The Super Hero RP Deluxe! (Closed, Started)

[DarkRawen]

Specter?


"Didn't expect you to show up so quickly Specter."

The Specter started appearing, thinking about something witty to say. Or at least something that made him sound a little less drowsy and confused. However, then steps could be heard, and he disappeared again, unsure of who was approaching. He'd never heard anyone who sounded like that like walking, at least, was the stranger wearing an armor?

Actually yes, apparently.

"What the plan?"

The Specter went closer to the Crick, hiding behind the youth's back -even though he was already invisible- , he wasn't really in the mood for a meet and greet. Not after the tests at the hospital, he was fine with staying invisible for as long as he could. From what he had understood, the Crick could hear him moving, somehow, so there was less of a chance of someone walking into him at that point. Walk into him and stab him, if looking at the horn this female hero had. Or he might get hit by a wing, one or the other, neither were particularly appealing.

What is that? Some sort of narwhal armor? It looks silly... Even with the wings. Oh. Right, Crick's talking. I should probably pay attention.

"and I don't have a plan...yet. Right now I'm hoping I can put together something that can block a signal from any ignition switches connected to the bombs on the hostages. It's a start. I can't possibly build one for the city and from what evidence I managed to find on the police department explosion, the explosives he used were about the size of a pencils...they could be anywhere."

Police department explosion. Right. He hadn't considered it before Sofia had told him, but apparently several of his colleagues had been hurt in the explosion, she hadn't told him if someone had died... but someone had to have, right? It had been that dangerous. Pretty much the entire group of the local government lawyers and even some judges had been there, even if some of them had been eating lunch at that point. And he hadn't even realized it before someone told him.

An object flew across the room as he started feeling worse, though he gathered himself when he realized that he was losing the grip on his powers again. It was stupid to get worked up now. Besides, he had to stay focused, more people would die in explosions that they couldn't hinder. It was up to them to save as many as they could, limit the losses.

"Where are the others?"

he muttered, feeling somewhere between annoyed and worried, so quietly that only Crick would have a chance to hear it.

 

[TheNaut131]

The Crick

Something suddenly flew across the room, smashing against the wall. The Crick hastily looked around before turning back to Unicorn.

"Sorry, I've done all I can to keep this place from falling apart and yet..."

The Crick grimaced, wondering what he'd have to replace next. The Specter seemed to be recovering from whatever mental trauma he'd undergone in the following weeks of Psyclone's last major attack. But was he really up for this? He had noticed The Specter immediately hide as Unicorn walked into the base and could hear The specter essentially hiding behind his back.

"Where are the others?" The Specter muttered quietly and hastily, essentially speaking with volume he could only describe as less than a whisper.

"Right now I'm just hoping the others," The Crick began to say, talking to Unicorn while answering the Specter's question. "are on route and NOT heading directly to Aldric, 'The Butcher'...seriously, we have no idea who this guy is, what he's capable of, and he is essentially holding the entire city hostage. The bombs are probably in high priority targets, but he's for sure got them placed in random places as well."

The Crick walked over to his workstation in the old subway car looked down at the signal blocker he was assembling.

"Hopefully this will prevent him from blowing any of the hostages on command and possibly prevent him to prematurely detonating any bombs in the city. Though I'm guessing the hostage's bombs would still possibly blow if tampered with and the bombs in the city would still be armed, but it would at least give us some footing."

He thought for a moment.

"Even though this same signal blocking device would prevent him from shutting off the bombs as well..."

The Crick put his head in his hands and groaned.

"...I build, I jump, I punch, I save. Today that's not gonna work out so easily, is it?"

 

[IFS]

Tom

"So? Get up already, it's an emergency and your magnificently evil brother is offering to help you out, things are about to get really serious."

Tom was surprised, if his day hadn't started with explosions and a call to action he would have been astounded. But this was serious, and they would need all the help they could get. Hopefully this would give Tim a taste for heroics but for now he needed to answer Crick's call.

"Alright lets go be heroes," he said to Tim, then answered the Crick "On my way, and I'm bringing help."

With that he found his way to an empty part of the street and quickly created his armor, before running along towards the meeting.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Tess

So this is the day huh? She thought to herself. It wasn't surprising, she knew what was coming and what she had to do. Mina had planned things out quite thoroughly, all the pieces were in place all that was left was playing out the endgame. She had already woken up and gotten into uniform when the Crick put out his call.

"On my way," she replied, leaving and quickly arriving at the meeting. The Unicorn was already there waiting for them.

"...I build, I jump, I punch, I save. Today that's not gonna work out so easily, is it?"

"We'll adapt," she said, nodding to the others as she entered "what's the situation?"

 

[Lunar Templar]

"Unicorn, okay, short version. Aldric is 'Al'. Psyclone knew Al before he broke Psyclone out. Meaning 'Al' is probably apart of the bigger plan. The bigger plan being this: to ruin the reputation and status of heroes in the city so that whoever this 'Aldric' works for can initiate whatever their larger goal is. Also with that known, this whole situation reeks of 'obvious setup' and today we can't just have any random hero just rush in."

Karen sighed. "Villains really need to come up with something new. If we're count my 'Magical Girl' days this is like the sixth or seventh time at least some moron has tried this 'make the heroes look bad' thing." She snarked. "and In those cases, ruining the rep of a hero or a group of them is just the first phase of a bigger plan." she added before Crick said the other where hopefully on the way here and not to where this 'butcher' was supposedly hold up.

Crick then went into his signal jammer idea. Karen simply nodded in approval "We just have to hope he isn't the kind of lunatic that has them all set up to go off with out the need for a detonator." she said as Coil walked in.

"Lunatic trying to blow up the city, and calling out the heroes to try and stop him under the smug pretense they'll fail" Karen snarked "Crick already has something that might stop more bombs from going off so we can find this ass hole and introduce him to the pavement."

 

[DarkRawen]

Specter?

The Specter became increasingly aware of the situation as he waited, each second contributing to his mind clearing up. Not truly clearing up, it still felt as foggy as it had been after he had been hit by that debris, but at least from the exhaustion and the drugs. And that helped a lot.

"Right now I'm just hoping the others, are on route and NOT heading directly to Aldric, 'The Butcher'...seriously, we have no idea who this guy is, what he's capable of, and he is essentially holding the entire city hostage. The bombs are probably in high priority targets, but he's for sure got them placed in random places as well."

Agreed. Hopefully the first bomb won't be one of the dangerous ones.

He then looked at the device Crick put so much faith in.

"Hopefully this will prevent him from blowing any of the hostages on command and possibly prevent him to prematurely detonating any bombs in the city. Though I'm guessing the hostage's bombs would still possibly blow if tampered with and the bombs in the city would still be armed, but it would at least give us some footing."

At least it's... something.

"...I build, I jump, I punch, I save. Today that's not gonna work out so easily, is it?"

"We'll adapt, what's the situation?"

Hearing Coil get updated on the situation made the Specter feel uneasy. Were they going to do this everytime someone new arrived? Couldn't they just... do something? He knew that proper planning was best, not rushing it, but it didn't feel right to wait like this.

Who are we waiting for? Is Theodore on his way as well? I know Sir Awesome was invited to the group too.

He was almost surprised that the over-eager hero wasn't there yet. Almost.

We can't afford to wait for too long.

Of course, worry was overtaken by a feeling of relief, and then by something that could only be described as the feeling he'd get every time he found out that the cake he thought were done was still raw inside. For some reason, Sir Awesome had brought the rather similar, if more spikey, villain whose name the Specter couldn't recall at the moment. If he had even heard it.

"What is even this place?"

"For goodness' sake!" the Specter exclaimed, coming out from his little corner, but still not appearing. It would take more for him to fully appear.

"I'm fine with the bad guy just walking in here, not like this is an exclusive meeting or anything," he said with biting sarcasm. "But do I have to risk getting speared by his outfit if I get too close?"
______________________________________________________________________________________________


Tim Merridy


"Alright lets go be heroes,"

"Heeey, I'm not going to be a hero, it's a temporary truce!" Tim argued, though he let it go quickly enough when he figured that Tom wasn't in the mood to discuss trivialities.

Following Tom into the closest alley, Tim almost felt a bit of excitement at the idea of fighting next to the heroes. Not because he wanted to be a hero -what kind of moron would be happy about something like that- but because it was an interesting development. Perhaps he could throw in a bit of betrayal towards the end?

But I still don't want the city to get blown up... and Tom might actually refuse to ever talk to me again.

No Tom meant no twin brother, and possibly no George. That wasn't the sort of situation he wanted to end up in, not yet. Making as many spikes on his armor as he could. Then, the way lead into some subway system, until they got to a part that was far less crappy than the rest of the tunnels.

"What is even this place?" Tim asked as he walked into the HQ. There were some familiar faces-including the woman who had put him in the hospital-, and he was about to speak, but he was quickly rudely interrupted by someone who apparently wasn't too pleased with his armor.

"For goodness' sake! I'm fine with the bad guy just walking in here, not like this is an exclusive meeting or anything. But do I have to risk getting speared by his outfit if I get too close?"

"Well, that's too bad, because I, Lord Magnificent, am here to help you pathetic heroic characters! So deal with it!" he replied, though the spikes became slightly smaller as he spoke. Might as well try to appease the... Wait, who had said that? He looked around, a bit confused, but shrugged, it wasn't important. If he acted nice, they'd accept him being there more easily.

"Seriously though. I'm here to help you guys out, for one time only, because this blobby guy," he poked at Tom with one of the longer spikes. "Asked me to."

Well, actually, he didn't. But no one needs to know that.

 

[TheNaut131]

The Crick

The Crick listened as Unicorn updated Coil on the situation and the rest of the remaining heroes filed in, Which just happened to be Sir Awesome and the villain known as Lord Magnificent. That was...interesting but given what they were possibly up against, any help was welcome help. Lord Magnificent seemed to share Sir Awesome's flair for the dramatic, something that finally managed to let the Specter make himself known.

Throughout this, The Crick had completed the jammer and had moved on to a computer console and was formulating a game plan at an alarming rate. His mind raced as he compiled their assets and adjusted it according to what information he rapidly gathered from news outlets and websites. Lord Magnificent brought The Crick back to the moment just as he finished his rant and The Crick finished planning. He looked at the watches he'd set up and gathered from in his arms and held onto a big red button, with a cord leading away further into the subway car.

Less than 10 minutes until the next bomb goes off...

"Seriously though. I'm here to help you guys out, for one time only, because this blobby guy," Lord Magnificent poked at Sir Awesome with one of the longer spikes. "Asked me to."

"And we're genuinely glad to have you. I'm grateful to all of you cause I'm gonna need all of you to work as efficiently and quickly a possible."

The Crick pushed the red button and the top and front of the subway card folded back, away and outward as the screens organized themselves. The screens displayed what information Loveless and him had been able to gather as well as what The Crick was calling their plan of attack. The Crick quickly began tossing the watches to everyone in the room. He took a moment to double check Coil's before tossing it to her.

"'Aldric' is apart of some higher power that's been plotting against the hero populous for whatever plan they have in store. Psyclone was a figurehead for this while they manipulated the media, possibly provided the police department their new gear, and God knows what else they've got their fingers in. Plans to 'humiliate heroes' have been attempted but this isn't some power trip, this is subtle and deliberate plan building to...something else. Something that has anyone bothersome out of the way. Possible villains out of the way as well." The Crick specifically voiced this concern to Lord Magnificent.

"But I've got a plan. I'm gonna try to get him talking, even if it's just for a moment, so I can tune into the sound of his voice and pick him out of the crowd. From there we're gonna have to move quickly.

Specter's gonna be following behind me, invisible. You'll be checking each of the hostages since your incorporeal form won't trigger the explosives. Once we've found him, you're gonna help me surprise him and box him in so he can't get away.

Sir Awesome and Lord Magnificent while this is going on, the jammer will be in effect. He won't be able to trigger the explosives on the hostages' explosives remotely. Once we've gotten a hold of him, Lord Magnificent is gonna need to put a barrier between him and the hostages so he can't just slink back in again and Sir Awesome, you're gonna have to use your 'goo' to carry the hostages out. This should be fine as long as their explosive vest remain undamaged.

Unicorn you're gonna be in the air circling the island. You'll be our 'air superiority' in case he has something up his sleeves...which he probably does. Hopefully not another blimp... Once he's complied and told us how to get the bombs off the victims and shut down the ones in the city, you're gonna swoop down, grab him, and get Aldric away from that island and somewhere secure. I don't want him running back to whatever hole he crawled out from.

Coil, you're gonna be with me the entire way, acting as my 'actual backup' so Aldric doesn't get too suspicious. Your skills with your 'coil' make you a key asset in capturing him and it'll be nice to have immediate backup in case things go really south. With your skill and the surprise from Specter we should be able to capture him quickly.

I wanna make this clear. We are capturing this man and we are going to get answers. I know this has taken time but we need to be organized and we have to go now. No second chances, no room for mistakes."

 

[Tortilla the Hun]

[HEADING=3]Dr. Schwertner[/HEADING]

"Ladies und gentlemen, if you vould please focus on see task at hand, sere is much to do," Vinzenz said, his tried patience evident in his voice. He was inspecting the halfway-constructed gateway, making sure everything was up to snuff. He had no intention of risking another failure. Especially due to a bad solder or loose panel. All of his assistants seemed keen on watching the chaos unfolding in the city below, looking on in horror and awe.

"Doctor Schwertner, how can you stand to work when the whole city is going up in flames?!" Nelson, the bald engineer had asked with an accusatory tone. "People are dying out there!"

"I vork because sat is vat I must do," Vinzenz replied committedly. He let his magnifying goggles rest on his neck and he set his tablet down. The doctor turned toward the five aides and looked sternly at each of them. "I don't suppose any of you have any super powers to speak of? Are any of you masked vigilantes? Ready to leap out sat vindow und swoop in to save see day? No? Sen vy are ve having sis discussion? From vat I can tell, see state of see city isn't going to improve vis only an audience. You are doing nossing to help vile standing at sat vindow vis your mouss agape und hands in your pockets! So how about you at least do somesing und finishing vat ve have started?"

 

[Lunar Templar]

"If he has another blimp I'm cutting it down. Not gonna have a repeat of last time." Karen said after Crick fished laying out his plan. "That said, I got no problem being air support, who knows, this jack ass might have a rocket or two to throw at the city as well. He seems the type to do that."

Her gaze turned to the 'goo twins' for a moment, then chuckled to her self, mostly 'Duke Sorta Interesting' "I told you, your not as 'evil' as you think you are, but nooooo nobody listens to the one with 'The Light of Evils Bane'." She teased.

 

[TheNaut131]

ALL

The group of heroes had all rushed out of the base and towards the island. The Crick most of them managed to get to the island through their owns means, but a boat had been procured for the rest. Unicorn flew above them and The Specter drifted across the ocean as the rest of the heroes, Coil, Sir Awesome, and by extension Lord Magnificent, sat in the boat, racing as The Crick pushed the engine with all it had. Lord Magnificent had of course wanted to test this "Butcher's" steel but he was smart enough to know that jumping in wouldn probably get him a bit more than burnt. sir Awesome oddly eager yet seemed kind awkward working with Lord Magnificent. And The Crick took a few glances back at Coil, noted her watch, and tried to push the boat even harder.

3 minutes til the next explosion. They were cutting it close. Too close for comfort, needless to say. The Crick essentially drove the boat onto the shore and the heroes took position.

Unicorn flew around the island overhead, keeping an eye out.

The Specter floated behind the Crick and immediately disappeared.

Lord Magnificent and Sir Awesome walked side by side, powers similar but the users rather different.

And Coil flicked her wrist, her Coil slashing through the air before retracting again. Looked like everything was in order.

The Crick walked towards the group of hostages all dressed as Aldric, some of them were shaking slightly, others were clearly in a full one. The Crick shook his head slightly and cleared his throat. Hopefully French supervillains with a knack for grandstanding were as prone to gloating as they seemed to be, in this case.

"Everything's gonna be alright folks...just as soon as I have words with Mr. Aldric. Aldric...Aldri-AAAALLL, mind if I call you AL? I mean, that's what Psyclone called you before you, you know offed him...which I don't get? I mean wow, guy didn't even know that much about this little operation by the looks of things. i'd hate to see what you do to someone who's privy to this whole thing, wouldn't you agree?"

 

[hiei82]

Aldric​

"When are they gonna leave?" Aldric wondered to himself. It had been nearly ten minutes since his initial announcement. There had been some brief movement shortly after the detonation as some of the less subtle members made their way to what he presumed was a secret base for an impromptu game planning session, but since then they hadn't reappeared.

I mean it didn't really bother him that the heroes were burning time and it would certainly help Mina's long term plans, but Aldric wasn't feeling particularly patient. After all, all he had to do for fun was watching a clock tick down or watch his hostages.

Eventually, he caught sight of them making their move - about 3 minutes from the next round of explosions - and so Aldric triggered his defenses. In the large area where the hostages were located, the floor began to rotate and move in odd ways to make picking out individuals even harder. He put his own explosive on so he'd match the hostages (all dressed identically to him). Lastly, he pulled on his matching mask; a full face-covering porcelain one with a built in microphone. He honestly hated the thing, but technology made it a necessity for the short term.

He stepped into the crowd and waited.

"Everything's gonna be alright folks...just as soon as I have words with Mr. Aldric. Aldric...Aldri-AAAALLL, mind if I call you AL? I mean, that's what Psyclone called you before you, you know offed him...which I don't get? I mean wow, guy didn't even know that much about this little operation by the looks of things. i'd hate to see what you do to someone who's privy to this whole thing, wouldn't you agree?" The Crick said as he broke in.

Through the buildings PA system, Aldric's voice rang out. "Really Monsieur Crick; you'll need more than false hope to help these people. I wonder, what have you told all the people back in the city as you flew over them hm? Similar empty promises I assume?" He said, moving stealthily through the crowd. By this point, the people in the crowd were moving similarly; just one of the many conditions of keeping the bombs from going off.

As The Crick drew closer however, something changed. About 30ft ahead of him, one of the hostages began to scream in pain before falling to the ground. Thanks to the moving floor, the body quickly moved began moving toward a wall. The people around the individual quickly moved away from him.

"Really? A Jammer? Is that the best you could do?" the speakers began to say. As the Crick moved, any hostage that came within 30ft similarly began to fall, screaming. "All you need to do is make sure they need a constant signal and the jammer just becomes a second trigger. Don't worry though; they're still alive... at least until they stop. moving." As he said this, the first person who went down reached the wall and began to beep at a rapidly increasing rate.

"Oh, and only 2 minutes to go."

Theodore and Mina​

As Theodore pushed open the eighth door, he suddenly could see just how bad the situation was. The door led to a small walkway over a massive automated manufacturing center. The center was mass producing suits like those the city had just bought. However, the numbers they were producing vastly exceeded even the most significant budget estimates for the city. It seemed clear to him that these suits were meant for more than just the city; likely more than just the police.

Hell, more than just the military.

Though he hadn't seen it, he suspected there were more of these facilities, producing all the odds and ends, weapons and gear. Across the bridge there was another door however; one that seemed exactly what he needed. At the door, he used his powers to send code after code to the electronic door along with a "reset" signal in the case it had an alarm. After nearly a minute, it cracked.

And inside was everything he needed. A computer terminal and some extremely advanced tech that resembled Coil. "Okay." Theodore said to himself. "Fukao Tech connects to Coil... Now I just need to connect Fukao to the clips or Psyclone".

Spoiler: OOC

There's maybe 8 people currently knocked out via the Jammer with roughly half of them headed toward an abrupt stop and subsequent explosion.

 

[DarkRawen]

Specter?

The Specter wasn't completely sure how he felt about this situation. On one hand, the plan sounded solid enough. On the other hand, he still wasn't sure how he felt about the villain being there. He wasn't completely sure that someone who enjoyed destroying things would be very useful, and if he was as clumsy as Sir Awesome...

The two of them might just destroy the city on their own.

Regardless, he followed -the two couldn't be that bad- and watched as the Crick's plan quickly fell apart. It was a shame, but he could adapt.

"Really Monsieur Crick; you'll need more than false hope to help these people. I wonder, what have you told all the people back in the city as you flew over them hm? Similar empty promises I assume?"

Surely the people in the city should know why we are doing this.

Then again, the trust the heroes once had possessed seemed to have gotten drained rather quickly.

That's... the point?

The Specter suddenly realized that, rather than destroying the city itself, what these villains really had done was to spread seeds of doubts.

Even so, does that mean people died so that the public would distrust heroes?

His patience with people was slowly running out. Frederick had always been able to believe in that there was something good in everyone, that they didn't deserve to die. Even evil cultist leaders. The Specter, however, wasn't so sure of that.

"Oh, and only 2 minutes to go."

On one hand, the Specter didn't feel like

Instead, still unseen, he went through the crowds, trying to find the person where the voice came from. Yes, they were all wearing masks and dressed similarly, and the sound came from the speaker. However, the Specter could get close enough, if he heard the voice from inside one of the masks, he could act. Even if it meant that he wouldn't be available for the part of Crick's plan that he doubted would be successful now.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

Tim Merridy

"I told you, your not as 'evil' as you think you are, but nooooo nobody listens to the one with 'The Light of Evils Bane'."

Tim huffed. "That's not it at all, however, if there's no city left, I'll have to find another place of wreck havoc. Besides, that attack of yours broke my bones, even with my armor. If that's not evil enough for you, then that's too bad. Because I do as I wish, not what you expect me to." He crossed his arms.

"Of course, if you're up for another battle, I'll be up for one after we've dealt with the bomb guy."

After that, Tim listened to the Crick with half an ear, stepping back and forth as he waited for them to act. Surely they didn't need to stand in place while doing this?

And here I thought heroes were less prone to plan. I suppose this is a special situation, though.

City-wide destruction tended to need a little more. Finally, they made it there, not long before the next explosion. To Tim's surprise, the French guy was prepared for something like a jammer, having turned it into a liability rather than a solution.

"All you need to do is make sure they need a constant signal and the jammer just becomes a second trigger. Don't worry though; they're still alive... at least until they stop. moving."

Tim was somewhere between excitement, a lot of it, and being annoyed, even angry at how ruthless this guy was. Why would he involve so many people, even kill them? There was a difference between showing off and just being a murderer, and Tim knew what kind this guy was.

"Didn't you have a challenge?!" he shouted. Crick's jammer seemed to be a failure, at least in terms of function. "This game of yours, let us play it, no matter what it is, I, Lord Magnificent, will crush you," he said, getting eager to stop the villain. The other villain. Of course, should a villain fight a villain one on one?

Argh, screw it, this guy needs to be smacked. Hard. With a spike. Through his eye.

Someone more suited would have to help the guys who were getting affected by the jammer.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Sirius Hamilton

Sirius had chosen to go for a less direct approach, and head to one of the explosion sites. This was because of several reasons. One; it would be less likely for something to happen where it already had been destroyed, and Two; he could help the people there. Bonding with someone who was afraid or sad was simple enough, there was a lot of them, and they were eager to do just about anything to feel slightly better. Besides, he had powers, but he wasn't a hero, just a passer-by, so he wasn't getting blamed to the same extent.

What time is it now?

Sirius was careful to keep an eye on his clock when he helped people, not letting them know that the orb around him not only healed those inside, but also shielded them. If he did, they would probably crowd him, get rid of those that needed help so that they could be safe. Given that there were only room for a few others apart from him, that was a bad idea.

Although, I'm surprise none of the heroes are here. I would have thought that they would be here, wanted or not.

Even Coil was elsewhere. Perhaps he really should have called her.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Karen watched as Cricks plan kinda back fired on him, shame, it was a good idea, but seems this lunatic had thought of the possibility of a jammer of some sort.

"Be ready to grab any one I knock over or other wise effect." she said to her team they needed to find this guy now. Karen dove down from where she was waiting, to about the middle of the holding area they where in, where she just hovered for a moment, her entrance and general presence giving off less the vibe of an 'Angel of Mercy' and more an 'Angel of Vengeance and Divine Wrath' minus all the usual 'holy' ranting that goes with it.

After a few seconds of hovering there she released a wave of golden light into the crowd, it wasn't very strong, at most it should only burn the guy they're looking for a bit, maybe others if they are secretly evil enough to be 'judged' by the light.

 

[TheNaut131]

The Crick

"Really? A Jammer? Is that the best you could do. All you need to do is make sure they need a constant signal and the jammer just becomes a second trigger. Don't worry though; they're still alive... at least until they stop. moving."

The Crick shut off the jammer leaped over the crowd and toward downed hostage against the wall. his bomb vest was beeping loudly at the lack of motion. He gave the hostage a quick shove away from the wall with the bottom of his foot and hoisted them up. He leaped around the room, keeping any more hostages from reaching the wall. But he didn't have time to put them all upright and he didn't know how long he could keep bouncing around, keeping them from stopping as they hit the walls.

"Oh, and only 2 minutes to go."

"This goes without saying, change in plans! Keep the hostages away from the walls!"

The Crick had had him, had his voice, had his location, but lost him the moment it became clear what was happening. The Aldric explained, teased and hinted at how his devices worked. Enough to understand a few things: Constant signal, constant motion. That's what Aldric wanted him to know. What didn't he want him to know? The Crick knew he didn't have time to isolate this single, assuming it wasn't encrypted or guarded in some way.

The Crick could hear the Specter moving ahead of him and searching the room for some sign of the Butcher. Even if he spoke again, The Specter would have to hear his voice through a mask in a large room with that same voice coming out of a pair of speakers. And that only assumed The Specter would be within the immediate area of Aldric.

Lord Magnificent was getting rowdy and The Crick didn't know what he would do. To him, it didn't seem like Lord Magnificent cared about saving anyone only beating Aldric's challenge. Unicorn seemed to be on the other end of things and had formed her own means of attack.

"Be ready to grab any one I knock over or other wise effect."

"Looks like these next two minutes are gonna get pretty interesting for yo- whoa wait a second, ANY one?" The Crick managed to croak out before the world itself seemed to slowdown slightly as a golden aura engulfed the area.

 

[hiei82]

Aldric​

They really were bad at being heroes...

The Crick managed to stop his jammer and even save one of the hostages; removing the bomb and tossing it away. The others however didn't even try to save hostages. It was honestly a bit surprising to him. He'd fully expected them to jump in and "save the day" and keep his little game going. No wonder Mina had begun her plotting. Heck, with the way they acted, she doubted Mina even NEEDED to run the negative PR campaign against them.

Trust the "so-called" heroes to do the heavy lifting.

Regardless, even as The Crick saved the life of one of the hostages, another three hit the walls, began beeping, and exploded into a shower of meat. A few more hostages who were too close to the walls similarly were caught in the blast and sent tumbling away from the explosion where they lay dead or worse.

At the words of Tim, Aldric began to speak. "And now you partner with villains too. Is THAT why you didn't bother to try and save people?" Aldric said, partly to piss off the group a little more. Unbeknownst to him however, the invisible Specter was within a few meters of him and could overhear his voice. His voice was coming from one of the people on the ground - supposedly from The Crick's jammer a few seconds ago.

Before he could act however, the Unicorn unleashed her attack upon the hostages. This was incredibly shocking for Aldric as he'd never considered the Unicorn - self proclaimed warrior of good - would willingly hurt hostages to catch him in the blast. She really was a strange one.

For his part, the attack burned like hell itself. A nice precursor in his opinion. He noticed a few others among his hostages suffering similarly, but the vast majority were unharmed at all. He couldn't help but notice that the only ones who were in pain were known criminals he'd taken. "Does she have an ability that ONLY harms the bad guys? Well that's just not fair." he thought to himself as he got to his feet - still in pain - and pulled off his mask.

"Well you're no fun at all." Aldric finally said, standing up despite the obvious pain. The attack left his face a burned mess; unrecognizable for a whole new reason now. "Guess we'll just have to skip to the end game huh. C'est la vie." At that, he raised his hand. In it was a small detonator with his finger depressed on it. "This here is a dead man's switch. I die, it goes off-" he said, indicating the bomb on his chest "-along with every other bomb in this city."

"So, unless you'd like tor try your luck and see how many of the bombs the police got to, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it a day." "I hope the show has been all you wanted boss; looks like I'm taking my payment now."[/b]

Theodore and Mina​

Theodore couldn't believe all he'd found. All the footage, the negative PR, the villains... all of it made sense. Well, all of it made a certain sense; a very very VERY screwed up sense. "You're one screwed up lady" he mumbled to himself as he copied all the files to his phone.

It had taken him a while to break into the computer's security system. Apparently, Ms. Fukao was very security conscious for a madwoman. However, once through it proved easy enough to search through the documents and find what he needed. It was the scoop of a lifetime really and he looked forward to breaking the news to the world.

"Says the man with cameras for eyes." Mina said, stepping in behind him, a look of barely contained rage on her face.

 

[IFS]

Tess

"So, unless you'd like tor try your luck and see how many of the bombs the police got to, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it a day."

This is it, this is what Mina is paying me for. She thought, fist clenching around the handle of her whip. She'd been quietly following along with the others, hanging back and watching developments unfold, but now it was her turn to act. She had to kill Aldric, that was all, then she would be done with this stupid hero nonsense, hell she could retire from being a villain as well and just sit back on the money she'd be paid.

Yet she hesitated. Come on what're you waiting for? You know the plan, even if you don't kill him he'll just set off the bombs. He wants to die. And Mina won't be happy with you if you fuck this up. In her head she remembered her shooting the guard of the bank, he too had been one of her employees hadn't he?

Gritting her teeth she stepped forward towards Aldric "I think you're bluffing," she said, lashing out with the whip, its tip covered with a metal cap. It struck him in the throat, more or less destroying it, in moments he would die choking on his own blood.

She felt sick, even her whip recoiled from the spray of blood and began writhing in her grasp, it was all she could do to keep her composure grimacing at the sight, dreading what her actions had caused.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Tom

Tom had rushed to the aid of the hostages, bomb defusing was no expertise of his but he had to help. He spread out catching those knocked over by the Unicorn's attack. Were his concentration not stretched so thin he might have yelled at her about harming the hostages, but there was no time. All he needed to do was keep them moving right? Constant motion, constant signal was what the villain had said.

That in mind he swept up every hostage he could, keeping them moving by carrying them as his goo tried to remove the bomb. He knew it might go off when he did this, so he tried to keep each hostage apart from the others, and if the first attempt at removing the vest failed then he planned to simply wrap the others in as much goo as he could and try to dampen the blast somehow.

Then he saw Coil lash out with her whip, striking an undoubtedly fatal blow on Aldric. He'd tried to react once he realized what she was doing, but he had too little goo left to work with, and no time. No... no this is bad. He focused back on trying to remove the vests, if Aldric did have a deadman's switch then he needed to save as many as he could. His vision blurred with tears he pushed onwards trying his best to be a hero.

 

[DarkRawen]

Specter?

"And now you partner with villains too. Is THAT why you didn't bother to try and save people?"

They didn't?

The Specter asked himself, he had heard some of the explosions, but he had thought that the others have at least made an effort to do something. Of course, there was more important things to consider, he had heard the actual person speak, right next to him, and reached out, about to materialize when an odd light shone down at everyone. It was clearly not natural.

Oh god, what is that?

Would it trigger another explosion? Instinctively, he withdrew, the Specter had already died twice, he couldn't take another time. When it was over, he noticed that it was the horned hero that had used it, and that it had only harmed a small handful, the guy he had heard speak included.

What was that about? And... why the hell didn't I get a warning?!

"Well you're no fun at all. Guess we'll just have to skip to the end game huh. C'est la vie. This here is a dead man's switch. I die, it goes off-along with every other bomb in this city."

Is that a lie? I really hope it is. Then again, this guy is insane.

Withdrawing further -no one would even know he had been there- the Specter wasn't close enough to stop Coil when he had realized what she was doing. Making sure an explosion wouldn't harm him, he shook his head, frightened, barely keeping himself from escaping through the floor.

She better hope it was lie.

If not, Coil had just murdered the entire city. His parents, his sister, his friends, if she had done this on a whim, Coil would be the reason they were dead. Well, Coil and this guy, but unlike the villain, Coil would probably still be alive. For a short while.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Tim Merridy


"And now you partner with villains too. Is THAT why you didn't bother to try and save people?"

"Hey, I am trying to save people!" He couldn't help but feel frustrated, sure, playing along with the villain's plan wasn't optimal, but it was worse than letting people die.

Of course, they came prepared for one plan, and look at this. I tried to help, not my fault that they didn't take the opportunity.

He did feel like he had failed them a little, though. Suddenly, a familiar light filled the room, and Tim stepped back, a little. While it wasn't nearly as strong as the Unicorn's attack aimed at him, it still stung a bit, from where he stood. Not enough to make him topple over, but he felt it. Knowing its effect, he wasn't surprised when only a few people was affected, the bad guy (or rather, the really bad guy) included.

"Well you're no fun at all. Guess we'll just have to skip to the end game huh. C'est la vie. This here is a dead man's switch. I die, it goes off-along with every other bomb in this city."

What?

Of course this was the final play. Tim wasn't sure whether if the villain was speaking the truth or not, but it was an interesting developement. Of course, given that it could end up with everyone dying, perhaps not as interesting. At least not fun.

Is he lying or not?

He couldn't tell. Apparently, Coil could, unless she was making a guess.

"I think you're bluffing,"

At first, Tim had no real reaction to what happened. Blood, apparently heroes weren't above murder. However, seeing Tom run ahead, trying to remove the vests while putting himself at risk made Tim nervous, and he reached out for the other.

"No, you idiot, don't---" running at full speed past those who had already gotten their vests removed, he ran ahead of Tom, spikes disappearing and a soft, round armor covering him, as he covered people in goo as as well, trying to take off the vest, but at the very least making sure to stay in the way of any explosion that harm could Tom. It was instinctive, Tim wasn't completely sure he himself would be fine. However, he considered himself... well, sturdier than the other. Besides, what was the use of trying to save this place if Tom got killed trying to play hero?

"It's fine," he told Tom, as he tried to do his to help. "It'll be fine, I'm sure it was just a bluff." Secretly, Tim wasn't so sure himself.

 

[TheNaut131]

Crick

The Crick could only watch in horror as Coil slashed at Aldric's throat, and blood flew through the air. The mists of 3 exploded hostages still filled the air and was joined by Aldric's fleeting life and thus his fleeting grip. The Crick landed and stared at Coil.

Coil.

Skilled with a whip.

Newest hero of Neutropolis.

Never killed, always played by the book.

And she slashed him in the neck. Effective kill strike.

The Crick leapt forward, moving past her as time slowed in his mind.

The Crick could hear everything at that moment. The Specter 'whooshing' in place, Sir Awesome doing all he could to keep the hostages moving with his gurgling goo, Lord Magnificent's goo sharpening and folding as he rushed to encase the blast vest, Unicorn's wings flapping in the air watching the scene from above play out like a disappointed angel. All the hostages screaming. all the sounds that make up fear.

He could hear the triggering devices of some kind on Aldric's vest.

And Coil's heart beat. Her breathing. Her panic. For a brief moment he wanted to grab her and hold her close. Tell her it wasn't her fault, that she was one of the best things he'd seen in this city in awhile. But The Crick knew. It was what he had been afraid of ever since Loveless sent him that message. She was in on it. Someway or somehow. But he wasn't mad.

He looked at Coil's watch. 25 seconds. He then hit a switch on his suit and watched the digital watched he'd given her grip onto her wrist and as she slowly convulsed, electricity coursing through her. He'd listened to Loveless's warning. And he had hoped the reporter had been wrong.

He had tried to warn Coil. He tried to warn her the moment they were face to face with Aldric. That him and whoever he worked for were going to discard her one way or another. They were gonna use her and kill her, just like they killed-

And then her heard it. He heard fire. A raging flame. And then he heard...

Spinning.

Devil Psyclone/Pilot Light

The rotating platform came to a screeching halt and as it slowed, the hostages gradually began to rotate in place as if the motion from the floor had been transferred to them. A figure covered in spiraling flames descended over Sir Awesome.

"Take a rest, jello boy..." The figure said, with an unfamiliar and gravelly voice.

It hovered over The Crick and Coil, taking a quick look at her.

"Well, serves her right I bet..." He muttered, chuckling slightly.

Finally, he moved past the Specter and landed in front of Lord Magnificent. He stared at Aldric for a moment as the flames slowly spun off his figure and surrounded the two. pushing Lord Magnificent back slightly. It was Psyclone, his poncho a burnt mix of orange and black as opposed to it's original yellow. His boots were still aflame slightly and he'd seeming found a new gas mask. A long series of cracks streaking across it. From under it, they could make out areas of burnt skin. And atop his head appeared to be some sort of structure that resembled a pair of jagged metal horns.

"Loving the new look Al! Burnt and beautiful, I've rather gotten rather attached to the look myself. But you ain't rockin' it so great. Can't lose ya yet, Al. I've got some fuckin' questions and a whole lot of beauty tips for ya!"

Aldric's blood went spinning back into his neck and the wound sealed itself with a seering flash of heat and quick spinning spark of flame. Psyclone grabbed Aldric's loosening grip and forced his knuckles to rotate closed, balling Aldric's hands into a fist. He then gave Aldric's wrist a twist that continued until "The Butcher's" own hand was torn and butchered off the wrist. Psyclone he'd the hand that held the deadman swtich. He then pushed it into Lord Magnificent's hands.

"As much as I'd love-AND I MEAN LOOOOOVE-a chance to blow up the entire city in one foul swoop...me and my friend AL here need to have words. And honestly,I've got bigger fish to fry."

 

[DarkRawen]

Specter?

"Take a rest, jello boy..."

The Specter froze midair, and a mixed feeling filled him. Disappointment -he had hoped Psyclone was dead once and for all- but mainly anger. A lot of anger. The Specter wondered if he should just leave, no one would notice, just like no one had noticed before. He didn't listen to what was said, only pulled away further. If it hadn't been for Psyclone...

He should be dead.

Frederick had taken some sense of pity on the villain, silly, but he hadn't known better. He had tried to imagine that it could be explained, perhaps even excused, but it had been useless.

I--

He trailed off as Psyclone move past him, and felt his body shake with disgust.

I should just do what the explosion couldn't.

It was a bad thought, a wrong thought. However, Theodore wasn't here to see, nor was Sofia or anyone else. No one would know it was him, even Crick could not be sure. However, as he looked towards the chandelier, he wondered, would it harm the others?

I can't do this, if it kills the--

He noticed the dead man switch removed and given to Lord Magnificent, whom in turn handed it to his slightly more reliable look-alike, Sir Awesome.

That's... good.

It meant that the explosion wouldn't happen. It also meant that he could attack without anyone else -apart from the guy trying to blow everyone up, possibly- getting hurt. He intentionally and forcefully pulled loose the chandelier and slightly moved it, only so that it would hit Psyclone. The windows, however, were not on purpose. The ones in the upper part of the building started cracking, and then broke, as if smashed from the inside. When he controlled the chandelier, they too followed, gathering above the chandelier.

That's convenient, actually.

The moment the chandelier had landed, he pushed the glass down, making sure to aim within the circle of fire, trying to only hit Psyclone.

This time you should just lie down and perish.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Tim Merridy

Tim didn't know why, but suddenly Coil, the only female hero who looked like she had read a comic book or two, started convulsing. Unsure of what had triggered it, Tim's attention suddenly turned to a new arrival, the wind-villain just with a lot more flames. Listening to the other, he couldn't help but cross his arms, what was this clown doing here?

"As much as I'd love-AND I MEAN LOOOOOVE-a chance to blow up the entire city in one foul swoop...me and my friend AL here need to have words. And honestly,I've got bigger fish to fry."

This bastard is stealing the show.

He thought. Of course he did, there always had to be a more troublesome and dangerous villain arriving at the last moment. It annoyed him that they weren't even his main concern, the villain was, but he couldn't do anything. The fire would pretty much burn through his armor, he could feel it withdrawing when some of the heat came too close, and he stepped back from it, pushing Tom back as well. He looked at the switch in the hand, if he pushed it, he would be the one who had destroyed the city, right? If he called George, and made him leave... he'd be the biggest, baddest villain, because he would have been the one who went through with it.

N...no. I'll do it my way, right? I don't need to kill millions of people to be evil, I can inspire fear in a different way.

He still didn't trust himself with it, Tim liked attention, he knew that. And he wasn't entirely sure he wouldn't do it, not if he got fired up.

"Here," he whispered, and handed the dead man switch -and the hand, why had he been handed that?- over to Tom. "You should find a way to keep it safe. I know I can't." There was a bit of guilt in his voice, he didn't try to hide it. Perhaps it made him a better villain than he thought, if he had trouble resisting evil deeds.

Should be the case.

He just wished he could ignore the dark pit in his stomach. Suddenly, however, he had a lot of distraction to make him think of something else, as the windows in the upper part of the building got smashed, and the glass gathered into a small -but deadly- shower of sharp glass, directed at Psyclone.

 

[hiei82]

Aldric​

Aldric hit the ground with a solid thump. At long last, everything was done. Death had been his objective. No... not "death", but a "memorable death". He'd lived too long, secretly killing in the shadows. While no one would remember his face - even he couldn't picture it - they would remember his power and the destruction he wrought. He knew there was no "good end" for him; there was too much blood on his hands. But, with the release of his thumb, they would remember his name for all time. That was enough.

And then, there was more pain as his hand was severed and his throat burned closed. Opening his eyes, he was faced with an unexpected sight; Psyclone. Even through the pain, Aldric couldn't help but turn up his lip in disgust. Looking to the side, he could see his missing hand was still on the trigger. "YOU DARE DESTROY MY LEGACY!?" the butcher screamed out in his mind, for his voice box was ruined beyond repair. "YOU DARE INTERFERE WITH MY DEATH!?" his mind continued to scream out as blood gurgled up into his mouth.

Not since the days of the second World War when the Nazi's had taken from him everything had he felt such rage. It burned inside him hotter than any flame this demonic Psyclone could summon, dulling his pain and driving him forward. Perhaps it was his fate to lose everything. The curse of a man without even a face to his name. "TO HELL WITH THAT AND TO HELL WITH YOU! I CONTROL MY FATE!" Aldric's mind screamed.

And Aldric had his chance. The Specter saw fit to provide a perfect distraction. Reaching up while the demonic man was dealing with the chandelier, he slipped his remaining hand from his pocket, brought it up to Psyclones face, and flipped him the bird.

And revealed the pin from the grenade in his pocket. He had just enough time to spit blood in Psyclones face before the bundle of white phosphorous in his pocket was released; turning everything around him to charcoal and glass with a heat rivaled only by the hate he felt for Psyclone and the hellfire to which they were bound.

And Aldric was gone.

Theodore & Mina​

At the sound of her voice, Theodore turned and was faced with... a little girl? With a scythe... and a pissed off look on her face. Theodore, being a relatively smart individual, immediately began putting things together. "She is a superhuman... Wait? She looks like an old Japanese hero... Mina Fukao is Jap- Oh Crap!" he thought, barely dodging out of the way as a scythe crossed through where he once was.

"I'm growing quite tired of your interference Dr. Loveless. You should have just kept reporting on heroes rather than pretending to be one.". She said, stepping forward and making another attack at him. At this much closer range, Theodore dodged, but not without getting a large cut across his leg. The same leg the pen had been in. "You might have lived longer."

Unable to run, Theodore did the only thing he could: talk. It was "his OTHER superpower" after all. "Aren't you supposed to be a hero? What you're doing... it's monstrous!" He hoped he could convince her to let him get away. And if not, it allowed him to stall for time as he uploaded all the information he could into his cellphone and prepared it to beam out to The Crick. If nothing else, at least the real heroes could stop her.

For her part, Mina looked amused at him. Mina put her hand on the computer, typed a few commands Theodore couldn't see, and a video popped up on the screen. It looked like something he might of shot for it was from the perspective of a person. However, the actual video was jarring to say the least. Images of all the heroes of the city - plus the goo villain - all doing battle with guys in masks.

Well, not so much as doing battle with them so much as trying to capture one of them. Every now and then the feed would get cut off as the viewer went down and exploded. It wasn't hard to figure out that they were seeing the battle from the perspective of hostages and it was... terrifying. The heroes were desperately trying to stop the villain-of-the-day and allowing hostages to die in droves to do it.

Meanwhile, on another screen, the city's emergency services were disarming bomb after bomb in a desperate bid to stop what must have been some kind of villainous ploy. If there was any doubt she was behind everything, now it was confirmed true. "This is why. Your heroes don't deserve the name. They have the potential to become so much more, but they waste it and fail this city over and over again. I will change this. And if some must be sacrificed for the world to see a better path, then so be it." the woman said, as she slowly approached the all but immobile hero.

Theodore, still needing time, began to crawl away. If it only bought him a few seconds, then it would be enough. Then she struck. As the scythe carved through him, Theodore knew he was done. He could see the blood pooling by his now separated legs. His mind blocked out the pain; perhaps knowing there was nothing he could do about it.

It wasn't everything, but it would have to be enough. With one final command he told his phone to forward everything it had. With his mind foggy he wasn't sure what number to send it too but he was fairly certain it was correct. The witch - now standing over him, seemed to be doing something; casting some kind of spell. He could see a strange bluish mist being sucked into her mouth, but he didn't know what it was. "Go now and find peace spirit" he thought he heard her say.

"Am I a hero now?" were Theodore's last thoughts as his soul departed this world.

Mina​

Mina finished consuming the interloper's soul; purifying it of what little sin it had and sending it on to a better afterlife than even he deserved. She honestly felt pity for the media host. She didn't wish him harm. She didn't truly wish anyone harm. It was just... necessary. A necessary evil. That was what allowed her to carry it. To carry all her sins. She did the evil that no hero could to make the world safer. Better.

Turning her attention to the screen, she could see another unexpected development had arisen. Quite literally it seemed since she'd long since believed the annoyance had been dealt with. Psyclone had returned with a vengeance. While this was still within the tolerance for error of her plan, she couldn't let the factor continue to run amok. With all of her minions now dealt with and the plan otherwise under control, Mina smirked and readied herself for battle.

With one final spell - a simple cleanup spell to dispose of the body - she headed out. "He's going to wish he stayed dead." Mina said to herself as she cast fly and took off toward the island.

Theodore​

Theodore awoke with a start in a bright room. Sitting up, he couldn't see anything for miles. Nothing but a dim light that made his eyes hurt. He remembered everything but it all seemed somehow... off. Like it wasn't real, despite his memory of it. "God damn that girl sucks." he said to himself in the vast emptiness. From behind him, he heard another voice.

"She really does.". Turning, Theodore was faced with perhaps the oddest sight of the day... a small talking fox.

Rias​

At about the same moment Theodore passed from this world, Rias felt her phone begin to vibrate. She had a message from one Dr. Theodore Loveless. A message containing a lot of 0s and 1s. not just a lot; an OVERWHELMING number of 0s and 1s

She was going to have a HUGE data bill this month.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Karen

With the arrival of the seemingly not dead, and now on fire, 'blowhard', Karen took to going from person to person, looking for bombs and getting them off the people that had them, and with the detonator in their hands, and Al in custody she felt the situation was in hand.

Till the glass in the area shattered and a chandelier started to fall on Psyclone, and Al blew him self up. Karen reflexively threw up her shield to block what ever was coming her way from the explosion and protect the people she was removing the bombs from.

"The Hell is going on?!" She said as the smoke started to clear.


Rias

Rias phone started going off and she went over to go see what it was, finding a message from Loveless. The message it self was just a bunch of 1s and 0s and absolutely MASSIVE. Her first thought was her phone bill, and how this was gonna run it up like no other.

Still, she was curious as to what it was, and plugged her phone into her laptop to transfer it over figuring it was non-sense because her phone didn't have the file reading program to display the message correctly. A couple minutes later, with the news on, she sat down and started to read what Loveless sent.

She just sat there, not sure what to really make of what she'd read. On the one hand, there really was to little accountability in the 'cape and cowl' community, and the idea of this sound like a good step. Besides, it might mean a uniform which would likely help cut down on the 'revenge' plots that where so often the problem.

Then there was the fact that the Fukao Financial Group, seemingly with this Mina fully aware of what she was doing, was hurting and killing a LOT of people to force this situation, apparently having been editing the news, and even having hired BOTH this Butcher and Psyclone. There was also the exaction. If the plan was to make the city safer, all this would end up doing, in her mind, would be creating a big glowing target for some one like this 'Butcher' or Psyclone, to go after first. After a bit of thought, Rias figured if some one was gonna do something like this they couldn't be out in the open, and would need to operate like the CIA or some other such group, moving and acting in secret and taking villains down before they knew what hit them.

In the end though, the news was on, and all any one was talking about was the bombs still, so ether this was one of the news groups in Mina's pocket, or they hadn't gotten the message.

Rias sat there a moment, unsure of what to do. She's not a hero, just some singer cursed with powers she doesn't really want, and only uses cause they benefit her act, and then it hit her. Loveless must have sent this to her by mistake. Which means, he was in trouble.

Crap

Rias could send it to the news outlets her self but it could be ignored, she was after all, a 'nobody' for all intent and purpose, sure she was 'known' but she didn't have the journalistic pull Loveless had. The heroes where busy, emergency teams where ether where they needed to be, or, likely in the Mina's pocket.

Rias sighed, grabbed her coat, and headed out to where Loveless said this factory was, she'd need to find him to sort this mess out.