ic Orange Team in: Black Mirror

[Poncho]

Early to Mid October, 2024

 

It had started with a complaint to Parker and Michael while they were helping another student.

 

Thomas- a student at Claremont with limited magnetic manipulation powers- had complained that he had been suddenly accosted by Dr. Metropolis one night while he was off school grounds. He quickly realized it wasn't Dr. Metropolis when the Hero had attacked him, displaying all the usual powers of Dr. Metropolis. But Thomas had escaped before suffering serious harm.

 

A further investigation- and telling the teachers- had revealed more incidents. Not always Claremont students, but always superpowered people, Heroes or not; a member of the Freedom League appearing suddenly and attacking them, then leaving just as quickly.

 

Quickly after, there had been a decision made for Claremont students. No one truly believed that the Freedom League would attack Claremont students or other super-powered individuals with no cause; not just because it was quite easy for some students to simply call their parents or guardians and confirm that-, but if someone was pretending to do it, the students of Claremont needed to be careful. And that was why they mostly now were required to travel with their teams, or with other students, to rely on safety in numbers. Call for help, don't engage if it's a bad idea, all the usual precautions.

 

But for Heroes, and those who wanted to be Heroes, could they really stay on the sidelines when duty called? When people's lives were in danger, could they sit idly by and allow others to risk themselves, or let civilians be hurt?

 

The question was about to be answered in the middle of Freedom City.

 

Vueriz, Parker Powers, Lynn Conners, and Diego D'Angelo had just dropped off some archival books to the Freedom Public Library for storage; older versions of text books and spare yearbooks and copies of the School Newspaper- all stored in the public library archives-. But while they were preparing to head back to Bayview and Claremont, the Freedom Monorail passed above them, and then let out a loud groan.

 

The front car shifted as if it's alignment had been broken. Then the second car jackknifed, bouncing violently up and down and then swinging left and right. Each car after swung even more violently, then as the fourth car hit the problem spot in the rail, the entire rail snapped; the three cars in front continued careening forward wildly, even as sparks flew from them with the emergency brake activated. Meanwhile, the fourth car was falling straight down, heading towards a congested intersection of cars and people, who were screaming as it fell towards them. Meanwhile, the metal bars and gears of the destroyed monorail line was also falling towards other people, threatening to crush them under the mass of metal.

 

And above that, on the destroyed monorail line, bolts of lightning were striking nearby buildings as a blur of black and green sped across the shiny faces of the large buildings of Freedom's City Center, avoiding the bolts that were blowing out windows and twisting metal in the buildings.

Edited October 3 by Poncho

[Nerdzul]

While he would not admit it out loud, Diego enjoyed visiting libraries, those places had so many stories to tell and himself, well he loved stories. Now he had pretended to look disinterested, apparently focusing his attention on his phone and keeping his headphones on during the whole visit, but in truth his consciousness was submerged among the walls of the building, and the endless rows of books letting the atmosphere sink in. in fact he was so distracted that he had bumped against one of the columns as the group was walking outside, a fact that he had done his best to try and excuse as 'not paying attention'. 

 

They were just going back to Claremont when all hell broke loose. "Ma che c-" (What the-?) Diego gasped as he saw the scene unfolding in front of his eyes, he gritted his teeth and ignored his instinct that kept pushing him to leave the scene as fast as possible. A hero would not do that, in training or otherwise. 

 

Instead, he focused on the most immediate source of danger, sending his consciousness to inhabit the train, giving the wounded monorail a life of its own, pushing it to fight its own momentum and protect as many people as he could, be them passengers or passersbys. He winced in pain as sensed the damage inflicted on the vehicle, but he soldiered through as best as he could.

 

 

 

 

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

Overall, Lynn had been rather sullen during the trip to deliver some books and school newspapers to the downtown public library. She liked libraries well enough, but while she enjoyed reading (she was certainly fast enough at it), it was not one of her favored pastimes. Part of the annoyance was that this really should not have taken her so long, but given the concerns about these unusual attacks, the school had required this trip to be done in a group, choosing to assign it to the newly formed intermural team the blonde teen was part of.

 

Lynn knew the concern was real, as she had seen how troubled her…this timelines version of her mother was about the situation. If the Freedom League was concerned, it was not something to dismiss.

 

So, she had accompanied her teammates on this trip, even if it seemed to take far too long.

And then, just as they were preparing to return to campus, the monorail went terribly out of control. Lynn had ridden the monorail many times in her timeline, and knew it had numerous safety features…or at least the one in her timeline did. But still, something must have gone terribly wrong for it to get so out of control.

 

The blonde teen had frozen in shock for just a moment, a blink of an eye to most, but then she realized they needed to act or people might die. "I'll catch the falling car. Someone get people clear of the debris and stop the rest of the train." She said quickly before disappearing in a blur of movement.

 

A moment later she was running down the street at nearly the speed of sound, dressed in the red and black costume she wore as Slipsteam. She could see people inside the falling car thanks to the enhanced optics of her goggles, so she sped over to the street below it.

 

Speeding up to faster than the speed of sound, the teenager began running in a circle, faster and faster until she created a mini-tornado which reached up into the air to catch the falling train car and hopefully slow its fall….

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt

 

Vueriz had not been thrilled to be handling a book return. The fact that she was handling things as primitive as books was already a sore spot, but her illiteracy in English (which her classmates would never learn about, thank you) made dealing with the library that much worse. Still, she was glad to have escaped any classes for the duration of their trip, and had used her skyboard to carry her fair share- Not that it was anything close to an even split with people like Parker about.

 

And then all hell broke loose. Her mind catalogued the disaster as it began, her perfect recall and rapid mental abilities giving her a view of exactly what to was happening. Which she was powerless to stop. What was she supposed to do? Everyone here had powers, while she was a small blue gremlin. Parker could probably save everyone here on his own.

 

So why was she currently flying full tilt into oncoming danger?

 

Vueriz felt like an observer to her own life for several long moments as she yelled "Spaceman! We need to get the people to safety!" and swooped through to drag a kid who was near the epicentre clear. 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker had been carrying more than his fair share of the books, but it was fine. He was by far the strongest of his new squad. Physically, at least. He could carry as many of the books as they wanted to, far more than he should physically be able to hold, so he had volounteered. He would have gone on his own to save the others the trip, but the new rules prevented that. Still, it was fine. It meant he could spend some time and get to know his new teammates a bit better.

 

As the monorail crashes, time slows down. Parker instinctively reaches out with his senses. He can feel everything around them and where it is moving. The crashing train, the falling car, the pieces of debris. People moving around them.

 

Lynn is already gone, far faster than he can follow, just a vague blur to his eyes and his spatial senses. She is there, he can feel the distance, but can't keep up with the feeling. 

 

Diego does his thing, the train starts slowing down. Parker can't say that he fully understands it yet, but it is useful, at least.

 

Vueriz goes for the civilians, calling out to him that they have to get people to safety. 

 

"Don't worry, I got them."

 

A breath, focus. All the falling debris. He can sense it, he can feel where it is. Parker reaches out, raises his hands and grabs hold of every single falling piece of debris, stopping it. To everyone else, it seems like it just starts floating in mid-air, before gently being lowered to the ground, away from everyone.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

And so the Superheroes leapt into action, showing why they were heroes. Powers didn't make a person a Hero, after all, it was the willingness to use them to help others. 

 

Animist's powers were sent into the three wildly swinging cars, and with effort and the assistance of the already pulled break, he was able to quickly slow the mass of twisting metal down. It was getting close to one of the Monorail's famous 'inside the building' stops; where it went through the second floor of a skyscraper onto an entertainment area, but Animist locked it down. While it was still shaking and getting rid of the excess momentum of the swinging cars, it had pulled to a total stop- screeching and bleching sparks the whole time- directly in front of the entrance to the building, before it could crash through it. The people were still trapped on the cars, but they were in much less danger now.

 

Slipstream's quick jump into action was mighty indeed! The spinning whirlwind caught the car, slowing it's descent rapidly. It had been a very dangerous fall, but the work of the Claremont Speedster was saving people's lives, and as the car finally landed, it was almost soft. Soft for a heavy piece of twisted metal that had been soaring through the air.

 

"Thank you, thank you so much." people said as they were getting out of the damaged Monorail car, attempting to get out of the way of the Superheroes who were doing their jobs. Freedom City civilians knew when they needed to get out of the way of super heroing.

 

Vueriz's heroics were no slouch themselves, as the little blue alien dashed headlong into the danger instead of away! It took great mental fortitude to do that, and as she did so, grabbing a child to save them, the child's mother helped immediately to get the child onto the board.

 

"Please take her away! Get her safe!" the woman screamed as Vueriz sped away with the child. And then more children, as more parents were trying to foster their small children onto Vueriz even as they tried to flee on foot; they'd rather give their children to the faster flying teenager then try to run out with them on their own; they were deciding it was safer to rely on Blue Bolt for them.

 

And finally the Spaceman did his part. As steel girders and the rubble of destroyed buildings came down, threatening to crush everyone in the intersection, he successfully grabs it. People, regular people trying to just get to work or get their jobs done, look up to see not masonry and metal threatening to crush them to powder where they are covering their heads, but rather the weighty rocks being moved aside. Carefully, slowly, as if they're afraid the rocks might suddenly return if they move too fast, they start to move away from the danger zone, trying to get away from the scene, or at least retreat to a safer distance.

 

But the cause that required them to move to be heroes in this moment was still occuring. 

 

It landed with a thud and the sound of limbs scrabbling onto the cars Animist was controlling as the speedster leapt from one building to land there. A black and orange costume designed like a speed skater, he stumbled to his feet panting as the lightning tosser floated down.

 

"Holy crap!"

 

"It's Captain Thunder!"

 

"I thought he retired!" 

 

"He looks great!" 

 

He did indeed look 'great'. Captain Thunder from 10, 20 years ago. Square jaw, white hair, blue costume. 

 

And a lightning bolt clenched in his fist. He took aim at the unknown speedster, and hurled it with an explosion of sound as it streaked across the sky. The Speedster leapt, and the bolt impacted directly into the animated Monorail cars, sending feedback directly into Animist as the Speedster leapt towards the building, shattering a pane of glass on the fourth floor as he entered the building proper.

 

"Let's go Captain Thunder!"

"Get 'em!" The civilians cheered as the Captain floated towards the building, pausing only momentarily to take stock of the new emergence of four more metahumans on the scene before returning to the original target, lightning once more clenched in his fists.

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

Lynn breathed a slight sign of relief as her small whirlwind managed to catch the falling street can and bring it somewhat gently down to the ground. The teen had practiced this stunt before, but never quite in this sort of situation.

 

Once the streetcar was on the ground, she skidded to a halt, letting the whirlwind dissipate as she watched the others going into action as well.

 

But then her attention was drawn to the appearance of what appeared to be Captain Thunder. Lynn had met Captain Thunder….well, her timelines version of him anyway…before, but only had memories of him after his retirement. This did not look like the man she knew, looking instead considerably younger. She was momentarily confused by his appearance, glancing over to the others to see what their reactions were on the off chance this was some divergence of this timeline from her own.
 

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt

 

Vueriz panted as she looked back after setting down her latest passenger as Parker did exactly as she had expected and just saved everyone. She tried not to feel too stupid about rushing in, but still couldn't help but chastise herself for such a dangerous move when her teammates with actual superpowers had been able to fully save everyone.

 

Then Captain Thunder arrived, chasing an unknown speedster, looking almost exactly how he did on the night they had fought the entity that tried to capture Lawrence. Was that normal for humans? Zirtimzara and humans matured at similar speeds, and with proper medical care Zirtimzara could live for centuries, but was that the case for humans? Hell, did superpowers change that at all?

 

The small alien met Slipstream's eyes, before giving a shrug that probably would have looked more like a twitch to a regular human, but she knew the speedster would be able to perceive the full motion properly.

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Captain Thunder?

 

Parker looks up at he finishes setting down the debris. He is retired, but Parker supposes a hero might come out of retirement to help out, but something's off. They met Captain Thunder during the time travel trip with Lawrence, and this guy seems to be about that age, not nearly old enough. And... the lightning bolt hits the monorail. As far as Parker remembers, Captain Thunder was in control, but all of this just seems destructive. The speedster might be the bad guy, but all of this seems off.

 

Reaching for his dress shirt, Parker pulls it open to reveal his white, black and gold uniform underneath and takes off from the ground, as he flies towards the hero. 

 

"Captain Thunder!" he calls out, doing his best to put on a confident voice. "I'm Spaceman, I'm with the school," no need to give away Claremont's name in public, "what's going on? Why are you after that speedster?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

With Animist shocked by the feedback from the monorail, there was a period where everything was a bit quiet; Lynn and Vueriz were watching. But Parker had moved forward. 

 

Captain Thunder turned to Parker as they floated. There was a flash in his eyes, blue and yellow. Like lightning? As he observed Spaceman. His eyes glowed bright enough that it was visible- the light escaping from them to shine on Spaceman for a moment as he thought.

 

"Spacemen..." Captain Thunder mumbled quietly, mulling it over. He looked back towards the building. 

 

"The individual in question is a known associate of Dr. Stratos, codenamed Thunderstrike. I am attempting to apprehend him before he causes further damage to the location, or brings Dr. Stratos to the city and causes even further damage." 

 

His voice was flat and expressionless; he wasn't the Elder Statesmen of the Freedom League from the time travel, he was almost robotic in his clipped, focused words and blank expression.

 

"Can you assist me, Spaceman?"

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

Lynn caught sight of Vueriz's look and brief shrug (likely all to brief to anyone that was not able to process information at several times normal speed). The blonde speedster gave her own small shrug in return before turning to watch as Parker flew up into the air to speak with the former Freedom League member.

 

The response from Captain Thunder (or possibly the entity appearing to be Captain Thunder) did little to put Lynn's concerns at ease. This was not at all like the man she had met, even if he might have acted a bit more formal while operating in his official role. Indeed, it did not even seem like a normal person, or at least not one under some sort of outside control and not operating on their own accord.

 

But the younger member of the team waited to see how the others might react before choosing a course of action herself.
 

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt

 

Vueriz was pretty sure that this guy wasn't the real Captain Thunder. She hadn't exactly talked to him much when she had gone to the past, but he was not...

 

That.

 

Regardless of whoever 'Doctor Stratos' was, or whether any of what he said was true it was pretty clear this was a copycat. Which was so uncool. Like the polar opposite of being a punk rebel superhero. (Which is what she was, of course.)

 

The alien gadgeteer flew closer to Diego and Lynn, flying up slightly so she was at head height to them. She whispered furtively to them, "So that's a fake, yeah? Should we like, stop him or something? I doubt the real Captain Thunder would appreciate him running around wearing his face."

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker stares at Captain Thunder. He is a living legend, a hero to heroes. Parker met him briefly in the other timeline, which was in the past. It was a different world, but this man, he sounds nothing alike. He's much younger than he is supposed to be, but weirder things can happen to super heroes, can't it?

 

That alone isn't enough. Weirder things can happen to super heroes.

 

"Sir?" 

 

But Captain Thunder isn't supposed to be this destructive, is he?

 

"I'm sorry, but, how did you get younger?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The stoic Captain Thunder turned to look into the building momentarily before replying, like he was searching the complex.

 

"Doctor Stratos. Thunderstrike kidnapped me, brought me to him. Both aged, he thought if he finally- once and for all- stole my powers, he'd ascend beyond the human form." he rattled off as an explanation.

 

"There was a disruption during the process; an excess of energy surged into the machine and caused a cataclysmic eruption. Dr. Stratos disappeared, and I've returned to my younger form. I believe Thunderstrike has an answer as to where Stratos has gone. If he is left unchecked, I fear he will unleash an even more devastating storm upon the city; the danger is simply too high to leave Thunderstrike free to his own devices." he explained.

 

"That's not true at all! I've gone straight! I ain't got nothing to do with Stratos! I ain't seen him in years, and I don't know why this palooka suddenly decided to ruin my day! I definitely don't know why he's so young!" Yelled a voice from inside the shattered building. Like Zeus casting down a non-believer, Captain Thunder reared back and hurled a bolt into the darkness, lighting it up with momentary brightness as it streaked down the hall, chasing after Thunderstrike. The Speedster looked shocked, caught off-guard by the bolt heading directly for him without pause.

 

"Let me wrap this up, Spaceman, and then we'll handle Stratos together."

[Thevshi]

Slipstream

 

Lynn stood back and listened as Spaceman continued to engage with Captain Thunder (or at least what appeared to be Captain Thunder). While Captain Thunder’s explanation of what was going on and how he appeared younger was not beyond stories Lynn had heard growing up. But that still did not explain the famous hero's unusual behavior.

 

And then Captain Thunder unlashed another lightning bolt on the speedster he claimed was working with Dr. Stratos. Lynn leaned over toward Vueriz, "Maybe whatever happened to Captain Thunder has affected his mental state as well?" She whispered.
 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Captain Thunder's explanation makes as much sense as Parker figures that his own powers makes. There's weirder things out there, but then, this doesn't sound like the Captain Thunder that he has heard about. Even if it is, he is endangering people, and not just Thunderstrike. That's not the way a hero should act, and that's not the way that Captain Thunder has ever acted. Thunderstrike might be lying, he can't know about that right now, but so is Captain Thunder.

 

He's too away from the others, being close to Captain Thunder like this. He can't coordinate with them right now. Hopefully, they're fine with following his lead.

 

The moment the thunderbolt is thrown, Parker disappears, reappearing in front of it, taking it head on to protect the building.

 

"I don't think you're who you say you are. How about we get down to the ground and talk about this without putting people all around us in danger? My friends can take care of Thunderstrike."

 

Parker really hopes that the Captain Thunder clone does as he asks... because that hit was much worse than he hoped it would be.