ic Harsh Words

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The Fens

Evening

Early March 2022

 

The Fens was in chaos. A pair of super villains had made the district into their own personal battlefield, fighting through the the streets, the rooftops and anywhere they could.

 

One of them was a man in light brown cargo pants and full face mask, with a slightly lighter brown cape and yellow glasses, a black trenchcoat over the rest of his clothes. He was heavily armed, with a pair of rifles strapped to his back and handguns in his hands. He was flipping around, shooting and shouting, laughing and having the time of his life.

 

The other was a man in completely black costume , with letters in different fonts, forms and colors that seemed to move and shift all over it. He made noises, and words sprang to life before him, letters appearing in the air before him taking on the properties of the words that he spoke. SHIELD to block the shots, BOOM to blow things up. He didn't say much, aside from that, but he was throwing everything he had at his opponent.

 

Somebody would have to do something to save the Fens!

Edited March 11, 2022 by RocketLord

[Sophistemon]

IMPACT

 

This wasn't Grant's idea of a good time. Impact, his superhero alter-ego, was used to taking on thugs and wannabe gangsters -- and they were usually kids his own age! These guys, though, were actually super-villains, and at least one of them had real, honest-to-God super-powers to worry about. Grant's mask felt hot against his face, and he could tell his hands were sweating in his fingerless gloves. But, as he watched bullets and explosive typography disturb the relative peace in the Fens, he was reminded of the day of violence that took his brother and revealed his own powers. Suddenly, Grant's blood ran hot. Impact took a series of quick shallow breaths to psyche himself up, felt his skintight force-shield wrap around his body, and stepped out into the open.

 

"Hey!" he shouted. "You two! Pack it up and head somewhere else! These streets are off-limits!"

Edited March 2, 2022 by Sophistemon

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

“Let’s go slumming, she said. It’ll be fun, she said. We can avoid any trouble, she said.”

Jennifer was grumbling about her roommate. Jamie had talked her into going for drinks in the seedy part of town, thinking it would be fun and exciting. That girl was going to be the death of her, even if she was like a sister.

 

Silver-gray tendrils wrapped around her body protectively as she ran through the alleys. The techno-organic symbiote covering the upper half of her face. She had made sure Jamie was in a cab back to the apartment before running off. Thank goodness she went with the jeans instead of the skirt she thought to herself.

She was following the sounds of the fight until she luckily spotted the combatants as they crossed over head of the alley. Chimera leapt up and grabbed onto the old fire escape, wincing as it creaked under her sudden weight. She pulled herself up and ran up the steps, half in a hurry to stop the fight and half out of fear that it was going to fall out from under her.

On the rooftop she pauses to look around.

 

“Did… did that man just produce the word ‘Boom’?”

An explosion tore off part of the roof ledge on the next building over.

“Shit!”

Chimera ducked reflexively even though she wasn’t close enough to worry about debris. She wasn’t sure which was more dangerous the words or the guns, but she had to stop this before someone got hurt.

 

Chimera took a deep breath and charged across the rooftop and leapt across to their rooftop. The two were already back in the street below as she skidded to a stop at the edge of the roof.

“Couldn’t they just stay put?” 

From where she stood she saw another masked person approach the two.

“Great, not another one.”

She grumbled until she heard the newcomer yell for the two to stop. 

“Okay, maybe he can be helpful. She didn’t recognize him, but any help is still help… right?”

She hoped as much as she stepped back and jumped down, landing on a parked car. The roof caved in on impact, cushioning her landing but she cursed. She had forgotten about her wings. She still needed to practice using them. 

“Insurance would cover that… wouldn’t it.”

She thought ruefully.

 

She didn’t have time to dwell on that. She stood up on top of the caved-in car, making a square out of the four of them. She added her own ultimatum. 

“You heard him, stand down and walk away.”

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The two super humans stopped fighting for the moment. The man with the letters were holding a pair of metallic letters in his hands, a pair of A's, while the man in brown tilted his head slightly to the side.

 

"oooh. are you the bonus round?" 

 

The man in brown raised the guns in his hands.

 

"NOOOOO!"

 

The other man turned around as he screamed, a razor sharp metallic N followed by a large number of O's flying everywhere, towards the man in brown, Chimera and Impact.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Pushed back for a moment by the sudden shout and the letters flying everywhere, the man in brown flipped around, leaping through the air and setting off from the letters that were now floating everywhere around them, balancing on them as he moved.

 

 

"don't kill steal, noobs." 

 

He started shooting his guns at Chimera while he moved across the floating letters, bullets flying everywhere around her, clearly favoring quantity over quality. 

[Sophistemon]

IMPACT

 

Bullets fly in a haphazard burst, filling the air with speeding death, and Grant's blood begins to boil when the new arrival only just avoids being struck. "This is stupid," he mutters to himself. "This is stupid, this is stupid, this is..." He takes a deep breath, and then bellows. "Are you nuts? Somebody's gonna get hurt!" He can sense, rather than feel, his force-shield pool around his right hand. It's a subtle pressure, a heavy weightlessness, that he's come to enjoy. He gathers it up and then thrusts his hand toward the gun-toting lunatic, pushing his telekinetic armor outward in a speeding column of crushing force. It's like a battering ram of frosted glass, only barely visible against the backdrop of the city. He could have shaped it into something else -- a scything blade, a piercing spearhead -- but the point is to take this joker down, not take him out.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Cheat Code didn't even seem to care about what Impact was doing, the battering ram passing right through him.

 

For his part, Wordsmith looked at Cheat Code and Impact for a moment, then stared directly at Chimera and held his hands out to his sides.

 

"STICKY!"

 

The word appeared in the air as he yelled, a slimy green color, flying towards Chimera and spreading out, pushing against her and sticking to her, sticking her to the ground if she didn't manage to avoid the letters.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera 

 

Chimera gave a small squeak as Cheat Code began spraying bullets wildly. She raised her arms, the symbiote spreading over her flesh protectively. It was close, the bullets slammed into the techno-organic material a fraction of a second later. It stung, but she was unhurt. When the hail of gunfire stopped, Chimera lowered her arms and the symbiote retreated back to just the tendrils that wrapped around her.
“Hey, watch it! you could hurt someone like that.”

With a grunt she hopped down off the car, took all of two steps when Wordsmith turned on her. She froze for a moment, not sure what to expect from the villain. When he spread his arms, she raised her’s again. Too late she realized what he’d said. Chimera reacted instinctively, jumping backwards only to find the dented car at her back.

She didn’t have time to dodge again when the slimy green word plastered her. It’s sticky substance covered her nearly completely. It pinned her to the car and street, sticking her to the spot.

“Eww, eww, eww…”

Chimera repeated as she found herself helpless. She shook her head what little she could. Taking a deep breath she calmed herself and called up her strength, trying to free herself with a show of strength. She grunted and strain, but it was to no avail as she found she couldn’t force her way free of the sticky slime.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Cheat Code stood perfectly still as the battering ram passed through him. He just looked at Impact for a moment, and he could almost swear he could see a grin through Cheat Code's mask.

 

"lol. noclip, noob." 

 

He quickly raised but his guns again and took aim, raining a seemingly endless number of bullets down over Impact, while he started to sink into the ground, eventually disappearing completely. 

[Sophistemon]

IMPACT

Grant trusts in his shield, and it doesn't fail him. Cheat Code's hail of bullets are stopped dead by the telekinetic barrier and fall, intact but harmless, to the street. "It's not skill if it's cheating, jerk!" the teenager bellows, furious at the slipperiness of his opponent. He turns on the other, the one with the physical words, and gathers force in his palms. Bringing his hands together, Impact swings another column of telekinesis in a wide arc, missing Wordsmith by a sizeable margin but leaving a jagged trench in the asphalt. Grant swears, loudly enough for Chimera to hear, and breathes heavily. "Okay. Round two."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Wordsmith had started moving towards Chimera, but the blast sent in his direction distracted him. He slowly turned his head in Impact's direction, the various letters moving all across his costume, even across his otherwise feature less mask that left his face blank.

 

"Cut!"

 

Three large letters appeared out of nowhere above him, then went flying towards Impact, spinning as they moved. Luckily, it seemed like Wordsmith was more about force than finesse, with all three letters landing in the ground around Impact, rather than hitting him.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Chimera continued to struggle against the sticky remnants of Wordsmith’s attack. She was cursing under her breath, tired of winding up on the losing end of villainous encounters. Maybe she should reconsider the whole ‘hero’ thing. Jamie would just talk her into staying with it.

Once more she took a breath and summoned up the enhanced strength grant to her by the symbiote. With a goal of effort she tried again to break free of her sticky prison. She strained for a long moment, she felt something strain with her. She thought she hear something snap but couldn’t be sure. But in the end she was still left panting and stuck.

She could only watch as Wordsmith turned on Impact. She still didn’t know who the other man was… Other man?

She just realized she couldn’t see the gun nut. She looked around, trying to spot Cheat Code.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Impact and Chimera could hear muffled sounds from below the street, like weapons being fired, maybe somebody cursing and making disparaging comments about their mothers.

 

The next thing they knew, bullets came flying out of the street, flying all over in a chaotic pattern, like they weren't being aimed as much as just shot in random directions.

 

It was either a cunning plan, or just very very bad shooting. 

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

Chimera heard a light thump behind her, as of someone dropping onto the roof of the car she was pinned to by Wordsmith's foul goo. "Ugh, you hate to see someone stuck to a Nissan Cube; it's such a stupid looking car!" The voice sounded young, female, and with a very strong South Jersey accent. Then there was a bit of a whoosh as a nimble figure clad in black and midnight blue did a backflip and landed before the symbiotic heroine. A tiny girl, barely over five feet, with spikey auburn hair and a domino mask, bowed deeply at the waist.

 

"Grimalkin, Mistress of Mystery, at your service! Let me get you out of this nightmare."

 

The fae heroine flicked out her hands, and wicked talons made of pure shadow appeared on her fingertips. With a feral growl, she leaped up into the air, and slashed the foul bindings from Chimera without so much as touching her.

 

"There you go, free as a bird! Now let's go f### these losers up, huh?" Her wink and eager grin suggested she was ready to play rough.

Edited March 12, 2022 by Heritage

[Sophistemon]

IMPACT

 

Grant yelps and skitters to one side and then the other as both razor-sharp words slash the ground around him, and then bullets surge up from beneath the street. He remembers, a moment too late to stop from embarrassing himself, that's he's practically invulnerable to small-arms fire, and curses himself for the instinct. Hearing speech behind him, he looks over a shoulder to see a new woman free the constricted teenager. His teenaged heart starts thumping and he swallows a sudden feeling of nervousness. Had she seen him miss his previous shot? If so, he'd need to make up for it. He raises both hands above his head, concentrates to conjure up an impressively girthy pillar of telekinetic energy, and then swings it down on Wordsmith like a toppling redwood. "Eat this!"

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Sophistemon

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

"Yo, Chimichanga! How's it going?" 

 

Ghost came diving down from above, feet first, making a quick stop by Grimalkin and Chimera, waving at them briefly, though he was clearly adressing Chimera. Noticing the kid attacking Wordsmith, he shook his head. Yeah, of course. A freaking super kid was getting into trouble alongside Chimera here, and some guy in brown was down below, shooting at all of them. He'd figure out what was going on later.

 

"Wordsmith gotta speak to use his powers, find some way to shut him up and you got him."

 

He looked down, the goggles on his suit glowing. He had changed them somewhat since the last time Chimera had met him, though Grimalkin had seen his slightly updated look. 

 

"You guys go high, I'll go low."

 

Almost like he hadn't even been there, Ghost sunk into the solid ground below. The guy in brown was ghosting, like him, or maybe some other way. Which probably meant that he could touch Casper, if he wanted to. Didn't mean Casper wasn't going to go at him anyway, flying through the ground and reaching out, passing his hand through the guy's chest and scrambling his nervous system.

Edited March 12, 2022 by RocketLord

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"SHIELD!" 

 

Wordsmith lifted his arm, and hte word appeared in the shape of a classic three pointed shield that blocked the telekinetic pillar entirely, before pushing it off to the side, slamming into the street next to him.

 

He glared at Impact for a moment, his eyes momentarily darting to Grimalkin freeing Chimera, and then widening as he Ghost for a moment before he disappeared.

 

"OOOOOO!" 

 

A circle appeared around his body, dark blue with red lightning marks, then quickly spread out in a wider circle from him, threatening to hit all the assembled heroes but Ghost, pushing them back if it hit them.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

"What the...?"

Chimera was completely surprised but Grimalkin's sudden appearance and visibly flinched as the heroine's claws tore through her sticky binding. The girl couldn't have been much older then herself at a glance. Recovering from her initial surprise, Chimera nods in agreement.

"Sounds like a plan."

Pulling herself free of her temporary prison she was again surprise but the sudden appearance of a familiar, white clad hero. Chimera groaned audibly after Ghost greeted them and sank into the street. This was going to be the second time she looked like a fool in front of him.

"I hope he didn't see me like that."

She wished uselessly, positive that he had.

 

And it wasn't going to be helped as Chimera realized she wasn't paying attention and Wordsmith's attack nearly hit her squarely. She reacted too late and found herself clipped by one of the O's, being slammed back into the car. The impact dazed her and she steadied herself on against the car's hood.

 

She was going to feel real guilty about this when the owner came out to find their vehicle trashed because of her.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Cheat Code has seen Ghost diving towards him, but he didn't really have time to react before the haunting hero passed through his chest. His entire body shook as he yelled out in pain, struggling in the concrete. He shouted out some choice obscenities about Ghost's mother and what he had done to Ghost's mother, before pausing, realizing that, aside from the sharp pain shooting through him, he had another issue.

 

He actually needed to breathe, and there wasn't really any air in solid ground like this.

[Heritage]

Grimalkin

 

Chimera could perhaps take some comfort in the fact that Wordsmith's bizarre attack had also slammed her erstwhile rescuer into the same Nissan Cube, leaving her own changeling-sized dent in the driver's side door.

 

"Shit, that smarts!"

 

Prying herself out of car, Grim shook her head and snarled, showing of shape-shifting of a scary set nasty big pointy teeth. Jumping up in the air, she fllipped end over end before landing in a crouch before the word conjurer.

 

"Buddy, you are just super annoying, and I need you to shut the HELL UP!"

 

On the last phrase, the fae heroine's jaw stretched open impossibly wide and her face went full-on Captain Howdy, the transformation as sudden as it was terrifying.

[Sophistemon]

IMPACT

 

Not so lucky as to strike a car, Grant is blown backwards by Wordsmith's O and lands roughly on his butt, skidding several feet. The only thing sparing him a painful -- and embarrassing! -- trip to the hospital is his force-shield, which he silently thanks as he clambers back to his feet. "Okay," he says. "Payback." Seeing an opportunity, and wanting to make a better impression, the young hero approaches the paralyzed villain and wills his telekinetic field to swell in his hands. "Not so tough now, smart guy?" he asks. "Maybe thinking twice about bringing your beef to the street?" He brings his hands together and the field expands into a basketball-sized sphere of nigh-indestructible mass. "Somebody could have gotten killed!" Gritting his teeth, Impact swivels in a pivot and swings that wrecking ball of telekinetic energy into Wordsmith's chest.

[RocketLord]

GHOST

 

Casper moved around the man in brown as he cursed. The guy could clearly see him, but the concrete and dirt around them kind of prevented any of the muffled sounds he made from making any kind of sense. But, y'know. That was fine. That was cool. Casper didn't need to hear him to know that he was pissed off, and obviously in pain.

 

Normally, Casper wouldn't like to leave people in pain, but this guy didn't care who he hit, so...

 

Screw him.

 

Darting around him, Casper tried to catch him off guard as he reached out to touch him once more, scrambling the guy's nervous system with another well placed touch.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Under the ground, Cheat Code's body shook for a moment, and then, he stopped moving. At least his powers seemed to keep him intangible while underground, avoiding an otherwise rather messy fate.

 

Wordsmith, despite having been the original target, was not faring much better. The moment he saw Grimalkin's sudden change, he froze in place. His mouth was open, but he didn't make a sound, even as the wrecking ball of telekinetic energy hit his chest. It barely even seemed to phase him.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Chimera pulled herself out of the dent in the Nissan and found her feet. Now she was mad. She couldn’t see Cheat Code anywhere, nor Ghost. She figured he had the gun but in hand, she wasn’t hearing anymore gunfire.

She eyed Wordsmith and focused her anger. She stalked towards him, fists clenched in rage. These two could have hurt innocent bystanders, hell for all she knew they already had and she just didn’t know it.

She felt the crackle of electricity across her forearms and hands. She really need to learn to control this power better. Not unlike remembering to practice with her wings. When she reach the other two with the word-based villain she slammed her open palm into the man’s chest.

Electricity crackled as she made contact and Chimera smiled. The smile quickly faltered as the charge seemed to discharge sporadically, barely getting any reaction from Wordsmith.

Chimera stepped back and cursed. She just wasn’t strong enough, she knew it. She was just embarrassing herself in front of two new people.

[Heritage]

Grimalkin 

 

A clearly very frustrated Grim growled from deep inside petite chest, sounding more like an angry leopard than a girl from Jersey.

 

"How the hell are you still standing?!"

 

She summoned a large mallet out of thin air, stripped in black and midnight blue like her costume, but with a stylized grinning cat on the front of the head. She then wound up like a batter at the plate and smacked Wordsmith upside the head with it, which somehow yielded a metallic CLONG.