Holding Out For A Hero: An Original Superhero Quest

Tuesday, September 16th 2015
Both women flew out of the window, smoke starting to pour out behind them. Lussiac spun around to meet Saber with a kick. The kick glanced off of the Hero's armor.

Lussiac tried to aim her chem launcher, but before she could, Saber grabbed the blade still sticking out of Lussiac's neck. Lussiac's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen. But then her eyes narrowed, the surprise in her eyes was gone, replaced with pure hatred.

"Go to h-"

With a single swipe, the blade went through, severing Lussiac's head from her body. Head and body sent flying off in different directions, both landing with a decisive thud. Saber made a three point landing on the ground. Smoke was starting to pour out of the window.

Saber turns back to the dead body of Lussiac and activates the communication implant in her ear.

"T.O.C., this is Saber. Lussiac is dead, but the building is on fire. Requesting Firefighters at my location now." Saber said to the Tactical Operations Command operator.

"What?!" There's a pause from the other end before the T.O.C. operator continues. " Lussiac is dead? I-I mean it's great, but what happened out there?"

Saber looks at the dead body, then the smoke pouring out of the mansion. "Well..."

-------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, September 16th, 2015
It's early Tuesday morning, and you didn't hear much in the days after your raid at the bunker. Operative and Stampede went home. Jasmine said she'd go over the rest of the hard drive when she had the time, and you just went home after that, like you just went on a long shopping trip and spent the rest of the day at home.

There was a news report that Lussiac had been killed attempting to assassinate an unnamed individual, with speculation as to why Lussiac had been trying to kill seemingly unconnected people.

You feel oddly satisfied. There's a tinge of regret that you couldn't be the one to take care of Lussiac, but you're glad that she's finally gone. And then you remember that this happened before, and now then you get worried that she'll somehow come back from the dead again. All in all, there's a massive ball of emotions inside you and you don't have a clue where to start untangling them.

You wonder if this how a Hero or a Villain feels when a long time nemesis ends up in jail, retired, or killed.

"Something wrong, Hon?"

You glance up and see Adrian looking at you with a worried look on his face. You're both in your car, right after dropping off Gwen at school.

"I'm fine, I'm just thinking" You say.

"About Lussiac?" He asks.

"Yeah..." You say.

"Well, she was sorta your nemesis, right?"

"If by that you mean I had to fight her more than once, then yes." You say.

"Yeah..." Adrian says. "From what you said, she was slippery. Always got away before. I guess her luck finally ran out, huh?"

"Looks like it did" You say.

You both sit in silence for a few seconds, driving through Southlake to drop Adrian off at work before you drive to your workshop. "Did you wanna take a swing at her yourself? I mean, in a real fight. Lot of people are gonna want to put her in the ground. And from what you told me, you were one of 'em"

You think about it for a few seconds. "No" You say. "I'm just glad she's gone. She was dangerous. Hell, I don't think she could go to the store and pick up milk without poisoning someone. I'm just glad that she's, well..." You almost don't want to say that she's dead. She came back from seemingly being dead once. She might do it again. "I'm glad she's out of my life now"

Adrian nods. "Well, if it wasn't for you, no one would've known where Lussiac was. Maybe she would've killed that person and who knows how many other people. And you stopped her. Maybe not directly, but you still stopped her."

" So we could do something to celebrate. Just you me and Gwen."

You smile. "Well, the state fair's gonna be starting in a week. It's not too late to get some tickets." Rides, carnival games, deep fried everything, auto shows, rodeos, a different concert every day for the entire month the fair is up and running. People come from all over the state, and some even outside of the state to be there.

But there's a reason why a lot of people don't go. Last year, Commander Kelvin named took everyone on the Ferris Wheel hostage to pick a fight with Starhammer. No one got killed, but a few did get frostbite.

But then, that's also the reason why people actually travel from outside of the state to be here. Sure, it's dangerous, but chances are, you won't be there when a villain shows up and if you are, you'll probably be alright and come out with a great story.

In theory.

"Yeah, and we havn't played ring toss in years" Adrian said. "And I've been itching to win a guitar from there"

"I keep telling you, winning that scooter was just luck, Honey" You say, smiling. "I don't think you're gonna do it again"

He gives you a friendly smirk. "Hey, luck comes in streaks. It's all it does. I've been on a bad streak at that game and I'm about to turn it around"

You laugh. "Well, I have been planning on getting a bacon wrapped turkey leg for a while now. Going to the fair could be fun."

"Well, we'd better make it two because I'm not leaving the fair without that and at least three fried foods"

"Hey, you're gonna have a heart attack if you have all of that! I can't risk you having a coronary. I like having you around" You say, joking.

"Hey, it is not a State Fair experience unless you have at least one heart attack" Adrian says with a wide grin.

You both start laughing as you drive. Eventually, you start talking about what you both going to do with your time for the next while.

Choose 4 Activities

Savings: 1

[] Buy some specialized equipment in order to work out. (Increases Strength and Constitution. Costs 1 Savings)
[] Take some yoga classes to improve your dexterity and flexability. (Costs .5 Savings. Increases Dex)
[] Go to the library and start reading. (Increases Intelligence and Perception)
[] You can punch alright, but if you want to do more than just punch hard, you need to study martial arts. (Write in your preferred martial art)
[] Meditate and Study Magic. (Increases Mystic Arts)
[] Learn new spells (Write in a new spell you wish to try to learn. Needs QM approval)
[] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
[] Dedicate more time to fighting crime.
[] Spend time with your family and friends.
- [] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[] Dedicate more time to learning more about Heroes and Vigilantes still in your city.
[] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[] China tightening that Proclimation doesn't sound to good. Try to see just how people are taking it. If they're outraged, or if people are think that crap is a good idea. (Gains The Current Events (Local) and Current Events (National) skills.)
[] Refurbish your "Hideout". Patch up the holes, buy bugkiller to get rid of the ants, roaches, and crickets, put deadbolts on all the outside doors, maybe get some good furniture in there. (Cost .5 savings)
[] Make some new equipment (Write in what you want)
[] Train yourself in a new skill. (Write in what new skill is. Needs QM approval)
 
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Refurbish your "Hideout". Patch up the holes, buy bugkiller to get rid of the ants, roaches, and crickets, put deadbolts on all the outside doors, maybe get some good furniture in there. (Cost .5 savings)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)

Well we definitely need to know who we might be dealing with lately, the hideout is a mess and we'd need money to unmess it.
 
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Refurbish your "Hideout". Patch up the holes, buy bugkiller to get rid of the ants, roaches, and crickets, put deadbolts on all the outside doors, maybe get some good furniture in there. (Cost .5 savings)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
 
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Refurbish your "Hideout". Patch up the holes, buy bugkiller to get rid of the ants, roaches, and crickets, put deadbolts on all the outside doors, maybe get some good furniture in there. (Cost .5 savings)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
 
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Go to the library and start reading. (Increases Intelligence and Perception)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)

Spending time with family is good to avoid being neglectful to them and information on who we can expect to face is definitely needed. More money is useful and we got high enough Metalworking that we should get some decent money out of it.

I am going for increasing Perception and Intelligence over our hideout because the hideout gets used a lot less than those two stats. I feel that we would get more valuable out of higher Perception than improving the hideout.
 
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Go to the library and start reading. (Increases Intelligence and Perception)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
 
#2,333
[X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
[X] Go to the library and start reading. (Increases Intelligence and Perception)
[X] Spend time with your family and friends.
-[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
[X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)

Also if our savings are that low is probably better to hold out on the renovations until we can actually afford it without dipping into the family's reserves
 
Inserted tally
Adhoc vote count started by Agent 99 on Jan 23, 2020 at 7:37 PM, finished with 7 posts and 6 votes.

  • [X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
    [X] Refurbish your "Hideout". Patch up the holes, buy bugkiller to get rid of the ants, roaches, and crickets, put deadbolts on all the outside doors, maybe get some good furniture in there. (Cost .5 savings)
    [X] Spend time with your family and friends.
    -[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
    [X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
    [X] Spend some time learning about which villain's are active in your city.
    [X] Go to the library and start reading. (Increases Intelligence and Perception)
    [X] Spend time with your family and friends.
    -[X] The state fair is about a week away. Buy some tickets to the state fair. (Costs .25 tickets and expenses for the day)
    [X] You'll keep taking orders and making sculptures anyway, but you could focus more on your business. (Roll Metalworking. Gain Savings Depending on success)
 
Looks like we still have a tie between our hideout and learning. I'll keep the vote open for a little bit longer, but if the vote doesn't change, I'll roll a die to break the tie.
 
@Valkur @Zaealix Could I convince one of you to switch from refurbishing the hideout to increasing Intelligence and Perception.

My arguments for this are here:
I am going for increasing Perception and Intelligence over our hideout because the hideout gets used a lot less than those two stats. I feel that we would get more valuable out of higher Perception than improving the hideout.
 
*Considers* On the one hand, that hideout is an asset we've yet to truly tap- the potential to introduce the other vigilantes there as a back-up base exists, or to set up a hero-clinic there...
But on the other hand, unless Lussiac is particularly high on the deadliness scale, which is kind of possible given Saber didn't get herself healed properly despite being a full-on Hero...
I'm not against stat gains, but at the same time, last I checked things like that boil down to a roll...
 
*Considers* On the one hand, that hideout is an asset we've yet to truly tap- the potential to introduce the other vigilantes there as a back-up base exists, or to set up a hero-clinic there...
But on the other hand, unless Lussiac is particularly high on the deadliness scale, which is kind of possible given Saber didn't get herself healed properly despite being a full-on Hero...
I'm not against stat gains, but at the same time, last I checked things like that boil down to a roll...

Basically this.

If you want I'll switch plans but I'm on my phone so if you can please post the plan name for me.
 
Basically this.

If you want I'll switch plans but I'm on my phone so if you can please post the plan name for me.
Are you still interested in changing plans? If so, I'll just put you down as supporting the other plan.

As for everyone reading this, we can go ahead and roll for the other three actions. The first, I need a Metalworking roll and an IQ roll to see for your research goes.

And don't worry if you fail the IQ. Failure just means you only get basic information. Unless it's a crit fail, of course
 
Here's hoping this does not go wrong!
EDIT: Uhh, I made the mistake of clicking the throw another dice button on the Blacksmithing, which is potentially a bit of a shame.
Zaealix threw 4 6-faced dice. Reason: BLACKSMITH! Total: 12
3 3 1 1 4 4 4 4
Zaealix threw 3 6-faced dice. Reason: THONKING! Total: 11
1 1 6 6 4 4
 
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Thursday, September 18th 2015
The last several days, it is as if the stars had aligned for your business. Several clients were buying some high quality, and expensive statues. Most of them even paid, rather than trying to get you to send them something for free for "exposure". If you wanted to exposure without getting any money, you'd buy ads.

In any case, most of the money went into your family's saving's account, some went back to paying for more materials and rent for the workshop, and the rest can go towards your vigilantism.

+1.25 Savings

And while you are waiting for your work to cool off so you can sell them, you spend some time looking up different Villains in Hartford. There are a few minor players. Gang members, independent criminals that happened to be powered. You ignore them, and keep looking.

Name: Unknown
What you know: Pentagon is a well known as a criminal, but very little about his past is known. Generally performs high-stakes robberies, either for himself, or at the behest of an employer. Amoral, and violent, he seems to only care about the job he was given. Everything else is secondary.
Abilities: Can copy the last 5 powers that he perceives. If he copies a new power, he must discard the oldest power that he copied.
Location: Prison. Trial schedule pending.

Name: Charles Garrick
What you know: A young man named Charles Garrick. His family owns several businesses throughout the city, and have been fighting the charges leveled against him, including retaining an expensive legal team. From what you have read, an auto-injector was found in his exoskeleton which, his lawyers argue, contained a cocktail of drugs that would have killed him if he didn't comply with the real villain, Reservist.
Location: Prison. Trial Ongoing.

Real Name:Tommy Carson
What you know: The guitarist and vocalist in the Heavy Metal band "F*ck with Fire". He was known for stunts like setting multiple guitars on fire with his electrokenesis,, drinking his own blood on stage, and "commiting suicide" by jumping off of a large prop during one of his concerts (around a 200 foot drop), so a song he was premiering at the concert could "Bring him back from the dead". He was labeled as a Villain for "His corrupting influence on this nation's youth" during the rock and roll panic of 1990's. This caused the sales of his album to skyrocket. After he, along with several other people were taken off of the list after the panic passed, he went before congress and demanded that he be placed back on, which he was. He has been touring with his band ever since.
Location: On Tour. Playing in Hartford in October.
Powers: Electrokenesis, Occultist Abilities (Unsubstantiated) Tolerance to illicit substances, though it may be through exposure

Name: Unknown
What you know: A "Contractor" for the Coalition. They act as a heavy when someone needs to be sent a message.
Location: Operates throughout the city.
Powers: Can travel on the ground as a shadow, becoming invulnerable to most attacks, as well as resistance to most conventional damage. Can form weapons out of their body.

Name: Victor Cartwright
What you know: He calls himself "The Picasso of Human Anatomy". He is a serial killer who uses his powers to shut down his victim's heart, killing them. He then his powers to alter the body after the victim is killed. At first, he would simply change his victim's appearance to get rid of what he perceived as flaws. This escalated to From making a victim's skin transparent, to stretching out limbs in unnatural ways. He once taunted the police by causing a victim to explode when disturbed.
Powers Anatomical Manipulation

Name: Zoe Laine
What you know: A young woman who was in and out of jail before she became a villain. Generally operates alone, teleporting into and out of places with whatever she could carry. This started as teleporting into gas stations and convenience stores after-hours and taking what she could find, but has escalated to stealing entire ATMs and robbing banks. She came onto the radar as a notable villain after a fight with Kachuusha, a Vigilante, in which she went toe to toe before finally managing to escape.
Location: Varies
Powers: Teleportation of self and others. Possibly other powers

Name: Gadial Green
What you know: He was a former gambler who used his powers in order to cheat, taking home large winnings before he was eventually thrown out. This eventually lead to the Green Act, which banned people with certain powers from entering or being employed at casinos. Angered, he put on a mask, bought a gun, and robbed the casino that threw him out. Despite his inexperience, his powers managed to succeed, and has went on a crime spree that lasts to this day.
Location: Unknown. Operates across America, but has been known to operate in Hartford due to the state's large number of casinos and it's highway system leading to many of them.
Powers Probability Manipulation

Name: Unknown
What you know: He is the second Villain to go by the moniker. He, like the first, styled himself as a Vigilante, killing off gang members, low-level criminals and the like. Though he doesn't seem to care as to whether the people he kills are criminals or not. Many simply being killed on suspicion of being involved in criminal activity. Suspicians formed from them being from a poor part of the city, looking "suspicious", or "loitering in an unusual place".While he's classified as a villain, he remains popular among certain sections of the population.
Location: Operates around Battery Park, parts of Southlake and parts of Riverpark.
Powers: None.

Name: Dani Moore
What you know: She's a veteran villain. In and out of jail for the better part of two decades, she's built her career on weapons. Generally stealing them or selling them to the highest bidder.
Location: Operates out of the Southern United States. Often passes through Hartford on her way to other destinations.
Powers: Creation of weapons and armor.

Looking through the list of villains, the one that sticks out to you is

[] Pentagon
[] Profligate
[] Mr. Nightmare
[] Blackout
[] Mortiz
[] Gate
[] Jackpot
[] Mr. 13
[] Ordinance

[] None
- [] Write in the reason
 
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Do we have to choose only one, because multiple people are eye-catching.

Mr.Nightmare confirms we could totally go black card off reviving Lussiac.

Blackout-I think I remember him from the Temple thing. And uhh, I didn't want to take that fight as Temple and I don't want to risk it as The Vigil.

Mortiz...Sounds like someone who'd either kill us or get hard countered. Depends on if he needs to touch us or something like that. Without that limitation though, we're waaay too likely to be reduced to giblets for my liking.

Profligate! Our old friend from the bank job! No comment on the legal excuse.

Gate-...I wonder if we could like, recruit her and get her off doing crimes...Sounds like she was motivated by desperation, at least at first...

Jackpot- Possible target! Luckbender guy here could be fun to go after.

Mr.13- Another solid target, given our durable armor we might actually no sell this guy. Might.

Ordinance-...Big time job, but it won't be easy, given she sounds like a normal person who's really really experienced to have lasted as long as she has in the business.

Stranger- No. Just. No. We need a mindshield before we can even try it. Heck, if we mindshield and get to watch without losing details THAT would be a major win, if only to explain what to expect to the next dudes who try it.
 
Black card might have been made up on the spot- the idea was if a Rock Star could be considered a 'Villian' for being seriously Metal, we, who actually did something to aid Villiany would be even more qualified.
 
From the update:

Name
What you know: He is possibly a powerful psychic. Psychics, or magic users with mental protections claim to have fought him, though none could give a good description or him, or the battle. Physical evidence of the battles remained, destroyed property, injuries, though few people could remember how it happened, losing a large chunk of time in their memory. Videos taken of the actions were deleted by the ones that took it during this missing time, and in at least one case, a security guard destroyed the tapes. He is credited with killing Lockout, a former Hero from Hartford who was found dead after one such incident.
Location:
Powers: Psychic Abilities (Speculated) Memory Alteration (Speculated) Memetic Anonymity (Speculated)
 
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