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Mutants & Masterminds: Emerald City Sentinels - Issue #2 - Fallen to Earth


jameson (ST)

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The rain fell down on Emerald City blanketing the metropolis in the gloom of filtered daylight. The streets were slick with water, rivulets ran over the sidewalks, roofs dripped. For five days since the Silver Storm the season's rains had washed over the city. The rain did little to cleanse the stain of that day however; crime rates were up. The city's new superheroes, barely forged, were already beset with mutants and costumed freaks. Reports from the day of the Silver Storm made it clear; whatever the Storm was, it had given a great many people powers, and most of them seemed to be on the wrong side of the fight.

The Thursday afternoon evening commute was a mess. Traffic was slow because of the weather, and slower still for an accident on the Malory Bay Bridge. Though sunset was still a couple of hours off the dark storm clouds in the west had brought a premature gloom to the city during this commute, causing thousands of headlamps to lance out into the dimness, illuminating the falling rain like millions of tiny prisms.

High above the premature darkness was broken by a sudden booming noise, the sound of the sky breaking. Some did not hear it. Some ignored it, dismissing the sound as little more than thunder. Some looked up. Beyond the clouds a steak of something cast a line of orange light through the clouds. From the north and west it came growing brighter as it did. A second explosive cacophony blew a hole in the cloud cover through which a flaming object fell, streaking toward the feet of Mount Stanley. The flaming object slammed into the mountain and billowed a great cloud of flame and fire illuminating the forest despite the rain.

OOC: I'm giving you guys a bit of freedom here. Post what your PC is doing when all this happens (mundane or heroic) and then what they do in reaction to the crash and how they get there to investigate. The session will pick up with the arrival of the heroes to the crash site.

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The police had little time to complain about the rain, or comment about anything at all, as they were sent flying by a speeding blur. Unfortunately, this was not the girl who had appeared to battle the initial monstrosities of the Silver Storm's outbreak. Sent about as they were kicked, punched or otherwise struck by the bullet that was the self-proclaimed Speed Demon, it looked like a very problematic situation.

Officer Daniels had managed to take cover behind a damaged police car, and his few shots fired off had proved in vain, as rounds went through space that was no longer occupied a moment ago. At this point, he was praying one of the new superheroes would show up.

Speed Demon was laughing uproariously, things were going well. He'd be the one people saw- and worried about. No more fly on the wall Wilford Wexler-

And then the cavalry arrived. Traditionally, the sound of the arrival of untimely aid as portrayed in the media is not that of a thrumming motorcycle. Daniels, on the other hand, didn't give a flying fuck about customary signs of help, as Relentless rode down the street on the new motorcycle he'd obtained for around the city transport, and pulled up suddenly, going over the handlebars in a flying kick at Speed Demon.

Speed Demon easily dodged backward from the blow, and recognized the hero who'd arrived. "You? You have no powers! You can't fight Speed Demon!" He charged forward, unleashing a flurry of blows.

About a minute later, Daniels snapped the handcuffs onto a whimpering Speed Demon, limp with pain and hardly able to move. The officers who had been taken down were being gingerly helped up by Relentless.

Once all that was done, Daniels walked over to Relentless, who looked a little beaten up, but not much and sighed with relief. "You all right?"

"Yeah," Relentless replied, not seeming too worn by the blows he had taken from Speed Demon and the solid few but devastating blows he'd returned for each dozen. "We owe you one, thank you." That made Relentless incline his head, and he was lucky to have the mask hide his face.

Never had a cop said such a thing to him in living memory. Relentless ended up faintly smiling behind his mask- and the sky exploded.

Daniels and Relentless looked skyward, seeing the contrails of the burning object as it slammed into Mount Stanley. "I guess I asked for this when I put on the mask." Relentless growled, suspicious of these sudden events since the Silver Storm.

Immediately, he raced to his motorcycle, and leaped on. Maneuvering slowly around the cops and parting onlookers, once clear of immediate obstructions, he went full-throttle and went as fast as he safely could within the city. Once outside city limits, the pace increased significantly.

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The last few days had been a lot of fun for the irrepressible young speedster. Val had spent the hours following the crash whipping together a costume. She’d found black leggings in a trash can, unopened and in her size. She already had a shirt that fit fairly tightly. Despite having a nice body thanks to her high metabolism, she hadn’t chosen these things for vanity. Tight clothing meant it was less likely someone could snag her as she ran past them. A set of black gloves covered her hands to eliminate her fingerprints.

That left her face. After some hunting, Val had got a bandanna – black with red flames in the design. After borrowing needle and thread from the shelter, she carefully built a mask to hide her face. Then she went and had some fun. Most of what she found at first were thieves – people like she had once been, except they were normals and therefore hopelessly inept. Val stopped them from stealing and turned them over to the police.

She ran into one super-powered human, a man made of ice who had been assaulting a group of kids. It wasn’t until she’d knocked him unconscious that she found out he was an eighty-year-old man who’d been trying to keep the kids off his yawn. Given that he’d chased them across half the city to try to get them to stop meant that Val didn’t have much sympathy for him.

The boom that had sundered the silence of the city interrupted her first dinner, causing the young woman to snap upright and stare at the sky. “Huh,” she said, then crammed the cheeseburger into her mouth and dropped off the roof she’d been perched on. The lithe teen arrested her fall on a window ledge, then dropped to the next and the next, landing on the street in a roll that dispersed the shock of her final drop. Grinning and finishing her bite of burger – and wiping a bit of drool that had seeped out around her meal – she took off at high speeds for the mountain, moving all-out in her excitement. I bet its aliens! she thought as she wolfed down the sandwich in two more bites. That would be awesome! I could have an alien pet. Or friend… if they’re sentient. Dreams of her new alien buddy propelled the teen along into the night.

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It's been a trying few days, Ivonne thought, staring out of the large, street side window of Asa no Bara at the rain-shrouded peak of Mount Stanley. Sitting alone at her small table abutting the window and picking at her sushi, she studiously ignored the teenaged boy stealing glances at her crossed, nylon-clad legs, a stiletto-heeled booted foot bouncing slightly, beginning to regret passing over a pair of slacks for the skirt.

Her days had been long, if more exciting then she would readily admit. After failure after failure searching for her mentor, it was incredibly satisfying going out into the City once more, doing her utmost to stymie the outcropping of new villains that had appeared with the Silver Storm. Still, she was surprised by her regret in not having partnered with another hero since the day of the Silver Storm.

But it took her time to arrive at a scene, unless she was happeneded to serendipitously been on sight. The Arisen Aegis of Abriddon enabled her to fly - in a certain manner - but it was not exceedingly fast. So, she had been spending every free moment she could get studying her grimoires and tomes, seeking to master the intricacies of sundering the limits of space. And finally, she could now call upon the Riving of the Modrossus, allowing her to travel distances swiftly with but a single step, as well as allowing others to do so.

This was her first time into the city proper not dealing with an insane villain or helping emergency personnel - not counting one trip to a discrete, occult bookshop that offered true works of the Mystic Arts to those who knew how to ask, and had ended being accosted by a police officer demanding to know why she was not in school - and she had decided to try a meal at the restaurant Izanami had suggested. Though she had decided not to reveal her identity, not yet. She ate out very rarely, and the cuisine was one her Unseen Servants showed little skill in preparing, and she found her meal a fine treat, a small reward for mastering a new spell.

So of course, it was the most opportune time for her to be interrupted by a new potential crisis. The booming thunder rattled the windows, the grey clouds wreathing Mount Stanley breaking for a... something trailing flame, to crash at the feet of the mountain.

With a sigh, Ivonne reached into her purse and tossed a few bills on the table, more than enough to pay for the meal, then grabbed her coat and dashed into the bathroom. Stepping into a stall, she donned a pair of fingerless, elbow length gloves, then made several mystical passes over her coat, changing it from a deep, spartan black to a gleaming white trimmed with vivid blue sigils of power.

She slipped it one, pulled up the cowl and keeping her voice low, incanted arcane phrases as her fingers gracefully wove the required somatic components. A brief flare of light escaped around the edges of the bathroom stall as Incantatrix stepped through her portal into open air, a glowing rune holding her aloft as she looked toward Mount Stanley from a high above Emerald City. The portal snapped closed, another opening before her, another step carrying her several miles closer to the object that had fallen from the sky.

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Incantatrix’ home proved to be a whole new world to the recently crash landed alien. Since Suprema lacked any understanding of what was considered ´normal´ or ´supernatural´ on Earth Incantatrix’ place caused more confusion than a simple hotel-room would’ve caused.

Incantatrix‘ own secluded upbringing didn’t help much in introducing the alien woman to what was considered everyday living on Earth. Fortunately the language issue was quickly solved. Suprema picked up English with uncanny efficiency and even learned how to read in a matter of a few days.

Yet there was a minor misunderstanding when Suprema had figured out to introduce herself properly. While Incantatrix assumed that Suprema was trying to explain that she was eight years old she actually meant that her name was eight. The young sorceress laughed a little but was also relieved that this very womanly curved alien wasn’t so young.

She almost fall on her butt when she heard that Suprema was only 5 years old – but after further explanation she learned that the Alien woman was a clone, hence her odd name ´eight´ which simply stated that she was a ´model eight´ clone. She was artifically created and the Incubator she was found in was her ´birthplace´.

That didn’t help much to make Incantatrix feel better and Suprema totally was oblivious to Incantatrix‘ envious looks and it didn’t help that the amazonian shaped alien was only wearing a very skintight jumpsuit, which had some sizeable holes after their battle vs Sartok.

She had no clothes that would fit the tall blonde and she didn’t want her to walk around in that scorched suit either so Incantatrix set out to magically conjure some clothes for Suprema.

„You should think about a name, Eight – we don’t refer to people as numbers.“

While the young Sorceress excused herself to prepare her Ritual Suprema contemplated what name she should choose. Fortunately Incantatrix had an extensive Library and so the alien started to search for possible names that caught her attention and which she liked by sound.

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Winding the golden hair Eight had giving her around a finger - it would help link the Ritual result to her, making sure the clothes fit and were a match to her tastes - Ivonne frowned, debating. Eight had dealt with her in complete honesty, perhaps she should do the same. Besides, she was tired, lonely, from no one knowing both sides of her. And despite claiming to be only five, being a clone, that wasn't a real representation of her age.

"A moment, Eight," Ivonne sighed, slipping off her concealing longcoat. Beneath, the slight adolescent girl was wearing stylish, high-heeled boots, nylons, and a casual but classy grey, cashmere knit dress. "I too, do not look my true age. Though I appear to be no more than an adolescent - fifteen to sixteen years of age, I am in fact thirty."

"I... see," Eight said curiously, looking at her host anew.

At least it wasn't the frankly disbelieving look she was used to receiving. "Yes, well, while you are a guest in my home, you may call me Ivonne. It is my real name. "Here, let me show you the library."

Ivonne led her guest swiftly through the surprisingly labyrinthine halls, paying little attention to the hanging pictures that literally followed them with their eyes, or the statues that shifted position when they thought no one was looking. She was used to the antics of the Brownstone In-Between, indeed, it was an old friend. She stopped by a portrait of her mentor, Magnus Colburn, the Magnum Mage, his glyph-marked namesakes in his hands, and chuckled softly as he warned her in stentorian tones, 'to wear a coat, it was cold outside.'

In the cavernous library, Ivonne showed Eight where the various sections were and the lectern she could stand to request specified materials, which the Unseen Servants would do their best to fulfill. Leaving the tall woman to explore the extensive library for inspiration, Ivonne heading off to her ritual chamber.

Fortunately, this was a ritual she had performed more than once. Often, it was difficult to find tasteful clothes in her size, and the saleswomen always tried to steer her towards the teen section, which she despised, and despised even more when the saleswoman was no more than a teenager herself. It might have been a somewhat petty use of the mystic arts, but she had long gotten over it, especially since Magnus had never understood female fashions, nor what it cost.

Ivonne settled into the lotus position with the ritual circle, placing Eight's strand of hair in another, smaller circle linked to it. Surrounding her were multiple blocks of split firewood, to be used as mass for the transformative spell. Steadying her breath and focusing her mind, her young voice incanting a stream of arcane words in a fluid, surprisingly deep tone, Incantatrix started the ritual.

Two and a half hours later, Eight had a more than reasonable beginning to a casual wardrobe as well as a new outfit for heroing. At least, that was what Ivonne presumed it was. Clucking her tongue, Ivonne stood back up, stretched her back, tight after the ritual, than commanded some of the Unseen Servants to take the clothing to the room that had been made up for Eight. Taking one set of clothes herself, Ivonne heading back to the Library.

"Any luck in finding a name that feels... right, Eight?" she asked the tall blonde sitting at one of the hardwood desks, her eyes lingering on her full curves. She felt a tiny twinge of guilt for having kept half of Eight's strand of blond hair for her own purposes, but perhaps she would be able to come up with a way to... circumvent her youthful body's lack of... development. Eternal Youth when it was this young was at times a true bother.

She approached, glancing curiously at what Eight was reading, setting down the change of clothes next to her on the desk. "And here you go. You have more in the guest room that's been put aside for you."

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  • 2 weeks later...

Suprema slowly nodded as she put back a book she had withdrawn from the extensive library, „I like the sound of the name Joani in your language but I’m a bit confused about what you said earlier. Your real name is Ivonne but you normally go by the name Incantatrix? Should I chose a second name, too? And why are you wearing a disguise? Do you have something to hide?“, her question were honest and without any accusation. She didn’t understand the necessity to have a secret identity as a superhero – the concept was alien to her.

Ivonne smiled at Joani surprised a little by the Aliens naive nature but her open nature and innocence was somewhat disarming.

Suprema inspected the wardrobe which was heavily leaning towards black and tight jumpsuits. There was one more elegant `dress´ but everything else was either casual or could be straight used as uniform or workout outfit. The Alien woman obviously had no real sense or maybe need for fashionable clothing which was probably part of her genetic programming.

Without hesitation she stripped off her rather tattered and burnt jumpsuit and picked up a new one as if being naked was a natural thing. Her body was even more impressive than Ivonna imagined, a perfectly sculpted athletes physique presented herself with subtle and full breasts and a slim waist which flared into wide hips and long lean legs. Those genetic engineers did a good job obviously... Joani wore no underwear underneath and slipped into the new jumpsuit without bothering to put on a bra or panties. Thanks to the ritual the new jumpsuit fit her like a glove and she smiled happily at Ivonne as she presented herself. „Thank you very much, Inca... ahm, Ivonne. You are very kind.“

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