ic Temporiad: Hasten Slowly (IC)

[Vahnyu]

GM Post

Neo Harare (of the former Congo Republic), PAU.
4216 AD

Neo Harare. Brilliant Capital of the People's African Union, the second most influential power bloc on Earth, and the 4th most influential power bloc among the United Earth and Colonies Federation for the last three centuries. One week ago, it concluded the hosting of the Games of the DLXXXI Olympiad, celebrating humanity's achievements throughout the passage of time. Now, the city, along with its citizens, can only stare in abject horror, as the entire Advanced League of Oceania was being rapidly reduced to ashes.

President Alphonse Massamba-Tchicaya conferred with the Azure Champion, the world's strongest human alive. "... and we have no word from the rest of the United Freedom League?"

Though he remained composed, the Azure Champion couldn't help but take a sudden, swift breath as he recalled losing contact with them, when they arrived at the ground zero. "I'm... sorry, mr President. I'm affraid that we lost contact with them, same as all other heroes who went up against the new weapon the Reformists are fielding."

"And we are sure that it can-"

"Mr President." The Azure Champion cut President Tchicaya. "You have seen the destruction this weapon has wrought. The so-called Destreamer is the genuine article." Tchicaya seemed to hesitate. The Azure Champion knew what was in the President's mind. It went against everything they stood for. Against everything humanity had fought for, since time immemorial. "Loathe though I am to suggest it, maybe you should consider their terms..."

"And have our people used as pawns for their Xenophobic policies?" Tchicaya burst out. "Our people died in droves to fight off the last organization that saw fit to subjugate the rest of the galaxy! Surrendering to the Revengers would not only be a betrayal of our humanity, it would spit on the graves of our ancestors, our ancestors' ancestors, and so on!"

"... And if you don't surrender... there will be no one left to feel ashamed."

"..." Slinking back on his chair, the president let out a sigh. "What would you have me do, old friend?"

The Azure Champion smiled softly, as he flew outside the open window of the Governmental House. "... I will attempt to attack their headquarters. I will gather any hero who's still active, and make for a last ditch effort." Turning his head towards President Tchicaya, he said. "May the Goddess guide you through." A flurry of flashes, the residual energies from the weapons unleashed, kept the night sky alight, as the Azure Champion hastened away. This battle, that shook the very foundation of the Earth, posed threateningly as merely a precussor to what was about to follow; an unfolding of events that would send ripples throughout the history of mankind...

 

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Present Day, Freedom City
Monday, June 15th, 2015
Evening, 20:10

It started abruptly, without warning. Tears in the fabric of reality started popping left and right, in a seemingly random pattern. For the last hour, Parkside has been riddled with this randomly occuring phenomena, as everything the tears touched seemingly disappeared into nothingness. Then, the tears would close, only for new ones to pop back. Soon, various news outlets arrived at Parkside, making reports about this peculiar incident, and it rapidly became apparent, from the national news, that this wasn't limited to Freedom City; plenty of cities across the American continent were being bombarded by the Tears, albeit within a limited area.

As the Tears persist, the first few heroes arrive at the scene...

Edited June 23, 2015 by Vahnyu

[Tiffany Korta]

Triakosia was having a busy and occasionally frustrating hour rushing around trying to move people out of the way from these sudden portal to who knew where. With her enhanced senses she could detect the rifts forming and swoop in the moments before it formed fully to snatch away unlucky people in it’s path. But even with her incredible speed she could get everyone or catch all the formings rifts.

Pausing for a second to listen and watch for newly forming portals Danica  took a moment to appreciate the irony that again she was in the middle of an amazing story and she wouldn’t be able to file one line of the events transpiring.

Them she was off again to save more people.

[JediDalek]

A few blocks away, a blue motorcycle growled as it sped down the street. Its driver already clad in the distinctive blue battlesuit and scarf of the Blue Stinger. Danny normally didn't patrol this early, since most of his usual street thugs tended to favor the darker hours. But when his thrift shop police radio (a must for any budding young vigilante) started reporting more rifts opening in this area, that just sounded like too hot of a party to miss. As he neared the "hot zone", he noticed a blue & yellow streak as it zipped in, then away, saving a now shocked pedestrian just as a rift opened several feet away. "Well, looks like these things are a big deal. They've brought out some of the big gu... SWEET MOTHER A' CRAP!" Danny let out an interjection as he just narrowly evaded the rip that suddenly opened in his path, wiping out in the process.

Standing up his vehicle, and scraping himself to his feet, he decided to stop and examine the rift, getting just a little closer than was probably adviseable. "Eh, lighting never strikes the same spot twice, right? I assume these work the same way. I should be fine..." And with that, he fell once again into the long untapped role of inquisitive science major, kneeling down and beginning to take pictures and notes with his smart phone.

[Vahnyu]

Hronos sped towards Parkside, as he'd just arrived back on Earth. He could sense a lot of anomalous temporal activity plaguing the planet, all throughout the globe, but at the moment, Freedom City was returning huge spikes of temporal energy to his chronal sensors, the highest out of any amount. The Mechanodynamis landed on Parkside, as he witnessed dozens of tears open and close, in a seemingly random manner.

"You! Are you one of 'em heroes?" A Police Officer asked the Bluechrome Tinman, as he and his partners kept the populace away from the dangerous zone.

"That assumption is correct, Police Officer. I am named Hronos. I arrived here at Parkside to offer my assistance in containing this situation."

"Elfman. The name's Elfman. Well... that's good to hear. Already spotted a couple of suits rush in, trying to give a hand."

"Have there occured any injuries, Police Officer Elfman?"

Elfman rose his eyebrow, but the robotical guardian betrayed no emotion, at least, as far as one could tell, so he let that slide. "No... at least, none that I'm aware of. Not yet. Couple of folks got dangerously close to the tears, but they were swept away by other bystanders or suits. These things... they mostly eat up stuff... mailboxes, cars, statues... I saw a few trees get sucked in, no pretty sight, that. It was like, the hole appeared inside the tree, violently folding it and uprooting it until nothing was left there..." Elfman shuddered.

"Has the Freedom League been informed about the crisis?"

"Ohhh, they've been informed, all right. They're all over the continent, dealing with similar rifts or holes or whatchamacallits." Hronos lacked any eyebrows to raise, but if he had them, he'd definitely be raising them right now. "Chicago, New York, Utah, Boston... I hear talk that Canada, Mexico, and the rest of South America are experiencing similar problems."

It was as Hronos feared; Freedom City was but one of the focal points for these phenomena. "I understand your information. I appreciate your help, Police Officer Elfman. I will attempt to discern the nature of these tears."

[EternalPhoenix]

Maybelle McQueen was not a scientist. She was a chef. Random portals to Lord only knew where were a bit out of her wheelhouse. Still she could pull people out of the way. It seemed localized to Parkside, at the very least. So, a somewhat devious grin on her face, Queenie started telling people it was safe at the Southern Queen. As her restaurant was near, but not actually in, Parkside. Flying down city streets, she rapidly evacuated the civilians from outside the buildings. She shooed some inside, left others on roofs (after…opening the roof access doors) and just plain carried them out of the neighborhood with the strength of her Ring. She hoped someone would figure this nonsense out and turn it off soon. After all, a fair section of her clientele lived in Parkside. She didn’t want to lose their business.

[Tiffany Korta]

Happy that she’d cleared as many people as she could Dancia turned her attention to trying to work out what exactly was happening here. As a reporter rather than a scientist she was unlikely to find the solution herself, but there was bound to be people attracted to this event who could tell her what was happening.

Spotting Hronos among the police cordon she decided he was exactly what she needed and within a few seconds she was standing beside the two of them.

“Hello there I’m Triakosia. Do you have any idea what exactly is going on here and more importantly how we can stop it?”

[JediDalek]

"Huh. Heckuva thing..." Danny stood up, looking once again over his findings. Apparently the portals were operating on a weird temporal version of the "righty tighty, lefty loosey" rule. And some of this stuff definitely seemed to be coming from specific time periods. He'd have to talk to someone a little more learned to figure out any more specifics. As he was processing things, he noticed some voices coming from a few blocks around the corner. Maybe another set of eyes would give him a little better insight.

As he approached the group, Danny noticed at least two of them were fellow capes. One looked like he was in a battlesuit or something. As a lifelong Centurion fan, Danny recognized the other's costume almost immediately. The third one looked like a cop. 

"Hey, there! Blue Stinger. None of y'all would happen to have a rock or a long stick, would you?" They seemed to find that request odd. "Oh, ah... I've just been scoping out these portals and found some interesting stuff. I don't suppose any of you guys are familiar with string theory?"