ic Rising Stars

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice didn't want this guy shooting again but also wanted one of them awake to question afterwards, although she was worried as to what an Iron Age hero like Archer considered 'questioning'. Instead of her standard of trying to clobber the man she decided to instead try and grab him. She knew that once she clamped her hands around someone there wasn't much they could do, but it was easier said than done as she grabbed fistfuls of air instead of the assailant.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Another burst of shots aimed at Archer went wide, as he leaned to the side to move out of the way. The one shifted a button on his rifle and fired a few shots wildly at Shooting Star, who once again felt a shock raging through her body on contact.

 

And then... a loud yell, as a massive man with cracked grey skin landed on the roof, the entire thing shaking as he stood up. His clothes were ripped, his skin grey and cracking, red underneath, but Shooting Star could recognize him as Billy.

 

"Gonna stomp you first, heroes. Then I'll deal with Alice after that. The boss doesn't like it when you threaten his guys!"

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

The entire roof shook when the big guy arrived. 

 

Great. Just what they needed. Someone else to complicate matters.

 

Connor fired a couple of arrows at the soldier he had been fighting without looking, a shot with a blunt arrow hitting the soldier in the face and knocking him to the ground, before he turned his focus to the big guy.

 

Moving forward, he made a quick leap to the side to get his attention, drawing a couple of arrows mid-jump.

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice felt the blood run from her face when Billy turned up looking like he did and talked about 'dealing with' her civilian self. Obviously he'd have already done it if he beat her but her parents would be in danger. Corkscrewing through the air she threw all her weight behind the punch at her erstwhile schoolmate. Her fist collided with his head as she snarled, this bastard was not threatening anyone else in front of her! "Listen kid. Stay down or else. There's no version of this where you win, and you and your discount SWAT team are wearing on my last nerve. Threatening civilians isn't winning you any favours either." She turned to the Moore era hero she was fighting beside. "Archer, I'll handle him if he gets up again if you focus on the other two." She quickly returned to facing the super drugged school kid. She wasn't taking chances.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Kaede Kimura

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Billy grinned, opened his mouth to say something... and then he was punched right in the face. "Ow." He almost sounded like he didn't believe what had just happened, taking a step back and stumbling slightly while he tried to make the world stop spinning.

 

The last of the armed men looked between Billy, Archer and Shooting Star, made a gesture that very much made his thoughts on the situation clear, then quickly backed away back into the building.

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Let Shooting Star handle the big guy? Fat chance.

 

The last of the gunmen were pulling into building, sure, but Shooting Star and the big guy was kind of in between there. He couldn't really get around them. With the big guy already distracted, he let the arrows he had pulled fly towards him, 3 syringes digging into Bthe big guy's arm. 

 

And not really doing anything. 

 

Great. 

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice rolled her eyes as Archer ignored her and shot at Billy to no effect. She didn't want the shooter to get away, but she also wasn't the one best suited to going after him and taking him out. It would be like a bull in a china shop if the shop was also made of glass. She hardly wanted to knock the school down. She could keep Billy locked down though, freeing Archer to shoot the dude as he ran away. She flew forwards, wrapping her arms around him regardless of his attempts to break free.

 

Maybe she could just sit on him to keep him pinned?

 

 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"LET ME GO!" Billy struggled. And he fought. And he generally did everything he could to try and get free. Not that it helped much. Despite being dosed up on aMaZo, he was not about to get free. Shooting Star was just that much stronger. It seemed that a super drug wasn't a match for her, after all.

 

The last man continued down the winding staircase, as fast as he could securely move. He was done with all of this.

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Shooting Star pulled the big guy out of the way. Good. If she wanted to dance with him, she could.

 

With the path free ahead, Connor ducked under the two brawling powerhouses, slipping into the staircase and saw the last of the attackers running below. 

 

Connor considered something painful for a moment, but it would be useful if they guy could answer some questions. Picking a particular arrow, he let it fly. It hit perfectly, right in the man's chest, exploding around him in a massive amount of quickly hardening riot foam.

 

Alright, then. The big guy was next.

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice watched Archer chase after the last man as her schoolmate flailed against her grip. She responded to his struggles and shouting by lifting off the ground, dragging Billy into the air, before silently floating away from the roof. "Alright Billy, I can let you go, doesn't that ground look inviting? Concrete is a lovely soft landing I've found." She glared at the erstwhile schoolboy for a moment before sighing. "You know Billy, I've seen some stupid things in my time, but you might take the cake with this one. I can't look the other way now, you called gunmen into a school and tried to kill me while hopped up on super drugs while threatening to kill Alice. And you did the latter in front of Archer. You know, the Moore Era hero? If what I've heard about him is true you'll be lucky if you make it to the police and I doubt I'd be able to stop him. So make this easier for yourself while you still have all your fingers and toes and just spill the beans." She punctuated the last part by shaking him for emphasis.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Kaede Kimura

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Alright, alright, please, just, don't drop me. I'm... I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" 

 

Despite his size, Billy's cries were pathetic at best. As confident as he had been just before, he was a mewling wreck by now.

 

"The big man made me do it! Told me to call him if anyone ever came looking for trouble! Didn't want anyone trying to stop him! Just... just don't drop me! I'll tell you where he is, I promise! Just... just don't drop me!"

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Returning to the roof, Connor had an arrow ready and was already aiming. Hearing the big guy yelling and shouting in panic made him lower it, his lips twisting into a grim grin as he heard what was happening.

 

Part of him felt like he should correct Shooting Star, but, nah. This worked. He would just be silent, let her work things out for now.

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice quietly sighed as Billy squealed. This was not how she had wanted this to go, but nonetheless she'd gotten results. She floated back towards Archer, although she stopped a little bit before reaching it "Alright Billy. Tell us everything you know about 'the big man'. Where is he, do you know any other names, do you know how many guys he has, how do you get in contact with him, everything. After you tell us, I'll return you to the roof and you won't be hurt."  There was a challenge in her voice as she said the last sentence staring directly at the vigilante ahead of her. "Of course I can't just let you go, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Billy continued to struggle for a moment before finally stopping.

 

"... Yeah... Alright..." 

 

As he calmed down, he seemed to start shrinking. Not all the way back to his normal self, but less monstrous, at least. The drugs hadn't worn off quite yet.

 

"I dunno much, honestly. Never seen the big man himself, only worked through middle men. Asked me if I wanted to get rich, so, I said hell yeah. Got that aMaZo, and yeah... I'm getting drops every now and again, a package in front of my door. Just got this number I'm texting when I need someting or when there's trouble, then those guys show up. Honest, that's all I know!"

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Heh, this girl was good. The guy was getting good and scared, telling her everything he knew. That was good, but he didn't know much. Still, it was enough to help them.

 

"Bring him along. I got the other guy caught inside the stairwell."

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice listened carefully to Billy's words, committing them to memory. It wasn't much, but it was certainly more than they'd had before. After he finished, she nodded at Archer's words before floating back to the roof and into the stairwell. "Okay Archer, do you want to  handle him or shall I?"

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Connor moved with slow, deliberate steps into the staircase. He had his bow by his side, slowly pulling out an arrow with a sharp head and stopping in front of the soldier, at abouve fifteen feet away.

 

He raised his bow, nocked the arrow and let it fly. It dug into the wall right next to the soldier's head. Then he reached for another.

 

"Who do you work for? Why do you even care about some stupid dealer?" 

 

He nocked the next arrow and took aim. He let it fly, hitting to the other side of the soldier's head.

 

"Don't make me repeat myself."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Aw, c'mon, you don't need to bring me... Just, leave me tied up somewhere or something? C'mon, its fine!" Billy sounded like he wanted to be anywhere but there right now. Somehow being taken away would be better than going to see the soldier.

 

The soldier flinched as the first arrow hit, but he kept silent. Then he saw Shooting Star and Billy, and the other arrow hit, just that much closer.

 

"... Alright... We're just hired help, never saw the guy, but we got our marching orders from a warehouse in Southside, by Kissinger. No idea why they cared that much about some punk dealer..."

Edited March 2, 2021 by RocketLord

[Kaede Kimura]

Alice grimaced as she thought about just how little they knew. Neither Billy or the gunman knew much, all they had was the drop point which she didn't give good chances of being in use after tonight. The other thing was that Billy wasn't passing his money upwards or he would've mentioned it, so obviously the guy in charge didn't care about the money. She didn't want to discuss with Archer where the goons could hear them, but having the opinion of a significantly older hero would definitely be valuable. She waved him outside where the gunmen were all unconscious and covered Billy's ears with her hands. She didn't want to let him go to cause more trouble, and they'd have to be rather loud for sound to penetrate through her hands.

 

"Based on what Billy said, whoever is supplying him has some motivation other than money or else he'd have been taking a cut instead of giving him the supply for free. And based on the fact that they sent mercenaries he really wants supply undisturbed. So what could he be after? Could he be putting something else in the Amazo? If so what it was would depend on what he wants, the most common one for things like this is what? Mind control?" She gulped at the thought of that, thinking about the Amazo she took earlier. If it was for something like mind control then she'd be one of the many who got taken over. If it was the case if they got advanced warning maybe she could try to escape the range by utilizing her enormous speeds to avoid the control range. "What do you think, Archer? And what should our next move be? I doubt the warehouse is going to be used after what happened so I doubt a stakeout would be useful. We could try drawing them out by getting the other dealers, but given their method of recruitment it would be like playing whack-a-mole."

[RocketLord]

Archer II

 

Connor followed. Cops were probably on the way. A STAR squad too, maybe. The gunfire was sure to have drawn attention, and he didn't want to stick around if he could help it, but he followed anyway. For now, at least.

 

And Shooting Star put her hands over the rapidly shrinking boy's ears and... just started talking. And talking. And talking.

 

Great.

 

When she finally stopped, Archer had crossed his arms and just waited.

 

"Warehouse is the first place to look, even if its empty by now." She had all kinds of ideas, alright. "Not the first time I've dealt with Amazo, but if that guy's hopped up on it, then its gotten better." He frowned and shook his head. "You can fly. How fast can you get us to Southside? I know someone that might be able to help out."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Archer sent a message to the friend he had mentioned, then, with a groan, had agreed to let Shooting Star carry him, as long as they made a stop along the way.

 

Not long after, they were off. It was time to end this.