Holding Out For A Hero: An Original Superhero Quest

"Alright. I'll do it. This time" You say. "I don't mind being a medic on jobs like this, but after this, I'm strictly a medic"

"Fine" Gangbuster says. "Thanks for that"

Gladiatrix rolls her eyes, but Gangbuster shoots her a dirty look. "What, I figured that if he's gonna be a vigilante that he wanted to fight!"

"Yeah, yeah..." You say. "Anyway, what do we know about this place we're heading to?"

"We couldn't do much recon on the place. Chances are, they have people watching it so people like us don't show up" Gangbuster says. "There's a main entrance on the southeast corner and an emergency exit on the northwest side, but there aren't any windows beyond that"

"And the warehouse is huge, so they could be anywhere..." You say.

"But most of it is just empty space, assuming that it isn't actually being used, which we probably shouldn't" Stampede says. "Anyway, I have enough explosives to make a decent sized hole here" She says, circling an area to the southwest of the building.

"Why there?" Crush asks.

"Assuming that they aren't going to meet in the middle of a large empty warehouse, they're probably gonna be in one of the rooms. Most rooms are gonna be on the opposite from the main entrance. So if we wanna hit the ground fighting, we should start near there. Plus, if we end up in . Without knowing the exact layout, this is the best place for us to make our entrance" Stampede says. "Anyway, we break up into two teams. Me and the Vigil will breach the wall here" She taps the circle. "Then, we flush out the guys in the meeting."

"Why him? I bet I'm just as tough as that guy, and I'm a lot faster since I don't have to lug around all that armor!" Gladiatrix asks.

"Because he's a walking tank and I'm going to be in a literal walking tank" Stampede says. "I would've asked you if Vigil wasn't on board." She points to Gladiatrix. "But since he is, I figured that you'd be good with being on the team that's gonna do the real damage" Gladiatrix seems satisficed with this, so Stampede continues. "Anyway, once we go in, we flush 'em out wherever they're hiding, We start fighting them, taking whatever they can throw at us, while you guys enter through here" She taps the emergency exit marked.

"So, any questions?" Stampede asks.

"What about traffic cams?" You ask. "If they get their hands on the footage, then they're gonna find out it was us, no matter what we do." Crush asks.

"There aren't that many over there." Gangbuster says. "At least not when I did recon."

"If I had to guess, the Coalition didn't want too many of their people being filmed going in and out of there. I guess that's good news for us, huh" Stampede says. "Now, anyone else have any other questions, or can we make a toast to changing the world?"

"I think you're overselling it a bit" Gangbuster says.

"You're an ass, you know that?" Stampede says, chuckling. She starts pouring a drink.

[] Write in.

There's a round of negatives from all around and with that, Gangbuster puts away the map. "Alright people. Get some sleep and bring your 'A' game tomorrow. I have a feeling we're gonna need it."

Stampede slides a shot whisky to Gangbuster before sliding a shot of ginger ale over to you. "I know you don't drink, so here ya' go"

"Now when I'm The Vigil" You clarify, taking the shot glass.

"Fair. So Crush, what's your poison?" Stampede asks the new guy.

"I'd just like..." Crush things about it. "You know what, just get me a good bottle of beer." He says.

"You even old enough to drink, kid?" Stampede asks, though she still reaches into a mini-fridge under the bar and gives the young man a bottle of lite beer.

Crush grumbles something, before focusing on the bottle. The cap flies in the air like it was launched from the bottle and lands on the bar.

"Got any good tequila back there?" Gladiatrix asks as she gets off the couch, taking her hog splitter with her. As she walks over to the bar, there's a slight limp in her left leg. You've limped like that after a bad fall. But when you have limps like that, you always take it easy. Don't run, don't put too much pressure on it. Sure, that was before you had a healing spell, but as far as you know, she doesn't.

Stampede holds up a bottle of tequila and smiles. "Its not my thing, so I don't know if its good." She pours the former hero a shot, which Gladiatrix happily takes.

"Well, here's to kicking ass!" Stampede says.

Everyone slinks their glasses. You and Gladiatrix drink yours own glasses, Stampede knocks back her's like its nothing. Gangbuster takes a sip of his drink and Crush starts gulping his bottle, downing the entire thing without taking a breath.

"Alright. Everyone meet here at 6:30 tomorrow. We'll start getting ready and head to the meeting place soon after" Gangbuster says.

"Hey Gladiatrix" You say.

"What?"

"I saw your leg is a little banged up" You say, in a massive understatement. "If you want, I could try and heal it. Make sure you're at 100% for tomorrow"

Gladiatrix thinks for a moment. "You know what? Fuck it. If you wanna give it a try, go ahead"

You channel your magic and cast the spell, and her leg starts to glow as it repairs itself. Gladiatrix's expression changes from incredulity, to shock, then happiness.

"Woah, I knew you were a doc, but..." She tests out her leg, bending it, putting weight on it, then walking around the room, her limp gone. "Nice. You know, you're alright, Vigil" She says. "Sorry if I gave you crap earlier."

"You know, I'd think that you'd have got that leg patched up when you were a cape" Crush says. "I mean, don't they have people with healing powers working for them?"

Like her mood itself was shot in the middle of the bar, Gladiatrix' smile drops. She opens her mouth to say something, but closes it again her mood turning foul.

Seeing the change in expression, Crush puts down his beer. "'Don't ask again. Got it" He says

"Thanks." Gladiatrix says. Her mood hasn't improved, but she isn't giving Crush any more dirty looks.

"Alright, so..." Gangbuster says, eager to move past that. "We'll meet here at 7:45. So go home and get some rest. We're all gonna need it.

You all file out soon after. A few minutes apart, so no one notices a large group of people leaving an alleyway at once. As you make your way back home, you feel tired.

---------------------------------------------

When you get home, its late. You've already decided on what you're going to tell Gwen that you're planning on going to the 11 o'clock service at church instead of the usual 8 o'clock. You chuckle to yourself, you're going to fight, probably kill people, then go to church like nothing happened.

Maybe you should just skip church tomorrow. A few people from over there might ask where you were, but, honestly, you're a grown woman. And you're pretty sure that God wouldn't mind you taking a day from church.

As you walk inside your home, it is quiet. The nightlight you placed near the door leading to the garage is bathing the hallway in an orange light. You go to your bedroom and see Adrian fast asleep, snoring a little. You chuckle and close the door. You'll join him in a minute, but first, you want to check on Gwen before you hit the hay.

You walk through the house. Your footsteps are the only thing you're able to hear besides the soft sound of your computer you pass by your home office/computer room. As you go to Gwen's room, you start to hear some muffled talking. You nearly summon your sword out of reflex until you realize it doesn't sound like someone in the room talking. It sounds more like something playing on TV. Slowly, you creep to her room. You give the door a couple of soft knocks, and then open the door.

You see Gwen is fast asleep on her bed, tablet in hand, playing a sci-fi cartoon of some kind. You breath a sigh of relief as you pause the video and tuck your daughter in.

"Sweet dreams, cupcake" You say, kissing her on the forehead.
.......................................

Freddy "The Gent" climbed into the driver's seat of the car, an inconspicuous looking sedan, that would take him to the meeting. Even this early in the morning, and even though it wasn't that hot yet, he was sweating. He wiped the sweat from his brow as the second passenger opened the back door behind him and let in his boss, Anton Contanti.

"Let's get this over with" The man growls as he adjust his suit jacket, letting Freddy catch a glimpse of the hand gun that his boss had concealed. Freddy adjusted his own jacket and started to relax. All he had to do is just stand around, and make sure that nothing went wrong at the meeting. It shouldn't be that-

*IKNOWABOUTYOURTHIRDNIPPLE*

The sentence rang out in Freddy's head almost faster than he could process. "MOTHER FUCK!" He screamed as he reached for his own pistol out of reflex. Only for a mocking laughing from his right to bring him down. Looking to his left, he saw the third man going to this meeting. He was a fellow made man, he was in his 30's but still probably the youngest person here...

For a moment, Freddy wonders why he thought that. He was only 26.

"Ah, I'm just busting your balls, kid. Don't lose your shit before we even get there" The man says. His name's Al Amici.

"Yeah, yeah. I got a girl in Lockewood doing that. I don't need you doing that too" Freddy said.

"Don't go bein' a pussy, Freddy, we got work to do" Contanti says, unfolding the newspaper he brought with him. "Sooner we get there, the sooner we can get those Gun Runners outta the city and we can all get back to making money in peace"

Without a word, Freddy turns the keys and they're off. Freddy and Al made some small talk on the drive there. They talked about the new highway project one of their construction companies were working on, the fix that Freddy put in for the game tonight, and the close call that Al had with a deal in Geist's territory where he was making a deal he wasn't supposed to be making in an area he wasn't supposed to be.

Though that only mattered if you got caught.

Then, as they turn into the neighborhood that had the warehouse, Al looked at the other man, as if noticing something on his face. "Hey Freddy, you alright? You're sweating like a pig over there"

Freddy stared back at the other man for a moment before he looks back at the road. For all he knew Al was looking through his head. Something that terrified the younger man.

"I guess its just nerves" Freddy says. He didn't let his feelings show, saying his words in as calm a voice as one could imagine.

Al stares for a moment, before he sits relaxes in his seat. "Eh. I guess so. Just don't pull out your piece or use those crazy powers of yours unless shit hits the fan, alright?" Al says.

"Yeah. Sure" Freddy says. For some reason, the thought of using his powers made him even more nervous. He turned up the AC and kept driving, trying to ignore the dread building up in the back of his dead.

-------------------------------------------------

You ride down the streets towards the Lucky 7s. You're on the city rail service, riding up north. You told Gwen that you're taking care of some last minute orders. Which, in fairness, you really should be doing.

But there's only one thing on your mind.

[] You're excited that you're going to make a larger dent in crime in the city than the cops have done in years.
[] You're nervous. You have the element of surprise and an inside man. But there are a lot of things that go wrong.
[] You're mistrustful. Can you really rely on everyone I'm fighting alongside?
[] You're wondering what happens after you arrest or kill these guys? Organized crime isn't just going to disappear from the city.
[] Write in.

As your train passes by the Hartford Zoo, you think about what you're planning on doing when you get there. Your allies seem to want to just kill them, but what do you think?

[] I'm going to do my best to not kill them. They need to be in jail.
- [] You're going to try to convince your allies to not try and kill the Coalition leaders.
[] I've done my best not to kill anyone and I'm going to keep going.
[] If I can, I won't kill them. But I won't shed a tear if they end up dead in the fighting
[] No one can know for sure that I, or anyone else for that matter, were the ones there. We can't let anyone walk away.
[] These people are too dangerous to roam free and the courts aren't going to do anything. They need to die.
[] I'm killing me some bad guys.
[] Write in