Poncho

(Golden Star) Michael gave Daniel a brief hug and a pat on the back with a smile, and nodded at Iris. "We're just doing what we think we should." He explained, inclining his head to Parker. "If anything, Parker's the bigger softie here." Then he shrugged a little. "Yeah...the headmistress doesn't always tell everyone everything. I mean there is the whole thing about keeping other people's secrets and all that, but at the same time it could be kinda dangerous to not...ugh, just never a good answer when it comes to stuff like that I suppose." Michael agreed, resting his hands behind his head as he looked around the lab. "At least I didn't end up blowing anything up trying to shut down the projection, so maaaybe repairs won't be that bad?"

OOC for the other thread, featuring the third of the three part series, which is happening in the past but is done now because I got a little overwhelmed. I figure makes sense for RL/Parker to post first here since he's the one whose really invested in getting the Starblights to be back on the good side so he can go get Lawrence and then you two can talk/go to the theater and we'll continue from there

(GM Post) Mid November, 2024, After Classes While Michael and Baz were fighting Pavo While Carmen and Mizuki were fighting Grus There were other things going on, and none of the three groups knew that the other two were also engaged in a fight against Sola's Dark Commanders. Sola and her Dark Commanders did not stop at a single action, they were always plotting many things at once; a variety of schemes and plans to attempt to reclaim the Umbra Star, to reclaim the powers used by the Sentries, to reclaim the might of Asterim so Sola could rule as the queen of a Netherworld. So while Pavo was in the middle of a brawl in Southside, and Grus was being hunted in Lincoln, Lawrence and Parker- the last remaining members of the group that had gotten into a fight with the Starblights at the start of the year- were not left out of the loop. It had been a request to Parker's phone from Estelle Jones, the individual with the power of Sentry Orion, who had been the first to be on the side of the Claremont students when Ashley and Felix had taken control of her friend group by force. She'd kept in contact with Parker, even if the group as a whole had repeatedly avoided 'going straight' as it were. They weren't actively doing bad anymore, but they had been non-committal on doing any more than that. The text was fairly simple; to come to the same theater where at the start of the year they had fought the draconic Ashley as Sentry Draco, because she needed their help with something. She knew Lawrence could teleport, at minimum, so she didn't figure that'd be too much of a problem for them to come pay her a visit.

(King Cole III) "Pshaw ease off it country boy, I was watchin; That's why I said don't text and board, that's how you hurt someone. I have complete and total control of all my motor functions, don'tcha know. Or whatever, something like that." she waved her hand. Then as quick as lightning she made sure to snap a photo of Owen getting all bashful over Kadene. "Gonna give that one to Harper, that's going in the school paper totally." she said cheerfully before they headed inside. While she wasn't that interested in tales of the scarba, she was still snapping photos of things she thought were interesting. "I'm not interested in that. I wanna see the King Cole stuff. They alleeeegeeedly have some of his old magic totems and stuff. We'll see about that." she said as she continud to bounce around the group, wandering to and fro as they headed towards the area. "If it's all fakes, I'd know, definitely."

King Cole HellQ Introduction Who are you? Sum yourself up in one sentence. King Cole III, the inheritor of the mantle of King Cole, the tyrant king here to remind people of the wonder of Fairytales! Do you have any nicknames, street names, titles, or nom de plume? She does not What is your full birth name? Renee Cole King Where do you live? The Freedom City Suburbs How old are you? What year were you born (if applicable)? She is a Sophomore in High School, making her 16 years old and born in 2,008. Physical Traits What is your gender? If not applicable, please explain. Renee identifies as Female, despite being King Cole. How would you describe your heritage? She is a WASP, a New Jersey born and bred woman (teenager) How tall are you? Renee is 5’6 What is your body type? Renee is a slender woman, partially due to just being a teenager. She will likely fill out as she gets older. Do you have any particular weaknesses, such as allergies or physical disabilities? Renee is actually severely socially anxious, which makes it hard for her to engage with people outside of her role as King Cole, despite the fact she really wants to be. How do you carry yourself? Are you graceful, or heavy on your feet? Can you be stealthy, do you walk with confidence? When discussing how Renee acts, it’s good to remember that the difference between Renee and King Cole is fairly significant, and answering that question requires splitting that up. Renee carries herself quietly; she keeps her head down and stays out of the way of people. She uses her training to avoid getting in the way of others, which gives her a quiet step and makes her able to avoid other people easily; she could let someone pass her in a tight hallway without them ever touching her. King Cole CAN be quiet, but she doesn’t bother to be; she’s loud and boisterous and her walk is the same. King Cole wants people to know she’s coming. Describe your skin, eye, and hair color. Renee is a caucasian with blonde hair. However, while her eyes are brown, King Cole has purple eyes instead, a side effect of the potion that causes her transformation. How do you wear your hair, if applicable? Do you have facial hair? Renee wears her hair up in ponytails and buns, to try and keep it contained. Her hair is naturally wavy, and when King Cole is in charge, she often wears it down and wavy. The King often wears a crown or, if she wants to be really fancy, will put up her hair into an elegant style when she goes out. Do you consider yourself attractive? Do others? Renee doesn’t think she is, but King Cole knows that she is. That Renee can’t grasp the fact that the potion doesn’t change her appearance significantly enough for that to change is entirely due to her lack of self-confidence. Do you have any scars, tattoos, piercings, or birthmarks? Renee has her ears pierced. Do you resemble anyone famous? Do you have a dominant hand? Renee is right handed What kind of clothing do you wear? Renee favors sweatshirts and other baggy clothes that keep her out of other people’s minds. Jeans and tennis shoes are good for her as well, stuff that is totally average for a teen girl in soft colors that won’t make too much noise. King Cole takes Renee’s outfits and turns them into ensembles. She borrows clothes that look better or brighter from others, wearing more revealing or shocking clothes that are more prone to making her the center of attention. She wants to be seen. Do you wear makeup? Renee wears a little bit of makeup, appropriate for a girl her age, but on the lower side since she doesn’t want to get too much of it. King Cole wears makeup appropriate for a popular girl with a joy of make-up, significantly more then Renee, but not a tremnedous or overdone amount. What is your vocal range? Is your voice distinctive in some way? While the vocal range is not distinctive or loud, Renee’s constant studying about acting and singing musical theater has let King Cole learn how to project her voice significantly more than her regular body would seem, like she’s the leading actor on a stage. Do you have any distinctive habits, nervous tics, or mannerisms? Where did they come from, and what causes them? Do other people notice and remark on these habits? Do they annoy you or other people? Renee rubs her forearm when she’s nervous, shuffles her feet, and pigeon-toes herself to try and curl herself up when she’s nervous. She always has a book with her to open and read when she gets too much focus on her, to try and calm herself down and let people know that she’s overstimulated and isn’t up for talking. King Cole’s most distinctive habit is that she doesn’t know how to stop talking. She makes every sentence a long and tortured monologue, she speaks from her diaphragm to make her voice as loud as possible. She hops around making proclamations and being over dramatic as much as possible. She can definitely come off as annoying. History Where do you come from? Renee was born and bred in Freedom City Have you made any major moves, or do you live in your hometown? She has not, her family is living just down the street from where King Cole I retired to. Do you feel loyal to your country of citizenship? Do you consider yourself patriotic? How do you feel about the government of your country? Renee is about as loyal as any citizen of America is, especially one who benefits from the casual privilege of being a white woman in New England; she thinks America is pretty good, she doesn’t think too much beyond that, and likes being America. She likes the Government when it helps her, and dislikes the Government when it does things she doesn’t like, which means she doesn’t like that King Cole I is considered just a villain, but that doesn’t stop her in the more general sense, she’s just not very political. How do you feel about the place you come from? Renee likes her suburb, she likes her city- though the super villain stuff is often a bit shocking to her- so she has no big cares about it. She has conflicting feelings about the way the city treats King Cole I, and about King Cole II, but she uses it as motivation instead of getting her down. Where is your home town? What was/is it like? Freedom City, New Jersey. The City of Tomorrow, the Capital of Superheroes, you can’t go a day in Freedom without seeing a Superhero flying overhead, and the suburb that Renee lives in is full of people who like to spend time with each other. Due to the influence of the original King Cole- post retirement- the Suburb of Freedom where Renee lives is well known for being friendly and outgoing to each other, with the parents and kids both being very caring for each other. Growing up, were most of the people you knew similar to you, or were you somehow a minority? How did that affect you? Renne’s suburb was relatively integrated, including people of a variety of races and cultures. She still wasn’t a minority, however, so she’s always benefited from her privilege Is there something you've always been really good at or really bad at? How has that affected your life? Renee is quite bad at social interaction due to her anxiety, often being regarded as a wallflower. This is not to say that she specifically has any sort of anxiety disorder or anything, but rather she is just a normal person who is, like many people, prone to bouts of anxiety. However, she’s also always been quite good at performing despite her anxiety- or when she forces her way through it-, which creates a crippling issue between her desires and what she has fun doing and the anxiety she has to battle through to get to them. Were there any traumatic experiences in your early years (death of a family member, abandonment, orphaned at an early age)? Renee has had the luck of never having any truely traumatic experiences in her life that would be outside the bounds of a Freedom City Civilian; Supervillain attacks, Metahuman battles, and things like that are all too common in Freedom, so while those have at times been scary, they haven’t been directly traumatic. Briefly describe a defining moment in your childhood and how it influenced your life. The most defining moment in Renee’s life before she found her grandfather’s spell book also came from her grandfather; an old home movie of him in his King Cole costume entertaining the children of the neighborhood, putting on a puppet show for them. Renee had already been struggling with anxiety before then, but seeing her Grandfather putting on a show and the laughs and adoration of the kids he was performing for made her interested in performing and acting as well, and lead her to her obsession with theater and musicials. What stupid things did you do when you were younger? Renee is still young, and she is still doing very stupid things, like having no powers and going out to fight crime as an obnoxiously loud and egotistical hero. Where did you go to school? How much school did you have, and did you enjoy it? Renee attended a private high school in Freedom before moving to Claremont. While she is academically inclined and quite smart- similar to her grandfather-, she has no interest, or at least no ability, to make friends. She wants to make friends but often finds herself stumbling with them unless she’s King Cole, and when she’s King Cole she’s often loud and annoying. Do you have any mementos of your childhood? What are they, and why did you keep them? If you have none, why not? Renee’s most important mementos are the belongings she’s taken from her grandfather. His Kingly Mantle and his spell book. They are representations of the kind of person she wants to be, the King who brings smiles to children. When did you decide to become a hero? Why? Did anyone influence you one way or another in the decision? Despite her Grandfather being a villain, it was still her grandfather that led Renee to want to be a Hero. She had her own beliefs of how cool and awesome her grandfather was well before she found out that to most of Freedom, he was a villain who attempted to use World War II to his advantage to commit crimes in America, and the difficulty in coming to terms with that- and her eventual discovery of his spell book- made her decide that she was going to change the way that people view him for the better, for ever. Is the reason you give people for becoming a hero different than your real reason? If so, why? When she is King Cole, she is very clear that she is intending to show the world that the King of Fairy Tales works for the good of children and mankind everywhere. This isn’t a lie, specifically, it’s just only part of the truth. The other half is that she wants to get over her own anxieties and become a person in her own right. Do you have any deep, dark secrets in the past that may come back to haunt you? Renee being the actual blood related granddaughter of King Cole I is likely a severe danger that could cause a lot of concern and confusion in the Superhero Community if someone were to investigate and find out, thinking she may be intending to follow her grandfather along the path to criminality. Do you represent yourself as being different from who you really are? Why? Renee and King Cole are so different that it might seem that they’re both lies, perpetrated by the others, or that one is a mask worn by the other, but the truth is that both are true sides of Renee, who wants to express all the emotions and joy in her life that she never feels comfortable expressing in her own life. If you do have these secrets, what do you fear would happen if the truth became known? How far would you go to protect those secrets? Renee would only protect the secret of her identity in order to protect her family. While the idea of someone finding out she is King Cole would terrify her, it would mostly be because of a fear of greater scrutiny on her when she isn’t King Cole; the fear of being observed, of being viewed, of having no anonymity. If she gets over those feelings, her relationship to King Cole and her secret identity would only mean things to her in that they would prevent her from living a normal life. Do you have any sort of criminal record? If so, is it public knowledge? Renee has no criminal record and specifically does not engage in crime, but as her grandfather was King Cole, that still may involve some suspicion of her super-powered identity. Family What are your biological parents' names? Renee’s parents are Carter Smith Chambers and Aurora Violet King. They are not officially married, and are instead a Common Law Marriage, which is why Renee has the King last name instead of Chambers. Were you raised by them? If not, please explain and describe who raised you. Renee was raised by her parents. What was their standing in the community? What did/do they do for a living? Carter and Aurora are well liked in their neighborhood despite not being an ‘official’ marriage. They’ve always been nice to the neighbors, and Aurora is well liked and well known amongst those around her age because of her father- Cole King- being a favorite of the kids in the neighborhood for his fun stories. Carter is a bank manager in his daily life, angling for a promotion soon, while Aurora is an artist at Castle Comics Where are your parents now? They still live in the house that Cole King and Rapunzel lived in after they gave up crime. Did your family stay in one area or move around a lot? They don’t move. How did you get along with their parents? How do you get along with them now (if applicable). Renee is her father’s favorite daughter. Her mother is more even tempered in the treatment, but Carter spoiled and continues to spoil her. How do your parents view you now, or how would they? Both of them would really dislike it if they knew Renee was a Superhero. Aurora would in particular find it a great concern and probably attempt to stop her as best she could; she knows from her mother- Renee’s grandmother- that her father Cole was not a hero, and more that someone else took over his name before and even killed a Hero once. Renee trying to drag that name out of the muck would be unacceptable to her, she thinks it should stay buried. Do you have any siblings? If so how many and what are their names? Describe your relationship with them. Renee’s Older Sisters are named Jeanne Rapunzel King-Davis, a 30 something marketing executive whose married with one kid, and Hailey Duncan Baker, a 25 year old nurse who just recently got married What was your birth order in the family? Renee is the youngest, Jeanne is the oldest, and Hailey is the middle. Where are your siblings now (if applicable)? Do they have families of their own? What do they do? Jeanne and Hailey have both moved out, though they still live in Freedom City, they live a fair distance from their parents now. They each have their own families, with Jeanne having a child and Hailey wanting to have one, and Jeanne works as a marketing Executive while Hailey is an ER Nurse. Do you stay in touch with them or have you become estranged? The sisters come by often, or at least as often as they can, and often the entire family takes vacations together. Do you love or hate one member of the family in particular? While Renee doesn’t hate anyone in her family, her relationship with Hailey has always been a little strained. Since Carter likes Renee more, it was a bit difficult for Hailey when they were kids; it didn’t matter to Jeanne because she had already gotten past all that, but Hailey and Renee have always had a bit of a strained relationship. Is any member of the family special to you in any way (perhaps, as a confidant, mentor, or arch-rival)? In comparison, Jeanne and Renee have a relationship where Renee is always looking up to her eldest sister and trying to mimic her. She respects her a lot and would tell her just about anything excluding her superheroing, and asks her for advice often. Jeanne’s advice is often a bit pessimistic and dour, but only in the context of making sure Renee keeps her feet planted in reality. Are there any black (or white) sheep in the family (including you)? If so, please explain. Renee is probably the actual black sheep in the family, dedicating herself to Superheroing, hiding in her room all day instead of being sociable, and her love of musical theater and opera is completely different from most of her family. Do you have a notorious or celebrated ancestor? If so, please explain, including how it has affected your life. Renee is the granddaughter of Cole King, Freedom City’s King Cole the first. A national supervillain and member of the Golden Age Crime League, King Cole opposed Midnight and The Raven in addition to his actions as a member of the Crime League. It is directly correct to say that if King Cole did not exist, then Renee would not exist; not just because she is a descendent of the man and his assistant from his crime days, but because if she had not watched the videos of his performances for the kids, and if she had not found the remains of his spellbook and costume, she would not have become King Cole III. Do you have a partner and children currently? If so, please describe them. Renee does not. She does have 3 pet Ferrets; Rocicante, Babe, and Binky If you do not have a partner or children, do you want them someday? How firm are you in your opinion on this, and what might change your mind? Renee wants a fairytale wedding and a fairytale husband or wife to be her own King or Queen, and in her mind she is going to get this. How she intends to go from where she is to where she needs to be to accomplish this is another question. What type of person would be your ideal mate? Someone fun, spontaneous and okay with her being a Hero. They don’t have to be a Hero themselves, but they should at least find the fun in her doing it. They shouldn’t try to tie her down. Relationships Do you have any close friends? If so, please describe them, and how you came to be close to them. Renee basically only made friends online, and is pretty much a loaner even now. However, she likes her roommate Estelle and her ferrets Do you have a best friend? If so, how did they become your best friend? How close are you to your best friend? Renee wouldn’t say she has a best friend. If you were to go missing, who would worry about you? her family would be concerned. Have you lost any loves? If so, how did it happen, and what did you do? Renee, as a person who owned quite a few pets, has also had to say goodby to quite a few pets. This is just something that occurs with pet ownership, however, so she deals with it maturely. However, one thing that she didn’t lose but that makes her sad is that she never got to meet her Grandfather before he died, since she was born after his death. She loved the grandfather she saw on the old home movies and the reminiscing of her mother, so the fact she never got to see the person she’s basing her entire hero career off of has hurt her. Do you have any bitter enemies? If so, please describe them and their history with you. It would be rich to say they are bitter enemies, but Renee doesn’t like the Raven Family. She doesn’t think they’re bad people, but she does think it was a little unfair that they got to be heroes and well loved and well regarded when her Grandfather was portrayed as a crank and a criminal and a loon when all he wanted was to bring smiles to children. If you have enemies, how do you think they might attempt to work against you in the future? Renee will have enemies in the future, but right now, it seems unlikely that anyone would consider her a threat unless they’re specifically after her due to her desire to claim the King Cole mantle from others. What is the worst thing someone has done to you? To Renee’s mind, the worst thing people do to her is when they force her into the spotlight when she doesn’t want to be. Her anxiety and tendency to overdramatize everything can lead to her declaring everything from having to go to a party to her roommate being a fairytale princess with prehensile hair as being ‘the worst’. To King Cole’s mind, the worst thing that people have done to her is attempt to take King Cole’s legacy for their own; to her, she is the only correct individual to have that legacy, and everyone else is a poser with no rizz, so they need to get out of the way. Where do your loyalties lie? In what order? Renee is loyal to her family above everything, but she’s also entirely loyal to the King Cole legacy, something that she considers as part of her family. To her, giving up the King Cole legacy would be the worst thing in the world. Who or what do you trust the most? Why? Renee would trust Jeanne with anything. If she had to reveal her secret identity to someone, it would be Jeanne. Jeanne’s always been the sister she trusts the most, because while her advice is a little weird, it always comes from a good place. Who or what do you despise? Why? Renee despises anyone who tries to take the King Cole name who isn’t her, or at least related to the original Cole King, and possibly those that oppose the King Cole. She is protective to the point of aggression of the legacy of her ideal version of her grandfather, and will always fight to protect it. What qualities do you admire most in other people? Are these qualities you possess? Renee has a lot of admiration for people who are willing to put themselves out there; singers, dancers, entertainers, things like that. She wants to be that outgoing and expressive herself, standing up on stage and being willing to stay in the spotlight. While Renee doesn’t think she possesses those qualities, the way King Cole acts shows that she does, she just doesn’t have it in her to show that off. What qualities do you hate most in other people? Do you have any of those qualities? Renee hates people who are late, or who talk in movie theaters or don’t pay attention when others are talking. The fact that she often does not pay attention when others are talking because she is too busy talking over them is not acknowledged. Do you have a secret identity? If so, who knows it? Do you hide it from people who are close to you? Why? Renee hides the identity of King Cole III because she’s not an adult yet, but it’s not an identity that’s totally impenetrable; anyone who has access to records of Super Criminals would be able to find that King Cole had a daughter, who has 3 daughters, one of whom is about the right age for the third King Cole, and the occam’s razor explanation for who the new King Cole is is pretty easy. She hides her identity from her family and others because she doesn’t want to get in trouble, especially when she’s still getting her feet under her. Do you work well on teams and in groups? Are you a leader or a follower? Renee works pretty well in groups because she needs someone to look out for her while she’s being ridiculous and screaming at the top of her lungs. She is prone to drawing attention to herself because of her obnoxious nature, so having someone watch her back is immensely useful. She likely wouldn’t be good as a leader unless pressed, King Cole is simply just not a very serious person, which makes it hard for her to be a real leader. Are you on a super team? If so, how do you get along with your comrades? Do you trust them, or do you have secrets from them? Renee is on a Claremont squad, where she is a Problem for all of them; Renee is quiet, reclusive, and prone to shrinking back into herself, while King Cole is loud, obnoxious, and enjoys getting into trouble. She’d trust them, and doesn’t really keep secrets away from them. Are you a member of any church, fraternal organization, club, committee, political party, or other group? How much time do you spend on that? Renee goes to church on Sundays, is part of her Claremont team, and is in the theater club at Claremont. and participates in theater and musicals around the city Personality & Beliefs Who are your heroes? Renee’s biggest hero is her grandfather, the original King Cole, Cole King. Did you ever become disillusioned with former heroes or idols? If so, why and what were the circumstances? Renee has rose tinted glasses about her grandfather, and could become disillusioned if she was presented with real evidence that her Grandfather wasn’t as great a person as she imagines he was, if such evidence exists. Do you like being a hero? If so, what is the most rewarding part? If not, what makes you keep doing it? King Cole loves being a hero, because it lets her get out and do something that she would otherwise be too terrified to do. She wants to be out on stage and have all eyes on her, but she often can’t get over her stage fright, so when she takes her potion and turns into King Cole instead of Renee, she gets to be visible. She also loves the idea that she’s getting to rehabilitate the legacy of her grandfather; to show people outside of just her little suburb of Freedom the King Cole that she sees when she watches the old home movies of her grandfather. Is there anything that would make you give up hero work, or even switch sides? Renee would most likely not ever switch sides, but she could absolutely become disillusioned by hero work and retire if she ended up feeling like she wasn’t able to change the legacy of King Cole, or if the legacy she was pushing was tarnished and ruined by the actions of herself or others. What are your short term goals (what would you like to be doing within a year)? Within the Year, Renee wants to establish herself as the new King Cole and make sure the city is aware of her as King Cole III, and that she is the inheritor of the King Cole I’s legacy, not the King Cole II’s. What are your long term goals (what would you like to be doing twenty years from now)? In twenty years, Renee wants to be a world famous hero, for King Cole to be known the world over as a legacy of entertaining and heroic people, and to be a world famous Broadway star. Easy, right? What is your greatest fear? Why? What do you do when something triggers this fear? Renee fears being put on stage and having people ‘look’ at her. A teenager burdened with all the hormones and emotions that come with it, Renee has an intensely variable level of self confidence and struggles with finding herself and her place in the world around her. It may not be a unique fear, but even the assumption of the King Cole persona is a mask that she uses to try and sort through the confusing and difficult feelings of teenage years, a safety blanket that keeps her comfortable. That she often transforms into King Cole when her anxiety reaches its peak is her comfort. Is there anything you would give you life for? Renee would likely give her life to protect the legacy of King Cole or to change it for the better, at least she thinks she would. She wouldn’t do it for truth, or justice, or anything like that, but she would do it for the image of her grandfather the way she sees him in those old home movies. How do you feel about money and material wealth? Do you desire it or disdain it? Are you miserly with what you have, or do you like to share? Is it mark of success, or a means to an end? Renee likes to pretend the King is loaded, but obviously she’s just a teenager. She would like to have a lot of money because it would mean she could put on her own plays and shows like her grandfather did, but her grandfather did a lot with a little, so she doesn’t mind too much. The major reason she’d reach out for more is to try and live up to her image of him, so in that way, money is just a means to an end; the end of spending it all spoiling children and others with lavish productions of fairytale stories. How do you generally treat others? Renee is friendly, but the version of Renee you’re dealing with changes how that is expressed. Renee herself is a good listener who tries to be there for her friends; she’s more willing to stick her neck out for them then she is for herself. Meanwhile, the King is a boisterous and loud presence who is always encouraging others to do their best. She likes to ‘adopt’ people by forcibly giving them titles in her ever expanding and labyrinthine royal court, no matter if they actually want to or not. Are you a trusting person? Has your trust ever been abused? Renee generally does trust people, which hasn’t hurt her yet but likely will eventually. Are you introverted (shy and withdrawn) or extroverted (outgoing)? Do you have a lot of self-confidence? Renee is actually an extroverted person outside of her anxiety, which is something that is very obvious with the addition to King Cole, but she seems to be introverted most of the time when she is unable to break open that bubble. How do you act around attractive, available members of your preferred sex? Renee is the sort of girl who gets crushes on pretty boys quite easily. Her current crush may just be the Harlequin, or maybe she just sees him as a friend, it’s prone to changing day by day. Regardless, she likes to stay close to the pretty boys and observe them. What are your most annoying habits? The King’s most annoying quality is that she basically has no Inside Voice and will declare things at the top of her lungs, at times in a voice that borders on a shrill scream, regardless of if it’s appropriate or not. Do you feel contempt for any general category of people? Who are they, and why? Renee hates anyone who attempts to steal the Fable Gang name or the name of King Cole from her, because she believes that the name is hers, no matter what others may say, they are just borrowing it from her grandfather, and it is hers to collect on now. What is your favorite food? Do you prefer any particular type of food? Do you take the time to enjoy your food, or do you eat as fast as you can? Renee loves Pizza! and she devours food as fast as she can when she gets it, because she’s usually in the middle of a late night gaming, magic, playwriting, or coding marathon, or practicing or mixing a new potion, and doesn’t want to fall behind! What is your favorite drink (alcoholic or otherwise)? Renee likes soda and sweet, fruity drinks. She’ll likely be a wine drinker when she gets the chance What is your favorite treat (dessert)? Chocolate Cake!!!!!!! Are there any specific foodstuffs that you find disgusting or refuse to eat? NO TOMATOES UNLESS THEY ARE COOKED What is your favorite color? Are there any colors you dislike? Purple and gold! Purple and gold! No green! What sort of music do you like? Is there any that you hate? Operas! Musicals! Anything with Lyrics! she hates too much autotune, so most pop music is beyond her. If you have a favorite scent, what is it? the smell of fresh wood working for a new playset, the grass after rain, the smell of effort in a backroom by a lead performer trying to reach new heights Do you have a favorite animal? ferrets! What is your most treasured possession? Why? Her grandfather’s mantle, spellbook, and staff. These are her only physical connections to her grandfather besides the home movies, and they’re how she manages to be a hero. Do you enjoy "roughing it", or do you prefer your creature comforts? Creature comforts! she’s not a big camper. Is there a job or a task you would absolutely refuse to do? NO SEWERS (she’s already been in the sewers, they’re stinky.) Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so, how do your beliefs affect your life?How important is it to you? Renee is a devout Catholic, but it doesn’t much come up in her superhero life and while she will try to live by the tenants, she’s enough of a troublemaker that sometimes rules come across just as suggestions, though she’ll at least feel bad about it and try to repent. She’s not sure how to square being a superhero with the 10 commandments, but she’s hoping to figure it out. Was your faith influenced or molded by anyone special? Renee has the standard Family Faith; she was raised in it by her father and mother, and she keeps the light on for her faith. If you belong to a religious organization, how often do you attend? Do you have a specific place of worship, or friends within the organization? How much do you agree with the beliefs of your organization? She goes weekly, but her attendance has gotten a little spotty since she became a Superhero and started going to Claremont, since those things eat up a lot of her time with the highly enhanced school curriculum and the superheroing. This may result in her faith becoming weaker if she fails to continue to engage with it. Could you kill? Have you killed? Renee doesn’t think she could kill, but as her author, I’m certain that if she absolutely had no choice, she could do so if she needed to. What circumstances led to you forming that conviction, or taking that action? Renee doesn’t think she has the backbone to do the deed; she thinks she’s weak and not mentally fit to do it more than unwilling. She doesn’t have an ironclad conviction against it (though she doesn’t want to kill people) but rather she doesn’t think if she absolutely had to do that she could have the ability to do so. But in truth if she had to plunge the knife into the heart, she could do it, even if she doesn’t recognize it. Are there circumstances under which you believe it is permissible to kill? What are they? Renee would only think killing is acceptable if the alternative is the death of a significant number of people; like hundreds of people. She hopes she never has to be put in that kind of situation. How would you react to watching someone kill another person? Would your reaction be different if the killer was a friend or an enemy of yours? Renee would probably blanche at actual death and end up feeling queasy or even throwing up. She’d be distraught at the death of anyone, even an enemy, especially if she didn’t feel like they deserved to die. Watching a friend kill someone who she disagreed with killing would make her extremely uncomfortable and likely end with her distancing herself from the friend if they didn’t have a good reason. An enemy killing someone would inspire fear and terror in her, then likely rage and anger. How would you react if something important was stolen from you? If her Potion or her magic spellbook was stolen, Renee would lose her mind. She would do anything at any cost to get it back, no matter what; those are what make her her. How would you react to public humiliation? Renee would want to curl into a ball and die. She can’t handle public humiliation, either as herself or as King Cole, because it would reflect badly on her Grandfather, and her only reason for being a hero right now is to try and save her grandfather’s legacy, so her failing to do that- by being publicly humiliated- would crush her. How would you react if a good friend or relative were purposely or accidentally killed? Has it happened to you? Renee wasn’t born when her grandfather died, so she never had to deal with his death. While she’s had to lose several pets due to ferrets not living that long, which is a little different from a person being killed, admittedly. Renee would like to assume that she could handle someone dying, but it would be a struggle, especially if they were purposely killed instead. She’d have a lot of trouble handling one of her family members getting murdered, and King Cole would likely try to hunt down whoever did it to put them away What do you consider to be the worst crime someone could commit and why? The worst crime a person could do to Renee is to tarnish the legacy of someone else; to ruin what they stand for or to stomp on something good. For someone whose entire life is wrapped up in wanting to encourage and empower a legacy, those things mean a lot to her. If your life were to end in 24 hours, what five things would you do in those remaining hours? King Cole would ride a motorcycle, go skydiving, reveal her identity to the world, talk about how wonderful her grandfather was to the kids in the neighborhood, and show the home movies that she loves so much to anyone who wanted to see them. Career & Training Do you have any special training in your hero skills? If so, where and how did you get it? Renee’s training is mostly coming from Claremont. Her magic skills are self taught, and her fighting style as it could be said started mostly with her just swinging wildly with absolute assurity and confidence, which has gotten her further than it rightly should. She has been doing her best to try and expand it, using a variety of acrobatics and magic tricks to assist her in doleing out whacks with her staff. Who taught you the most about your heroing abilities? What was your relationship with that person? Since she is self-taught and only a beginner at magic, learning about Renee’s abilities is a bit thin. She learned her magic and potioncraft from her grandfather’s book, and her relationship to her grandfather is unbridled joy and trust, but it’s not a real relationship since she’s basically just reading his research notes. Do you have any particularly unusual skills? How did you acquire them? Renee’s actually a bit of a prodigy at making magical equipment, but she needs time to flourish at Claremont to come to understand her abilities as a magical smith. It’s possibly it was inherited from her Grandfather, or it’s just a pleasant side-effect of how invested she is in plays and musicals and other fantastical worlds that she can create magical tools. Do you do something besides hero work for a living? Have you ever done anything else, or do you plan to? Renee doesn’t have a part time job or anything, but she does work with community theaters in Freedom to help design stages and plays that they put on. She’s slowly starting to graduate to actually being on stage as an actor, and will continue to do so; she will eventually take being a theater actor as her main job outside of Superheroing. What is your preferred combat style? Renee fights with a big bonking staff- the same one used by King Cole- and distracts and misdirects her foes into submission for her to clobber them to unconsciousness. She needs to be big on misdirection since she’s just a regular teenage girl for the most part. If she has the time to prepare, she will often bring one or two magic trinkets that she’s made or saved up in the intervening time. Have you ever received any awards or honours? Renee was a fairly good student at school but isn’t up to awards level at Claremont, really. She’s gotten several thanks from community theater troupes for helping build their sets, editing their play scripts, and the like. What skill areas would you like most to improve in? Is there anything you can't do that you wish desperately you could? Renee wants to become a better spellcaster. She needs more time to learn how to actually cast spells and create magical items instead of just sometimes brewing potions; something that will come with more time spent practicing and creating things, since she’s still quite new to all of it. How do you act around people who are more skilled than you in areas you'd like to improve? Are you jealous, or do you try and learn? Renee gets jealous, especially if someone is upstaging the King; for example, her entrance at Freedom hall being upstaged by the Young Guardians made her quite upset. The King believes that she should be the center of attention, so if someone outdoes her she gets angry. If Renee is met by someone who knows more than her at something, though, she’s likely to try and learn from them, or at least observe them from a far to try and copy what makes them successful to the best of her abilities. Lifestyle & Hobbies What is a normal day for you? How do you feel when something interrupts this routine? Renee’s normal day is waking up, eating breakfast, going to school. During lunch she’s usually out in the quad eating and playing video games or working on whatever script she’s writing, or designing theater equipment. After school she usually has a few different things she does; she might return to her room and play video games, do her homework, or write, she might go to a local theater to help with scripts or set design, or go to a performance or movie, or go hang out with friends and do any of those things with them as well. She has a fairly active social life despite her introversion, but she will sometimes let the King hang out with her friends instead of Renee if she’s feeling stressed or overwhelmed. After her afternoon to evening activities, she’ll usually call her parents before or during dinner to check in before eating. Once she’s finished with that and it’s too late to go anywhere, she’ll usually stay in her room and play Video games and practice her magic and potions until 1 or 2 in the morning, when she’ll finally crawl into bed to sleep until the next day’s school. She’ll sometime sneak out during the night instead of staying in, but it’s not often, since she doesn’t want to have to lie to Estelle or get her in trouble. Do you have any hobbies, or interests outside hero work? What are they, and where did you pick them up? Renee loves to play video games and is a huge theater fan, so she likes to do those whenever she can. She’s been playing video games since she was a kid, and has been invested in musicals basically just as long. She uses a Linux distribution on her personal laptop. What do you do for fun? Renee’s most fun is when she’s either writing or performing in musicals. She likes the other things she does, but the performance is the fun thing; part of why King Cole works so well is because she treats the whole world as a stage, and the King Cole is just an actor upon it, something that Renee understands in a very primal sense that she is just playing a character for others to enjoy. Do you have a costume? What does it look like? Renee’s costume looks like a regal king’s outfit. She has a spotted leopard mantle that was the original King Cole’s, and a purple crown lined with gold and jewels that was also the original King’s. Her staff is also his, primarily gold with a large diamond on top of it. The rest of her costume was paid for by Professor Armitage, and includes a pair of weighted heeled boots, fitted pants under a thigh length skirt, a doublet, and weighted gloves. She looks the part of a King but with enough mobility to not get all tangled up, and it’s made of materials that won’t break or tear easily, enhanced with magical fortification spells. How do you normally dress when not in costume? Renee wears loose fitting, oversized clothes that are usually white, black, or brownish, stuff that won’t stand out. She likes sweatshirts when she can get away with it, and keeps her hair in a messy bun. The King wears loud clothes; band shirts, tight jeans, studded belts and the like, letting her hair either fly free or pulling it into a tighter bun to not get in her way. What do you wear to bed most nights? Renee sleeps in her underwear. If the King was in control when she went to sleep, she doesn’t sleep in anything. Do you wear any special jewelry? What is it, and what does it look like? Renee doesn’t have special jewelry, but she has the special mantle, crown, staff and book she obtained from her Grandfather. The Book is basically just an old leather bound journal with some pages sticking out, but it’s extremely well preserved and magically warded to be extremely difficult to open without the key. Do you have a special place where you keep your valuables? Not particularly, but Renee does keep her King Cole vial of potion on her nightstand. What's your preferred means of local travel? How about long distance? Renee has a bicycle, while King Cole is able to drive a motorcycle, so they prefer those for local travel, or relying on the Freedom City bus routes for longer distances within the city if they need to. Miscellaneous Have you ever made a will, or tried to make arrangements for your death? What provisions did you make? Renee does not have any of those, King Cole thinks she will never die. If your features were to be destroyed beyond recognition, is there any other way of identifying your body? Not really, Renee doesn’t have any metal pins or anything like that in her body, so if she was just a pile of meat, she’d look like most other piles of meat if she wasn’t in her costume. What would you like to be remembered for after your death? Renee wants to be remembered for creating a positive legacy for King Cole, making people remember it as a good thing for the city, making people remember her Grandfather as someone who brought smiles to children. If she can do that, then she’d be happy to die. Do you believe you pose a threat to the public? Why or why not? Renee only poses a threat to the public in that she might yell so loud she deafens their eardrums. She’s mostly harmless, just loud and obnoxious. It could be considered that she’s a threat due to the revisioning of the King Cole legacy, but the original King Cole is dead and she disavows any association to King Cole II and would actively oppose him if he came back, so even if that was a threat, she’d help resolve it herself. What do you perceive as your greatest strength? Renee’s greatest strength is that she refuses to be put down; she’ll generally always get back up and try again, no matter how hard she gets beaten down, and will try to keep that positive attitude no matter what happens; she moves through life too fast to be torn down. What do you perceive as your greatest weakness? Renee’s greatest weakness is how much she talks and her tendency to get distracted; she’s likely going to monologue during a combat almost constantly, which means it’s all too easy for someone to sucker punch her and get the drop on her, which is a bad thing when you aren’t an invulnerable paragon but are instead a fragile human being. As a player, if you could, what advice would you give your character? Speak as if he/she were sitting right here in front of you. Use proper tone so they might heed your advice... I think Renee should try and realize that King Cole isn’t any different from her, which may be hard, but I also think that she should think about why she wants to be a hero besides just reclaiming the legacy of her Grandfather. No matter if her grandfather was a hero or a villain, you can’t be a hero if your only reason for being one is for the sake of a dead man’s memory. She needs to determine why she’s going to be a Hero, and what it means to be one, and then go from there.

King Cole III Origin Story: A Lucky Accident Another miserable summer vacation. Renee hated it. She never did anything important during the summer. Outside, below her window, a summer party was being thrown for the block. The same kind her grandfather would do. But she just couldn’t bring herself to do it, to go out and have fun and enjoy herself, it made her terrified instead, scared of being seen, of being visible and uncomfortable. It wasn’t the best way to live up to being part of her family, who had always prided themselves on being outgoing and cheerful, but it was all she could do. So she watched from her room. Wishing that she could do and be more, be a part of her family again. Instead she lived up to the other aspect of her family history; the creation of fairy tale stories. She was working on several right now, spread across the three screens of her laptop; on one she was composing the songs, on another she was writing the dialogue, on the third she was designing props; to her, the entire creative process was one long sequence between her and what was inside her head begging to come out; that was another reason she always felt so constricted by her uncomfortableness in social situations. She wanted to share these with others and participate in them, but was locked inside her own worries, so she never ended up feeling like she was getting anywhere. Her phone went off and she checked it, a request from her dad to go bring something up from downstairs. She didn’t mind stuff like that, it was the least she could do, and it at least forced her to get a little bit of time outside of the house; she couldn’t do much more than that, but it was something to do, something to try and get better. She just had to take it slow. So she left the safety of her room and descended down into the basement, towards the back where there was a giant freezer where her dad left food marinating for backyard barbecues. He had wanted the chicken, dry brined with salt to crisp up the skin, so she swung the door open, grabbed the platter, and stepped back, turning to head back up the stairs. But she missed the step, carrying the heavy tray and not being able to look comfortably where she was walking, and her foot slipped off the stairs. She went down, the platter of chicken going flying, as she threw out her hands and tried to grab something to hold onto. Her hands hooked a notch on a pipe running through the top of the basement ceiling and then there was a click as she hung in the air, then a jerk as it dropped. “Oh no!” she yelped, certain she’d just pulled the water main or sewer main to the house and she was about to get doused in water and cause a thousand dollars or more of damage. But nothing happened. “...Uh..” Then there was a click, and a portion of the wall slowly slid away, revealing a secret room. Renee continued to be baffled by all of this as she dropped down. “What is happening?” she asked as she brushed herself off reflexively, walking towards the room and peering in. Her eyes went wide as she stared at the treasures inside. A royal outfit of purple with a leopard skin mantle, a brilliant crown of gold studded with gems, a staff tipped with a diamond. Books filled shelves next to jars of herbs, insects, and powders. A heavy layer of dust was visible on all the objects, clearly not used in years, maybe decades, and she slowly crept inside, looking around in wonder at everything inside. Her hands- trembling with confusion and excitement- reached out and touched the outfit, feeling how it didn’t feel worn or torn at all despite how old it clearly was. She ran her fingers along the dusty spines of books, revealing titles speaking of magic and mystery. The Real Spells of King Arthur, The Witch’s Grimoire, Giants and Ganders; An Intermediate Guide to Biological Manipulation. “...What is this place?” she mumbled, peering through the dust. Her hand landed upon a much smaller book; a journal bound in purple with pages sticking out. She carefully popped the lock and opened it to the end, the very last entry. “With my beautiful daughter Aurora being born, I find little desire to go back to crime. With Rapunzel’s job providing for us, I can put on as many plays for the kids as I want. While Augustus asked me to help him recently, I had no issues turning him down; I simply don’t need it anymore. For well and true, King Cole has drifted off to Neverland, and he can reign there forever more. Cole King has his own throne, and he’s not leaving it anytime soon.” “...King Cole? That supervillain?” she mumbled. She knew King Cole II; the dark skinned criminal mastermind and his fable gang. She had vaguely heard about there being a first one- obviously, there can’t be a II without a I-, but she didn’t know too much about it. Was this his lair? In her house? And his daughter was Aurora, and his wife was Rapunzel. It didn’t exactly take a genius to put this together, and Renee wasn’t the kind of person to pretend she didn’t put it together. “...My grandfather was King Cole, huh?” She mumbled, starting to flip through the pages. Her eyes were assaulted by scribbles and rumbles. Complaints about The Raven inter-spaced with brand new potions and totems and tinctures, mystical rituals alongside visions for plays and grand stages to produce shows for children that the banks wouldn’t fund, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. She didn’t read them all yet, she just absorbed the existence of them, seeing everything that her grandfather had done, that he’d done it all for kids; she had the home movies of him telling stories and putting on plays for kids, and now she could see the whole thing, that even when he was a supervillain, everything was always done for the kids. Her grandfather hadn’t been evil, he’d just been a good man in a bad situation. The Grandfather she’d never gotten to meet; that she had been born a decade after he died, that she could only see him through the screen. She wanted to be like him. She was going to be like him. She looked at the crown and the scepter and the mantle and frowned, holding the book to her chest. “...King Cole deserves better than to be a laughing stock of a villain.” she decided.

Hub page for King Cole III extras.

King Cole III in: Advice for Marriage It was a pretty colonial house, a heavy wooden frame, a wrap-around porch, two balconies. It was designed by one of the richest men in New Jersey before the Revolutionary War, but not finished till after. It’d passed through the hands since, usually one of the richest people in the greater Freedom Area. In the 1970s, it was designated a historical site, and the then owner had opened it up to bookings; instead of living there, it was repaired and sold as an event area. Marriages, High School Reunions, graduation parties, and more were all held at the newly designated Revolutionary Heights, with its opulent building structure and lavish gardens, hanging out over a cliff face to the rocks below. And Renee was here for her sister’s wedding, and while she could bury herself in her books usually, she did still have to participate. Her sister had chosen a purple cream color for their dresses; Renee was at least not expected to be the maid of honor, but she was part of the maids. At the end, thankfully, the one that people didn’t really notice. It was a fun experience for the teenage King, possibly completely at odds with how she usually acted, but it was easy to understand why when a little thought was put into it; she loved her sister and she loved celebrations, but hated being the center of attention. By being put at the very end of the Maids and not being the one getting married, she got to participate in the party but not be the center of it, cheerfully existing on the outskirts of the party and enjoying the aspects. Renee was taking a turn with the video camera right now, walking around the party and getting recordings of the party guests and at times their well-wishes. Again; as long as they weren’t talking to her, as long as she wasn’t the center of attention, she could handle all of this pretty easily. She brought the camera around to the edge of the cliff where her oldest sister- who had already gotten married a few years ago- was sitting under an awning looking out over the water with a smile as she ate some food carefully to avoid staining the dress, bringing the camera close to her. “Do you have anything to say to Jeanne?” Renee asked. Hailey turned to the camera and smiled. “I wish her all the happiness in the world.” she said simply. “Marriage is great when you want it, and if you enjoy it, it’s something worth fighting for. But she’s always been a fighter, so I’m sure that even if times get tough, she’ll fight for what she wants.” “That’s not really enthusiastic, shouldn’t it just be like ‘Marriage is great, you’re gonna do great, you two are so in love’ or something?” Renee asked. “Of course I believe in all of that. But sometimes there’s hard times too, and during those times you want to hear someone believes in you at that point too, not just when things were going good; so if everyone else is going to give them well wishes about how wonderful and perfect being married is, I’m going to tell them that even when it’s hard, it’s never impossible as long as you’re willing to fight for it.” she responded cooly, smiling. “So even when it’s tough, or hard, you should fight for what you want; there’s nothing worth fighting for that’s easy, and there’s nothing so tough you can’t beat it.” she declared strongly. Renee frowned and paused the camera, trying to figure out what she should think about the way her sister was talking. “...is that a reasonable thing to put in a video like this?” Renee asked. “I think it’s good. Nothing worth having is easy, that’s just the truth. Good grades, a cute boy or girl, following your dreams. All that stuff is going to be hard. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be worth anything.” Hailey responded. “You should figure out what you’re willing to fight for, Renee. There’s no use going through this life without doing anything. The world is going on with or without you, you know. No one is going to open the door and ask you to join the crowd, or pull you out of line into adventure. You have to make those choices yourself.” “...That’s really heavy.” Renee mumbled. How did she feel about that? How did King Cole feel about that? King Cole was always just doing what she wanted. Was that a flaw in Renee, that it required King Cole to do the things she wanted to do? Was there an investment into being King Cole that she was still not willing to do- something in her Grandfather’s book she hadn’t broached- because she was scared? Her sister’s words, spoken so frankly, were rattling her a little. It was all stuff that had been said a hundred times before in movies and books and tv shows, but having your eldest sister say them verbatim to your face was a crack in the armor. “You just got into that new school, didn’t you. So why don’t you try acting out instead of acting in. Do something dangerous, exciting. It’s hard to do, I know, it’s easier just to ignore it, it’s easy to be in your routines, you’ll get anxiety and you’ll get scared and you’ll fear what would happen if you fail, how stupid you’d look if it didn’t work out, but sometimes that happens.” Hailey sighed. “Sorry. I shouldn’t be so rough on you. You’ll figure yourself out, Renee. You just need a little more time. Not everyone can be like those teen heroes on the web, so don’t feel so bad that you don’t measure up to them yet.” She smiled. “Now then, don’t you have more people to record?” “...Yeah.” Renee said, picking up the camera and going back out, heading towards the crowds again. She wasn’t sure what had gotten into her sister, but it had left her with her own concerns and frustrations now, her own feelings. Trying something dangerous or socially risky seemed hard, but maybe if Renee couldn’t do it, the King could. She had a pretty good idea of something she could do, at the least, something that would really put the shock into people. She knew exactly who to ask, the most handsome boy in school. She’d show them all up.

Golden Star in: One Year of Training FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE The machine blared. Michael groaned as he pushed himself back to his knees. The holographic copy of Sentry Draco sputtered, then disappeared. Another loss, another failure. Michael sighed, wiping sweat off his brow and walking over to where his water and backpack were. He sat down for a moment, drinking water and thinking. Michael had been fighting for simulator time for ages; he was in here as often as he could be without sacrificing his grades or other commitments. And when he came in here, he mostly lost. But that was the point. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A copy of a former student from the school, named Megastar. His fists hit Michael like falling stars, battering him unconscious after just a few minutes of slugging it out with the silver skinned, muscle bound warrior FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A copy of Parker. He had no issues stalling out Michael, grabbing him from halfway across the room and holding him until the Golden Boy passed out. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE Croconada. Without Blackstaff’s help, he was entangled in the creature’s massive, heavy coils, then bitten in half. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A tank brigade. Just like the last time, a shell exploding right next to his face sent him to the dirt, and then the machine guns opened up on him, riddling him with lead. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE An intergalactic, red skinned warlord. He couldn’t even scratch the creature, who lifted him up in one giant hand and brought him down on his knee, breaking Michael’s back. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A giant robot mummy. Though he dazed it with a punch, the creature was simply too large and too strong, sending him flying with a hard slap through several buildings. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE The Maestro. Just like before, his mastery over sonic powers crushed Michael, ripping open his eardrums and tearing through his flesh with just the violent pressure of sound. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A giant Brain and a mysterious apparition it summoned, using psychic powers and pure physical force to take down Michael, his lasers not able to scratch the creature, his blows missing wide, no matter how much effort he put into them. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A group of experienced shark mercenaries. Weaker than him, but intelligent, well trained. Able to take advantage of his weaknesses, able to strategize around him and take him down, chomping him with razor sharp teeth, shooting him with guns and missiles. Over and over again, Michael went to train. He practiced against things he had no hope of beating, things that had beaten him. He never tried anything easy, he never took quick wins. He sharpened himself entirely against people who either had bested him, or he had almost no chance of winning against. Every day that he could get away with it, he went to work training. He’d had superpowers for a little over a year at this point. He’d gotten a little stronger. He’d found friends and people to work with. For most people- even for Michael before he’d gotten his powers-, that would be plenty. That would be enough. It wasn’t enough anymore. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE A red skinned woman throwing ice spikes, an armored warrior with a polearm and shield. He was utterly unable to break through the armored warrior’s shield and armor, unable to catch the snow woman, torn to shreds by the woman’s icey manipulations and ground into the dust by the resilience of the armored man. FUNCTION TERMINATED; FAILURE A red skinned, slender man whose power outclassed Michael’s own, easily absorbing his punishing blows and hurling him bodily through the air like he was a feather, a complete demolishing of the Claremont student. FUNCTION TERMINATED: FAILURE Agents of the Powerhouse; using powers like his, stolen from him, copied based on him. A new version of the serum he was using, a lesser version, but it didn’t matter, because he still couldn’t match them. Fighting hard but still overwhelmed. He had somewhere to be in a few hours, in the cold December snow and dark. A New Years party at his parent’s house; he’d invited several of his Claremont friends and Carmen, and he couldn’t be late to his own New Years party, that’d just be weird. They were going to walk the streets after, head down to the park and watch the fireworks over the Century River. It was going to be cold but fun, wrapped up in blankets and jackets, just enjoying a night to be teenagers instead of superheroes. But Michael didn’t ever really turn it off. Others probably did, but just as many might not like him. But Michael didn’t. Always thinking of how to be better, always thinking of how to do better. Thinking of how to get stronger, how to get faster. How to do more. It was never really enough. He’d just have to try harder. He had stepped out of the Doom Room to take a break now, looking up at the moon, visible on the night, and he sighed. He wanted to try that. He’d not managed to get that far before. Paradigm could clear that distance in a few seconds, and go further beyond that. He felt like a snail in comparison sometimes. But could he at least get there? Michael floated up into the sky, slowly at first, but then faster. He flew directly up, his cape trailing behind him, leaving a trail of starlight and fire. He looked like a Firework released early across the city, a sparkling, single flare shooting into the sky on a trail of light. He went up and he went faster, pushing himself against the strain of how much he could will himself on. He felt himself hit the top of the atmosphere, and pushed past it, his eyes fixed on the moon, fixed on at least one small step of progress. He ignored that he flew past the Lighthouse, twisted his way through the fields of space debris without touching it to avoid setting off Kessler Syndrome. He wasn’t ‘ascending’ anymore, because he’d left the earth behind. He was just ‘flying’. He barely disturbed the moon dust as he came to a stop a few inches from the surface. He landed slowly, his feet sinking into the fine grained surface of moon sand. He closed his eyes. He couldn’t breathe, but he let nothing wash over him. The soundless void of empty space. He was the only person around for thousands of miles, on a New Year’s Eve, when people were with their families or finishing up their last work of the year, Michael Adon was standing on the surface of the moon. He felt the sun warming his eyeballs and opened them, staring at the burning star at the center of the solar system. It was oddly comforting to see it, like a sibling he didn’t see very often. His own powers were so like it, after all, like a sun trapped in his chest. Sometimes it felt good to just bask in it. The Sun didn’t respond to its ‘little brother’. But of course it wouldn’t. Michael had to think, had to exist. The Sun simply did as it always had. To do what needed to be done without thinking about it, to succeed without concern. The Sun wasn’t really alive, but Michael assigned human traits to it; a serious creature that did its job and had no issues in doing so. Something he’d like to be, something he could look up to. A coping mechanism, really. “...New Year, new challenges.” Michael mumbled to himself. He didn’t need to breathe, but he could talk in space. “This year’ll be better. I’ll make it better. No more constantly losing. No more being a burden. I’m going to succeed this year. Golden Star is going to be a winner. I will let others rely on me, and I will meet those expectations.” he declared to himself and the burning star that he was looking at, like he was emblazing those words on the surface of the boiling constellation. He looked out into the expanse of space; at twinkling stars and far away locales. “I’m going to succeed and show Velocity and the others why I would be good for the League. I’m going to prove I’m worth it, and prove I can help. I’m going to be like Paradigm and The Centurion.” he said to himself. “And there’s no time for failure. I can’t fail, because no one needs a failure.” He floated up off the surface of the moon, spinning in a circle as he looked around in all directions, seeing the massive expanse of stars and planets that stretched to infinity. He had a lot of work to do, a lot of people to protect and a lot of people relying on him. So he couldn’t afford to slow down. He took off back to Earth with renewed vigor.

it was decided that Angelic will take a HP to go second, giving her two points. He's attacking! Attack Roll Results 1d20+10: 19 [1d20=9] That might be a hit, and if it is it's a DC 29 Toughness on Angelic! Typhon- Angelic- 2HP

That's good enough! Typhon does not try to crush her skull in a surprise round! Stealth Results 1d20+10: 25 [1d20=15] Time for Initiative! Initiative Results 1d20+6: 8 [1d20=2]

(GM Post) The Scientist seemed extremely concerned at this sequence of events, gulping actively in terror. "You can't, you can't do...that..." he seemed terrified, confused, any number of things. "You...you're going to die like that." he finally managed to say, completely unsure what else to even say in response to Angelic's actions. "...You're going to die." he repeated, baffled. "SHE IS, BUT NOT FOR THAT." Yelled another voice as a shell of psychic energy forced it's way inside the room in the shape of a 4 armed, yeti like creature, surrounding Typhon like armor as he forced his way through the door and suddenly the room got much, much smaller now that there were three people in the single room and one had a shell of even larger armor around it. "YOU WANT TO BREAK INTO OUR SHIP!? YOU WANT TO RUIN OUR PLANS!? I'M GONNA RIP YOU TO SHREDS." He roared, moving his hand to make one of the giant arms smash into the wall and leave an imprint. He moved surprisingly fast, or maybe it was just an assumption that someone that much of a brute couldn't be fast. But Typhon had the speed to go with his brute force, and those four giant fists opened into razor sharp claws as he swung them at Angelic; they might be psionic projections, but they would rip and tear a person to shreds in an instant, and Typhon was trained to strike to kill.

notice roll please!

(GM Post) Ronove chuckled. He really did seem to be having fun. Especially here. Maybe he was really enjoying getting to pretend to be a devil while showing off his devilish powers on stage. "Oh yes, Oh yes. I am Lucifer Morningstar, the greatest of all fallen angels, the mightiest of all demons. I was the right hand of God, and when I rebelled I took a third of the heavenly host with me. My tail is as long as the galaxy, my mouth is the darkness between stars. I have reigned in hell rather then live in heaven, betrayed all and any. I will give you your hearts desire, and all you must do is make a deal with me. And with each deal I grow stronger and stronger." he smiled, gesturing with his cane. "I am here only because I have been asked so politely by Zombo to appear, and here I offer you all happiness, without fail, without strings. I bring Joy, so that you may have happiness unending." he laughed, and threw a handful of brilliant vials into the stands. "Drink up, drink up, be happy and joyous. Satan Himself, Lucifer Morningstar, long may he reign, gives you happiness and joy." he smiled and leaned back in his chair. "I've brought joy and misery in equal measure, but I find in my old age I seek only to bring happiness."