Holding Out For A Hero: An Original Superhero Quest

Mr. 13. He's been flying under the radar and, supposedly, the other people he's killing are other villains, so . He looks like a solid target to go after. No powers so you could probably take him out with a good punch. Your barrier and armor could probbily handle anything this guy can bring against you. He's just a guy with a gun, and there's about a dozen of those guys in your neighborhood.

You go back to reading,

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Later That Night, several miles away...

Charles Garrick was not a happy man.

His lawyer did everything he could to stack the jury in his favor. Getting good people from good families that know to look out for each other. And what does the DA do? He swaps the juries at the last minute! It wasn't fair for some DA to screw him over like that. And from what his lawyer said, the people on the jury wouldn't understand. They might actually find him guilty!

Well, that's why he had to get out then. Besides, K would be happy to leave him to rot if he was convicted. As he was sitting in his cell, he looked up at a pair of guards carrying shotguns walk by, on their rounds. He looked down, pretending to stare into space as the footsteps got further away.

Once they were a cells down, Profligate pulled a plastic key from his sleeve. It was a cheap thing, would probably break if he turned it too hard.

He tossed it in the air as he listened.

"What the- how did y-"

"Put your-"

Both voices were silenced with a loud electric buzzing sound. Proflegate could see a blue light flicker from outside of his view as the two guards screamed. Cheering from the prisoners erupted as two of their tormentors were electrocuted. Profligate tuned it out, focused on escape until he heard two thuds. He casually stuck his arm through the cell doors and turned the key, hearing a loud clank as the door unlocked.

He walked by and saw the two guards, charred and blackened. Their fingers and limbs curved up involuntarily as their faces were frozen in a scream.

"Hey, you gonna let me outta here? That was the deal, remember?" He heard from the cell.

Profligate turned and saw his accomplish. A dark haired man, smoke rising from his hands. His mohawk had been shaved, leaving him with a neat buzz cut. At his feet were the remains of the pair of bracelets meant to absorb his electricity whenever he tried to use it.

The man's name was somethingoranother. Profligate decided to just call him Surge until he remembered his name or until Surge was dead. Apparently, he was a mercenary that ended up captured by The Vigil a few weeks back. A few conversations here, a promise of revenge there, and it was simple to get the man on his side.

Profligate slipped a second key in the lock. He was fine with leaving Surge to rot, but there's a difference discarding someone when they outlived their usefulness, and discarding someone because it's fun. And he still needed Surge so he couldn't afford to burn him for fun.

"Damn, that felt good" Surge muttered as he stepped out of his cell. Profligate turned his nose up. He was about to give him a lecture about how if Jumper was going to associate with him, he was going to conduct himself in a more professional manner, but the lecture could wait. He walked over to the two charred corpses and started to search them.

"The fuck are you doing?" 'Surge(?) asked. By now the prisoners in the other cells were cheering, some begging to be let out, and more that was being lost in the noise.

Profligate pulled a keycard from the first guard and tossed it to Surge, then searched the other guard. "Making sure the plan goes further than us stepping out of our cells." He said as he pulled out the other keycard. "We need to scan both at the same time to leave this cell block."

"Looks like you've done your homework" Surge said, tone neutral.

The two men ran. As Profligate had said, there was a large steel door 20 feet wide that needed swipes from two keycards simultaneously to open. Once through, Profligate lead his accomplice until they got to the laundry room. As soon as they opened the door, which was unlocked thanks to a well placed bribe, the smell of urine, vomit, blood, and other unmentionable scents assaulted both men. Profligate made a beeline towards one of the dryers and opened it. Profligate reaches inside, and takes out pieces of armor similar to the one he wore when he was arrested, but this armor was dark blue and black.

"Looks like some serious hardware" Jules said. "You think you can hook me up with something like that?" He asked.

"We can discuss that later, now watch the door and deal with anyone that comes through" Profligate said as he started putting the armor on. The panels shifted once Profligate put the armor over his torso, expanding until it covered his chest and head. Inside the helmet, the HUD lit up. The computer inside of the torso armor connected to the armor enveloping Profligate's arm.

Profligate started reaching into the machine, franticly putting on pieces, grabbing the next piece of armor before the one he had just fully expanded. Almost a minute later, his suit complete, Profligate smiles to himself. "It appears we've been paroled. Shall we find our own ways out?"

His accomplice smiled a wicked grin as sparks started to appear in his hands.
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It's late Friday morning in Hartford. You are driving up the sloping streets near your home to get to the public library. It's on the same street as two strip malls, right across from each other. and a grocery store, with a church and some houses further up. You pull into the parking lot of the library and head inside.

You enter the library and, besides the librarian who glances up at you before going back to his laptop, there are only a few people here. A group of old men playing chess. A young woman browsing on her laptop, a couple of homeless people on the computers. Everyone seems to be focused on their own thing, so you do the same.

You start reading. History, mechanics, some psychology and sociality, some first aid techniques from a camping manual. You even find some books with logic puzzles and brain training games. You check them out to do on your own time, along with a book called...

[] "Story of The World" Ruth Longfellow (Gains skill History: 9) Knowledge of historical events, and how they relate to today, historically significant Heroes and Villains ect.
[] "Stuffing Money into Briefcases and Other Skills An Accountant Needs" By Anton Contanti (Gains the skill Finance: 8) Knowledge on the practical side of economics, brokering financial deals, seeing irregularities in financial transactions, and raising capital.
[] "The Dead, and What They Can Tell Us" By Donald Yoshifumi (Gains skill Forensics: 8) The ability to discover information from evidence left behind from crime scenes.
[] "Thaumaturgy: Theory and Practice of the Mystic Arts" By D. G. Porter (Gains skill Thaumaturgy: 6) The Theory of the underlying "physics" on magic. Allows the user to quickly identify spells, understand their ramifications, and possibly even create new spells if they have enough time and patience.
[] "Kill or Be Killed: A United States Army Training Manual" By US ARMY (Gains skill Tactics: 8) Knowledge on predicting and outmaneuvering your enemy on small scale combat. OR (Leadership: 8.) The ability to coordinate others effectively and leading them into stressful or dangerous situations.
[] "Hunting and Fishing" By Peter Gunn (Gains the skill Survival: 8) The ability to live off the land, build shelters, and in general, survive outside of a place with supermarkets, roads, and toilets.
[] "Sign on the Dotted Line" By Louis C. Rascon (Gains the skill Fast Talk: 9) Fast Talk is about convincing someone to agree to something against their better judgement. Usually by lying.
[] "I have a Dream and You Can Too" By Xavier G. Snyder (Gains the skill Dreaming: 8) The ability to recall dreams and increases your chances or remaining lucid when dreaming.
[] "Why it's Illegal to Tie a Horse to a Pole and Other Laws" By Supermassive (Gains the skill Law: 7) Knowledge on specific laws and history related to them.
[] "The World At Your Fingertips" By Skyshatter (Gains the skill Ritual Magic: ???): Ritual Magic is considered theoretical if you're feeling charitable. Psudoscience akin to homeopathy and essential oils curing cancer if you aren't. But the theory is that certain rituals can have powerful effects, more so than normal magic. But it's possible that there's something to this.