ic Power Vacuum

[RocketLord]

GM

 

7:30 PM, Wednesday April 3rd, 2024

Kingston, Freedom City

Near the Doomforge

 

Years ago, the House of Usher had returned to Freedom City. Living in the shadow of the Kingston Doomforge, they had been gifted with strange and terrible powers, which they had used with their connections and wealth to become one of, if not the, major player in Freedom City's underworld. Drugs and power, it all ran through them. Anyone that opposed them wound up dead. They went unnoticed by the heroes of the city until the Raven learned about their presence and, together with his allies, he managed to chase them out of the city, and finally take them down after a lengthy international chase.

 

Now, a major criminal enterprise suddenly disappearing is not without its issue. So far, the Usher's lieutenants and henchmen had played nice. Still getting paid and receiving orders, even if it was rarely, really helped there. But now? No money, no orders... well, someone has to try to step into that power vacuum.

 

"C'mon, ya bum! Is that all ya got!?" 

 

Four men on motorcycles, the infamous Devil's Advocates, are fighting a young man and woman in the shadow of the Kingston Doomforge.

 

Cueball, the first of the bikers is a large man with a classic German helmet and a large axe. He has a full beard and is only wearing an open denim vest on his upper body, torn jeans on his lower. He is the one that is yelling, as he swings around his axe.

 

Another has a long face and semi long red hair, pulled back in a bandana. He is smiling widely, wearing the same type of vest as Cueball, but with much less impressive physique. He is known as the Born Loser.

 

The third is deadly pale, with patches of black hair, wearing a red bandana and the same style of clothes as the other two. Buddy is missing several teeth and, going by looks alone, might already be dead.

 

The fourth is their leader, Angel, dressed in black costume with bone prints and a skull mask, along with a brown leather vest with several chains wrapped around his upper body, leather boots and leather wraps around his wrists. He is wearing a leather hood pulled over his head. He is their leader

 

They are fighting against Purple Haze and Scarlet Mist. A brother and sister combo that Paper and Nightscale has fought before.

 

Scarlet Mist is wearing all red. Dark red body suit and long gloves, and a lighter red cloak with a hood. Even her hair is red, as she takes on a semi-gaseous form.

 

Purple Haze is wearing dark brown jeans with metal knee guards and heavy combat boosts. Like the bikers, his chest is bare, while he is wearing a purple sleeveless coat. His messy long hair is brown, while rainbow colored smoke and mist flows from him into the surrounding area.

 

"The Doomforge's ours, Angel! Beat it before we get pissed!"

 

They are already causing property damage. The few people that were near the Doomforge are already caught in the fight.

Edited March 31 by RocketLord

[RocketLord]

The STORMCROW

 

Stormcrow is already racing through the city on the Stormchaser, going as fast as he can. Multi-Girl is with him, holding onto him while they race through the streets.

 

This is, in part, his mess. He should have seen this coming. The Raven trusts him to keep an eye on things here while he's busy, trusts him and his team to deal with things... and he didn't foresee that the Usher's henchmen would end up causing trouble. 

 

"Guardians, anyone that can read me, we got trouble in Kingston near the Doomforge. A bunch of villains are fighting over scraps, putting people in danger. Get there as fast as you can, and we'll link up once we're there."

 

They're close, and getting closer. Won't be long, but they need the others, too. He looks ahead still, while he talks to Bernie.

 

"These guys are serious trouble. We can't take any chances. As far as I remember from the Raven's files, the Devil's Advocates are powered by demons, and the siblings they're fighting can turn to gas and do all kinds of nasty things with that."

[Lone_Star]

GHULE

 

Vik was in Kingston eating her take-out dinner in an alleyway: several raw, dripping steaks she purchased from a nearby carniceria. To avoid strange looks, she mostly ate her meals on the go - she wasn't in the store long enough to attract any real attention, and blood dripped from her chin as she took another huge bite out of the steak. Oh my god, this is so good. It's seasoned to perfection! 

 

As she ripped off another bite, she received Charlie's call. "I'm on my way," she said, finishing what she could. It seemed that every time she was in a superhero battle, she left it starving, so it was good that she got a chance to eat beforehand. She pulled out her brand-new iPhone, courtesy of Charlie's family plan. She was still in awe of it: it left her old burner phones in the dust. She called an Uber, and paid extra to have it pick her up immediately. It's no Stormcycle, but it gets the job done...

 

 

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

Bernadette had her arms tightly (but not too tightly) around Charlie's torso as he guided the Stormchaser down the street. Where it not for the serious reason that had them up in Kingston, the redhead would likely be enjoying it more, not that she needed an excuse to get this too close to Charlie.

 

Instead, she was more focused on his brief summaries of what to possibly expect when they got there. "Well, don' they all sound bloody delightful." She joked with a smirk he could not see. "My options against the twins are likely ta be rather limited."

 

The redhead had heard Vik respond that she was on her way and hoped that more of the team was on the way as well.

[Spacefurry]

Paper

 

A paper motorcycle wove through traffic, pulling off moves a real one could never do. On its back rode a young man wearing a hooded coat, a white mask covering his mouth and nose and a short scarf flicking in the wind. It was a new look he was trying out since his return from Tokyo with his girlfriend and teammates.

Paper goggles shielded his eyes as he pulled the bike down an alley shortcut. Behind the mask and goggles though, he was pissed. He had been half way to meet Neko for a dinner date when Charlie’s message appeared as a text on his phone.

Neko was understanding about the whole hero thing, but easily pulled a promise to make it up to her later from him. 

A simple 'OMW' text was all he had replied with.

 

Now though, he was mad and needed someone to take it out on. A few weeks ago, that probably would have been Charlie himself, but the boys had made steps towards building bridges so Leon would have to settle for punching whoever was causing the problem.

 

A paper ramp and he easily cleared the street and darted down another alley.

 

To be honest he only half read the text before calling his girlfriend. Something about the Devil’s Advocates and a couple of scrubs squaring off. He was a street kid, he’d heard of the DAs but he and his siblings had always tried to steer clear of them and the weirdos they had worked for.

Rumor was they were running on demons, which to be fair, back then was a little hard to take seriously. But now that he’d gotten around some more himself… Well, maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched.

 

A sharp turn and he skidded under the trailer of an 18-wheeler, just to pop up right as he pulled onto Lindroos Bridge heading into Kingston. 

 

He should probably check the text again, but Charlie will probably just repeat himself once he gets there.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

As the heroes begin to arrive, the action is already on. Scarlet Mist and Purple Haze has already dissolved into their mist forms, rampaging around the Devil's Advocates, as they fight back. It seems that their demonic powers is enough to at least hurt the siblings. 

 

As the Born Loser is thrown back by Scarlet Mist crashing into him, he crashes into a group of fleeing bystanders. While cuts begin to appear on his body, he laughs. While he begins to heal, everyone around him fall to the ground, suddenly skeletally thin, as if they are starving. The villains doesn't care, not in any way but finding it amusing, it seems.

 

Fighting these villains won't be enough. The heroes will have to save everyone around them as well.

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne 

 

Muirne swung between buildings as fast as she could, she'd been doing spear drills at the mansion when Charlie's call had gone out, and so needed to make double time to get to the site. With a last heave she rockets to the top of a nearby building, skidding to a stop at the edge.

 

She stared down at the scene below, ice running through her veins as the people collapsed around the villain. She clenched her spear tightly, shadows writhing as she glared down at them.

 

[Nerdzul]

"Demons and gas... got it... Fun..." Luke nodded as he checked Chaz's message. Whatever... A bunch of super villains fighting in a populated area was definitely not good news.

 

He shift wasn't over, but the young man quickly excused himself saying that an emergency had come up and ignoring the store manager irate objections (hoping that he would still have a job once he came back) and darted away.

 

He found a secluded place where he could shift out of his human form and into something more appropriate to get the attention of the villains. "No half measures..."  He thought as he assumed his full draconic form and flew as fast as he could toward the scene.

 

----

 

 

"Hey looks who's back..." Nightscale smirked baring a collection of sharp fangs as he revealed his presence landing close to the scene. "I though you two gassy losers were safely in prison... How did you get out?" He teased casually, going back to the memory of the last time he and Leon had met the two villainous siblings.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Purple Haze laughs as he recognizes Nightscale. "Look, sis. It's the overgrown lizard again. What's the matter, big boy? Here to to try to hit on my sister again?"

 

Scarlet Mist doesn't seem to share her brother's mirth, instead staring angrily at Nightscale for a moment, before turning to look at the Devil's Advocates again. "Ignore him, Haze. We need the Doomforge. Nothing else matters." She is already beginning to spread into mist.

 

Finally, Angel motions towards both the rival villains and the heroes with an outstretched hand. His voice is barely a whisper as he speaks. "kill them all."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne 

 

Muirne grinned as Luke swooped in, a quiet chuckle escaping at the thought of what her younger self would have thought at the reassurance she felt seeing an enormous black dragon flying in.

 

She listens in to the conversation, making a note to ask what 'hitting on' someone means after they defeat the two groups. She hadn't had the time to listen to Charlie about what they were up against before rushing to get here, but she could put together that the duo were related to gas, and watching the woman starting to turn into mist solidified that. She remembered fighting the Red Death, and couldn't risk that they would choke the surrounding bystanders to death.

 

Her mind made up, she cast her arm out, spear coated in writhing shadows as it flew towards the villain, even as she crouched lower to the roof, hoping her partial transformation would help conceal her from the prying eyes below.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

As Charlie pulled up on the Stormchaser, Bernadette was quick to hop off the back, landing nimbly on the wrecked pavement. Suddenly there were two identical redheads standing next to each other.

 

The original then continued moving, running a short distance away to where there were several bystanders gathered. "Pleaser, get ta safety. This lot can be dangerous." The costumed Irish teen stated as she pointed off down a side street away from where the super powered battle was starting to escalate.

 

Meanwhile, the duplicate also rushed forward, moving over towards once of the biker gang members, Born Loser. As the villain stood back up after doing something to some nearby civilians to heal himself, the duplicate took a swing at him. However, Born Loser was quick to react, ducking under the punch before taking a step back and fully standing back up.

[RocketLord]

The STORMCROW

 

Alright, it's not everyone, but enough of the Guardians are here. They can do this. Charlie really hopes they can do this. Two groups of villains fighting, with people caught in between? At least he knows something about them. Purple Haze and Scarlet Mist can become their namesakes, and do lots of damage like that. They need someone that can hit that. The Devil's Advocates seem like bruisers, but they're more than that. So much worse.

 

"We need someone that can hit the gas people to deal with them!" he shouts to the others. "Take the bikers are powered by the Four Horsemen. Take down hard if you get in close!"

 

Speaking of... the big guy with the axe seems like he is going to be trouble. Reaching into his belt, Charlie pulls out a small cube and throws it at Cueball's feat, where it quickly expands out into a futuristic looking technological mesh that anchors itself to the ground, keeping him in place, at least for a moment.

Edited July 2 by RocketLord

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Aw, now it's a party! Come on and have some fun!" Purple Haze yells, as he spreads his arms out and quite literally explodes into thick purple haze, as thick as smoke, obscuring himself, his sister and the Devil's Advocates, hiding them from view from the approaching heroes. They can all hear him laughing, moving around within the haze that he generates, spreading it further out as he relishes in the chaos he can create.

 

The large man with the axe and the German style helmet, Cueball, grunts in annoyance as Stormcrow's contraption locks in place around his feet, chaining him to the ground. He glares at Stormcrow for a brief moment before disappearing into the haze, and then raises his axe, swiftly bringing it down on the machinery. Sparks flies from it, but it still in place.

[Lone_Star]

9 hours ago, RocketLord said:

GM

 

"Aw, now it's a party! Come on and have some fun!" Purple Haze yells, as he spreads his arms out and quite literally explodes into thick purple haze, as thick as smoke, obscuring himself, his sister and the Devil's Advocates, hiding them from view from the approaching heroes. They can all hear him laughing, moving around within the haze that he generates, spreading it further out as he relishes in the chaos he can create.

 

The large man with the axe and the German style helmet, Cueball, grunts in annoyance as Stormcrow's contraption locks in place around his feet, chaining him to the ground. He glares at Stormcrow for a brief moment before disappearing into the haze, and then raises his axe, swiftly bringing it down on the machinery. Sparks flies from it, but it still in place.

 

After quickly tipping her Uber driver, Vik arrives on the scene. She takes a moment to assess the scene, but not nearly enough time. She immediately shifts into her Bonebreaker form, thick bony plates forming over her forearms as they transform into great clubs, perfect for battering the many villains they will have to face. She grins, ready for action, and dives for Purple Haze, raising her arms over her head. 

 

But to her great surprise, the villain transformed into a cloud of purple smoke. "Hate a problem I can't punch..." Vik mutters under her breath. She started to feel panicked, her breathing faster as she realized she couldn't see her hand in front of her face. In this moment of doubt, her eyes turn a milky white, and she discovers a new ability. Though the fog is still around her, she can see faintly pulsing figures within it - whisps of glowing light that form a vague outline of a human form. She walks through the fog, and recognizes the outline of Purple Haze within it. It is then that she notices the fog itself has taken on the color of the glowing light - perhaps the fog is part of Purple Haze's soul? Cool, a new power...let's put it to good use! 

 

She lunges at Purple Haze, but loses her footing at the last second and falls to the ground, cracking the concrete beneath her. No matter - she gets back up and shouts to her friends: "Hey guys, I can see Purple Haze! He's over here!" 

Edited July 2 by Lone_Star

[Spacefurry]

Paper

 

The paper motorcycle collapsed even before it came to a full stop, letting Paper kinda slid along it as it swarmed and reshaped again. The paper welding hero was now riding atop his signature paper dino, Sue the T-Rex.

 

He managed a glance over the scene just before Purple Haze obfuscated most of the ‘battlefield’. He groaned in annoyance.

“Really? Coulda gone a lot longer before laying eyes on you two.”

He glared in the direction he saw Crimson Mist before her brother had transformed and blocked line of sight on anyone inside his mist.

 

Paper’s attention snapped in the direction of Ghule’s call, and Sue reacted with a silent sneer. He knew from their past encounter that he couldn’t do anything to touch either of them in mist form. He couldn’t see anything through the mist and he wasn’t about to rush in blindly.

Guess it was plan ‘B’ then, try to piss off the baddies until they make a mistake.

 

“Think you need to stop transforming Hazey boy, you’re losing brain cells. I was the one that hit on your little sister.”

His glare swept over the mist with general annoyance.

“Gotta say, dodged a bullet with that little psycho brat, didn’t I? I’m a firm believer of not swapping spit with crazy.”

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Paper can't see Purple Haze's reaction, but somehow, he gets the feeling that he really isn't happy to hear something like that about his sister.

 

"Screw you, diary boy!" And Scarlet Mist is certainly not happy either, as a blood red smoke surges out of the mists that Purple Haze had created, crushing straight at him with a scream. It attempts to cut and tear through his body as it passes through him, before taking on a more humanoid, but still quite intangible, form behind Paper. She looks like a girl made of scarlet smoke, clad in a hooded cape. "We could have been so perfect together, but you had to be a good little boy!"

 

From within the purple haze, the deathly pale biker called Buddy chuckles, as he looks around. "Man, I can't see anything. And here I was hopin' for a taste of all you pretty people. Don't ya worry none, Buddy's got the goods to take care of ya'll." He keeps chuckling. And Purple Haze starts coughing, even as he remains an obscuring mist around them all. Anyone caught within Buddy's pestilence zone begins to feel sick and feverish. "Let me share it with ya'll."

 

Angel moves forward through the mist with his skull mask, waving his arms around, trying, and failing, to hit anything. "Kill the losers first, then we'll deal with the heroes!" He doesn't really expect them to listen, but he can just as well try. 

[Nerdzul]

 

On 6/19/2024 at 1:40 PM, RocketLord said:

Purple Haze laughs as he recognizes Nightscale. "Look, sis. It's the overgrown lizard again. What's the matter, big boy? Here to to try to hit on my sister again?"

 

 

"Nice you missed me gasbags." Nightscale replied, admittedly he did have another epithet in mind, but it was definitely a bit too juvenile in nature, he was no longer a teen after all. Well...

He roared playfully as he surveyed the scene. Looks like the whole gang was there. Cool.  

 

On 7/2/2024 at 12:49 PM, RocketLord said:

"We need someone that can hit the gas people to deal with them!"

 

"I am on it." Luke nodded. They needed that cloud gone after all.

 

Now tracking the Purple Haze by scent was no pleasant task, but at least it got things done. He swoop in, his claws radiating sparks of supernatural energy as he flew close to the scene and took the supervillain by surprise, cutting through the haze of gas. He tried to close his grip around the gaseous supervillain, unfortunately though he simply slipped through his fingers. A shame, but there was little he could do about it, he kept in the air landing only when he found himself between the fighting villain and the largest group of civilians and opened his wings, hopefully providing a shield for those behind him

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Dude, that's not cool!" 

 

The Born Loser is not amused as he stumbles through the purple haze created by, well, purple haze. He doesn't really seem to pay much attention to what is going on around him, instead steering directly for where he thought Purple Haze was moments before. He can't be bothered to deal with all these little hero kids right now, not when he can't even see them.

Stumbling through the haze, he swings his arms wildly and doesn't really manage to affect anyone or anything.

[Kaede Kimura]

Shadowborne 

 

Muirne grit her teeth as Buddy's Power washed over her. The feverish feeling swept through her, making her feel weak. It brought to mind a time she had gotten sick when she was younger, still in her home village, bedridden and sweating. The herbal remedies and care of her time had eased her illness, but it had still continued worsening.

 

She remembered dreaming of her connection to the shadows, of the cold that followed wherever they touched. Dreaming of it consuming the heat of her fever and breaking the grip of the disease. The dream had repeated for a few days, and every time she had felt better in the morning. She had assumed they were fever dreams but...

 

She pushed the shadows currently bathing her around her body. The pain and cold traversing all across her skin, like scouring yourself with iron wool, but where they touched, the feverish feeling passed. She focused for a few moments, driving the shadows with the idea of consuming the disease. And then smiled victoriously as the grip of the disease broke.

 

She peered down into the cloud, the glow of life suffusing it, and several burning points of life brighter inside, she focused in on the chatty spreader of pestilence, 'Buddy'. Again, she threw her arm forwards, limb extending out until her spear disappeared into the haze, until she felt it strike the villain. A savage thrill ran through her from Aoife, and for once she didn't push it away as she retracted her arm.

[Thevshi]

Multi-Girl

 

And things had quickly devolved into complete chaos, as Bernadette's teammates began engaging with the various supervillains and the two different sides of villains engaged both each other and the Guardians. Things were increasingly complicated by Purple Haze living up to his namesake, as the area was soon filled with a thick, purple haze that prevented the combatants from seeing anything around them.

 

The original Bernadette focused on trying to get any remaining civilians clear, calling out and telling them to move to safety. She then went silent, moving a short distance from where she had been as she tried to listen for any sounds around her that she might be able to identify as a threat.

 

Meanwhile, her duplicate could hear Born Loser moving away from her, and did her best to follow after him in the haze. Somehow, she managed to stay with him, and estimating where he was within the haze made a sweeping right hook toward the sound. The duplicate again had luck on her side, as the wide swing managed to connect solidly with the villain, and she felt it knock him off his feet to land a short distance away….

[RocketLord]

The STORMCROW

 

Staying outside the purple haze filling the area, Charlie surveys the scene. Angel and Buddy are the most dangerous ones there, but Purple Haze and Scarlet Mist can rip them to shreads... and they need to be able to see, so stopping Purple Haze from making everyone blind would be nice.

 

It's a long shot, but he sends a flashbang flying. Purple Haze turns away just in time to avoid being blinded.

 

"Paper, Nightscale! Keep the focus on Purple Haze, take him down as quick as you can! We need to see!" 

 

They can do it. They're good.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Purple Haze shakes his head and groans. The big dragon guy that flirted with his sister that one time is on him. He is still in his gaseous form, he is still spread out, blinding everyone else, but the dragon's claws hurt him! That shouldn't be possible! If these damn heroes would just get out of the way it would be over soon. But the Paper boy insulted his sister, and this damn dragon...

 

Cueball yells and, with a massive blow, his axe cuts through his bindings. He whirls around, shouting incoherently. Who's next? Who can he find and chop to pieces?

[Lone_Star]

Ghule

 

Vik growls dangerously, her life sense cutting through the mist. She saw Purple Haze shake off Charlie's flash-bang, and grinned. "I've got him."

 

She dashed towards him, moving with alarming speed, as she grew bone gauntlets over her knuckles. She screamed out a war cry, and surprised itself as her shout became higher-pitched and louder, becoming a ululating wail that sounded like a banshee's shriek. She pulled back her punch and aimed right for his face, hoping it would be enough to knock him out and regain battlefield mobility. 

[Spacefurry]

Paper

 

Paper flipped and spun, dodging Scarlet Mist’s attack unscathed.

He stood to face her as she semi-reformed.

 

“Good together? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure you woulda been one hellava ride, girl.”

He said,tilting his head slightly and  sounding a little disappointed.

“I may be a bad boy, but I ain’t a monster. I draw the line at hurting innocent peeps and attempted murder.”

 

“Now, if I gotta lay hands on you, I will.”

He smirked.

“Though, my girlfriend might get upset with me if she finds out.”

Sheets of paper rustled as he began to spin a paper staff.

“Doubt I can convince you and the sis-con to back off and sit quiet till the cops show?”

Paper raised his voice so Purple Haze could hear him, trying to taunt the brother into moving so the others could see the bikers.

“Guess I’ll just help you into something a little less comfortable.”

 

Paper swung the staff in an arch and it exploded into a flock of paper birds that rushed Scarlet Mist in an attempt to engulf her. When they hit the stick to her, trying to layer upon each other until not even her mist could slip through. Trying to form a paper cocoon around the villain.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Paper's plan is good. It could work. Trap Scarlet Mist, keep her contained, away from everyone so she can't hurt them. Unfortunately, the paper birds aren't quite fast enough as they swarm around her, layering closer and closer together, as the dark red mists escape out from between them.

 

"Ha! Still just playing around! Weak! Too weak!" she screams, sounding almost hysterical, before she throws her hands forward towards Paper, a rush of scarlet mist expanding out across his body, cutting through him as easily as a scissor through paper.

 

Buddy, for his part, shakes his head. The blow from Shadowborne had been more than he expected, but not nearly enough to stop him.

 

Angel remains silent, ducking through the haze that surrounds them. Purple Haze is the problem, and his target. He isn't about to let all these kids distract him.