Thevshi

The OOC for this thread.

Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Republic of Kiribati [11] The bright moon shown down on the waters around the north shore of Kiritimati, or Christmas Island, as they gently lapped onto the long stretch of beach. The generally tranquil sounds of the still night air were briefly interrupted by a loud *WOOOSH*, as a yellow blur came ashore and skidded to a halt on the beach. Megan took a couple of deep breaths as she looked around the deserted beach. Wow, kinda warm here. The young speedster noted as she unzipped the front of her costume slightly to cool down a bit. Thought it was past eleven at night, it was still over seventy degrees. Though the small island atoll only had a population of about 5,600, it was one of the first inhabited locations to see the start of the New Year, so Megan had decided it would be a logical starting point. Her route from Freedom City had gone across the United States, through San Francisco, and then out across the ocean to Hawaii, from where she had headed south. Well, might as well take a bit of time to look around and see if there is anything going on as far as celebrations. The speedster thought before she started off at the rather more leisurely pace of a couple hundred miles an hour to loop around the perimeter of the island. A few minutes later she was running along a stretch of beach on the southwestern section of the island on which a small campfire was visible towards midway down. Thanks to the technology in the goggles she wore as Velocity, Megan could see about seven figures gathered around the campfire, the faint sound of music echoing up the beach. She could also see a ridged-hulled inflatable boat that had been pulled up onto the beach nearby. Well, this might be a good place to start. Megan thought to herself as she headed towards the campfire. She came to a sudden halt just inside the light of the campfire, between it and the ocean. She could now see that the group consisted of four men and three women who all appeared to be in their mid-late twenties. "Hey there, I’m Velocity." The speedster said with a small wave and a wide smile, hoping they spoke English. There was an initial moment of surprise to her sudden appearance, but then one of the men spoke up. "You’re that speedy girl who was with the Freedom League for awhile right?" "Yep, that's me. I'm currently on the reserve list." Velocity replied. "So, are you all from the States?" "Yeah, San Diego." Another of the men replied. "Here on a little surfing vacation." He added, indicating the boards they had lying nearby. "What are you doing way out here?" One of the women asked. "There isn't something going on around here is there?" "No, nothing bad going on at all." Velocity replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "It's just New Year's eve, and this is one of the first places that will be seeing the start of the New Year. So, here I am." She added with a smile. Her response got some chuckles from the group as the invited her to join them. Megan took a seat near the fire, but politely declined an offered beer, sticking with one of the bottles of water she had brought with her. Talking with the group, Megan learned that they all worked at various tech companies in the San Deigo area. They talked about some of the surfing trips they had made as a group, the present one being the most adventurous. Megan for her part told them a couple of stories of adventures she had had as part of the Freedom League (ones that she was allowed to talk about) and answered some of their questions about what it was like being able to move so fast. Even though Megan at times felt as if life dragged on at an incredibly slow pace, she found the present circumstances so very relaxing. It was just a group of friends hanging out on a beach in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, waiting to greet the start of a New Year. It was easy to just relax and get lost in the moment. Eventually midnight drew near, and Megan joined the others as they gathered together to watch the last moments of 2012 tick away. They all called the countdown of the last ten seconds of 2012, and Megan joined the joyous cries of "Happy New Year" as the last second ticked off. She joined in hugging the other women present, and kissing the men (very quick kisses, as she had gotten the distinct impression that there were at least two couples in the group). She then thanked the group for allowing her to join them in greeting the New Year, and promised to try to look them up sometime in La Jolla. With that, she was off, speeding up the beach away from the campfire. Once she had put a fair distance between her and the group, she made a sharp left turn towards the water and accelerated. There was a loud *CRACK*, followed by a faint *BOOM* which echoed across the beach as she broke the sound barrier, running across the surface of the water towards her next destination.

Freedom City, New Jersey [4] Megan stood at the windows of the dining room of her apartment drinking a cup of coffee as she looked out on the bright lights of the Wading Way that still glowed in the darkness of the early morning hour. Even at this early hour, the financial district of Freedom City seemed pulse with energy and excitement. In two days she would be starting her internship with Summit Transnational Group as part of her final semester at Yale, placing her squarely in the middle of that world. Taking another sip of coffee, Megan turned away from the scene outside her window and looked back at her new apartment. Though she and her mother were not quite done with the decorating, they had spent a good bit of time before Christmas at a number of furniture stores in town. So far Megan was very happy with the sleek, stylish and modern look they had gone with for her new furniture. Focusing on the dining table next to her, the young blonde looked at the various items she had laid out on top of it, mentally checking to confirm she had everything she thought she would need. Today was New Year's Eve, and while Megan was disappointed that she would not be able to spend New Year’s with her old friends Janet (who was down in Miami visiting her father) and Lisa (who was skiing at Whistler with her family), she was feeling excited about the alternate plan she had come up with. Of course, the plan had required Megan to lie to her mother about how she would be meeting some friends from Yale in Times Square in order to have an excuse for not attending the Midnight Society's New Year's party. It was not that Megan did not usually enjoy attending Midnight Society events, she was just feeling what she had in mind instead could be a lot of fun. Finishing up her coffee, she placed the empty cup into the sink in the kitchen before glancing up at the clock on the microwave. Well, probably time to be going. She thought, and in a blur of movement, she was gone from the kitchen, her passage stirring the top page of a newspaper sitting on the counter. A second later, she "reappeared" near the dining room table, dressed as Velocity. All the objects that had been on the table were gone, now inside a small backpack on her back. "Okay, time to ring in the New Year!" She said with a sly grin, and then, in another blur of movement, she was gone from the apartment.

Megan listened to the conversations around her, taking a few sips of her champagne. Though she was actually able to drink a fair bit before she started to suffer any real effects, the young woman still tended to drink moderately the majority of the time. She smiled slightly at Kristin's comment about Angus possibly having seen her in pictures with Jen and how some might be able to make that into a scandal. While Megan knew that there were some who might see it as such, she certainly was not one of them. She herself had been about Kristin's age when she had started dating college guys, and at least of couple of those early college boyfriends were likely at this party. As both Angus and Amir talked about their own negative experiences with the press, the blonde nodded slightly. "I agree with Angus and Amir. You can't let yourself dwell on what some in the press choose to say about you Kristin. While I know you certainly did not seek out any fame, it is still almost impossible to not have someone within the press that does not like you, for whatever reason, and will always write and report in accordance with their bias." "While not nearly on parr with present company," Megan continued, gesturing with her champagne glass to Angus, Amir and Kristin, "I had my own small experience with some British tabloids last year while I was in England. And all I did was date the son of an Earl."

Mindfire’s Initiative is a 12 Bonebreaker gets a 9

GM Voltage flew up into the air as a current of crackling electrical energy. He did not have to go far before he saw the source of the chaos. Two individuals were standing in an intersection a couple of blocks from his father's shop. The street around them was torn up, a small crater in the centre of the intersection and chunks of pavement scattered in every direction. A couple of cars were flipped over near the intersection, another car had its front end completely smashed in. Both individuals were clearly superpowered. The first was a large man in a sleeveless dark green body suit with a black V shape down the front of the suit. He was currently holding a car up above his head. The other was an attractive redheaded woman in a red and black skintight bodysuit. Ghostly flames seemed to swirl around her, and her eyes glowed with a yellow/orange light. On the sidewalk near the woman was a middle aged man who had been writing in pain as similar ghostly flames seemed to dance across his body. When Voltage called out to the pair, they both turned to regard him. The flames around the middle aged man on the sidewalk faded away, and he lay still. The large man dropped the car he had been holding up to the ground beside him. "Actually, we were waiting for someone like you to show up." The large man called out in return. "Though I was hoping for someone that would present more of a challenge." He took a few steps towards the middle of the street, still facing Voltage. "You want us to stop? Come make us!" He then yelled out, holding his hands out to his side as part of his challenge.

Megan let Thomas pull her into the back room of the store to "get away" from the mayhem outside. But as she did so, she suddenly realized that if they both hid out in the back room until whatever was going on was over, then she would not be able to change into Velocity to go see what she might be able to help. Luckily, Thomas stated he was going back out front to get his cellphone and call the police. As soon as he was gone, Megan took a quick glance around, noting the back exit to the shop. In a flash of movement, she had was changed into her Velocity costume. She then sped towards the back door, vibrating her body until she passed right through and into a back alley running behind the stores on this block. Zipping part way down the alley in a blur of movement, the superheroine then ran up the wall of one of the buildings and up onto the rooftop. Skidding to a stop on the roof, she found a place to hide her computer bag and purse. She was then off again, heading down the building and onto a street away from where the commotion was taking place. She would loop around a couple of blocks and come back at the storefront from another direction.

TK, am I understanding correctly that Voltage is currently using his Insubstantial 3 alt power under Electricty Control?

Megan took back her credit card and the receipt and gave Thomas a smile as he stated he would call her once her laptop was fixed. "Great." She said, putting her card away in her purse. Grabbing her things, she turned and started towards the door. She was about halfway to the door when she though she heard some sort of commotion outside, causing her to slow her pace ever so slightly. A moment later a car came falling from the sky, smashing down on top of another car parked across the street and setting off the car alarms for both vehicles. Megan froze as time began to slow down for her, as her powers began to kick into gear. Oh no! I need to check out what.. She had just been about to speed away when she held herself in check, remember that the young man who had helped her was behind her at the counter. I need a way to get clear to change. She thought as her mind raced, the fractions of a second that had passed seeming far longer to her. Okay, I am just a blonde college girl who just saw a car come crashing down on another. And now people running down the sidewalk in terror. I need this guy to get me somewhere away from the mayhem outside. Megan then grasped on a likely solution. So, not more than a second after the car had crashed into view, she did what would likely be expected in such a situation. She screamed.

December 13, 2012 Megan was on the second day of apartment hunting with her mother, and the young blonde was well past the point that she wanted to just give up and forget the entire exercise. She and her mother had looked at six apartments yesterday in the Wading Way, and they were now their fifth for today, an apartment building not far north of Midtown. All the apartments they had seen were nice, often with elegant finishing and fixtures. But none of them really grabbed Megan. For the amount of money she would be spending on rent, Megan felt it was not too much to ask that she find a place that she would really enjoy spending her free time in, even if that proved to be very little. Megan forced herself to keep an open mind as she and her mother followed the leasing agent for the building into the northeast corner unit on the thirty seventh floor that she had available. "As you can see, the unit has a spacious foyer with hardwood floors." The leasing agent stated as they stepped into said foyer. "There is a good sized closet here to the left. One of the many closets in the unit." She added, indicating the open closet. Ahead of them, Megan could see that directly ahead of them the foyer led to a step down into a large brightly lit area, likely a living room. But the leasing agent instead diverted them first towards the small hallway that headed off to the right. "Here you have a half bath, perfect for social guests." The agent stated, indicating the door off to the right of the hallway. Megan took a quick look into the small bathroom, noting the marble finish. "And across from it is a small lien closet." The agent continued, before leading the two women to the open doorway at the end of the small hall. "Through here is the bedroom suite." The agent noted. "First you have another closet." She said as she indicated the open close directly across from the doorway. "Off to the right is the full bath, also with marble finishing." Megan joined her mother in moving over to look into the apartment's full bath. It was a bit crowded, but not any more so than Megan had been used to in her dorm at Yale. The bathtub seemed a good size. The agent then led them into the large bedroom, with high arching ceilings which was rather well lit. The entire opposite wall was large windows, with a small slight angle at the right end. With the windows facing east, Megan could see parts of City Center, and even the Century Narrows beyond. After giving Megan and her mother a chance to take in the view and look about the large room, the agent continued, moving to open a door on the wall opposite the windows. "And here there is a spacious walk in closet." Once Megan had taken a look inside the walk in closet, the agent led them back out of the bedroom and through the short hallway to the foyer. "But I think that this unit's true charm is the living and dining room area." She said as she led them into the well lit area Megan had noted when they had entered the apartment. The living room was a long open space that ran perpendicular to the foyer. The upper portion of the living room was framed by a wall opposite the foyer that had a doorway. But it was the lower portion of the living room, connected to the dining room, that immediately drew Megan's attention. Large windows, similar to those in the bedroom, ran along the bottom of the living room and the dining room sat right at the corner of the building, so all of its walls were windows looking out over the city. And it was the view beyond that enthralled Megan. Looking to the north/northeast, the windows looked over the Wading Way, with the three, twisting towers of Pyramid Plaza rising up in the distance. Megan only half paid attention as the agent continued to talk, leading her and her mother into the kitchen, which also featured hardwood floors, with stainless steel appliances and a stacked washer/dryer just off the kitchen. As the loop through the kitchen brought them back into the living room, Megan's attention immediately went back to the breathtaking view. The blonde young woman looked over towards her mother, who gave a small smile and slightly arched one eyebrow. Megan nodded slightly and then looked over at the leasing agent. "I'll take it." "Fabulous!" The agent replied with a wide smile. "Shall we head back to the office to start the paperwork?" Megan nodded, but looked back out at the view once again before looking back over at her mother, who was looking around the spacious open space around them. "I think we are going to have to do some furniture shopping." Erin Howell stated to her daughter.

"Thank you sir." Megan said as Amir handed her one of the glasses of champagne. The blonde young woman took a sip as the teenage girl with Jennifer spoke up about being introduced. Megan was pretty sure she recognized her, a suspicion that was confirmed when Jennifer introduced Kristin. One of the benefits of Megan's powers was the ability to finish tasks such as studying in a fraction of the time it would normally take. As her friends at college were not so fortunate, that generally left Megan with a lot of free time to fill up, which she often did by reading periodicals and newspapers in the library. Like all of them. Though Megan had not attended Claremont, she knew other heroes who had. She felt a good deal of sympathy for the teen. Being a teenager and superpowered was generally far more than most teens had to deal with. Having someone who could barely be termed a journalist write horrible things about you all the time had to be tough. "Very nice to meet you Kristin." Megan said with a warm smile. Megan left it to the teen to answer Angus' question about her looking familiar, instead looking back between Amir and Jen as Amir mentioned Jen’s dad welching on a bet between them. "I deny any such phase ever happened." Megan commented with a small laugh of her own as Amir mentioned pigtails and mary janes. She took another sip of her champagne as she listened to Amir and Jen as the continued to talk about cars. While the blonde young woman certainly appreciated the aesthetics of various cars, it had been some time since she had viewed cars as in any way "fast." But, seeing as after the New Year Amir would be her ultimate boss, at least until the end of Spring term, Megan was more than happy to listen to talk about cars and racing.

Thanks Scuffles, that helps. We are talking about a girl who often has a lot of time on her hands ;)

Notice check for Megan/Velocity: 22

Hehe, I did know that TA But it may be that Megan may have learned more of the story than what that "respected journalist" says :D

GM Meanwhile, less than a dozen blocks away! Atop one of the office buildings in the area stood a rather unusual pair. One was an attractive woman with long red hair. She was wearing skintight bodysuit of red and black and a yellow flame burst on the front. The other was a man who stood at least six foot three, with an imposing build. He was dressed in dark green bodysuit that had a black V shape that extended down the front and back. The suit was cut so his thick arms were bare, and he his black hair was pulled back into a ponytail that went down to between his shoulder blades. Currently the pair was engaged in a passionate embrace. After a few moments, their lips parted and the redheaded young woman looked up at her companion. "Hmmmm, normally I would never come out here to Freedom City, but the pay was just too good to pass up. I'm certainly not regretting it now." "Me either babe." The dark haired man replied with a grin. "Too bad we have a job to do right now." The young woman let out a sigh as she took a step back and turned to look out towards the streets below. "Yeah, I suppose we do." Glancing back over at her taller companion, a wicked grin came to her face. "You know what could help my mood for later? We have a little competition to see who can cause the most mayhem and destruction." "You're on!" The man replied with another grin before he crouched slightly and then leapt into the air, arcing towards the intersection below. The redhead watched his leap for a few moments, before her green eyes began to glow a yellow/orange that seemed to occasionally flicker like fire. Ghostly wings of fiery telekinetic energy appeared from her shoulder blades and lifted her into the air to follow after her companion.

"Fifty dollars? My dad might be a little jealous of your hourly billing rate." Megan replied with feigned shock. "Okay, maybe not. But fifty sounds more than fair to me." She then added with a warm smile. She then handed over the platinum Visa card for Thomas to ring up the charge for the data recovery. As he did so, she glanced down at the still disassembled laptop. "I'll just leave it here." She stated, looking back up to Thomas. "No point in hauling it around when it won't work. I don't really need it for the next week or so anyway." Reaching into her purse, the blonde took out a piece of paper and a pen and began writing on the paper. "Here is my name and a number so you can reach me at when it is ready to be picked up." She said as she handed the paper to Thomas once she was done.

Scuffles, Along the lines of Angus’ question to Kristin IC, I have one I had been hoping to talk with you about in chat, but have not been able to catch you when you are on. Megan has the Well Informed feat (as does Asad), which allows her to make a free Gather Information check when she meets someone to see what she might know about them. In this instance I will just Take 10, for a Gather Info check of 22. I have not been able to find any sort of reputation chart for Kristin/Glow, so what do you feel Megan would know about Kristin with that result? Thanks. :D

Megan watched at Thomas began disassembling her laptop. Even without the ability to move a superspeed, Megan suspected she would be finding the process excruciatingly slow, though she could tell he was actually performing the task rather quickly. Years of practice helped her control the impatient feelings, what little might show likely appearing as simple anxiety over whether the data could be saved. When Thomas finished and handed her the flash drive, stating that he had managed to move the document files to the USB drive, the blonde young woman gave a sigh of relief. "Great, thank you so much!" She said to the grey haired young man with a wide smile. She then considered the disassembled laptop as he mentioned that the only problem was the burned out power supply. Megan had been perfectly ready to scrap the computer and simply buy a new one. But, he had a point, there was no real reason to throw it away when it could be fixed. "Sure, a new power supply would be fine." She replied, setting down her purse and placing the flash drive into one of the inside pockets. "There is no rush for this though. Would you be able to clean it as well?" She asked as she took out her wallet from her purse, before removing a platinum Visa card from inside the wallet. "How much do I owe you for today?"

Megan was feeling more and more hopeful as they entered the small store and the young man made his way into the back room. Setting her laptop down on the counter, she did her best to wait patiently for him to return. While he was only gone for a short while, to Megan it seemed far, far longer. Listening as he explained what he needed to do, the blonde nodded in understanding. "Sure, whatever you need to do." She stated as she began fishing around in one of the pockets of her computer bag for a moment. Finding what she was looking for she took out an unopened 16 GB USB flash drive. "Here, I haven't used this one yet." She said, handing Thomas the flash drive. Now all the blonde young woman could do was wait and hope that Thomas would be able to access the laptop's hard drive and recover the document. Of course, sitting back and waiting was not one of the things Megan liked to do.

Megan looked up hopefully as someone came up to the scene, mentioning that he worked at a computer shop and thought he knew what was wrong. His grey hair threw her for a moment, as he otherwise appeared to be a couple of years younger than her. Even so, Megan had little reason to doubt that he knew more about computers than her. Politely brushing off the attempts to apologize by the man who had spilled the coffee, the blonde grabbed her text book and notes and stuffed them quickly into her computer bag. Sling the bag over one shoulder, followed by her purse, Megan scooped up her laptop and started after the other young man has he headed towards the door. "Thank you." She said as she caught up with him as they exited the coffee shop. "I could really care less about the computer. What I hope you can help with is recovering the take home exam I just spent the last hour finishing for one of my professors."

Megan awoke with a start as her alarm clock went off next to her bed. Reaching out to hit the snooze button, the blonde lay there for a moment, contemplating going back to sleep for a little while longer. After having dinner with her parents last night, Megan had met up with her friends Janet and Lisa, and the three young women had gone out to a bar. While Megan had only had a couple of drinks, she had not gotten back home until well after midnight. As inviting as another hour or so of sleep was, Megan still had to finish the take home final for one of her classes. Sighing slightly, she sat up and climbed out of bed, turning off her alarm as she made her way to the bathroom for a shower. A short while later, Megan was back in her room, considering some of the clothes she had unpacked yesterday. Deciding to go with the more casual look she tended to wear around campus, Megan picked out a simple white V neck t-shirt, a navy blue hoodie with "YALE" across the front, a pair of dark grey yoga pants and a pair of black Ugg boots. Once dressed, Megan gathered her purse and computer bag, putting her text book and notes in with her laptop. She was just about to leave her room when she stopped for a moment, and looked over at her closet door, her mind on the suitcase inside that held her Velocity costumes. Megan almost never carried her costume around with her on campus. But, she was back in Freedom City, and one could never be sure when something might happen that she would feel the need to help with. When Megan made her way downstairs, one of her costumes was down in her computer bag. The house was very quiet, and while Megan was not surprised that her father was not home, she did wonder where her mother might be. Stopping by the kitchen, Megan saw a note from her mother about having to go to a meeting for the board of a charity foundation she was on. Taking out her smartphone, Megan sent her mother a short text indicating she was going out to finish her exam. After setting the alarm for the house and locking up, Megan made her way to her SUV to head to her favorite coffee shop in Kingston for some coffee, a little breakfast, and to work on finishing her take home exam.

The OOC for this thread.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:45 AM Megan Howell was seated at one of the tables of her favorite independent coffee shop in Kingston. The coffee shop was located in one of the sections of Kingston clustered with various other businesses. Between the neighboring business and nearby residential neighborhoods, the coffee shop was typically rather busy throughout the day. The attractive blonde was dressed in a navy blue hoodie with "YALE" across the front, a pair of dark grey yoga pants, and had on a pair of black Ugg boots. Megan's laptop was set up in front of her and she took a sip of her second cup of coffee as she reviewed the answer she had just finished typing to the last question on a take home final given by one of her professors at Yale. She had been at the coffee shop a little over an hour, working on finishing up the exam so she could email it off to her professor and then officially be done with the fall semester. Finishing her review of her last answer, Megan smiled slightly as she felt the last bit of pressure from the semester fade even further away. The feeling of elation proved to be short lived. Megan's table was just behind the table set up for creamer and sweeteners, and a customer was just setting down a coffee carrier filled with drinks for some of his coworkers when he was inadvertently jostled from behind. He lost his grip on the coffee carrier, causing it to fall the rest of the way to the table, knocking loose two of the coffee cups. While one of the loose cups spilled most of its contents all over the table, the other landed towards the back of the table, its lid popping off and most of the hot coffee spilling over the back and down onto Megan's table. Megan had been turned away from the commotion, setting down her coffee cup, and turned back just in time to slide her chair back to avoid being splashed by some of the coffee. Her laptop, however, was not so fortunate. The keyboard was splashed with hot coffee, the liquid seeping down among the keys. There were a couple of sparks and pops, before the laptop’s screen went black. A sense of panic gripped Megan as she looked at the black screen for a fraction of a second. "No! No, no, no.." She began to say as she reached for her laptop, not even hearing the question of whether she was alright from the man who had spilled the coffee. "Please work, please work, please work." The blonde muttered hopelessly as she grabbed some napkins she had nearby and tried to wipe off some of the coffee.

Velocity The Midnight Society Holiday Party (7) Home for the Holidays (4) Date with Destruction (7) This Will Do, For Now (2) Whirlwind New Year's (8) GM (Apply to Velocity) Date with Destruction (2)

Ah, sorry, missed that when I tried to check if any of her powers were changed by a house rule. Have corrected.