Masks: Halcyon Rising

[SP3CT3R]

Moonbow had no training, but he was the direct descendant of one of the most powerful beings in Starcadia, and it was considered his duty to use that inherited power to protect the weak, especially since his mother and sister couldn't be relied on to uphold that duty. But Moonbow couldn't avoid doing this code of honor dirty, either. Here, on Earth, he was the weak one.

This was made evident when Moonbow's barrier shattered like glass against the force of the amphibian mutant's charge. In that same instant, Moonbow himself felt his head split open in agony, as if someone had grabbed his horn and was trying to jam it into his brain. He landed on a rooftop, trying to get his bearings. Somehow, this common street thug had caused Moonbow more what felt like harm than he'd ever experienced in Sparkletonia without even attacking him intentionally.

Moonbow was silent as the flying ship landed in front of the amphibian and three superheroes emerged from it. In order to get a closer look, he dropped to street level, next to some of the heroes his age who'd shown up earlier. "Will they be able to handle something like that? It fought off all of us on its own," he said, slightly ashamed at including himself to the group who'd just fought.

 

[EbonChevalier]

As El Aguila's fists slam on the back of Axolotl pure joy just floods his entire body.'I Finally got a hit in maybe me and the others can....'

*WHAM*

El Aguila goes flying down the street and pain floods his midsection. He feels his the skin on his back scrape against the rough asphalt as he bounces against the ground. As he looks up he see's an odd flying vehicle streaking overhead.

*SMACK*

'Is this all I can do?'

*SMACK*

'I was even really threat to him in the first place?'

*SMACK*

'Do I really deserve to wear the mask?'

He lies in the middle of the road writhing in pain and a lot of self loathing. He feels hot tears threatening to spill from his closed eye's. He growls through gritted teeth. " Dammit can't I doing anything right?!"

Spoiler: Condition

El Aguila's feeling pretty hopeless right now.

He stumbles to El Aguila and helps him get back on his feet while the axlotl is distracted. "Come on, it's best to let the Exemplars do the rest. Nice moves, by the way..."

He opens his eye's to see the guy in the gecko suit again. He takes his hand and keeps his eye's hidden from the other hero. The pain in body is nothing compared to his spirit but the complement helps a bit.

"Th-thank you."

'Well at least I got one hit in.'

 

[Manant]

Tom... Gecko, chuckles and looks up at Moonbow in mild puzzlement. "Of course, they're the Exemplars. This might as well be a parking ticket... But they're fairly underground - maybe you haven't heard of them". That's perhaps the laziest joke he's come up with this year. But he really does feel safe with them on the scene. Someday he'd like to instill that feeling on other people.

And then a sudden thought, gnawing at the back of his head: could it be that this guy actually hasn't heard of the Exemplars? "And, uh, what do you call yourselves? I'm Gecko. Haven't seen you around the block. I think we should be backing away..."

 

[EbonChevalier]

Standing up straighter and shaking off the lingering pain Jose answers. "I'm El Aguila and I usually do a better job at fighting villains than I did today."

 

[RisenFromAshes]

“Ah fuck,” Squire cursed, spotting his mentor and his team descend from on high to subdue the opponent they were having such difficulty with. Slowly, with a not insignificant attempt at 'stealthily', he descended to the ground. Fortunately, they were all facing away from him. Unfortunately, he didn't think he was out of the ballpark just yet...

Take a Powerful Blow: 7
Result: Struggle Past the Pain, Mark Two Conditions
Conditions Inflicted: Insecure (because I had like three failures in a row, and I know what I'm doing), Angry (BECAUSE I HAD LIKE THREE FAILURES IN A ROW! AND I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!)

...But y'know what? Maybe I don't want to play ball. That's why my game is so ass today, and I am not looking forward to taking shit for this later.

With a quiet thud, The Squire landed on street level and paced over to the three amateurs. He did a quick mental count, and before introducing himself (not that introductions were necessary on his part), lifted a finger and said: "One second."

He extended his arm and fired a grappling line at the downed Veil to quite literally drag him into their group.

 

[Wondertainment]

RisenFromAshes (Since I don't know what roll that would be, I'm just gonna say you successfully manage to pull Veil in)
Manant (Please roll to comfort! Roll 2d6+Mundane.)

White Warden lands first and heavily. Without looking up, he blocks one vicious, concrete-cracking blow with his left shield. With his right, he jams the Axolotl's webbed foot. Weathervane and the Halcyon Knight never land, instead preferring to float in the air. The Axolotl stands up and punches White Warden, who seems to more or less shrug it off by blocking it again. White Warden uppercuts the gargantuan lizard-monster and knocks it on its back flat. Weathervane waves her hands, and wind so vicious that it's visible picks the monster off the ground. The Halcyon Knight waves his own hands, and the rubble and structural damage nearby starts shifting back to where they originally were. You guys even have to duck as a giant mass of bricks fly back into the wall of the alley.

The Halcyon Knight sighs and rubs his mask, which is particularly silly because... well, he's wearing a metal mask.

"So," Weathervane says to her teammates, "I'm not gonna lie, seems like getting the three of us was overkill. Hell, I feel like one of us could have soloed this."

"It was causing massive structural damage," White Warden points out, retreating his shields and drawing a power-dampening collar, "It even killed several citizens before we intercepted."

"Yeah, but we dealt with it before I even landed. Who are these kids?"

The Knight, who's been scowling this whole time (even though his face is concealed, you can somehow still tell he's scowling), finally speaks up with his heavily modulated voice.

"That's... my sidekick. And his friends, evidently."

The Knight waves his hands. Veil, who's been having a hard time standing up, suddenly feels a surge of strength as his wounds start to heal. El Aguila starts healing up as well. You notice that it's not really healing any actual damage - it's just doing some minor patching up and making the pain go away.

The Knight sighs and gestures at Squire to come over.

 

[EbonChevalier]

El Aguila feels a pleasant sensation flow through his body the bruises and scrapes on his back and face feel much better. The pain in his midsection iss pretty much gone he still feels like shit emotionally but he's feeling better. Being able to walk on his own he lets go of Gecko's shoulder and stands on his own to feet. He asks him "Think we'll get in trouble over this?"

 

[Manant]

Several citizens dead? Gecko does his best to remain composed... no need for the Exemplars to find out about the trainwreck that is his emotional stability at any given time. People must have been getting killed at most a few streets away while he was buying coffee. He considers El Aguila's question. He's fairly certain that he, personally, deserves any punishment the Exemplars or the police see fit (suddenly he doubts that he was capable of having done better, to practical purposes) but the others legitimately seemed to be doing their best to handle the situation. Even Veil, toward the end. While he was knocked out.

Ultimately, he chokes back bile and tries to look reassuring. "Well, I trust they'll judge us fairly."

And wait - Squire's voice. Is that...?

Spoiler: Mechanics etc.

Rolling for my Comfort, and also marking Insecure and Guilty. The last line is just to justify the bit about Squire and Gecko knowing each other, as we discussed in the OoC thread.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Veil flexed his fingers and slowly stood up "Given that...ugh...we were attempting to stop a rampaging enemy..getting in trouble is the least of our worries" several citizens dead. Veil was thankful that he wore a face covering mask. He honestly hadn't even considered that the man's hatred of him would have driven him this far. It made him...well guilty. Something he was used to of course, a former Villain had lots of things to regret.

He focused on the heroes, taking in their appearances. He'd never come across them, even when he'd been working for his grandfather. One had to be smart when dealing with veteran heroes. Cause enough destruction just to attract their sidekicks or the B-List heroes, and don't kill anyone.

Veil dusted off his suit "Squire...the grappling hook was a bit much" he said softly "...thanks though" he'd have had trouble getting over to them even with the healing the Knight had provided.

His senses tingled at how much metal the other Heroes were wearing, almost by habit, mentally cataloging the different alloys and base metals each had on them. It was a relatively useless skill in the grand scheme of things, but it did give him knowledge of what kind of loose change someone was carrying.

 

[RisenFromAshes]

"I don't know about you guys, but me? Probably," Squire answered El Aquila, nodding his head towards his mentor. The Halcyon Knight was gesturing for him to come over. Squire figured he was just going to bend his ear about shitting the bed against the axolotl guy. "Don't worry, I'll put in a good word."

If I get a word in.

He rolled his eyes and sulked over to his older counterpart. "'Sup pops," he greeted with a casual wave in an attempt to keep things light. He nodded to the Knight's two teammates. "Warden, Weathervane. Always a pleasure."

 

[Wondertainment]

DISCLAIMER: Normally, I wouldn't force these Influence shifts on ALL OF YOU at once, but I figured it'd be a good time to practice the mechanics.

EbonChevalier

Spoiler: Mechanics

You may choose to open up to Gecko! (Again, this is a roleplay thing - you can just write El Aguila saying something along lines of "Yeah you right") If you do, you mark potential, clear a condition, or shift Labels.

"Uh huh," Weathervane says to Squire, disinterested, "You a new kid, or are you the same Squire?"

White Warden bumps Weathervane with his elbow, then gives her a stern look. The Knight crosses his arms.

"Don't 'Sup pops' me," he says menacingly, "You didn't react in time to whatever monster this was, and then you completely botched the rescue of... whoever that one is."

The Knight lazily gestures towards Veil. Weathervane squints.

"Isn't that the Curtain kid with the magnet powers? Lowlife sidekick?"

White Warden bumps Weathervane again, who shoots a glare back this time.

"And then," the Knight snarls, "DESPITE my specific instructions, YOU ENGAGED THE THREAT. I didn't give you all that gear to showboat, I gave it to you to PROTECT THE PEOPLE. I told you you're not ready to fight on your own. Your job is to secure civilians until someone more capable comes around."

The Knight preemptively shushes the Squire before he can say anything.

"You're just a kid," the Knight snaps, "Let the professionals take care of things like this. Am I understood?"

RisenFromAshes

Spoiler: Mechanics

The Knight is attempting to use his Influence over the Squire to shift Mundane up and Superior down. Do you accept/reject? If you don't know what I mean, I'm going to put up a crash course on Influence in the OoC thread.

Weathervane approaches Veil and glares at him.

"I remember fighting you, kid," she says, "I thought you were putting the mask away. Don't make me remind you what happened last time."

Seraph Darkfire

Spoiler: Mechanics

Weathervane is attempting to use her Influence over Veil to shift Danger up and Savior down. Do you accept/reject? If you don't know what I mean, I'm going to put up a crash course on Influence in the OoC thread.

The White Warden approaches Gecko and El Aguila. "Listen, I don't know you two. And I'm all about everyone doing their duty," he says sympathetically, "But I'm not reading too many superpowers on you two. Maybe... maybe you aren't cut out for this. You need to accept that possibility. It's okay. Everyone has their own path."

Manant EbonChevalier

Spoiler: Mechanics

White Warden is attempting to use his Influence over Gecko AND El Aguila to shift Danger up and Superior down. Do you accept/reject? If you don't know what I mean, I'm going to put up a crash course on Influence in the OoC thread.

Weathervane glares at Moonbow. "I don't know where you're from, but you're clearly not from around here. You should go back to wherever you came from."

SP3CT3R

Spoiler: Mechanics

Moonbow is attempting to use her Influence over Moonbow to shift Freak up and Mundane down. Do you accept/reject? If you don't know what I mean, I'm going to put up a crash course on Influence in the OoC thread.

 

[EbonChevalier]

"Well, I trust they'll judge us fairly."

"Yeah we may not beaten that thing but we stopped it from taking anymore lives. You know I honestly felt bad over not landing a decent shot on him but the important this is no one else got hurt."

Spoiler: Condition

Insecurity gone!

The White Warden approaches Gecko and El Aguila. "Listen, I don't know you two. And I'm all about everyone doing their duty," he says sympathetically, "But I'm not reading too many superpowers on you two. Maybe... maybe you aren't cut out for this. You need to accept that possibility. It's okay. Everyone has their own path."

Bullshit. Father Miguel and the other Guardians of the Fifth Sun fight against the forces of evil like any hero and some of them have no powers at all! "You're right you don't know us so don't assume you know our own limits better than we do. We may not have won today but we bought enough time to stop that monster from hurting anyone else."

 

[SP3CT3R]

Weathervane glares at Moonbow. "I don't know where you're from, but you're clearly not from around here. You should go back to wherever you came from."

@SP3CT3R

Spoiler: Mechanics

Moonbow is attempting to use her Influence over Moonbow to shift Freak up and Mundane down. Do you accept/reject? If you don't know what I mean, I'm going to put up a crash course on Influence in the OoC thread.

Moonbow takes a deep breath, fluffing up his wings. "I apologize for any complications my interference may have caused for you," he says, slowly, trying to appear professional while biting back rage, "but I arrived here in order to save the world I originated from, and I will not be returning without the means to do so."

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Veil frowned behind the mask before sighing "I continue to wear the mask as a reminder of my past, and for my goal of improving myself. I could have easily replaced my look, gone for something flashy, made a new name of myself and easily buried everything else"

"Instead, I've chosen to stick with this look, aware of how you and other heroes would look at me. Good. Save a few people, do a few good deeds, that is usually enough to change an opinion of the common person. But heroes are different. The day you look at me as a Hero instead of a Villain, that is the day when I will truly be Reformed"

He chuckled and spread his hands out "Until then, feel free to remind me as much as you'd like. I could use the practice"

((Guilt Cleared!))

 

[Manant]

Gecko looks downwards and adjusts his goggles. There is a lump in his throat. "With all due respect, I do not think my powers were the problem. I could have done more. Perhaps I wasn't sharp enough..." Then sideways to the group. "But the others make a good point. We at least stopped it from doing any more damage, and that's gotta count for something."

Spoiler: Mechanics

Sorry about the late post! Not rejecting their influence, so shifting labels accordingly in a sec.

 

[Wondertainment]

(Waiting on Squire's response, will resolve everyone else for the meantime)

Spoiler: Mechanics

EbonChevalier That's a hit! Choose one:

clear a condition or mark potential by
immediately acting to prove them wrong
• shift one Label up and one
Label down, your choice
• cancel their Influence and take
+1 forward against them

SP3CT3R That's a hard hit!!!! Nice. Choose TWO:

clear a condition or mark potential by
immediately acting to prove them wrong
• shift one Label up and one
Label down, your choice
• cancel their Influence and take
+1 forward against them[/spoiler]

Weathervane rolls her eyes at Moonbow.. "Fine. Just register with the Department of Extraterrestrials."

White Warden sighs as he looks at El Aguila. "Of course. Anyone can help, kid. I just wanted to make sure that you don't get hurt unnecessarily. Know your limits."

He then nods at Gecko. "That's a smart boy. I like your spirit, kid."

White Warden crosses his arms as he glares at El Aguila for... a little too long. "I'm sorry, have we met before, or...?"

"What did you say to me, you sawed-off-" Weathervane snaps.

"Excuse me," White Warden says, then grabs Weathervane. He starts pulling her away from Veil, who stands defiantly against Weathervane's threats.

El Aguila relaxes his shoulders - he didn't even notice he was tensing them. He looks at the Axolotl creature again. It starts to shrink to the size of a regular, shirtless (and not flattering) man. El Aguila averts his eyes for a second, then looks back... Wait. The man has a large symbol branded on his chest.

The brand of the Sun Warriors.

Veil looks around for the person he was supposed to meet. In the rubble of the coffee shop, Veil finds him... with a steel girder where his head used to be. If you search him, you find a USB drive gripped tightly in his right hand.

 

[EbonChevalier]

Spoiler: Influence

I cancel their influance and take +1 against them.

White Warden sighs as he looks at El Aguila. "Of course. Anyone can help, kid. I just wanted to make sure that you don't get hurt unnecessarily. Know your limits."

El Aguila' expression doesn't change
" Limits are meant to broken."

White Warden crosses his arms as he glares at El Aguila for... a little too long. "I'm sorry, have we met before, or...?"

"Uhh.. no?"
El Agulia's honestly surprised he'd even ask that he hasn't been fighting crime that long. And the threats that he's taken on were D to C tier in threat. Violent asshole racists, corner store robbers and sometimes Tetsuken.

"What did you say to me, you sawed-off-" Weathervane snaps.

"Excuse me," White Warden says, then grabs Weathervane. He starts pulling her away from Veil, who stands defiantly against Weathervane's threats.

'Whew!Saved by the vane.'
He had no Idea what he was going to say to older hero and he didn't think white warden would take ignorance as an answer.
With that potential bullet dodged his eyes wandered over to the prone for the Axolotl. He saw a 9ft tall monster quickly deflate into an unassuming human. 'Looks like he should be a problem for awhile.'

El Aguila averts his eyes for a second, then looks back... Wait. The man has a large symbol branded on his chest.

The brand of the Sun Warriors.

His eye grew wide behind his mask and he fought back a yelp of surprise. It was the symbol of his order and hadn't changed a bit since it was drawn hundreds of years ago. A mighty eagle and a jaguar drawn in the classical Mexica art-style. Between them lies sun and they both have their backs to it. The eagle is screeching and the jaguar is roaring. Both beasts have their claws and talons out ready to defend the sun from anyone that would dare harm it.

'Why would some random meta crook have our symbol branded on his chest? Was he a guardian? And if he was how did he end up like that?' El Aguila takes a small burner phone from his pocket and takes a picture of the fallen man. As soon he gets a chance he's showing this to Father Miguel.

 

[Seraph Darkfire]

Weathervane was fun to tease. Especially as a Hero, she couldn't legally attack him as long as he was just using words. In a flat out fight, he'd give himself...a small chance if he really ignored casualties and damage. Seeing that White Warden was handling her, he headed into the coffee shop to get a look at the damage.

Veil grit his teeth at the sight of the dead man. People dying wasn't something he wasn't glad to see, and from the clothes he could tell that it was his contact. Kneeling down, he felt the presence of a small metallic object clenched in the man's hand 'A USB?' he rolled the small drive around in his fingers before pocketing it. He'd take a look at it later when he had the time.

"As far as team-ups go, I wouldn't say that was the worst I'd seen" he said stepping back onto the main street "We definitely could have coordinated better"