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Post by tieshaunn on Jul 6, 2014 21:15:33 GMT
On the 19th of July in 1994, Desolation-in-Light appeared several miles to the South of Mexico City. During the ensuing battle, El Conquistadore (the original one, not the modern day Rabid Eight member), the greatest supervillain drug lord of Latin America managed to engage her in a protracted battle, somehow cheating death over and over, and Desolation-in-Light did something that she had never done before - she focused her entire attention on one quarry, ignoring all other metahumans within her Desolation Field.
Then, after nearly three hours of combat, one of El Conquistadore's most fervent enemies - the superhero known as El Lupo Negro took a chance he saw, killing him as his attention was focused on DiL.
What followed in the next seven minutes can only be described as an utterly unhinged rampage, as Desolation-in-Light reportedly 'went utterly mad with rage', raging across the entire country, pummelling the land with beyond-transcendent Geokinesis, shattering the very foundations of the Mexican sub-continent. Then she vanished without a trace.
Over the next three hours, most of the land sank, leaving only the shattered isles of what is now known as the Mexican Peninsula. Today, exactly eighteen years later, of- - HBO Memorial Newscast, July 19, 1994
New Nicaraguan Desert, the next day
They all went to sleep. Nothing was amiss. Then they all wake up, in full gear, finding themselves in strange company on a rock shelf, lying in a circle. There is only a manila folder in the middle of the circle their prone bodies form.
The sun falls down on them, hard and cruel - it is high summer, and at least forty-five degrees celsius. Below, they can see the remains of Nicaragua, one of the many casualties of DiL's attack, now renamed 'New Nicaragua', a collection of several larger islands under loose control of a weak central government. They know where they are because they all watched the Memorial Newscast just yesterday and saw an image of just this location - a desert surrounded by a calm sea, with a rocky mountain rising from its center.
What they didn't see in the newscast was a single small building made of bleached stone, surrounded by a wire-fence, down in the deserted land, the shelf offering them a good view of it. It seems to be abandoned.
The manila folder only holds a single photograph of a very pale young woman. Her lustrous black hair has been shaved off on the right side of her head, to allow for strange implants to be inserted into her very skull - small golden plates poke out of it. Her face is sharp, beautiful but empty, with no humor or any other emotion on it. Her eyes are of a solid, dull blue all the way through. The shot shows only her face and throat, the latter encircled by a strange tribal tattoo - like a collar made of iridescent blue ink.
On the back of the picture, the words "Kill or Die" are written in small, precise letters. Nothing else.
There is no one else in sight, but them.
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truth
New Member
Posts: 47
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Post by truth on Jul 9, 2014 18:56:23 GMT
Ash moved slowly when she awoke, she didn’t like going too fast in an unsure situation. She first examined each of those around her in turn, looking for the strong ones, the weak ones. Or just possibly ones she might recognize. No luck, she never had been one for associating with other metas. The final person she examined was of course herself, running her hands up and down her scales to find any that might be out of place. None of them were out of place. She was naturally naked but that only served to show off her patterned scales. Not that people noticed much as even the slightest breeze would spread her scent around making her less noticeable.
Ash didn’t approach the manila envelope, nor address the others. She slid back away from the group, not very far, but enough to no longer be in the circle. As she moved she used the tip of her tail to obscure her telltale trail that would appear in the dirt. Ash moved as quietly as she could, with no sudden movements, nothing to draw undue attention to herself. Once suitably away she settled in to wait, and watch.
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Post by zeuseus on Jul 10, 2014 13:41:42 GMT
Schlock woke cautiously, he could sense something watching him, though it seemed like he wasn't the only target, the focus was broad. Effortlessly he shifted, protecting his head, relying on his power to direct his movements. Where were they? Extruding his head just far enough to be able to see he made out a number of prone forms around him and an envelope in the centre of the 'human' circle.
He could still sense the eyes watching him, clearer now for some reason. File that for later study, he needed a better vantage point.
He flowed past the other bodies. collecting a few interesting rocks on the way, never know your luck, lots of gold in deserts right? He settled himself amidst the rocks, feeling the gaze upon him falter as he slid out of its field of view. For once he was going to wait for some information before acting, what was going on here?
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Post by MaddiroseX on Jul 10, 2014 21:40:51 GMT
If it was up to her, and Micah found herself in a strange surrounding in a circle of sleeping bodies, she would probably pretend to be asleep. She would sound out where she was, get a feel for the situation, maybe peak through a cracked eyelid to observe. If it was up to her, she would be cautious.
Micah was asleep, so it wasn't up to her.
Micah began waking up as It pulled her limbs in and made her spring to her feet in a feral crouch. By the time It had moved her arms to grab for the knife she usually kept strapped to her thigh, Micah was almost fully awake, and she gently took a deep breath and wrested control back.
So much for faking sleep.
She stood, moving carefully as she observed her surroundings. There were three others arranged in part of a circle, most still sleeping or doing a better job faking it than even she could. There were a few empty spaces in the circle, but a quick scan of the barren rock shelf didn't reveal anyone; they had either left or were invisible. There was a folder in the middle of the circle.
Micah took a deep breath to calm the burgeoning feelings of helplessness and anger before It decided she was in danger and took over again. One by one she laid the facts out in her head. Whoever had brought her here wanted something, that much was clear, and the folder had something to do with it. Whether her kidnapper wanted her to work with the others sleeping in the circle or wanted her to fight them, Micah needed more information before she made a move.
"I'm not..." Micah cleared her throat. The air was dry and her voice cracked. "...I'm not going to be the first one to go for that folder. If anyone here knows what's going on, I'd appreciate if you filled me in." She brushed dirt from her light grey suit jacket, hoping that at least one of them were only pretending to sleep.
And that they wouldn't go straight for her throat.
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Post by soulpelt on Jul 10, 2014 22:26:41 GMT
Conduit grumbled as she opened her eyes, the bright Mexican sun nearly blinding her. She let out a mumbled 'turn off the sun...' comment before her common sense, and training, kicked in and she was up on her feet in less than a second. In her right hand a blue-purple flame appeared, her left hand went for her tranquiler gun on her hip. She scanned the group of people and her eyes finally landed on the envelop. No one else was going for it, did that mean it was a trap? Was this a trap? More importantly how did she get here fully clothed in her combat outfit. She had gone to sleep naked as the day she was born. Conduit spoke in her low voice, "I have no idea but I suspect our answer is in that envelop." Keeping the blue-purple flame ready Conduit made her way to the envelop.
She picked it up with her free hand. Opening it she pulled the picture out. "Who the fuck is this?" Conduit held the picture up. The instructions were rather clear, the identity of their.... target less so.
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Post by cassius on Jul 10, 2014 23:45:22 GMT
Herne's eyes snapped open, already adjusted to the blazing sunlight, he swept his eyes around gazing quickly at each person in the room.
As he began to get off the floor, his mouth morphed into a provocative smirk. "About time you shitheads woke up, I've been waiting for hours."
The young and clearly wide awake adult, moved swiftly across the floor and snatched the papers out of the girl's hand. "Come on you lazy bitches, times a wasting" He shouted far to loudly for any polite conversation as he waved the envelope in the girl's face.
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Post by Tempest on Jul 11, 2014 8:49:04 GMT
Saga woke, it had been a while since she last slept, she didn't need to anymore, but it was nice apart from the sound of a young man swearing, while not unfamiliar with bad language, she felt it reflected badly on the speaker to so casually insult those he knew nothing about. Information is power, it used to be knowledge, but in this day and age its more the use of said information that grants power. It was something she knew a lot about. The bright light made looking at the group in any more than a cursory way nigh impossible for her. she did check her armour and weapon to make sure that both had come with her, they seemed intact. The now open documents being waved about tempted her to start asking questions, but she didn't know enough to ask anything intelligently, so kept silent. She stood, now shading her eyes from the blazing sun, it didn't help for close range stuff, but she did notice the building in the distance. lets see what the others come up with before I rush into anything. I need to figure out who these people are before i play my hand. trust is in short supply, but i can dig up dirt on anyone, she thought with a small secret smile.
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petrus1
Junior Member
happily insane
Posts: 67
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Post by petrus1 on Jul 11, 2014 9:43:28 GMT
Jim was disoriented when he first awoke. He was lying face down and half burried in the sand, wearing a shirt, Jeans and a baseballcap he could not remember to put on. Did i get hit on the head in a fight? No, cant be. i'd be either dead, caught or still wearing my armor, depending on how much time... time. No wait, armor first. He focused his attention on his tremorsense, while he waited roughly a minute for his armor to form. Fortunately, he laid down with his face in the dirt, sand covering most of his exposed scales, his clothes covering the rest. His tremorsense told him there was no one nearby, no one within the whole 3 miles, but he and the remains of what might have been a more or less human circle a few minutes ago, judging from the position the six bodys his tremorsense could identify and his own torso laid. Then his tremorsense picked up something else, something quite unusual, but before he could think more about it, his armor finished. he rose, hearing a female voice ask for information, followed by a young mans swearing. he had to suppress the urge of letting him sink into the sand, to be never seen again. He looked around. A Snakewoman, completely nude a few meter away, an amorphous mass some meter away from the circle AND the snakewoman, some kind of para-military who tries hard to act cool in the middle, with a girl in riot gear with a blue flame. A Woman in a business suit standing apart from everyone else, and lastly a young woman with a green cloak and a sword.
This seemed like either some kind of arena, or meeting, and he was inclined to assume the first, since some of the combatants already took position or got ready to fight. Don't rush. Don't jump to conclusions, stick to your rules. he thought and took a deep breath.
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Post by Tempest on Jul 11, 2014 16:59:20 GMT
Saga stepped over to pitfall, the urge to touch his clothes and find out all she could about him came and went. no point in antagonising the only one that was willing to speak to the rest of the group. she stopped just out of physical reach, not that it meant anything once powers came into play.
she didn't turn from pitfall, something told her he was very untrustworthy, but she did raise her voice and clearly ask the rest of the group her first question.
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Post by cassius on Jul 11, 2014 18:08:00 GMT
I blinked at the sudden outburst.
I should probably get my game face on, play times starting.
A girl just spoke up asking for answers, that’s my signal.
I turn in a full circle, once again taking in the landscape, but more importantly drawing in everyone's attention. How you present something is more important than whatever you’re actually saying. These guys are clearly inexperienced, so I need to act like I have all the answers, or at least more than they do.
“Howdy boys and girls, here’s the deal, some nut job knocked us out, grabbed us and dumped us here.”
I pull out the picture of the target.
“Whoever they are, they want us to kill this person or they claim we’ll die. So first things first, we need information.”
I jump straight to pretending we’re already all working together, its better not to give someone an option when you don’t want them to take it.
“Since we’re all new here, this is how it’ll work, state your name before answering a question so we can all get introduced quickly and move onto the important stuff, like not dying.”
The key to information gathering is asking the right questions, you need to know what you’re looking for.
“The first things we need to figure out are where the target is, who she is, and who wants her dead. Also we should probably assume we’re working on a time limit, so we also need to find out what that is. Any questions kiddies?”
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Post by zeuseus on Jul 12, 2014 6:25:47 GMT
Damn this guy was a cocky little shit. And he still couldn't figure out who had been watching him. It seemed that everyone here was a metahuman of some kind. Maybe the unseen watcher had some kind of concealment ability?
He considered again the cocky little shit. He'd said something about an assassination mission hadn't he? Kill someone or get killed? Since they'd all been gathered together for the task and transported here in secret, presumably some other metahuman or organisation must be behind this.
To start with however it was time to take the cocky little fucker down a peg. Slowly he extruded his body out from the rocks, forming a humanoid shape and flowing the rest of his body into it, waiting for the others' attention to fall on him before he extruded his lips out of the 'head' of the form.
"I have a question." He twisted the head section of his body to face the approximate direction of the unseen watcher and said "Why don't you show yourself, if we're going to talk about this we should do it together don't you think? Personally I like to see who I'm working with before I take a job. Particularly so under these circumstances."
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truth
New Member
Posts: 47
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Post by truth on Jul 12, 2014 8:29:48 GMT
Some of the people seemed nervous, and reacted accordingly. Some of them acted confidently, and some were just plain loud. Depending on the types of people gathered here he might not last long, and if Ash was any indication of the gathered personalities it looked grim for the loud mouth. The ooze thing and the armored well spoken man both seemed to be aware of her, difficult but not an insurmountable issue. Well not insurmountable until the Ooze decided to call attention to her.
Ash is a quick judgment decided to appear weaker than she was and stopped producing her scent, allowing the others to become slowly aware of her. She then approached the group slowly not making and sudden movements, but fidgeting with her fingers. She spoke without accent, but with a slight nervous waver.
“Apologies, but I get nervous around new people. Sometimes they react, unfortunately. I meant no harm by it, but I really can’t handle violence. I’m afraid I don’t know anything really relevant.”
To accentuate how nervous she appeared Ash started bitting at her nails one by one.
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petrus1
Junior Member
happily insane
Posts: 67
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Post by petrus1 on Jul 12, 2014 21:12:07 GMT
Jim frowned. Not that anyone could see that beneath his sand and stone helmet, but what people could and would see, if they look him in the eye, was the displeased expression his eyes showed. He turned to the woman who approached him
after clarifying this, he refocused back on the nuisance.
he reached out to him, slowly and carefully not to make any sudden movements with his armored hand.
he continued with a short side glance on the girl, who still had her flame in the hand
another short sideglance, this time to the snakewoman, who dropped her invisibility, for now at least. Looks actually rather nice... and cute so insecure as she appears. But no, he had to focus. No distractions, no sidesteps. Stick to your rules. he thought.
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Post by soulpelt on Jul 12, 2014 21:29:39 GMT
Conduit growled and snatched the picture back. "First thing, you buffoon, we at least get somewhat acquainted with each other, or would you rather we run into a situation unprepared and we all die a gruesome death?" She sighed. "My name is Conduit, probably haven't heard of me." She looked over each of others briefly focusing on the slime blob. "Finally someone with a good idea!" Then she looked to the newcomer. "Hopefully there won't be any violence any time soon." Then finally looked over woman who spoke up earlier. "I don't know who brought us here or why but our target is the girl, whoever she is."
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Post by MaddiroseX on Jul 12, 2014 22:23:57 GMT
Micah remained silent, out of the way, trying to keep calm as the different metas in the circle spoke their piece. It was times like these, when surrounded by people with more offensive powers, that she liked to fly as far under the radar as she could. Now that people were introducing themselves, keeping silent would bring her more attention than not.
"I'm Micah. Micah Viiv. Since it appears we're all in the same position, I agree to the terms of neutral ground." She nodded in the direction of the armored man, trying and failing to read his expression behind the mask and the flurries of sand around him. "But I'm not entirely sure why you're all so willing to take on this job. If you'll forgive my cynicism, I usually try to learn a little more about my clients before I take on a job, and this method of job offer, while theatrical, leaves me a bit uneasy about our employer."
She tried to meet everyone's gaze for a moment as she spoke, waiting just long enough to get an impression of them but not too long to be thought of as challenging them.
"I've also got to say..." Micah pointed from one meta to another as she spoke, "one in stone armor, one in some sort of hunting armor, one in military gear, one who can mass-shift...I get the feeling that whoever 'recruited' us seemed to think we'd be facing a lot of opposition. My power is a little more subtle, so you'll understand why this situation makes me nervous."
In reality, the snakelike girl and the quiet small one made her more nervous: as a rule, Micah was uncomfortable around other 'subtle' powers. The snake had masked its presence, and the little one spoke too confidently; clearly she had powers that let her take care of herself.
There was the risk that one of them would attack her now that she'd admitted that, but she made the concession. Suspicion wouldn't take her very far.
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