A Bloodstained Mantle

[alexthealright]

Your wings shift away, the mass redirected to form a new organ in your gut as you dive down onto Roadtrip, letting the wind scream through your hair and steal away your battle cry until you're a mere half dozen feet above the supervillain when her five mile sign pulses once more, turning what promised to be a destructive fall into an easy landing as you prepare to strike.

She's the obvious target, Roadtrip's power is a tricky thing, she can call fourth effects associated with stop signs so long as she has an actual sign associated with the effect, and she had a lot of signs around her waist, each of them hanging loosely off her belt and clattering with every step. Waiting for her to grab one of them.

That kind of versatility is simply an unacceptable risk in a prolonged engagement, which means you need to take her out fast.

Speaking of which, Roadtrip reacts to your sudden arrival with hard won reflexes born of years of brutal fighting, calming releasing the sign she'd been grabbing to use on Water and brandishing another up at you as you land, giving you a good look at it before the lettering glows.

[STOP] it declares, slamming into your mind with inhuman force and halting you dead in your track for a moment.

For one, singular, moment. Then the attack shatters on the scarred but sturdy fortress you call a mind and you step forward as Roadtrip backpedals, taking a deep breath and unleashing a geyser of poisonous fog from every pore in your body. "Nice try Roadwork." You tell her sternly , purposefully messing up her name. "But I think it's time for you to take a nap."

Unfortunately it seems like Roadtrip disagrees, the five mile sign pulses once more, slowing the fog down as she continues her retreat, waving an arm around like a human fan to disperse what gas closes in around her, leaving her unscathed but stranded inside the noxious gray green gas.

"Could you be literally anywhere right now? We're kinda busy." She asks as she blindly sorts through the signs at her waist, refusing to take her eyes off you as Water and Cosplay continue their ferocious duel behind you.

"Sorry." You answer insincerely. "Unfortunately for you robbery is still illegal and I'm a hero, so…" unable to spare the focus required to grow another set of eyes in the back of your head you take a side long glance through the thin gray green fog at the battle as small arms fire from Water's goons fall to the ground before the glow of the five mile sign and simply bounce off your skin respectively.

How long has it been since someone tried this persistently to kill you with a gun? The last time was that bank robbery in… wow. Three whole months, people might actually be getting smarter.

Uncaring of your thoughts the clash between the water vampire and the pretend swordsman rages on, both of them moving at incredible speed. Cosplay has sheathed his sword and is fighting defensively, blocking and deftly parrying with his sheath as, to your eye anyway, he tries to maneuver Water into the middle of the street and bait her into something stupid.

That momentary distraction is when Roadtrip strikes, subtly touching a sign dangling from her waist and suddenly accelerating backwards as the light of the five mile sign fades as it falls back to her belt, replaced by a glowing eighty mile sign whose light, rather than pulsing outward to effect the area around her, instead poured directly into Roadtrip.

With incredible newfound speed she dashes out of your gas cloud and leaps to the top of the Memoir Incorporated truck before holding up up a second sign, its glowing lettering issuing a single, simple demand.

[NO PEDESTRIANS] it declares, sheer will slamming into you like a hammer blow across your entire body, sending you flying several strides backwards before you catch yourself, unharmed but with a lot of newfound distance between you and your target.

With her newfound speed, your fatigue, and the lackluster range of your gas there's no way you'll ever be able to close in with this power set. So, using fog between you to obscure the specifics your body shifts around once again.

The gas was a good idea and she's abandoned the five mile sign which made projectiles so difficult to use against her… and if you included a countermeasure…

Your new form is a lot like your standard ranged shape, agile and lean with an incredibly durable carapace almost painted to look like skin, improved reflexes, and chamber in your arm designed to shoot small sharp things toward your unlucky target at significant speed. There are however a few differences.

For one you lack the large feathered wings you typically sport, with each feather harder than steel and able to make you maneuver in the air with all the grace of a hummingbird. Instead the place they would typically connect to your body is inhabited by a pair of organs built to produce your gas before you funnel it into your bulging wrist and seal it into a tiny dart, ready to explode on impact and bring her into the realm of dreams in an instant.

And this moment. This moment right there. Is where things get… complicated.

Unbeknownst to you Water continues her furious assault, grazing Cosplay's cheek with a powerful haymaker which pulls a thimbleful of water from his cheek as he yelps in pain and jumps backwards a few steps, encouraging Water forward and into his trap.

First Cosplay's blade unsheathes in a flash as he drops into a crouch, a beam of steel gray light extending from its edge, trying to bite into her feet. Meanwhile a news truck from DNN comes around the corner, the crew having overestimated how close they were to the confrontation and driving right into Cosplay's path.

Which means that when Water leaps into the air to avoid the blow the sword beam hungrily tears through all four tires and flipping the vehicle on its side as it skids out control.

But despite all that Water is still in danger, because she cannot maneuver fifteen feet in the air. And as demonstrated not a moment ago, Cosplay is not limited by the reach of his blade.

You finally turn as threefold flashes extend from his blade and threefold cuts open across her body. The first explodes out from her raised arms, sparing her life as two bloody canyons open across her breast and gut in a spray of red as she falls and following after her, seeking to be reabsorbed.

She lands unsteadily behind Cosplay with a splash of blood, her body slowly healing as everyone pauses, staring at each other in silence until Roadtrip bursts into thunderous applause. "Hell yeah Cosplay!" She cries, "Show that moron exactly how much that fancy suit means when she's got a sword in her gut!" With those words the stillness finally shatters with the rat-tat-tat of gunfire just as the camera crew peaks out of the skyward side door and starts filming.

Because of course they do.

Spoiler: Roll Log

[X] Plan Aerosols Don't Care About Speed Limits
-[X] Gain the Poison Cloud power set (Improved Stamina 3, Protection 5, Enhanced Dodge 3, Enhanced Parry 3, Affliction 11 {Fort Save, Area - Cloud, Cumulative, Applies: Fatigued, Exhausted, Asleep})
-[X] Head in the direction of Roadtrip, and then if we take her out, the people shooting at her, using knockout gas to render her and them unconscious, then head for the Water/Cosplay fight, possibly switching up powers then if necessary

Initiative

Roadtrip: 8+4=12
Chimera: 7+3=10
Goons: 3+2=5

Meanwhile
Water: 4+15=19
Cosplay: 3+15=18


[STOP SIGN] Attack: 19+10=29vs19=hit

[STOP SIGN] Mental Resistance: 15+9=24vsDC20 a successful defense

Roadtrip keeps her five mile sign as her current defense

Poison Gas Dodge 20+10=30

Roadtrip's Fortitude 16+3=19

The Goons: 3+4…

Meanwhile Water goes on the offensive, making an all out attack, 7+16=23, a miss

Cosplay takes the Aim action

Back in the primary battle…

Roadtrip switches her mile sign around, boosting her speed and lowering her toughness, runs out of the gas cloud, and then tries to blast Chimera away with…

[NO PEDESTRIANS] as an AoE attack Chimera rolls her defense against it. 8+6=16, a failure.

Toughness vs [NO PEDESTRIANS] 4+16 Toughness check, another failure which sends you flying backwards.

Chimera switches to Ranged Specialist (Poison Dart Edition): Protection 8, Enhanced Dodge 3, Enhanced Parry 3, Enhanced Advantages 6 (Improved Initiative, All Out Attack, Accurate Attack, Move By Action), Ranged Affliction (same as above) 8 (Accurate 6, resisted by fortitude) Speed 2.

Meanwhile…

Water makes another All-Out attack: 10+16=26, a hit

The Samurai's thick skull: 11+5=16vs26=2 degrees of failure, -1 to toughness checks and is dazed this round. 13+5=18vs16 to resist the linked affliction.

Flashing Steel (All out Aimed Power Attack): 19+15=34 (Improved Critical, Multi Attack) in other words… 10 damage, plus 5 damage from power attack, plus 5 from the Critical Hit, plus 5 from the wildly successful multi attack.

The DC is fucking 40.

…There's a lot of Iron in this Water: Toughness roll of 27… which means 3 degrees of failure. She's staggered, is suffering a -1 penalty to further toughness checks and if she fails a damage check by 3 degrees (by 11 or more in other words) this again she'll drop unconscious.

Side note: COMPLICATION ACTIVATED

And with that the fight goes on pause and you can make a new plan.

O-O-O-O-O

I really wasn't expecting Cosplay to hit quite that hard, wow. Anyways your objectives are…

1: Protect the idiot reporters who managed to drive their way into a small war zone, as well as any other civilians.

2: Keep the truck from getting burglarized or destroyed, whatever's in there seems like it's probably really damn expensive if two separate groups wanted it.

3: Arrest all three supervillains here.

[ ] Battle Plan

Have Fun! Remember, you don't necessarily need to include exact traits but if you do I'd really appreciate if you added prices to it.[/STOP]

 

[alexthealright]

Water recovers quickly erupting into frenzied motion as her minions' guns begin to screech, all aimed squarely at Cosplay, who ducks beneath the superhuman woman's vicious roundhouse kick and almost flash-stepping into the midst of her minions.

In a flash the blade sheaths and he bursts into motion, laying into a tall, burly man with the blade's blunted echo who falls backward, his stunned body not even hitting the ground before a wide slash sends the rest of them sprawling as the blade finally unsheathes to unleash a sharp gray beam which slices through Water's hair but fails to draw blood. Carving into the wall behind her instead.

Split between her desire to press their advantage on Water and their need to keep you in check Roadtrip decides to trust her friend, once more drawing forth the sign from her belt which declares [STOP] with all the weight and will of a mountain. A mountain which plows into the reporter who'd just clambered out of his van rather your agile form.

You crush a wince of sympathy and slight shame for dodging out of the way before shouting at the reporters without turning to face them, "Please leave and go back to somewhere safer please."

"I'm sorry, the car flipped. What exactly do you want us to do?" A woman shouts, making a half hearted and one handed attempt to pull the man's entire 180 pounds of dead weight up as she takes pictures of Cosplay's fight with her other hand.

"Leave. The. Car." As you shout as a dart the size of your pinky toe fires out of your wrist and shoots straight for Roadtrip, who easily catches the subsonic dart between her fingers. "Seriously? Did you think that just because I dropped the five mile that would-"

It is at that exact moment when the dart ruptures, spraying gray green gas into her face plate, through the air holes and down her nose and throat before entering her bloodstream an instant later and sending her sprawling across the roof of the van.

Cosplay's head snaps up in a flash, "Roadtrip!" He shouts, his terrible Japanese accent breaking for a moment as Water pounces on him, a bloody, furious grimace on her face, "I suggest you focus on me you little piece of-" Her fist hammers into his blade, turning it aside with a thunderous, ringing clang which interrupts Water's monologue and slamming into his chest with a meaty crunch which sends him flying into a storefront where he smashes through a window and falls to the ground, vanishing from your sight.

Water turns to glance over at you, "Might be time to get lost before you get hurt, kid," she smirks mockingly, "Nobody'll think less of you for running away," She lies, giving a little waving motion which bares a striking resemblance to one you've seen used to wave a small child out of the room. "But seriously. Leave now and we might actually have a place for you in our-

Cosplay leaps out of another window, paying no mind to, you or Water, he pays no mind even to the ugly bruise on his chest, his slightly swaying flashsteps, or even the way his breath comes fast and short and shallow like each inhalation sets his lungs alight, his eyes only focusing on his partner as he charges toward her.

O-O-O

What would you like to do?

[ ] Retreat Heroes don't run, not like this.

[ ] Focus on Water and let The Massacre Men run
-[ ] Details

[ ] Make sure The Massacre Men don't get away
-[ ] Details

[ ] Write In

Spoiler: Combat Log

(Ranged Specialist (Poison Dart Edition): Protection 8, Enhanced Dodge 3, Enhanced Parry 3, Enhanced Advantages 6 (Improved Initiative, All Out Attack, Accurate Attack, Move By Action), Ranged Affliction (same as above) 8 (Accurate 6, resisted by fortitude) Speed 2.

Water: 4+15=19
Cosplay: 3+15=18
Roadtrip: 8+4=12
New Crew: 12
Chimera: 7+3=10
Goons (of which there are fifteen): 3+2=5

News Crew's Initiative: 12

Goon's Gunfire: 13+4=17, a miss

Water's All Out Assault: 7+11=18, a miss

Cosplay's Pommel based beatdown, a routine attack

Resisting the Pommel based beatdown: natural 20, doesn't crit since he's a minion.

He has takedown 1, and a very long range with his sword, therefore he beats the hell out of every goon he can reach, which is all of them.

Chimera's Poison Dart Attack: natural 20 (crit) +14=32

Poison Dart Resistance: 2+3=5… 4 DoF, she's out of the fight.

Water's All Out Power Attack: 20… fucking 20. I swear I'm not making this up.

Swordman's Survival: 17+5=25, 3 DoF.

I am so sorry this took so long, I was unusually busy this past week and royalty bungled the process.[/STOP]

 

[alexthealright]

You filter out Water's words, they don't matter, never have. Instead you focus on what does, first of all is the truck both sides came here for, the one filled with… something valuable, you can't quite remember if you asked or what the operator's answer was but nobody gets into a fight with people like Water over cheap stuff.

The reporters are just as much of a problem and just as important, forcing you take a moment to swallow a sigh. This has been something of an unpleasant habit for them, getting as close as they could to the action and hiding behind Adamant as they took photos, this hadn't been all that safe then and it's even less safe now, you're going to have to talk to them about this… again.

Lastly comes the job of actually catching anyone here, a potentially fantastic thing if you can actually hold them in your somewhat lackluster jail and deter any breakout attempts.

In an instant you make your choice, turning to fire a dart at the fleeing not-samurai, wincing as it detonates in a flash of steel gray light and Cosplay picks up his companion before diving off the truck's roof to take cover behind the vehicle.

Water smiles, walking past you but giving you a wide berth, "Well well well, looks like you can be sensible after all, now if you'll excuse me, I have some people to-"

"Absolutely not," You interrupt, taking a few steps to the side so that if she punches you and knocks you off your feet you'll just sail down the street rather than plow through anything more important than some street.

Fortunately for your duty and unfortunately for your health she proves your slight preparations worth the effort, rounding on you with a leaping kick which sends you back a step and cracks your armored shell, highlighting its unnatural nature even as blood rushes out of the wound to disappear into the nearest patch of bare skin on her body, studiously avoiding her tailored suit.

In response you raise your arm and fire two darts which slam into her face with strength and precision only available to the incredibly skilled and the very, very, near.

The two of them burst against her jaw with the crack of a broken casing and a heavy pop as two clouds of gray green fog merge together and obscure her face in an instant as she lands, suddenly unsteady on her feet. "What-" she coughs. "Go to sleep," you answer, lining up another shot as Cosplay leaps onto a building and begins to make his escape.

Paying no heed to her escaping foe the gangster rushes you with everything she's got, her outstretched hands missing the steadily repairing crack in your arm by a hair's breadth and producing an ear rending shriek as her nails scrape across your shell.

Seeing her gambit has failed Water shifts her grip to your shoulders, flipping over your head and kicking off your back, leaping away like a superhuman frog and slamming into the news van with a scream of tearing metal and three more from human throats as the bloodied and drugged killer is suddenly very, very close.

Ignoring both their shouts of alarm and the dart exploding against her back Water picks the van up and tosses it you, it's two passengers screaming in fear as the woman you talked to earlier watches from nearby, dragging the frozen man by his armpits.

Then the van slams into you, metal screeching as it hits and its metal frame crumples around a stubbornly unaffected shell, near impervious despite all the care placed into its human appearance.

Thanking your lucky stars the thing didn't land on top of you you step out of the indentation you've left in the door and rush to peer through the shattered window to check on the two who were both still inside and, judging by the situation, probably weren't wearing seatbelts.

A quick glance across the street confirms your second worst fear, one of them is out of the vehicle, laying prone in the middle of the street and bleeding fiercely from their head, staining his hair and messily staining his jacket with little dots of red, your sole consolation is that is as far as you can tell the young man's neck isn't broken, but you can't confirm he's breathing from this distance and you're not sure you can trust your sleep deprived and unenhanced eyes anyway.

The other passenger, an older man, is a lot better off judging by what you can see of him through the front window, with only a broken leg to show for his brief and violent flight.

With their safety confirmed for the moment you turn to Water and start to grow larger, your body ripping and twisting into a woman of monstrous size and stature, your form encased in an intricately colored carapace designed to look like your normal, human form, just larger and more muscular than it should be, with long claws disguised as mere fingernails.

Of course the killer doesn't simply let this happen, a moment after its beginning she's already moved and unleashing a furious onslaught of attacks, a pair of haymakers you catch on your arms, a sweep of the legs forcibly aborted by a warding kick of your own, and a leaping claw at the eyes scrapes against your forehead as you crouch for a devastating uppercut which she avoids by the barest margin, the rising claw striking nothing but hair.

Water recovers from her twist in less than a second to land what would have been a devastating kidney punch if your kidneys were actually there, allowing you to step inside her guard and deliver an absolutely bone shattering kick which sends her skidding across the road where she rolls to a stop, unconscious for the moment.

You pause to take a breath, before turning to the two reporters who weren't hurt and ordering them to call an ambulance for their friends as you rush to help the one who'd flown out of the van and realize with a start that he seems to still be alive, albeit touch and go, unfortunately all you can there is to staunch the bleeding with a spray of bio-foam from your wrist and to simply hope that was enough.

With that done you begin securing your latest prisoners, by which you mean checking if any of them were in serious condition, sighing in relief that none of them were in real danger beyond a few broken bones, stripping them of their weapons, hand cuffing a few of them together to make it harder to run away, realizing you didn't have enough to do it for all them, and just walking over to stand over Water as her regeneration ticks along and keep an eye on on the rest.

Which is when you hear a man calling out to you from the truck which started this whole mess, "Excuse me mam, is it safe to for me to drive off or leave the vehicle at all?" He asks in an awfully nervous voice which barely carries itself over the street to you, apparently still a bit shell shocked from everything that's happened in the last few… minutes? Wow, time can really fly sometimes.

Swallowing a surprised twitch at the sound of his voice you, turn to glance at him while keeping your captives in your line of sight. "Yes sir, you can get out of the car, but please refrain from driving off. I need your statement about…" you gesture to the wrecked street, the unconscious goons, and one of the scariest women in the city, unconscious but slowly regenerating on the ground.

You can see him sigh even from all the way over here as he gets out and walks over to you, hands in his pockets and looking everywhere but the reporter's van, the people on the ground, or at you. "I really am so sorry for all the… well you know, all the chaos, if I knew this was going to happen I would've stayed home today."

You nod agreeably as you begin shrinking shrinking back down into your standard shape and pull a fresh notebook from your pocket, "It's no problem sir, now how about you tell me what happened here."

What happened, as he tells you and the two reporters once the ambulance shows up, is something of a story, in essence, the man in front of you, Paul Franklin, is apparently an Inspired Scientist, not a fantastic one, and completely without skill in fighting but an inspired scientist nonetheless.

"I specialize in memory." He explains to both you and the two reporters, "Now, I decided that I definitely didn't want to get involved in anything all that dangerous, so I decided to make a nostalgia machine! For just-" he mumbles out something like, 'not sure how much just yet' before raising his voice again, "It can give you another glance at your best memory!" He spreads his arms wide as he explains it, especially to the two reporters.

A pane of glass falls from the reporter's wrecked van, derailing his sales pitch as everyone except for you flinches.

"…Um, anyway, I'm going to keep on going to the place I bought to set things up, so… yeah, I'm going to go, and Chimera, let me know if there's anything I can help you with, you really saved my bacon."

As he hurriedly leaves and you watch the police take away the goons you consider weather to pick up Water and await the inevitable counterattack from the rest of the Five Elements or escort the mooks and give her more of a chance to escape but make absolutely sure her foot soldiers aren't broken out on the drive to the prison.

"Miss Chimera, Jack Morison from the Dusk News Network, any comment on-" you interrupt the reporter with a sharp tone, most of your patience exhausted by the battle you'd just finished, not to mention the week you've had and the fact you're almost certain what he's about to ask.

Your tone is cold, with the anger and grief carefully sealed away where the camera trained on you can't see it. "Jack. I thought I'd be been clear that I did not want to talk about Adamant right now, for any reason."

To his credit he rallies without missing a beat, feigning ignorance and pulling another story out instead. "Understandable but I was actually interested in asking you about the situation near the woods, i understand there have been sightings of split trees and a floating silhouette, any comments?"

Unfortunately for him you're both unaware of any such rumors and disinclined to pretend otherwise. "No. I've been extremely busy these last few days, I'd like to look into it in more detail before I say anything about it, now if you'll excuse me I have places to be and I'm sure you'll want to see your friends in the hospital, good day."

Luckily the man knows how to take a no, at least when its user could slap him through a wall and he beats a quick retreat, waking off to call a ride from somewhere less dangerous.

With him finally gone you can dedicate finally begin the annoying process of dehydrating Water a little bit to make sure she can't simply regenerate everything you'd to her minutes, leaving you alone with your thoughts, wondering what else you you've missed or forgotten about recently.

OOO

Alright, you've captured Water and fifteen of her personal minion group, retaliation won't come immediately, the other four will be slow to organize unless they think you're trying to get her executed (which you can't do) or shipped out of town (see previous statement) but it will come soon enough, maybe not this week, or maybe not even the next, but it will absolutely come.

In the meantime what would you like to follow up on?

Pick two of the following.

[ ] Meet this strange super Jack mentioned, see if you can figure out their deal

[ ] Press your advantage against the Five Elements and keep that momentum going

[ ] Talk to Mary
-[ ] enter the subject of the conversation here

[ ] Talk to Paul
-[ ] put the reason for that here

[ ] Relax a little bit Not now.

[ ] Write in

No matter what you pick you'll still be doing patrols, also, guarding Water 24/7 isn't a realistic option, you have a lot of stuff to do.

Spoiler: Not a combat log

It was a long combat scene and I'm already behind enough, please don't make me transcribe the play by play.

Anyway, serious talk, very sorry this took so long, a lot of little stuff happened on my end which sorta wrecked my schedule for proper writing.

 

[alexthealright]

Realized I hadn't made this on one of my other projects in this setting and now that I've made it I might as well throw it here as well.

Eruptions: what people know of them in the modern day.

An Eruption occurs in response to strain and danger, mental or physical. This could be anything from looking down and realizing that your sister's boyfriend just blew a hole in your stomach to the dread of realizing that you're stuck living on the streets for the foreseeable future just as winter rolls in and that you might very well be dead a month from now or worse, that your will will fail and you'll move back in with your crazy cult family.

In essence, an Eruption is defined by *need.* by your lowest point, by sheer desperation, the point where you'd sell your soul to get out of whatever's happened to you. At which point the Eruption comes in like a miracle, like the hand of the moral universe, to save you in a moment of directionless awe and reverence as ten thousand shades of lightning writhe beneath your skin.

Just as crucial as need is the *drive*, no man woman or child to date has ever simply gained their powers, gone "neat" and gone on to live a normal life. Strife, want, and ambition follow the Erupted like a cloak they can never surrender, always, always, always spurring them forward.

This system cannot be gamed, you cannot induce artificially an Eruption by any but two means, the first is to simply throw people into misery and tortuous death until someone finally gets lucky and gets the power to throw of those chains. The second method was pioneered by the supervillain known as Doctor Crucible in 1922, he was of course later executed for crimes against humanity and every known sample of technology destroyed but samples of it and derivatives inspired by his research do still survive to this day.

Regardless, a power's manifestation depends upon several things, the most important and easiest to understand of which is the Need, a power will always solve the problem which spawned it unless truly impressive force is exerted after the fact in order to compensate. To date no power has been discovered which was unable to match ten well but mundanely armed men which did not have truly earth shattering power outside of a direct conflict.

Other factors include various patterns in one's life, their worldview, and if the Erupted has been in close contact with another Super in the period before their own Eruption.

If anyone would like to speculate what might have made someone like Chimera I'd be interested in hearing your guesses.

 

[alexthealright]

The city really is quite beautiful at night, especially from the air. In happier, less dangerous times you love to simply ride the air currents and watch the cars flash by, the signs change, and listen to the pounding rain and the waves smashing into the shore. Unfortunately tonight you've sadly got more important things to do. Things like sneaking into an outdated dockside Kaiju bunker owned by Fire, breaking some stuff, and making it look like someone else was responsible.

It proves almost embarrassingly easy to sneak inside, all you have to do is land on the roof, relying on the hammering rain and the thick fortification between you and the guards inside to mask your landing, climb down the wall on suction cups till you find a vent and flatten your bones to just barely slip it through the cracks and then reform it on the other side.

Honestly it's a little embarrassing. You've been doing stuff like this for two years now and somehow they never learn.

Nonetheless you drop from the window with feline grace and stalk through the poorly lit bunker on padded feet, taking pains to keep the sloppily stacked piles of cardboard and wooden boxes between you and the two guards in here with you, even if they do seem a little bit distracted by the icebox and the set of cards on the little table between them.

A quick search confirms your suspicions, this place is filled with all the usual things crime lords keep in their moderately well guarded and outdated bunker stockpiles, weapons (of the mundane sort) drugs of all the standard unpleasant variety… and something else.

There is a small box near the top of the pile, filled with pink pills, all labeled as Nost, which from its place of relative pride you're guessing is that new drug you've been hearing whispers about.

You lean backwards for a moment and sigh as quietly as you consider the situation, you briefly consider using your superhuman capabilities to test what exactly this new stuff does but decide against it an instant later and silently chastise yourself for the sheer stupidity of it. That sort of idiotic thinking is what got you detaching your tongue to throw it in the trash when you realized that you'd accidentally taste tested rat poop back when you were first starting out.

Taking a step back from certain embarrassing memories, you have to assess the situation, Fire is the oldest leader of the five and most set in his ways, so he's definitely not the first of them to start selling and he'd only follow suit if the others were doing noticeably better because of it, which means the rest of them have more of it.

Regardless you can't just leave this stuff around, which means it's time to do what you came here to do and luckily the rain gives you a lot more freedom to, after a radar ping and a set of enlarged ears confirm that there's nobody close enough to be endangered if you, say, light a match or two and, um, well… ok, there's no innocent sounding way to say this, you're going to start a fire.

In a few short moments the matches are placed somewhere in the pile where they'll smolder quietly for a while before the flames grow large enough to attract the guard's attention. Then you slip out the way you came in, produce a pair of binoculars, shift your shape into a facsimile of a sloppy costume a rank amateur would make to conceal their identity and fill in the false face of a short and hungry teen beneath it.

With that done, you sneak to the front and try your best to be caught snooping, eventually stooping to leaning in through the door, burner phone out and recording before feigning a tumble inside to finally catch their attention.

That finally rouses the two of them from their drinks and cards, the shorter one pulling his pistol from the concealed pouch on his hip as he advances, "Alright twerp, put down the phone and ge-" you take off, rounding the bend before he can raise his pistol and lead the two of them on an exhilarating chase through the streets until they notice the smoke creeping into the sky from their warehouse and abandon you to save what they can.

By the time the sun rises you've found and hit another two similar places, belonging to Water and Earth respectively, and acquired a box of Nost to send to a lab, just in case it's some kind Inspired creation rather than something more normal and hopefully get some hint as to whose making it.

It should also hopefully mean you get an explanation why you had to get this yourself rather than do the police's job for them, but that might be hoping for too much.

Regardless, you don't dare continue this during the day, too much of a risk, instead you've decided to have a talk with a certain someone scaring people in the woods, not even a "talk" about how you're a very busy woman and would really rather they left for greener pastures before you had to throw them in a cell. Ok, it might turn into that, but you've got a good feeling about this.

That good feeling doesn't die when you do an aerial flyover of the area the sightings have been most dense, but it does wilt a little at the ragged clearing in the woods and it shrinks a little bit more when you see the three vans parked by the side of the nearest road, each of them crewed by people who look a lot like the folks combing through the area with not insignificant quantities of weaponry and who you think might be members of the elements, but it's not dead.

Nonetheless, you've camouflaged yourself to resemble the sky above you so you should still have the element of surprise.

What would you like to do?

O-O-O-O

Sorry, this chapter is mostly set up, I promise the next one should be more interesting and that you will revisit the "take the fight to them" part of your vote last time.

Pick one of these options

[ ] Check out the recently created clearing, those trees didn't knock themselves down.

[ ] Those vans don't seem too well protected, take a quick peek inside of them while nobody's looking.

[ ] Have a quick chat with one of those guards, swipe whatever they're using to communicate, try to get some answers without being spotted.

[ ] Start breaking faces, these idiots will never know what hit them.
-[ ] strategy goes here.

[ ] Write in.

 

[alexthealright]

The decision comes easily, the most informative place, at least on the subject you're actually here for, will probably be the spot where it looks like there's been a fight.

You land silently in a nearby tree, shift your skin to match the bark and leaves around you, (even if you're alone at the moment that's no excuse to be lazy) and open your senses to the world.

The first thing you notice once you land are the rents in the ground, sure, the trees have been knocked over or severed at some point along the trunk, some clearly, most with huge ragged gashes. But those are almost pedestrian, not like the absolutely enormous three clawed footprints which tell you that Fire was here and reached his full, car eating bulk, and yet nothing here is burned, no, that's not quite right, there are a few blacked spots in the underbrush, but on the whole there's nothing to suggest Fire used anything close to the unholy blaze he needs to reach the upper limits of his crocodilian state.

In fact the upturned undergrowth seems covered in frost, and now that you're looking for it, there are patches of it all across the ground and in the trees, and if that was this super's main method of attack than it would explain why you haven't yet seen a trace of thick, amber-colored blood since you landed.

It would explain it, if, that is, you hadn't heard about this person he was fighting having a kind of cutting attack, and the fact that a solid quarter of the trees which have been were cut too deep and too cleanly for Wind's brand of whistling murder.

And despite all that, no amber blood, come to think of it no human blood either, which, all things considered, is the best news to come out of this exploration, the patrols are probably looking for ice-blade, not just their lair and whatever loot they might have found in their short career.

All in all, while you're not sure how it happened, it looks like these two met in the woods and while Fire's fire (ha) proved less than effective they couldn't manage to finish the job before the crime lord managed to complete his transformation and put this mystery person on the run and now, (though this is only a guess) bringing in his goons or maybe even another member of the five in order to finish this.

You quietly sigh, confirm once more that you're alone, and break into a loud groan, "I'm not getting the easy little conversation I wanted." It isn't a question, your voice is filled with resignation and the day has barely started.

You try to console yourself, this is going to be interesting if nothing else, at least you'll be able to tell Adamant all about it once- Oh, oh… right. You must be more tired than you thought. You shake off the old memories and start to consider where you go from here.

Preferably something which involves movement and action, because stewing in your own thoughts and trying not to think about the… thing. Sounds like a very unpleasant way to spend the day.

O-O-O-O-O


[ ] Follow any traces Ice-Pal made as they ran and try to get to them ahead of the hunting parties.
Your senses are keen and you're only one person, you're faster than any hunting party, if things go well you should be able to beat them there… assuming nothing goes wrong and that Ice-Pal isn't an aspiring supervillain.

[ ] Follow the hunting parties and jump them once they find Ice-Pal.
It won't get you there any faster than them but they won't beat you there and you might learn something really helpful in the process.

[ ] Start picking off members of the hunting parties as they search.
Riskier than the other options, they'll be more on their guard and fighting at least two of the Elements seems like it would be very unpleasant if they could find and catch you. On the other hand, if you can keep beating down their mooks and breaking their things you could deal the origination another rather devastating blow.

[ ] Look for more information somewhere else.
-[ ] Where are you looking?
This gives them more time to search, but might tell you something valuable.

[ ] Write In.

 

[alexthealright]

Despite yourself you smile, you love the city, you really do, but the nice thing about being away from the prying eyes of the public is that you get to really stretch the limits of your shape without making small children cry.

Your form unwinds into a quadrupedal, shelled thing with long, scurrying legs ending in wide soft pads and a trio of eye-dotted trunks which seem to never stop sniffing the air as you begin to scour the area around the clearing for any trace of the ice wielding super.

It takes a while and you're almost ready to call off the search when you find something, a bit of leather from what might be a loose jacket judging by the bite marks and the lack of blood. It's not much, but it gives you a scent to focus on (dirt, sweat, blood, a little bit of… mead maybe?, disinfectant and a smell which seem to match what you can detect from the Nost pills) now, granted, the helpful ones are by far the faintest, but they're at least distinct enough for you to find the next trance of it in a lock of hair, and then you find the slight trail of dying, frost marked leaves in the trees and a few damp spots along the ground.

The chase is surprising long, you have to give Ice-Pal this much, they at least could guess they'd be followed and took a rather winding route once they'd gotten a decent distance from the battlefield, and at a fast pace too if the fact footprints and frost only appear every dozen or two feet are anything to go by.

Eventually though, you find the end of the trail, a small makeshift shelter made of branches, the shoddily built structure stabilized by ice and mud and nestled between a few large, jagged mounds of rock. And after a quick adjustment to your ears you can smell and hear the person inside, awake and from the smell alone you can tell they're eating chips.

It is nice to get confirmation from the noise, though you wish it wasn't quite so loud,

Regardless, it's time to have a conversation. You 'fix' your shape. Then put some more focus on your powers of persuasion, turning a thing from man's nightmares to the kind of person who could star in a major movie, and then a good bit beyond that.

With that done you stand up, turn your hand reflective to make sure you've lept the uncanny valley, smile in satisfaction, walk up the little shelter held together by ice and mud uncaring of the sun's light, and open your mouth.

"Hello?" You call into the room, projecting as much friendliness and innocence as humanly possible in your voice before stepping backwards and waiting for them to spring out of the door, a blade of ice in hand.

The man blinks as the sun's rays hit him, illuminating his brown skin, unkempt black hair and tired eyes. He wears a long, heavy coat which looks ominously familiar to your eye with a car eating crocodile seized bite of it missing, revealing a loose white T-shirt underneath it, accompanied by a pair of blue jeans with far, far too many pockets sewn into them.

The things which really draw your eyes though are the enormous, surfboard-like weapon in his hand which nearly blinds you as its razor sharp ice blue edge sparkles in the sun's light as ice grows into armor across his clothes. "Who are you and how'd you find me?"

You slowly raise your hands and take another step back, letting a trace of fear slip into your smile to make him feel like he's in control. "Name's Chimera." You tell him, trying not to be too dispirited by the utter lack of recognition in his eyes. "What's yours?"

There's a long, awkward pause after that, "Ah, have you not picked a code name yet?" You ask, getting a quick shrug as the man still pointing the sword at you continues, "…Something like that, answer the second question, what are you doing here?"

"Trying to find you before Fire and his friends come over to finish whatever you two did last night." You quickly explain. "He's got a pretty big posse with him and I'm pretty sure he isn't pleased."

Ice-Pal laughs, his voice echoing out into the chatter of the wildernesses around you, "How's he going to find me way out here?"

You shrug, "I did, and he's got enough 'friends' to cover a lot of ground." You tilt your head curiously, making the next question seem like it just popped into your head rather than the absolute most important sentence of the conversation so far, "How'd you get on his bad side anyway? He normally doesn't leave the city for anything, the other four might jump his stuff if he did, so whatever happened it must have made him absolutely apoplectic."

He squints at you, a little bit perplexed for a moment before realization hits his face, "So that's why they said there were part of the five elements." He says, like he's having some private revelation, "I thought it was weird he only had all the fire blasts… and the croc form I suppose."

The sheer surprise in his voice forces you to take a moment to simply blink in shock. "Wait, have you been- are you new in town? The Five Elements have been around for more than half a decade by now."

The man- Ice-Pal, ('the man' is getting boring) suddenly gains a new fascination with the clouds above, refusing to meet your eyes. "Ummm, yeah, new in town." He says, the half-truth making even him wince with the blatancy of it.

Before you can press him he changes the subject again, gesturing wildly with the huge sword. "Anyway, you asked about how I got on his bad side?" He doesn't wait for an answer before continuing on. "I got into a brawl with a few guys who worked for him, beat them down with a staff made of ice, took everything in their pockets-" and that confirms he almost certainly doesn't know who you are either, what with the whole, 'robbery and assault' thing.

He continues, "-and kept on going, then their buddies heard about it, I had a few more encounters with his minions, and eventually this guy followed me as I was coming back here and, well, the only way you could call it a win would be if you're counting the coat." Ice-Pal finishes proudly, his armor evaporating for a moment to better show off the coat, a piece of clothing you're now pretty certain you last saw a month or two back on Fire's back.

"How- wait, never mind, doesn't matter, he's going to try to murder you the second he finds you and, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think you're going to win that fight."

He stares at you, unconvinced. "Look, all I have to do is get in close before he turns into a big monster, easy peasy lemon squeezy. And that's if he finds me, you're the first person to find me since I… came out here."

"Maybe I'm just the first person to go looking," you respond, "The city has been going through some stuff."

His face is suddenly covered by a faceplate of ice, but before that you could see a bit of doubt enter his eyes. Finally, some progress.

After a long moment he sighs and, frustration at the world in every syllable speaks. "Fine, I'll pack what I've got, what's the plan after that?

Luckily you thought about this on the way here and open your mouth to explain, "Alright, here's the plan…"

O-O-O-O-O


Alright then, what's the plan?

[ ] Insert Plan here, I have faith whatever you come up with will be very clever, feel free to ask questions about anything you'd like if you want more clarity.

Also, thoughts on Ice-Pal (Real name not yet available)?

 

[alexthealright]

"Easy," You say, "we're going to fly out of here."

There's a short, stunned pause as Ice-Pal absorbs that, "And they'll just politely ignore the two of us? They've got guns, heck, they were actually really, really good shots with them in the last few fights I got into with them."

A causal wave dismisses those fears, "I can…" you pause, trying to phrase your next sentence in a way that isn't an admission that you can twist minds. "I can make them not notice us, make this sort of mind fog that makes them bad at noticing a real big bird flying past them."

He nods hesitantly, "Alright then I suppose, wait, you can turn into a bird, track me down, and manipulate minds? What's your power?"

A smug smile crosses your lips, "I'm a woman of many talents." In response ice cloaked wildman only shrugs, "fine, keep your secrets. I need to grab my stuff before we leave," With that he steps back inside and packs, emerging from his shelter a minute or two later with a half full backpack.

"Ok, I got everything I need," he says as he strolls back to where he started, "Let's get going."

"Great," you tell him, "But would you mind getting rid of all the ice before we start flying? you're kinda shiny and I'd rather we not draw anymore attention than we have to."

For a moment, even though you can't see the ice clad man's face every other part of his body language screams just how uncomfortable with that idea he is. Then he sighs and the ice vanishes in the blink of the eye. "Fine. But I'm bringing it back once we're away from them."

"Fair enough," You reply, "We just need to clear the search party. Now, stand back," he quickly complies and after a moment's consideration, pick out a shape suitable to you and your friend's (is he a friend? You've barely talked for five minutes) needs.

You need to be large and strong enough to carry a rider, so you grow to the size of a horse with a saddle of bone and a quartet of powerful wings alongside a few sacks of hastily generated heillum spread throughout your body. You need to be stealthy enough to pass through the gang surrounding you, so your skin turns blue as the sky and a pair of pheromone sprayers grow into place beneath your newly quadrupedal form.

All in all you judge you must make a truly odd sight by Ice-Pal's befuddled expression, a familiar thing, but still perhaps a little hurtful whenever it and its kin appear. "Come on then, get on, we don't have all day," your words, delivered in a sharper tone than you'd have preferred had you been thinking still manage to nonetheless jolt him into action.

"Ok, shapeshifting, neat." He says as he clambers up your body as carefully as he can, even if the consideration is spoiled somewhat by his clumsiness and unfamiliarity with your new form. Even still, eventually he manages it, leaning forward to look down at your still mostly human face. "Ok, I'm secured, can you tell-" you take off like a comet, paying no heed to his words after the first three left his mouth.

You ascend in an instant, pulling a shout of vulgar surprise from Ice-Pal before leveling out and spreading four sky blue wings to catch the wind. Even as both nozzles on your belly begin to bathe the area beneath you in pheromones to fog your pursuers' perception.

Ice-Pal shudders on his saddle, leaning over the side for a moment and thankfully for you both only dry heaving over your flapping wings. "I would have appreciated a warning before you took-" he pauses, interrupted again by another fit of dry heaving. "Before you took off," he finishes, "it felt like my heart stopped."

You wince, head swiveling around to look him in the eye, "Sorry, I got a little carried away."

He gives a suspicious look, "I'm going to be hearing that a lot, aren't I." It isn't a question, which kinda stings, you've got to admit. You've actually been really on the ball lately and you tell him as much as you begin to wrap around Fire and his posse, making sure to stay just close enough you can bathe them in pheromones and not an inch closer.

"I've actually been pretty on the ball lately, the city has stayed pretty much under control since Adamant… since he died, I've even got a few leads on the people who killed him, I even-" At that moment a thought occurs and you place your head in your hands. "Ah dammit, I forgot about Preston."

Your rider pauses for a moment, then the metaphorical axe comes down, "Who's Preston?"

His only answer is a groan and a shame filled mumble which he correctly interprets as, "My dog," before you take a breath, swallow a tiny bit of your shame, then continuing in a clearer voice, "He's still with the people who were babysitting him, I sorta… maybe… possibly might have forgotten to pick him up in all the chaos after we got back from the Yellowstone incident."

"I'm sorry, you forgot your dog for a week?"

"He's in good hands! And besides, I've barely been in the house lately, I probably wouldn't have been able to-"

"Ok, ok, my bad. You've clearly had some stuff going on," he says, obviously, even to your ears, conceding the point more to head off a rant than giving a real apology. Then again you don't really deserve that anyway. You haven't had the time to review your diary lately… no, that's not right and it's not fair to your dog.

You just keep forgetting. It all just keeps vanishing away into some chasm you can never ever-

"It's fine," you lie, "It just means we're going to need to take a teeny tiny de-"

You're interrupted by as ten foot wide ball of fire erupts from must be Fire's body just after you finally manage to put the search parties behind you, and a dozen men startle with the noise, the surge of adrenaline throwing off the effects of your pheromones though a dozen more scan blindly for you.

"Oh no," you say, the exclamation mirrored with eerie synchronicity by the man on your back, "Ok Cre- Chimera, what's the plan?" He asks with easy, newfound calm as ice grows across his body into a suit of shining blue-white armor. Like a man whose been in his fair share of scrapes.

As you open your mouth to answer, Fire rockets up up up into the air, eclipsing you in altitude in the space of a second before circling round to face you in a wide arc.

Meanwhile though the half the men on the ground wheel still haven't broken through the mental block the other half wheel around with almost inhuman precision you've never seen them use before.

O-O-O-O-O

Spoiler: It's 1:02 here and I need to get up kinda early, remind me about it tomorrow and I'll add it

o

Tactical Overview: things aren't great, but luckily you've got plenty of options, Fire is faster and more maneuverable than you are right now, but that'll change quickly as his, well his fire fades to be replaced with his more bestial (and land bound) state. They also probably don't know who you are, at least not for certain, but that'll change the instant you make an obvious alteration to your form. You've very glad you made your body as armored as you could before you took off.

The goons seem better drilled than anyone else you've ever met on the gang's payroll, which means you can't quite trust their guns to be normal guns or their flesh to be, well, actual flesh. The bigger problems are still Fire and whoever he brought along as backup though.

Ice-Pal himself seems unlikely to panic, but considering he legged it last time when he stopped being able to casually nullify Fire's attacks it might be best to assume he's less than exemplary in a super-fight.

What would you like to do?

[ ] Plan Here