[X] Read them in.
Yeah its been several months in universe. Give them the chance. Besides it will look really weird if Wolong ia suddenly leading JU without an explanation. So lets do it!
[X] Mystery Box
Whats in tha booooox!
It's not been "several months", it's been a month. That's the amount of in-universe time an Issue is. Two if we're generously putting New Dawn arc at the earlier part of the month.
"THIS IS THE FLORIDA FORCE, SURRENDER IMMEDIATELY!"
"You said this place was abandoned!" hissed the ex-prisoner at Stockpile.
"It was for years!" the young man protested. "They must have stepped up surveillance!"
"A natural move for any regime that recently suffered an international blow," snapped Valiant Silvergirl. "As I told you."
"We needed supplies! Better here than Horizon!"
Radiant's retort was cut off when the voice outside boomed, "YOU FORFEIT YOUR RIGHTS! GOD TAKE YOU!" and the wall exploded in flame and shrapnel. The cosmic meta quickly waved her hands and controlled the mess in a gravity ball. The wall crumbled away to reveal three angry metahumans in state-flag uniforms.
Stockpile scanned them quickly. "It's Koine, Orange and Forty-Fiver! The others must be off!"
"Their names matter not."
"They should, missy!" yelled Forty-Fiver. "I'm not some weakling like in Midwest! And besides..."
He grinned and tapped a button on his power-armored wrist. Silvergirl doubled over in pain.
"They told us about the insurance for your parole, yeah?"
"ENOUGH!" Silvergirl glowed and charged at Forty-Fiver, blasting him into the sky and streaking away after him. Orange Justice made his own attack, spewing tentacles from his mouth to grab for the grizzled ex-prisoner (who called himself "Stug"). Two tentacles were topped with jagged blades, and two with dripping suction-cups. The skinny man was lifted up, Orange cackled and reeled him in. A blade nearly took Été's arm while she slowly conjured fire. But in the nick of time, Stockpile made a flank and hit Orange with a stun grenade. He dropped Stug in surprise, who grabbed his gun and shot down both Orange, and Koine who was fleeing.
Around that time, Silvergirl flew back, dramatically wiping her hands. "Forty-Fiver all done," she said. "But reinforcements will arrive soon."
"Five minutes local cops. Twenty-five, more metas." Stockpile guessed.
"Indeed. So time to grab and go."
The group split up and combed the equipment cache, piling up useful things and gulping down food. However, Stockpile looked at Stug and Silvergirl carefully.
"Did... you kill them?"
"Of course not," Silvergirl snapped. "He's safely trapped under a few tons of rubble - rubble which he created - and I'm sure the crew will get him out by tomorrow, if he doesn't fix his shoddy armor and blast out first."
They both looked over at Stug, who grinned coldly.
"Aimed for the legs. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. What's it to you?"
"That's not the hero way!" Stockpile said instinctively.
"I'm not a hero. You knew that from the start."
They both looked at Silvergirl, sensing she could break the draw. But she just sneered.
"You ask whether you should kill. I ask, why should I keep you all around?" She glared at Été in equal disdain, who was silent, just as she'd been since the escape. Silvergirl continued:
"I have more power than this entire state put together. I certainly don't need a baseline man, la Saison la plus faible, and an 'Algernon' who couldn't build his own gear. Why shouldn't I leave you all here to the Americans' mercy?"
Silvio felt like he was back with Crusade, listening in vain as White Hawk undermined him. Was this the path of all Algernons? Did the Captain ever suffer this?
Suddenly, Stug spoke. Despite being like an ant to a man, he seemed unafraid.
"You already forgotten what Forty-Fiver did? You were nearly down for the count there. If there'd been a blaster with him, you could be dead now. Hell, what if the Americans tell Leizi about it? And if they put the weakness in you, who better to figure it out -"
He jerked his thumb at Silvio.
"-than one of their former Algernons?"
Silvio felt emboldened. He broke in: "You don't know what the world is like now. You were never the infomaster of the group, and the teams have changed, the dynamic's changed. Whatever your goals, they'll be easier with us to navigate."
And then, even Été spoke. In a raw, low voice she said:
"You are the most powerful... but you want to live the most. That makes you fight differently. As for us..."
She looked around with haunted eyes.
"...I think each person here has a death in mind. You can use that, if you think."
Silvio couldn't bring himself to disagree. Stug had returned to his trademark grin.
Radiant Silvergirl stared for a while. Her eyes had the chill of the void. The humid Florida night sent sweat down Stockpile's back.
"...Fine. You all stay with me for now."
"But-" she said in response to Silvio beginning to thank her "-this is not a true team. If I feel I can do better alone, I will leave. Now, Stockpile. Where do you recommend we go next?"
He swallowed hard.
"Well, we have two main options. Actually three. Uh, one, go back to Horizon right now and try to strike all targets while they're recovering from the events with Social Butterfly. Number two, continue raiding Global Justice supply caches and look for info on the weakpoint. I even know an ex-lab where I could, uh, try to make some weapons for me and Stug. Number three... go to Panama and try to hijack the secret monitoring station, wait until we see a target become vulnerable, and move from there. What's uh, what's everyone think?"
The group looked at each other awkwardly. Stug shrugged and said, "I'd sure as hell like a weapon before I kill Octavius, so two then three."
"That's acceptable to me," Silvergirl droned.
Été said nothing, but slowly nodded.
Silvergirl created her gravity cup and pulled the supplies into it, before the others climbed in as well. There was food, water, some light weapons, and random junk that Stockpile would have to... use his power... to craft with.
The cosmic meta lifted off with her load just as police sirens came into hearing. "Where to?" she yelled.
"There's a good lab in Montgomery!" Silvio said.
"Good enough." She rose to become just a dot from the ground, and set off north.
When the forensic team arrived in Boca Raton, they found no evidence that one of the world's top five metas had been there. But Silvergirl knew, that they knew, that she was out, and the hammer would fall. Their time stateside was limited, but they would gain something from it.
And then... back to Horizon. For the reckoning. For the answers.
Name: Forty-Fiver, Rick Ronald Age: 22 Power: Algernon-type Faction: Florida Force Stockpile's notes: Yet another Algernon who built power armor. How original. But he had the grace to make it fueled by a miniature nuclear reactor instead of psychic energy or the Leviathan. This will probably give him cancer, but I guess he knows.
His armor grants enhanced strength, can fly up to 200 mph, withstand bullets and extreme temps, and it interfaces with computers so he can hack things remotely. Though in metahuman battle this is not actually very impressive. For attack he uses guns. He's led the Florida Force since Glade Trooper retired.
Name: Orange Justice, Daniel Marsher Power: Transformation, Regeneration Age: 35 Faction: Florida Force Stockpile's notes: Orange Justice is the oldest member of Florida Force, and I hear he's resentful cause he thinks he should have been promoted to a national squad by now. But he's too weak, not to mention unmarketable.
He conjures four tentacles from his mouth and controls them as limbs. These tentacles can extend up to 150 feet, and their end can be topped with a number of tools such as a sucker, blade, fingers, shield, I heard he even made instruments one time. If a tentacle is severed, it will regrow in seconds. However if it is severed close to his mouth, it will cause severe pain and take a few minutes to recover. The longer timeframe also applies to his human body.
Orange used to hide on a battle's outskirts to harass opponents and set up the heavy hitters. But his frustration made his tactics more aggressive lately. Trying to get in the splash photo, I guess.
Name: Koine, Theo Armas Power: Clairvoyance Age: 29 Faction: Florida Force Stockpile's notes: Koine has the power to see the "true form" of anything within a few feet. This includes seeing past illusions, X-ray vision on layered objects, and even translating unknown languages and codes. But his power only works on objects, not living beings, as they are apparently "too shifting in the truth". Rumor says the brass was put out at not getting a walking lie detector, and so chose not to invest in power armor for Koine. We should all be thankful they haven't mass-produced PREVAIL yet.
Additional note: there are two other members of the Force, Glade Girl who's a hydrokinetic, and God's Great Sunshine who can detach and remotely control his body parts (why name?). I guess they were off-shift.
I mean first of- like I'm very sure we wouldn't have this vote if Leizi or everyone in Justice Unlimited weren't okay with clueing the Horizon gang in, second it's also His secret, and third we ARE going to merge together our two teams always.
OOC and IC are different things. OOC we can guess it'll probably won't cause fallout, IC there are plenty of reasons why you wouldn't just go and reveal something like this without consulting the other party first.
And it's not his secret, what the hell are you saying.
At least wait till we've actually done some of the New Dawn missions we promised to help them on and Leizi is actually back! Even ignoring the chance to get a better read on Palisade, this would help curry further goodwill so they'd be willing to hear us out if otherwise more hesitant.
It's not been "several months", it's been a month. That's the amount of in-universe time an Issue is. Two if we're generously putting New Dawn arc at the earlier part of the month.
I think the rest of New Dawn are trustworthy enough that they deserve to know. If our organizations are going to merge anyway, they might be pissed if they don't learn our big secret until after the merger. As for the mystery box, I think Bitterman's a good writer, and letting him do his thing will probably result in something great.
... please... re-read what I said... cause like Also is a pretty important word to my sentence you're leaving out... Cause... he was clued in so logically it's also his secret to keep... ya know?
That makes sense right? Though your other point is valid, in canon it doesn't seem correct. It's why I asked bitter if Wolong has consent you know? So if he does... good! If not then we shouldn't say anything
... please... re-read what I said... cause like Also is a pretty important word to my sentence you're leaving out... Cause... he was clued in so logically it's also his secret to keep... ya know?
No, just stop. If someone else shares something with you in confidence it doesn't become your secret.
There are ways to justify it either way, but please stop framing it as "he has no reason to keep this under wraps" and "it's his prerogative to share if he feels like it".
That's not how being clued in on a secret works if it is not your secret to tell fundamentally. Which no, it isn't. I'm assuming IC this is happening due to unsurety over if Leizi and Chatelet are alive/savable, which is a very different situation than what we know is the case OOC.
What does the first part of the sentence mean? It sounds like a typo of "weird if they don't know" but I'm not sure.
[X] Don't.
[X] Mystery Box
I'd be more understanding if Leizi were here to explicitly instruct Wolong that it's fine to disclose, but since she disappeared to the Frozen Throne, I imagine that Wolong is the sort to not disclose this without prior approval.
I assume that's basically just the same as "don't", given that the other members already have an idea that something's up.
Reading them in probably happens after consulting with the members who didn't get offscreened and deciding that it's more important for everyone to be on the same page than maintaining opsec.
