Realistic or Modern MASKED Heroes - Campaign #1

[KyleTok]

Some Background: Our story begins in the growing city of New Olympia. As we come closer to the presidential election, organized "super-crime" has been on the rise - and the white house has been under far too many attacks from supervillains in this decade to even be considered the political powerhouse anymore. New Olympia, established to be known as the city of heroes, has become a hot spot for big political events to take place in due to its increasing number of licensed guardians.

The spokesperson for Celeste Briar, one of the presidential elects, is to come out and speak in the President Square - it's for that reason that security personnel of City Police Department have begun to surround the area. It is still early in the morning, and people are slowly arriving. Everyone tries their best to behave as if everything is normal, but there is a hint of unrest that can be sensed from the crowed due to recent events. Yet, everyone is looking forward to hearing Celeste Briar's spokesperson, for her known promises to fund programs that focus more on public security, and less on super heroes.

As a roleplayer, you find yourself in New Olympia. Whether its to sit in the conference, or simply pass by. Depending on your character make sure to write a post that explains your business around the area, and be prepared for what's to come! (You may be in a coffee shop visiting with someone, you may be a drifter passing by asking for change, you may even be a hero out on patrol. Make sure to use the appropriate image.)

NPC: OFFICER CHARLES ✦ Location: President Square in New Olympia City

"Nothing suspicious yet." said officer Charles into her handheld transceiver.

Everyone knows about the recent threats made by the Headless gang to take our system down, and many posts online suggest they plan to strike today. Although they have not been much of a threat so far, the rumors are that they got their hands on some illegal tech, and they plan a terror attack. The G.I.D contacted the police department and suggested the event be cancelled - but Americans, as patriotic as they are, refused to cower. If they did, then any occasion would be cancelled at any moment, because the world we live in is full of crazy uncontrollable threats at every single moment. Her eyes darted around as she inspected every individual she passed by, focusing on their necks. It is known that the Headless gang have a tattoo of a dashed line around their neck, and she hoped to jump right into action if she saw one.

A strong gust of wind hit her as she looked up to the sky, seeing a Guardian who has just flew past her. She groaned. She too was a supporter of Celeste Briar, and hoped to defund the programs which support these "Guardians". It is people like her who put their life on the line every day, with no powers or super suits to help them, and yet the world praises these celebrities rather than those who actually put in effort. If these "Guardians" were so great, they would have stopped all the chaos before it happened - but they only ever show up when lives are already lost.

Charles rolled her eyes and looked back down, until to notice a suspicious man in a hoodie. She quickly pushed herself through the crowd to follow him.

Background image link to use in your post!

Spoiler: POST CODE

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Post Info below
[/comment][fa]fas fa-mask[/fa] [URL='https://www.rpnation.com/threads/masked-roleplay-character.491595/post-10909600']Agent Ruby[/URL] ✦ [comment]
[/comment]Location ✦ [comment]
[/comment]Feeling determined. [comment]
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[/border]Interacting With: [/border][/border]

 

[SpotBandit]

Gabriel Atlas ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling wary.

A small, uneasy puff of air found its way out of Gabriel's nostrils as he, along with the other early birds that shared the same tension as the young man, slowly arrived at President Square. He hadn't been in this world very long- perhaps a handful of months- but he had already gathered that today wasn't going to be a particularly safe venture, provided how much chaos he'd seen on Earth since he first arrived. It felt even the blind would be able to read the unease in everyone's body language as they carefully nudged their way into the square, shoulders tense and gazes on edge, smothered by an uncomfortable tension that lingered in the air... At the very least, the people were cautiously optimistic to hear the words of Celeste Briar's spokesperson, as many of the people in the city resonated with the political body's promise for more equal rights for un-supers, who in recent year have been collectively lingering in all of the registered superheros' shadows. While this didn't concern Gabriel that much provided his circumstances were wildly different from the people already gathered in the square, he was here for his own reasons.

As the brunette sluggishly ventured into the square, soft eyes open and aware of his surroundings, he took notice of an antsy, eagle-eyed officer. Her gaze was hyper-focused as she inspected the necks of any and all individuals on the premises. Like a machine, her eyes would swiftly dart from one to another unflinchingly. She was fiercely determined to guard the premises. Gabriel's stomach sank a little when her intimidating eyes landed on him, though quickly found relief in himself when she moved to the next. He knew he was nothing of a criminal, but the woman's fierceness to root out any lingering dangers in the crowd was pretty unnerving. If anything, it was a testimony to the modern situation of living in this crime-riddled city; no-one was safe. Even being here was akin to playing Russian roulette.

Gabriel's bushy hair was suddenly left ruffled by a strong whir of wind that caught he and several others off guard. His heart raced momentarily as he shot his gaze upright to see what potential threat had caused the scare, only to find a guardian mid-flight soar above the crowd and into the distance. The very sight left Gabriel awestruck, but also very confused. Since he'd come to Earth and learnt about these 'superheros', he'd always pondered how exactly they came to be and how they even exist, given it was all scientifically impossible. Gabriel was aware that he was the last person entitled to ask how something could even exist in the realm of science provided he was present here on Earth, but he was told that unlike his realm, Earth was more grounded by logic-- in what humans considered 'reality'. After a brief moment of contemplation, Gabriel decided to leave the thinking for later. It was unfair for an angel to ask such a question like that. He should keep his focus on the current moment, as was that officer that glared at his neck earlier...

Wait, where'd she go?

Gabriel's eye managed to just catch the woman usher herself off into the crowd. He gently cocked his head to the side. It looked as if she'd spotted something.

 

[Elenion Aura]

Jay Natchez ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling bored.

Jay was contentedly mingling among the slowly burgeoning crowd as the morning chased away any lingering vestiges of the night he’d blown into town on. Free and unfettered. Did he particularly care what this candidate-or-other had to say? No, not particularly. One way... Or the other. On the one hand, he liked the idea of less emphasis on the so-called supernaturally gifted, a stance that might seem counterintuitive. The way Jay saw it, the lower the pedestal people propped him up on, the shorter the drop to the bottom when he invariably-and-most-of-the-time-intentionally failed to live up to their hallowed expectations. On the other hand, from what he’d gathered in his admittedly brief foray into the world of grassroots political movements, there were a lot of people who didn’t like Supes. And that meant him, since that was what he was, in a certain light, anyway. And if this was how they acted now, he shuddered to think what they might be emboldened to do if someone with real power was elevating their hateful, reductionist rhetoric. Ah, well. Not like he cared one way or the other. Right? Right.

Jay was standing shoulder to shoulder with a group of ‘friends’ who’d road-tripped all the way here with him. Friends was perhaps a stretch. None of them knew about his unofficial ‘supe’ status, which was just how he liked it. Still, he thought he knew some of their names. Doubtful any of them remembered his. They were blitzed out of their minds when they had actually met him. Matter of fact, he was pretty sure at least half of them were high now. At 8 in the fuckin’ morning. Or... Whatever time it was. He checked his phone as a gust of wind blew at his back. He looked up to spy a flyer overhead, catching a murmur of a few not very nice words from the crowd as he slipped his phone back in his pocket, forgetting to check the time and forgetting why he’d taken it out in the first place. This was... Tense. And he had a feeling that this wasn’t going to be the worst of it. Not yet.

 

[Excal]

Henry Williams ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling tense.

Henry checked the straps of his face mask and tugged at his hood, peering at the gathering across the street through his shades with a weary anxiety, the mechanical, bustling thrum of the city vibrating through his being, soliciting a nervous tremor.

He took a slow heavy breath and pressed his back against the wall, clutching his collapsed walking stick to his abdomen, sitting beside a bent carboard sign reading in smudged black marker "It's a beautiful day. I wish I could see it." A wrinkled coffee cup in front of his crossed legs completed the homeless aesthetic.

A guard passed him on her patrol, looking ready to press his loitering but taking pity upon noticing his 'condition', asking softly if he'd move in a bit. He looked in her general direction and gave a slight nod.

A bustling metropolis like New Olympia wasn't usually his scene, but media excitment around it's increasing development as a Guardian central and the political campaigning coming to its streets meant the Radiant would likely make an appearence soon, if not already begin setting up shop.

And where they went, so did he, monitoring, studying, hunting down the replica artefacts from under their noses. He had stolen one so far and tried to space out his attempts both in time and geography as to shake off any traps or tracking. He could only do so much before he got caught.

He did what he could.

He glanced upward at the sonic echo of the fly by, scanning for a Radiant costume, just missing the figure. He sighed and ran his fingers over the braille of his bible in the hoodie pocket, having learned the language over the past year to keep up appearences.

He returned to watching the nervous excitment of the plaza crowd, lazily following the movements of the guards as they picked up.

 

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Zyphera ✦ Location: Limousine near President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling confused and uncomfortable.

Alex looked out the tainted window of her boss' Limousine watching as it drove nearer to President Square. This destination came suddenly, Dr Mary Ling calling for the driver to change course at the last moment. This was highly irregular, Dr Ling rarely ever changed her plans and was a stickler for routine and following protocol. She would usually tell Alex in advance about her plans so Alex and the rest of the security staff would plan routes and run risk assessments. Alex had expected to return to Dr Ling's penthouse on a well known and often travelled route, a short route that Alex could take the chance to relax after tough day. Not she was not tense and worried about her charge.

"Doctor, this is highly irregular. This change of plan has put you in great risk, the President Square will be fill with people for the speech. The crowd not exactly friendly to your company and our kind. They could try anything if they realized who you are...." Alex went to complain to Dr Ling who was sitting next to her looking through some paper. Dr Ling had raised her hand to stop Alex mid-sentence.

"You can't let yourself be comfortable with routine, Alex. Dealing with the unexpected is something you have to get used." Dr Ling replied, barely looking up at her papers. "Both as my bodyguard and your nightly activities. If you cant than all our training would be for nothing."

Alex frowned but cowed taking Dr Lings words and chastisement and a signed that she did something wrong. She wanted to ask further but knew better, Dr Ling would tell her soon what she needed to know. The limousine stopped in a side road with the square within view. Alex could see the formed crowd and could sense the tension in the air, she did not like this not at all. She did not have much free time to follow the news but she knew well enough about Celeste Briar and her lot. Skeptics of the guardians and Superpowered individuals and work conducted by Dr Ling and her company. Under Celeste and ilk, Dr Ling would be put under oversight and controlled. Therefore she was surprised when Dr Ling began to speak again.

"I have a vested interest in these people, finding their canditates campaign. I need you to add to the security, make sure nothing going to happen to them."

"You support these...Skeptics? They go against our work!"

"I do not. Not really." Dr Ling explained smiling up at Alex. "In time you will have to learn that for creatures like this confrontation is sometimes not the answer. Celeste's group our very well-supported, going after them would just encourage them and give them a bad guy to fight. You have to fight smartly and play the long game. My contribution was significant for them, remove it at an inopportune time would cost them dearly. Leaving them in your hands, letting you decide their policies removing the more extreme ideas and make them look bad if you leak that such a compromise would leak."

"That seems.... Underhanded, doctor."

"Maybe, but necessary." She replied casually.

"They actually accepted money from your company?"

"Heh of course not. They didnt know. Contribution was done through middlemen and some cover companies."

Alex went to enquire further but Dr Ling raised her hand to silence. "Enough questions, the speech will start soon. You have your task. "She indicated to the door.

Alex nodded, putting on her sunglasses and stepping out of the limo. "You have your work suit?" Dr Ling asked before Alex could close the door.

Alex nodded indicating it was under her uniform before closing the door and moving towards the square.

 

[Hypnos]

Tommy Wilbur ✦ Des Moines ✦ Approximately 1,018 Miles from New Olympia City

A tower shrouded in darkness hung ominously above the City of Des Moines: standing out like a tainted blot over the otherwise pristine skyline of the peaceful midwestern city. For about three hours it had stood, materialising out of nowhere right in the middle of a busy street, and causing an administrative nightmare for the local traffic authority. Not that congestion was likely to be Des Moines' most pressing concern at the current time. Ever since the tower had emerged, it had started to attract an unnatural sort of blackness, dusk clouds hovering like moths to an oil lamp, submerging the whole area in such a complete shade, that residents were having trouble moving from their living rooms to their front doors just to see what all of the hubbub was about. Some kind of mystical threat perhaps? Or at least someone who was handy with realistic special effects. If one were to venture a guess then they might…

‘Nevermore.’

‘What?’

‘The Shadow Mage. It fits his MO perfectly. Suddenly erected structures. Everything shrouded in darkness. The faintest whiff of sorcery. I’d bet anything that this is his doing.’

‘Yeah.’ An exasperated sigh. ‘I was just about to say...’

‘Shoulda been quicker on the draw.’

Tommy Wilbur caught the faintest smirk crossing his sister’s lips as she sped off ahead of him: a monochrome blur which would have been nearly impossible to see in the surrounding darkness, had he not known that he was looking for. Luckily for Tommy, he was well acquainted with the experience of eating his sister’s dust.

‘What do you think he’s planning then?’ Tommy caught up just in time to watch his sister whistle a tune loud enough to shatter the glass in every window this side of the Mississippi, though lucky for the local residents, her screech had been well targeted, pushing through only the otherworldly brickwork of whatever eldritch material this tower was made from.

‘The usual, I guess? Creating a realm of shadows which he can rule over as it’s King?’ The two siblings both flew through the gaping hole that had been left in the side of the structure, stepping carefully into the dimness of the tower.

‘In Des Moines? You’d think a self professed ‘Master of Dark Sorcery’ would have bigger ambitions than Iowa.’ As the pair of them landed on the misty black floor, they knew that their footsteps would likely be enough to attract attention, though neither seemed to be overly bothered by that fact, knowing that the sooner they caught the ire of the Master of this keep, the sooner they’d be able to put a stop to whatever he was planning.

‘Well he tried the same thing in Prague about two months ago. Dad threw his weirdass voodoo shadow castle into the sun. I’m surprised he’s back at all.’ As the two of them continued to talk, they saw shapes emerge out of the darkness, materialising from the walls as big shadowy husks that lumbered towards their much smaller adversaries, though their hulking presence seemed to draw no more fear in the Wilburs than their mystical abode had done.

‘Where is Dad, by the way? I wouldn’t think he’d want to miss the chance to toss another demonic structure out of orbit.’ Standing back to back with his sister, Tommy grappled with the nearest of their shadowy assalaints, gripping the creature by whatever strange appendages hung from its body, and without much effort chucking the beast from the same hole which the pair had themselves entered from.

‘He’s at St. Bertrum’s, with some kids. You know how he gets.’ If these things had any bones, then Tommy knew that his sister would have shattered every single one of them, hearing a loud crashing sound behind him, as Steph tossed one of them against the floor. ‘Said we could handle this on our own.’

‘Well that was nice of him.’ Tommy couldn’t help but frown. ‘Watch out, by the way.’ Just as Tommy turned his head, he watched Stephanie duck, allowing him to unleash a loud screeching from between his lips which saw another shattering on the other side of the tower: perhaps not as precise as the original breach which his sister had made, though it performed it’s task well enough, as half a dozen of these shadowy creatures found themselves pushed out, then down, and onto the streets below.

‘I had them, you know.’ Sometimes Stephanie’s smug little smirk really got on his nerves.

‘Yeah, well I have a Calc class in fifteen. I don’t have time for you to show off.’

‘Spoilsport.’

With the current floor completely cleared, the two siblings began to soar higher up the tower, crashing through even more stories of these dark puppets, though none of the creatures posed too much of a threat.

‘Nevermore’s gonna be at the top. Guys like that always like to sit at the top.’ At least fighting these abstract monstrosities didn’t leave behind any residue: blood stained so easily on a mostly white suit.

‘I’ll race you up there, then. I bet I can have him finished with his whole monologue by the time you arrive.’ Stephanie immediately disappeared further up the structure, though Tommy kept good pace just behind her.

As it transpired, Nevermore never even got the chance to start his monologue before the two superpowered siblings dispatched with the Mage, a single sonic shriek from Tommy disorienting him enough for Steph fly over and grab him away from the tower: causing the whole structure to dissipate into the darkness from whence it had come.

And Des Moines was once again safe.

Another day.

After dropping off the city’s wouldbe ruler at the local precinct, and snapping his magic staff over one knee, the two siblings once again took to the sky, soaring eastwards and back towards the coast.

‘So… You got anything going on after this, little brother?’ From Steph’s tone, Tommy knew there was supposed to be a correct answer to this question.

‘Yeah. I told you. I have a Calc class, and if I’m late again, Professor…’

‘Cause Briar’s big statement is supposed to be today.’

‘Yeah and?’ Tommy let out another sigh.

‘Yeah and, it might be important to listen to.’ Even in the sky, Steph was able to jab her brother in the ribs with one elbow.

‘Why? She’s only cracking down on ‘Licensed Guardians’. Last I checked, you, me and Dad are extrajudicial.’

‘It still might be interesting, right? Besides. You said back there that Calc started in fifteen minutes right?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Well that was thirty minutes ago. So you’re already late.’

‘Fuck.’ Tommy cursed under his breath. Shouldn’t have wasted time showing off to the police officer when they dropped off Nevermore. ‘Professor Agnew is going to kill me.’

Stephanie laughed. ‘Tell her to thank you that Des Moines is still on the map. She can take docked credit up with the Governor of Iowa.’ His sister pouted for a second. ‘Come on, I know this great little coffee place on President Square. It’ll be fun.’

Tommy mulled it over for a second. ‘Fine. But you’re paying.’

Byline and Skyline soared over the horizon, making a beeline for New Olympia City.

 

[KyleTok]

NPC: Phillip ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City

Today was the day! Phillip was looking forward to proving himself to the boss after his mess up two weeks ago. Him and a group of 4 others broke into a military base only for the other four to be caught and sent to jail - while he was the only one who managed to escape! Ever since then, everyone in the gang had been reluctant to trust involving Phillip in their next undertake.

The political campaigns between Celeste Briar and Stephan Adams had helped take away authorities' attention, giving a valuable opportunity for the Headless to strike a bargain with a mysterious man who gave them access to the type of weapons Phillip could hardly comprehend. While everyone grabbed what they could, no one included him in their plans... So fuck them! Phillip was going to organize something on his own. And what's better than an event where a crowd would gather? his boss ought to be impressed now.

He filled his bag with what looked like explosives, or so he assumed they were, and snuck out. Early in the streets, he walked around the President square, tying these devices under places that no one would notice. One under the podium, one near the coffee shop, another one in plain sight... He had only two more in his bag to plant before a gust of wind hit him from above, he looked up with a grin as two monochrome streaks fly blur by.

"Watch these assholes beg for your help."

Glancing back down, he locked eyes with one of the security intel. "Shit." he quickly turned around and scurried away. Passing by the homeless man and accidentally kicking his coffee cop. "Shit dude, sorry, uhh gotta go!"

Interacting With: Henry Williams Excal

NPC: OFFICER CHARLES ✦ Location: President Square in New Olympia City

"Wait!" officer Charles exclaimed while pushing people aside.

"Code eight. I am following a potential suspect. Grey hoodie, walking around with a grey backpack and rope." She said firmly into her transceiver. The person she was following was smart. He walked through the crowd in a way that would challenge her, especially when he walked into a group of protestors who blocked her way.

Supporters of Stephan Adams arrived to hold a protest. Officer Charles felt her blood boil as these idiots blocked her way. Their faith in the Guardians' ability to save them is beyond her. If the suspect that they just made her lose is in fact one of the Headless, they were all in immediate danger - one no Guardian was going to be fast enough to save them from.

She backed away from the protesters' as they chanted and held their signs up high. She didn't have time to deal with them any further and just turned around to the people nearby.

"Did anyone see his neck?! did anyone see his neck!?" she shouted until her eyes landed on the cup he kicked over, to realize the only person who would have noticed that suspect, was a blind homeless person! She pulled her transceiver to her mouth with an exasperated sigh before she spoke, "I lost the suspect. I could not confirm if they are a threat or not - but they seemed aware of me following them."

She stood there, looking around for a moment, before looking back down at the homeless man and kneeling to help him with the cup, only to realize there was no change in it. She reached to her pocket and pulled out a $5 bill, and rolled it into his cup. "Hope this helps." she said, her eyes now resting on his face, slowly noticing his skin. "Hey... are you okay? what is that on your face?"

Interacting With: Excal

It appears that the tech crew had just finished setting up the podium, as the security intel circled the stage, guarding the fence and keeping the crowd behind it. The presence of the police gives people both a sense of security, and a sense of concern. From the way the security intel moves around one could assume they are expecting for something bad to happen. Many are aware of the rumors online, of a supposed attack to happen during this speech. Many are not taking it seriously, solely for the reason of how cliché that kind of attack would be.

 

[SpotBandit]

Gabriel Atlas ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling wary.

As the minutes passed on, more and more attendees of the upcoming speech would fester in the area. Some protesters had brought signs with them and had swarmed together into very compact groups, chanting speech in unison like a hive-mind. Many of them proudly brandished their cardboard cut-outs, of which came in all shapes and sizes. They all shared the same core message, but it was interesting to note how each person interpreted said message differently by their personal beliefs jotted down.

The comparatively passive Gabriel felt very out of place standing in the square without anything much to do outside of open a conversation with someone while keeping his eye open, but given he didn't quite share the beliefs with the small community he'd walked himself into, so he could only really do the latter. He wouldn't dare associate himself with the mutinous crowd for sake of passing time. So, he'd get back to simply observing.

As his wary brown eyes once again danced over the writhing horde, the young man chanced upon a form of commotion away from the masses. It immediately drew in his gaze, and what he happened upon was a suspicious figure hurriedly push his way through the mob. The man seemed... shady, at best. His nervous ushering made it hard to get a proper glimpse of his face, but Gabriel's eyes were drawn to an odd detail around the man's neck; a form of skin marking, dotted across his flesh.

What was the word for it again...?

Tat-.. Tatt-... Erh...

...

The brunette furrowed his eyes gently at the word, irked he couldn't recall its name. Such methods of marking didn't exist in his world, and that just meant he'd have a tougher time establishing the connection between the word and what it meant.

Either way, before long the man managed to snake himself into the confines of some arced up crowd, and it was only then Gabriel noticed that the officer he'd been unnerved by earlier happened to be pursuing the elusive man. The hive-mind protesters huddled together when the police officer approached, effectively denying her entry into their confines as they hissed rebellious chants at her. This made the woman seethe, but she could only turn around and yell over the crowd. What she barked, Gabriel didn't quite hear, but she seemed a tad desperate.

He frowned a smidge, and his eyes didn't leave the scene. Instead, Gabriel watched as the woman happened upon the hooded individual from earlier she had seemed suspicious of, whom of which was sat on the floor. Earlier on the undercover angel couldn't quite grab the proper glance at the suspect as his gaze was dragged away by the collective, gathering mass that were the protesters, but his keen eyes now managed to get a solid look at whoever she was now talking to.

While most of his body was obscured by clothing, they were at first glance a blind man. He was armed with a cane, a small coffee cup- which the kind woman happened to slip some money into- and a sign. Gabriel frowned at the sight, but the more he looked on, the more suspicious he found himself to get. He'd narrow his soft gaze. The blind man's colour was very... bronze. The colour of a person wasn't something Gabriel ever felt to remark on, but he'd never seen a human in a colour like that-- it was very unnatural. Like marble. It could be compared to one of those horrendous tans Gabriel had been unfortunate enough to see on some humans, though this was... not a tan. The angel thought he was hallucinating when he thought he caught a glimpse of a glimmer of light from the man's skin.

Then another.

He wasn't hallucinating.

Was this man a super, too? Was he even human?

The police officer, while it didn't seem she had taken notice of the glimmering light, seemed to be catching on quickly to the man's inhuman appearance. Provided the fact that they were stood in a place full of people heavily instilled in anti-super beliefs, a nervous Gabriel found himself hurrying over to the two in hopes he could throw her off of the blind man's trail. Perhaps he could bring up that oddly marked man from earlier.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Asked a gentle voice that approached both the woman and the blind soul. Gabriel stopped and held himself in a very calm manner, which when compared to the rest of the unruly sports here, probably made him come off as level-headed.

"I noticed earlier you were chasing a man that slipped into the crowd." He said. "I'm not certain if you had caught a good glance at his person-- and nor did I-- but I did take notice of an odd marking around his neck."

Interacting with: Officer Charles KyleTok

 

[Excal]

Henry Williams ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling tense.

Henry tensed for a moment as he saw the hooded man with the rope and backpack weave and rush out of the crowds, clearly catching the guilty look on his face, not to mention a hint of the dash line tattoo.

He contemplated intervening as he got closer, maybe tripping him, but he tried to stay out of vigilantism for the most part. He didn't want to be on the radar of the GID by bringing attention to himself, and supes usually came fairly quickly for most situations. Oh he played the Good Samaritan where he could, getting people out of the cross fire, protecting, reducing collateral, but he mostly tried to stay away.

The moment went and the man dashed past him, knocking over his cup, even apologising. Oddly polite for a thug, he just glanced in his general direction, his moment of relief barely enjoyed for another patrol woman came to him.

He sighed and took on a low gutteral tone to his voice, like a heavy smoker, trying to cover the metal vibrations, nodding to her charity. Guess he could help in someway.

"Thank ye. Ya know, we ain't completely blind, just very near sighted. I-"

And then he froze up as she began to comment on his skin. His mind running through a number of likely excuses he came up with over the years, "Well, ya see, I got into a supe crossfire and got cursed to look like that orange dorito-"

He was preparing mentally to make a hasty exit, when a figurative angel came to his rescue. He let out a breath as the man caught her attention. Resumed his heavy smoker voice.

"A'yup, had a smidge of ink, covered in hood and jeans, probably white, had a tacy goatee. And that rope and sack. And went about, ah..."

He pointed with his folded cane in the runaway's general direction.

------

If the patrol woman took their tips and resumed her persuit, he would pocket the $5 bill and set aside the cup to the sign, standing and slipping on his travel pack and folding out his cane, watching her leave, a conflict playing out in his mind. Any trouble that would happen today wouldn't be ordinary.

He tried not to get involved.

He tried.

"Be perfect as thy Father in heaven art perfect." He groaned to himself, the smoker voice dropping briefly to reveal the humming vibrations in his tone.

He began to meander in her wake, then remembered his 'savior' ( SpotBandit ) and turned to the young man, staring for a second, catching his gaze, knowing he knew. That and he probably looked suspicious following her.

"I wasn't entirely lying. I am cursed.

...

She's breaking from her fellows.

Might need someone to help raise an alarm if trouble happens."

He nodded in her direction and followed, walking cane tapping the side walk to keep up appearences, but his pace was quicker than a blind man's should be.

----

Of course if she didn't resume her persuit, he would remain seated and try not to redraw attention to himself.

 

[KyleTok]

Alleyway by Shin jong hun on Artstation background

NPC: OFFICER CHARLES ✦ Location: President Square in New Olympia City

Officer Charles blinked twice when the stranger ( SpotBandit ) spoke. Hey eyes seemed to dart subtly from his eyes, mouth, and the rest of his body. As if trying to get a clear picture of what her source of information looked like. She gave him a slight nod before glancing down at the homeless man ( Excal ), still unclear on what would cause his skin to look like that. She turned around and put the transceiver to her mouth.

"Witness claims to have seen a dashed line on the suspect's neck. What should we do?"

Momentarily there was no response, until... "Suspect matching description was seen walking toward the residential street." the transceiver voiced back. "I'll go check it out." replied the officer, before adding "But sir, I think we should consider shutting the whole thing down." "We can't. Do your job."

With a sigh she turned back to look at the stranger one more time. "Thank you." before turning back and heading toward the residential street, making every possible effort to avoid the protesters.

The protests seem to slowly grow, like a bacteria that's continuously multiplying, more signs appear, and counter protests grow from it. With recent revelations of life out in space, those who support Stephan Adams believe in the Guardian Initiative, and have faith that the costumed heroes would protect them from extraterrestrial threats. They believe that Celeste Briar is a threat to them, taking away the support their protectors have, leaving them exposed. On the other hand, Briar's supporters, are easily agitated by all the noise, as they throw slurs at the protestors and begin counter chanting to shut them down.

The air was tense. The figurative wall that kept the piece was protected by a thin layer that was ready to pop at any moment. And when the first Briar supporter threw a punch - it burst. Suddenly a group of 3 grown man had begun beating on protesters, smashing and reaping their signs apart. "Guardians are not above us! they are not above the law!" some of them shouted "We are not alone in the universe! we need champions to protect us!" replied the other side.

The fighting was contagious, and if the crowd was not to settle down soon, things could REALLY get out of hand.

NPC: Phillip ✦ Location: Alleyway near President Square, New Olympia City

"I planted 3 of them!" Phillip spoke into the phone as he hurried through the street.

"Yes Boss, I thought you would like that." With a glance sideways, Phillip quickly turned left onto the alleyway near the residential plaza, looking back to make sure no one was following him.

"I made sure some people saw my tattoo. No one will take our credit for this. Thanks Boss." He hung up the phone and pushed it into his backpack, taking a look at the two remaining devices in it. As it turns out, The Headless were already planning an organized attack on President Square later today. But because of the recent incident that landed four of them in jail, they waited for an opportunity when the crowd gathered so that they would face less risk of being caught. But Phillip took the risk anyway, having almost been caught when the police officer spotted him, and who is probably still looking for him.

A grin covered his face knowing the respect this would earn him. He pulled out another one of the devices and examined it.

These look like a bomb sure enough, but what they actually do is not clear to him. None of the strange tech that the mysterious man has provided the gang really looked like anything that Phillip recognized. This came with a remote, and a warning label. So sure enough once he pressed this button, something was going to go down. And when he told his boss about it just now, he seemed satisfied enough as if knowing what the end result would be.

Phillip decided to plant the device in his hand in the alleyway he is in, tying it behind the garbage bin.

"Hey! what are you doing!" shouted an old man holding a garbage bag, who must have just walked out from the back door. Without hesitating, Phillip stood up and tackled the old man to the ground and held a knife to his throat.

"You should have stayed inside." he spoke with intent to kill right before another voice was heard. "Grandpa!"

Looking at the back door, Phillip saw a little girl peeking through a slightly door ajar, her hand gripping to the side with fear. Phillip looked down at the old man and than back up at the girl with a grin.

"Please, don't."

"Heh. sure, why not." he said getting up, releasing the old man, before walking backwards slowly toward the door.

"Sarah close the door!" but before she could, Phillip kicked it open, pushing the little girl back.

"Please! stop!"

Phillip leaned against the door as the little girl crawled deeper inside, cries of fear echoing through the hallway. "Tell her to stop crying or you both die."

The old man was still on the floor, his back leaning against the brick wall of the alleyway. "What do you want?"

Phillip reached into his bag and grabbed the last of the devices. He held out both the rope and the device toward the old man and shrugged.

"How would you like to attend the speech at the square?"

You all have an opportunity to write your character's response to the fighting, or their interest in the Security Intel officer's path. Be creative, and control some protesters as npcs in your post. You do not need to be interacted with in order to insert your input to the story.

 

[Elenion Aura]

Jay Natchez ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling sore...

Jay never thought of himself as being particularly politically motivated. He was a fan of the whole ‘tear it all down, start from scratch’, slash-and-burn style of radical anarchism, but that didn’t seem like it’d get traction in his lifetime. Unless... Not now, Jay. Focus on the situation at hand. Right! Right. As far as the whole Pro-Guardian, Anti-Guardian political spectrum was concerned, he really could not conceivably care less. One through line that bisected the whole thing was this big to do about space. What about space? Space is... Danger?! Maybe. Is the answer... People from space?! Possibly. Does any of this fucking matter? Definitely not. Space this. Space that. If only any of them knew what naked terrors lurked below. If they were lucky, they’d never have to find out.

So when people started throwing punches over whether their favorite Guardian should be allowed to rescue cats from trees or whatever, Jay’s first impulse was to sit back, kick his feet up, and watch the show unfold.


That is, until one of Jay’s ‘friends’ decided to get all up in the face of a guy—who, by the way, looked like he was made of cottage cheese—chanting something derogatory about that Briar woman, and summarily got himself bitch-slapped. Then the violence just sort of engulfed them.

Jay wasn’t particularly strong or particularly fast, but he did have an inordinate amount of pent up aggression which he got the chance to unleash, albeit briefly. He even managed to get a good hit in on cottage cheese-face right before one of the dude’s buddies sucker-punched him in the gut. Fuuuuuuck, that hurt. Dazed, he only saw the briefest flash of movement before another punch hammered against the side of his head. He lost his footing, turning as he fell. He caught sight of his ‘friends’, the ones who’d gotten him involved in this activism bullshit, hightailing it for daylight. Leaving him there, on the ground, as a bunch of angry, red-necked tomato-faces glaring down at him like he was the last KFC chicken wing at the bottom of the bucket.

”Screw this.”

In an instant he was gone. ‘Gone’ in the sense that the 4 mooks all freaked out almost immediately. ‘HE’S ONE OF THEM’, Jay thought he heard one man shout. It was hard to hear anything from where he was. Words got garbled, distorted. Nobody—at least, nobody that Jay could see—noticed as cottage-cheese face’s shadow mitosed, with a fragment of it scurried off away from the crowd, and toward the darkness of a nearby alley.

Soon thereafter, inky greenish black nothingness pooled next to a dumpster, bubbling up until a Jay-shaped thing emerged, solidifying into Jay himself. Jay with a split lip, bloody news, and possibly some internal bleeding. ”Ow.”


BANG!

The sound of it made Jay sit bolt upright, his back pressed up against the cool brick wall. Slowly, he peered around the bend, eyes widening as he realized, or guessed at, what it was that he was witnessing.

"How would you like to attend the speech at the square?"

Far out past the astral plane
I cast you back from whence you came
Cosmic ash and blackened brain
I call you by your ancient names​

 

[SpotBandit]

Gabriel Atlas ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling timorous.

Gabriel watched as the woman's ( KyleTok ) sharp eyes darted over his features, all the while he felt unsure of himself. He admitted to himself that sometimes he got nervous that he'd not wholly disguised his body, provided the physical feeling of being disguised or not felt near identical. It felt like those weird dreams that humans would have where for some reason, they were out in public naked. An odd thing for a sentient species to dream... but sure, it felt akin to that. The unease of going out without much of a physical indicator that he was disguised was so unnerving that Gabriel would check himself double, as even if there was even a hint of something off about him, someone may've noticed, and then he'd probably have to throw his entire human disguise away and do with another. While it didn't sound like an annoying thing to do, disguise crafting was just pain. It sucked. It took hours and hours of pouring into an appearance and refining it so it didn't look nearly as wild as what angels were. How demons were so adept at it was beyond him.

The police officer soon spun her head to the self-proclaimed dorito-coloured homeless man ( Excal ) (whatever a dorito was, Gabriel thought), as he gingerly relayed the appearance of the hooded suspect. Better yet, he even had a good idea where this man had scampered off to. Both Gabriel and the officer's stare followed the witness' folded walking stick as he pointed in the general direction of the suspected criminal, which was through the writhing mass that were the protesters-- joy... Despite having impaired vision, the helpful bronze soul had easily been the most observant of the crowd today. It was unfortunate that the majority of the writhing mob wasn't as cool-headed as him. Perhaps then Gabriel wouldn't feel like he was surrounded by demons.

Momentarily, the policewoman spun around to speak into her transceiver. Over the festering crowd- which had now two conflicting sides so big and confrontational that it felt like at any moment it would erupt- the short conversation on the radio was difficult to make out. The exchange was quick, short and sharp. Gabriel only gathered that the suspect was spotted wandering somewhere- probably nearby. He mustn't of gotten that far with all of the humans around. Even an eel covered in oil would struggle to snake their way through the crowd, it felt.

Not having a moment to spare, the determined police officer briefly shifted her gaze back to the two men to thank them, before she began to hastily usher herself in the direction of the suspect. She briskly weaved past any people standing in her way, and soon disappeared into the masses.

The brunette let out a small huff of relief. His shoulders loosened.

"Thank you, Father." He murmured.

Gabriel was left revelling in his sense of relief. It was the only positive feeling he derived from this cesspit. At any moment it felt as if the officer would've caught a glance of the glimmering cracks around the bronze man's neck, and what would happen then- the angel didn't know. With the seething crowd, it could've been anything. Maybe that's what made the protests so unnerving. The brunette didn't want to be here to experience it, and with each passing moment the urge to leave only grew.

Gabriel would hear a shifting noise come from what felt like the only friendly soul behind him. After having watched the hurried officer disappear into the crowd, the angel now turned his attention to the stranger, who was stood up and prepped to move. The angel's attention perked a tad when he heard the man groan a teaching from the bible- though it wasn't the mention of the bible that caught him off-guard, but instead a deep, thrumming vibration in his voice... almost like machinery. It made the brunette pause momentarily. Woah. What was that?

He kept any remarks about the peculiar man silent, but it was obvious by Gabriel's stare that he had many questions floating about in his head. He didn't come off as concerned, more-so curious. It was apparent that the bronze soul didn't want attention brought to his abnormalities- evident by the lengths he'd gone to conceal almost all parts of his body- so Gabriel would respect that and not pester him about it.

There was a short pause shared between them. Neither of the two immediately spoke, but the man stood opposite of Gabriel was aware that the brunette had already seen enough to know he wasn't wholly human.

Briefly, he confessed he wasn't completely lying. That he was, in fact, cursed. It made Gabriel frown a smidge when he heard this. Cursed? For what?

The blind fellow didn't dwell on it long, and instead brought mention of the police officer from earlier. He made a fair point in that if something happened while she was away from the help of others, that her life could be put in danger. That there wouldn't be anyone to sound an alarm.

"Oh-- dear..." Gabriel started, whom of which sounded like he'd only just thought of the officer's safety. He was a little ashamed he hadn't thought of that earlier, actually. It was very unlike him not to have immediately thought of the well-being of her when she'd disappeared into the masses, but provided the environment he was in, it was the stress of his surroundings that was causing him to freeze up. He knew he performed poorly when he wasn't in the right mindset, and being felt like he were surrounded by iffy demons wasn't very healthy for someone who lived a mainly conflict-free life. He wasn't prepared to deal with aggressive humans.

"You're right. I'll trail her with you." He said.

Not only would it be to keep tabs on what could be considered the human equivalent of a guardian angel, it also provided Gabriel some freedom of this stressful environment.

Shortly after he found himself following the hooded man as he walked at a brisk speed. The man's quick-footed pace did bring to question how blind he actually was, but it wasn't something that anyone would question.

Why was that?

Because as soon as the two had managed to snake their way out of the thicker portion of the mob, everything exploded. Shit hit the fan, and by God did it happen quick. Uproars suddenly broke out as the two mass protesting groups began to clash in a passionate, albeit brutal war between beliefs. Fists began to connect with people's faces, people roared as they grappled with each other. A group of men began to howl that someone was 'one of them'-- whatever that meant. A spooked Gabriel snapped his head around to catch view of the massive writhing brawl and watched it unravel with wide eyes, both horrified and thankful that he'd decided it was a better idea to leave with the kind blind man to trail the officer. While he was one to put himself in harms way to stop a fight, doing so in this situation was futile- and would probably be answered by a nice punch in the throat.

While it seemed the two weren't in immediate harm's way- evident by the humans eagerly streaming past the two to beat the living daylights out of each other- Gabriel still kept a very cautious eye out for people that may take a swing at the two of them. It seemed people were only interested in the festering pileup of hate that was the centre of the protests, so as long as they ushered themselves away, they should be fine...

... Right?

Interacting with: Henry Williams Excal

 

[Hypnos]

Tommy Wilbur ✦ President Square, New Olympia City ✦

Changing clothes in the back of a dark and somewhat public alleyway was not the most glamorous thing to be doing at any point in a man’s life: cramped and inexplicably damp, with a faint odour of some foul and nondescript scent that hung across the backstreets of almost all major cities like a loyal mutt at the heel of its master. Food waste if you were lucky. Urine if you weren’t. Risking public indecency charges wasn’t Tommy’s favourite part about this whole gig, though it was certainly preferable to standing out like a sore thumb in skintight black and white spandex, and the notion of being constantly hounded by various protestors, some of whom no doubt wanted nothing more than to put to the test the media’s claims about his family’s fabled invulnerability. Not that civilian clothes provided too much concealment for someone who was well used to having their face plastered all across the morning news: but it felt more secure than painting a target on your back and practically telling people to have at it.

‘You finished changing yet? Hurry up! No one’s coming this way!’ Steph’s call came from the opening at the other side of the alley, his sister keeping watch to make sure that there were no peeking eyes wanting to catch a glimpse of the Headliner’s own flesh and blood standing gormless in his boxers. Not that he expected the gossip magazines would fork out much for any pictures of his lanky pale-ass, though he still appreciated the semblance of privacy.

‘I’m just finishing up.’ After pulling an unironed shirt over his head, he moved towards his sister, tapping her lightly upon the shoulder to tell her that her turn was up.

‘Finally! I don’t want to miss the statement. People are gonna flip. I swear.’

With his back turned to his sister, Tommy peered out to either side of the alley’s entrance, wanting to be absolutely certain that there wasn’t anyone around the area. Paparazzi were prone to be very adept at covert-ops, if you weren’t looking out for them. ‘You know, Dad never talks about having to undress in the street like a bum. He always said he’d just hunker down in a phonebox and…’

‘Thirty years ago? Sure!’ He heard Steph’s condescending laugh. ‘How many phone boxes do you see nowadays?’

‘There’s one on Grant Street. I saw it flying over.’

‘I was not walking all the way from Grant Street: Tommy. I brought my nice shoes!’

‘I bet at least Grant Street doesn’t smell like an old man pissed himself…’

Before Tommy had room for anymore complaints, he felt Steph’s hand tap against his shoulder. A good thing too: he was getting pretty tired of this stench.

‘Why are you so excited about this anyway? You’re not thinking of signing on as a Guardian, are you?’ Once the two of them were properly kitted out in civies, they began to take the short walk over to President Square: the city centre about a block away, though they could already hear the chanting.

‘God no! Can you imagine?’ Steph shot him a devilish grin: the two of them pausing just as they walked up to the scene. ‘Dad would go ballistic. You know what he thinks about them. You’ve heard the ghost stories.’

‘Why then?’ Making an effort to avoid moving right through the protester's paths, the siblings took a hard left, heading away from the main hubbub and towards the small coffee shop which Steph had talked about.

‘I don’t know. It’s interesting? I guess.’ As Steph shrugged her shoulders, they moved inside the building, placing their orders as they idled by the store counter, occasionally glancing out of the large glass-pane windows. ‘Plus, it’s gonna affect us one way or another.’ She gestured towards the throng of people outside: a few of which were chanting some not very flattering things regarding the superpowered population. ‘I’m not sure these are the types of folks that care if you have the proper paperwork on hand.’

‘Right.’ Once their coffee had been brewed, the Wilbur twins found a quaint little canopy outside, lounging around on some public seating. ‘The coffee place was good, by the way. You were right.’

‘Aren’t I always?’

Tommy gave his sister an audible groan, changing the subject. ‘So Dad’s not making it out for this at all? Not even the ending?’

‘I don’t think so.’ Tommy could see Steph start to squint over towards the crowds, turning his gaze in that direction as well. ‘He hates the Guardians, but he also likes dressing up in tights to save the day. This whole thing is just a lose-lose for him. Honestly: he probably arranged that trip to St. Bertrum’s so he wouldn’t be spending the time just peering over Mom’s shoulder whilst she watched it on TV.’

The two of them were distracted from their conversation somewhat by the breakout of some fighting over by the protesters, a couple of hooligans wildly throwing fists at one another in a pretty brutal fashion.

Stephanie glanced toward him, grinning. ‘Should we…’

‘Steph!’ Tommy cut his sister off. ‘You said it would just be coffee and the speech. We’re not even in costume.’

‘Probably a good thing. I’m not sure Skyline and Byline would exactly rate highly amongst this crowd. No one’s even recognised us yet. Just hop over and make sure things don’t get too violent. Break it up. We’re not being heroes: just average joes concerned about our fellow men.’

‘But Steph…’ Tommy glanced down at the coffee of which he’d only had managed to finish halfway.

‘You wanna wait until someone gets sent to the ER?’

‘No.’ In a resigned voice, Tommy tossed his half-cup of coffee into the trash, standing up to stretch his legs. ‘I don’t wanna do anything that’ll end up on the news though.’

‘We’ll be real subtle-like. They won't even know we’re helping them.’

As they approached the crowd: the twins did a fairly decent job of blending in amongst the protesters: not that anyone was going to be expecting a pair of superpowered teenagers to be hiding amongst their ranks.

It was just a case of keeping people out of trouble, and trying not to be noticed: if not staying out of trouble themselves. It didn’t matter if Tommy took a punch or two to the gut: he’d get better, but for anyone else, their bodies might not be so accommodating to some shattered ribs and internal bleeding.

‘It’d be quicker if I could scream at them.’ It was hard for Tommy to hear his sister’s voice over all of the yelling, though he briefly saw her subtly kick the heel of a man twice her size, causing him to wince out in pain, let go of the pro-Briar protester in front of him, whose wrist he had clearly broken. She disappeared a second later. ‘You know. Scream. At them.’

‘When Briar gives her speech about abuse of powers later: I don’t want to be in it.’

Luckily, a bunch of kids didn’t exactly stand out much in this crowd, and the pair of them were able to help ease off the most vicious areas of fighting: if not break up the protest completely. Who knew that your average nine to five’r would give off more fervent loyalty to their cause than a pack of shadow creatures from the realm of night?

By the time the pair of them made their way out of the other side of the massive crowd: Tommy was sweating massively: elbowed at least two dozen times, and having taken a strong right hook to the jaw, though none of the exactly showed on his unblemished face.

‘These guys are really into this, huh?’ Tommy panted slightly, turning to his sister, who was pulling someone out of the throng that looked like they were about to get trampled. ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all.’

Interacting With:

 

[Excal]

Henry Williams ✦ Location: President Square - Alleyway, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling tense.

Henry glanced briefly over his shoulder at the young man following along and gave a light nod, the difference in his demeanor to the rest catching his attention. Chance he was a supe kid who came to watch from the sidelines. How else did he notice his appearence so far away?

Doubt he had anything to fear from him, he didn't have the 'serene zombie' look like a Radiant follower, and he didn't seem to press any more questions about his appearence. If he was actually tailing Henry he wouldn't have revealed himself.

He accepted the company and strode ahead, using his cane to create an additional radius around himself as he swung back and forth with a bit of force, making his presence known along with a string of gutteral coughing apologies that opened a path for them.

As they broke free and seemed to lose the officer around the corner, he glanced back at the square.

Henry watched the growing counter protest crowd with a tired cynicism. The significance of the event, the anxiety in the air, the sudden increase in opposition, the whole thing reeked of orchestrated chaos. Psy ops run through social media groups, guiding the radical and the resenetful like lemmings.

Sure enough a brawl broke out and he guided them closer to the walls, sighing. "Let the children vent. The real threat is stoking the flames."

At the very least, this meant the Radiants wouldn't show. Bad PR either way to get involved in a riot, not worth the effort. He could relax on his original mission. Getting involved was out of the options, people bumling into him let alone hitting him would break more bones than the riot.

He grumbled and turned, losing sight of the officer in the chaos but catching the peculiar sight of a thick blob of shadows congealing into a man near a dumpster.

He approached in cautious curiosity and watched him unfold into an injured groaning state, the face of a young man caught in the wrong mess. Another supe bystander caught in the politics.

He sighed to himself and slipped his bag off one shoulder and pulled out a small tube of asprin pills and a quarter full bottle of whiskey, about to set them down beside the injured man when the noise from the alley alerted both of them.

He leaned in and heard the faint hysterics of a child. Setting down the apsrin and the bottle, along with the rest of his bag, he nodded to the man who helped him before.

"I'll investigate. Watch him, he looks hurt."

He rounded into the alleyway fully and saw the distraught old man by the door. Taking a moment tl ready himself, he slipped off his mask and glasses, folding the cane into his hoodie pocket, though keeping the hood on. His Radiant appearence might be enough to intimidate the situation from escalating.

An atmosphere of violence hung in the air, more sinister than the crowds. With a prayer, "Blessed are the peacemakers...", he accepted it with a grit fatalism and stepped into view of the doorway, catching sight of the thug from before.

He watched him with a stoic gaze and raised his hand just slightly from his hip, "Hold on," he intoned with a soft, verberating boom. He glanced at the child.

"We do not need to fight. Cease and we can figure a compromise." He steadied his feet slightly, just in case.

 

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Zyphera ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling a little nervous and tense.

Alex watched the limousine leave before she turned and made her way to the area where the speech would be held. She scanned the area, people were chanting with their banners while the last preparation to the stage was done. Apart from a little commotion seemingly being settled by the police, things we relatively... Stable, she supposed was the appropriate word. Lively but stable. She knew though she could not rest from her vigilance. Politics did sometimes bring out the worst of people the matter with the Guardians was one of the big topics of the age. As much as she wished otherwise, things could get heated.

Soon, to her regret, she was proven right as a protest came to counter the anti-guardians, the fuel to the proverbial fire. Counter chants to turned to hurled insult made worse as more and more people entered on both sides added to the anger and brought the two closer and closer together. She tensed up as she realized she was standing in the middle of both. Finally, there was a cry, one punch lead to the other until the two sides crashed together in a big brawl. She cursed trying to think hard on how to separate the both of them, she certainly knew that any police would take longer to gain control of the situation.

She was forced to act as one of the brawlers attempted to take a swing at her. She reacted quickly and instictively moving her head aside from the blow to the surprise of the brawler. With the brief pause she managed to take a good look at him, a young man about the same age as her, a student from the college she reasoned. Likely drunk by the way he stumbled from his own attack, properly though her for an easy target to feel powerful and maybe take advantage of her in her surprised state. He soon would come to regret this decision as he stuck hard at his stomach sending him down at a crumpled heap on the grass. She was tempted to use her air powers, but she knew he was not worth the trouble.

Alex looked at what was, the crowd of people fight each other. She needed to use it cleverly and subtly, separate them but not being seen doing it. She sighed and closed her eyes, feeling the wind flowing around her. She raised her hand slightly, gathering air in her open palms. The air whirled around her hands picking speed and strength before she released the wind gather in one hand, knocking apart a pair grappling each other and send them sprawling on the floor. She did the same with air gathered in the other hand separating another couple. She repeated this gathering the wind and firing it to keep people apart as best as she could hoping it would eventually discourage further fighting.

 

[KyleTok]

[[SORRY for grammar errors, long weekend with lots of plans so I had to rush this post to make sure you have writing material.]]
Alleyway by Shin jong hun on Artstation background

NPC: Phillip ✦ Location: Alleyway near President Square, New Olympia City

Just as he handed the old man both the device and the rope, others arrived out of nowhere. Phillip quickly backed away toward the doorway, taking the remote out of his pocket and holds it out. As the man with the sunglasses spoke ( Excal ) the expression on Phillip twisted. He looked both annoyed, but determined with a malicious grin.

"You're right, we don't need to fight. So how about you mind your business and walk away?" he said raising the remote, "Or this entire thing goes up."

The device in the old man's hand had a red light flickering within this glass container on its end, it would almost appear like it is reacting to some type of signal. With the strangers nearby, the red light seems to flicker a bit faster, as if a source of energy for it to draw from just came nearer.

Noticing the boy boy behind the dumpster ( Elenion Aura ), Phillip scuffed and moved his finger to detonate the devices--

"Please, it's just me and my granddaughter-" the old man pleaded, but was cut off by a voice in the background. Over the speaker, it seems like the speech has begun.

NPC: OFFICER CHARLES ✦ Location: President Square in New Olympia City

Pushing through the crowd, the protesters have just become too many, and the situation was a second away from becoming a full blown riot. Officer Charles tried to make her way toward the residential area but when the fighting began, she was forced redirect her attention toward the mob.

"Hey! Enough!" she exclaimed while pulling two men off one another. One had a shirt that read "Briar for the People." While the other had a hat that read "We're protected." One of the man hit her in the face in the heat of the moment - she tackled him to the floor in response and pulled out her one pair of handcuffs - but before putting them on she looked around and realized she would need a lot more of these if this was going to be her approach.

"Sir, this is becoming dangerous we need to dissipate the crowd." she held her transceiver to her mouth when she noticed she was not the only one breaking people up. Still on the man's back she tilted her head.

"Are those...?"

She forced the man up and held the hand cuffs to his face. "You're lucky I can't arrest you! Now get out of here before I decide to solely focus on you hitting a police officer." She pushed him aside as walked toward the twins ( Hypnos ) and attempted to full both of them to the side.

"What the hell do you both think you're doing here?" as the crowd riled up behind them, she noticed another person breaking the fighting up. Her uniform would suggest she was a body guard, but that wasn't entirely clear. She turned her head back to the twins.

"Your identities are NOT secret. If people begin recognizing who you are, this will become a lot more ugly very fast!" The expression on the officer's face would suggest she both felt aggravated toward them, but sort of sympathetic as well. These two are both superhuman, they're both icons, symbols that people admire, but they don't exactly fall under the Guardian category since their family has opted out of all the benefits this government seems to direct toward Guardians. The only reason their family has not been detained for vigilantism was probably a mixture of the Headliner's relationship with government officials, but also because they could just be too powerful to control to begin with - and Charles was aware of it - so she tried to maintain her distaste to them from a place of fear.

"If I recognized you. Someone else will too."

She walked over to the young body guard ( ThatGuyWithSouvlaki ) and looked at her up and down.

"Aren't you a little young to be someone's body guard?" As the fighting continued, the officer rolled her eyes as more requests for help to break people up could be heard from her transceiver.

"Neverminded, I could use your help-" suddenly a group of counter-protestors found themselves pushed against the officer and body guard as both would be back having to respond to the chaos.

Officer Charles very quickly found herself trampled on by what has quickly turned into a riot, her transceiver smashed as she crouched into a fetal position to protect herself.

Injured and bruised, suddenly the speaker went on - and silence of the fighting followed.

Please! stop fighting. I know that no one expected for me to come out. And my spokesperson had spent a lot of time preparing for the speech. But this is a matter I had to make an appearance for, myself. And I hope that alone will prompt you all to stop the fighting, and just listen to what I have to say. This goes out both to my supporters, but also to those who believe I am wrong. Regardless of what you believe, you should still hear what I have to say, and decide to condemn me after if you wish.

For the last decade - we have seen the insurgence of costumed heroes who take on a mantle to protect humanity. We have survived an attempted invasion from aliens, and we were able to destroy a meteor before it struck our planet. But those alone were not the reason that 'Guardianship' has become a profession, and an identity that so many of us praise. It was because while we had costumed heroes, we also had costumed villains. With globalization, the world has become hyper aware that there are many among us with special abilities from different origin. The world has become aware that magic that cannot be explained by science alone, is real. The world has become aware that demons and curses, are REAL. Which brings me to my point.

We have come to see the rise of Guardians as a means to protect our planet from extraterrestrial threats, while we still have so many threats WITHIN. We have people who put their lives on the line every single day to protect our planet from threats that already exist on it. Just last few month, a fight between the Headliner and an inworld threat had left an entire street up in flames. If it were not for the UNDERFUNDED firefighting department, many more lives and civilian property would have been destroyed.

Many of the so called "supervillains" are a problem that could have easily been solved if we were equipped with proper access to therapy and community service. We still have murder cases that need to be solved, we still have medicine that needs to be supplied. In the last decade, all our government had been concerned with, is funding the Guardian Initiative program! Our tax money is being put into training super humans just so they don't harm us! All while neglecting the other aspects of our society.

I am not running to become president to cancel the Guardian Initiative program, I am running to redirect a fraction of its efforts and funds into services that our people need. You might have a Guardian that can heal people, but she can't be everywhere at once! so we need to fund our hospitals! You might have a guardian what can control water and put fires out, but he can't be everywhere at once! so we need to fund our firefighters! You might have guardians fighting crime around the country, but more times than we can count they were not available to save people during immediate crisis, so we need to fund our police.

The problems outside of our horizon, are not our only problem. While Stephan Adams is focusing on creating super-soldier programs to put into our military and police forces - all while getting your hands on a weapon is far too easy in this country, I am focusing on helping those of us interested in leading a simple, but honest life. I am not against guardians. I am against neglecting our people just so we can further idolize and treat our protectors like gods.

This is not a Humanity against Guardians issue, but it is about Humanity against itself. Vote for me, Celeste Briar, if you wish for all humans to be treated equally, Guardian or not.

 

[SpotBandit]

Gabriel Atlas ✦ Location: Alleyway, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling uncertain.

Gabriel watched as the man striding before him ( Excal ) unapologetically wavered himself back and forth, easily launching anyone out of the way of their path like fickle bowling pins. They'd whimper apologies and usher themselves away, possibly wanting to avoid getting iffy at someone who appeared to be blind-- because the last thing you'd want to do in the middle of a bloody massive riot was pick on someone who had a disability. In that case the crowd would probably make sure that you'd be crawling out physically impaired yourself, courtesy of a mass bashing just for your self-righteousness. Moments like these-- when he was surrounded by an outrage that spread like disease, when everyone was so compact together that it was suffocating, when you felt like you couldn't breathe with how thick the air was with anarchy-- that Gabriel just wished he could shed his appearance and retreat to the Heavens. The urge to just fly away, with his wings visible or not, was overwhelming. He could escape right now if he wanted. Just, fly. The situation at hand was akin to frightening a bird and expecting it not to soar off-- for him to bear this much longer felt impossible.

It almost felt a war.

He momentarily winced at the thought and quickly tried to push his uneasy mind onto other subjects, such as that policewoman who could be in danger. It was a little hard to focus on being positive when the explosive fighting smothering you made your brain feel akin to a snow-globe that was just shook. At least, he found as the two furthered themselves from the violence, the thrashing crowd behind them sounded like it'd died down a little. Instead of sounding like a massive jet-plane, the wailing crowd was more akin to a small commercial airliner. It didn't bode much, but it was progress.

With a second glance, Gabriel noted that the fighting had died down just a little bit-- just a tad. An inch. People were beating each other more like feral animals instead of demons. It was a little improvement. Just a bit. Surely this will get better soon... Maybe the people would learn from this, to not harm each other in such a volatile way over beliefs? Or perhaps this was his lack of understanding of humans trying to lead him to believe the species could achieve something that, to them, could only be a fantasy. The angel hoped for the former, and wasn't self-aware enough to even think of the latter.

They'll... learn~ He assured himself with a hum.

His down-to-Earth partner was far more cynical, evident by his quiet grumbling in response to the needless chaos.

Finally, they broke free from the mob-- with many thanks being owed to the blind man who forced a pathway for the two of them. Being away from the anarchy immediately felt like a breath of fresh air, and the somewhat more relaxed Gabriel took a moment to appreciate his newfound freedom. While it wasn't exactly a wave of relief, given the brunette was still in the midst of doing something, it was a far more tolerable situation to be away from what felt like Hell on Earth. Momentarily he would spin his head around to watch the writhing crowd, only to frown at them with pity.

...

To watch the fight from a distance was sort of surreal. It more properly put into perspective how needlessly aggressive people could be- despite how insurmountable someone's opinion was, that someone would be offended by it and would throw their hands because they were incapable of handling views not of their own. The very cause of the fight was beyond Gabriel. He was lost by the violence, incapable to describe how humans could do such a thing to their very own people-- people who weren't even evil.

But the angel would quickly drag his attention away from the crapfest that was the riot. He didn't want to watch it. The officer was out of sight, and the two had to pick up their pace. She was one of the only humans here that would stick her neck out for either side, and at the moment she was the only one who could be spared such pitiful brutality.

Gabriel ventured with the hooded figure to a suspicious looking alleyway. The angel scrunched his face at the subtle smell of rancid food and piss, only to shake his head in disapproval. What a putrid smell... His nostrils had never been so defiled before.

By the time he forced his eyes open and his face to go flat, both he and the man before him took notice of a writhing mass of-... what the hell was that. Shadow? Was that literally just shadow?

The angel immediately grew alarmed and entered a more defensive stance. He took a small step back.


Was that a demon?


Thankfully, the writhing, viscous mass eventually simmered down into the shape of a man. A human ( Elenion Aura ). Gabriel held his position for a moment before the reality of the situation struck him, and his tense body language soon dropped.

It was just a human.

W-well.. a human with powers. But a human.

As a matter of fact, it looked to be an injured human. Gabriel's wary eyes watched as the man's body soon unfurled, shortly followed by painful, dull groans. His body was limp, like he had the energy knocked out of him. He was probably one of the unfortunates who got dragged by the ankles into that huge rampage... which he could still hear pretty clearly. The angel's eyebrows furrowed gently at the thought of such a thing, to attack the guiltless. Assuming this man was innocent, he'd just been physically assaulted for no reason. If he wasn't, then... well, other innocent people still got assaulted. The massive outbreak was just a selfish, selfish thing to have happen. It was almost as disgusting as this piss-scented alleyway.

"Are you alright?" Asked a visibly concerned Gabriel.

Unlike the bronze man, who approached the peculiar human cautiously, Gabriel approached in a far more calm manner. He needn't assume the worst. It was just an injured human- he had no reason to attack them. Sure, the riot behind them was the complete opposite of this way of thinking and had literally just proved Gabriel to be not completely correct in his approach to humans, but the unfortunate on the floor seemed to be in enough pain to not pose a threat. And, if he was a threat, he was in a state that would make it easier to talk to him. To convince him he didn't have to be that way.

Gabriel watched as the considerate, blind soul removed a small tube of pills and some alcohol for the injured man to take. Alcohol was something angels loved to avoid, but given the man would rather lay on some damp alley floor than stand up, it probably meant he was in a considerable amount of pain. A bottle of whisky was wholly justifiable in this situation.

... But was it safe to drink with those pills?

"Is it safe for--"

A sudden sharp noise called down the alleyway, alerting all three of them to the presence of someone else. Temporarily, they paused. Gabriel jolted and shot up in response to the sudden sound, and held his head still in the direction to the racket.

The hooded figure, who was about to set himself besides the injured human, turned to Gabriel and gave a nod, essentially handing the care of the poor soul to him.

"I'll investigate. Watch him, he looks hurt." He said.

Gabriel gave a small but firm nod back.

"Will do." He responded.

And with that, the bronze man was gone. Off in the alleyway to confront whatever made that racket. Gabriel trusted that the blind man could fend for himself, and even if he was uncertain in his capabilities, he couldn't leave the collapsed human here on his own... That was pretty damn selfish.

The brunette's eyes would scan the fallen man for any signs of injuries. Cuts, bruises, redness-- anything.

Immediately he spied the man's split lip, some blood smears around his mouth, and a nice red mark on the side of his head. Jesus. Gabriel's expression sank. If there was any doubt that this man was part of the riot, they were gone now.

"What happened?" Gabriel asked as he grabbed the pill bottle to inspect the dosages. Did this man get dragged in? Did he willingly throw himself into danger? Was it a war of passion, or just a war?

The brunette gently screwed off the cap lid and shook out the pills required to ease the man's pain. He held out his hand and offered them to him.

Interacting with: Jay Natchez Elenion Aura

 

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Zyphera with NPC Charles KyleTok ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling a little panicked and overwhelmed.

Alex felt for a moment she might have been able to handle the situations. Those she separated seemed to have the fight knocked out of them and separated. Though some still try to go after each other again and others made another attempt at her but she made short work of them like she did the first man. One she did not even need to throw a punch just stepped out of the way when he charged at her and placed her food in his path tripping him to the ground. That was the good thing about dealing with rioters, most of them were amateurs throwing their first punch at worst.

Hearing an authoritative voice nearby she had the brief hope that it was the first voice of many as law and order arrived to handle the situation. Sadly it did not seem to be the case, the voice was a lone one, trying to hold back the tide in a vain manner. In fact, to Alex frustration, it seemed to me more focused getting rid of the superhumans than her dealing with fighting. She turned away from the officer to deal with more fighters, this time just using her on strength. Pulling people apart bring them down to the ground. She wasn't the strongest person without her powers but Dr Ling had taught her some judo which levelled the playing field.

However, it was not long before Alex had the attention of the officer which commented about her youth. "Does my employment really matter now? I would assume there are bigger problems than checking my driving licence." She retorted back. "Where are your colleagues, aren't they meant to sort out this mess?"

The officer seemed to say something but there was a sudden surge of bodies towards the pair of them. She had tried to shove people aside but soon Alex was carried of the surge, just barely keeping herself upright to avoid being trampled though she noted the officer was not so lucky as that. She could just barely hear the speech occurring behind her, drowning on rather than dealing with the issue at hand. Yeah, trust a politician to do nothing useful, she thought feeling her legs slip more and more.

She finally felt her feel slip and, in a moment of panic, she lashed out. Gale force wind escaped his hand parting the people in front of her like something out of the exodus. The process seemed to free both her and the officer from the crowd but also drew attention to her. She had barely a moment to find her feet again and realize what had happened before the instict told her she had to bolt. She rushed through the opening she had made while it was still open, reaching the officer. She initially felt like letting the officer be put she knew it would weigh on her so tried to help her up. "Hey, copper... No time for sleeping, we need to get out of here." She said hurriedly.

 

[Elenion Aura]

Jay Natchez ✦ Location: President Square, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling sore...

Jay winced and sat himself up. He snatched up the bottle, and the pills, and down one with a swig of the other.

“Agh. Nasty.” He wiped a mix of spittle, whiskey, and blood away from around his mouth as he peered up at the brunet who was asking if he was alright.

"What happened?"

By way of a response, Jay waved with the neck of the bottle toward the sound of commotion as it died down-replaced more-or-less by that woman’s speech. That happened, he was seeming to say. More importantly...

Jay peered around to watch the hooded man square off against the other half of the dynamic duo that had so bravely come to his rescue. The mook and him locked eyes, and Jay watched him fiddle with what he could only assume was the detonator for the device he’d foisted onto the other man. So much for the element of surprise.

He shuffled, a little unsteadily, to his feet, bottle of borrowed whiskey still in hand. He didn’t know what the plan was—of if there was one in the first place—but he wasn’t about to get blown to smithereens in some shit-stained alleyway lying down.

Far out past the astral plane
I cast you back from whence you came
Cosmic ash and blackened brain
I call you by your ancient names​

 

[Excal]

Henry Williams ✦ Location: President Square - Alleyway, New Olympia City ✦ Feeling tense.

Henry turned his head just slightly and glanced to the side for a moment at the sound of the speech breaking out, registering what was happening and quickly returning his attention to the hooded thug holding, what he assumed, was the detonator.

Considering he had just handed the bomb over to the old man and hadn't placed himself in the middle of the crowd...

Henry gave the thug a stern, fatal glance, "If you were a suicidal radical, you would have already done so. Given you just gave that old man the... 'bomb', I doubt you planned to die today."

He glanced towards the cowering old man and the child. He was going to sound like an asshole, but he still believed intimidation was the path here. Certainly backing off would play into his hands.

He took a very small step towards the thug to pressure him and emphasize his point, his golden eyes heating up.

"Look at me." He lifted his hood just slightly, bringing attention to his Radiant appearance.

"You know that 'people' like me are nigh-indestructible. If you think setting off that bomb will stop me, you are wrong. If you think you can get behind any nearby cover to impede me, you are wrong.

The only element you have between us are the innocent, and that's not in your favor. Because the moment you hurt them, I will break you.

Compromise with me, and you can get away.

You seem more professional than just some lunatic off the internet. You're probably a career criminal. You have contacts in the system. Play along and we can fight another day.

Or God willing, you stop this miserable path."