Vanguard#1- Kings and Shields(IC)

[Ari]

GM

"I was...turned into a weapon..." came the dizzy reply from the weakened man, suddenly staring right at the pair with his drawn face and hollow eyes. "The man...Dr. Green...he wanted to make a weapon to get rid of you...get rid of the only other man...who knew about that...day when you and Voltage...stopped him." he closed his eyes slowly "The other one...will come soon for you...and me. Please. I can tell you where to go to find..Dr. Green and those...he wishes to unravel...the secrets of." in a stronger voice he went on steadily "Keep me safe from..the other, and I will tell you all that I..." he shuddered, eyes flickering as he slowly fell back into unconsciousness "...know..."

In the distance, harsh boots crunched on the gravel.

[GranspearZX]

Crusader listened carefully, brow furrowed in thought. He had no idea who this 'Dr. Green' person was, but he was fairly certain that he was responsible for turning this man into a rampaging monster. What worried him most was the 'other one' that was going to be coming for King of Suits, confirming his suspicion that this incident was far from over. That didn't sit well with him at all. Clark had never been the sort to walk away from someone in need.

And as capable as the King of Suits seemed to be, he didn't want to leave anything to chance.

He grunted and nodded slowly as the man slipped back into unconsciousness. Clark looked back up at the King of Suits and nodded. "Sounds like somebody's got a grudge. A serious one. Maybe we sh-..."

Crusader quickly cut himself off, straightening up a little bit as the sound of gravel-disturbing footsteps pierced the otherwise silent night air. There really was no good reason for anyone else to be out in an abandoned railyard, which immediately put him on edge. He wasn't sure getting into another fight was the best idea in the world, but he didn't want to risk moving an injured man; he could only guess that he'd given the poor guy a mild concussion.

"Company," he whispered, remaining crouched as he looked in the direction of the sound...

[Ari]

Marceau would have been swayed to help the man by a story significantly less horrible. If this 'Dr. Green' had decided to start up such a complex scheme to get back at the duo, then clearly he was a man of considerable resources. Not everyone could make such a beast on demand like that. "We'll keep you safe" he assured the man gently as he fell unconscious, checking his gear to make sure it was in working order;if this was the agent charged with making sure that the mighty brute didn't spill Green's secret's he wanted to be prepared.

The King of Suits gave a quick salute to Crusader with his gloved forefinger, dashing off across the graveled yard to take cover as the steps got closer. When he caught a glimpse of the silhouette of what looked like a walking castle in miniature, he threw a flash-gas card at it, muttering angrily as it was expertly batted aside by their adversary, exploding in a flare of light and a small cloud of noxious gas several metres behind them.

[GranspearZX]

Clark didn't go very far. He didn't want to leave the injured figure undefended when he was clearly worried about what this second assailant might do in order to keep him silent. Taking a calculated risk, Crusader lifted the man by his shoulders and dragged him further out of sight, behind the structure his bestial form had been ripping apart for ammunition. Once there, he frowned a bit as the King of Suits's card seemed to leave the figure unharmed. Right. My turn then. He sent his shield flying through the air towards its target and it soared through the air back to Crusader's waiting arm. He grimaced a little as he caught it, absently reminded of how major league pitchers might feel during a game.

[Ari]

GM

The shield struck home, the previously aloof and mysterious figure staggering backwards from the force of it, stumbling to the gro-

The shield struck home, the previously aloof figure just barely managing to cushion themselves from its full force, stumbling backwards and clearly disoriented. They briefly wandered through a small pool of light, revealing a vaguely feminine person wrapped from head to foot in grey and dark blue spandex, with small black lenses over their eyes and a cutout for their lower nose and mouth. They were...plentifully supplied with guns, none of which looked even remotely like the kind of weapons used by normal people.

[Ari]

Marceau nearly smacked himself when he saw Crusader hauling their charge to safety. He had not even considered just carrying the man into a secluded and easily-defended hiding place.

With a brisk sigh he glanced around the other corner of his sheltering boxcar, noting his enemy's vast arsenal of firearms with displeasure. Whipping another King of Hearts from his deck, he extended his opposite arm and sighted down it for a single moment before letting fly, the card slicing through the night, unraveling into coils of steel...that were deflected at the last moment by the barely lucid gunwoman, still holding her side in pain. "This is going to take a moment" he muttered to himself, readying another card with a flick of his wrist.

[GranspearZX]

Crusader was more than concerned by this walking arsenal of a woman. Beating up on a woman didn't exactly sit well with him, even if she was carrying that much hardware. Still, he was certain he hadn't made a mistake in striking first, shield at the ready as he shouted at her from behind his cover. If nothing else, he was attempting to draw her attention towards him as much as possible. He was used to fighting in close quarters and was surprisingly adept at avoiding friendly fire. He knew that wasn't exactly all his training, however--he had the 8th Crusader to thank for that particular set of skills.

"Walk away, lady. You're only gonna get one chance."

Crusader leaped out from behind his cover, high up into the air. He wound up and let the shield fly again, this time arcing his swing downward far more than he had to. The shield looked like it was about to nail her squarely in the head, but its curve guided it around to her right, bouncing hard against the ground before returning to the crimson-clad hero's arm.

[Ari]

GM

A second dull thud resounded along with the dull clang of the shield striking both their would-be-if-they-weren't-being-clobbered assailant and one of her many firearms with tremendous force, sending her staggering against the side of nearby boxcar, clutching her left ribs as she began to sin-

A second dull thud resounded along with the dull clang of the shield striking both their would-be-if-they-weren't-being-clobbered assailant and one of her many firearms with tremendous force, sending her staggering against the side of nearby boxcar, her pistol-holding hand going back to her side, having just barely managed to shield herself from the worst of the whirling disk of metal. She obviously wasn't about to start blasting away at them, however, panting heavily in the warm night air, her gun-less hand supporting herself shakily.

[Ari]

Twitching in sympathy as the shield crashed loudly into the side of the gunwoman, Marceau noted the swaying motion that she made as she reached for a support, realizing 'Aha! Disoriented by the blow. Well done, Crusader!' he cheered internally, leaping from his hiding place and running at top speed towards his briefly unsteady foe, pulling back his left fist and delivering it with a short lunge into her sternum, knocking the wind clean out of her, and sending her crashing to the ground in a gun-covered heap. He looked down at her for a moment, shrugged, and then handcuffed her, carrying the woman back over to where Crusader and the once-monster were.

"Well, that was decidedly anticlimactic. I suppose that is just as well, too much havoc and damage would have been terrible even in this abandoned yard. What do you make of all this, Crusader?" he asked the heraldicly-dressed hero anxiously "This seems a rather perilous situation we've wound up in."

[GranspearZX]

There was something definitely off about what happened. Crusader was just about ready to take his chances making a run for it when the King of Suits went charging in after his strike, managing to land a solid blow and knock her to the ground. He grimaced inwardly; he still wished that hadn't happened, but she was armed. He checked again on the unconscious man as the King of Suits, in both a literal and figurative sense, tied up the remaining loose ends.

"We? Wait a second..." Clark hesitated for a moment. Technically, he was rather involved now... and it wouldn't be long before this Dr. Green person caught wind of his saving the King of Suits. And if Green already had a grudge against him, Clark himself wouldn't be too far behind. "...mm. I guess we do."

Clark Noble wasn't exactly a stranger to making enemies, after all, and if this Dr. Green wanted a piece of him, he could certainly give it his best shot. "It's always better to end these things before they get really ugly," he commented, eying the woman's arsenal with a disapproving frown. "Maybe you can fill me in on this Dr. Green guy while we wait for the authorities?"

[Ari]

"Yes, Dr. Green is likely to hear of this, and try again" the King of Suits explained grimly, misinterpreting Crusader's puzzlement "It might take a while for that poor man to recover, and be able to tell us what he knows. While we wait for the ambulance to get here," he went on while seating himself on the freight car floor, swishing his cape out behind himself so he wouldn't sit on it "Why don't we talk a little? I would very much like to know more about that dream you had, Crusader. If you can, could you tell me what you saw?" he asked with eager curiosity shining in his eyes, reflecting the light of the moon that shone down and spread monochrome silver over the now still and quiet railway yard. Turning his attention sharply to the 'cuffed and secured gunwoman, he stared at her through narrowed eyes before shaking his head and looking back to Clark with a warm smile under his cowl "Ah, my apologies, sir. I thought she stirred."

[GranspearZX]

"Well... I don't really remember a lot of it. But I got the sense that it was something that hadn't happened yet. I heard this voice--a young girl, I think--and she was urging me to prevent it from happening. All I really saw was a lot of shifting shadows in the rail yard, but I felt panic. The kind of panic you feel when you're hopelessly outnumbered."

Crusader shuddered a little bit. It was hard to say if it was because of the sharp, cold breeze that blew through the area or the chilling thought he'd recalled, but he folded his arms across his chest nonetheless. "It made me feel like I had to be here. Like it was incredibly important that I prevent it from happening. Not that you can't handle yourself, mind you, but I think you would have been up against these two and all those goblins. All at the same time."

He nodded. "I'm not a metahuman. But ever since I took up the mantle of the Crusader, I can get these glimpses of the Crusaders before me. That's how I picked up a lot of the skills I have, to be honest. This felt like it was a warning though. That's never happened to me before."

[Ari]

"I will tell you the truth, Crusader." The King of Suits said thoughtfully "I had never heard the term 'metahuman' before I came to America. I thought the term used was 'super? Back in France we call such people 'Le Puissante' or just 'puissants'." he scratched the back of his head for several seconds before simply pulling back his cowl and fishing out the small bits of gravel and dirt that had managed to get in, tossing them out the door with a note of irritation. His thick black hair was short, his nose broad and his eyes perpetually slightly widened.

Thinking over what Crusader had said about the dream he said at length "A young girl, you say? I am surprised. No such children were involved when I first encountered Dr. Green and that poor man he was trying to grant powers to. Could he have a sister?" he wondered aloud "Not impossible, but mere speculation at this point. I will have to look into this. I thank you for the vote of confidence," he added with a slight bow, and a rueful smile that caught the moonlight brilliantly "I confess, I do not quite share your surety in my skill."

Scooting his legs under himself he went on "That is an amazing shield you have, Crusader. Where did you get it? Is it a family heirloom from your predecessors?" he glanced over at the gunwoman "...Also, did you notice those...jolts, too? Where one thing seemed to happen, and then another?"

[GranspearZX]

"Is that what this Dr. Green's schtick is? Granting powers to people?" It wasn't the first time Crusader had heard of that sort of thing happening. There were rumors of 'power brokers' doing it all the time, occasionally even snatching homeless people right off the street for those sort of experiments. He could just imagine his brother doing something like this for a quick buck, regardless of the consequences.

"'Metahuman' is just a term I picked up from my father, I guess. He was The Crusader before me. Died during the Terminus invasion." Crusader's expression didn't change. It was nearly twenty years ago, and he'd known his father's secret then. It was a difficult secret to keep, and he'd thought it was firmly behind him until he found the shield--or rather, until the shield found him. "I guess you could say my father left it to me. Among other things. I'd always thought about taking up the name to carry on my father's legacy. Turns out the shield chose me anyway."

Clark straightened up a little bit and looked down at the woman, nodding. "It was weird... It felt like a record skipping. Never seen anything like it before. She's pretty lucky her injuries weren't worse."

[Ari]

"Is that what this Dr. Green's schtick is? Granting powers to people?"

"As far as we can discern, yes. Somewhat like Mr. Motley, in fact, as both men seem to have devised some chemical way of granting people superhuman abilities." the card-themed vigilante explained gravely.

He listened attentively to Crusader's explanation of his shield's heritage, looking quite surprised at the notion of it 'choosing' someone to wield it. "Well, it seems it chose quite excellently!" he laughed, his teeth flashing in the light. "Yes, that is a good way to put it, like a record skipping..." he stood up suddenly, looking into the distance and listening to the sound of approaching sirens "Ah! That would be the ambulance." he donned his cowl again, shaking Clark's hand warmly "My thanks for your aid, Crusader. We'll see what our friend here knows, eh?"

[Ari]

GM

Soon enough, the EMTs showed up with the stretcher, helpful but somewhat skeptical of the pair's story about what had happened. Despite some initial awkward questions, they gladly loaded the battered man into the ambulance, the gunwoman's own injuries turning out to be not nearly so serious as the once-massive test subject's concussion, but they still muttered about "careless" attacks and "thoughtless" fighting. Just before the doors of the ambulance closed, the man's eyes opened, and he looked blearily at the two bizarrely-dressed vigilantes. Smiling ever so slightly when he tilted his head and saw where he was, he said "Thank you. I...saw an address...before I was taken." he took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. One of the EMTs leaned down over him with an an anesthetics mask "Sir, please lie still, you've been badly hurt. We-", only to be gently pushed aside as the man gasped out "No! I...it was...a house on Chicago street...Hanover...." he fell back, unresisting as the mask was gently placed over his face, and the doors of the ambulance closed. With a wail of sirens, it sped out into the night streets, headed for Freedom medical Center.

--END.