ic [IC] A Day at Starbase

[Avenger Assembled]

"Let us take the tunnel - good for everyone's education," said Frost with that air of cheerfulness that Volcanic knew by now meant he was 'on' when dealing with the general public, superheroic or otherwise. "Pax is a powerful name, take it for your own," he said, waving a hand as Volcanic began opening the way underground to Greenbank. The heat was growing around them from the volcano controller's powers, but that only seemed to make him look more animated. "I cannot promise you will be free of jail, child," he told Pax apologetically, "big name I may be, but I cannot shield you from crimes. For future reference," he told her with a conspiratorial wink, "do crimes where no one can see! But you will be heard and respected, as long as you are showing me your troubles." He was wondering exactly what he was committing himself to here - but he'd already made his choice, and was not one to turn backwards. 

[alderwitch]

"You're going to want to brace yourselves. It takes a bit of getting used to. Also, hope no one's claustrophobic," Volcanic hoped her commentary didn't betray that she'd never actually moved four people through one of her tunnels. The ground beneath them shifted as the elementalist's hands came up with a surprisingly graceful gesture. As her palms turned downward, the circle of pavement they'd been standing on started to lower under her command. She kept it slower than usual, well aware that it was not just one of her practice runs with a Leaguer in tow. 

 

"Or, you know, don't do crimes," she added absently turning to close the tunnel with another wave of her hand. She'd learned well enough that the best way to travel was to drop low enough to not accidentally punch through piping or sewer lines and then come up straight once they were at the destination in question. For those unused to Leilani's method of transportation, it was certainly an unusual experience as the earth flowed under their feet, pushing those standing on it forward. Frost would be well aware that she was keeping the speed far below the clip that she traveled alone. Above them, and behind them, the tunnel sealed itself as they moved below Freedom City's surface. Volcanic muttered under her breath, her hands moving to shape the earth, "Let's hope I don't piss off the under-dwellers again today."

[olopi]

PC

 

Now this was a way to travel. Quick, comfortable, and shielded from wind and water. Perfect, honestly. Perhaps a bit rough on the precision, unless Leilani had learned Freedom’s entire Geography by heart, but one could always walk afterwards. For now, it was time to lean back and enjoy the ride, unless … under-dwellers? That didn’t sound good.

 

Bonfire continued standing in one place, turning his neck around a bit to look around, at the walls, but not doing much of anything else. Perhaps the lack of facial features also helped make it look that way, as it was quite hard to tell his feelings on this method of travel just by his, albeit relaxed looking, stance.

 

“Under-dwellers? Haven’t heard of those yet. What’re they, then? I’ve only ever dealt with radioactive rats the size of dogs when going around the underside of FC. Those, and mercenaries out for my head, but I doubt those lived down here.  “

Edited July 31, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM

 

When the ground started to rumble, Pax started to look more distressed once again, moving her legs outwards a bit, into a more stable stance. Once the ceiling had closed, and been replaced by earth too, she became more relaxed again, but there still was an edge of nervousness to her face, something showing of a degree of discomfort. As the movement continued, she stood there, motionless, just looking forward, taking deep, but quiet, breaths. She didn’t speak up, instead she was listening to the other’s conversations.

 

Occasionally, there was a bit of rumbling, and once or twice the tunnel had to be shifted around just a bit to make sure it would not hit a different, harder, and thus slower to get through, material, but for now, the trip had been rather uneventful, the afromentioned Under-dwellers not showing any disagreement with Volcanic’s actions so far.

[Avenger Assembled]

Outside in Greenbank, Frost raised his head and looked around the neighborhood with an interested expression. He actually spent little time in the area - which he was vaguely aware was home to several technology-focused superheroes. Industrial near-poverty had never been his favorite flavor of life, even if the poor in America generally lived rather better than their counterparts in Russia. "Well, here we are!" he declared brightly, his tone at odds with the grim conversation in the tunnel. He was keeping a close eye on the situation, mindful of the possibility of ambush, either from Pax or their strange-headed escort. "So, radioactive mice, mercenaries, such a life you face in this place!" He clapped his hands together, then frowned at Pax. "But you have story to tell. Do, tell." 

[alderwitch]

Its true, Volcanic didn't have the city memorized, but she'd gotten good at judging soil density and composition and she was starting to get a feel through the soil for what lay beyond. It was good practice, really. "Going up." She warned as the tunnel slowed before erupting up in an out of the way park. As the dirt under their feet shifted, it did leave a circle in the grass - she didn't really do vegetation - but it was healthy fresh soil, at least. Probably healthier, really, than what was under the rest of the scrubby grass in the tiny park. 

 

"Hah," the noise was soft but she shot Frost a particularly pleased look for having managed that little feat without accidentally roasting anyone in the tunnel along the way. Earth, really, was easy. The fire, though, it did like to burn. Going quiet so that Pax could provide whatever motivation for the earlier nonsense, in Leilani's estimation, the elementalist focused for a moment on pulling the heat back in. The rock plates dropped away as her body cooled, reforming into flesh and blood rather than fire and stone. The civilian clothes had not survived Leilani's transformation though and she was left with the sleeveless wetsuit that had been treated with unstable molecules. "Another perfectly good sundress gone." She sighed, brushing the dust from herself absently. Turning her head, she belatedly answered Bonfire's question, "You'd be surprised how many creatures live under the soil - I mean sentient civilization sort of thing. I keep tripping over 'em."

[olopi]

PC

 

“I’ll keep that in mind should I ever end up down there. Which I do doubt, but I’ve been involved in stranger things after all. “

 

And now, Greenbank. Cass hadn’t been here more than one or two times. It wasn’t really a place you visited much unless you had a reason to, in his experience. And usually, there was enough crime going on in other places that made travelling out here too much of a hassle to be worth it.

 

It looked the same as always. Not really inviting, the place that was there, had its industry, but didn’t offer much in terms of qualities beyond that. Which was good if you needed to lay low, but not if you actually lived here. He walked around the park for a bit, staking out the vicinity, making sure there was nobody lying in wait. Even with travel methods like this, occasionally ambushes happened, after all.

Edited August 2, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM                 

 

As the group had finished ascending, Pax took a few steps, looking at the various buildings outside of the park, no doubt trying to identify the exact location of where she had ended up. Moments afterwards, she turned over to Dimitri, to respond to his question. She took a few nervous steps, but her general stance showed that all in all, she had calmed down while underground. She started speaking, word following word with barely any pause, and with force behind them.

 

“Where do I start? My birth? When I got put into the Orphanage? When that place got destroyed? When I ended up on the street? Or should I start somewhere more recent? “

 

She took a breath, and looked at everyone’s faces. Clearly, this wasn’t the way to go, so she let all the air escape slowly, then continued speaking, more quiet and notably slower this time.

 

“Okay, no need to tell you my entire life’s story. Let’s just get to recent things. No jobs means no money. Means crime. Who’s the easiest target? People with nothing to begin with.  Walking around is difficult nowadays, gotta pay …”toll” … to even go to places that offer some protection from the elements. “

Edited August 2, 2016 by olopi

[Avenger Assembled]

"You are magnificent," said Comrade Frost, giving Leilani a sincere compliment - and a very pleased look. "You should be proud of what you have done already - and more pride to come today, eh? We get you a better sundress, one that shows off those lovely eyes." Turning to Pax, he drove one fist into another, a cheerful smile on his face. "Well then, let us beat down these criminals and free your neighborhood of this curse, eh? Have plenty of practice with this - and American gangsters usually pettily armed compared to Russian equeevalents, with their AKs and their metahumans and their government connections." He winked, then added in a perfectly serious tone, "But if this is some scheme to have us beat your rivals in some petty gang war, I'll have my friends here set your arse on fire." 

[alderwitch]

"Dimitri, and I work so hard to get people t'think I'm not gonna set them on fire," Leilani replied evenly, her tone bemused as she turned to smile at the thermovore. Turning back towards Pax, she tipped her head to the side, "What's the catch?" She wanted to know, "If a bit of thumping was gonna work, you'd have probably started there rather than throwin' rocks through windows in a totally different town. Doesn't really add up."

 

She tipped her head towards Bonfire and Frost then, including them in her questions, "An' you mentioned blogging earlier. On the computer, but now you're on the street? Don't make sense." She frowned, folding her arms up over her chest, as stubborn as the rock she molded, "I'm not going anywhere until we got more'n a bit of cryptic sentences of what all's going on."

[olopi]

PC

 

Bonfire took a few steps around, listening to the others speak while clicking around on a phone he had pulled out of his back pocket. He turned his head over towards Leilani, as she addressed him.

 

She had reasons to be suspicious, yes actually. Cass trusted everybody involved in this, it wasn’t likely to lead to anything bad, but so far he hadn’t really proved anything himself. He stood around and looked like a super, that was about it. No real hero-work, or anything else really.

 

“Yeah, Blogging. I’m only known for two things, really. My blog, where I talk about the daily life of a FC-Hero, and that one time I had a bit of an incident with the local Power Supply. If you don’t know about that one yet, it’s probably best we keep it that way. Some things …. Went a bit south and caused some problems. “

 

“My blog’s pretty popular however! But, as it turns out, neither blogging ‘nor being an independent full-time hero really pay your bills. I rely on donations nowadays, and they’ve been rather low these past few weeks. Not a lot of work, means less interesting posts, means less money. So I use Starbase’s Wi-Fi for all my civilian internet needs until my monetary situation brightens up. Their coffee might be expensive, but it’s still cheaper than buying an actual connection. “

 

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM

 

“Is it taking out a rival gang if we take all gangs out? Just kidding, that’s impossible to accomplish. “

Pax continued walking around the small park, still looking at nearby buildings. She moved over to Leilani, keeping some distance due to possible heat, but still moving noticeably closer.

 

“Trust me, if it was as easy as beating them up I’d’ve done it a long time ago. “

 

“Sure, I can go in and smash whoever’s trying to collect the Toll’s face in. Best case they leave the area alone for a few days, worst case I’ve got a bunch of cars full of armed thugs drivin’ up. And even if I do the same to them, what do I accomplish? The police don’t care much about those without a roof over their head. And there’s no local charities anymore. “

 

“So what do I do? Beat ‘em up, hope that’ll get them to withdraw for some time? They know me, they can target me. I’ve not got much to lose, sure, but there’s a lot more of them than there is of me. “

 

Pax’s voice started to get more emotional again, not outright crying, but with a feeling of sadness adding its sound to her words.

 

“I have no idea what to do. That would’ve at least gotten some attention. Perhaps somebody would’ve done something. “

Edited August 5, 2016 by olopi

[Avenger Assembled]

Frost patted Pax reassuringly on the arm, giving her a fatherly smile. "That is common belief about urban crime, but in reality criminals are easier to frighten than you believe. Even in Russia, where they all have AKs or metapowers, one merely has to impress on them the deeficulties that come from criminal lifestyle. Come, point us to their leader, and I will show you how to handle men like that. With great blow - that makes great impression!" he explained, striking a fist against his hand with a crack that for the first time made it obvious that the ice controller had quite literal strength to back up his words. "I know that this is very serious situation for you and neighborhood," he went on, his tone darkening some, "but we are professionals, we will deal with this situation in way memorable enough that no one will trouble you." 

[alderwitch]

Volcanic gave a short shake of her head, not exactly disbelieving but in the manner of finding the particulars of modern life vexing. "I'm pretty sure I can frighten the pants off of a few thugs, yeah," Leilani agreed, shifting awkwardly as she tried to slide her hands into pockets that no longer existed. Really, she was going to have to see if they made the fancy fabric that her costume was made out of into other forms. She was getting really tired of losing clothing to her particular power set. When Pax was close enough, Leilani also offered her a gentle pat on the arm. 

 

"And Dimitri's been doing this sort of thing a very long time." She offered the reassurance to the girl as she went to follow along with their odd procession. She turned to Bonfire in commiseration, "Yeah, everything's crazy expensive. I thought the prices were bad on the island - imagine they're even worse now. You any good at swimming?" She added absently, although she wasn't sure lifeguarding would suit the flame controller all that well. Still, it was steady work!

[olopi]

PC

 

…swimming? Oh, wow. Now that was a suggestion Cass hadn’t heard before. He barely knew how to swim to begin with, after all. And in this form?

 

Bonfire laughed a bit, before continuing to speak, a bit of amusement in his voice. He still looked rather relaxed, and had by now walked over to a tree, which he’d carefully leaned against.

 

“I don’t think that’d work too well. Water and my powers don’t mix too well. No idea if I can actually sim like this, floating above the surface is usually good, and dangerous, enough. Now, in no-powers form? I can swim, yeah. As in, I’m not gonna sink immediately. They didn’t place too much value in swimming lessons back home. “

 

He shrugged, before taking his phone out of a pocket and clicking a few things, his attention mainly on the phone, but still occasionally looking up, and listening to what the others were saying.

Edited September 12, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM

 

Pax pondered the hero’s words for some time, seemingly lost in thought. A few people were walking around further down the street, they’d seen the various heroes with their various looks, and then turned towards another street instead, not looking scared, but rather a bit indecisive.

 

As a squirrel ran through the park, and up a tree not too far away from the group, Pax’s eyes followed, before she spoke up again. Her face was filled with determination, as she turned towards Frost and Volcanic, but also looking towards Bonfire, who was standing a bit behind the two.

 

“Okay. I think I’ve got an idea. The place we’ll find the most of them would be … not too far away actually. Down below a railway overcrossing. It’s a little alley, pretty well shielded from the elements. A few thugs set up base there, demand money from the ones trying to sleep there. A few of them are there at all times, if we get lucky their boss is one of them today. “

Edited September 12, 2016 by olopi

[Avenger Assembled]

"Might I make alternate suggestion?" inquired Dimitri delicately. Turning to Leilani, he gave her a confident smile. "Why don't you lead the way under railroad crossing, from _under_ railroad crossing?" He smiled cheerfully. "Really shake things up a bit. We will teach common thugs fear by showing them that we are most uncommon. I know you can do it, Volcanic," he added reassuringly, "your powers have grown with your control. I will be honored to follow you onto scene to continue our leetle masquerade of fearsomeness." He considered suggesting that Bonfire pose as Leilani's mate - but then realized he didn't like that idea at all. "This fellow here can follow - and Pax can perhaps come from above?" 

[alderwitch]

Leilani considered the request for a moment before giving a small nod of agreement. Scary, she wasn't too worried about providing, but not accidentally baking these criminals was a higher concern. Dimitri's reassurance helped but she paused to make sure that she had no lingering doubts about managing it. If nothing else, she'd learned that being frightened only exacerbated any issues of control. She wasn't, however, frightened of a knot of criminals shaking down homeless kids for pocket change. 

 

"Okay," she agreed with Dimitri before tipping her head to the side. "Though you an' Smokey here, you both can do the smoke and mist thing so, maybe I take Pax with me and we make it seem like she's making the big stuff happen? I mean, you, me and Bonfire, we don't live here but if they think Pax has help she can call on, maybe they listen a bit better?" She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulders, "But I can get under the railroad tracks, no problem. Just tell me what I gotta do."

[olopi]

PC

 

Bonfire nodded, following the conversation. He seemed to consider a few things, before then speaking up once the more senior heroes had finished talking. They probably knew what they were doing, so Cass didn’t feel like really interfering with their plans.

 

“We’ve got a few options here. I’m generally okay with either, you are the ones that should decide which you want to use. “

 

He looked over at Pax, who was looking into the distance.

 

“Of course, we all still need to know where exactly we’ll be going. Otherwise we’ll just end up in two different railway overcrossings, probably with double the trouble. Can you give us a bit of a description of the place, something on the distance? Might make deciding this easier. “

Edited September 25, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM

 

When she was addressed, Pax turned back around to face the group. Immediately, she replied, eager to get this started. Perhaps a bit of anger against the thugs also was pn her mind already, as she stressed her words just slightly.

 

“About 600 feet down this road over there, then left, and from there it’s just a few more steps before you turn left again and go forward, into it. “

She paused shortly, considering her next words.

 

“As I said, not that far away.  The overcrossing itself is easy to spot. The alley going into it takes a bit more effort, it’s behind a fence. Serves both to make it more hidden, shelter it more, and allow them to have an overview who’s getting in and collect the toll. “

 

She stretched her arms a bit, her eyes first meeting with those of Comrade Frost, then, shortly afterwards Volcanic, and afterwards presumably those of Bonfire.

 

“So, what’s it gonna be? How do we go in?”

Edited September 25, 2016 by olopi

[Avenger Assembled]

"With great force - behind this most forceful woman," said Comrade Frost with confidence to Pax. Pulling up his hood, he stepped aside to let Volcanic proceed. "You will perform magnificently," he told her with a warm, reassuring smile - that nonetheless failed to hide his obvious giddy anticipation. He wasn't just reassuring her about her powers - he was looking forward to seeing them in action! "Teach them fear of what lies beneath. You will show them the consequences of their sin, and from there we will make sure they never trouble this fine young woman again."

[alderwitch]

Volcanic gave a small, slight nod of her head as she took in a breath that she really didn't need. Like relaxing a tense muscle, the elementalist let the heat surge outward turning flesh to red hot magma. Her armor formed as the heated rock met cool air, leaving her comprised of obsidian black plates and still burning magma where the plates cracked apart. The earth below herself and Pax parted, quicker than the last time as it was easier to move a smaller knot of air through the earth; especially as only one of them actually need it. 

 

"I won't be able to hear you, so much, but I'll feel the movement." She explained, largely for Pax and Bonfire's benefit. "We'll pop up from the middle once you're in place close by."

 

Leaving Bonfire and Frost alone, the earth swallowed the two women as they moved seamlessly through the ground below. Leilani's hands remained against the front of the bubble, adjusting their trajectory before they ran into any undesirable roadblocks or tunnels.

[olopi]

PC

 

When the two women left, Bonfire came closer again. He looked over at Frost, before speaking, an upbeat tone in his voice. He looked relaxed, but also eager, raring to go.

 

“Well. Frost and Fire. Let’s do this then. “

 

The cloud making up the capnokinetic’s head expanded, soon also including the top of his neck., before moving onto his shoulders, arms and torso. Then, only shortly after, there was no trace of the mostly human man that had stood there, only an unnatural looking cloud of smoke, the edges carried by the wind. He rose a few feet above the ground, but waited for Frost to also ascend before moving further.

 

Once the two were both in the air, Bonfire headed off, towards the area Pax had described, moving slowly to not attract too much attention to the cloud of smoke in the air.

 

“Wanna do this invisible? I can pull some tricks. “

Edited October 2, 2016 by olopi

[olopi]

GM

 

After only a short time of flying, the two men could lay eyes on the area Pax had described. Above, railway tracks, probably still in use, judging by their relatively well state. Below, a street led through one of the arches in the structure, not maintained well, but not broken either. On both sides of the sidewalk, fences blocked off the rest of the area, occupied by various buildings.

 

The fences also went and blocked off the other arches, otherwise accessible through the space between building and overpassing. The fences themselves were in an alright condition, no major holes. Apart from one, left of the road, leading towards one of the arches. A hole, about as tall as a teenager, and not quite as wide, was in the fence. And, as the two could see, behind, towards the arch, there was a man, dressed in a leather jacket, but otherwise looking average, observing the hole.

 

Other than said man, the pair could not make out any other people in the vicinity, neither in the part of the arch they could see, the street, or around any of the buildings.

 

---

 

Underground, Pax did her best to recall the relative distance, and help Leilani tunnel towards it. As the distance was rather short, this didn't take much time, meaning the two spent a fair bit of time waiting, with Pax not clearly not being entirely comfortable in the tunnel, but also looking excited at the prospect of finally being able to do something about the situation.

Edited October 3, 2016 by olopi