ic The Steel Strike (IC)

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

Rath & Stromberg Plaza in Wading Way, Freedom City

October 24th, 2021

3:32 AM

 

The doors to Rath and Stromberg caved in, a group of four standing in the entrance. A tall man in a trenchcoat and welder's mask stood silhouetted, an enormous rifle smoking in his large, gauntleted hands. The red lenses of his mask were glowing red. Behind him stood a titan of a man, ten feet tall and plated in armour from head to toe. On his shoulders sat a small, brunette woman with a vulpine grin and a fluffy mane of hair, a domino mask covering her eyes. Finally, there was another woman, surrounded by soft green light, who didn't seem to be very interested in the events unfolding.

 

Those who'd been paying attention to their phones would have seen the clips caught on phones of this group doing a series of smash and grabs across Freedom, sometimes teleporting in, others simply running or driving across the city. After a short dramatic pause they started marching inside, the lead man talking as he walked.

 

"Everyone on the ground, and hands where we can see them. Don't try to be a hero, I'm sure the professionals are on the way. Just stay down, we'll take what we're after and be out of your hair. Stay quiet and none of you will be in any danger." The words were calm and measured. Clinical.

 

The grinning woman laughed slightly before speaking up. "Come on Shadey-"

 

"Don't call me that."

 

" -we're robbin' a bank! You can live a little! Have some fun! Come on, back me up Anarchilles."

 

The large, armoured man, Anarchilles, laughed. It was a sound like a volcano erupting. "I wouldn't mind having some fun." The glowing woman just mumbled something unintelligible.

 

Ignoring them Steel Shade just marched forwards, knocking out a pair of security guards who tried to intercept him and striding past the reception desk. Just as he was about to head through a Staff Only door, he turned to the trio. "Keep the heroes busy for the next two minutes. Non-lethal only. Don't hurt the civillians."

 

To the tones of some more mumbling and a cheery "You gots it boss!" He disappeared through the doors.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Kaede Kimura

[Spacefurry]

Paper

“See, that’s what I’m talking about.”
A short ways from the bank, Leon grinned and praised the foot long, bean covered hot dog as he accepted it from the street vender.

”Told you to trust me. These are the best chili-dogs in town.”

Raising the delicious, smothered meat tube in bread, Leon was about to take a bite. Suddenly, something down the street caused a ripple of commotion to ripple down the sidewalk. Leon glanced down the street in its direction.

“Hm?”

[Lone_Star]

Outrider

 

"Well, you know I'm always up for trying new things. This smells amazing." Since Nevermore took her out for an ill-fated outing to the mall, she had been obsessed with trying the best of Freedom City's so-called "junk food". Though she couldn't understand why it was called junk - if it gave her calories to get through the day, what was wrong with it? And if she got kicked out of the cafeteria for puking after she ate three whole pizzas by herself, how could she be blamed? Pizza was good.

 

She heard the commotion in the distance, too, but she was not about to be cheated out of junk food again. She crammed the hot dog in her mouth, devouring it in a matter of seconds. "Mmmyeah I heard," she said, spraying bits of bun everywhere. Her table manners, even now, were still slipshod at best, and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Let's go!"

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice had been pursuing the group across the city and each time they escaped just as she got there. She couldn't make out why they were going where they were hitting either. It's not like Gaming Stores and Brokering Firms were prime places to rob. She knew Aaron was smarter than this, so why was he hitting these places?

 

Putting the thought out of her mind she started to fly into the sky on a ballistic trajectory to reach Rath and Stromburg with a minimum of collateral damage from her supersonic speeds.

 

She caught her momentum moments before she would've crushed the concrete to powder and landed outside the Plaza. She may not know why they were here, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to stop them.

[RocketLord]

This was insane.

 

Robin was acting insane.

 

A bunch of freaking super villains comes crashing through the street, smashing into her shop and stealing a bunch of things that were actually not quite worth that much? They threaten her a bit before leaving, and then, what does she do? Stay back and call the cops?

 

No, no, no. That would be the sensible thing to do. No, instead she grabbed that weird belt with a couple of scales on it that she found in the backroom earlier, the pack of cards that came with it, and started running after them.

 

Yeah. Yeah, that was just absolutely brilliant. Go chasing after the freaking super villains.

 

What was she going to do about them, anyway? Throw board game pieces at them?

[Nerdzul]

"Yeah... not bad..." Luke nodded absentmindedly at his rommate. 

 

On any other day, the prospect of a generous amount of junk food would have definitely gathered his interest, but this time, well, there was a more pressing issue at hand. 

 

A date. Dinner and Movie out with Muirne. Next Saturday. Awesome on paper, but there was only a tiny bit of a problem. He was broke. Well, more broke than usual. Like, pocket change broke. The hard earned cash from his summer job had finally ran out and truth was, well, finding a new part-time gig to raise more had proven too be more of an hassle than he expected. 

 

I must be the only broke dragon in history.

 

Not many were eager to hire a kid with a criminal record and who between school and superhero stuff didn't exactly have much of an accommodating schedule. 

Of course he knew of a way or two to raise some cash quickly. But neither were exactly moral and his new principles prevented him from using unsavory mean.

 

Perhaps I can bum some from Leon. 

Wouldn't that be like... well... just outsourcing the crime? His friend did have a way more cavalier outlook after all. 

 

El maybe? Yeah interdimentional refugees were usually loaded weren't they?

 

Plus he hated the idea of being in debt anyway.

 

The young man was still immerse in his thought when he sensed the commotion. Whatever. It was time for some action.

It was coming from a bank or some other businessy place down the road.  

 

Hey maybe if I help they will let me keep some cash... Not likely though...

 

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Nerdzul

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

The trio of teen heroes charged at the same time as Shooting Star arrived, all four charging inside at roughly the same time. Robin, unfortunately was still down the street, puffing hard as she ran. Inside the teens found a trio of villains, and several civilians. One of whom apparently had the guts to correct the group of supervillains.

 

"Um, this isn't a bank, miss. It's a brokerage firm. They are very different things."

 

"Oh, I know. So does Tall, Dark and Steely, but it's fun to get under his skin."

 

"Wait, they are? So Steel Shade isn't going to like, crack open a safe or something right now? How are we getting money here, like, I'm happy to get a good fight, but lots of money would be nice."

 

"We didn't get money from that gaming store."

 

"No, but we saved a killing on booster packs and minis. I don't know about you, but I don't see any of them here."

 

As the pair were apparently doing a comic routine in front of the heroes, the glowing girl looked at the heroes, silently.

[RocketLord]

The minis and cards they had stolen weren't even that expensive. Just... kinda regular stuff, really. Insurance should cover it! They didn't even grab all the good stuff, just what was around.

 

Robin was in good shape. She exercised regularly, went running, parkour, lots of stuff, but she had been running for a while when she continued down the street.

 

She still wasn't sure why she was doing it. Or how that weird belt and pack of cards had shown up in her shop, anyway. She hadn't bought it. Was in the back, where she had hid when the villains showed up and... that weird note? Looked like her own hand writing.

 

"Put it on. Scan the cards. You'll know what to do."

 

It was weird. And she was insane for actually chasing down the villains. She should just let some actual super heroes deal with it, right?

 

What kind of super villains stole stuff from a comic and game store, anyway?

[Spacefurry]

“Did I miss something?”

Paper asked no one in particular as the teens watched the back and forth. He looked over at his teammates before noticing the extra hero with them.

”Who the hell is that?”

He thought to himself.

”Pretty cute.”

He shook his head. He’d have to introduce himself later.

“Hey, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. You and the wallflower going to come along quietly or we doing this the fun way?”

Paper fanning out in his hands, ready to use.

 

Edited October 28, 2021 by Spacefurry

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice took a moment to notice that she wasn't the only one storming the building, recognizing Outrider and Nightscale but not the other guy. "Oh, it's you two, who's your friend?" Not like it super mattered provided that he was here to help. She knew Aaron was here, but none of these guys were people she'd seen before.

 

"If you want a fight, I'm happy to oblige."

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

The bickering villains stopped pretty quickly when Paper and Shooting Star spoke up, looking over at the four standing at the entrance, while the glowing woman seemed to lose focus and started to slowly look around.

 

"Well, I guess if I'm not getting payed I can at least get a good fight! Do y'all wanna go one at a time or all at once?"

 

The masked woman gives an exaggerated sigh, "Just punch someone, Anarchilles."

 

"The person you were before rains heavily."

 

The armoured titan looked back at the floating woman, before turning back to the group. "With that noted, do you still wanna fight?" He falls into a clumsy fighting pose, his fists closed and held tensely in front of him, no real skill present. His conversational companion instead draws a deck of trading cards, grinning as she pulls a small handful from it.

[Spacefurry]

Paper grinned mischievously.

“Fun way it is.”

He shot Nightscale and Outrider a glance.

”Nightscale, you got the big guy. Outrider, help get the civilians outta harm’s way. I’ll take the card collector. Think you can bat clean-up, cape?”

The last bit he said a little louder, glancing over at Shooting Star. As far as he knew the floating woman was the last villain on site. He didn’t know there’s was another one deeper inside.  Nor did he know another hero was soon to join them. But he was confident the odds were in their favor already.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Spacefurry

[Nerdzul]

Luke winced as he listened to the supervillains talking about miniatures and trading cards. What the?

 

"Neeeerds!" He grinned playfully. 

 

It did look though like there wasn't much money to be saved at the building. A shame if you asked him, given that the chance of getting a reward was way slimmer now (not that he would not do his duty as a superhero for free of course, but well...). 

 

"Oh, it's you two, who's your friend?" 

 

"Hey!" The young man smiled. "It's a freakin' small world ain't it?" 

 

"This is Paper..." Luke introduced Leon. "Paper... this is Shooting Star... we have kicked some asses together." He grinned, in truth, the fight with creepshow and his monsters hadn't exactly been a walk in the park, but then again, Leon didn't need to know that.

 

Now of course, he would have loved to spend some time to catch up with what she has been doing since the last time they saw each other. But then again, even if they didn't look exactly serious, there were supervillains to catch.

 

He nodded as Paper spelled out a plan. Fine. He will go for the big one.

 

"Well, I guess if I'm not getting payed I can at least get a good fight! Do y'all wanna go one at a time or all at once?"

 

"Dunno, what about you guys?" Luke clenched his fists, as his eyes revealed the supernatural gold underneath.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Nerdzul

[RocketLord]

Way. Too. Fast. 

 

What were those people up to anyway? Random smash and grabs or something like that?

 

Robin paused, bending over and breathing heavily. Why was she carrying this belt, anyway? She snapped it on, around her waist.

 

The belt felt kinda of heavy, but not, like, heavy? Like, not a physical weight, a kind of responsibility, maybe? It was hard to describe.

 

Up ahead, they had gone into a bank or something and a bunch of kids had followed? Had to be heroes, right? They should be fine, but... Robin couldn't help it.

 

Taking a deep breath, she started running again.

[Nerdzul]

Nightscale didn't wait for the supervillains to take the first shot, instead, he dashed against the one who had challenged them, calling for his wings to propel himself briefly in the air so that he could fall directly on Anarchilles with all his weight, unleashing a gust of wind as he landed, hopefully enough to unbalance his target. 

[Spacefurry]

Paper

 

Leon lunges forward, his hand sweeping in an arch before him. A handful of index card sized pieces of paper flew straight, the paper metal stiff and sharp. Unfortunately, Paper’s aim was a bit wide and they missed their intended target. The paper struck the wall behind the card collector looking villain and sunk into the plaster.

Paper grumbled under his breath as he readied to defend himself. Staff held out before him one handed as his other hand reached for more paper from his jacket.