Thevshi

Tsunami shielded her eyes from the explosion that Crow triggered, before she focused back on the captive creature as it began crying out that it was surrendering. She maintained the sphere of solid water around the creature as it shapeshifted to resemble Darren. Edge began talking with it, identifying it as a Grue. The real Darren naturally went over to yell at the alien that had taken his appearance. While he tried questioning it, the Asian teen looked over towards Edge and Crow. "If the Grue was just seeking a place to hide, then we still do not know who planted the bomb. Unless it was the fake headmaster, there could still be another robot."

Giang Trang looked up at the large building in front of her and her classmate. The Asian teen could sense the massive amounts of water located inside, which was of course of little surprise. She was dressed in a simple pair of jeans, a white V-neck shirt and a light coat, not at all bothered by the cool early afternoon weather. As was typical for her, Giang demeanor was relaxed and calm, almost serene. It had not been long following the events of the Day of Wrath that the Asian teen had been able to refocus and recenter herself, meditating slightly more frequently than normal, sometimes with Mali, but often on her own. Having only been at Claremont a little over three weeks now, this was the first opportunity that Giang had had to spend any time with Kat outside of the few classes they had together. She looked over at the other teen as she asked, "So Kat, any thoughts on where we should begin?"

GM Monday, January 28, 2013 1:30 PM Freedom Aquarium stood on its own pier along the city's Waterfront district, a large three story building that also included a walled-in area beneath the pier to serve as a habitat for the various marine animals that called the aquarium home. Despite being early afternoon on a weekday, the aquarium was fairly busy, a number of school groups and mothers with young children making up the majority of the crowds at the moment. Out in front of the main entrance to Freedom Aquarium, Katharine "Kat" Shade and Giang Trang made their way off of the public bus that had brought them from Bayview. The two teenagers were students at the Claremont Academy and had been sent to the aquarium as part of a report they had to work on together for biology.

The OOC for this thread. Because we are at the point where we will need it :)

Racking his brain, Harry was certain he had heard the name of the law firm before, even though they were based on the opposite side of the country. He had a feeling that he had seen it in passing, associated with a number of foreign business deals, and also in connection with the firm defending someone being investigated by the SEC, or was it the Justice Department, or both? Mr. Ling gave another faint smile at Harry's encouraging statements, and the issue of payment when the rumpled private eye brought the issue up. "Payment will not be an issue Mr. Hound." The attorney stated. "I trust a ten thousand dollar retainer will be sufficient for you and your partner to begin?" "But as for the subject of the investigation," he then went on, "as I said, it is a very delicate matter. One that could cause a man of Mr. Zhou's status a great deal of embarrassment and loss of face should it become widely known, particularly among his business partners or rivals." "Mr. Zhou's youngest daughter has run away. We believe there is the possibility she is here in Freedom City. We are hiring you and your partner to help locate the young lady, so that we may ensure she is returned safely home."

Velocity looked over at Warp and once again had an inward sigh. Well, your clearly doing a great job here Megan. She thought to herself as she decided it might be best to try something different. "But that is the answer to how I deal with having the responsibility of doing what we do." She said to the younger heroine. "But perhaps you're not asking me the right question, or if you did, I did not hear it right. I guess what you really want to know is how do I deal with the guilt and remorse of seeing someone die?" The speedster reached up with her right hand and gently took a hold of the upper part of Warp's left arm. "I can talk about that, but first, let me ask you Warp. How are you dealing with what you saw the other day?"

After Angus had talked about meeting parents and her and Amir still taking their time, the taller woman had focused on her cake. Picking up the hint, Megan simply took some drinks of coffee while eating her own cake. Angus had been right, it was divine. The blonde young woman looked up as Angus talked about never imagining herself in Freedom City. But before she could answer, the chaotic scene outside the coffee shop began to unfold. Megan had to hold herself in check to keep from instantly reacting. When she saw the second figure land, she instantly recognized him from an incident back in December. Just great, him again. She thought to herself as she glanced over at Angus, unsure how she was going to get away from this to try to do something about Bonebreaker.

GM Almost as if to prove Angus' words, a glowing man in a silver and red costume suddenly came streaking over the street outside the coffee shop, before slamming into a parked car and smashing the front windshield and crumpling the top. The glowing man was pushing himself back up upright when another figure landed in the middle of the street, the pavement cracking slightly under his feet from the impact of his landing. The newcomer stood a little over six foot three, with an imposing build. He was dressed in a dark green bodysuit that had a black V shape that extended down the front and back of the costume, and the suit was cut so his thick arms were bare. He had long black hair, which was pulled back into a ponytail. Bringing his fists up in front of him, he looked over at the figure on the hood of the parked car. "That's right! Get back up so I can knock you down again!" He yelled.

OOC for this thread.

Ricky had glanced around a couple of times as he and Lucy made their way over towards two empty seats at the bar. But apparently did not see anything that alarmed him, as he seemed to relax, ever so slightly as they sat down. The bartender came over to take the drink orders from Lucy and then made his way back down the bar to start preparing them. "You're looking for someone?" Ricky repeated back as Lucy generally explained what information she was looking for. "I..I'm not sure I would know how to find someone, but I guess I'd be willing to try to help. What exactly to you think I might know?"

Letting in the Asian gentleman, Harry could now see that he appeared to be in his mid-thirties. His dark grey suit appeared to be quite expensive, and was impeccable condition. He glanced around the room briefly before focusing back on Harry. "Thank you." He replied in perfect English. "Mr. Hound I presume?" He followed the rumpled private eye over towards the indicated desk, casting something of a disdainful glance at the debris that Harry casually swept from the desktop. But he still took the indicated seat, offering a faint smile. "My name is Daniel Ling. I am an attorney representing the interests of a client of my firm." He leaned forward slightly and offered Harry a business card. Glancing at the card, Harry saw Mr. Ling's contact information under the name of the law firm, Watkins & Berkshire. The address listed was in San Francisco. "My client, Mr. Zhou, is a prominent business man in Singapore, and he wishes to retain your services for a very delicate matter."

Megan Howell was currently sitting at an open desk in the APAC markets section. The young blonde was an intent with the economics group a couple of floors above, but she had spent much of the day going over the numbers for a large equity deal being put together by Summit's Mumbai office. That had required her to work with a number of the Indian market specialist, so it had made more sense for her to work on things here where she could more easily ask any questions she might have had. While not the first late night Megan had had since starting her internship two weeks ago, the events from a few days earlier, what the press was calling the Day of Wrath, had her feeling more exhausted than she might have normally been. She had been very busy as Velocity that day and the events of that day were still wearing on her. But while she had had an excuse for missing work that day, after all, she HAD almost been caught in the crossfire of a gang war in the Fens, she could not really justify not coming into work the following days. Dressed in a black knee length skirt and white silk shirt, the attractive blonde stood out some among the mostly male traders on the floor at this time of night. But her attention was fixed on the computer screen in front of her as she made one last check of the pro forma numbers for the transaction that was part of a massive excel spreadsheet financial model. Of course, Megan could have been done everything in a fraction of the time, but that would naturally have raised far too many questions. So, she had forced herself to work at a more normal speed, though she had used a bit of superspeed to double check things as she worked. "Okay Naajy," she said into her phone, speaking with one of the employees at the Mumbai office working on the deal. "The pro forma is done and everything looks good." She saved the excel file one last time before exiting the program. "It's saved in the project financial folders on the shared drive, so you can access it now. I will be back in another seven hours or so, so if you all find anything you think needs changing, you will be able to reach me before you leave for the day." After saying goodbye, the young woman hung up her phone and leaned back in her chair, letting out a small sigh of relief as she was finished for the night. Thankfully her apartment was not too far away, and she would be able to get at least five, maybe six hours of sleep before she came back in to the office.

Early February, 2013 10:30 AM The day had started out slow for Fred Furlong and Harry Hound of the Bloodhound detective agency. Harry was stuck filling out some paperwork for the police relating to one of the pair's recent cases and a little run in with a street gang. Meanwhile, Fred had been sitting around on the battered old sofa in the office watching some television. More than half the morning had already passed, and so far, they had nothing new to fill their day. It was just then that the buzzer for front door rang. Looking over, the two private detectives saw a Asian, or Asian American gentleman standing patiently at the front door dressed in a dark grey suit.

“That is often a hard lesson to learn. Like I said before, I wish you did not have to learn it so soon.†Velocity replied with a sympathetic look. “As for how I deal with the pressure of responsibility, well, it’s not easy. But, I long ago realized that I would regret anything that happened because I did not even try more than the things I may fail to prevent or that were beyond my control. I find ways to deal with the guilt and remorse I feel when those things happen, but I know that if I just stop or give up, countless more will happen that I could have stopped.â€

Megan smiled at well as Angus commented about the risqué nature of her comment. The blonde gave a dismissive wave. "Well, we're modern women, so, no shame." She then turned to the other part of Angus' comment regarding Amir. "Well, it wouldn't be that bad, I don't regularly see much of him at the office really. I mean, he's there a lot, but usually in meetings or on conference calls, and even if he isn't in, he is off doing something work related." "I think what would make a double date in any way uncomfortable is the fact he has known my parents for so long." The blonde then paused a moment, before adding, "okay, to the extent that might sound in any way judgmental or something, I certainly did not mean it in that way." The two young women soon had their coffee orders, as well as pieces of the divine cake the shop was famous for, and had taken seats near the front window of the shop.

Giang gave a small nod to Blodeuwedd as she mentioned staying a bit behind her and Mali. The Asian teen would readily admit she was not as stealthy as the other two teens. Trying to stay alongside them would likely only serve to increase the chance of detection. Though, there was another possibility. "I agree, I would only serve to hinder you. But, perhaps I could make my approach in the water?" The teen stated, looking over towards the dark water nearby. "It is less likely that anyone would be watching for someone to approach that way." In either event, Giang prepared herself to make her way down after the other two, either waiting awhile for them to move ahead, or to make her way towards the water.

Giang nodded as the interpreter near her and Cerys explained what would happen with most of the jungle people know. Once they had arrived at the campsite, she made her way to the gathering that John had called for. The Asian teen listened as John explained the evidence and what he believed to be taking place. She certainly agreed that it seemed likely, the idea of setting ones enemies against each other until they were both too weakened to put up resistance was indeed a classic strategy. It was a bit disappointing when the gathered Incans and Romans proceeded to start trying to blame each other for trying to frame the other. Finally Lord Zandar silenced the debate, and everyone began discussing the Serpent People, but dismissing the possibility that they could have been behind the attack. "Are you so certain that they could not have recovered?" Giang asked when the representatives from both groups had spoke. "Or perhaps they are being aided by some outside power?" When Lady Korzeel spoke up about needing an impartial group to investigate who was behind the attack, the Asian teen glanced over towards the others, and particularly John. While she was more than willing to offer her assistance, she was not about to commit the group to such a course, given she had only come to Claremont only a few days before this trip.

Ricky regarded Lucy for a moment, his expression still very nervous and jittery. "Umm, nothing really I guess." He then responded as he started back towards the door to the bar alongside Lucy. Despite his nervousness, he actually held the door open to allow Lucy in first before following after. Inside the door, Lucy found the bar to be dimly lit, filled with smoke and noise from various conversations and an old, beat up jukebox located along one wall. The right hand side of the large room had a sunken floor, making it about four feet lower than the rest of the bar. There was a pool table down there, and an empty space where there looked to have been another pool table at one point. The bar was located up on the main section of the room, straight ahead from the front door that Lucy and Ricky had just entered through. A number of heads turned slightly to regard the newcomers, and many lingered a bit longer than they might, as Lucy was one of the few women in the bar that was not working there.

Velocity gave an inward sigh as she listened to the teenager, fearing the conversation was getting a little beyond her depth. "Warp," she began when the younger heroine finished, "first off, I have to say that the other day, you and your friends had to deal with a situation far more serious than anything I faced in my early years and more than was fair for you to be expected to deal with. I wish it had not been the case, but, well, it happened, so what anyone may have wanted doesn't really matter at this point." "But you cannot blame yourself for what happened. I have read some witness reports, from that incident and others. Those robot duplicates fooled lots of people, people very close to the real individuals, so it should be of little surprise that once they were set off, they caught so many people unprepared. You had no way of knowing what was about to happen." "What you're feeling now, and what I am sure you felt to some degree then as well, is completely understandable reaction to seeing such a traumatic event. In fact, the moment you can see something like what happened that day and not feel anything is probably the day you should consider hanging up your costume for good." "But as far as being a hero, I want you to think about what you did do that day, even after seeing people killed by someone you thought was a friend. You could have frozen up, or run away, but you didn't. You took a lot of bystanders to the hospital, some wounded, some not, and yes, some were already dead. But you did not stop there. You went back to the scene, and helped stop the robot. Then, when I finally got there, you did not take the opportunity to just go where it was safe until the crisis was over, you wanted to go out and do whatever you could to help prevent further deaths, and you did that. We will never know what might have happened if you and the others had not gone and dealt with those transmitters when you did, and I certainly won't try to say one life is worth more than another, but you do know that when you needed to, you were able to preserver in the face of a crisis, and that's not something everyone can do." The speedster paused a brief moment, and then continued. "But now the crisis is over, and you have to deal with the emotions of what happened and what you saw. As I said before, what you're having to deal with is much more than anything I did early on in my costumed identity. But I think you have some advantages over me. Back then, I had no one to talk to about my failures, or even my triumphs. Not my parents, not my friends, no one. Well, I suppose I could have talked to some of those people, but rightly or wrongly, I didn't, and kept what I was doing secret. So I had to try to work though it all on my own. You have your friends that were there with you that day, you have other students at Claremont, as well as your teachers there. I would imagine they have provided counselors for all of you to talk with, and you should. And you have me as well, for whatever that is worth. I cannot promise I will always be immediately able to talk, but I will try to get back to you as soon as I can."

"Luckily we are not particularly close to it at the moment." Tsunami replied to Crow's comment about getting clear from the creature once they contained it. Once again the Asian teen felt a feeling of confidence come over her as the older hero indicated what needed to be done and that they would be able to do their parts. Focusing back on the creature and the damage it had caused to Adamas' barrier, the teenager decided it was time to change tactics and try to help the other teen in keeping the creature contained. The hand that was extended, keeping in place the thin layer of water that had failed to trip up the creature then pulled back, closing slightly as she did so. The water around the creature then flowed towards it, quickly forming a solid sphere around it, helping to further contain it. "Hopefully that will help hold it until Crow arrives."

Velocity watched Warp as the younger girl hesitated for a few moments trying to deal with apparent nerves. The speedster kept her friendly smile in place, hoping to reassure the other girl. When Warp finally asked a question, it was not quite the one Velocity had been expecting. While in her Velocity costume, Megan's normal reaction would have been to make a joke or an otherwise lighthearted response. But right now she had a feeling that Warp was looking for something more than that, not that Megan would not try to lighthearted when she could if it could help the younger girl, who apparently was still dealing with the events from a few days earlier. "Well, that is not exactly an easy question to answer." The speedster began, keeping her smile in place. "I mean, it was not like I just flipped a switch one day and decide this was what I wanted to be doing with my life. And unlike some others that are in this business, I did not have some tragedy that befell me or my family that I sought out to avenge nor do I have some past that I want to make amends for." "I think if I boil it down, I like being able to help people, it’s something my parents instilled in me growing up, though what they had in mind certainly wasn’t this. In the process of doing that, I came to the realization that I could do things that not many can and that I had something of an obligation in how I used those abilities." "But I did not come to those realizations right away. You're about sixteen right?" Velocity asked as she focused on Warp. "Well, I was younger than that when I gained my powers, and let me tell you, suddenly being able to run as fast as a race car, and do a week's worth of homework and chores in no time flat was exciting. But at the same time my life then was rather, well, regimented, and I felt as if I was under a lot of pressure, though most of that was of my own creation. So, I put together a costume." She held out arms in a small pose. "Well, it was cruder than this one of course, as it wasn't morphic molecules. And it was smaller, but it was still a costume, and it was a chance to be someone else, to be more carefree." "And while I was out just running around, I just seemed to come across things I could not ignore. A purse snatcher here, pulling someone out from in front of a car there. It was all just small things at first, but it felt good just the same. I was still not able to drive when I stopped my first bank robbery, and let me tell you, I was terrified, but somehow I did it, and no one was hurt. Well, maybe one or two of the bank robbers were, but none of the bystanders or employees. From there, things just seemed to continue to build." The speedster stopped a moment, regarding the younger heroine once again. "So, I didn't quite set out to do this, but I know why I keep doing it, and why I feel it is important." She paused another moment, and then grinned slightly. "And there is still a part of me that enjoys the thrill of racing around at several times the speed of sound and just causing some supercriminal a lot of trouble." She let the grin fade before she spoke again. "So, you having some second thoughts after the other day?"

Nice thread Ari. While I do agree generally with Supercape that crafting a thread to a particular character(s) can often create a much more meaningful story, I also believe a lot can be said by making a story that can handle just about anyone. So far I have been more focused on particular characters in the little GMing I have done since my return, but I hope to maybe start putting together some adventures that I open up for recruitment so to speak. We will see if that happens though. As you well know , I have plans for putting together threads revolving around Tsunami’ s enemies, which are all in Asia (though can certainly reach out to Freedom City to try to get her). So there will likely be a number of Asia supers involved in these threads, though more villains than heroes. Depending on how things go, it is always possible that Dr. Sin himself could show up! I certainly plan to be including other Claremont students in on these plans While I do not have anything specific planned at the moment, I have had thoughts about setting some threads in Europe. As my updated fluff for Velocity mentions, she spent a school years studying in England and was active in that country and other parts of Western Europe, so I might do some things tide to heroes and villains Velocity encountered during that time. I am sure I will come up with some other ideas over the next few months. As KD said, those are some very interesting ideas. For the first one, in addition to Assad and his employees (and possible some others such as Fenris), I could see King Cole II’s plans in the Fens causing him to run into SC’s new character Bloody Mess (and his sidekick/partner Hound).

"I would imagine there are very few other schools that teach even some of the courses offered here." Giang replied with a small smile. The Asian teen was quite a few moments as she thought about what else Mali had said before she spoke again. "I believe I understand the problems you had at your pervious school. But if things are different here, as you say, you are 'not a freak,' and you have friends and people that truly like you for who you are, then why are you still so concerned with what their reaction might be if they were to see your muscles while you swim?"

Tsunami will shift her array to creat object (solid water) and try to trap the space gorilla in a sphere of water. DC 20 reflex save to avoid.

A blur of yellow sped down the streets of Freedom City, as Velocity made her way into the Theater District. Earlier tonight she had gone with a couple of co-workers from Summit Transanational to happy hour at a local bar in the Wadding Way. The group had been smaller than was typically the case, and the bar a lot less busy that normal as well. As such, she had returned to her apartment over an hour ago, plenty of time for her to relax a little and then change into costume before heading off to meet with the Warp. The Claremont teen had contacted Velocity earlier in the day, asking if the speedster if she would be able to meet to talk that evening. Warp had been one of the Claremont students Velocity had met on the Day of Wrath, the group having dealt with one of the robot replacements of a fellow student at a political rally being held by Congressman Walsh. Velocity was not quite sure why the teenager wanted to talk with her, but recalled Warp as being somewhat shake up by the events of that day, but also one of the ones determined to get out and help when Velocity had offered them a mission in helping deal with the control boxes scattered around the city. So the two had arranged to meet up in the Theater District at 9 PM. So she still had a little over a mintue before she would be late, which was far more than the speedster needed. Velocity was glad to see that some semblance of normalcy had returned to the area, and particularly that the comedies were up and running again, as she had tickets for a musical comedy tomorrow evening. Running up the wall of the theater building Warp had indicated, the young woman came skidding to a halt, the heat and night vision in her goggles helping her quickly spot the teen who was already there. "Hey Warp!" She called out as she moved over at more normal speed. "I know I said it the other day, but you and the others did a great job with helping to deal with those control boxes and the war bots, not to mention stopping that robot duplicate." "So, what can I do for you?" The speedster then asked with a warm smile.