his powers."

[BuckGodot]

My name is Donovan Crane.....Or it was.....Or wasn't.....I don't remember.....I remember waking up, and not knowing who or where I was....I remember chaos and death....I know now that bright sunlight will harm me and that ultraviolet light will render me incapable of using my powers. I can become invisible to sight and sound. I can fly. I can create darkness in a set area as well as attach a bubble of darkness to an item or person. I can grapple people and bind them, although I'm not very good at it yet.....That is just to sum up a bit about me.....There may be more, but I'm not entirely sure yet....

[srgonzo]

I'm Janos Gehlehwat. Prior to becoming Mr. Ourobouros, I was a semi-professional mixed martial artist when my fiancée and I were attacked by some white supremacists. She was killed, and I was injured pretty badly. As a result of the unique conditions of that situation, I was selected to be the Avatar of Balance by the Representatives of Good, Evil,
Order and Chaos. Honestly, I don't completely understand the limits of my powers, but I do know they're fueled by some sort of darkness. I think the word someone used was 'qlithonic.' So far, I'm pretty quick, though not as fast as Synapse, I can take a pretty serious beating, and I'm quite strong, though not necessarily 'brute' strong. I also have the ability to generate fear, a sense of overwhelming insignificance, or transport objects and beings into a plane of entropy. As yet, I don't have any special way of traveling, and I think I need to work on my mental strength, so I can make more effective use of my abilities. Just to be clear, I am, or have been, a Redeemer agent, but that doesn't necessarily mean I want to recruit you or turn you in.

[lostsole31]

"I am his Grand-daughter, Shen Yagatori" says the young Asian-with-vaguely-Caucasian featured girl. She is very attractive (16 COM) with a good personality (15 PRE). 5' 2", and barely 100 lbs, and though she could play early-to-mid-20s, you'd guess she's no older than about 18. She keeps her hair in a high ponytail - probably a way to best hold her hair without it whipping around, but still more stylish than something restrictive like a bun.

"I'm possibly one of the world's fastest humans .... well, if you consider mutants as humans."

"I have typical mutant resiliency, though I am smaller and that doesn't help me against a big whalloper. Whether it's because of my grand-father," here she beams with pride, "or because of a hyper-neural speedway, I'm a genius. Yup. Just ask me. I'll confirm it. I have absolultely no idea what my top speed happens to be, but I do know that I can run well past the speed of sound, but usually vibrationally disattune myself - I can pass through stuff - so that I don't blast through things I might not even see until it is too late and well past.

"Because of my hyper-metabolism, chemical attacks are very harmful to me. My bizarre mutant-magic heritage, unfortunately, makes me far more susceptible to stunning mental powers. As far as other things, I don't know what to say. Lots of stuff, mostly limited by imagination and trial-and-error.

"He loved an Anglo-Japanese woman back in the late 40s. They couldn't get married because of other stuff. But I was getting teased for being such a nerd in Japan, and for being 'lower than dirt' in their opinion, that I was feeling pretty low. Well, to make matters worse for a teen girl that was just passing the first parts of puberty .... ugh, not fun, I tell you ... I would accidentally zip and smack into walls. I diffed my nose a couple of times, but then this aura sorta' appeared around me as I moved and helped protect me. In time, I realized I was really really fast.

"Well, Kitty sensed my 'Awakening' ... fancy term for manifesting mutant powers; mysics gotta sound, well, mystical and all ... and Kitty found me." When she mentions Kitty, she points to the disinterested black cat sleeping in Professor Sang's lap. Which means that either the cat is special .... or, she diffed the walls one too many times before she began manifesting her forcefield.

"I got this, like, extra-circular communication or something with Kitty. It's not like speech, just senses and feeling, that I knew somehow that this cat was part of me and my family somehow. Through interesting adventures, Kitty led me across the world to San Francisco.

"Well, it was night, and I saw this car stop at an intersection and a bunch of jerks with energy weapons ambushed the car and blew away the driver. I really wanted to help, but this was the only time that Kitty was really serious about me not meddling. They knocked out the passenger, but not without me watching an entertaining fight - they weren't quite prepared for him - but they still outgunned and outmanned the guy.

"Kitty didn't stop me from following them, though. So, I followed and watched these snake-garbed goons seemed to .... I dunno ... sell? ... the guy to members of DEMON outside a place called Simmert Textiles, an abandoned factory. I watched the guy get strapped down to spooky symbols and candles, and still Kitty kept me from helping him. It's like he knew something ... like, y'know how cats always seem to know something?

"They start doing some mumbo-jumbo, but I did hear that they were trying to find someone called the 'Archmage,' and the 'Chung Kuei.' Well, all sorts of crazy energies of different kinds were welling up, and that's when Kitty let me off the chain. I zoomed in there with Kitty and we beat the crap outta' them. But the energies wouldn't subside. From me, Kitty, the bad guys, and even a lot of crazy sigils that got ruined in the fight and were all kinds of crazy ... all of these energies went *WHOOSH* in one blast into this guy.

"There was this woman that was watching from above - I didn't see her - and she used a funky wand to pop herself and the Cabal goons out of there. I was going to go help the guy, but Kitty started to make damn sure we weren't there when he woke up. So, we went outside again and watched through the basement window.

"He woke up. I mean, this guy was stacked to begin with, but now he was really sporting muscle mass, like the energies made him enhanced. Well, he gets up, shakes his head, and he noticed in the battle that there was - in the smashed concrete floor - an old trap door. He goes down, and many minutes later he comes up with this stiff-frozen corpse.

"He calls the police, as the landline still worked - prolly no thanks to DEMON thugs. The police come in and check out the scene. The guy gives his statement about his dead girlfriend and about what he knows about the ordeal (very little), and the corpse is sent off. Again, I wanted to follow the man to see if he was alright, or if his new strength was going to make him give into easy power. And yet again, Kitty was the most excited I had ever seen him ... wanting to follow the coroner instead.

"What can you do? It's not like I had a can of Friskies and a can opener, so there was no pleasing him. So I followed that instead. I snuck into the morgue, and when we found the body ... y'know, the frozen corpse that was stuck in a hidden freezer under an abandoned factory for god knows how long? Soooo gross .... well, when we found him, Kitty left me like chopped liver.

"I lift the cover and Kitty starts loving on this dead guy. Purring and pushing up against his face. Y'know how, like, a cat loves on you in the morning to wake you up? Well, there was the faintest twitch of the dead guy's fingers, and Kitty looks up to me with those pleading eyes ... like Puss'n'Boots from SHREK II? I guessed what he wanted, so I rubbed my hands to make it really hot and began to thaw him out. Lots of water everywhere.

"Let me tell you, this guy was like, right out of the 60s. I felt him, and of course he was warm ... cause, like, I warmed him and all. But he had a faint bit of breath and pulse. I just go with it. I've seen weirder.

"He had a wallet in his back pocket that was frozen in. Now, this guy was the ultimate hippie. Thick, crazy black hair. Long beard. Flower-power shirt. Jeans. Sandals. Sooo not hygienic. Anyway, he seemed to be Asian-American, but the name on the CA Driver's ID was Jeremy Waldecott. This guy was grubby, but the license picture ... which are never good, right? ... oh. my. God. He was sooo fine. I looked at his real face and I can't help but pull back his hair and I see that this guy could clean up super well, though he looked like he was in his early 30s. So hot. But, like, so old. He also had a sucky build.

"Well, there was a picture in his wallet that had him and a bunch of other hippies with a mostly clean hill behind them. On the back it said, 'Peace and love, Jerry ... thanks for helping to keep the earth beautiful after Woodstock ... Sat, Aug 23, 1969.' On the front, it was this dude ... like, 35 years later ... that was stuck in a hidden meat-locker .. and he was posing with a bunch of other hippies.

"That's when a voice made me jump. I was in a super-quiet mortuary, but it was the voice from Mr. Former Deadster. He said one word, 'Grand-daughter.' I looked over, and a lot of his hair started falling out and he began to age super, super fast. And I thought early 30s was old? This guy looked like he was 200 or something. He looked at me weakly, and then passed out. Kitty perked up, and then I heard someone coming from exit - just the way things were. I picked up the old guy - he didn't really weigh much - and zoomed towards the exit. I didn't want to hurt anyone, so as this orderly walked by I gave a little supersonic fingersnap right next to his ear to knock him out, and I let him softly to the ground.

"Kitty hopped on top of the man's chest, and I ran out of there carrying both of them. I found a tall building and ran up the side of it so I could get a fix on what was happening. It was getting to be light, so I left Kitty with him, ran down the side of the building, whizzed by Chinatown to get food off of carts too quickly to really be seen - I slapped some money down the best I could, but I didn't have enough for full price -and ran back and gave it to this guy.

"Well, the food did him a lot of good, as with the sunlight. He told me he was my grand-father, that Kitty searched the world for him, but not finding him he looked for the nearest (and only descendant), and then had his familiar guide me to this guy. That's why Kitty didn't want me to interrupt and save that guy or to interrupt the ceremony ... it was as if Kitty knew what had to be done to save my grand-father. He took me to Sanctuary, upgraded it to modern times .... he really needed my help understanding what that meant ... and he helped me to understand who I am, why I have the type of powers that I do, and he's been my only real family and tutor and even mentor with my powers. Sometimes I mess up royally, and I admit I do overcommit and run out of steam, but most times I have really, really good control over my speedster powers now in the past couple months."

She looks at Janos, "Anything you want to add, or did I fill in the blanks for you?"

Professor Sang (nee Waldecott, maybe nee Waldecott nee Sang? who cares) looks at Janos and says, "Shen's good heart, Kitty's sense of duty, the evil of the cabalists, and the ruined and chaotic energies of the sigils that were accidentally something of far older evils. This makes you Mr. Ourobouros. The entities of the Universe mearly capitalized on it ... or it was meant to be. But you had to come into being with an equal part of each, for the Cosmic Ethos would never agree on anything themselves. It had to just ... happen ... for it could never be forced or manufactured, even by Fate."

[BuckGodot]

Boy, can she talk......Did we all just....Happen then? Even the Agents? They called me an aberration....and accident....It sounds more like I was.....made.....

[lostsole31]

"I believe," says the quivering old man, "that much of the latter she said was for Mr. Ourobouros' benefit. He was 'made' in the sense that his powers were bestowed. Until we know more about what you know and can do in general, you are an engima, Mr. Crane.

"I do not say that Destiny 'just Happens' as you colorfully put it. My life is long and took a strange path to power, but it didn't just 'happen.' However, I am sure it was Destiny for all of us, myself included."

[srgonzo]

That was you? Donovan, all I can tell you is what the Agents told me, and that's coming from a very specific point of view.

Janos describes his conversation with "Agent Crane," leaving nothing out.