ic Precious Metals (IC)

[Supercape]

GM

 

5th December

Millenial Mall

 

It was right around rush hour, and the mall was packed with Christmas shoppers. Yuletide songs and jingles floated through the air, and it seemed every dozen yards there was a Santa Claus trying to sell something. 

 

ZAP! ZAM! ZAP! ZAM!

 

Golden beams streaked across the hall. One hit an ice-cream stall, which exploded into silver coins. Another hit a christmas tree, which showered golden needles across the floor. 

 

One whizzed right past Michael Adon's face, and turned a shoppers bag into purest platinum. The shopper let it go with a dull thud, eyes widened before she realised just how potentially rich she was. 

 

"ITS CHRISTMAS!" came the yell. 

 

A youngish man, dressed in orange and gold, maybe in his twenties, a little on the short side but trim. Around the crown of his head, a wreath of pure shining gold. Even his eyes shone gold. 

 

He blew imaginary smoke out of both fingertips, and then started (with said fingertips) firing more golden beams around the mall, turning objects into silver, gold, and platinum. 

 

Precious metals for all! 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Supercape

[Poncho]

Michael had been dressed as an elf at this moment! He had volunteered to be an elf helper for a Santa, which mostly involved wrangling scared kids and helping the frazzled parents who needed it by taking control momentarily. He was a nice, helpful guy like that, so it wasn't too much of an issue. But it also meant he was right in the middle of a crowd of kids as a young man started committing an act of...well he wasn't actually causing crimes, but people were probably going to start fighting over all this money if someone didn't maintain order, and people could get hurt in that context; a Black Friday stampede again. He took the hand of a few children as the beams shot by and smiled.

"Alright, this is going to delay our Santa Line just a little bit, so can you all sit here and wait patiently while I go see what's going on with this new friend of ours?" He asked them as he carefully headed off, picking his way through the crowd. Since he was moving away from the man currently dousing the mall in gold, he was having to fight the crowd, but he had enhanced strength and speed, so he could slip through the crowd going one way without too much issue. When he got around a corner, he changed his suit quickly and wound his watch. He didn't need the time just yet, he figured. This guy wasn't hurting people. He had used about 15 minutes already today, but if he needed the time he would be ready for it.

 

He floated down from above one of the Christmas trees like the star on it had come to life to calm the situation, his cloak flapping in the wind as he floated down on a red and gold corona that looked almost like Christmas magic, until he came to a stop in front of a shining silver Christmas tree, his bright white suit and red boots playing off the various precious metals and Christmas decorations in the area.

 

"Sir, can I request you calm down? I do not mind giving those in need additional assistance, but perhaps we can do this in a less haphazard way?" he asked, raising his hands in a calming gesture at the man. "I am Golden Star, I'm pretty new around here, so you may not know me, but I assure you we can determine a reasonable way to handle this."

Edited December 4, 2023 by Poncho

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Golden Star?" laughed the man. Closer up, Michael could see the man was probably in his late twenties or thereabouts. Blonde, olive skinned, with chiselled cheekbones. Handsome, and the golden fizz of energy around him and his wreath only added to his impression. 

 

"Bah! Spoiling Christmas! Isn't this the season to give to the needy? Pow! Zam! Abracadbra!"

 

Three more golden beams turned various objects into precious metals. 

 

"But I'm not one to monologue. I'm the hero, you are the villain. I'm not going to stop, and you aren't going to stop me! Wheeee!"

 

And he was off!

 

Running on fizzing gold boots with the speed of a sports car, golden beams still firing off chaotically. Not so accurate this time; the beams were turning objects not just into gold and silver, but festive ornaments, too! A Child's buggy turned into a christmas tree, complete with screaming child in its brances. A teenagers mobile phone turned into sprig of mistletoe, causing the teenager to panic at the loss of social media. 

 

A security guard tried to aim his taser, but it turned into a christmas bauble!

[Poncho]

"Wait why did you laugh. Do you think my name is dumb?" The hero asked, concerned. Then the man took off and he had barely raised a hand to try and make him stop. "Wait! Hang on!" He called. "Slow down!"

 

He had to pause to untangle the child from the branches and sooth him "it's okay. It's okay. I've got you." He said to him carefully before putting him down. He couldn't do anything for the teenager though, so he flew off after the fleeing man.

 

"I'm not trying to stop you! I just think we can do this in a more efficient way, possibly with less uh, festive chaos!" Then his knowledge of high school economics kicked in. "Also the reason those metals are valuable is because of their scarcity! If you make too much of it the value will collapse and they won't be worth anything anyway! Which I think would defeat your purpose here maybe!?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Pfah! Details, details! Always with the details. Economics this, economics that, blah blah blah. Why don't you take that Christmas Tree sized stick out from your backside and appreciate a little joy!"

 

Indeed, some peoples' greed exceeded their fear, and those people were trying to gather up as much precious metal as possible. 

 

It was a depresisngly large number. 

 

"Tralalala-lalalalaaaa" sang the man. "'Tis the season to be Greedy, tra-la-la-la-la lalalalaaaaa"

 

He hurtled down some escalators to the lowest level of the mall, skating along the surface with golden light footsteps, as fast as a ferrari. Making for, of all things, the car park!

 

"I've got the Midas touch, oooh yeah, the Midas touch baby!" he continued. "A few happy customers are going to get a vehicular upgrade, chum! OK, so maybe you cant actually drive a solid gold car, but I cant see anyone complaining, can you?"

[Poncho]

"I recognize that it's a boring answer but it is the correct one!" He complained back. Then the other youth took off and it was quickly clear Michael had no chance of catching him, not like this anyway, and he was quickly left in the dust.

 

"Okay, okay." He complained to himself. "Talking doesn't seem to be working." So he stood up and reached into the one pocket he had on his suit. When he hit the button on the watch, it started to tick. And with each tick Michael took a deep breath and let power fill him from his heart to his fingers and toes. His hair went from brown to rose gold, and his eyes took on the color of red gold. He was comfortable in the ticking of the watch to remind him how much time he had left as he looked around.

 

"Everyone, please don't fight! There certainly seems to be enough treasure for everyone, so there's no use harming each other for it. Please be calm!" Then he realized he was losing the man causing all this trouble, and he had to rush after him, sprinting to try and follow him into the parking lot.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The man in orange was whizzing along, almost a blur. In a matter of seconds he was at the entrance to the car park. Like a bolt of lightning, he slammed through the revolving door causing it to spin like a fan on overdrive. 

 

He paused one second, firing off a golden beam and turning the door, the glass, the walls to SOLID SILVER!

 

It cost him time, but he had the head start. Golden Star was only a second or two behind when he was met with the wall of solid silver. 

 

Some pedestrians gasped at the sight. A few more enterprising ones started chipping away, with recently purchased DIY gifts for Dad, and, in one act of desperation, with her nail file. 

 

Maybe Golden Star was faster, but how was he to get through the wall of silver? Every second... and the man in orange would be hundreds of feet away!

[Poncho]

A wall of solid silver! A mall of solid silver! And he was trapped! Like a Rat! A rat in a suspiciously shiny and expensive cage, like he was owned by a rich heiress or something! And all he had was his fists and a time limit.

 

Wait! His fists! He had his fists, and he had muscles! He aimed at the place where the door was spinning, hoping that there was some sort of way he could knock the offending revolving door out of the entire mall without disrupting the entire building. He now really hoped Dr. Metropolis could reverse this guy turning things to Silver because otherwise this entire Mall could collapse; he knew from his dad that people built things out of specific materials for specific reasons! There was a point to the fact malls were made out of concrete and steel instead of silver and platinum!

[Poncho]

Adjusting his angle as he flew towards the wall, he angled down and towards the offending revolving door. He channeled all of his force from holding himself aloft into his muscles, into the mitochondria that were supercharged by the manaka root, into each and every one of his cells. His entire body hummed like a live wire as he stopped flying and started falling. He was the color of fire and molten gold as he fell like a localized comet, his shoulder impacting the door with the force of a locomotive. The Silver was rent, letting out the shriek of metal as he tore the entire door- and a significant portion of the front of the mall- off the rest of it in his explosive exit, as he caught himself to avoid rolling to a stop; he slipped and skidded on wet, icy pavement, trying to arrest his momentum, and then started running after the man again. He was still trailing so much gold and red that he could have looked like he was on fire; or that he was the messenger of Christmas itself here to dole out punishment.

 

He'd given up on flying at this point, but he was as fast on his feet as he was in the air, his arms and legs pumping as he sprinted full speed like a quarterback who broke off a tackle and was going to score a touchdown by himself, come high water or the entire defensive line of the Cleveland Browns.

 

"GET BACK HERE!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Man in Orange had been hard at work with crazy golden beams of transmutation. And giggles. Yes, he giggled at his work!

 

He was only a couple of dozen feet away when he started super speeding at full speed. Almost within grasp!

 

But!

 

As soon as Golden Star stepped through the smashed remains of the silver door he stepped into a pit of mistletoe!

 

The fiendish fiend has decided to transmute the concrete below him into mistletoe! The pit of festive foilage threated to plummet Golden Boy into the thorny mess!

 

And worse!

 

Random transmutation beams had sliced through the levels of the multi-story car pack. What was once concrete was now falling misteltoe!

 

And that was clearly not good for structural integrity. Cars slid, civilians screamed, and vehicles now threatened to fall from the crazy carnage overhead!

[Poncho]

Michael had been going far too fast to brake or even attempt to swerve as the area in front of him was quickly turned into a pile of mistletoe! He went flying head over heels and directly into the pile of mistletoe. He sunk very deep into it, but the briars couldn't quite prick his skin or tear open his suit. He had to re-orient himself from deep inside the pile and then erupted upwards like a comet, a golden ball of light. He almost went to chase after the fleeing man, but then he saw the devastation being inflicted on the car park.

 

Michael changed his focus, flying towards the car park. As a civilian fell, he caught him and put him down safely, then launched into the air again, catching a van with a family inside it before it went tumbling into the ground at full speed, putting it down on the ground safely. "You're okay. Take a deep breath and get out of here before something continues to collapse." he said to them. He flew off again, picking up people before they fell, stopping cars from falling to the ground. By the time he had saved everyone, he knew he was giving up space and time on the chase against the Man in Orange. When he finished saving people, he waved at them all to get their attention, speaking from his diaphragm to make sure as many people as possible could hear his voice.

 

"You should all be careful! This area could still be quite unstable due to the transmutations, so it would be for the best for you to get out of here. Please exit in an orderly fashion." he pointed them towards a path to safety before flying off after the Man in Orange again.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Man in orange was heading directly south-west, towards the river, along the straight road. Horns honked, cell phones clicked, and people ran or stared. Sometimes both. 

 

The Man wasn't as fast as Golden Star, but he was determined to make the chase as difficult as possible. 

 

ZAM! Another Golden Beam lanced across the air, slicing across a skyscraper. This time, the Sky Scraper was not at risk of collapse - although there were screams from missing windows and walls, and no doubt a chilly winter air wafted through the massive holed in a high level. 

 

More problematic was the white powder that fell from the skies. 

 

No, it was not drugs (as far as Golden Star could tell), but plastic! FAKE PLASTIC SNOW!

 

Not a threat to Golden Star, except for the fact it blew straight into his face, into his eyes, into his mouth. It filled the air like a blizzard. He could barely see a thing!

[Poncho]

"Gah!" Michael said in surprise as FAKE PLASTIC SNOW rained down on him. "I DO NOT LIKE THIS!" he yelled, then he coughed, because the FAKE PLASTIC SNOW had gotten into his mouth. He covered his face with his hands and tried to think of a way out. But wait. He had Superpowers now, and he'd seen Superheroes do cool stuff before. All his cells were super charged with power. That included the ones in his lungs, right? So he took a really deep breath; drawing on his knowledge of how to project his voice from years of speech training, he took in air all the way down to his diaphragm, and then expelled it out of his mouth, with as much force as he possibly could! He was attempting to counter the snowfall of FAKE PLASTIC SNOW with pure lung power from every one of the cells in his respiratory system, pushed beyond the limits of a normal man into the stratosphere- relatively at least-.

 

He charged forward into the blizzard, blowing with all the force of his body to try and clear a path through the FAKE PLASTIC SNOW. And he would have had a quip or told the man to stop, but he was busy trying to blow all the snow out of his way!

[Supercape]

GM

 

And lo, the FAKE PLASTIC SNOW was blown to the winds! DIsgusting, tacky, stuff, only tolerable during the festive period. 

 

The amazing feat of super lungs also took a few hats off, and a fur scalf from some semi-obese middle aged woman who tutted in condemnation. But for the most part, such a wind-tastic show got Golden Star a round of applause from the pedestrians. That night, many social media streams would show the amazing Golden Star clearing a blizzard with a mighty puff from his mighty chest!

 

But back in the here and now, Golden Star could see the Man in orange zipping down the avenue, in a streak of golden light. No more beams this time, but the man was already a mile and half away, and had reached the South River!

 

And he didnt stop there, for his golden footsteps just carried on footstepping - he was running on the water!

 

Across to the otherside, Golden Star could see the Boardwalk, lined with hotels and Casino's, the latter of which was a frequent haunt of gangsters and mobsters!

[Poncho]

"No you don't!" Michael said, but the guy was way too far away to hear him. But he wasn't going to stop now, he was bursting with energy! He might be about to burn himself out like a candle, but the thrill of letting all his power out over and over was addicting, the feeling of pushing to his limits and past them filled him with adrenaline from his very core.

It was less a man aiming to smash into the Man in Orange as a mobile meteor; he was as bright as a star and angled like a meteor as he picked up more and more speed, a brilliant corona of red, gold, and yellow. His eyes burned like flames as he set his shoulders, gritted his teeth, and aimed at the man with reckless abandon; he was putting all his focus into his charge, less football and more hockey, aiming for a mighty shoulder tackle to try and knock this guy into the water and get his hands on him to keep him from running off. He yelled as he came in towards the man, his scream reaching over the sound of the air being split by the speed he was diving towards the man who had led him on a chase halfway across the city.

 

"I've got you now!!!!"

Edited December 7, 2023 by Poncho

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Man in Orange might have been running on golden lightning, but he was no fighter. A certain oily cunning, perhaps, but fighting was clearly not his preferred pass time. 

 

"Oi! Let me go! Get off! No fair!" he squeaked. 

 

He wriggled this way and that, but he was but a man-super speed but no super strength. He may as well have been trying to bend a steel girder with two fingers. 

 

"Its Christmas! Thing of all the kids! Why do you have to be such a grouch! Let me go! Think of all the fun we can have! We can go to the Boardwalk, turn all those Gangsters chips into rat droppings! Cmon! Theres justice for you!"

 

Every work was a squeak, every breath a gasp. But despite it all, he kept smiling and giggling. 

[Poncho]

Golden Star gave a very weak blurb as he struggled with the man, pulling him up a bit and out of the water before they froze.

 

"Ah, stop...stop..." he panted, gathering his strength again to make his voice more commanding. It took a lot of effort; he'd really pushed himself hard at this point. How much time could he even have left? It was a definite concern, and if this guy got away when his time limit hit he'd never catch him.

 

"You ARE right. I'm not denying you being right! Giving people more money to spend on their kids, on their friends and family? That's great! Taking ill-gotten gains away from those who don't deserve them, or use them to hurt others? That should be justice. But it has to be done a certain way. If you give everyone 50 pounds of gold, how much is that gold going to be worth? Value works on supply and demand in significant cases. If everyone wakes up to a pile of diamonds in their shoes, diamonds won't be worth anything, they'd just be trash, thrown away every morning. And if you take the money from the gangsters and give it to the poor without proper support or backing, then the mobsters will use their strength and their goons to take all that money from them and we'll be right back where we started. I'm not telling you you're wrong, I'm telling you that you have to think about your actions a little. I wish I could turn stuff into gold, that could help me help so many people...but I couldn't use it randomly, or without thought, or without care; that would just create more problems than it solves. It's a bad answer, maybe. It's not a fun answer. But it's the right answer it. And I'd rather do the Right thing then the Fun thing." He was drawing on his indignation to give himself more energy as he held the squirming man.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"So I'm right? Then why are you grappling me?" asked the Man in Orange. 

 

The squirming eased, then stopped. It was merely expending energy, and the man was breathing as hard as Golden Star, his orange costume coated in sweat. 

 

"You got some fancy notions about all that stuff with gold and diamonds, but i say... Fiddlesticks! Killjoy! Grouch! Why not spread a little fun now and again? Tis the season! Whats the point of doing the right thing all the time if you can never do the fun thing, eh? Look at all the preety silver and gold! And diamonds! Yes, I fogot about diamonds!"

 

He grinned like a maniac who had too much pastic surgery. 

 

"I'm going to hold my breath until you jolly well let me go!" he said, but instead of holding his breath, he started huffing and puffing, taking in deep lungfulls of air, the kind of hyperventilation which gave you a good dose of oxygen and made you light-headed and drunk. Although it seemed to everyone who saw the man that he was kind of drunk already - but on what?

[Poncho]

"...I think you've had enough fun for one day." He said gently as he picked the man up carefully and flew towards the nearest hospital. "I think you've have quite enough fun for both of us, honestly. How about we get you checked up? You're breathing awfully hard." He said as evenly as possible.

 

"Thank you for bringing a little cheer to my day, good sir, and I'm sure those people you already helped are very thankful. It was a very productive day for you already, I think, so a little rest might be for the best for you and me both."

 

He had no idea what this guy could possibly be on, but he bet either the hospital would have an idea, or a cop that came to arrest him would, and the best place to be for that would be at a hospital.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Well, I'm feel just dandy! And having such fun, particularly as you gave me an idea!" the man said, inbetween gulps. 

 

"And I'm getting ready to hold my breath, just like a said. If you had any wit betwixt your cauliflower ears, you would be doing the same, because, baby, we are gonna shine!"

 

The air started twinkling golden light around them. 

 

ZAM!

 

And then they were both encased in the biggest diamond the world had ever seen! Two metres radius, glittering, perfect, worth untold fortunes!

 

And also suffocating them both. Or at least the man in orange said, who had wisely held his breath. As for the amazing Golden Star, he needed no such thing as air, being powered by far more cosmic energies!

 

"Told ya!" said the man, with puffed out chest and red face, trying to chortle without losing air. 

[Poncho]

Michael yelped and covered his face with one hand, extremely panicked at being suffocated. His face turned red as hetriess to control his breathing, to not waste what precious little air he had, desperately looking for a way out

 

Then he paused.

 

"I..." he stopped. He just sat there for like 15 seconds, not taking a single breath. "I don't think I need to breathe." He finally said, seemingly genuinely apologetic. "I think you need to though." so he stopped breathing to make sure the man had air.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Man in Orange defiantly held his breath until he could do so no more. 

 

With another golden Zam of light, the diamond reverted back to plain old air, and the Man in Orange started refilling his lungs with sweet, sweet oxygen. 

 

In between the herculean breaths, he managed to pant out a few words. 

 

"Ok.... Ok.... you got me!" he wheezed. "Cancel Christmas everybody! Big shot cape has other plans!"

 

Below them, there were certainly lots of pointed fingers and mobile phones appreciating the view and chattering. 

 

"What you going to do now?" said the Man in Orange. "Cancel Easter to? I was going to turn the Centurion monument into chocolate. Yummy Chocolate, mmmm!"

[Poncho]

Michael looked genuinely hurt and depressed! The man hurt his feelings with his cruel words, and it made him frown deeply as he was verbally berated by the man in orange.

 

"I'm not doing any of those things." He explained sadly. "But it would be cruel to turn the monument into chocolate." His voice is a bit more firm about that, his eyebrows knitting together a bit in a stern look. He looked down at the crowd and waved with one hand.

 

"Everything is under control, don't worry about it, please continue on with your day." He said as he turned to continue his flight towards the hospital with his captive.

 

"Where did you get your powers from? They seem to really be tiring you out, so maybe we should calm down, take a few deep breaths, and talk slowly." 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"My powers? Are they mine?" giggled the Man in Orange. "No, I just stole them! Hahahaha! Theres a puzzle for you! I stole them with my head!"

 

He looked down to the pedestrians (and now, many cars) who had stopped to record and film and point at the spectacle above them. Even in Freedom City, you don't see a two ton diamond in the sky very often. And what about this talk of turning statues into chocholate!

 

"People of Freedom City! I bring you tidings of joy! Merry Christmas everybody! And if anyone can get me out of the hands of this caped oppressor, I will give them their own body weight in gold! But for now, have a little goodwill on me! Hehehehehehe!"

 

From his fingers came flashes of golden light. 

 

And then...

 

It was raining gold!

 

Doubloons, to be precise. Golden Doobloons such as a pirate might gloat over and bury in a treaure island consisting of one solitary palm tree marked with an "X". Because every coin had, on both sides, a crude engraving of a treasure map featuring an island with exactly one palm tree. And, yes, and "X". To add authenticity. 

 

No matter the cheap fakes, many desperate people below were collecting the coins. And some greedy people too. In fact, there was even the occasional sly glance upward from some odious civillian trying to work out if there was a way to cash in on the man's offer. 

[Poncho]

"Okay maybe that was a dumb question. I'm just trying to help. And this really doesn't seem healthy for you, you're panting like you are going to hyperventilate and possibly fall unconcious. That could be deleterious to your health."

 

As the man continued to cause trouble, raining gold down upon the crowd and even threatening to make them attempt to attack him, Michael groaned, gritting his teeth in rising anger. He took the man by the shoulder and shook him, trying to get through to him.

 

"Stop! Stop! Just stop!" Michael yelled, his patience frayed by the man who seemed to have lost his mind. "You are not well, sir!" He explained carefully. Then he turned to the people nearby.

 

"Please do not attempt to help him." He said as calmly as possible to the people below them. "He appears to be in the midst of a mental episode and needs psychiatric help. I promise I am not mistreating him, I am extremely concerned about his safety. It would be best for his safety and your own to disperse for now."

 

If he couldn't stop this guy from freaking out, maybe he could convince the crowd to disperse and remove his audience, which may make him stop.