ReAssembly: The Secret Plan Thread

[SuperCracker]

Fred

Thursday night. 10 o’clock. Go Getters. Fred had sent out a text message to Katie and Zach, asking them to meet. Can you guys meet at Go Getters? Tonight, 10. Pizza, beer, and I have a plan to defeat Darkseid. Yeah, he buried the lead there. Regardless, once he got confirmation from the others, the meeting was on. When the other two arrived, Fred had already claimed their traditional booth. He also appeared to have eaten a slice of sausage already.

It was late enough that there was only a smattering of people inside of the joint. It wasn’t filled to bursting, and the trio would be left to speak in peace. It also helped that Fred had a sword with him (Go Getters knew him well enough to somehow just be okay with that these days – it made robberies an impossibility).

“Hey guys,” he said with a smile towards his companions (who was this guy lately). “Sit down, get some food. This is a working dinner.”

"What's up, people."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie arrived promptly at ten. She could admit, she was happy to see Fred's continued increased outgoingness. She didn't draw attention to it though. She wasn't sure that if she did, it wouldn't cause him to revert. "Hey Fred, Starsoul. How have things been?" she greeted them, giving Fred a hug. The awkwardness she'd started displaying around Fred after Troy had pretty much burned off sometime around the middle of the Civil War, but there seemed to be a trace of hesitance in her hug. It was quicker and not as close as was her usual, which Fred may or may not notice.

Maybe she had just been too weary for it during their adventures, what with all the intensive fighting and spell casting she had been doing. Maybe it had just taken this long for her brain to really assimilate everything. Or maybe it was because they were back on a world that Darkseid was rapidly approaching. Regardless of the reasons, the fact was that Katie's nightmares, absent since her talk with Kayla and Mr. Arlington, had returned with a vengeance. But now they consisted less of visions of death and failure, more of scenes where she made the wrong choices and others got hurt for it. Hector, naturally, played a starring role.

They were just dreams. She woke up, shook them off with promises to do better in the future, and went about her day. For the most part. But keeping such memories fresh in her mind, night after night, couldn't help but have some subtle influence on her waking behavior.

She ordered a slice of the vegetarian to start, saying it with a straight face and without irony, ignoring the server's look. Katie wasn't the type to stick to a "usual" at places. Visit an establishment often enough, she'd go through their whole menu. Although granted, this was Go Getters, so it was possible that their "vegetarian pizza" was a basket of garlic bread, but whatever.

[Thokk_Smash]

"Don't mind if I do, Fred-my-man," Zach says, sitting down with an exaggerated flourish. He shows none of the melancholy he had exhibited at their last meeting. "Katie, you look more beautiful than ever. Starsoul, looking opalescent, as always."

Zach orders three slices and a large soda, and the way he dives into them might make one wonder why he can pass for a flagpole. After he polishes off his first slice he starts to slow down. "So what's the occasion, man? I assume it's not you taking me up on my offer; there's a startling lack of booze around, otherwise."

[SuperCracker]

Fred

Katie’s hug was returned, and he either didn’t notice the slight awkwardness or simply didn’t comment on it. Katie’s attempt at ordering a vegetarian pizza was met with her choice of either a slice of cheese pizza or mushroom pizza. In the eloquent words of the guy behind the counter, “We don’t do that vegan sh** here.”

When everyone was settled, Fred answered Zach’s question. “Right. Let’s get to the point.” Fred took a drink from the bottle of beer he’d ordered. Guiness. Fred placed his forearms on the tabletop and leaned forward towards Zach. “I’ve got a plan, and it’s going to sound ridiculous… but I want you both to hear me out.”

“Sylvester Saturn told us to be on the lookout for suicides, hate crimes, and other signs of strife and despair. It made me think… Darkseid thrives on hopelessness. He draws strength from it at the same time he wields it against us.”

Fred’s lips cracked a smile.

“That alone tells us his weakness. Hope. It diminishes his strength and has the added bonus that I am largely powered by the stuff.”

“My plan is for us and the entire superhero community to spread out and create as much hope and optimism as possible. It’s time for the Dissassembled to Reassemble. It’s time for the Misfits to shine a light on our world the same way we shined lights on all those other worlds we visited. We create a better world… and when Darkseid comes, he finds a people filled with the one thing that hurts him.”

A brief pause.

“And when he comes… we reach out to the world with Cerebro, a stirring ballad from a soon-to-be rock legend, and an archmage of transmutation… and we gather all that hope into one place. Then smash his face in with it.”

"That's the rough outline."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Hey Zach," she greeted with a hug when the bard walked in, smiling at the compliment. "What's up?"

As Fred started laying out his plan, Katie's face grew surely brighter. And she did look kinda pleased when Fred called her an archmage of transmutation. Oh, she knew she wasn't actually worthy of that title yet, but still. It did kinda feel good that her friends might not know that. "That doesn't sound ridiculous," she told him. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I can recognize a Spirit Bomb when I hear it described now, but if it works as well as going Super Saiyan did, more power to you!" She said with just a bit of a teasing tone.

Truth was though, she had been worried about what Sarah's grandfather had predicted. More hatred, and hostility, and pain. These weren't things that could be struck down with swords or fists, that could be blown away with lightning or magic, or teleported away with technology.

It wasn't something they could fight, but that didn't mean it wasn't something they could defeat. They were superheroes. And it didn't matter what people like Joneson, or the Joker, or Trump, or Beck, or any of the other attention-addicted fear-mongers said. Their true power was never in their ability to strike down powerful enemies, or to withstand overwhelmingly lethal force. It was their ability to serve as inspirations to others, to let people know that no matter how bad things got, they would always be protected, there would always be people out there looking out for them.

"So, we should probably wait for Sarah to get here before we start hashing out specifics though, yeah?"

[Thokk_Smash]

"Oh, same old, same old," Zach says, giving a winning smile without really answering.

He listens to Ronin's idea with a smirk that grows with each word. The pizza slices steadily vanish as the tale grows and grows. "'Soon to be'?" he asks with a playful lilt.

He shifts his guitar to sit on his lap as he thinks of his response. The sound of the strings drift through the air as his fingers glide on them. He had actually been thinking something similar. Hate crimes, violence, suicides; Zach's seen more of those in his life than he cares to admit. He'd thought about organizing something or another with his fans, but this is much more awesome.

"I don't know what you started smoking when you went Super Saiyan, but you should keep it up," he says with a grin and a chuckle. "If you're talking about giving people the stubbornness to not give into despair, hell yeah I'm in. It sure as sh*t won't be easy, but everything we did against Kang was a pain in the a**, too."

He gives Katie an aside glance at her question. "I think Saturn has her own plans with her grandpappy. She'll probably have her hands full with that, not to mention seeing her grandpa again. Plus, I think we can get this done ourselves."

[SuperCracker]

Fred

He grinned a small grin when Katie called him out on where he got the fundamentals of this plan from. “Yeah. It’s a Spirit Bomb… but I’m not making it up. This is something that can work. It hurts Darkseid in more ways than one.”

Fred took a bite of his pizza as Zach talked. He shrugged in response to what he was smoking. “I just decided to let go a little bit.” And break a mental wall that seemed physical. Interacting with yourself in a psychic sense is weird. Being a latent psychic was weird. Regardless, “It’s uh… yeah, I’m trying to change things a bit.” A brief pause. “Back to the plan!”

“I don’t think Saturn is right for this kind of thing. She’s cold and logical. This is neither of those things. This plan is made of,” he extended his hand with a peace sign before crossing the two fingers. Fans of Trigun would get the reference. “Zach, you’re pretty much a Misfit at this point. We’re going to need you on this.” He looked from behind his shades at the rocker.

“I’ve been thinking about this. It’s not something that will be accomplished easily. It’s not something we can do on our own, either. We need everyone to be involved. We need the Justice League to get back together. We need the Avengers to get back together. The X-Men need to get back out there and do their thing. We need social and cultural leaders. What I’m talking about here is a huge undertaking. It’s not just fighting the bad guys. It's every single thing we can do to give people hope for a better future. To stave off despair.”

He smiled. "Best part is that the means are just as good as the end here."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie was never really comfortable feeling like she was excluding anyone, although she could accept that this wasn't necessarily Sarah's primary field of expertise. Well...sort of. For societal change on a large scale, Sarah had resources that all three of them combined couldn't match. But that would come more in the implementation of the plan than the devising of it, she supposed.

"What if we implemented like...gods I don't want to call it a Hero Hotline, but I'm pretty sure I just did. But like, not about fighting supervillains or stuff like that. It's like...there are a lot of people who don't trust the system, you know? Someone could be hurting them and they don't feel like the police will do anything about it. Or they feel like no one will believe them. Or maybe they're being threatened. Or...whatever. The point is, there's people out there who are suffering and who don't think anyone will help them."

"So what if we set up a system where they could come to us. You know, to superheroes. And if it's something like...someone's hurting them, we stop it. Or we'll go to the police and make sure they give the case the attention it deserves. Or we can fix the problem. Like, someone goes missing but it hasn't been 48 hours but they just know something's wrong and it's like, the police don't have the resources to investigate all those people because a lot of them really are just like...out on a spontaneous getaway or drunk or their car broke down and they don't have cell phone reception or something. But like, I could just take something of theirs and cast a couple quick divinations and get in touch with them to see if they're okay, or find them if they're not. Stuff like that."

"And we can help the police and stuff too, so they can be more efficient about things. I mean...I know your past-reading spells probably aren't admissible in court, but if you can go to a crime scene and learn what actually happened and who did it, like five minutes of your time could save the police scores, even hundreds, of man-hours on investigation. And it doesn't even have to be all heroes! There's superpowered people out there who don't want to risk their lives fighting crime and stuff, but might still want to use their powers to help people, or at least would be willing to if they had a good option for it. This can give them the opportunity. Who knows, maybe even a few people who might have otherwise become villains will be able to find a wholesome way to use their powers for good. Ooh! We could even do like a supervillain work-release program thing! I mean, we'd need proper security measures in place and we'd need to be kinda selective about who gets to do it and stuff, and coordinate it with law enforcement and stuff so it's all official and stuff, but something like, you team up a former-villain who's willing to try and turn over a new leaf with a hero who's strong enough to stop them if they backslide, and they can actually use their powers for good and see how they can become a positive influence on the world in a safe environment."

[Thokk_Smash]

Zach nods along with Katie's suggestions. "The thing is, despair comes from more than just a lack of hope. It's a lack of agency, a lack of feeling of control over your future. Those are all good, great ideas. But no matter how available we make super-assistance, there will always be more innocent people than superheroes to defend them. But if we can somehow empower them to stick up for others within their community..."

"So much crime is petty, barely worth calling it crime, but it still sows discord and anger and hatred. And there are some crimes that others see, but who do nothing because they are too apathetic, or resigned, or defeated to try and help. Now, for sure, not everyone is capable or should step up to that plate. The weak are preyed on, and no matter how idealistic we are we can't expect them to fight back. But if those who can, do...if those with strength in the world protect those without...maybe we'll be one step closer to an actual united world."

"As for how to get that accomplished, I've got little more than hot air. I can use my platform as up-and-coming rockstar to encourage my fans, but that's not a large pool. For your ideas, I've got the numbers of some big-shots in the super-world. At least, I've got numbers of people with numbers of the big-shots."

[SuperCracker]

Fred

He appreciated Katie’s ideas. They were very big-picture. However, he wasn’t going to participate in all of them. Fred might be smiling and talking a bit more, but he still wasn’t going to be terribly enthusiastic about working with the authorities. He wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about the idea of letting villains out… but he had been wrong about the Talisman, so he didn’t make any negative comments about it. He thought they were good ideas to implement as a whole.

Zach’s points were well-taken too.. but Fred wanted to open the topic up. “It’s not just crime and protection. Hope and positive emotion can be created with very simple acts. You know how Johnny Depp will make appearances at Children’s Hospitals? Why aren’t we doing that kind of thing? Orphanages, cancer wards… it’s something we can do right now. We can bring food to the hungry. We can build houses for the homeless. Think of a speedster and a powerhouse on a Habitat for Humanity project.

Let’s make a list. Things that we or people we know can do to make an immediate, positive impact on someone’s emotional well-being.

Every big shot you know. Every small-shot you know. If humanity’s going to Hope-Bomb Darkseid, we need all hands on deck.”

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie gave a little, amused smile. She...kinda already did. Eight to ten AM on Tuesdays and Thursday most weeks, plus additionally as time/energy/opportunity allowed (or need required). To say nothing about the work she did with Kayla. It was actually kinda funny, because she had had this sort of discussion with Kayla in the past. Her twin strongly believed that most superheroes were tragically underutilizing their potential. The worst thing about supervillains is that they have created a culture where people with amazing, world-changing powers are wasting them on punching bad guys rather than doing anything actually useful, had been Kayla's resigned response when Katie had first told her she was insistent on taking the superhero thing more seriously. Katie still felt that was kinda harsh, but the general sentiment wasn't unfair.

Thing was, the goal there was different. Katie didn't really make a show of it. Most of the time she didn't even go in costume (back when she wore something that qualified, however tentatively, as a costume, anyway). She just went around to hospitals healing people, or went down to a soup kitchen and summoned up half a dozen magic hands to help prepare food, or went over to the site of a disaster or superfight or whatever to repair damaged buildings, heal the injured, locate survivors, and so on.

Stepping up her efforts wouldn't be impossible. While Katie couldn't say she completely rejected any guilt for not doing more, she let it slide pretty easily off of her shoulders. There were hard limits to what she could accomplish, and softer but still practical limits best observed to avoid burnout - both from an emotional sense and a simple magical energy management sense. But she left herself a good amount of wiggle-room. She could also refocus her efforts some. A lot of what she did currently was focused more on physical ills, but there were things she could do to heal emotional wounds too, or to simply draw more attention to the work to encourage and inspire others to do it. Lead by example.

But regardless, she was still just one hero, and not the most powerful of them. The idea of a concerted effort between the majority of the world's superheroes actually putting their powers to such use all together (and, in her head at least, in an organized, coordinated, and efficient manner)...well, let's just say, if Fred were in a video game, he'd have just regained 10 MP.

"Okay let's see. I already do a bunch of healing/repair stuff, but I haven't really explored the possibility of using divinations for charitable work. But like...the single greatest positive change to come about from magic in my own life was when I used it to find Kayla. I could do things like that. Thaumaturgically track down missing loved ones and stuff." Honestly just saying it, she kinda kicked herself for never having really thought about it before. If she could bring people the same sort of experience as she had had when she found Kayla...yeah, that was something she wanted to do. Like, right now.

"I can also help with organizing the whole thing. For something like this, we'll probably want some sort of system in place you know? So that everyone's being coordinated and efficient. I've got some people I can probably bring in on it too." Katie was a firm believer in systems.

"Far as ideas for other people...I mean, sheesh. Telepathy- and/or empathy-assisted therapy, for one. Not like, outright mental modification probably, but augmenting traditional therapeutic and maybe even hypnotic assistance. Healers working in hospitals. Get a bunch of paragons, speedsters, telekinetics, maybe water/electricity controllers or technopaths, and such together, and build up proper infrastructure in places that don't have it yet. Environment controllers, wizards, and super-scientists dealing with environmental damage. Put the energy controllers and super-geniuses together to convert superpowered energy generation options into functional power sources. To say nothing for power combos. Teleporter+Healer emergency response being the obvious one."

"Ooh ooh ooh and and and! We have to do it in a way that like, goes viral. Gets people excited about it. Get the governments and the big companies trying to jump on the bandwagon. If we can get people like Sarah and Stark to lead the way there, that'll be huge! What would really make this work is if it's not just a bunch of heroes trying to solve all the world's problems. That's not sustainable. But like, there are problems that can be solved but just kinda aren't because of various costs and obstacles and problems and stuff so no one actually does it. But if we can mitigate those it's another story. Like...world hunger. I haven't really looked into the statistics or anything, but my understanding is that the fact that hunger is still a thing that exists is more a societal failing than a practical resource problem. So if we can just power through the things that are in the way of society fixing the problem itself, then we can just stand back and let humanity take its course."

Katie was...actually breathing a bit heavily by the time she had finished. It wasn't that the smile on her face was huge so much as it was pervasive, her every feature just...brightened. This sort of thing excited her in a way that no glorious victory or epic battle ever could.

[Thokk_Smash]

Zach gives Katie a vicious grin at her excitement. If there's one thing he can get behind, it's kicking the system in its balls. "I like the way you think, Katie," he says with approval.

"It's gonna be a major undertaking, though, and we don't have much time to get it done. So we really will need to call in every big-shot we can, and then some. Stark and Saturn, for sure. If those two, Richards and Lucius Fox can sit in one room without exploding from nerdiness, they could probably get some tech-gizmo worked out. If we can finagle it, Luthor may be willing to part with some of his millions for the chance to get some good PR--lord knows he's always looking for it. If I could get ten minutes with him, I could probably talk him around so there's as few strings attached as possible."

Now, as far as Fred and Katie know, Zach's never met Luthor in his life. There would have been no reason for a penniless college student-turned prospective rockstar to ever interact with a high-falutant multi-millionaire like Luthor. And he said he could convince Luthor to give them money without much fuss as though he was talking about the weather.

"So Fred, you've got the X-Men angle: good old Prof, Wolvie, maybe even Magneto? The grapevine tells me you might have an in with him these days. Katie, you've got...every other angle, probably? I don't think anyone could say no to you if you asked real nice, and you've got enough cred with literally everyone that they'll give you more than the time of day. Saturn's got her nerd contacts, and I...well, I have groupies by the thousands," he says as a half-suggestion.

[SuperCracker]

Fred

He leaned back and took a sip of his beer while Katie talked. It was like flicking the switch on a generator. She was perfect for this kind of task. Rather than muck with her suggestions, he just let her roll. She did say one thing that was on his mind. “I can also help with organizing the whole thing.” Fred pointed at her and gave a half-grin. “That’s what I was hoping you would say. I’m a warrior. I fight. It’s just what I do. You, Katie… you and your sister are geniuses. You have the right combination of head and heart to run with this. I want you to organize everything you can. We don’t have much time, so be efficient. Maximum yield. We need as much positive emotion as we can get out of this world.”

He turned his attention to Zach, raising an eyebrow at getting Lex Luthor involved. Oddly enough, he didn’t doubt that Zach could get an audience with the man. Zach was good like that. “Be careful with Luthor… he’s a snake. Use him, but be aware that he’s probably using you too. Regardless, Zach… consider yourself in charge of our own public relations. You have a way of talking to people that none of us can match. Especially when it comes time to actually gather the emotion. I’m going to need you for it.”

His half-suggestions weren’t half bad. “I’ll pull together my people. I’m on… several teams right now. I’ll see if Magneto will contribute.”

“We should also pull in everyone else that we’ve worked with before. Maybe even get Jay Garrick back into the world as a hero. Martian Manhunter. The Talisman. She always wanted a plan to beat Darkseid. This is it.”

Fred grinned more widely.

“We can do this, guys.”

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie honestly had some reservations about involving Luthor. Her experience with LexCorp had always been that even when they were trying to do objectively good things, they managed to go about it...wrong. The means invalidating the ends, was kinda how she'd describe it. Now, Katie did truly believe that everybody had the potential to be redeemed, to become a positive force in the world, and that included Lex Luthor. She was just astute enough to realize that the potential for redemption, and the capacity for being redeemed on the sort of timetable they were operating on, were two entirely different things.

But if anyone could manipulate Luthor into doing the right thing in the right way (even if not necessarily for the right reasons), it was Zach "Turned The Battle Of Troy Into A Party" Wattson.

"Jay...may not be ready for this yet. I'll talk with him about it, but he's still working on getting his own feet under him. But getting Ta'li on board would be great! Based on their descriptions, up until Darkseid came along, skrull and kryptonian societies were a lot more egalitarian than ours are. They could probably give us some useful advice on how they went about it. Plus, it's like, army of kryptonians anyone? If we could get them in on it, that's a big boost to the raw numbers/power situation. And then we can-" she cut off as she realized that what she was about to suggest was...probably impractical. But thinking about it for a second she did see a possible option... "Okay, guys, check me on something. Their Super Skrulls can duplicate, among other things, the powers of a certain individual who gives them what they need. Now, obviously, most heroes probably wouldn't be comfortable making their powers available in that way, and with good reason. I mean, a lot of superpowers can be really, really dangerous. And, I mean, I guess they can too, but, well..."

"My magic is mostly just helpful, you know? I mean, sure, it could cause some damage if used the wrong way, but compared to what most supers are capable of it's like...meh, whatever. But if I made my magic available to the Super Skrulls, then they could be augmenting a bunch of superheroes, way more than I could myself, which is just more raw oomph. Plus that means more healing out there, so that's a good thing." Katie wasn't so naive that she couldn't recognize the obvious risks of such a plan. Skrull could take her form one way or another, but Super Skrull could take her identity. If they misused it, there could be consequences. At the very least, she would be inviting confusion. And while her powers weren't as directly dangerous as some, indirectly they were extremely effective. Someone using her powers for evil, and going about it the right way...yeah, that could be terrifying. And even moreso if they were doing it behind her own (at this point, well-known and largely-trusted) face.

But at the same time, the potential to expand the scale at which her magic could help the world by spreading it to others...it was tempting. It was a question worth bringing up, at least.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Okay, so, SC and I were talking in the chatpad (err, the Aranth pad, since for the three of us additional precision is required on that term) about getting together something to send to Herod to outline the behind-the-scenes actions the PCs are taking. So, I'm writing up an initial draft, and over the next few posts we can all edit it until it's where we want it to be.

--

What we're aiming to do is to undermine Darkseid by spreading hope, joy, and other positive emotion throughout the planet. Primarily by going to the superheroic community and enlisting as much help as we can to take Mundane Utility Up To Eleven while subverting Reed Richards Is Useless as heavily as we possibly can.

There are three main stages to this plan, but they don't really happen consecutively, because we don't have a metric ton of time for that. We'll be working on all of them as we can and just expanding outward.

Stage 1 - Preparation: Getting people involved, pretty much. We'll be using our various connections (Katie's general ties to the superheroic community, Fred's various team associations, Zach's hordes of fans) to try to get other superheroes on board with the project. Katie will be going to Kayla for assistance with planning operations, and setting up organizational and tactical systems - helping supers come up with ways to use their powers for things other than beating bad guys up where necessary, making sure that people with the same power aren't overlapping, putting people in touch with other superheroes whose powers complement their own in specific ways, etc. We'll also be spreading things to supers who aren't active heroes - people who have powers and might want to or be willing to use them to help, but not want to use them to fight. This is their chance. We're also considering a sort of "supervillain work release" strategy if we can get the support of law enforcement and put enough security measures into play to make it feasible. It wouldn't be for everyone, but for villains who might be ripe for redemption or just aren't that bad, this could work as a sort of parole that also lets them use their powers for good.

And ideally, part of that will be going to Ta'li to get the skrull and kryptonians involved. This is a plan to defeat Darkseid after all. Katie will be wanting to get some information from them about how their civilizations were prior to Darkseid, since they were supposed to be much more ethically advanced than ours, and see if there are ideas we can implement. Beyond that, they've got a small army of superpowered people and that's kinda what we're looking for. Again, security measures and stuff may be necessary, but the premise here is that whatever fear and hatred there is of the Raoists can only hold out so long when they're out there actively making the world a better place in full view of the public and media. We'd be emphasizing a very "passive resistance" approach to any hostility/insults/attacks that they might face in the process. They're probably immune to like 99.9% of them, so they can just smile and keep doing their thing. If they're actually threatened, they can withdraw and call in Earth heroes to intervene until it's safe to act again.

Stage 2 - Implementation: As we get supers on board and strategies set, we go around doing Good Things on a massive scale. Some examples of things we're planning include, but are nowhere close to limited to, the following:

Hero Support: Some methodology for people to contact superheroes for things that for whatever reason they can't go to the authorities for. The premise here is that a lot of people might not trust the authorities, or might be being victimized by an authority figure, or being threatened and not feel like the authorities will be able to protect them, or be stymied by red tape (like the classic "we can't do anything until they've been missing for 48 hours" bit), etc. But superheroes would be different. They can go to the heroes and they can either solve the problem directly, or the heroes can be the ones to deal with the authorities and make sure they take the matter seriously, etc.

Superpowered Problem Solving: Heroes solving personal problems on an individual basis. We can't help everyone, but we can help a lot. Powerful healers curing otherwise-terminal diseases, regenerating maimed limbs, etc. Conjurers and transformers repairing damaged homes. Katie in particular wants to use her thaumaturgic divinations to help people track down missing loved ones like how she found Kayla. Even more fighty types who don't have much in the way of utility can go after some of the more laying-low criminals like human traffickers and such and free people from them. And so on.

Another big, big, big part of this is directly countering the additional negative emotion caused by Darkseid's approach. Big-name superheroes personally going to talk down suicide attempts, get in the way of hate crimes, and so on. This one is less about straight superpowers (although superheroic sensory and transport powers will be a big help in getting where they're needed), more about just being there for people. This is good for both big-name, world-renowned heroes since it's like "Okay wow Superman just took ten minutes out of his day to talk to me!" and for smaller, local heroes who are known and loved in their particular communities.

Building a Better World: Use of superpowers to outright make things better faster. We're talking about getting paragons, speedsters, telekinetics, water/electricity controllers, technopaths, and so on super-building proper infrastructure in countries that don't have it yet. Paragons and teleporters can mitigate transportation issues involved in getting food, medicine, and other humanitarian aid to people in need. Get the supergeniuses working with some energy controllers to create power sources. Have the super-scientists take some time off from crazy super-science and put them on improving production of mundane things, or consult with companies in exchange for large-scale donations (example: a pharmaceutical company makes mass donations of AIDS or malaria vaccines, and someone like Kayla or Sarah or Reed Richards or whoever will work with them to develop some big new, less vital drug to be a cash cow, like a diet pill or non-drowsy allergy medication or sleep aid or something). Get wizards, environment controllers, and super-scientists working on repairing environmental damage. Get the combat-focused people out there not fighting wars for people, but just outright stopping conflicts. They just go in and "nope" people trying to kill each other until they're forced to settle their differences like adults. Oh, what's that, suicide bombs and IEDs? Sorry, technopaths, son!

Importantly, the aim here isn't for the superheroes to solve the world's problems. We don't want heroes actually fighting wars and trying to win for a specific side - we want them stopping conflict on both sides (exception: actual criminal elements - terrorist organizations, drug cartels, military juntas, etc, can and should be ousted to make way for legitimate government wherever politically possible, although ideally through reform rather than violence). We don't want to wreck the economy by forcing big businesses to donate all their assets away - we want to make beneficial arrangements where the company giving to people in need is rewarded by superpowered assistance, and to use superpowers to power through the logistical and bureaucratic difficulties of transport and such. We don't want superheroes just building roads and power lines willy-nilly, we want them working with governments to develop functioning infrastructure but providing such concentrated constructive capability that what would normally be a job of years or decades becomes a job of days or weeks. We don't want to go in, rebuild a slum much nicer, and have everyone living there forced out by higher rental costs - we want to work with (or buy out, for our super-rich heroes) landlords and cities to provide quality affordable housing and use superpowered construction to get it up quickly and inexpensively. In short, the supers aren't fixing the world - they're just powering through the obstacles to the world fixing itself. (And obviously, there's going to be social and political issues that can't be solved quickly, and even superhuman resources aren't infinite; that's expected, we're just trying to do as much as we can).

Stage 3 - Expansion: Making the thing go viral. Put on the costumes, shout out the codenames, get in front of the cameras, because we want the world to know that this is going on. We want the supers who have kept to themselves, the mutants who have been afraid to use their powers, the villains who have only used their powers to detract from the world to know that now is the time to be a force for good in a way that doesn't involve superpowered punches. We want the kids to know that if they want to volunteer for a good cause, they have a chance to work alongside people like Superman, or Wolverine, or Thunderstruck. We want the big businesses and the governments falling all over each other trying to jump on the bandwagon first and biggest. We want every snide comment from people like Jameson, Beck, and Trump to be answered with a deluge of videos and tweets and articles about superheroes healing the sick, reunited lost loved ones, building homes and roads, and repairing the o-zone layer. And most of all, we want everyone knowing that the most personally powerful people on the planet are coming to their country, or city, or maybe even their flipping house to improve their lives. That there is no room and no time for despair because we are already living in the best time in human history and now we're going to make it even better.

[SuperCracker]

Spoiler: Adding to the List before my next post

Show

Things to do:

1) Ronin grabs every team he's ever been on and they get to work. He will try to convince the X-Men to get back out there and be proactive. We aren't an endangered species or anything. (*wink*)

2) Katie organizes, cause that's what she does.

3) Zach is in charge of "PR Operations."

4) We try to convince the Avengers and the Justice League to Reassemble. Darkseid is coming. Suck it up.

5) Ronin will try to convince Magneto to get involved with helping the world. Mutantkind can lead the way.

6) We start with small actions that can produce big emotional results. Visiting sick kids at hospitals, for example. The primary goal is to create as much hope and positive emotion as possible.

7) We round up every hero / mundane individual we can to get involved in this.

8) We get every guest star/supporting cast NPC we've ever met involved in this. The guest stars can all contribute greatly. All hands on deck.

9) Saturn Corp gets involved with the money. Maybe drags Stark into the mix.

10) We position the Misfits as the Justice League. We've been frontline in protecting the Earth lately. We need people to believe in us.

11) Ronin needs to secure the assistance of Professor X, Emma Frost, or Rachel Grey along with the use of Cerebro. This person will be informed of the plan as a whole. This must be put in place before Darkseid attacks.

12) We involve a Blue Lantern if we can get one. I'm looking at you, CandyLaser.

[SuperCracker]

Fred

“Katie, I’d be careful giving the Skrulls your magic to use as they will. I realize we’re trying to give them a chance, but your magic is strong. When the Phoenix Force was just an ember in me, you woke it to nearly the level I’m at now – after a long time struggling to use it. Your ability to augment could be used for a large amount of destruction. One villain with your abilities could make serious threats out of minor enemies. Not everyone is as good as you.”

However… “Healing, though. That’s different. The potential for misuse is much less. If you can, teach them healing spells.”

Ronin still didn’t trust the Skrulls entirely. They were still people that thought mass kidnap and brainwashing was a great idea. There was still a reckoning to be had with certain Skrulls *(see back issues, kids). He wasn’t ready to give them, much less anyone without a pure heart like Katie, keys to the powerup kingdom. Fred wasn't without sympathy, though.

The ancient spirit of the Champion stirred within him. Two peoples drifting through space, avoiding the one that has brought them low. People, just like them in many ways, railing against the darkness. The fae warrior had been called into being by humanity – but the Dream could come from many places.

“Either way, they are without a planet. They have no home… This could be their home. Many of them were victims too. They should know that we're willing to fight for them.” A far cry from the burning angel of vengeance that set upon Rel’Kor and the Keeper of Threes.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Katie nodded. She wasn't entirely sure if the Super-Skrull could take only some of a person's power, but it was worth asking, at least. Adding more healing to the world was pretty much always a good thing. If not, though, she took Fred's concerns seriously. Honestly, the idea of people who could take others' powers, also being able to augment powers, was a scary one. Katie was willing to trust the Skrulls, but there were some things that you didn't leave to trust alone.

Fred's second point brought a smile to her face. It just...wasn't the sort of thing she expected from him. Honestly, after the Ten Second Invasion - and especially after her talk with Starsoul - she hadn't been sure that Fred would be willing to accept any sort of peaceful solution with the Skrulls. Seeing him coming around eased a worry from her heart.

'Course, they'd have to handle this trial thing, and Darkseid, and all that. But they'd figure it out. One step at a time.

There was a tiny, niggling part of Katie that wondered about this personality change, coming as it had on the heels of his Phoenix transformation. She had to wonder if this were a sign of the Phoenix's influence - and if so, did that mean she had been wrong and the Dark Phoenix could result in him doing a complete 180 into evil and destruction. But she shook off the concerns. It wouldn't be unfair to say her own behavior had made a marked shift after her talk with Kayla. She wasn't going to assume there was anything more to it than that - especially if the change was making Fred happier.

"Okay, so, what else? We have awesome superpowered world-fixing, and hope-spreading, and Spirit Bombs...what else can we do?"