Thunder King

"People are a bit nervous about supers right now, probably best to just get out of costume before we go. I do know of a nice diner not that far from here, and I know where I put my clothes. Meet me at this address in about...ten minutes?" She said, pulling out a piece of paper and writing an address down. "I'll be there once I change out of my costume." She handed it to him and waited for his assent before running off.

"Look...I'm no expert on this sort of stuff, but, would you like to go somewhere and talk?" She said. "Grab a bite to eat, pull back from this. I'm in no condition to fight crime anymore right now. If I did, I might risk seriously hurting someone, and I can't do that just because I'm upset. When you're done disposing those guns, I mean." She said. She knew he was bound to be as upset as she was. This was THE Cobalt Templar. She knew that he'd served on the very same team as Wander, Edge, Midnight and Sage. Rumors of their skill and the things they did still echoed in the halls of Claremont. This was the guy who had fought beside some of the most respected students that had ever come out of Claremont. Even after all the stuff she'd heard them deal with, they'd never lost a member before.

If she had been out of uniform, she would have bawled like a baby. She wasn't going to disrespect her family legacy like that. "When the rest of the city was dealing with the robot duplicates, we were on Erde. We rescued the Tronik of Erde, convinced their leader not to use a horrible bioweapon, and came home. When we got back to Claremont, Duncan Summers accused us, or at least Wraith and Citizen, of being spies, then he tried to attack Citizen...and turned out to be a robot. We went..." Her voice shook for a moment. "...we went to the Centurion's Sanctum, to try to put Tronik in a safe place. We found the Curator there, extracting things. Citizen and Ghost Girl went into Tronik to save it from the Curator while...while we fought his robot drones." She closed her eyes. "The Curator left...and...and apparently Citizen...Sharl..." She lowered her head. "He sacrificed himself, somehow, got the Curator to leave Earth and Tronik...but he..." "NO tears, NO tears, damnit. You are NOT going to cry in this mask, you are not going to cry..." She thought to herself, struggling as best she could. She really hoped Cobalt Templar would know what she was going to say, because she just couldn't say it herself.

Crimson Tiger lashed out, striking this way and that. These thugs were idiots. She'd beaten up highly trained Nazis, what did these guys think they were going to do? "Guys, I've beaten Nazis..." She said, kicking one in the stomach. "Dozens of robots..." an elbow to the head. "And about four or five metas..." and punch to the face. "On a threat scale of one to ten, you guys register a two." She almost felt sorry for them, almost. But it was hard to feel sorry for someone so stupid as to attack heroes who'd already clearly showed that there were no number of them that would actually be a threat. She knew, of course, that a good shot from one of those energy guns would hurt, but they were so bad at using them that they'd probably never get anywhere near her. She also wanted to make sure they wouldn't be a threat to anyone else, who were already doubtlessly stressed and recovering from the events of a few days prior.

Crimson Tiger watched the large hero work out of the corner of her eye. Reasonably decent technique, only a few wasted motions. All in all someone who knew what they were doing. She also realized that the strange, blue armor and weapons he had had to be made of some sort of energy, but she had no idea how or why. When their backs were to each other, she realized that this must have been Cobalt Templar. He fit the bill she'd heard of; big guy, blue armor made of energy. She doubted there were many heroes that met that description. That meant he'd been on Young Freedom before she'd joined! "Crimson Tiger, nice to meet you." She said with as much politeness as she could manage, while also fighting off a large group of armed thugs. She watched them carefully, half hoping they would run, and half hoping they'd be stupid enough to keep trying.

OOC thread for this

July, 2012 Dr. Green's Volcano Base Upon dropping King of Suits and Crusader off at the base, Voltage popped in and picked up Stormbreaker. The two of them appeared in what seemed to be a hangar, with a large air worthy vehicle sitting front and center. The hangar was expansive, with massive doors, containing numerous small air craft. The roof was high into the air, giving it roughly a thirty foot ceiling. The hangar was conspicuously empty. "Remember, we're here to be loud, disruptive, and too dangerous to ignore." He said, eying the vehicle. Suddenly, a well placed blast struck the fuel tank and detonated it. No doubt, the sound would be heard throughout the base. That was exactly what he wanted. He had calculated, without error, the exact trajectory, distance and force of every piece of debris, ensuring that the explosion would cause no harm to himself or Stormbreaker. The heat from the fire rose into the air, turning on the automatic sprinklers that now poured water onto the burning wreckage. Luckily for Voltage, his powers were unaffected by the presence of water if he so chose. "That ought to do it." He said, lifting the vehicle into the air with his powers and slamming it into the back of the hangar. "Might as well knock on the front door..."

Crimson Tiger threw punches and kicks, knocking gang members aside like ragdolls with little effort. These guys weren't really that much of a threat, but they needed to be stopped and she enjoyed putting them down just a bit more than was healthy. None of them were permanently injured, or even severely so. Just incapacitated, painfully incapacitated. She realized that the other hero was back on his feet and in the fight, but decided not to try to talk to him until they'd mopped up the unruly mob.

Giant gang of thugs, probable hero in a possibly bad situation. Crimson Tiger charged in to the group that conveniently looked away from her. One man dropped after getting punched in the back of the head. Another man dropped to a kick to the back, and a third fell when Crimson Tiger kneed him in the stomach. She waded between them, striking here and there, punching, kicking and kneeing them. She wanted to give the other hero the chance to recover, and hoped the crowd would turn on her for a moment so the other hero could help out, whoever that person was.

Mali scoffed. "Respect? I can see that, I get it. Makes perfect sense to me. In the ring, on the streets, when you fight honest you earn every inch. You feel alive when it's you and them, one on one. All my strength is mine. No powers, no drugs. I've trained to fight since before I could walk, and it's all natural. I got a thousand pound dead lift and I've dropped enough gang bangers, metahumans, max heads and robots to fill Blackstone Prison. This is one woman who's no weakling, I'll tell you that."

Mali stalked towards the crowd, slowly and carefully. She stopped and watched Knuckles. He was wiry, lean, fit. However, she could tell that he was good, but not great. His skills were considerable, but not quite on her level. She knew her stealthy approach wouldn't work once she got close in, so she simply walked towards him. "Fighting people, eh? Sounds like fun." She said, looking right at him. "But have you actually gotten a challenge?"

Crimson Tiger is going to use the Assessment feat to get an estimate as to how strong this guy is relative to her, rolling a 21 for Sense Motive. She's sneaking towards him to get a good look at him, using the same roll. I'm skill masterying a 22 if I need to reroll stealth.

Henry smiled and nodded. It was clear she was no shrinking violet. She was a strong woman, and he liked that. It was a strange notion for a woman to call on a man like that, but courting rituals had changed in the intervening time, and he knew adaptation was better than stagnation. Standing by the old ways in a different society would get him mocked and ignored. Best to change when the times do. He scrawled his number down on the paper and nodded. "I'd like to apologize ahead of time if I prove unreachable. See, when I go on duty, shifts can last days at a time, so I may or may not be available. This is my cell number, so I will get back to you as soon as remotely possible." He smiled. "And I apologize, but I'm afraid I need to get going. Morning doesn't wait." He said, standing up. He nodded politely to the pretty woman, and turned to walk out the door. Despite all the changes, he was glad that a man and woman could still take in a movie and dinner together. He liked Lucy, and looked forward to seeing her again.

Crimson Tiger stalked the streets, looking for a fight or looking to help. Nazis and space computers, deaths and dismemberment, it was all too much for the girl. She'd decided once they got back that, after she found out her family was safe, she'd go do some regular patrols for a few days to focus again. It was all so overwhelming she almost considered quitting. This would help her get her head together. Fighting street crime, making the world a better place one disrupted drug deal or mugging at a time. Refocus her desire and reaffirm her intent. She knew that this wasn't going to be the only time things got really bad. It would happen again, because that's what happens when you are a hero. You don't win every battle without risk or penalty. She wanted to make sure that, if she ever found herself asking 'why am I doing this?' she could remember keeping drugs of the street or protecting an innocent, and find that answer enough.

"Well, I'm on Young Freedom. I also team up with Cerys, Tona and Sam sometimes. I mostly patrol solo, take on small crime like drug dealers, muggers and such. I mean, it's easier to manage a group of one. As far as the cooking, I hear you. even the best meals ever get boring if you have them eighty, ninety times over, you know? It helps when you have more variety to appreciate the others."

Mali dropped in behind Bloduewedd, but stayed out of the cop's field of vision, letting her friend have the fun of interrogating the man. Her ears picked up his confession. ...Knuckles? That was a pretty direct name. Then again, so was Breaker. She almost relished the opportunity to beat this Knuckles guy down, especially if he was using superhuman abilities to beat people up that didn't know it. That wasn't fair, and Mali was in the mood to make things fair.

Skill mastery on Stealth for 22

"Well, um..." For the first time in the conversation, it was her that was nervous. "See, my dad, well, my dad's good with money, really good. So was his dad, and his dad, and...well let's say that Black Tiger didn't have to worry too much about paying for his equipment when he went crime fighting." She laughed nervously. "When I went to my dad about wanting a car, he insisted I don't get a brand new one. Which was fine, because classics are much, much cooler." She said with a grin. "Thai food isn't that hard, really. And if you were going to help, I'm sure you have a few skills that would remain useful. Boiling rice and noodles, stir frying, that sort of thing. I mean, getting all the spices and stuff just right isn't easy, but you'd be helping anyway, maybe learn a meal or two to add to your repertoire. But yeah, drug dealers? Scum of the Earth, really. I've fought them more than a few times, and it's really, really hard to feel sorry for somebody you just bruised up when you remember they're parasites.""

"Yeah, every couple of weeks I go home and have a meal with my parents. Something special. I've considered making a Thai meal and sharing with my friends sometime. Put it crock pots, bring it to the school...you know, feed my friends something from my house." She said, grabbing some food for herself. Cafeteria food wasn't bad. Good, even, but she missed her homemade stuff. She missed the Thai food especially. "Car's got more than enough room for it." She mentioned, offhand. She sat across from him. "Drug dealers, yeah. Max and Zoom stuff. Really nasty guys. It was supposed to be a girl's night out kinda thing, turned into a fight."

"Progress is progress. Everyone has lessons to learn. The important point is to make sure you remember them. I'm not saying you've never done bad things, but I am saying that you wouldn't be here if there wasn't any hope for you. If you were dangerous, would Summers have let you in here? I doubt it. I've had to learn a lot, too, but, well, that's why I'm here. We're still teenagers, we have learning to do." She smiled.

"I know it sounds silly, but...okay. I mean, lots of cool guys here, cute ones too. There's a whole attitude about what a woman is supposed to be that some of these guys have. There's nothing wrong with it, but guys...they get a bit skittish when you can bench press more than they can...or more than a lot of body builders can. I shouldn't be ashamed, but, it's a habit I picked up after a lot of mocking and teasing. Kind of hard to be proud of yourself when people make fun of you for it. Especially when you're only twelve or so." She shrugged. "I have some growing to do."

Mali nodded. "Not sure if I've ever had that. Probably have, but hey, I should look it up. Cerys and I have had quite a few awesome things happen. Did you ever hear about the drug dealers we fought? That was crazy. And she's really cool, too, I think both of you are lucky. And that's good advice from your mom. A man who knows how to cook is never a bad thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm fine with cooking for myself and others, I enjoy it, but cooking is an art. Shows the person has patience, kindness, and a practical attitude about things. Nothing's as unsexy as sexism, you know? First man to tell me cooking is woman's work will find out what kind of work -this- woman does." She said with a chuckle. "Man, I do miss homemade cooking, what about you?"

"I like tomatoes fine. At home we eat a mix of Thai and American food, so some nights it's pizza, other times it's Pad Thai or curry. Have you ever had Thai food?" She asked. She'd often considered going home and whipping up a couple of signature dishes to share with her friends. "I love to cook actually. Mom insisted I be trained in more than just martial arts. Thought it was boring as a kid, but it comes in handy sometimes." She failed to inform Subito that she had to work hard to learn to cook, too. It certainly didn't come naturally to her.

Mali smiled. "Nah, it's fine. New friends are way more important than meditation, far less boring, too. I can always meditate later. Though if you want to leave, we can do somewhere else, maybe not interfere with their meditation." Then she laughed. "Aha, so you and Cerys are..." She said, connecting the mental dots. "She and I hang out sometimes, we're good friends." She connected the mental dots, and it kinda made sense. "I was actually thinking of getting something to eat. If you'd like to join me, I don't mind."

It was all over the news. Star Knight went insane and started killing people. Reports were all over the news of other heroes in similar circumstances. Almost immediately, Thomas sat in his chair and started scanning the city for anything unusual. News reports, police scanners, anything that could prove useful. It was then that he detected a signal unlike anything he'd dealt with before. Very advanced stuff, far more than a typical wireless internet signal. Within moments, his costume was on, and he was teleporting a thousand feet up. Once he was far above his home, he flew towards the location of the signal. As he did so, he realized there were several identical signals in place all over the city. He instantly fired emails to as many heroes as he had contact information. There was no way he could take all the signal sources by himself in a timely manner. As he neared the first device, he spotted three rather large robots standing around what looked like an impressive piece of technology. In an instant, he recognized the robots by their make. “Oh, great, the Foundry are involved.†He muttered under his breath. These weren't ordinary Foundry robots, that would make things easy. These were the biggest, toughest model they had, the war models. He was glad they hadn't spotted him already as he quickly teleported to a nearby roof. He wasn't normally one for stealth, but even one of those things would be annoying to fight, let alone three. He glanced over at the robots who stood guard and concentrated for a moment. Current appeared beside one and slashed through it, right through the core. It collapsed instantly. Unfortunately though, one of the other two turned toward him and spotted him. It fired a volley of laser fire, causing Voltage to dodge away from his hiding spot. It was useless, now. They had to be dropped, either way. In mid-air he twisted around and fired an energy blast at one of the robots, missing it by a mile in the heat of the moment. The volley of laser fire resumed and Voltage narrowly dodged another shot as he flew upwards into the air. Taking advantage of the moment, he loosed another blast of energy at one of the robots. This time, he hit solidly, and it crumpled into a heap, only one left. The other one continued firing, but he was too evasive to be struck. Voltage tried to blast the robot again, but he missed again due to the angle. He realized that the attack angles were such that he wouldn't get a good shot so long as he evaded, so he'd have to remain stationary in order to guarantee a solid strike. So he paused in mid-air and felt the energy course into him. The robot's weapon aimed directly at him. Voltage felt the blast strike him directly in the chest as his own blast found purchase. With that, the robot was down. He grimaced in pain at the singe mark, but the suit took most of the damage, and he was largely unharmed. He landed beside the real target, the control box. This was indeed the source of the strange signal. He memorized the signal's unique properties, taking a moment to remember every important detail about the device that he could. He landed a short distance away from it, safely out of range of any exposions. It was a simple matter, adjusting his electrical current into magnetic waves, and pouring as much of that into the device as he could. After a few moments of doing so, the device sparked and smoked. Not content, Voltage grasped the machine with his magnetic control and pulled it in opposite directions, sending components flying everywhere. He checked, and the signal was gone. He gave one last scan of the parts, identifying anything unique within the device that could be of use. It was then that he got something from the Lab. Lots of Lab members were busy with the crisis, and they needed help tracking down vital information. Apparently the berserk heroes and villains were actually robot duplicates. He fired off a message of assent, and took off to meet someone named Comrade Frost.