New to the Business

[Thevshi]

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

10:25 PM

 

A thick cloud cover hung over Freedom City, intensifying the gloom of the already dark night.  On the other side of the South River, the lights of downtown Freedom City glistened against the dark sky, seemingly alive with energy.  Along the southern bank of the river, there were the bright lights and neon of the casinos of the Boardwalk, attempting to entice new patrons.  But stretching out from the glitz of the Boardwalk were the dark streets of Southside.

 

Long a middle and lower-middle class section of the city, Southside had for years struggled with the encroachment of crime in its neighborhoods.  Despite the efforts of a number of costumed crimefighters, there still appeared that the bad areas were slowly expanding.  As such, there often seemed to be something happening in Southside that would warrant attention, even from someone new to crimefighting. 

Edited April 10, 2013 by Thevshi

[ChrisClark13]

Curti- Neospell had just gotten his apartment set up in Hanover this morning, in his secret identity of course, and was out for a stroll in his brilliant white costume looking for some trouble to quell, crime to bust, robbers to stop, etc, etc....

 

When he had first come into Freedom City on an airplane, for the first time in his life actually, it had of course awed him a fair amount.

He had already picked out his apartment though and had already sent most of his machines and furniture to it a couple days back when he had come into the city. His things should be arriving either tomorrow or the next day. The apartment was nice enough and there was just enough room for his workshop and the 3D printer with a bit left to spare, he was already planning to fill it in with a small couch that was just big enough to sleep on and perhaps a TV.

 

Not to mention he had a job interview lined up at ArcheTech which was only a few blocks from his apartment. So far the day had gone just as planned but...

 

Tonight so far nothing had happened, much to his dismay.

 

The dark streets weren't bothering him as much as they could have been due to the Darkvision enchantment he had put on his sunglasses though, he was just mostly bored. He quickly checked the pair of alleyways on either side of the street for trouble as he sighed. His "debut" was being quite boring so far.

Edited March 12, 2013 by ChrisClark13

[Thevshi]

While things may have been slow to start, Southside did not disappoint for long.  As the white clad hero was making his way down the dark streets, waiting to come across some sort of trouble, his mystically enhanced sunglasses picked up three figures that crossed an intersection about two blocks ahead of him.  They were each moving pretty quickly, a bit faster than he could go in fact, but what really stood out about them was they each radiating magic.

 

The three were too far away to make out much details, even with his Darkvision, and they were out of sight down the street to the right quickly as well.  While they were moving too fast for him to overtake them, his sunglasses probably would allow him to track them.

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell blinked, a bit surprised, ...Magic? What's magic doing here? Totally not what I was expecting, but I'll check it out. Probably some cultists or something. He stretches out his back as his sunglasses show a trail of magical energy, he starts off following the trail by walking at a brisk pace but breaks into a sprint as whoever's making the trail seems to be going really, even superhumanly, fast. Maybe they have some kind of magical speed booster? Or maybe they're just trafficking magical stuff and are hooked up on that "Boost" drug or whatever it was. He skids a tiny bit as he turns the corner and heads right, the soles of his boots pounding the pavement.

[Thevshi]

Speeding up to follow the trail of the three individuals, Neospell quickly covers several blocks.  The area around him started to look more and more rundown as he followed, and after covering about a dozen blocks, he was in a part of Southside that had a number of empty, boarded up homes and shops among occupied, but rundown buildings.  The trail was still very evident, and he was just starting down an alleyway between some boarded up buildings he heard several shouts echo from down the alley, followed quickly by several gunshots and then more shouting.

[Thevshi]

At the sound of the gunshots, Neospell wasted little time before running down the alley to find out what was going on.  As he moved a short way into the alley, his Darkvision allowed him to see the chaotic scene unfolding in what appeared to be a larger open area among the buildings. 

 

There were two cars partially visible ahead of him, one on either side of the open area as he was looking at it.  At the end of the alley, just before it opened into the larger space, he could make out a body lying on the ground, though it was too far away to tell how badly injured the person might be.  There were also a number of other people visible in his field of vision as well.

 

Two were to the right side of the open area, near one of the cars.  Both appeared to be in their late teens, dressed like gang members.  Both had pistols out in their hands.  One was looking off to the right, at something that Neospell could not see from his angle.  The other was looking back to the left, towards another figure who was visible.

 

That figure was crouched on top of the roof of the car that was too the left, and was one of the three figures Neospell had spotted earlier radiating some magical aura.  The figure was also a young man, possibly late teens, early twenties, dressed in jeans and a black jacket with dreadlocks.  But he had something of a feral, catlike appearance to him that Neospell believed was related to the magical aura surrounding him.

 

The last figure in Neospell's line of sight was a Latino man standing near the car on the left, dressed in casual clothes.  He was currently pulling a sub-machinegun out of the back of the car as he looked up at the feral figure on the roof of the car with a slight expression of fear.

Edited March 13, 2013 by Thevshi

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell wasted no time in running out of the alleyway as he called up his MagiBlaster. He fired a bolt of magical energy at the first cat-like person he saw, unfortunately the shot whizzed right by his target's head and hit an abandoned building behind the fighting, exploding in a small blast of magical energy.
 
He became a little unsure when he saw the other two cat-like figures, but Superheros don't back down do they. Besides the words were already coming out of his mouth, "Hey tabby! Why don't you go and pick on someone you're own size!" Wait what, that doesn't make sense he's definitely bigger than me and there's more of them! Lets see if I'm in over my head with this Superheroing thing!

[Thevshi]

Having moved to the end of the alleyway Neospell could not see more of what was unfolding, as well as the other two individuals whom he had spotted that had radiated magic.  Both were similarly dressed to the one he had tried to attack and were similarly magically altered with cat-like characteristics.

 

One of the cat-men was off to his left, at the front of the car the other was standing on top of.  That cat-man was facing off with two men similarly dressed to the one that had pulled a sub-machinegun out of the car, both armed with pistols.  A fourth man was next to the driver’s door of the car, also armed with a sub-machinegun.   

 

As Neospell watched, that second cat-man clawed at one of the two men he was facing, the claws tearing through the man’s shirt and leaving deep gouges as the man cried out in pain.  However, he remained on his feet, and focused on the cat-man.

 

Up ahead, one of the two gang members Neospell had first spotted glanced at him and then focused back on the cat-man on the roof of the car.  Raising his pistol, the gang member fired a shot, but missed his target.

 

The man who had just been clawed swung his pistol at the cat-man in front of him, but the mystically enhanced thug managed to dodge the attack.

 

The man with the sub-machinegun that Neospell had initially spotted aimed the weapon up at the cat-man on the roof of the car and fired a burst.  But the mystically enhanced thug managed to dodge that attack as well.

 

The cat-man that Neospell had tried to shot turned back to glance at him a moment, then jumped down next to the man with the sub-machinegun who had just fired at him.  The cat-man’s claws racked against his side, hurting the man, but not putting him out of the fight.

 

The other man armed with a sub-machinegun looked over at his companions at the front of the left side car, engaged in melee with the cat-man there.  Glancing back at Neospell, he spun and leveled his weapon at the hero, firing a bust at him.  The rounds whistled by, missing the hero and impacting on the wall of the alleyway behind him.

 

Off to Neospell's right were two more gang members, engaged in melee with the third magically enhanced thug.  One of the two swung a knife at the cat-man, but missed as the enhanced thug dodged aside easily.

 

The cat-man lashed out in return with his claws, racking them across the gang member's throat.  The young man spun slightly and crumpled to the ground, not far from another prone gang member that lay closer towards the alley entrance where Neospell was standing.

 

The other gang member that had been facing that third cat-man took a step back and brought up his pistol, firing a shot.  However, the cat-man once again nimbly dodged aside.  Two more gang members located near the car on the right side also shot at the third cat-man, but both their shots missed the target as well.

 

The second man facing off with the cat-man in front of the car to the left also tried to hit the magically enhanced thug with his pistol, but like his companion, he failed to hit the agile cat-man.

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell side stepped out of the way of the incoming fire, "What hey! Don't shoot at me shoot at them!" He takes a moment to point at the cat thug he shot with his left land before putting it back on the barrel and firing another bolt of energy that hits it's mark this time. The bolt scores a solid hit in the chest and makes a small explosion that feels like he's been punched in the gut, hard. The guy looks like he's one more solid blow from being KO'd.
 
Neospell then takes a moment to assess the situation mentally. Okay, seems like it's a free for all here. Both sides are shooting at the cat men, and probably will start shooting each other, or more likely me when they're taken out. I think I can call the cops after I'm done here and they'll lock all of the sides up, but maybe I'll let them go and just say they were defending themselves? I have no idea what to do here, but... taking all of them off the streets seems like the best idea actually.

[Thevshi]

Neospell's attack managed to knock the cat-man off his feet completely, sending him flying at least five feet before he disappeared from view as he fell to the ground behind the car.  Meanwhile the chaotic scene around the hero continued.

The cat-man to the left slashed the man he had attack before once again, creating more deep gashes.  But the man once again remained on his feet.  He tried to counter attack, but once again missed.

 

The man with the sub-machinegun who had been attacked by the cat-man Neospell had just blasted turned towards where the cat-man had fallen and fired his sub-machinegun.  Though whether any of the rounds hit their target or not the hero could not see.

 

The man who had previously shot at him did not heed Neospell's comment about focusing on the cat-men, and once again fired a burst at the hero.  However, his aim was no better than before and the attack missed.

 

The cat-man to the right rushed up towards the gang member who had retreated to shot, slashing out with his clawed hands, once again catching his target in the throat.  The gang member crumpled onto the pavement, blood evident on the cat-man's hand.  The three still standing gang members around the car on the right all fired at the cat-man, but missed.

[Cubist]

Jubatus' nightly patrolling included all parts of Freedom City. While he wasn't fast enough to cover the whole city in one evening, he could (and did) cover different subsets of the City every night, determining exactly which neighborhoods with a random number generator so as to make it more difficult for badguys to detect any exploitable patterns in his behavior.
 
Tonight, as it happened, Southside was on the cheetah's itinerary. So far, he'd dealt with three muggings; one attempted burglary; two drug dealers; and one idiot who clearly believed eleven vodka-and-tonics wasn't alcohol enough to make him an unsafe driver.
 
Jubatus disassembled the engine of the idiot's car, and duct-taped all of its clearly-labeled loose parts to the car's hood, while it was doing 65 MPH is a 35 zone.
 
Suddenly, br-rr-rr-raaaap!! went the distinctive cry of a submachine gun! That's… not coming from the direction of any licensed shooting range, Jubatus thought. Joyous friggin' day. And so the feline blurred down the streets of Southside to the source of the dangerous noise.
 
Once on the scene, Jube took a careful, upshifted look at the general vicinity. Hmm… Three guys with a little feline in them, Bast only knows why; minimum of five—no, make that seven—human-normal types, some of them armed; and that guy in white. So okay, looks like three factions here, not counting any Involved Persons who're keeping themselves concealed. Fine.
 
Downshift

To slow (normal-speed) eyes, Jubatus simply appeared in the middle of the conflict. "Okay, folks: I don't know what problems you have with each other, and I don't care. What I do know is, this ess-em-gee crap ends. Now. So you can stop the ultraviolence of your own accord, or a guy who can crack Mach 8 under his own power can stop it for you. Choose wisely."

Edited March 13, 2013 by Cubist

[Cubist]

[ignore this post—would delete it if i could, but since i can't…]

Edited March 13, 2013 by Cubist

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell's mouth stood agape as a freaking bipedal cheetah suddenly showed up out of nowhere (not that you could tell under his mask anyways). The cheetah barked out a warning, causing the fight to pause briefly before one of those cat-gangsters went right back to trying to tear his prey up. Neospell fumbled a bit as he took aim and fired, the bolt of magical energy going wide over the target's shoulders and knocking a few bricks loose on the building on the other side of the street.

 

Neospell also repositions himself so that that guy with the SMG will stop shooting at him even though there's more obvious targets that are tearing up his friends just down the street.

[Thevshi]

While the sudden appearance of Jubatus was something of a shock to the various combatants, it was quickly obvious they were not yet ready to listen to reason and stand down.  One of the cat-men prepared to continue attacking the man he had previously injured, and Neospell tried to stop him with a blast that flew far wide of the target.  The cat-man once again slashed with his claws, but this time the man managed to pull back just enough that the scratches were mainly superficial.

 

The rest of the combatants continued fighting as well, the various gang members and other men continuing to shoot at the cat-men or Neospell as they had before.  One of the men in melee with the cat-men managed to land a blow with his pistol, but the cat-man seemed unaffected by the attack.  Similarly, the cat-man who had already viciously put down two gang members shrugged off a gunshot from one of the standing gang members.

The cat-man Neospell had blasted previously climbed back to his feet, but appeared unable to do much more at the moment.  The cat-man fighting the gang members moved up to another one, and dropped him to the ground with another claw attack, though this time not quite as vicious as the two he had landed on the prior gang members.

[Cubist]

Jubatus growled. That his words hadn't done a bloody thing to defuse the situation was hardly a surprise, but it still would have been nice if even one thug had chosen to not live down to his expectations… eh, whatever.
 
Upshift

Everything was frozen in the stillness of fast-time. The cheetah pulled a roll of duct-tape from his Vest Of Many Things and… Hmm. More targets than I like—not sure if the roll's got enough dee-tee to do the job on all of 'em… okay, fine. Tear the tape in half lengthwise for use on the normal types, and full-width tape on the cat-freaks. Thus resolved, Jube blurred between and around the thugs, looping duct tape around their wrists and ankles; apart from the feline-wannabees, there were clearly two distinct factions in play, one of them African-Americans and the other Latinos. And when he finished this job: Okay, looks good enough, assuming the half-width strips hold… meh. No way to calculate it out from first principles.
 
Downshift
 
As it happened, all of the catboys were more-or-less securely bound, but one of the black guys, and two Latinos, managed to free themselves from their duct-tape bondage. Hm. Half-width strips aren't good enough. Good to know.

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell's mouth hangs open again when he sees that all of the combatants are suddenly wrapped in duct-tape. What the? How does that guy go so freaking fast?!?​ He took a moment to reassess the situation and saw that the cat-guy he had shot before was trying to escape from his silvery, sticky bonds, probably to get right back to tearing up someone else. "Oh no you don't" he yelled as he knocked the overgrown tabby out with a shot to the head before face-planting the ground. Oooooh.... that's gonna leave a mark... maybe? Yeah, probably.

[Thevshi]

The cat-man that had managed to avoid Jubatus' duct tape wrapping once again lashed out once again at the man he had clawed three times already.  Once again his claws racked across the man’s chest, and this time the man fell to the ground unconscious and bleeding.

 

The gang member who had also avoided being duct taped took the opportunity to take a shot at the partially bound cat-man who was still standing (the one who had taken down three of his fellow gang members thus far).  But even with his target partially bound by the duct tape, the gang member’s shot went wide.

 

The man with the sub-machinegun that had been shooting at the cat-man Neospell had just knocked unconscious now found himself without a target.  It was then that his gaze fell on Jubatus, and he leveled his sub-machinegun and fired a burst at the cheetah-man.  He manages to strike the hero with one of his rounds.

The other man with the sub-machinegun, who had been shooting at Neospell thus far, open fired on the white clad hero once more.  But like the pervious times, his burst missed.  But the bullets were much closer than the prior attacks.

 

The other cat man, who had been partially bound by duct tape uses his claws to quickly shred the duct tape on him, freeing himself. 

The gang member who had been partially bound by some duct tape tries to struggle against it, but is unable to do much to get himself free.

[Cubist]

Now, what are these guys—
 
Upshift
 
—gaah! Damned instincts. Okay: One bullet dodged— Some heroes might think it was nice to have an instinctive, always-on "early warning radar" that could detect pretty much any incoming attack, before it came close to hitting.
 
Downshift

—right. Bullets all over the place, and targets are—
 
Upshift
 
—one more bullet dodged, why don't these idiots ever learn? In Jube's case, the problem with always-on 'threat radar' was that whenever it detected a threat, the damn thing automatically activated his Timeshift.
 
Downshift

Where was I… right. Gunmen targeting Mr. White, and catboy over there, and me—
 
Upshift
 
Which was rather irritating when you wanted to stay at one stable tempo for an extended period. â€”son of a—enough with the friggin'— Ttthhuunnkk
 
Oh… misjudged, that… trajec…

 

The feline speedster slumped to the pavement.

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell pumped his fist soon after watching the cat guy hit the ground face first. "Yes! Got 'im!" He then ducked yet again as that one Latino guy with the SMG shot at him yet again. "Hey! Didn't I tell you to shoot at the cat dudes? Oh dangit," He takes aim at the guy, "If you're not going to stop shooting at me, I'll just have to shoot you first dangit!" A bolt of light blue energy flies out of the end of the MagiBlaster and hits the guy squarely in the gut, sending him flying. "Ah, whoops. Probably gave him a concussion or something, but he's better off than the rest of them at least... not all mangled up... hey that gives me an idea."

Edited March 16, 2013 by ChrisClark13

[Thevshi]

Just as the man with the sub-machinegun that had shot Jubatus was just bracing to fire another burst at the dazed hero when one of the cat-men rushed up next to him.  The cat-man's claws tore across the man’s chest and dropped him down onto the ground and out of the fight.

 

The street gang member that was still in the fight took a shot at the cat-man near him, but again, missed the target badly.  The cat-man closed quickly, lashing out with his claws towards the young man's throat, but somehow at the last minute the gang member pulled to the side and instead received only minimal slashes across one shoulder. 

 

The other conscious gang member continued to try to struggle against his duck tape bonds, but to no avail.

 

As he was recovering from being hit by one of the sub-machinegun rounds, Jubatus happened to glance over to the cat-man who had been knocked out by the man in white and was lying near him.  Now that the figure was unconscious, the cat-like features that he had previously displayed were gone, and instead the young man simply looked like a young Jamaican man, possibly a member of a Jamaican posse. 

[Cubist]

Interesting, Jubatus thought as he watched the unconscious cat-boy revert to a mundane human. Some sort of magical effect? Whatever; there's two more cat-boys to deal with before I worry about the genesis of their cat-sign. He upshifted and blurred up to the closest cat-boy… raised a foreleg to tear at the target…

 

…and a shaft of intense pain lanced through his upper torso at just the wrong moment. Thus distracted, Jube's claws sliced through empty air, less than a centimeter away from his intended cat-boy target. Ah, xxix. Well, let's see if i can make lemonade out of this lemon.

 

Downshift

"Hi there! Now that I have your attention: I just sucked up an ess-em-gee bullet, and I'm still ready to tear you a new orifice. Wanna surrender?"

Edited March 17, 2013 by Cubist

[ChrisClark13]

Neospell takes aim at the gang member being targeted by one of the cat guys, You'll thank me later for taking you out of the fight before he rips you a new one, probably, maybe. He fires and the guy dodges the brunt of the bolt of magical energy, Seems like that guy is in a 'martial trance' maybe? He's still screwed if the cat guy lands a solid hit on him though. Neospell runs forward, switching to his MagiBlade, the particles that make up the blade trailing behind him as they try to catch up with him. He yelled out as he started swinging the blade of magical energy, "Get outta the way other guy!" and then he brought the swirling magical energy up in an uppercut. The reaction sent the cat-guy flying... right into the other guy, "Ah whoops?" At least he's out of the fight now. He huffs as he takes an offensive stance, getting ready to strike the cat-guy again if he didn't stay down.

[Thevshi]

After dodging Jubatus' attack, the last standing cat-man snarls at the humanoid cheetah hero and retaliates with a claw slash of his own.  However, he was even further off target, as Jubatus easily sidesteps that attack.

 

At the end of the car that Neospell was now standing at the front of, the last standing gang member continued to struggle against the duct tape binding him.  Once again, the binding held tight, keeping the gang member partially entangled. 

 

At Neospells' feet, the cat-man he had just attacked with his magical blade pushed himself upright slightly, but was clearly hurting and trying to regain his senses.

[Cubist]

Gosh. Catboy doesn't want to surrender? See how shocked I am, Jubatus thought as the gangbanger-with-feline-extras slashed at him. This time, the automatic upshift triggered by Jube's 'threat radar' was entirely welcome and helpful; he sidestepped catboy's attack without effort. Okay, he's focused on me now. Working as designed. And for my next trick…

 

A few moments of accelerated thought later, the cheetah extracted a hand-held fire extinguisher from his Vest of Many Things and launched a volley of opaque, clinging foam at the thug's face. Let's see how tough you are when you can't see a damn thing, kid! From his fast-time vantage point, Jubatus watched the foam drift languidly towards its target… and he saw the target visibly move out of the way.

 

Jube blinked in surprise. Hm. Seriously quick reflexes.

[ChrisClark13]

Okay, he's getting back up. I just need to.. "Yaaaaaahhh!" Neospell brings the MagiBlade down on the cat-guy, knocking him back down to the ground as the blade smacked his shoulder soundly. Looks like the cheetah guy is doing fine but, I should ask anyways right? "Hey need some help over there or do you got it covered?" He pants for breath, the adrenaline starting to leave his body already, he then turns around to survey the scene. Rest of the guys are trapped in duck-tape, and some are bleeding out. And I need to work out more, a few body-enhancing enchantments aren't going to help if I'm all out of shape.