ic The Kids Aren't Alright

[RocketLord]

GM

 

 

October 4th, 2019

10:30 PM

Betlehem Heights

 

A lot had changed on the streets of Emerald City. Things had changed since the events of late August, and something had slipped into the city during the confusion. During the month of September, something new had started spreading through the city. A new drug, something simply called Power. Small white pills with a capital P. Swallow, and two minutes later, you gained random super powers for fifteen minutes. It was a rush, it was exciting, and it was of course completely destabilizing. Street fights evolved into super powered brawls. People fell from the sky, the rush running through their heads. And sometimes, the sheer power simply burned them out, like a candle that burned too bright.

 

At the docks, Magh'kee witnessed a fellow worker swallow a pill, then, with his brief surge of super strength, he did the work of ten men, before the heavy blocks he was carrying fell on him, crushing him.

 

At Compass Rose International, Raya Wells saw a security guard shoot lightning from his eyes at a man that triggered the metal detector. Turned out he had a metal plate in his skull.

 

At Elysium Academy, Elliot Elijah Elder saw other members of the Omega Squad suddenly showing all kinds of different powers that they never had before. To call it strange would be weird, and then one of them offered him some of the Power. The school shut it down as soon as it was discovered, but Elliot grew curious. 

 

However they got on the track, all three would eventually end up in Betlehem Heights. The only place to get Power.

Edited October 6, 2019 by RocketLord

[Shofet]

The Meta-Naut

 

Power, the new drug-du-jour of the city. Of course it would give people super-powers. Why not? Couldn’t just make you feel good, that’s not what drugs were for anymore. They had to turn you into a crocodile man or something or you just weren’t getting your money’s worth anymore. The Meta-Naut hated it. It made her life more difficult, and given that she was a woman of leisure, anything that made her life more difficult had to be stopped.

 

She found herself in Bethlehem Heights, the supposed source of the drug. That wasn’t the most interesting part, though. What was most interesting was the fact that she saw a familiar lack of face on a nearby rooftop. She came down like a blue comet, dropping in front of the man she recognized as Rebellion.

 

“Rebby, buddy,” the Meta-Naut said with a smile. “Haven’t seen you in a bit. Not since the Captain Crime… Thing. You here to deal with the new drug problem?”

 

She hoped he was. She was not especially bullet proof, which made the prospect of fighting a bunch of drug dealers somewhat intimidating. But Rebellion, he was really, really good at crowd control and making people with guns drop them and scurry off to somewhere where she didn’t have to deal with them.
 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Shofet

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

Seeing Miguel Cortez, normally someone dimwitted but somewhat strong, suddenly turn into a crocodile man was not what Elliot had expected when he and the rest of Omega Squad started their training exercise, put up against the vastly superior Gamma Squad. Miguel tore through them for a short while, before reverting to himself. He seemed burnt out, tired. Of course the ones still standing on Gamma Squad took the opportunity to respond in kind. Elliot had decided to stick to the sidelines the moment Miguel changed, even when Gamma Squad beat him down bad enough that he had to be sent to the nurse to be patched up. Miguel was an asshole that probably deserved what he had coming, but Elliot had helped him anyway, listening to him ranting and raving about those Power pills. In hindsight, other students had suddenly displayed bouts of strange new powers for brief periods, and at the nurse's office, it was confirmed that Miguel had somehow managed to smuggle some Power in, despite the school's crackdown.

 

Impressive, in its own way.

 

Of course, Elliot had to know more. As soon as he had the chance, he put on his mask, before Rebellion casually left the Elysium Academy. It was almost second nature by now.

 

He prowled the city. Questioning, threatening, searching. Betlehem Heights was the place to be if you wanted Power, it seemed.

 

Now, he was here. Moving across the rooftops of Betlehem Heights. There had to be a Power dealer somewhere here. Someone he could shake down for more information, at least. And then, a voice he recognized, from above. Friendly, happy, bright. Everything he wasn't. The Mighty Meta-Naut.

 

"Meta-Naut." he responded, nodding at her once. Captain Crime had been something alright. Not his usual fare, but interesting. "Yes. Seeing a man turn into a crocodile didn't seem like something that should be happening regularly."

[Ari]

A copy of the Courier-Express hit the floor between the two, followed by the stomping of Maggy the Molten Mutant as she marched onto the scene. 

 

"Grairghk!" She announced grimly, pointing at the paper's mentions of inexplicable deaths preceded by superhuman prowess. She tapped the photo of one man in particular, circled several times with flames and an anchor drawn underneath. "Frrrrnd." When it started to smoke and curl under her fingers, she quickly dropped the newspaper, stamping on the fire to smother it.

 

"Haughlk grkrrrg!" She offered her hands to the other two, her crystal face set in a look of determination. She paused though to sniff suspiciously at Rebellion, gemlike eyes narrowing as their inner green flame rose.

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

Someone else approached, and with the copy of the Courier-Express landing between Rebellion and Meta-Naut, it seemed quite clear what their intent was. Rebellion looked up, his bright white eyes flickering from the newspaper on the ground to... well, he wasn't quite sure what he was seeing. A vaguely humanoid green and blue crystal rock. It seemed to be wearing some kind of crown, and it had glowing green eyes, like there was a green flame burning in them. Honestly, his first reaction was to take a step back. It looked like a monster, but then again, so did he.

 

Didn't seem like it was here for a fight. He followed its movements and tried to understand what it was saying as it pointed out the man that had been marked with flames and an anchor. A friend? Smoke rising from its fingers? And then, hands being offered.

 

"Alright." He accepted one of the thing's big hands. "I'm Rebellion." He pointed with the thumb of his free hand to his companion. "That's the Meta-Naut." It didn't seem like it could speak, but still, it felt odd to call it "it" or "the creature" or anything like that. "What can I call you?"

[Shofet]

The Meta-Naut

 

To say that the Meta-Naut was taken aback would be something of an understatement. She did not know what to make of this creature that had just arrived, beyond the fact that it was clearly friendly. That much was a relief, but she could not understand a single word it was saying, until she began to tune her badge, using the snatches she had heard to try and fix in on it.

 

She found nothing. She frowned. 

 

"You uh, speak any languages?" She gestured to her badge. "I have a translator built in if that makes things easier for you. Just need to know what language to tune it to," she said. "...I really hope you can understand me."

[Ari]

"Magh'kee," the crystal creature tapped her chest, "Magh-Mykte" she added, pointng at her inner fire and miming a bicep flex. After a second's thought she clarified by putting her practically square fists on her next-to-nonexistent hips in a rough approximation of Centurion's classic pose. "Ssrrkerhrro!"

 

The question of speaking got a swift, decisive shake of her head. Suddenly her face literally lit up, the fire within brightening as she tried a few careful signs in ASL. 

 

<"Do either of you talk this?">

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

At least the Meta-Naut was just as weirded out by this as Rebellion was. It seemed like Emerald never seemed to amaze with the next weird event, but at least Mag-Mite here seemed friendly, and was a super hero. It couldn't speak, but alright, they'd make this work. And then, Maghkee made hand motions that looked like sign language or something.

 

He shook his hands in response. "Sorry, I don't." Something about Maghkee made him at least want to try to be nice. It was weird, he normally didn't do things like that while wearing the mask. He looked over at Meta-Naut. "Your fancy tech got anything for that?"

 

Rebellion waited until the Meta-Naut had replied before continuing. At least Maghkee could understand them. "I've kept an eye on the street here for a bit." He pointed down to a group of people that had gathered around a young man on the street. He had small bags in his hands that he was handing out in return for money. "Lots of people coming to him. Best case, he's got Power. Worst case, we stop a drug dealer. Both of you in?"

[Ari]

The glassy lass nodded. Tapping her face for a moment she indicated the duo with one hand while with the other curled into a squared fist. With a flex of crystalline muscles, near-black spikes jutted from the knuckles. Taking a casual swing at a wall nearby, Mag-Might smashed a chunk out of it with an explosion of plicrete dust. Her look of pride quickly turned to embarrassment as she saw the damage she'd done. 

 

Taking a handful of the space-age building material in each massive paw, she pressed them against the wall and opened her mouth wide. Fiery light within her boiled out in a blaze of green, roaring and lashing the wall! When at last it died, Mag-Might stepped back from a fused and glowing-hot crystal seal.

[Shofet]

The Meta-Naut

 

The Meta-Naut fidgeted with her badge for a moment, and as Mag-Might signed with her hands, a little cone of light projected out over Mag-Might's hands. It scanned them for a moment, before producing a robotic sounding translation for her.

 

"Ah-hah!" she cried. "It works! Oh, man, but I'm going to have to let it scan you to work. That's going to be rough. Still! I can understand you!"

 

Then, her attention turned to Rebellion. "Drug dealers aren't usually my thing - live and let live and all - but this one seems to be causing a lot of trouble and I don't want that in my home city. Superpower drugs are no joke. So I am in. But I am going to warn you, I am not really someone used to fighting people with powers. But you already knew that," she said to Rebellion.

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

Maghkee smashed a wall. Alright, she was strong. At least Meta-Naut could understand.

 

"Fine. Will be a learning experience, then." No more need to talk, as far as he was concerned. Slipping his batons out from his sleeves, he moved to the edge of the roof, looking down at the little trade that was going on. He gave the others another quick look, then jumped from the roof, landing heavily about 15 feet from the group on the floor.

 

"Drop what's in your hands. Now."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"What the ####?" The dealer looked up from his deals, towards the black shadow in blue that dropped in from out of nowhere. He saw the weapons in Rebellion's hands, and looked at the pills in his hands, then around to the people around him. "Take it! Now!" Most of the people around him didn't follow his orders, just running, but two of them quickly swallowed their pills. Within moments, their bodies began to change, twist and turn.

 

One, a blonde man in his twenties in a fast food restaurant uniform suddenly started flowing a foot above the ground, yellow light shining from his eyes and mouth.

 

The other, an older man in a business suit, groaned, as his suit began to rip and tear, before he suddenly stood tall, his body now grotesque, mismatched, oversized muscles. He gently reached up and pulled his glasses away before crushing them in his hand.

 

"Get 'em!" the dealer shouted, obviously not following his own orders.

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

"Hn." Rebellion realized he should have seen that coming. They had super power drugs. Of course they were gonna use them. Still, strange that the dealer didn't take the pills himself. 

 

Fine. No need to waste time. One flier. One big and strong. Dealer was probably just an ordinary guy. If not, well, then he would probably show them otherwise soon. Big guy first, then. Stop him, break his nose. Make the others reconsider.

 

One quickly thrown baton collided with the large man's nose, ricocheting back into Rebellion's hand, and... nothing. He didn't even flinch. Seemed like he would have to get rougher.

[Ari]

<"I take large man, you stop merchant?"> Magh'kee's hand-signs weren't as deft or articulated as a human's sensitive paws would have been, but at least she managed to get the gist across to Meta-Naut before turning and hurtling off of the roof and into the fray. She hit the walls on either side on the way down, bouncing and flailing in the 

 

As she crashed heavily into the biggest and most obvious of the targets, her stubby arms and legs swung out into a giant, glittering 'X' of green-hot fury, a jet of fire bolting from her mouth as she landed on his head. With both crystal arms she crushed the human's to his sides, roaring a command to surrender in no known or existing tongue as her wedge-shaped feet pinned his legs with all the force a fire-powered mutant could muster!

 

Now that she had him, there wasn't really much to do but wait, and figure out what came next. She slammed her blocky head experimentally against the mutate's back, shuddering at the jelly-like reverberation through the twisted musculature and skeleton. Given how they surrounded themselves with hard things, it was unsettling to remember how soft and watery the Sky-People actually were. More like Morlocks than Igneates or Magmin. Hopefully that meant they didn't have to spend long outside. At least in one of the fake caves they could rest a little easier.

[Shofet]

The Meta-Naut

 

Get the dealer? The Meta-Naut could do that. Flying up into the air, the Meta-Naut put herself high above the fray as her translucent tractor beam-caster materialized over her hand. She took aim at the dealer, an evil grin on her face as she fired it out, enveloping the man in its power.

 

"Gotcha!" She cried, using the beam to reel her target in.

 

"Hey, so I got you now, so... What do you think? Should I use you to wail on the other guys or should we fly up like a thousand feet and I can practice my juggling. Oh, oh, or you could call off your guys and I don't have to do either of those things. Up to you, but I am pretty partial to the first option."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"What the ¤#&%! Let me go you =¤#%&!" The Dealer wasn't exactly thrilled as the Meta-Naut grabbed him with her strange weapon, the beam covering him. "I'm not telling you %&#¤, ya hear!?" He struggled, fought against the tractor beam that he was caught in, fought to get loose, fought to get free before the Meta-Naut brought him higher and higher up.

 

"What are you supposed to be?" The Muscular Man was far less foul mouthed than the dealer, at least. Still, he also seemed much stronger, as he pushed back against Mag-Might, pushing to get her out of the way, to break her grip. He was strong, that much was clear, but the question was if he was stronger than the magma that made up Mag-Might?

 

Finally, the flying man. His eyes and mouth continued to glow as he slowly moved his head, turning in the sky. There was something inhuman about his movements, something that just seemed kind of off. He opened his mouth wide, letting loose a powerful blast of energy from his eyes and mouth both, straight towards Rebellion.

[RocketLord]

REBELLION

 

Of course that flying freak had some kind of energy blasts. Throwing himself to the side, Rebellion moved out of the way before the blasts tore through the ground where he had stood moments before. A quick glance made it seem like Maghkee and Meta-Naut had things well in hand, at least. Grabbing the enemy, good tactic. Divide and conquer, he stood alone with the flying man, but fine, he would deal with that.

 

Twirling his baton around his hand, he threw it at a nearby wall, which it bounced off, then continued to the back of the flying man's head. It made a satisfying sound as it bounced off the man's backhead, off a wall and back into Rebellion's hand as he moved forward. 

[Ari]

"ArGHl'kkrghK!" Mag-Might shouted back, glassy arms refusing to budge even a fraction of a milimetre. The hanging on took some doing, however, the slick surfaces of her inhuman physiology having a hard time getting any kind of hold on a spongy, greasy Overworlder. To the human she'd attacked Mag-Might was like an immovable boulder, but to the Magmin it was like she was trying to contain a large, slightly lumpy pile of mud. The sheer distaste of the creature was hard to overstate, and Magh'kee was grateful she usually only touched them through gloves.

 

But now was not the time for squeamishness. Even if she wouldn't have understood the word itself, the concept was familiar, and it had no place in battle. 

 

With a tremendous roar, the Sub-Terran scorcher attempted to crush the enhanced human's air supply, silicate arms and legs working to force the lung flat and block its primary passages. The Magmin had an at best loose grasp of how humans worked, but she knew that they needed constant access to the thin, cold air of the Overworld to not collapse like a rockslide. Had this changed with the increase in size? Hopefully not. She wasn't sure what to even do besides just start punching if this failed.