[fitd]: FREEDOM CITY! [Issue #1: Let's get Kraken!]

[fireinthedust]

((Well twist my rubber arm!!!

also, is that Metroid? You rock! Who does your avatars?))

[Green Bean]

((Yep. It's for Smash Bros Week (though I started a bit early)

And thanks for the compliment. I made this one myself.))

[Nerd-o-rama]

((I could do with some talking if anyone's interested, but I can live with skipping to the next smackdown session if everyone else is in favor.))

[fireinthedust]

I'll keep this thread open for sure, if you'd like. However, we can start the next Thread (Chapter 2) with some chat time, no problem.

The thread has been posted!!!

here, please!

[sun_tzu]

ooc: So do you six want to role play for a bit, or shall I move us into the next adventure?

((Eh, we can role-play a bit here, and move on at the same time.))

Apex gets a faraway look in his eyes for a second, but then shakes it off. "Ah jeez...sorry, I didn't mean to get carried away like that...especially after we just saved the whole city! By the way...what TARDIS did you mean? I'm not too familiar with the things in this time..." Apex says, scratching the back of his head, feeling awkward.

Soul grins. "I'll show you. Just wait, I'll be back in a few minutes."
The sorceress then opens a portal and flies through it. A little while later, a similar portal opens, and she returns through it, handing Apex a DVD box. "Dr Who. I've been following some of this world's works of fiction; this is one of them. I hope you can use DVDs? If not, I can help you there...
And quite frankly, I find your stories...interesting. I don't think you ever said where exactly you come from - neither have I, and I'd rather keep it that way for now - but...from various bits of what you said, it sounds like you're from the future. Surely you understand why I'm curious."
I mean, the things you might know...Heck, maybe you actually know how the things with Mother Aurora panned out!

[Nerd-o-rama]

((Sticking around for now. sun_tzu mentioned wanting to do some backstory expositing in this thread anyway.))

After the tour, Fireblade moves in. Just a suitcase with some clothes, really.

Well, that was also quick. Hm. I guess I'm reading too much into things.

Deciding not to worry about his minor sense of foreboding too much, Fireblade wanders through Freedom Hall, familiarizing himself more thoroughly with the layout and looking for something to eat.

"They can make teleporters that go all over the world, but not put in vending machines?" he wonders aloud. Eventually, he runs across Soul and Apex.

"Hey," he says. "Oh. Doctor Who. Funny, I figured both of you for the non-TV watching types."

[Green Bean]

Once Tempo finishes moving in, he planned on exploring the rest of the hall, but stopped to listen in on Apex's TARDIS story. He tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the DVD box as Soul handed it to the futuristic hero.

"Wait, Doctor who?"

[sun_tzu]

Hey," he says. "Oh. Doctor Who. Funny, I figured both of you for the non-TV watching types."

"Then you were mostly correct" replies Soul. "I'll make exceptions for quality science-fiction, though."

Once Tempo finishes moving in, he planned on exploring the rest of the hall, but stopped to listen in on Apex's TARDIS story. He tried in vain to catch a glimpse of the DVD box as Soul handed it to the futuristic hero.

"Wait, Doctor who?"

Soul gave him an unreadable look, then replied: "The Doctor. The sunderer of cybermen, the destroyer of daleks, the nemesis of the Master." Seeing the blank look, she adds: "British TV show. Huge success a generation ago. Currently having a revival."

((Amusingly enough? I've never actually watched a single episode. ))

[Green Bean]

"Ah, it's a TV show. That makes sense. I'm not really that into science fiction."

((I've seen the first two seasons of the new series while I was in England. I pretty much had to. They have a special name for Doctor Who fans in England; British ))

[sun_tzu]

"Ah, it's a TV show. That makes sense. I'm not really that into science fiction."

((I've seen the first two seasons of the new series while I was in England. I pretty much had to. They have a special name for Doctor Who fans in England; British ))

"Well, arguably, our lives are closer to science-fiction than to anything else." Soul points out. "We did just fight an alien space-pirate."

[Green Bean]

Tempo nods. "Exactly. If I'm fighting space pirates all day, it's no fun to come home and watch it on TV."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Then you were mostly correct" replies Soul. "I'll make exceptions for quality science-fiction, though."

"Hm. I guess that makes sense. I'm more of a general stuff-blowing-up fan myself."

He continues, curiously. "I was sorta wondering, though...where're you from? You've got sort of an otherwordly vibe to your powers, and I was just curious what your story was. Just a magician, some kind of parallel dimension traveler deal...? 'Course you don't have to tell me if you think it'll be a secret identity issue."

[sun_tzu]

"Hm. I guess that makes sense. I'm more of a general stuff-blowing-up fan myself."

He continues, curiously. "I was sorta wondering, though...where're you from? You've got sort of an otherwordly vibe to your powers, and I was just curious what your story was. Just a magician, some kind of parallel dimension traveler deal...? 'Course you don't have to tell me if you think it'll be a secret identity issue."

Huh boy. Well, I knew this was coming.
"I truly wish I could be more forthcoming about this." Soul looked genuinely sorry. "Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't really say much about my origins. It's complicated.
Buuut...There are certain things that I can, and certainly should tell you. In particular, the reason I wanted so much to enter the Freedom League. I believe all of you need to hear this..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Oh. Well this sounds serious. To the Hall of Exposition!" Fireblade states faux-melodramatically, pointing in the direction he thinks the main meeting room is. He's wrong, but you get the idea.

"Or we could just call the others and you can tell them here," he shrugs. "Just seems to be lacking in superheroic flair."

[Green Bean]

"I'll go get Aesir." Tempo takes off to find the Norse god and bring him to the Conference Room (or wherever we are now).

[Nerd-o-rama]

"...they gave us communicators, you know," Fireblade replies after Tempo is (relatively) long-gone.

[sun_tzu]

((Should I go ahead and assume everyone's here?))

[SuperMuldoon]

Soul grins. "I'll show you. Just wait, I'll be back in a few minutes."
The sorceress then opens a portal and flies through it. A little while later, a similar portal opens, and she returns through it, handing Apex a DVD box. "Dr Who. I've been following some of this world's works of fiction; this is one of them. I hope you can use DVDs? If not, I can help you there...
And quite frankly, I find your stories...interesting. I don't think you ever said where exactly you come from - neither have I, and I'd rather keep it that way for now - but...from various bits of what you said, it sounds like you're from the future. Surely you understand why I'm curious."

Apex takes the DVD. "Ah, is this the local viewing storage medium? You might have to show me how to use this...I have only heard stories of discs this big before! But I am interested in seeing some works of fiction from this time, I never got much chance to experience them back home." Apex flips the case over and reads the description on the back of the box, nodding his head. "Also, yes, I am from the future, or a future at least. Things kind of went screwy when we initiated the jump..."

Apex continues reading the DVD box as the other members come in.

((OOC: Sorry guys, had the flu and was out of commission this weekend. Trying to catch up!))

[sun_tzu]

Apex takes the DVD. "Ah, is this the local viewing storage medium? You might have to show me how to use this...I have only heard stories of discs this big before! But I am interested in seeing some works of fiction from this time, I never got much chance to experience them back home." Apex flips the case over and reads the description on the back of the box, nodding his head. "Also, yes, I am from the future, or a future at least. Things kind of went screwy when we initiated the jump..."

Apex continues reading the DVD box as the other members come in.

((OOC: Sorry guys, had the flu and was out of commission this weekend. Trying to catch up!))

"I'd definitely like to know more about your era - and what led to it - but given how little I'm revealing about my own origins, I suppose I'm in no position to make requests..."

((Assuming we all get together in the meeting room or something.))

"All right, everyone." Soul looks a bit nervous. "I'll tell everything I can.
A few months ago, I was contacted by an extremely powerful entity. She calls herself Mother Aurora. I call her The Pink Bitch in the Sky, but that's neither here nor there. Fact is, Aurora was some kind of cosmic entity that offered me guidance of some sort; one of the first things she did was send me out to stop a, well, supervillain I guess. Some demonic monster called Downfall, but he's not important to the story. Anyway, she's been giving me some errands, and I've ended up fighting a few mystical baddies. Speaking of which, I dunno if you've heard of the businessman Eric Masterson, but for the record? Evil mastermind. Just saying.
Anyway...Recently, Aurora gave me a pretty unnerving vision. There were planet chunks floating around, and the Freedom League - all the regular members, and others I couldn't see well - were fighting something. They all got killed. After they did, countless worlds got annihilated.
There's something truly major coming, and it's going to be pretty bad. According to Mother Aurora, if I didn't join the League, the vision would come true...and then, it's curtains.
I don't know what's going to happen. I don't even know how much I trust Aurora. But I figured you guys ought to know, just in case."

[SuperMuldoon]

Apex listens to Soul's story. When she's done he speaks up.

"Well I'm glad you've shared this with us, Soul. Better to be prepared if this "Pink Bitch in the Sky" or someone else comes looking for you. As for the vision, I don't know how I really feel about them to be honest, but the freedom league did go fight something and haven't returned, and they could be dead for all I know. So part of that vision may have already come to pass, although I am hoping for the opposite. As for any of the characters like Downfall or this Eric Masterson fellow, if they come poking around here, well, we are a team now, so I'm pretty sure we all know what to do to the likes of them!" Apex emphasizes that last part by smacking his fist into his other open hand and grinning.

[sun_tzu]

Soul smiled at Apex. "I'm counting on it."


**********


Later that evening, Soul - or rather, Jill - was recounting the day's events to Lisa back in the safety of Castle Nexus.
"...and he said that we'd face them as a team and, you know."
"Awesome. So, you're part of the Freedom League now? For real?"
"E-yup. Of course, that probably won't last...I'm not old enough to be a member. If it wasn't for Mother Aurora and her stupid vision..."
"No big. Sure, you're not eighteen, but you've got all the kickass powers, and the brains to use it. The plan to beat Kraken was your idea, right?"
"...It's not that simple, Lis. And even if it was...there are reasons the League doesn't take minors."
"But you saved the city!"
"Doesn't detract from my point. The rules are there for a reason. If everyone starts ignoring them the moment they get inconvenient, the whole structure crumbles."
"Then why are you doing this in the first place?"
"Consequences. The consequences of breaking the rules this one time are just not going to be remotely as bad as the consequences of not joining the League...If the vision is true, at least.
Of course, just joining the League might not be enough. I'm gonna need to get a lot better at this superhero stuff, and fast."
Lisa was intrigued. "So, what? You're going to spend several hours a day practicing in their training simulator?"
"There's that. But I also need to work on better spells. You know how I've gotten really good at deflecting attacks wth my portals?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, it's not much good if by the time I can tell I need to deflect the attack, it's already too late. I can go down in one shot if I get taken by surprise.
So, I've been messing with the portals. They go through space, but it ought to be possible to go through time - with some limits, mind you. I'm going to try to set this magical structure around my senses that will let me see and hear a fraction of a second into the future - at least, enough that I'll know when to dodge-n-deflect." ((Uncanny Dodge, if you will.))
"Cool! ...but couldn't you use it to get tomorrow's lottery numbers instead?"
"That's reeeealy not the way it works."
"Too bad. Because, I mean...I understand that the whole Saving The World thing is important, but when you first got those powers, it was more about having fun with them, no?" Lisa gestured at the castle surrounding them.
"There was some of that" Jill admitted, looking a bit embarrassed. "But that actually brings me to another point:
Tell me...does it ever bother you how little a difference superpowers ever actually make in the world?"
Lisa gave her a quizzical look. "What do you mean? Superheroes save the world, like, all the time!"
"Exactly. They save the world. They maintain the status quo. They keep it from becoming worse, instead of changing it for the better.
Remember that talk in literature class? Most guys admitted they liked fictional villains more than fictional heroes."
"Well, yeah. The bad guys get to do what we want to do, down deep. You know what I mean."
"There's some of that. But it's also that the villains are proactive. They seek to cause change. All the good guys do in those stories is react.
Daedalus, the Atom Family, and a whole bunch of others...They could revolutionize the planet. I mean, supertech alone...some of this stuff is dangerous, sure, but there's a lot that should be used in everyday civilian applications, instead of gathering dust between attacks by the Crime League. Well, I think I can change that."
"What do you mean?"
Jill handed Lisa a blueprint. "This is what I mean. I've been working on it for a while. It's two big disks - when activated, they'll open a permanent portal between them. It only goes some thirty feet, though."
"...And that'll be good, for, what?"
"I'm glad you asked.
Imagine that you had a large water conduit. A vertical one. With a hydroelectric turbine in the middle. You put water on the upper end. It goes down, generates electricity at the turbine, reaches the lower end.
At the lower end? There's a teleportation disk. The other teleportation disk? At the upper end."
Lisa didn't say anything at first. For a while, the gears turned in her mind. "So...You'd get free electricity?"
"YES! A first kind perpetual motion machine! A limitless energy source! A slap in the face of thermodynamics, a victory over entropy, and a step up for the economy!
I call it Project Perpetua.
I'm trying to make a prototype. If it works, I'm going to try to build a bigger model, and donate it to Freedom City. This could change the world!"
"All right...I won't even pretend I understood most of what you just said, but I'll be generous and assume it was some something clever."
"You're too kind."
"Gotta treat Freedom Leaguers with respect."
Jill giggled. "Well, fun as this is, we should probably head home from our "walk in the park". It's gonna be dinnertime soon, and after the way mom and dad panicked when I didn't answer my phone during Kraken's attack, I don't want to give them any more reasons to be upset."
"Did they believe your excuse? That the cell phone's batteries ran out?"
"Well, I did drain them before I got home..."