Superheroes of the Trust Game Thread

[Victim]

Megan Lynn had been having a surprisingly non-awful week. Frostblade, ice creating/controlling thief, had been captured, and in the light of day, worries about his escape seemed less reasonable. The wicked headache incurred in the battle had vanished with a night (and most of a day) of sleep. So she was lying down on the floor, flipping through news channels on her roommate's TV, looking for information relevant to superheroing.

White Knight. I tangled with him once. He shoots white hot plasma. I do the same. He's not really bothered by white hot plasma. I ... let's just say I was lucky get a draw by blinding him.

I don't like to deal with normal crime - it just feels disproportionate, like if the police started using tanks and military attack helicopters - but the throat torn out and not just cut might be a sign of some power. Lycan? Shapechanging? Maybe I should do some research.

There's no such thing as good news today.

I know I'm not responsible for all the problems of the world. More importantly, I feel that way too. But wouldn't it be nice if I could feel like powers and weirdness provided a net benefit to the world? If all the I've been through meant something? Joining a superteam comes strongly reccommended by my roommate (not that she's a super hero, but her advice usually seems good). I could certainly benefit from working with more experienced supers. On the other hand, group projects haven't went all that well at school.

Umm, wow, he moved from selling me on this plan to important details without much preamble. Let's see: Freedom stadium, midnight, lot 17, black van, 7DX5something, input SS#, meet+wait, go someplace else. Hmm, Mr. Metal was not exactly specific on that last bit: are we going to a secret base, a fight, both? I don't recognize him either.

With that thought, Megan gracefully sprang to her feet and began preparing what she might need for the super hero thing. The usual equipment certainly: a road map of the city (not being a native sometimes sucked), a laminated card with important medical information, a pen with a metal casing, and a small pack of 3x5 cards (signed by her roommate as Shooting Star). Considering the lack of information about what she'd be doing tonight, packing for other circumstances might be smart - a day's worth of medication went into one aerodynamic, while a T-shirt and shorts were brutally stomped into the other. My amazing array of super science gadgets. At least I'll have time to fly a few circuits before the meeting.

Before taking off, Megan scrawls a brief note: "SOMTHNG CAME ^ @ PART TIME JOB. MEETING COWORKERS." A would understand.

Then Shooting Star takes off, moving in erratic bursts at a few hundred miles per hour to disguise her starting point. At least until she can get clear out to sea; then it's time to go all out.

After taking her "exercise," Megan zooms off to the Colosseum, aiming to arrive a few minutes before midnight even allowing for a few low speed orbits to check the area out. Not that a trap is likely - with their information and technology, taking me out would be child's play. 'In other news, 2 students tragically died this weekend of carbon monoxide poisoning in their Southside apartment...'

With that cheerful thought, Shooting Star lands near the black van (assuming nothing happens).

(Stealth +8, Notice +6)

 

[Shayuri]

Thessaly listened to the sound of the desk behind her creaking and snapping as it disintegrated and wondered, not for the first time, what the hell she was doing here. Hana, in particular, wouldn't just have a cow if she knew...she'd have a Texas longhorn. Sideways. It might have been the first time that Thess was actually glad Hana wasn't around anymore.

The amplified, electronically modified voice of her opponent boomed out.

"You're a little quicker this time, but I can fill this whole bank with this stuff if I have to!"

His name was Red Death. He'd nearly killed her last time they'd met. And that's why she was here. To put away a personal boogeyman, in a way few people ever had the chance to.

"Quicker's not the only thing that's new," she called back. As she rolled to her feet, Thessaly reached into the little pouch at her side. There he was. Polished red armored suit, helmet that looked like a red skull. Two big tanks strapped to his back, and connected by flexible tubes to orifices built into his arms. He whirled as he spied her movement.

She threw the contents of the pouch at him...little glittering crystals seemed to hang in midair as she concentrated and brought her hand sideways to her heart, the last two fingers curled. She inhaled to speak...

...the two gas-spewing nozzles emitted a loud whir as the pumps that drove them clicked on.

...syllables rarely spoken aloud for more than a thousand years pass Thessaly's lips as she invokes a warding spell. She feels a cold fist knot in her gut, and knows it's working.

Hideous crimson gas, streaked with black rivulets, pours from Red Death's machine. He howls in laughter as it billows forth. he doesn't see the salt land at his feet, drawn by magic into a strange diagram. He DOES see the gas stop in mid-gush and rebound, as if hitting an invisible, curved wall.

"Wha... What's happening? What have you done?!"

A superhero, Thess knew, would have a good comeback to that. Something smug and casual. Her mind was blank though. The gas didn't fill the warded area completely before he shut it off, so she could see his sihouetted outline as he pounded against the barrier.

"FOOL! This does nothing! My mask protects me! Release me!"

Mask. God, she could see how it worked now. The catches were in the back, revealed when he twisted around. It would be easy to just twitch them open, let the mask fall off. Give him a taste of his own medicine. Surely that was karma, right?

Goddamnit. She forced the memory of the gas back, how it had smelled, how her muscles had clenched on touching it, how it had seared her throat, her lungs, her eyes. Using magic to expose him to that wouldn't -technically- be black magic...but she knew it was coming from the same place. Damnit.

Time to finish this.

Thessaly pointed at the Red Death and took a deep breath to clear her mind and focus her will.

"Blood to thicken skin to freeze, mind to slow and muscles seize, movement ceases all in kind, your strength is sapped, your bones I bind."

Usually she incanted in Greek or Latin or some other impressive sounding language that hardly anyone knew. But sometimes she liked for the target to know what was happening, and why.

Red Death stiffened and started to look back...then slowed. Stopped. In a very awkward-looking posture.

"Nnnngh!" he grunted, unable to move his mouth or tongue. Only his heart and lungs were exempt from the paralysis. He repeated the noise a moment later when sirens could clearly be heard.

That was her cue. Thess didn't like spotlights. For one, she was paranoid about someone at school recognizing her despite the costume. Voice, hair, eyes...this was the real world, not Supermanland where a funky curl of hair and a pair of glasses could hide your identity. For another, she just didn't want to have to deal with the questions. The probing. She wasn't after celebrity or fame. She was just doing the job that came part and parcel of being a white witch. Protect and guide.

...not that a little recognition wouldn't be nice. More trouble than it was worth assuredly...but nice.

She darted into the office, knowing the cops would have the place surrounded. Reaching into yet another pouch at her side, she produced a piece of chalk and a little perfume bottle. As she started writing strange sigils onto the door she'd just come through, that separated the bank from the office, Thessaly hummed to herself. Helped keep her focused, she found, when things were down to the wire.

Through the door, she could hear the cops burst in and demand that Red Death freeze and get on the floor. Since he was frozen, he couldn't. Then they seemed to realize what was going on. Their voices were blunted by masks, so Thess released the warding. Scuffling noises. Cops yelling to get him down, get his tanks off...something rolling... Good.

Just as the footsteps were coming her way, and she knew they were searching the place, she finished the last mark, and sprayed the incense in the air. In Greek she called on Hermes to speed her to her destination on winged feet...then opened the door and stepped through.

...to her bedroom.

Thessaly closed the door and collapsed on her bed, heart hammering. But coming up through it all was joy. She'd -gotten- him. Dicey...there'd been a close moment or two...but the warding spell -worked-. It stopped the gas! She laughed, the tension releasing itself from her body. As she did, the green gown and cloak she wore, the green mask that looked like it was one solid carved emerald...it all evaporated. Underneath she was just Thessaly, not 'Viridian.' Beige cargo shorts and a t-shirt with a vest over it. The pouches were real though, and she started working them off her belt.

Her face was frankly gorgeous, with the full lips and graceful nose of a woman, but the wide eyes and slightly rounded cheeks of a girl. Her hair was in fashionable disarray, with about three inches being pink and the rest down to her roots were dark brown. Around her neck was a twisted leather thong and a rune-encrusted pentacle wrought from some silvery metal that didn't tarnish.

After lying and basking for a moment in her victory, Thess flicked the little TV across from her bed on and started undressing to get into her PJ's. She had just got the baggy flannel bottoms on when the TV image changed, and with it, maybe everything else.

"The world is a dangerous place, as anyone who watches the news can attest. But you have begun to do your part. To distinguish yourself. We have taken notice of you. We wish to offer you an opportunity. Heroes can accomplish great things alone, but far greater things in groups. Groups of heroes can accomplish great things, but groups with the right resources, connections, and organization can truly change the world, and turn back the rising tide of evil. It is this that I offer you. It you are willing to pledge yourself to bringing super-criminals of all varieties to justice, then at midnight, go to parking lot 17 of the Freedom Colosseum, and find a black van with the license plate 7DX510B. There will be a keypad on the side. Type your Social Security Number into it, and it will open. Go inside, and close the door behind you. Others like you will come. At 12:30, you will receive directions as to where to drive to meet us. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled programming."

Thessaly ran a hand through her hair and sat back in bed as she thought furiously.

Scam? Villain? Black witch?

Honestly though, why HER? She was small potatos as supers went. Her main focus was still on school. She'd never, to her knowledge, been interviewed or photographed very well...not beyond a few blurry shots of her in action once time. She'd put away a few guys, including two...make that three now...super villains, though of the somewhat less than impressive power level, all things told. Red Death, for example, had a couple of different gasses he could spray, and an armored suit, and that was about it. The cops didn't even call for paranormal backup. Just gas masks.

So how did this guy and his mysterious 'we' know about her? And know well enough to send a picture straight to her TV? That smelled a little magical to her. Except she didn't feel a thing. Not a tickle, not a tingle. If someone had cast a spell on her TV, or even a spell to make something happen anywhere NEAR her, she'd feel it. Unless they knew how to conceal magic...but that was getting way into freaky-deaky lalalandy the-illuminati-are-coming-for-us-all-ville.

There was, as the Scooby Gang said, only one way to find out.

Hana would SO freak if she'd known.

"No rest for the wicked," Thess muttered, and pulled her belt of tricks back on. The shiny green outfit shimmered back into view around her, and she started drawing on her bedroom door. There were worn places in the wood from her drawing on it so much. A minute later, she was gone...

...and stepped out of maintenance door in the Collesseum, not far from lot 17. A quick look around, no buzzing on the magic sense...feeling a little foolish in her elaborate getup, she ventured into the parking lot. There ahead was the black van, as obvious as daylight since it was the only van anywhere near lot 17. Right under one of the lights, it was easy to identify even at night.

And she wasn't alone. Reflexively she reached up to grasp her amulet in her right hand, and ventured closer to the van.

 

[DM_Matt]

So how did this guy and his mysterious 'we' know about her? And know well enough to send a picture straight to her TV? That smelled a little magical to her. Except she didn't feel a thing. Not a tickle, not a tingle. If someone had cast a spell on her TV, or even a spell to make something happen anywhere NEAR her, she'd feel it. Unless they knew how to conceal magic...but that was getting way into freaky-deaky lalalandy the-illuminati-are-coming-for-us-all-ville.

As a clarification, Thessaly does in fact not sense any magic coming form the TV.

 

[Shayuri]

(OOC...hee, good point, I should have asked first. I guess I assumed you would have noted it in the original post if she had sensed something...but in retrospect that's a chancy assumption. I'll be sure to ask before I post next time. )

 

[DM_Matt]

Shortly before the meet-up, the skies above Parking Lot 17 are rather crowded with fast-flyers, moving so quickly and accross such an area in the dark that they can barely even see each other, nor can those on the ground see them too well....some guy with feathery wings...someone with what might be a jet pack...there seems to be a blurry white mist there as well.

Everyone gets a scare as two more large fliers seemingly appear out of nowhere and streak by, but they turn out to be AEGIS (the federal agency that deals with supercrime) F-22s on patrol. In most of the country, the Air National Guard is responsible for relatively sparse Combat Air Patrols, but since Freedom City has the highest number of empowered individuals per capita and the largest AEGIS base other than their DC headquarters, AEGIS is in charge of the patrols in Freedom City instead. They are rumored to be field-testing new weapon and sensor packages more effective against empowered individuals, but if they noticed you, they seem to show no sign of it.

The van sits alone in the middle of the dark lot. There was nothing going on here tonight, so the lot is otherwise empty and the lights are off, other than the streetlight right above the van. From different directions, slowly, the others arrive. A very large and very good-looking man in a feather boa seemingly falls from the sky, right in front of the van. two much smaller figures (Thessaly and Nightweaver, cautiously approach the van from different directions).

 

[James Heard]

Spirit

Spirit glides in from the night sky like a pale shadow, her features shifting almost imperceptibly to a dusky blue as she flows into the pavement and back out again.

" Someone should check it for bombs," she says without preamble.

" It probably wouldn't hurt me, but" she shrugs, " it would probably ruin your haircut." She looks directly at the preposterous-looking man wearing the bola and...is that eye-liner?

I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, she thought.

" I'm called Spirit...And you all look a little lost to be waiting here to ambush me. Metal guy? Dressed like Destro from G.I. Joe? Apparently sleeping with the cable guy?"

 

[Elric]

Johnny Nitro lands near the van. "Good thing that's the only black van" in the parking lot, he thinks, since he didn't remember anything about the license plate number besides it starting with a "7".

He then goes to type his Social Security number into the keypad. Uh, what was his Social Security Number again? It definitely started with "5". 563-7887? No, that's the local Chinese place with the delicious dumplings. 556-3030? No, that's Dominos. 555-5555? No, that's the girl he met last night. Nitro is lost in thought wondering what to punch in when a shadow starts speaking to him. He turns.

Make that a good-looking female who happens to resemble a shadow.

"Honey", he says, "the Undertaker himself couldn't ruin this haircut. And believe me, he tried. Several times and with great yanking."

"Name's Johnny Nitro. You've probably seen me on TV. If not, you probably don't get out enough. Say, I don't remember my Social Security number. But these guys must know it. Think you can hack into this thing to let them know that I'm here?"

Nitro checks his cell phone. "Well, let's wait 10 minutes. I have a fashionably late image to keep up. Yeah, I saw the metal guy. But sleeping with the cable man? Nah, I don't think my cable guy rolls like that"

 

[Fenris2]

Angel glides slowly on down to earth giving those below time to see him coming in a non-hostile way, and himself some time to evaluate them as well. For those wanna know he is a handsome looking man in white shorts with a gold ring on one finger and a pair of honest to goodness feathered 'angel' wings.

He replies to Spirit after processing her cultural reference and chuckles before noding at her suggestion, "A solid idea. But I think if they wanted to explode us, they would have done so already. It doest not hurt to check though. It would not surprise me if they seek to test us all a bit as well at some point."

Then to everyone with a graceful bow and smile, "I am Angel. I guess evryone is here for the free pizza right?"

OOC: The usual gather info take 10 for 20 to see what he can recalll about the other heros, primarily code name/abilities/if any are known to have done naughty things in the past. Also see if he sees anything hidden or unusual about the van notice @+17

 

[Raylis]

Nightweaver approaches the van slowing, watching as the others arrive noting the others methods of arrival. Her gaze falls on each for only a moment, as if sizing up her potential teammates.

The realtive silence broken by Spirit, the paragon earns another short gaze from the darkclad heroine; but Nightweaver remains silent. She pauses at the edge of the streetlamp glancing back at Johnny as the man speaks. . o O {Wonderful. He is as smart as he looks.} she thinks, keeping her face neutral and not offering a word.

Still at the edge of the lamplight, she looks skyward watching the winged man land before turning her attention to the sound of the other flier briefly. . o O {Who will go first, and who else will arrive?}

 

[Shayuri]

Holy hell it's super central out here! Thessaly realizes. A quick glance up confirms her suspicions...several silhouetted humanoid figures looping around up there. And on the ground, a pair of women she didn't recognize from the news and...

...well THAT was new. Thess was openminded, but a super-crossdresser? How'd she missed that before?

Then it dawned on her. A few months back, she'd gone out a couple of times with some guy on the football team. He was a freshman like her, a little lost...like her. He'd been nice, but a bit boring ultimately. Not her style. But he was into wrestling and hadn't he talked about that one guy? Goddess...what was his name?

It blurted out of her just as she walked up, the realization possessing too much force to repress.

"Johnny Nitro?"

Abruptly aware that she sounded like a starstruck fan, she quickly drew her forest green cloak around herself and lifted her head so the hood would cast a shadow over her masked features. Always good for a touch of mystery.

"I'm Viridian. I don't think I recognize the rest of you." She looks at the blue woman and the shadowy one.

"Perversely, this makes me feel a bit better. If the metal man wanted to do us harm, he'd have an easier time picking us off one by one. Short of a nuke."

THERE was a happy thought.