Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Chapter 3: The Coming Storm

[SalmonMax]

"Oz! Little buddy!" Wally yelled. In a single bound he crossed the room and clasped one arm around Ozzie's shoulder in an earnest, slightly painful, man-hug.

"Where'v you been, mate?!"

[Ozzie Bloggs]

"Hey easy now Wally!" Ozzie exclaims as he half-heartily pushes Wally away. "After that last run in with the Porcu-bear, I was feeling a bit upset so I went out on a little self imposed exile, to clear my head. Seems that you guys have been busy as well. Who's the new guys an where's Rodney?"

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny was unsure what to do or say to Ramani; she had a very clear memory of teeth pressing into her neck. 'It's okay' didn't seem fair to herself, but berating the large tigeress more didn't seem helpful or fair. Finally, after a long moment, she just said, "Thank you. I accept your apology." There was a brief awkward silence before she added, "That good?"

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole overhead Penny's acceptance and nodded without saying anything, breathing a little easier now. He in turn looked to Ozzie and Rose form his chair to greet the Platypus. "Welcome Back then Ozzie."

[Ramani]

Originally Posted By: Penny Mann

Penny was unsure what to do or say to Ramani; she had a very clear memory of teeth pressing into her neck. 'It's okay' didn't seem fair to herself, but berating the large tigeress more didn't seem helpful or fair. Finally, after a long moment, she just said, "Thank you. I accept your apology." There was a brief awkward silence before she added, "That good?"

Penny's apology was more than well received. Ramani actually wanted to hug her and lick all over her face but she knew that this wasn't appropriate. Still her face displayed an innocent happiness unlike Penny has seen before.

About then Ozzie came back and Ramani perked up sensing someone 'invading' her territory but she immediately relaxed when she made out Ozzie. She watched the odd couple greet each other and smiled at Cole. Her near heartbroken state of mind almost completely forgotten now that everything was ok again.

Ramani walked next to Cole and waited there with him putting and arm around his waist and half leaning against him. Life was good again now that she was forgiven.

[jameson (ST)]

Raphael put his beer down, "Rodney has withdrawn since finding out that his father was killed. This is Dom, he is ... he is like Penny and I believe the he too has the makings of a protector. Welcome back Ozzie, I hope your own leave helped you sort out whatever it was that you needed to sort out."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny took another look at Dominic; he didn't seem like anything special. She also felt a fleeting touch of jealousy. It'd been kinda neat being the unique one, the human who got to do other things.

She pushed away those thoughts. It wasn't fair to Dominic. She gave him a little smile, determined to get along with the other 'special' person. "We'll need to compare notes sometime. Are you having migraines, too?"

"Geez," Randy said suddenly, "two of you? I don't know that's such a good idea Raphael." Penny punched him in the arm and he rolled with it, laughing.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole smiles. "The more the merrier. It's a very big city after all."

The massages the back of Ramani's paw and looks to the others. So where do we go from here?"

[Ozzie Bloggs]

Ozzie turns to Raphael "Well I can understand how he feels, so umm what were you guys talking about before I interrupted?"

[Ira Sagebrush]

Protector?! Me!? Well, he is a turtle, he can't be all that intelligent.

Dom nodded at the platypus, politely keeping his mouth shut, so as not to laugh at the ridiculous looking creature.

Dom smiled, "Heh, no. No migraines, wouldn't see the connection to this..."

As he stuffed the crust in his mouth, he held out his other hand, creating a small ball of fire.

"Sure they're related?"

[Ramani]

Ramani was about to relax under Cole’s skillful massage when she saw the small ball of fire in Dom’s hand. Instinctively she shied away like most animals would and involuntarily bared her fangs. Her nostrils flared and she forced herself to calm down again but not without grunting and growling disapprovingly at the visitor.

She made a half step back shoving Cole protectively with her as she eyed Dominic with less welcoming eyes.

“Turn fire off, please.”, the large tigress asked another snarl escaping her mouth. It was obvious that she was the most feral of the mutant animals.

[z-Penny Mann]

"Oh, uh, no, we don't do the same thing," Penny said, both relieved and disappointed. While she liked being the one and only 'Mind-Girl', it would have been nice to have someone to compare notes with. She stared at the flame and added politely, "That's rather nifty... if a bit, um... burny."

"I'd rather have that than you powers," Randy offered unhelpfully. Penny glared at him as he shoved a wedge of New York pie into his mouth. "Whaf? Yohr fuff is farhy."

Penny rolled her eyes. "Ever heard of swallowing, Randy?"

"Yef," he said and just grinned at her.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole's response to the flame was almost the opposite. "Cool." It was clear he'd grown up in civilization and didn't have Ramani's primal fear of fire.

"Certainly something I've never seen a human do before."

He looks to Ramani then to Dom. "Can you put that out please? Ramani wasn't raised like the rest of us and as such her reaction to fire is somewhat more primal."

[Ira Sagebrush]

He shrugged and closed his hand, snuffing the small flame out.

"So Raph, my main amphibian...Aside from the pie, what did you need me for exactly?" Dom asked, looking casual as he stood there.

[jameson (ST)]

Raphael shrugged, "I wanted you to meet the others. I think perhaps they might appreciate another mind and another point of view and experience." The turtle looked at the others, "The men in the black vans are after all of you, and myself as well, and others like us. You are all in this together."

[Ramani]

"What about Rodney's father?", Ramani asked. The last thing they were chasing was that crocodile... which she never gotten to see actually. Her natural curiosity somehow demanded to know how that crocodile looked like and why it killed Rodney's father.

"You know something about a croc... croco...?", she had trouble pronouncing the word and looked for help to the others.

[SalmonMax]

Wally went ominously quiet on seeing the fire-hand trick. One could almost sense him wondering how that worked, and how hard it would be to do it too. The notion evoked images of a crazed kangaroo hopping madly about with flaming paws, cackling manically.

Happily, it seemed that would just be an image though.

"Yeah, I sort of have a commitment about that croc. It's something I promised to do...and I've got a stake in it too. But if the rest of you want to go after the black vans, I'll help with that too."

[Cole Mulvaney]

"We need to sort the croc situation out. Then we can devote everything to the black vans."

[Ramani]

“We have Camras all over the lair of the croco – but I don’t know if they show something. Maybe Wally knows?”, Ramani raised her ears in typical feline curiosity towards the Kangaroo. Her keen eyes watched him with the same curiosity which almost made him feel if she considered him for her next lunch.

[z-Penny Mann]

"We'll check them soon," Penny promised, nodding. "And I think that hitting the croc first might be a good idea. We know where they have been, and they're actively killing, while the black vans don't seem to be. Wally, you said the mice were being attacked by this croc? And Dominic, could you elaborate on the animal attacks and the firebug? These all sound like some important issues that are begging to be tackled."

[SalmonMax]

"Yeah, they're news to me," Wally agrees. "My extensive array of street contacts and informants hasn't made a peep about anything like that!"

He glares at Dominic as if the human mutant were responsible for this failure of his mythical informant network.

[Ira Sagebrush]

Dom held his hands up in mock defense, "Hey, don't you all look at me, I just know what they said on the news! What's with the croc?"

[Ramani]

"Croc killed Rodney's dad - he is the Bat-Man.", Ramani said glad that she could provide some information about the situation.

"He was very sad and angry... ", she added quickly hoping that this would provide enough reasons to act. Then she realized that Rodney wasn't here.

"Where is he?", she asked the others her ears again raised up in feline attention and curiosity.

[Cole Mulvaney]

"It had a juvenile with it as well, That was the one we all actually saw."

[SalmonMax]

"Not to mention, it's been eating some of the local mice," Wally said indignantly. Then, realizing that that might seem a bit inconsequential, he added, "They're not ordinary mice, I mean. They're like us. They've got a big...town I guess, under the streets. I promised I'd help 'em out. Got some personal incentive as well."

[Ozzie Bloggs]

"Well Wally if you promised them, we need to follow through with that. So do we got any leads on where the crocs might be?"

[z-Penny Mann]

"Yeah, we know where their lair is," Penny said, grinning. "We left a camera there to spy on them - that's what we were talking about going and getting."

[SalmonMax]

Wally sidles over to Ozzy and says, "They're going to pay us to get rid of it, mate," sotto voce with a hand blocking his mouth. That doesn't help though, since even his whisper is clearly audible.

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole looks at Wally. "I'm not gonna ask." He nods. "Alright so we need to go ahead and check out the lair again, and go with everyone and take this thing down."

[Ramani]

Ramani perked up instantly paying full attention now that they were making plans to move and investigate the lair again.

“I’m ready to go.”, she eagerly said and nodded. “Don’t waste more time – we can talk on the way, ok?”

[Ira Sagebrush]

"Um, I hate to be the odd man out here, but why not just call Animal Control? Or email them a picture of it? Hard copy proof is more than enough to get the Blue involved without risk of becoming stuck between a croc's teeth...just sayin'" Dom said, shrugging his shoulders.

These people are crazy.

[SalmonMax]

Wally grinned at Dominic as if he'd just caught him in a joke. "Oy, c'mon. This critter's like us too. Seems like walking, talking animals are spilling out of the city's seams. Point is though, ordinary police folks would probably just get hurt...and the ones who might be able to stop it, the ones in black vans, aren't folks we want to invite around."

He nods at Ramani.

"Ay, let's go."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny exchanged worried glances with Randy, but she stood up anyway, shadowed after a moment by her friend. "We should at least check the camera, see what we have," she said, looked at Dominic. "That shouldn't be too risky. The little one ran from us last time, so it's probably ok."

[jameson (ST)]

Continues in The First Dark Clouds