A Heroes Challenge IC (Worm-Verse Game)

[Silent_p]

Amateur Psychologist

Jack's words were nice to hear. He, at least, didn't seem to hold her inaction against her. Not to her face, anyway. She nodded slowly at his advice. "Okay," she said after a further moment's thought. "Focus less on what I'm doing, more on why I'm doing it."

Slightly uncertain about how to continue, she chose to stand and look at her teammate. "Thanks, Jack. Look, I'm not sure how much help I can be but I'd be glad to return the favour if you ever want to unload like this."

New Kid In Class

As Director Sanderson outlined some possibilities for combat training, Ji Yu considered her own situation. Sure, she'd taken self-defence classes and such but, in all honesty, she was ill-prepared for actual combat. The classes she'd attended had rightly focused on avoiding and escaping threats. Now, she had to confront them, if not head-on, then at least far more directly. It wasn't something she'd really considered until recently. She'd raised it as a concern before and was glad it was finally being addressed.

Team Lunch

Nodding, Ji Yu took a seat opposite Robert and glanced around. Before she had a chance to say anything, Josie arrived, appearing somewhat nervous. Comparing this image of the woman with her prowess yesterday eased some of Ji Yu's tension. Standing, she opened her arms and stepped forward. "Well, I, for one, would love a hug," she said, smiling more genuinely now. "And thank you for checking, much appreciated."

Once re-seated, she turned to Robert. "Environmental activism, mostly. Marches, protests, the whole nine yards. Not always stuff I'm still proud of, though but let's not sour the mood. New job, new Ji Yu." She flashed a quick grin to hide her anxiety.

[Sønderjye]

The materialized arm of the law

Patch looks suprised when asked the question. He hadn't actually given that any thoughts and only accepted what had happened and tried to make the best out of a suboptimal situation. He found himself without a knee-jerk reaction. ".. It depends what you mean when you say hero. If you mean someone who on a big scale helps humans then yes." He slowly answers as thoughts forms in his head. "But if you mean someone like rushing head first into danger... I don't know. I think my abilities might do more good if I just had a lot of money and could sit in a lab, although I admit that is quite an idealised situation"

Amateur Psychologist

Patch smiles as Ji Yu takes his advice. He noticed himself relaxing a little but then immidiately catching himself relaxing and starts to wonder whether this was an intentional move by her.

And now she gave him the option of pouring out his heart and secrets. His suspicion was growing stronger.
"Thanks for the offer but I don't think there's anything that I need to unload right now." He responds before continueing, now a little more energetic, "Something that I have been thinking about thought is if there's a kind of tech that would help you out. I think there could be a ton of uses if we could think of something that could help direct your explosions but I am having trouble wrapping my mind around it. What kind of explosion is it that your power makes when you jumps and is it correct that you or nothing that you take with you is damaged by it? Does it appear around your body or where is it origin?"

[Writtensanity]

Loaded Up:

I wasn't a person who whistled. I wasn't a whistler. That was how you annoyed people, made them take away your toys. At least that'd what I'd learned with my Mom when she took care of me. She'd knocked the whistle out of my lips but god damn holding a rifle brought it back. I checked the scope again before taking a look downrange. The range was short, but it was enough for today.

Honestly, if I were being objective I probably would have dropped the guns by this point. I had a power now that could hit a cape in ways that a gun never could. That being said, god damn, holding the rifle again felt better than literally shooting from my arms. I could blast a couple hundred feet, this thing I could nail from a mile.

Well maybe not anymore.

I was early so I got some shots in, the range was short, but it was good enough for a lesson.

Team Lunch:

This was the place, at least I hoped it was. What the hell was I supposed to do to the person at the front counter? 'Hey, have you seen a team of capes out of costume around here? No? Oh alright.' What if I couldn't find them. I'd made a right ass of myself in front of the kids before and now I was standing here with my- oh wait, there they were, easy enough.

"Hey, uh, sorry I'm late new to Miami and all. Don't worry though, not planning on going missing or-" **** I was too far in, "anything," I finished as quietly as I could before taking the empty seat. Yayyyyyyyy.

[GameOfChampions]

New Kid on the Block

Sanderson does shrug a little in response to Jacks question "Well I'm glad you've found something that could maybe help with the Insight problem and you raise a good point with bringing in the villains. With that and Alpha Girls interview the PR department is pretty happy with the start we have here, I think I could convince them for an increase in the budget next month. I don't know how much yet but it's better then nothing."

Checking In

"No Problem sir the extension to their room, and room number, is 244 and they should be there now if you want to talk to them. Have a nice day." The women says brightly before returning you to the wait line of the hospital phone where you could enter the extension if you wished.

Downtime

The next two days are uneventful, allowing you all to spend the time as you wish. However as night falls on the second day you all receive an urgent call from the Director saying the same thing to all of you "I need you in my office now. This is a potential Class A threat scenario."

Crunch Time

The director is sitting behind her desk clenching her jaw and trying to suppress a tic in her eye as she watches a video on her tv on the wall. "Everyone sit down please, I'll explain momentarily when everyone's here."

Spoiler

Show

Hey I know this is short but you all have 2 days of downtime to start, and possibly finish, any scenes with each other that you want and have practice time and whatnot. This could be used to create any gear or buy it if you want. The next update will outline the threat bearing down on you

[Chivy]

New kid on the block

Josie looked at Jack, confused. She didn't quite comprehend why he thought her power didn't add up. She went over the conversation for a moment, then thought about the fight.
'Sharp.' She finally said, nodding to herself.
'In the fight Sharp-me realed the others in. Uhmm.. How do I explain this...' She took another moment to think about it then started explaining
'When I split there are three me's, three me's thinking and three me's seeing what's going on. All three are me, but I'm not one person with three bodies. There isn't somekind of overmind. Each of me has precisely the same memmories I had untill the moment I split, and when the split ends I'll have all the memmories of all three of me made during the split.'

'Now imagine you look to the right and you see a dog wagging it's tail. You'll probably think about that dog a certain way. Imagine if you look to the left, and hadn't looked to the right, and see a snarling dog. You'll probably think about that dog in a different way. Your thoughts might be different, but you're still you. Regardless of the dog you looked at.'
'That's what happens when I split, my different selves might make different calls or do things sligtly different, but that's just me reacting to what I know and can see.'

She hoped that she hadn't confused the explanation too much, but Patch was a tinker so he should be able to handle it.
'Sharp-me has a whole slew of hightened senses and is quick-witted enough that she usually sees both dogs, the third one hiding in the corner and the half a dozen cats sneaking around.'

'I killed that methaphor didn't I? Well what I'm trying to say is that when Sharp-me makes a call like I did in the fight, force-me and deft-me listen.'

'Does that even remotely clear things up, or did I just confuse it even further?' she finally finished.


Echo nodded when the director told them that they had a list of vetted trainers ready to go.
'I'm going to start a close quarter training regiment every other day, from say... nine to eleven. Starting tomorrow. I hope all of you will join me.'
She looked at the others before continueing.
'It won't matter if we're naturally inclined to long range or short, at some point we'll all find ourselves in hand to hand. We'd best know how to at least hold our own untill help can come charging in.'

Team lunch

'Wife?' Josie asked as she hugged Robert, then she gave Jui Yi one. Josie had been average in anmost everything in her life, but her hugs were almost works of art. She had hugged her brothers and sisters almost every day of her life, hugged her friends, collegues, random strangers in bars. She had practiced untill she could almost convey bookloads of information with a hug. She took extra care to give both her teammates warmth in the hug, but she tried to convey respect for an older married man in her hug with Robert, something like a dad-hug, and support for someone who was having a hard time in her hug with Jui Yi, a sisterly hug.
'I was reminded that not everybody likes casual contact today, so I figured I would ask before I made someone uncomfortable.' She answered Jui Yi, then sat down with Robert to her left and Jui Yi to her right.

She nodded when Jui Yi spoke of a new job and new look on life.
'Getting powers changes everything. I had a office job before. Mostly filing and client support. Very boring. I spent a few months on the street after...'
Josie swallowed. The accident might not have given her powers, but for her it was every other part of a trigger event.
'....and then I got a new job and eventually met you.' She finished with forced levity, before quickly trying not to move the conversation past her hickup.
'What about you Robert, what did you do before?'

When Graham showed he proceded to put another foot in his mouth before sitting down. Josie had to work to keep the frown off her face and then had to remind herself that he was probably just nervous. Why did he have to remind her of spook every time they saw each other?
'Well better late than never.' She tried to sound sincerely pleased that he had joined them, even if he was late.
'I usually hug people hello, I don't like the kissing hello thing. But before I invade your personal space; how do you usually like to say hello?'
There, that was sort of inviting and in no way significantly different than when she greeted the other two. Right?

Training day (Downtime).

Echo stepped into the gym in costume, but without any of her other gear. It would only get in the way during training.

It was 8:50 am, she was early. She like to be early so she could tale a few minutes to get in the right headspace before starting the day's training.

She had looked over the list supplied by the Director and made a top three of trainers she'd like to train under, then forwarded those to the director. She wondered which one(s) would be here this morning. She hoped the rest of the team would be here. If she had been made teamleader like Alpha Girl suggested in her interview, she'd of made it mandatory, like it was with her previous team. But now all she could do was hope that the others realised how important this was..

8:52 am. She started her breathing exercises and stretched.

Crunch Time

Echo sat down, her nerves had been raw from the moment she had received the call.
Potential Class A threat
She received the extra pay and perks that came with being a cape signed up to combat the S class threats, but she thought it'd be months before she actually faced something truly, mindboggilingly dangerous. Not in her first week in a new city.
She was glad her mask hid most of her features and the armor panels forced her to sit upright. At least she might look confident.

[Rofltrollcopter]

Spoiler: OOC:

Show

I do intend to respond to 'Team Lunch' and the 'Materialized Arm of the Law', but I will not be able to until tomorrow afternoon.

Checking In

Robert thanked the receptionist, and dialed the number that he was given. Hello?

Crunch Time

Robert had skimmed enough of the PRT documentation to have a sense of the implications of the Director's warning. He was seated at the conference table, and his knuckles were white as he gripped the table. Are we calling in reinforcements?

[Sønderjye]

New kid in class

"Hmmm. Alright.." Patch responds partly convinced. "Can you then enlighten on how the thought process of Sharp and Deft differed when Sharp told Deft not to pursuit? Sharp wasn't there and had even less information than Deft since she wasn't there."

"Thank you director" Jacks says. He had been seeking a one term shot but he'd take a permanent increase anytime.


Mad Scientist and his unnatural creations

"Beep"

"Argh!" Patch shouts as he in frustration slams his fist into the table , causing the small mountain of coffee cups to bounce dangerously. "This takes forever!". The sound was a signal that his last adjustment hadn't been precise enough. "I would have finished this yesterday if I could actually see what I am doing!". Sure, the microscopes and the PRT equiptment was useful but it didn't really cut it when you were building robots which length were measured in nanometers.

He leans back into the chair and stretches his arms over his head. An alarm goes off and the chock nearly makes him tip over. "Hmm, I guess it's time" he says, getting up and giving a long look at the table before he heads out of the room.

Training Day(Downtime)

About 8.59 Patch shows up at the gym. He is holding a big cup of coffee and the bags under his eyes suggests that he have slept less that one ought. "Hey" he greets Josie before taking another sip and walking over to take a chair until he would be called into action.

Crunch Time

Patch was actually suprisingly calm about this whole thing. The call itself wouldn't actually disrupt his inventions. He had managed to reach a point not long before when the first Sir 2 was fully functional and while they were too few still he had given them the blueprints and felt confident that they could finish the rest by themselves.

He sits down and looks attentively around, looking slightly more rested than when the team saw him the last time.

[GameOfChampions]

Training Day (Downtime)

Around 8:45 all three of the trainers showed up ready to train; there was a hand to hand expert in Muay Thai to train those who wanted in street fighting, an ex-navy seal who specialized in knife fighting and other melee weapons, and an ex-UFC fighter and judo expert who would help those who wanted to know more about grappling and holds. They brought all their gear and were ready to go with everyone who wanted to train.

Spoiler

Show

Everyone feel free to make some assumptions and control the trainers a bit if you want. I doubt I know any more about this stuff then any of you guys, or hell maybe some of you do know a hell of a lot more then I do.

Checking In

"Hi" A young sounding girls voice answers the phone quizzically, "This is Sofia, can I ask who this is?"

Crunch Time

The director shrugs a bit "Kind of? A class A threat doesn't require reinforcements so we haven't had many takers aside from a few within the state itself and dragon declined due the... unique nature of the threat. However the PRT has put the full force of their resources at our disposal for the period of the threat. Now let's take a look at the threat itself on the footage of a drone we sent out to record our first encounter.." She gestures to the TV and presses a button on a remote near her to play it.

The video starts to play and everyone can see that it's a long distance camera. In the center of what seems to be a a dust storm is a man shaped figure who is walking calmly through the duststorm, however as you watch you can see that there is something wrong with the duststorm. You can see that the storm is only a few hundred feet in length and everything outside it is a normal day, you also notice that several cars and part of a buildings wall are disintegrating into dust at high speeds and that is the source of the duststorm. The director pauses the video right as the camera focuses in on the quick disintegration of a Nissan Versa, "Code named 'Piecemeal' has the ability to disintegrate non-organic matter at high speeds, converting it to the dust you see there. However it doesn't stop there."

The video starts up again and the a few seconds after the video you hear what you recognize as comm traffic "Squad A approach from the east while squads B and C will approach from the North West under the cover of the gutted buildings. Weapons are hot and lethal ammunition is loaded." The camera pans out a ways and switches to thermal, you can all make out the dots of the five man squad on one side and the ten man squad on the other making their way in. They all close in quickly and you hear the first shot fired and then several things happened "He hasn't been hit. I repeat he hasn't been hit. Let's try focus fir- OHHH ****!" The camera switches back to normal and you all see a massive dark shape easily 15 feet tall and as broad as a car form out of the dust in front of the first squad, then another, and another until there are three of these creatures in front of the five man squad another 3 around Piecemeal. At this point you can see the squad start to retreat and the ten man squad on the other side start to do the same with the first squad comming in as they run "HQ send evac now! Our weapons and gear have started to disintegrate and we're being pursued by several large golem creatures! Please send backu-" The comm cuts out and the director stops the video again and this time turns it off.

The director sighs and looks back to the team. "The first squad didn't make it out and the second squad only got out just barely though they did manage to take out a pair of Golems. Our scientists have determined that Piecemeal can convert the inorganic matter he breaks down into these Golems and has a fine control over his disintegration which makes shooting him impossible from within or outside the storm. However the second squad found that he didn't disintigrate their gear though he manifested Golems near them, so we think that the fine control, and therefore ability to disintegrate gear, only works within his vision or possibly is tied to another smaller radius within the larger general disintegration and dust cloud one or conversely it could be tied to things being closer to organic matter instead. We just aren't sure."

[Silent_p]

Amateur Psychologist

Ji Yu smiled ruefully at Jack. "Yeah... It ain't that pretty. I've gotten hurt plenty of times. See, it's not so much an explosion as a localised disturbance based on the element I've melded with and the distance I've snapped. So, I could snap twenty, twenty-five metres with any element and pretty much nothing happens. After that, you're talking gusts of air to mini-tornados, minor tremor to rocks blasted into the air and so on."

She paused, considering. "It's centred on me and seems to emanate outward. I haven't been able get more specific on my own but I'm happy to go through some tests with you, if you're interested? Honestly, anything that could save me broken bones or bruises would be great."

Team Lunch

Glad that the conversation quickly moved away from her past, Ji Yu listened politely as Josie relayed a brief and understandably painful history of her own. She gave the woman a small smile and nodded. They both turned to Robert, curious about what he was willing to share of his own story.

When Graham arrived, flustered, Ji Yu watched him sit without comment. It was unfair how she felt about him for joining the team following CJ's disappearance. She'd have to do better. They all did, really. Josie was still a little harsh with him. She gave the newest member a smile. "No worries, we've barely gotten here ourselves."

Downtime

Dressed in yoga pants and a t-shirt, Ji Yu entered the gym just after 8:55, carrying a bottle of water and looking around for her teammates. Spotting Josie stretching, she wandered over. "Hey. Been here long?" She asked, glancing at the trainers.

Crunch Time

Anxious, Ji Yu nonetheless answered the call. She sat with the others and watched the video quietly. It was a lot to take in and she certainly didn't feel like making the first comment.

[Chivy]

New kid in class

Josie gave Jack a look. It almost felt like he was giving her the third degree for some reason. Then again, he was probably the smartest person in the room, so he might just be curious. Or looking for invention inspiration.
'I wanted to try and hamstring Avatar. You know, the whole bigger they are thing? Taking down two of their capes hurt the shining path, if we could have taken down four in one swoop, that would've crippled them.'
She shrugged, they'd get the other members eventually.
'I was listening in over the comms and with enhanced hearing and a brain that goes a hundred miles an hour, that's almost the same as being there. So I made the call; resqueing civilians, helping our teammates and securing the prisoners we had for sure was more important than attacking fleeing capes.'
She grinned at Jack. She enjoyed leaving things ambiguous as to which her she was talking about.
'And I think I was right, don't you?'

Training Day (Downtime)

Echo introduced herself to each of the trainers. She'd be working with all of them today after she'd split, learning as much as she could from each of them. The muscle memory might not carry over wholesale, about a third from each of her would, but the knowlegde they passed on would stay perfectly intact.
She looked up while stretching and saw Ju Yi enter. Without her costume.
'Only a few minutes. I usually try and be early to most things.' Echo said quietly, then shrugged a bit, it was something her previous team leader had taught her; be on time, it shows you vallue other people's time. A simple matter of respect that she had taken to heart.
'I'm glad you came.' She paused to emphasise the statement then quietly said
'The Director said these guys were vetted, but that we should keep our masks on just to be safe...'

'...Only for protectorate members. The PRT has their own trainers.' She raised her voice as she spoke. It was a lame excuse, she knew it. But it might give Snap's identity a little cover. She'd need to have uncostumed body doubles for each of the team walk in during ore before training to sew seeds of doubt.

Spoiler: already wrote this, so if snap returns

Show

' 'I think the smaller man on the right might be the right one for you. I picked an expert in Judo, but he also has a lot of experience in Aikido and Jui Jitsu. I think they're all related and mostly work with locks, throws, using your enemies strength against them, sneaky tricks and getting yourself out of trouble. Sharp will be training with him as well. The middle one is weapons and the left one does Muay Thai. You can choose whoever you want, or even mix it up each session.'

When Patch walked in she looked at him to make sure he had his costume, or at least his mask on. If not she'd mentally cringe and repeat the same thing she told Ju Yi, though louder and with a frustrated tone of voice.
If and when he walked in in costume or mask she'd sincerely say
'I'm happy you came Patch. Let me introduce you to the different trainers and you can pick the one you feel most comfortable with.'

Crunch Time

'Fu..dge.' Josie said as the video finished. She realised she was almost swearing a lot. Must be the stress of things right now. She took a moment to breathe and run everything through her mind again. She mentally switched gears and tried to get into a detatched professional state of mind. She wished she could split here and have Sharp turn her mind towards the problem, but she probably would need that split within the hour or so.

'Correct me if I'm wrong Director, but going up against a class A threat is voluntary right?' She let that hang in the air for a moment, before continueing
'I will be going. I signed up for S class threats, I won't back out on an A class.'

'I take it that because they were using lethal amunition..., there's a kill order?'

She swallowed at the thought of killing a man. Then looked around the team. They probably had what it took to take this guy down if they all came. They had to be missing something if a novice team could take down a class A threat.

'Interject whenever you have ideas or things to add please.' She started off the same way her old teamleader had. It had made her feel part of the process when he had done it, and if she was going to step up to this she might as well use what she had learned from him.
'He manipulates inorganic matter and turns it into these golems. But he might need focus to do so. Which means that anybody who relies on inorganic matter should stay well away from him. Do we have video or an estimate in what it takes to take the golems down?.'

'Just thinking out loud here, but could PinPoint's lasers or Snap's snap explosion take him down while the rest of us distract him by taking down his golems?'
'If we all decide to come that is.'

'We'll at least need some organic masks and body suits that would at least keep our identities hidden if he decides to destroy our costumes and gear.'

'Patch, is there a way you can fassion some organic projectiles? A wooden stake gun or something like that?'

[Writtensanity]

Crunch Time:

"What's that? 300, 400 feet?" I asked. I'd been quiet up until now. What was the point in talking when people got the air out. How many of us had dealt with capes? I'd been on the first responders before, but we called the PRT to back us up and handle it. Now I was the one handling it. "I can't hit him from outside his thing, I'm 200 feet, maybe 210 if I really got for it. 213 if I jump?" it really wasn't the time for jokes, was it. "Either way, I need time to do anything to him. Each hit hurts him more than the last, but if we're counting on me, that means I need a lot of support keeping him off me and-"

What did we need? "Can we requisition infared goggles so we can see him through all that bull****? Or are those just going to make us blind to the golems, I do- I don't know. Panic isn't the right option though. Every second we're here people... do people die? Is he killing?"


Team Lunch:

"Oh come on, don't lie I was lost for a while," I said. "Not to jump into business, but I have some INSIGHT," I coughed twice to show what I meant, "about all of us being in one place. Also can I get a menu, this is my first sitdown place in Miami."

[Sønderjye]

Amateur Psychologist

"Hmm" Patch nods wisely as he processes the information that Ji Yu.

He smiles big at Ji Yu's question: "I would love to, maybe later today?"

New kid on the block

Making the connection Patch grins back. "I do"

Loaded up

Jack is amused by the almost orgasmic look on Graham's face. Yes. I know it's brilliantly made, I'm pretty awesome, he thought quite self-pleased with his baby and totally oblivious to the real reason behind Graham's joy. "I call it UTME, don't ask me what it stands for" he says almost reluctant to draw the fellow hero out of his blissful state. "Would you mind if I film this lecture so I can go over it later when I need to?"

Training Day

The costumed hero looks around uncertain about what to do. This thing about actually fighting with his hands wasn't really his thing and he hoped someone would tell him where to begin. He makes a concious effort not to look at Ji Yu's fitting pants.

When Echo called on him he came over feeling relieved.

Crunch Time

With an eye movement Patch opens up the file on Piecemeat from the PRT database.

"There is a kill order" he confirms. "But I can't seem to figure out why. What have he done beyond protection himself director?" he looks questioning on the director.

"If we are to go immediately I can't do anything. My bullets are made for obstructing movement of human-sized individuals and they won't affect 15 feet tall golems at all", he thinks out loud. "The bullets that I use right now are just specially designed containers that normally contain compressed containment foam. I could fill them with something different but it'll take some time for it to arrive, unless the PRT have kolokol-1 or anthrax lying around."

At the mention of retaining their secret identities Patch doesn't immediately respond. Instead he uses his glasses to analyze the structure of his teamates outfit, looking to see if they contained carbon atoms.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Note: So if the clothing was made from anything plant based like cotton it would contain atom and therefore be considered organic.

[Silent_p]

Amateur Psychologist

"Sounds like a plan," Ji Yu said with a nod. She had no idea where they'd experiment. A controlled environment would produce the best results. Maybe there was a room they could commandeer in the HQ, work just on air for the moment? Would there be sufficient space, though, both for her to snap far enough and Jack to be clear of the blast zone...

"I'll look into getting us some space and get back to you."

Training Day

Ji Yu's face paled as she got the implication of Josie's comment. "Crud," she said quietly, giving her teammate what was hopefully a subtle yet apologetic look.

She then nodded politely as Josie outlined each trainer's expertise. Eyeing them briefly, she considered what she needed. "I can usually snap out of trouble," she mused, "but, honestly, I probably need all the help I can get. So. Time to go all pot pourri." She grinned briefly, not seeming to care how obscure or lame the joke was.

Stepping forward, she approached the nearest trainer and nodded to them. "I'll start here then."

Team Lunch

Ji Yu frowned at Graham's mention of their foe. "Let's not talk shop, hmm?" She glanced at the menu again, attempting to move the conversation on. "Definitely going for the gnocchi."

Crunch Time

As the more proactive members began asking questions and discussing the practicalities, Snap took a deep breath and mentally put on her scientist hat. "A lot of this is going to depend on the power," she said as Patch wound down. "Is it bound by the Manton effect or the scientific sense of organic versus inorganic? Roughly speaking, chemically inorganic means no carbon but, based on the footage, it didn't look like his power discriminated that much. Plus, it's not exactly a perfect division..." She looked at the director. "Can I get a copy of that footage for review on a mobile device?"

Another thought occurred to her. "What kind of time limit do we have? Time enough to review that scene in person?" She gestured briefly at the monitor, indicating the site of the destruction.

[GameOfChampions]

Crunch Time

"Piecemeal first showed up around an hour outside of Tampa and has been making his way down on foot ever since, we thought nothing of it at first and were preparing someone to meet with him when he went through a town. He disintegrated part of a mid sized work building during the middle of the day and it collapsed killing 57 people with more still being found in the wreckage and he has caused untold property damage and injuries. There have been more injuries as he traveled through a couple more populated areas but no more civilian deaths. Even though we gave an order for him to be left alone until we handled the matter an independent hero from Tampa took matters into his own hand and tried to take him down... we found his body in the wreckage Piecemeal left behind." Sanderson sighs and then gestures to the TV "That was when we tried bringing in some specialist teams to take him down and you all saw how that went."

"As far as his power it seems to be based on the Manton effect not actual organic matter so your gear will be in danger if you get to close. On that note we'll be replacing any gear that is destroyed in the fight. We'll be providing anything you need as well so we could provide some infrared goggles if you wanted as well as some other stuff, and you'll all have access to the video as well. To protect your identities we'll provide green wood masks for the fight that you can use. Now Echo I'd like you to take point on this mission and from current estimations he'll reach the outskirts of Miami in 12 hours."

[Rofltrollcopter]

Crunch Time

Robert was lost in thought. Do we have any idea what Piecemeal wants? What his objective is?

[Chivy]

Training Day

‘So how long does it take you to.. snap?’ Josie asked Snap when she turned to the trainers.
‘I prefer to fight with some misdirection, attacking from an unexpected direction. Your power, wow. If you can incorporate your snaps into a fighting style you’d be a terror in fights.’
She shook her head at the idea of a teleporting opponent.

‘Don’t worry Patch’ Echo said when her teammate walked over to her, looking ill at ease.
‘I picked these three trainers because they are good at their respective martial arts, but mostly because they have very good reviews for training beginner and intermediate students. They’ll get us up to speed soon enough.’

She looked around, a bit disappointed the others weren’t there, then shrugged. They might still come in late, or.. well it was time to get started.
‘Using my power, don’t be alarmed.’

She stepped out of herself, each version of herself taking a moment to stretch before moving towards one of the trainers.
Sharp joined the judo trainer, Deft the Muay Thai trainer and Force the navy seal.
Force would have to pull her punches, but for now she was more interested in fending off an attack (and Force could take full contact as long as the weapons weren’t sharp).
Deft would have to keep herself slow. But with all three of them asking questions and learning the theory behind the techniques, these training sessions would be extremely effective. Even if whatever muscle memory she was building up with each of her selves would only have a fraction of the effect when she merged again. No shortcuts with getting physically fit it seemed.

Team Lunch

Josie cringed when Graham almost said ‘Hint. Hint. Wink. Wink.’ while talking about the person who had ruined the lives of the previous Miami protectorate. Thankfully Ji Yu called him on it in a much nicer way than Josie would have.
‘Yes, let’s leave work in the office and focus on enjoying lunch.’ She agreed while perusing the menu.
‘I think I’ll start with tomato soup as the antipasti, followed by the risotto.’
She then looked up at Graham and cocked her eyebrow
‘So what did you do before your current job?’

Crunch Time

Echo listened to the others, nodding at PinPoint’s explanation of his powers.
‘How does your power stack? How many shots do you need to knock somebody out?’
She stopped short of asking how many shots he needed to kill. She gave Patch a look when he mentioned using kolokol-1 or anthrax.
‘I don’t know what Kolokol-1 is, but I think anthrax takes at least a few days to get things done. In any case let’s not default to biological warfare from the get go, ok?’
She listened to Snap’s questions, impressed at the breadth of her knowledge. She had a good head on her shoulders at least. Josie realised that that was true for most of the team. Together they should have the brainpower to think up solutions for most things.

Echo almost jumped when the Director told her she was to run point. She had expected that somebody more experienced would be brought in to run the mission. She had only a little combat experience and never against anything like a Class A threat.
She swallowed, then took a deep breath before she answered.
‘Yes Director. ’
Echo was surprised that her voice was steady. She knew it was a temporary assignment, someone would be brought in who had earned their stripes once the threat posed by Insight or his mystery employer was removed, but a wrong decision against a Class A could get people hurt or even killed.
‘Ok. All right. Yes.’
She took another breath and looked around the team, then decided that being open might actually be for the best here.
‘That was unexpected. I thought one of our reinforcements with more experience would take the lead. So I’ll need your help in hashing out a plan. I have the basics of an idea, but it needs crystallizing into a plan and a lot of it is based on guesswork. So whatever ideas you have, please share them.
She looked around the table again before continuing.
‘I prefer misdirection and coming at somebody from an angle they don’t expect. Having them fight Force while they’re expecting Sharp or switching in Deft while they were just facing Force is the main part of my combat training with my previous team. I think something similar might be something we can use here. Coming at him from multiple directions. Using smoke, flashbangs or somethings like them to disorient or blind him, things like that. Is smoke inorganic? Could he vaporize something that’s already vapour?’
She looked at Patch and Snap as she asked those questions, before continuing
‘Without having seen the video I assume that if the PRT team was able to take out a few of his golems, Vanguard and Force will probably be able to do the same on their own. Otherwise some kind of grenade launcher might work as well as long as Piecemeal is distracted.’

‘So the rough plan would be for smoke grenades to be dropped into the area to cut down visibility. Then Force and Vanguard move in to engage golems, hopefully at separate locations, pulling his attention to them. Then we need some kind of sneak attack. Greenwood sniper stake, Laser beams or Snap attack. Assuming he’ll stop them, or not be taken out by it, he’ll probably create more golems, which need to be handled and at the same time another sneak attack from a different direction needs to happen. We’ll have to change it up, move positions and keep him off balance until we take him down.’

‘That would be my preferred way of doing it, but if any one of you has a better idea or there are glaring holes in it that you think we can patch, I’m all ears. .’

Echo listened to what the others said, before a thought struck her and she said
‘Snap, Patch. I’m not one hundred percent familiar with how the Manton effect would work in these kind of situations, but if I had a metal rod, completely covered in something like a green sapling, would he be able to effect it?’

Spoiler

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Posts are getting longer and longer. Sorry, was just catching up.

[Sønderjye]

Training Day

Patch visibly relaxes at Echo's calming words. It was nice to have someone who knew what they were doing when you were out of your comfort zone. He sends her a smile before turning to the instructors: "So I have 0 combat experience. Squat. Alright we did take down a few capes the other day but I wasn't anywhere close. Where do I start?"

Crunch Time

"Right" Patch responds feeling a bit dumb. This wasn't science he had to remind himself off, this was superpowers which often worked conceptually.

He looks questioning at the director not failing to notice how she didn't completely answer the question. Something irked him about this whole situation, especially that his allies seemed to blindly accept that they were going to butcher a man who seemingly had gone out of his way to avoid hurting civilians after a single incident: "Director, can we also see the feed where the PRT tried to communicate with him and tried to help him with his newly achieved power?"

Patch frowns when corrected. Invisibly to all he does a quick search on the net and his frown turns to suprise: "You're right. Anthrax does indeed have an incubation period in days. I'll admit I haven't really looked into anything living after I got my power, I just remembered Anthrax from that letter crisis. Kolokol-1 is an incapication agent", he pauses thinking before continueing: "I don't really like the connotations that comes with biological weapons but in a situation like this where we can expect that anything non-living will be dissolved it makes a lot of sense to use living weapons. In theory something like plant poison or snake venom might work too but those aren't really living after leaving the plant."

Patch shares Echo's confusion. It really did seem like the PRT wanted to screw them over as much as possible. Why on earth would you send a squad of newbies to fight a A-class fight after making sure that none of them had been allowed to be upgraded?

Crunch later

Once Patch have gotten his questions answered
"So this is just speculations" Patch chimes in: "But look at how his power doesn't affect the ground he is standing on. There's a fair chance that is keyed to the part of his brain that determines up and down. If you get a good hit to the head he might trip himself."

"Most smoke isn't organic and he could probably disolve it or move it" he confirms: "You could make a cloud of spores which would be organic but that's not realistic within our time limit. That said we can probably buy ourselves some time to come in position if he has to focus on dissolving the smoke."

"Vanguard" Patch looks at the big hero: "I'll suggest that you find a turtle or something else with a hard shell or an exoskeleton for your power this time. I think that there is a risk that his power might not recognize you as living if you are transformed into some metal."

He doesn't chime in with other ideas as to how to fight, feeling that the more experienced cape's plan sounded good, and simply shrugs at the question. There were too many unknown parameters to give a precise question to that.

[Silent_p]

Trial and Error

Ji Yu took a little time to acquaint herself with the room she'd secured following a brief inquiry. It had turned out to be much more straightforward than she'd feared. The space was hardly long or wide enough to accommodate a full hundred metre snap in one direction but was sufficient for some circuitous maneouvers.

She'd sent Jack a quick message giving him the time and location. He'd seemed eager at the time they'd discussed it so hopefully he'd be free and willing. Curious, she tried a few air-based snaps as she waited, getting a feel for the best route to take to maximise her distance and noting a safe place for Jack to stand and observe.

Despite the obvious benefits to be gained from the experimentation, Ji Yu was nervous. She'd never really snapped much in front of people before and certainly not under such intense observation. After a couple more snaps back and forth, she took a moment to stand and take some calming breaths.

Training Day

Glancing at Echo, Ji Yu shrugged. "Depends how far I go. I try to keep to small jumps to eliminate the... 'side effects' so mostly less than a second. A full snap is about four seconds and a hundred metres. Big badda boom after that, though," she smiled ruefully. "Plus, gotta have a clear route, so short hops are easier." She took a moment before approaching the trainer to consider Echo's combat implications. "If I can keep my timing, I should be able to get in and outta dodge fairly effectively."

Team Lunch

As Josie took up some of the conversation slack, Ji Yu was content to see if Graham was able to take the less than subtle hint. She really hoped the meal could progress smoothly.

Crunch Time

Continuing to try and mask her nervousness, Snap tried a grin at Echo's suggestion. "Snap attack? I like it. Though, much as I'm game for some fun, a sudden readiness for skinny-dipping wouldn't be my first option. Anything we could coat our costumes in?" She asked, glancing at Patch. "Something that wouldn't be susceptible to his ability?"

[GameOfChampions]

Crunch Time

Sandersons mouth twitches a bit in a small smile "Yes let's not start off with biological warfare. However I'm putting you in charge because I want a local PRT member in charge of the operation to get the experience of operating on this scale within the city and I'm considering you for a leadership position here. Those sound like good ideas and you can all hash them out together."

The Director shakes her head "We aren't sure what Piecemeal wants or his goals. We aren't sure but he seems single minded in his journey and we have not seen anyone enter his storm to talk to him or reach out to him at all either. We never had the chance to reach out to him before this went down, we were getting someone who was trained in hostile parahuman negotiations to meet with him but the same day he appeared on our radar he caused the building collapse that killed all the civilians and killed the independent hero. After that he was given kill order status. It was determined he was a danger to civilians and had no regard to civilian lives."

Spoiler

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I'm enjoying the longer posts guys!

[Chivy]

Training Day

‘Does your snap take time for you to reappear after you disappear or does it take time to activate?’ Echo asked, intrigued at how teleporting could be used.
‘When you have the timing down, I’d be glad to help you train against specialised opponents. Force could help to take on those stronger than you, Deft those faster and Sharp those with extraordinary senses. And you’d help me by teaching me how to fight a teleporter.’

‘Can you take people with you when you snap?’

Crunch Time

Josie nodded when the Director said that she was considering her for a leadership position. She’d had her powers for less than a year, had been with the protectorate for less than six months and might soon be leading the protectorate team in a major city. She didn’t know if she was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning or scared witless. She settled somewhere in the middle, which turned out to be a kind of calm acceptance, and focussing on the problem at hand. She’d figure out how she felt about it later.

‘How fast acting is Kokoli-1? And more importantly; is there an inoculation?’ Echo asked Patch. She didn’t even try to hide that she was interested in an option that would leave Peacemail alive, but incapacitated.
‘If there isn’t a way to immunize ourselves it’ll be too dangerous for us to use, but if there is it’d be one he.. ck of a way to stop a threat like this.’

She then turned to Sanderson, a thought popping up in her mind.
‘Director, I take it the local police or PRT will evacuate the area Peacemail is heading for? Keeping them from the line of fire would make everything a lot easier.’

She grinned at Snap’s skinny-dipping remark.
‘Well if worst comes to worst, we can probably braid some leaves and reed into some very uncomfortable bikinis. They’ll at least protect our modesty, but hopefully we can find something more efficient.’

Echo then looked around the room, trying to meet everyone’s eyes.
‘So we have twelve hours before he walks into Miami. Our city. I’d like to be ready to go in ten hours, so we can stop him from entering any populated areas. Evacuated or not.’

‘I suggest we all watch the videos, then do some checking on what would protect our gear and what kind of weapons might work against him. Then we can reconvene in an hour or so and hash out a few plans of attack.’

‘What do you guys think?’

[Sønderjye]

Meeting with the director

Patch stares at the director in disbelief. What, how? Most importantly why?! She just took the liquid and injested it without even considering whether it was poissonous or even unintentionally dangerous. The next words that came out of her mouth shocked him even further: "I'll approve this here, Jack. We won't need to take it upstairs". Was this a trick? It had to be! Jack thought hard and long about what had just happened and suddenly the realization hit him like a truck. She has been watching me! That had to be why she was so confident, she had seen what he had made it off. At first he felt anger boiling up but it was soon overshadowed by the smug feeling of having outsmarted one's opponent. She thought he thought that she was being the greater person and showing trust while in actuality she was just playing him. But he could play better! "On the condition that I can have some now and then", she added in a tone that probably was supposed to be humorous. Oh if she knew how he had seen through her mocking

"Thank you director", Patch responds with the friendliest smile he can muster: "Would you like it brought here or would you like to swing by my office on occations, I'll probably have some left most of the day." In truth it didn't really matter whether she came in person or watched him on the cameras.


Trial and Error

Not long after Ji Yu had arrived to the room clanks and groans are heard from the outside. The door opens and the tinker enters dragging along a small wagon with a bunch of.. interestingly looking instruments, in addition to a big cardboard box, and a container and two cups dangerously moving from side to side on top of it.

"Hey Ji Yu" Jack greets with a big smile. He is wearing his normal comstume except that his hands are bare and that his trenchcoat is replaced with a lab coat. A few plastic gloves is visible in the pockets and small oil marks appears on the coat. "Coffee?" he offers once he have come into the room.

He starts out taking the instruments off and setting up base in a corner of the room.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

If you choose to take the coffee let GoC post what happens afterwards.

Crunch Time

Patch can feel the underlying anger at the PRT crawling towards the surface. Rather than expressing it outright he keeps his voice calm as he asks the director: "Would it be possible for me to try to speak with him and try to convince him to seize aggresions before we murder him?"

"I'm not sure" Patch concedes. "But it's a gas and no there's no vaccine, so it's probably less than preferable. Also in retrospect I'm not sure if it's even organic" He sits on the issue for a little while before his eyes wide: "But I can make something that is essentially living chloroform. I can't make you immune to it but I'll have an antidote in care you are hit. If allowed?" he asks the director.

He looks apologizing at Josie: "I won't have time to grow a suit of plants for you guys. If I had had more time I could have 3D printed something but I think that right now our best guess would be to cover yourself in some vegetable liquid like sunflower oil or orange juice or whatever. His power might sense that it came from organic similar to a wood mask. If you want to go a step further you could probably make some liquid mix with eggs, since those could potentially have become living creatures."

[Rofltrollcopter]

Crunch Time

In response to Jack's suggestion about how Piecemeal's power and his might interact, Robert looked startled. Can we find some way we could test that? I don't know how often the PRT can get their hands on that many tortoise shells. He thought for a moment Wasn't there a guy in Boston whose power turned them into living metal? Weld or something like that? Wouldn't my power work like his?

Checking In

Robert choked up a bit when he heard the young girl's voice on the phone. He was a father, but it didn't give him any special insight into what to say here. Hey.. he said in a hesitating voice, but he managed to regather himself. It's Vanguard, the guy from yesterday. How are you and your sister doing?

[Silent_p]

Trial and error

Ji Yu watched as her teammate entered the room with what appeared to be most of the contents of one of the PRT labs. She chuckled briefly. "Hey. You sure you're ready?" She asked, gesturing at the equipment. "Cause, y'know how irritating it is when you think you've got everything then find out you've left the kitchen sink behind..." She spotted the precariously balanced cups and rescued one for herself. "Thanks."

Stepping back to observe, she took another look around the room. "Not sure if you'd anything in mind just yet but I figured I'd start with a couple of demonstration snaps and hope I don't fall on my face under the scrutiny." Ji Yu smiled and took a sip of her drink.

Training day

Ji Yu nodded in response to Echo's offer. "Thanks. Bouncing our powers off each other sounds good. Great way to work out any annoyances with someone when they mess up with cape etiquette too," she added quietly with a grin. "As for snapping, there's like this arbitrary four second deal I've got to work around; four seconds to reach max distance and four seconds between each snap." She shrugged, then smiled and winked. "Can't carry anyone either but hey, you work with what you've got, right?"

Crunch time

Snap gave a brief laugh at Echo's reply. "We could be Alice and Eve!" She laughed again before sobering in the face of the outstanding threat.

She considered Vanguard's question. "That sounds like the Manton effect in operation. It seems likely that..." She trailed off, thinking for a moment. "When you use your ability, does the material cover you or do you turn into it?"

[GameOfChampions]

Trial and Error

As soon as the first few sips of coffee hits your stomach you can feel a rush of caffeine that leaves you as wired as if you'd had at least two full cups.

Meeting with the Director

Sanderson looks at you and has a small sigh and rolls her eyes "You can just send it up when you have a moment. Have a good day."

Checking In

The Sofia's voice gets very high pitched and you hear some excited whispering before the girl answers you "Hi Mr. Vanguard! Me and my sister are doing much better, we'll be out later and our mom stopped by before she headed over to the apartment to sort some stuff out." You can hear Sofia get noticeably more sad at this point. "Anyway my sister and I just wanted to thank for what you did for us! We can't thank you enough."

Crunch Time

The director nods her head to Vanguard "Yes our testing concluded you would count as organic to powers that effect the inorganic. We based this off some tests on you and some tests on other Breaker and Changer capes like Weld and Raymancer who both have or can change into traditionally non organic forms."

"You are, of course, welcome to talk to him and try to talk him down from his course of action but he is highly dangerous and hasn't shown compunction about killing in the past. Non-lethal weapons are completely allowed in this case, and you have the go ahead to create these living chloroform doses, but if Piecemeal is taken nonlethally the PRT will be shipping him immediately to the Birdcage for holding if he isn't sentenced to death by the Florida government. "

She pulls up several maps with some areas darkened and a red line snaking through Florida. "This is Piecemeals route that he is taking, he is the red line, and the dark blue is the storm surrounding him. We have the areas being evacuated in grey." She gestures to the screen and you can see the small blue dot that is Piecemeal as well as the grey areas surrounding the blue and the areas that the red line had passed through. "There will hopefully be no civilians in the areas and only active participants. Assume that anyone not on your comms system or reacting to the stranger protocol pass codes are hostiles."

[Chivy]

Training Day
“Four seconds can be a long time when in a fight.” Echo nodded, finally seeing where some of Snap’s fear of combat might be coming from.
“My power needs to rest for an hour between uses as well. So I guess we’ve both got some sort of stupid time constraints. I was thinking of seeing if there was some kind of way to shorten that. Maybe some sort of training or tinker device could help us both in that department.”
“I’ll talk to Patch about it. But later, for now we have a lot to learn.” She nodded at their trainer.

Crunch time
Echo laughed with Snap. “We might like it so much that we’ll make that a team theme.”
Laughing helped her feel less overwhelmed. It was still a monumental job, but with everybody’s help it might not be impossible. When the director informed them that Vanguard’s power wouldn’t turn him into some kind of man-turtle.
“Good to know. So you’ll want to merge with whatever makes you strongest, Vanguard. You and Force will probably be our defensive line.”

Echo took a moment to think and then laid out what she thought would be the best idea.
“So my plan would be this, but please tell me where I’m assuming too much, or making a mistake;”
“Force will confront Peacemeal by herself from the east, throwing flash bangs, smoke and anything we can think of that’ll distract. This’ll hopefully get his full attention and have him create golems to stop me. Vanguard will then move in from the north with PinPoint taking pot-shots at Peacemeal. That’ll probably get his attention quick enough so Vanguard will probably have to keep PinPoint safe from golems quick enough.”

“Then Deft will move in from the south, running into the storm and attacking Peacemeal with whatever weapon we can find that’ll not be disintegrated. I’m thinking bamboo. Snap, will then Snap-attack and try and hit Peacemeal with her explosion and any kind of knockout drugs we can get out hands on. Bamboo spikes with any narcotic might do it. I’ll try and keep his, or the golems he’s probably forming by then, attention on Deft-me while Snap snaps out again to rearm and repeat.”

“Patch will be up on a vantage with whatever he can cobble up to take pot-shots at Peacemeal. Sharp will be circling the storm with whatever weapon the PRT used to down the golems to keep them contained and helping out where she can. I’ll need some explanation on how those work.
Keeping him reacting and off balance will be key here. There’s only one of him, even if he can create and direct golems and there are many of us. We use that against him.”

“We’ll need quick replacements for essential gear that we can’t substitute with living material, like commbeads, smoke and flashbangs."

She then looked at Patch after glancing at Vanguard, the two most outspoken teammembers in favor of talking with their opponents.
"I'm sorry Patch, but I'd not feel comfortable putting you close enough to actually talk to him. Force could try before I attack though. If you want you can use the comm to tell me what you'd like me to tell him."
"If it doesn't work, Force can take a few licks and it'll get the most important thing done; grabbing his attention."

[Sønderjye]

Trial and Error

"Funny" Patch responds, seemingly trying to sound dry but not completely able to hide the amusement he feels from Yi Ji's teasing. He spreads out his arms in a surrendering way: "You think we should go get the kitchen sink?"

"Initially I just thought I would record a jump. This one record temperature" Patch explains gesturing towards the monstrousity to his right: "This one record light waves way beyond what the human sight is capable of registration, this one records sounds, this one tremors, this one preassure, this one..." he goes over all of the machinery, taking only a brief moment to cultivate his throat with the lovely lovely coffee.

Once he have set everything up he gives the go for Snap to snap.

Crunch Time

Patch ressist the temptations to frown at the directors words. How in earth had they determined that with such conviction? Couldn't Weld et al's powers work widely differently thatn Vanguards? And even if they worked similarly how had the PRT tested this? "Can I see how those tests were conducted, Director?"

Again there were something that the director wasn't telling them. They had only been told once about Piecemeat killing civilians once and that might as well have been a mistake due to not understanding his own powers. Even if the vigilante cape's life was unfortunate that was just self-defence, you couldn't really blame a man for trying to defend his own life.

Patch completely freezes when he is given the permission to meddle with the fundemental blocks of life. Was this a trick? They'd have to be degenerates if they though that he would risk breaking the rules given this rare opportunity. "Thank you, Director", he politely says

"I agree with most of your plan" Patch says addressing Echo "except the part about not talking. I'll make something so I can talk to him at a distance. I should have time to both fix that up and the living chloroform". He pauses: "It is not impossible that the devastation he have done until now is due to lack of control of power and that he currently travelling towards someone he thinks can help him. I understand that we sometimes need to use lethal force but let me make sure that we aren't simply at a misunderstanding".

[Silent_p]

Training Day

"Yeah. You'd think four seconds is quick but once the adrenaline is flowing..." Ji Yu trailed off, letting the sentence speak for itself. She nodded briefly in response to Echo's comment about having a lot to learn. That was certainly true for her. She could not afford to freeze up again during combat conditions. There was little she could do about it when struck by a panic attack, of course, but hopefully with training, experience and people to share her fears with, she could learn to cope over time.

She spared Echo a glance as she returned to her trainer of choice. The woman was definitely someone to admire. Ji Yu was glad to have her there.

Trial and Error

Ji Yu shrugged. "Not sure how the kitchen sink'd help but then, I'm only a lowly geologist and today's guinea-pig; you're the tinker." She nodded along, however, as Jack went over a few things.

Before he'd gotten very far, though, the coffee hit her. "WHOA!" She took a step back in shock, eyes wide as she looked at Jack. "What the hell's in this?! I'm buzzed here!" Taking exaggerated care, she put her cup down. To an observer, it could have been a venomous snake she was handling, eyeing the cup apprehensively as she awaited Jack's explanation.

Crunch Time

Echo seemed to be rising to the occasion as a leader. Snap was pleased to note that she took care to keep track of all the team members and their needs. "We kinda need a 'shoot first, question later' approach here," she said, jumping in on the point of contention between Echo and Patch. "Priority's got to be neutralising the threat he poses - we can't just keep evacuating everyone when he decides to take a walk. I certainly agree that lethal force is not the first option but..." She paused, trying to order her thoughts. "Maybe think of it this way: he's got a loaded gun pointed at everyone he comes into contact with, we need to get the gun off him before we can talk to him; too dangerous otherwise." She shrugged, clearly not thrilled about it but recognising the practicality of it.

[GameOfChampions]

Crunch Time

"Vanguard if you want we can ship in some custom metal blends for you to use in the fight or a large artificial diamond if you want. As for the tests Patch you can see them after this is all done, right now I want all your focus on Piecemeal. Take my word, you and Vanguard both, that our science division is very thorough and we wouldn't risk it unless we were one hundred percent sure."

Friends Forged in Fire

Everyone hears Director Sanderson comm everyone a few hours after the meeting with some welcome news "Everyone please report to the break room I've got a welcome surprise for you all. Masks on for the moment."

As everyone enters she nods to the pair of people in the room with her "These are the reinforcements that have come in to help us with the Piecemeal problem, they know the general problem but please fill them in on any plans or thoughts you have. I'm sure this need not be said but make them welcome please. Now I'll check in later but I have a mass evacuation to help with right now." She runs her hand threw her graying hair as she walks out of there.

[Chivy]

Crunch Time

Echo nodded at Snap, feeling slightly better knowing that she had some backup.
"Jack, if you can find a way to speak to him while not showing yourself, and making it one hundred percent sure that he can't find you, I'm fine with it."
She then looked Patch in the eyes before continueing.
"But, if there's even a chance of him sending golems your way, we skip the talking and take him down. I'm not willing to risk loosing our brightest mind on the off-chance that a known killer might see reason and we just can't spare Force or Vanguard to protect you. Ok?"
Her first actual decision as a 'leader'. She felt slightly conflicted about it. She knew it was the right choice, but actually telling somebody that she didn't want... no, wouldn't let him risk his life is a whole different ballgame.

Echo turned to Ji Yu after she broke eye contact with Patch.
"Snap, I've been thinking about your explosion after you snap. Do you think it would be possible to fix something up to abuse that for this fight? I was thinking somekind of blowgun made out of bamboo, where your snap's airblast would project a bamboo shard covered with somekind of snake venom at Peacemeal. Should be very hard to defend against."

FFiF

Echo walked into the break room in full costume, taking in both of the new heroes as the Director explained that they were the reinforcements. She didn't know who they were and if she was honest she was slightly disappointed that there were only two of them. Then she squashed that feeling, two was more than they had had a few hours ago.
"Hi. Thank you for answering the call for help, it's good to have you with us." She said then held out her hand for both of them to shake.
"I go by Echo and I have a multiform powerset. Snap can teleport, Patch is our Tinker, Vanguard takes on the properties of what he touches and PinPoint shoots lasers. All simply put of course." She indicated each of the other members of the protectorate team as she introduced them and their powers, hoping that she could speed things along a bit.
"I'm sorry, I don't recognize either of you. Can you tell us what you go by and what your powers are?"

[Ramsus]

Friends Forged in Fire

Avelina, standing there in her very conspicuously fancy, shiny, and colorful armor that set itself apart from most cape costumes by clearly being actual armor, is thankful someone else is making the introductions and takes Echo's hand and gives it a polite, practiced shake. In her regular british accent she replies, kind of on the quiet side, "Thanks. I, yeah, I read the files. Uh erm. Ah...I go by Titania while in costume. My power allows me to summon faerie tale and mythological creatures. Up to four but less if I summon stronger ones. I can also project my senses into them but then my senses are stuck out of my body for two minutes." Like the handshake, the later parts of her words seem like something she practiced rather than coming off as natural. After speaking she lets go of Echo's hand and just looks from person to person, with her gaze lingering on Patch for a bit longer than the others.