Two's Company, Four's a Party(IC)

[Ari]

GM

Heraldo:

The question at least had an effect. Staring blankly at the young paragon Strongarm said hesitantly "...Yes. I have, several times around the coast of Finland, it's why I never work there any more if I can avoid it" he looked closely at the boy, but Subito appeared guileless(and foolish) enough to not raise any immediate suspicions. His demeanor shaken out of its cool interrogative mode, with slightly-raised eyebrows and a slight upturn to the lips, he now looked positively bemused "What about you kid? Fly into anything?" he grip didn't slacken any.

Net Fly:

With an ominous groan, the various clamps, drills and refining equipment began to shift in their moorings, dragging themselves towards the harbor of their very being, metal limbs and implements of mining raised to commence destruction. As they approached the walls and floors however, a shudder ran through them, the engines in them roared and squealed with effort, and most of them halted just short of their intended targets. Three of the drills and an ore-shaker did manage to connect with their aims, tearing asunder half a deck between them, sending much of the lower levels of the ship into utter chaos!

The comms were soon filled with messages, warnings, and directions on resolving this attack as swiftly and decisively as possible and the interconnected nature of their system meant that the least disruption could be disastrous...

[Ari]

It-it's working! Okay okay, let's see now...

"h you know, living around the sea most of my life, so I've flown into my share of seagulls"El Heraldo said, swinging lightly in the iron grip of Strongarm "Mostly I can hear them from far enough away that I can avoid crashing into them and hurting 'em, but sometimes..." he shrugged a little glumly "you know how it is? You forget some of the stuff you can do sometimes, because it's not like you use it all the time or anything." Looking down at the dizzying drop he was being dangled over he suddenly asked in puzzlement, twisting around to look at his towering captor "Also, how do you plan on keeping me from just...flying off if you drop me?"

[Vahnyu]

Net Fly continued typing commands in order to reuse the minning crane, but it was to no avail; the apparatus appeared to be malfunctioning, and security protocols made sure to deter him from further attempts at opening a hole to the ship from the outside. Hmmm... Well, I'm running out of options, here... I don't think I can keep convincing the robots to stand in front of the guns as target practice, and operating the crane was my one chance at damaging the ship... Hey... wait a minute...

Frantically typing in the interface, a grin appeared behind his mask, as the young hero found his solution. If I can't open a hole from the outside, might as well blow it open from the inside! Net Fly thought, as he directed the inner guns towards the ship's floors and commanded them to open fire.

[Ari]

GM

Net Fly:

The interior cannons of the ship turned out to be astonishingly powerful for self-defense weapons, the scanners onboard the small craft informing its crew in general about a series of "sudden decompressions and hull integrity failures" through multiple decks of the ship. If before the comms chatter had been busy, now it was a cacophany of scattered information and rapid queries and replies all coming slowly down to one thing: mounting a counter-assault on their tormentor in the captured cessel, several clear orders from what seemed to be squad leaders were already forming up to march on the tech-genius mutant and his last refuge...

El Heraldo:

"Oh that's quite easy" explained Strongarm blithely as he watched the ant-like squad cars(a few STAR vans close behind) hurtle into the Pyramid Plaza, the few civilians there at that point in the day clearing out with surprising speed "When I let you go, you won't be conscious." Hoisting the teen up so their heads were even he said "You see, there are a lot of ways to make a splash in this town, and with the Freedom League away I'll need to do something to make myself known around here. Of course, beating on a kid like you is pretty unpleasant, but at least I won't have to get thrown in the slammer to get known" he smiled thinly at his captive "So, anything you want to say before i toss you down for the boys in blue?"

[Vahnyu]

... Well, it can't be helped. I hoped to take more of them down with the cannons, but I guess I'll just have to bust them up the old-fashioned way. Net Fly thought, as he prepared himself, both physically and mentally, for one final round against the robots. Checking his equipment, he made sure that everything was operating and in order. After he was done, he waited for his captors, ready to bring the hurt on them. "Alright you metal-heads! Let's do this. Round two. I'll make sure that when I'm done with you, not even the recycle processors will be able to sort you back together."

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus gave a slow, solemn nod. He hadn't expected the conversation to go quite this well, and he certainly wasn't expecting to have given the speech he gave about balance. It was the first time in a long time that he felt as if the Beast Rune had actively backed off of pressuring him both mentally and physically... All that reading and theorizing had, in fact, paid off. He couldn't help but be a little bit proud of himself. He knew, however, that he wasn't quite finished yet.

“I’d be honored to accept the invitation.†The whole truth was that there was something odd about the young prince that still held Arc’s interest. He wasn’t sure if it could be called dangerous, but referring to himself as ‘we’ always was a sign of some sort of strange magical shenanigans—THAT, unfortunately, he couldn’t simply ignore… even if this was a simulation.

[Ari]

Those final words, and the casual tone in which they were said, provoked a depressingly predictable and inefficient response from Subito, who had only a few times found himself in real danger. Of course this was a simulation, and 'Not important! Got to focus on this...' "Do it then" he said angrily, yelling above the rush of air hundreds of feet above the Pyramid Plaza, glaring defiantly at Strongarm. "Show all the world that you have the might, the power and skill to subdue a teenaged neophyte, yet untrained in the breadth of his abilities! Show everyone down there that robbing a bank is above your aims, that you dare not strike at anyone who has a chance of stopping you, show the Freedom League that you're a threat all right..a threat to their dignity if they have to stoop to capturing someone who hasn't even considered turning their powers to the service of others!" swinging by one leg he rose to face his captor "You want to make a name for yourself? Then turn that brawn to the task of defending people. You will never live a day that you aren't valued if you strive to do this with honor and skill, because every day people need rescue and guarding from evil. The choice is yours, Strongarm: continue with this scheme, beat me to a paste and drop me onto the pavement below, gain infamy as a coward who strikes at children; or you can let me go, and set about repairing the damage you have already done to people's property and to your reputation, and start looking for ways your might can be used to protect!" he stared directly into the older man's eyes, hoping fervently that this would be all that it took to convince the renegade to drop his crazy scheme, and finish the test, which as far as he was concerned had gone on long enough.

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus

The prince's uncle made no objection to their departure, giving his nephew a nearly excessively emotional farewell and giving directions for which of the paths outside his tower would lead to the (long abandoned) landing site his father would soon arrive at. He took a moment to murmur in Marcus' ear as they stepped out the door over the still-sleeping lizard "Apologies for his rudeness, he's been taught all his life that he might as well be the king already, adopting the imperial plural even at his young age" he shook his head, waving a cheery good-bye until they walked out of sight.

Rounding the bend, the world around Arcturus froze, and as he stepped through the same door he had entered, which vanished behind him, Archer's voice rang out over the intercom "Good work, Marcus! Only Serge and Subito left, and they're just about done! Make use of our generous appliances if you need to get cleaned or patched up, there's a viewing screen in the lobby if you want to watch 'em conclude their sessions."

El Heraldo

Strongarm paused visibly, his grip relaxing on the patriotic paragon's leg. Glancing from the boy to the drop below and back again, he reluctantly stepped back from the edge, dropping Heraldo in a colorful heap on the roof, folding his arms over his chest and staring coldly down at his would-be opponent. "I get what you mean. You make a good point, I would have a lot less to worry about if I became a public guardian and such. But that doesn't mean I'd actually get anything out of it. Super-strong guys who can fly? We're a dime a dozen, the scientists can pretty much mass-produce us by now in the form of robots, if I was going to be much help, it'd have to be in some middle-of-nowhere town that doesn't have anyone else. In the super-crime business? We're a lot more valued, everyone needs some flying muscle to back them up." he looked challengingly at Heraldo "Go ahead, convince me I'm wrong."

Net Fly

With a smooth whoosh of metal on wheels, the doors of the hanger bay opened, and Net Fly beheld hundreds upon hundreds of quiet, marching machines bearing down on him, arms raised and chests opened to reveal tremendous blasters inside, their glowing eyes fixed on his final refuge!

[GranspearZX]

Marcus wasn't the first to be finished, but he was relieved that he wasn't the last. The whole thing had given him a little bit of a headache, but he'd certainly learned not to be so quick to start a fight--it wasn't always necessary. As he headed through the door, he realized that Kristin might have very well been watching from the lobby. The thought of it was a little embarrassing.

Thankfully he was pretty well rested by the time he made it to the lobby. His trial had been all tension and no physical action outside of sneaking past a sleeping dragon. He spotted Kristin and gave a slight nod in her direction. "You alright?"

[Scuffles]

Kristin sat up as Marcus came out into the lobby... and winced as the movement aggravated the aching bruises that she had sustained during her own test. "Yeah not too bad," she said with a bit of a self deprecating chuckle. "Don't get captured by OVERTHROW, they're all jerks."

"How'd you do?" she asked curiously as she inclined her head towards the blank monitors. "Didn't think it'd be cool to watch you guys seeing as you didn't get to see me. Unless there's like a group-critique type session after anyway. You sure don't look as beat up as I feel anyway, guess it went fine?"

[GranspearZX]

Marcus sat down in a semi-exhausted heap on the floor--plenty of chairs, but he chose to sit cross-legged on the floor. "Nah, it was mostly me talking some kid down from world destruction." He smiled faintly. "Didn't go quite as bad as I thought it would. I mean, I wanted to just go in and just punch stuff into submission, but I guess the point is that's not always the best option."

She hadn't been watching. Marcus wasn't sure why that made him feel relieved; it also meant that she hadn't seen his bear form. It was especially weird because part of his training to control it had, at one time, been to walk around campus spending the whole day transformed. So much collateral damage that day, mostly from pulling doors off their hinges.

"You sure you don't need to be looked at?"

[Scuffles]

Kristin shook her head. "I'll get the cut on my leg checked out once we're done," she replied with a faint smile. "Don't think I can get tetanus from holographic metal shards though. Apart from that I'm just going to be sore for a few days I think. Nothing broken, but I've found out that stopping blaster bolt thingies with my chest or my stomach or my ribs or my hip... not the best plan."

She sank back onto the couch with a little bit of a groan. "Pretty sure I wasn't supposed to get in quite so many fights," she grumbled. "but I blew it trying to get some floor plans for the base I was sneaking into out of a computer. Set off a bunch of alarms. Then I bit off more than I could chew trying to punch out the guards so that I could bust out a couple of prisoners and they shot me to bits."

With a shrug of her shoulders she propped herself up on one elbow to look over at Marcus. "Not sure what else I could have done there really, but at least the simulation gave me a chance to pull an escape instead of just failing me. Managed to get myself and the prisoners out without another fight. Which is good, because I don't think I've got much fight left."

Despite the battering the redhead was still in pretty good spirits, and she grinned at her teammate. "Sounds like you got the job done nice-like. Preventing world-destruction is always good, and doing it with words instead of punchings is a pretty good thing!"

[GranspearZX]

"Stealth, huh? I've actually got a pretty good spell for that." He paused in thought for a moment, then nodded. "I, at least, heal pretty fast."

Other than being a little tired, Marcus didn't look physically harmed at all. When he first 'discovered' his magic, he could only recover in bear form, but that was slowly beginning to carry over into his human form as well. He couldn't help but wonder where that would end. Still... hearing Kristen's account of what she'd gone through wasn't the most uplifting thing he'd ever heard. He couldn't help but think that things would have turned out a lot differently if he'd been around to protect her. She's plenty capable; why does she need protecting? Marcus quickly shook the thought out of his head.

"Yeah, I suppose so. ...do you want to see what the others are up to? I'll admit... I'm kinda curious now."

[Ari]

Heraldo blinked in surprise when he realized that he had actually made an impression. He looked away from Strongarm looming above him, looking up at the clouds for a second before inspiration struck. Sitting up and supporting himself on his elbows he said, around the bruises forming on his torso that had begun to painfully throb"As you say Strongarm, maybe you would have to go somewhere obscure to make a difference and have an effect in the world, somewhere that doesn't already have lot's of defenders. Guess what? That should be what we do anyway! Our task is not to be famed, or to hold ourselves above others, or to prove some point, it is to give our all to defend the people of the world from dangers without and within!" getting laboriously to his feet, using the Banner to keep from crashing back onto the roof due to his shaking legs, he went on "People come here because this place is the focus of a lot of the world's most bizarre threats, and is famed as a place where heroes have been made, but this is not the only place in the world in need of such as you and I. I'm here to train in how to use my powers, and at the end of this instruction I will go back to Puerto Rico, which needs defending as much as any place on Earth. Everyone, everywhere would be grateful to have such as you in their corner, even for what you might think of as minor problems not worth your time." He stepped up to the imposing holographic man in front of him, looking straight up into his eyes "And you know what else? If material gain is so important to you, use your powers to gain a job in an industry that would jump at the chance to have someone with might like yours! They'll pay you more than any theft, and be far less likely to stab you in the back afterwards. But as always, the choice is yours."

That said, he rose into the air in a flare of golden fog, now the same height as the other man.

[Scuffles]

Kristin gave another shrug. "Up to you," she replied with an impish grin. "I wasn't gonna, but if you turn it on I'll obviously have to watch as well. Could be interesting, after all, your session was obviously completely different to mine."

She sat up again and chewed on her bottom lip for a couple of seconds. "Besides, I guess we're pretty likely to get a chance to watch everything back anyway to review and see what we could have done better. Would make sense anyway. I wouldn't mind some second opinions for sure!"

[GranspearZX]

"Right. Well." With a grunt of discomfort from muscle soreness, he gets up to turn the monitor on. He sat back down in the same spot, musing to himself as he looked between the screens displaying Heraldo and Net Fly. "Sorry about earlier, by the way... I had to hold back a little bit and it got a little bit out of control. I don't usually go all-out in front of other people... Tends to weird people out later."

He leaned forward a little bit, mostly to stretch while he focused on Heraldo's opponent. "Huh. Who the heck is that guy?"

[Ari]

GM

Stroking his luxuriant beard with two thick fingers, Strongarm considered Heraldo's words, staring down with his coldly penetrating gaze at the stocky teen. At length his fingers stopped and he answered slowly "You at least know how to make half of a point. I agree, job security would be nice." he took in a massive breath and let it out slowly, sitting down and gesturing for the colorful paragon to follow suit "It's not so much the money, kid, I just want to be something other than some place's resident strongman. That's why I called m'self Strongarm, because everywhere I went, I was just wanted because I could lift and hit stuff harder and heavier than other people. It's why I left Stockholm, in fact." he rested his chin on his knuckles staring morosely at the younger man for a full minute. Mumbling under his breath, too quietly for Marcus or Kristin to hear, "And like I said, if you have powers like mine, you're very expendable." His face clearing slowly he said more loudly "But you are right, if I really want to be more than just that, being a hero to those in need is one of the best ways to do it." Floating over to the edge of the roof with a faint *woomsh* he looked down at the STAR vans below, the wail of sirens still resounding through the air. "Now then, it would be too much to hope I will be forgiven for all that destruction I just caused. I will go down and surrender. Good-bye, Heraldo," he concluded, shaking the patriotic flier's hand with a genuine smile before rising to his feet and descending gracefully "If you have the time, look up Charles Holmström. I would be glad to talk with you again." he saluted the younger boy, and then swung downwards with his hands raised over his head, peacefully complying with the very surprised and relieved STAR officers.

Then the world stopped, the door opened out of the simulation and Alan Archer's voice rang out, with a slight note of concern "Okaay...Subito, I'll need to discuss some things with you after the conclusion of the session. Not bad work exactly, but definitely could use some improvement. Don't worry about it for now!" he added kindly, and with his regular enthusiasm "Just head on out and join the other two. Get a shower, get patched up if you need to. Only one left to go!" His voice cut out once more.

[Ari]

Nodding slowly at the echoing voice of Mr. Archer, Subito dispelled the power of El Heraldo and walked out the door. He started when he glanced around the Doom Room with sudden confusion on his face "Wait, how did we all not feel or hear each others' test?" he asked aloud, sounding utterly baffled. He shook his head "I guess we'll find out soon enough. Mebbe the coach could show us how it looks without all the simulated stuff..." he pondered as he went to get a shower, the grime and dust that had gotten on him during the brief struggle with Strongarm turning out to be much more real than he had thought. The walk across the Doom Room to the showers, and from the showers to the lobby, gave he plenty of time to think over what Strongarm had told him.

'I wonder, was there something true to what that guy said? I mean, it's not like powers like mine aren't too hard to copy, and- Subito, who did you get your powers from? Uh...you? Correct, and how many have I granted such power to, besides yourself? None. Look, I get what you mean, but still! If such power were easy to grant, many more would have it. But few do. So...even if it seems a dime a dozen, it's still a great thing to have? Yes. Okay, I'll remember that. Thanks Dame! I'm sorry 'bout bein' so down for so little reason. Wonder what the other guys got to do? I bet it was awesome!'

Sauntering into the lobby with his hands in his pockets and his hat comfortably settled over his close-cut hair, he waved cheerfully to Kristin and Marcus, calling out "Hey guys. How'd it go for you two? I had to talk this guy called Strongarm into not being a villain, it took some doin'." he dropped with a thud onto the couch next to Marcus, crossing one leg over the other and glancing over at the monitor on the wall nearby, leaping to his feet in horror and exclaiming, pointing at the screen "Serge! He-Mr. Archer, what's going on? Is Net Fly in trouble?" he asked in terror, the army of robots marching into the hanger looking unnervingly real and non-simulated. He looked at the Australian telekinetic desperately "Hey, Kristin, d'you know what's happening there?"

[Scuffles]

Kristin acknowledged Subito's entrance with a nod, then smiled as Net-Fly's plight seemed to frighten him rather badly. "Serge," she commented as she lifted the side of her shirt to show the patriotic Paragon the ugly purple bruise still spreading across her ribs, "seems to be having a day that's about as rough as mine. We only just turned it on, but I can vouch for the fact that getting blasted with a simulated laser cannon like those ones in there... well it hurts!"

She grinned at her friend again. "Chill out, there's practically no way he's getting shot more times than I did," she said with a chuckle. "And I'm still standing, he'll be fine, you'll see!"

[Ari]

Subito hesitated, looking back at the marching horde of robots for a second "Okay I-I guess you're right..." he sat back down looking both nervous and wincing at the darkened blood of the bruise Kristin had gotten. "Ow. Thought that guy did a number on me, had no idea..." he mumbled more than a little guiltily. He rubbed the back of his head "Sorry about that. I can go overboard sometimes, won't do that again if I can help it."

he looked back up "So..what did you two do?"

[GranspearZX]

"Talked a kid out of destroying the world." Marcus gave a nonchalant shrug and grinned. He really was rather proud of that. "Looks like your conversation went a little differently than mine though... Mine was just a spoiled rich kid who didn't realize how much power he had. I think I just mostly scared him into behaving. I didn't ev-... eh..."

I didn't even use my bear form.

He coughed. Changing the subject, he frowned at Kristin's bruise; seeing other people in pain was a known trigger for Marcus flipping out. It was, after all, the trigger for the first time the Beast Rune activated. "...you REALLY should get that looked at, Kristin..."

[Scuffles]

Kristin shrugged as she let the hem of her shirt drop back down to cover the bruise. "It'll be fine," she said. "Besides, it's not even the worst one, just the one that's easiest to show you guys. Or appropriate to show you guys. I should maybe grab some icepacks though, I wonder if they have any down here."

She watched the monitors for a few seconds, then glanced at Subito again. "I was supposed to infiltrate an OVERTHROW base and rescue a couple of kids they had prisoner. Started out alright, I pulled this sweet routine to get through a corridor full of laser tripwires. Then I messed up fooling around with a computer and set some alarms off. The next part involved me getting shot a lot and captured."

She hopped off the couch to stretch a little and winced as she realised her aching muscles had started to tighten up. "Escape, daring rescue, no more getting shot. Guess I didn't fail too dismally! Okay, I really do need some ice I think."

[Ari]

GM

Net Fly

The robots packed together, standing in perfectly symmetrical rows and columns as their weapons began glowing. As one they spoke -"SILENCE THE TRAITOR"- they proclaimed, a hail of blue energy blasts raining down upon the docked ship, hammering against the hull with titanic force! But, to their surprise(if robots could be called surprised), their cannonade of blaster bolts blazing from their arms and chests had no effect, the hull shuddering and rattling worryingly, but was not so much as singed as the attack stopped and the smoke and vapor cleared.

Their was a buzz of electronics outside, clearly this was a new situation for the robots.

[GranspearZX]

"...what on Earth is going on there?"

For several moments, Marcus's eyes were firmly fixed on the screen. Did this sort of thing actually happen? Robots and huge ships and the like shouldn't have been all that surprising to him, he realized, but seeing it was surreal. Even in a simulation. He definitely wasn't equipped to deal with something like that. Besides that, his own power was very terrestrial in nature. "How do you even stop something like that? Alone, even? Mine was pretty tame compared to the rest of yours. I hope they weren't taking it easy on me because of earlier..."