KnightRaider

Later that evening.

Kelly was nervous. She'd rehearsed the song they wanted her to do several times, but she didn't really realize what a big deal it was until after she called Paragon City to tell folks she made it here alright. The story of what she did on the 405 had made CNN, super powered battles were relatively rare in LA (while in Paragon City, they were more covered as a delay on peoples commutes) The host of the show was really friendly, and asked if after the group did their song if he could interview her. She asked them, after all they did invite her out and she didn't want to intrude, but they thought it was a wonderful idea. So there she was in a makeup chair backstage on the Tonight Show, more terrified than the time Emperor Xanatos drug her along when he met with Lord Recluse back when she was just Lambchop. Taking a deep breath, she tried to relax. After all , they liked her singing enough to fly her all the way out here to fill in, and they were nice people. Just do like she did in rehearsal and it will be fine.
She didn't even know why they had to put makeup on her, she'd never worn it before, though three of the band had it worse than her, wearing blue greasepaint totally covering their faces, all dressed in identical grey jumpsuits. One of them tried to get her to relax, smearing a bit of blue on her nose. That got a giggle out of her, and an annoyed glare from the makeup artist who cleaned it off. “Five Minutes” came the producer, and then it was time.

The lights came on again signifying the end of the commercial break Jay Leno stood on stage as the red light went back on the cameras “We haven't had them here since back in 99, and they've really been on a roll since then. With shows in New York, Chicago, and now Vegas, plus two record selling Albums , and their How to be a Megastar tour they've been painting the town, well, blue. Ladies and genetlemen, Blue Man Group!”


the cameras switched as the curtain went up on the other part of the stage, as the band started their intro. It was the full set from their tour, complete with the drum wall and the screen overhead. As the intro went on the screen and over the speakers said “Rock Concert movement number 14. Bring out a suprise guest singer. Miss Kelly Lamb”

That was her cue. With one of the blue men escorting her she stepped on stage as he led her to the microphone. Just like they rehearsed, it was set several feet above her head. He comicly tried to bend it lower, then she just shrugged and hoverd up in reach of it, then started singing.





“All I see is not for me.
What I want you have not got.

Tried to use things you sold me, no matter what the cost
Tried to go the way you told me, but each time, I got lost
The stairs didn’t lead me anywhere!”


They were right, it was easier than she thought it would be. The lights made it hard to see the crowd, or the cameras. it was just her and the musicians as far as she could tell.


“I’m taking the fire escape up to the roof.
Don’t care if it’s not the way you find the truth.
Time to make this right: to rise above.”


Back in Paragon City the main base of the Defenders of Paragon was packed. Not for a meeting or an emergency..just because the wall monitor was the biggest screen they had. They sat in front of the montior, watching their teammate on national TV. “hope someone's recording this, she's pretty good” said Kozzma quietly as he watched.


“This room and all of you
Who say I should do like you would”


(not that she did what I said really) thought a very angry man. Emperor Xanatos had been randomly looking through the channels, finding his ex-lackey on national television. He unconciously rubbed the side of his jaw, rembering their last meeting in Sirens Call, where she had made it clear she was not a tool to be used anymore. This was live, but California was too far to get there fast enough. Still, he'd let this go too long...


“Tried to live the life you sold me, no matter what the cost.
Tried to walk the way you told me, but each time I got lost
The stairs didn’t lead me anywhere!”


Other eyes watched as well, in the Rogue Isles, technicians who routinely monitored mainland broadcasts for any mentions of the so called 'heroes' on Lord Recluses watch list recorded the performance. Luckily one thought their dread Lord wasn't watching this, he prefrered Letterman, though he would be angry enough when he saw the recording of the defector. One of them shuddered a bit at the thought, Lord Recluse was annoyed enough lately, she had a pretty voice, but he'd probably raise the price on her head so far after this both villians and her fellow heroes would hunt her down.


“I’m taking the fire escape up to the roof.
Don’t care if it’s not the way you find the truth
And when I get up that high, I don’t know what I’ll find
But I’d rather look at the sky than wonder why I let you take my time
Time to make this right: to rise above.”


As the music picked up she detached the mic from the stand and flew higher into the air, they had already planned that part and had cameras at the perfect angle as she hovered in front of the screen, close up shots of the Blue men playing behind her. It was not everyday they had a guest singer who could fly After all, might as well use it to it's full effect.


“I’m taking the fire escape up to the roof.
Don’t care if it’s not the way you find the truth
And when I get up that high, I don’t know what I’ll find
But I’d rather look at the sky than wonder why I let you take my time.
Time to make this right: to rise above.
Time to make this right: to rise above”


The song ended , and Kelly lightly landed on the stage, blushing at the cheers from the audience. The host was back on camera “We'll be right back after these messages” as they cut to a commerical.


((music, Blue Man Group, the Complex, Up to the Roof))

LAX, Los Angeles, California.


Kelly spent most of the flight pressed against the window. While she could fly herself, 3000 miles would take her a lot longer than flying on Delta, plus whoever got her the ticket was thoughtful enough to tell the airline that she needed a vegetarian meal. It was really neat seeing other parts of the country, she really wanted to go back to that big hole someday, Grand canyon the pilot called it when they flew over it. It was weird as they came into LA seeing a city without war walls surrounding it, though parts of it were still damaged from the Rikti war.

As the plane stopped at the gate she got her carry on, not really having enough to check baggage, wearing a pair of jeans and a blue and white shirt, and her red and yellow scarf. The terminal was packed, making it hard to maneuver through the crowd for someone of her size, her having hooves and ram horns evidently no weirder than anything else in LA. Finally in exasperation she jumped up, hovering over the crowds heads to see which way to go. Ignoring the looks she bypassed the masses heading to baggage claim, scooting overhead.


The driver from NBC held a sign with his passengers name on it. He was told he'd be able to recognize her, boy they weren't kidding he thought as she floated a full 3 feet over everyone else in the mass of humanity coming down the arrival escalators. Ten minutes later they were sitting in traffic on the way to the hotel. Traffic was snarled, up ahead he could see lights from CHP cars, accident or something maybe, the entire highway was stopped. He was pleasantly surprised, unlike many of his passengers she was actually friendly, nor did she want to sit in back with the divider up, instead riding up front with him. She was surprisingly easy to talk to as well, full of questions about the area.

“why is the traffic so bad? Don't they have trams out here?”

“We have a subway, and some rail, but people prefer their cars out here. It's more spread out than on the east coast.”

She thought about that “That's true. Plus you don't have clockwork taking your cars apart at night to make new robots like we do.”

“yeah, for some reason super crime isn't as bad-WOAH!” He ducked reflexively as something from up ahead threw a CHP cruiser, red and blue lights blinking crazily as the car soared overhead, impacting on the side of the road.

Kelly was already out the door “Stay here!” she said as he vainly protested, as she ran to the crumpled wreck. The cruiser was upside down, weak moaning coming from inside it. Reaching down she grabbed the frame, using that as a handle as she pulled it over on it's side, then on the wheels, setting it down gently. Ripping the roof off she found an unconscious trooper, one hand still clutching the radio microphone. As bystanders gathered round one wearing a hospital badge started checking on the injured officer. Narrowing her eyes she leapt into the air, the little lamb starting to glow visibly as she sped towards the commotion ahead.


Khem-Set was angry. Simple job, drive a truck of Dyne to LA, pick up a fat wad of cash, party hearty. But no..they got stopped for speeding, and the driver, a new kid who hadn't earned his metal yet (making it easy to blend in on the trip here while the rest rode in the trailer) got spooked when the cop approached and shot him. No matter, unlike back east, there weren't heroes covering every square inch of this city, so he and his crew didn't have to worry about real opposition. Bullets fired by the panicked cops bounced off of the freakshow tanks armor, his juicers and shockers making short work of the unlucky cops who stopped their truck.


Still, this was beautiful carnage, and it was even on film, news choppers circling the area. Tossing a CHP motorcycle at one he smirked as they darted clear. Nothing the California cops had could stop them! He'd have to suggest maybe moving operations west might not be a bad idea when he got back. They were about ready to get the truck moving when one of the enforcers yelled “#$% me! Cape inbou-”the last of his sentence was cut off with a thud as Kelly hit him so hard he went through the trailer, leaving a freak shaped hole in the side.

With a crunch and acrid smell Khem-Set knew of course he landed on the Dyne...close to a million dollars of the stuff. Turning he didn't see at first who had hit Lam3r, then looked down and blinked.

“aren't you a bit far from your scrapheap?” taunted Kelly. Freaks, she had enough problems with these back home. Khem-Set growled and raised one of his massive hammers, the tank charging “Take her down!”

She just smiled, and hit play on her iPod. As the freaks advanced she started singing, all the while shrugging off massive blows that should by all rights have drove her into the ground like a tent peg. {oh yeah, it was like lightening, everybody was frightening, and the music was soothing, and they all started grooving} She dodged a tesla cage from one of his stunner chiefs, then let fly a blow that knocked poor Hohmer out {and the man at the back said everyone attack, and it turned into a ballroom blitz}

Khem-Set didn't' know what annoyed him most, the fact that the little sheep was hitting through armor plate like it was tin foil, or her cheerful singing along with her music. He was down to one juicer and himself, the juicer tried to get some altitude to get her from above, but she simply flew up and literally swatted him out of the sky. “Dreck ain't paying me enough for this job” he thought as he turned, hoping he could grab a hostage or something in one of the cars.

As he started to run Kelly reached down and picked up a chunk of concrete from a broken slab, hurling it at the fleeing tank {And the girl in the corner said boy I'm gonna warn ya it'll turn into a barroom blitz, barroom blitz} The chunk hit Khem-Set right in the back of the noggin, leaving him splayed out unconscious on the hood of some poor couples Toyota Prius.

It took another hour to get out of there, after giving statements to the police, and waiting for something capable of holding the freaks. Fortunately despite the destruction no one was too seriously hurt, the worst being the cop in the cruiser that was thrown. Unlike Paragon City, the media wasn't used to things like this, and were almost in a frenzy wanting to talk to her. She answered as many of her questions as she could until her driver reminded her she had a deadline. With that she gave a wave and climbed back into the car, heading off for the studio.

Paragon City Dept of Probation office, Kings Row.


The dregs of society sat on a bench outside the office, waiting to check in. Skulls sat next to Hellions, who sat next to Warriors, all of course having stashed their jackets, masks and other things that would identify them as still being in the gang, cause after all that would violate the terms of their probation. They normally avoided each other, but today they sat clustered together as if trying to avoid the notice of the other person sitting on the other end of the bench, a short little sheep hybrid who would be lucky if she weighed 100 pounds sopping wet. It wasn't every day thought Timmy, also known as Marrowsnap, that you see the hero that put you in jail sitting next to you in the probation office .His jaw ached in memory of their last meeting months ago, and he did his best to avoid eye contact.

“NEXT!” barked the voice from inside the office, and to the relief of the thugs Kelly slipped off the bench, polished hooves clip clopping along the worn tile into the Probation officers office. Sighing with relief the hellion next to him shook his head “man, wonder what she's here for?”

Ron Franklin was tired of his job, everyone it seemed who came through here was just going through the motions, not willing to change their ways in the slightest. Some days he wondered why he bothered, it was just a revolving door throwing the scum back out on the streets. He had a couple cases though that did cheer him up, one of them walking into his office. Kelly Lamb probably wouldn't have even gotten probation if Longbow had anything to say about it, but she did plead guilty at her trial for the things she did while she was a villain. Mind control was a legitimate defense, and she could have gotten off, but the sheep hybrid was too honest for her own good sometimes. He smiled as she closed the door behind her, pulling her ever present iPod earphones out. “ Hey Kelly, heard they raised your security level again, congratulations.”

Kelly blushed at that “It no big deal, couldn't let those people be killed by the Silly hats.”

He chuckled “you know every time you call them that , the Circle of Thorn's blood pressure goes up another point.” Looking down at her file he made a note “how's your school coming?”

“Should finish with my GED in another month or so. Not bad for never being taught. There is something I need to ask though.”

“whats that?”

“I need permission to leave town for a couple days.”

He looked up at that. Arachnos had a sizable bounty on head. “the Rogue Isles, some mission there?”

“No, Burbank.”

“you mean, as in California?” He relaxed a bit at that, Arachnos didn't have much of a presence on the west coast “why are you going there?”

She blushed a bit “remember that producer that I recorded that song for? He works with a group that will be on a show there, their normal singer is having a baby, and he recommended me. They gave me plane tickets and everything.”

“Kelly, I don't have to worry about you.” He smiled “just call me when you get there, and each day like normal, and have a good time.”

She nodded and got to her feet “thank you!” she said, turning for the door.

“just one thing.”

“what that?”

“let me know what show and when, so I can set my Tivo to record it.”

She giggled and nodded, waving merrily as she headed out. Putting her folder away, he pulled out the next case, and went back to the scum.

[ QUOTE ]
Wow.... I didn't notice that... I noticed Muxley of course, but didn't cotton on to the rest.

[/ QUOTE ]

I diddn't either, but of course I noticed Muxley....

She was nervous, she'd never done this before with someone else, by her self yeah, but this was different. She shifted from one hoof to another “not thinking this is good, too big, it not going to fit.”

The male voice piped up reassuringly “don't worry, just relax, it will be ok.”

“no, it's too big!”

There was a crackle in the speakers “Can someone get her a different headset?” A sound tech opened the door to the recording booth and handed in a different style, one that looped behind the head. Kelly happily switched, these fitting much easier around the curving horns on either side of her face. “Much better, thank you!”



outside in the control booth the producer rolled his eyes, looking over at the person that brought the short sheep hybrid to the studio “why am I doing this again?”

“Because you owe me, and I owe her. If it hadn't been from her rescuing me in St Martial I wouldn't be here right now, and you wouldn't have another fat pile of checks to cash”

“huh, well that's true. So what made you think this up?”

The singer smiled “she sang while fighting the circle of thorns. I asked her why after she got me out of there and was taking me back to the Golden Giza, she said it was because she didn't like fighting , and it cheered her up.”

He grunted, cigar jutting out of one corner of his mouth “well we'll see.”


Inside the booth Kelly Lamb tried to ignore the musicians and the big microphone in front of her. She wasn't sure why she agreed to this either, but she did like music, it was one of the things that helped to break the control of her back when she was know in the Rogue Isles as Lambchop. “whenever your ready” said the guitar player. She nodded, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, easier if she didn't' see all the stuff around her. As the music started, she began to sing.

“Was it loneliness that brought you here
Broken and weak
Was it tiredness that made you sleep
Have you lost your will to speak
Was the earth spinning round
Were you falling through the ground, As the world came tumbling down
You prayed to God what have we done “


Outside the producer sat their open mouthed, his cigar falling onto the floor, this was definetly not what he expected. The short heroine had a sweet soft voice, that channeled the emotion of the lyrics. With a snerk the singer picked up the cigar before it started a fire “Told you she was good.”

“Free me from these chains, I need to change my way
Heal these broken wings, I need to fly far away, far away, far away “

Kelly was lost in memories as she sang, the last time this song had come up was in her last fight with Aurora, where she was already on the edge of rejecting the orders given to her by Emperor Xanatos and the others. Then this song came up on her iPod. The fight should have been pretty one sided, except she only managed to get a half hearted swing in at the heroine before collapsing on the sand, sobbing at all the things she'd been made to do. The Longbow troops were ready to just put her on a chopper to Paragon City, but Aurora stopped them, saying it had to be a choice she made, not yet another that was made for her. Her hunch paid off, two days later Lambchop showed up at the Siren's Call gate, hand full of bombs that Arachnos had told her to set that she instead disarmed, and turned herself in.

“Was it emptiness that made you weep
No more secrets to keep
Was it bitterness that gave you time
To forgive your sins
Was the earth spinning round
Were you falling through the ground
As the world came tumbling down
You prayed to God what have we done “

Her trial was short, her lawyer, paid for by Longbow, probably could have gotten her off totally. While she had destroyed much of their equipment and facilities, and caused a few , ok more than a few injuries, no one ever died, she'd always gotten everyone out before setting off the explosives, after all, she was commanded to destroy the base, they didn't say anything about the people inside. She plead guilty though, and was given a suspended sentence, with community service on top of that. Which meant more fighting, but she could live with that, being she was now helping people instead of hurting them.

“Free me from these chains I need to change my way
Heal these broken wings I need to fly far away “


The producer turned to the recording engineer “We're recording this right!?” as he nodded he leaned back, cigar back in his mouth “you were right, this girl is damn good. Plus, i could probably get 40, maybe 50 percent on top!”


She was lost in the music now, not even noticing the band as they played. Her wings were healed, and she had flown far away. Shed' always felt a little on edge ever since defecting from the Rogue Isles, but now, in the studio, for the first time, she felt really free.

“Free me from these thoughts long forgotten down below
Take these angel's words give them life to carry on, carry on, carry on
Free me from these chains... “

The singer smirked “don't let her mannerisms fool you, she's smarter than she looks , just hasn't had any formal schooling. Besides, do you really want to cheat someone who could easily bench press your BMW without breaking a sweat?”

“er, like I said, standard 10 percent contract!”

“thats what I thought.”



((song is Spinning, by Zero 7. highly nifty band more of their stuff at http://www.zero7.co.uk/ ))

Rhonda stood fuming at the check in counter. Oh she wasn't upset about being there, she had finally been stable long enough that Dr. Majias thought it would be safe for her to leave Paragon City for a short time, without the biweekly trips to the genetic restabilizer in order to realign her rebellious DNA that kept trying to unravel on her. She was going back home, back to Florida. Oh she had to carry a couple pounds of medical gear with her, genetic analyzer, and a prototype portable restabilizer incase it dipped below 80 percent stable, but that was minor. She hadn't been home since the incident that gave her her powers, and took away her normal life. Looking down at the tag hanging on a lanyard around her neck however was the only fly in the ointment. She'd battled Dr. Vhazilok, fought giant monsters menacing the city, rescued people from certain death, and even went along with some other heroes to another earth to battle Tyrant!

But still...according to Delta Airlines, she was an unaccompanied minor...and had to have supervision until she and her brother were delivered safely to their grandparents at the Tallahassee airport. She sighed looking out the window, the airport was far enough outside of the city that only the top of the warwalls protecting it (or the rest of the country from Paragon City) could be seen in the distance. Her parents were using the chance to be rid of their kids for a week as a chance to take a trip to Hawaii, which meant unfortunately that the other bane of her existence was sitting five feet away, her little brother Jake. At least he had his own friends he was looking forwards to seeing at home, so shouldn't be in her hair too much. In theory anyway. He was currently absorbed in some video game on his GameBoy, she didn't get much into them herself, usually the last thing she wanted after coming home was more excitement. They had arrived a bit late for their flight due to school, getting out during the school year was usually hard but exceptions were allowed at times, they both had homework with them to keep them up to speed. Usually unaccompanied kids like them boarded first, but after a moment with their Delta chaperone checking them in they were heading down the jetway. A few folks stared at her, it 's not like she had a secret identity or anything, rather impossible in her case. As they stepped onto the 757, their agent checked in with the stewardess to see where their seats were. Rhonda knew already, row 50 something back towards the tail. As she waited for the aisle to clear she noticed a man in his late 30's in first class staring at her. Starting to head back towards their seats in the cheap section the man spoke up.

"Excuse me, but aren't you Polekitty?"

Rhonda was glad the black fur covering her kept her from obviously blushing, as she nodded "uh, yeah Ah am."

He smiled "you probably don't remember me, but a few weeks ago there was a law office in Talos Island that was being attacked by those Council goons."

Her face brightened as she remembered "That's right, you had two of those warwolves pinning you in your office when we got there"

He nodded as he stood up, turning to the stewardess "they can have our seats Ma'am, we'll sit in back instead."

Rhonda started to protest when he held up his hand

"no, if it wasn't for what you and your friends did, my partner and i would have been dead. the least we can do is let you have our seats." With that the two lawyers got their carryons and swapped boarding cards with the flight attendant, heading towards the back. Rhonda tried to slink down in the very comfortable first class seat as the rest of the passengers boarded, embarrassed by the attention. Jake on the other hand immediately started playing with the built in DVD viewer and all the other fancy features of the seat.

"wow, that was pretty cool, getting these seats. you need to save rich lawyers more often-oww! what was that for?" he grumped as he rubbed his rib where her elbow had jabbed him good.

"For being a doofus. now put your seat belt on."

He grumbled but complied, his ferret like attention soon captured by watching the ground crew out the window. Glancing at her watch she sighed, 3 hours to Atlanta, hour there, and another hour and a half to Tallahassee she had to put up with him till their grandparents picked them up. It was gonna be a long trip.

He may have had the best sense of humor, but Statesman hit poor little Lambchop so hard it knocked her and the computer out, locked up and had to reboot! Guess my system conned as grey to him too.

Does anyone handicap their characters? for instance, i've got one, October Storm. He's a blaster, but i never use the sprint power with him..meaning it takes longer to get anywhere, afterall he is 76 years old. Another one, Rachelle, has amnesia brought on by watching her father being torn apart by 5th Column wolfpack robots, so far she hasn't run into any of the Nazi wanabee's, but if she did she'd either run away screaming, go cataonic, or scream and just run in hitting with her fists like she was a tanker or something (all good ways to earn her a trip to the hospital, but good for RP purposes) Anyone else do something like this?

Rachelle (last name unkown)
Rachelle doesn't know much about her past. She doesn't know that her 'father' was a genetics researcher for the 5th column, working on a program to create superpowered troopers. The program was canceled due to shifting priorities (and the head of the genetics program meeting a rather nasty end by a bunch of hero's) When the order came to destroy the products of the program, her father had his first pangs of concince, instead killing his superior and fleeing with the last child and a good portion of the Nazi's money. Raising her as his daughter, she led a sheltered life, well educated (being raised by a mad scientist afterall) but not very knowledgable about the world. Her father was tricked into returning to Paragon City, where he heroicly gave his life attempting to save her from the attacking 5th Column wolfpack robots. It would have been in vain, had it not been for two hero's who were following the mechanical monsters, Garael Morden, and the Disco Avenger. Defeating the mechs, they carried the unconcious Rachelle to Garael's apartment. The trauma of the event blocked out most of her memory however, and the lack of the weekly medications her father gave her to supress her powers started to make them emerge...something the 5th column would be quite intrested in if they knew that her fathers experiments actualy worked.

(ooc note. she has not run into any 5th column yet..and if she does she might run away screaming without knowing why, or go cataonic, or run in swinging her fist and screaming (not real smart when you're a blaster). yeah it might get her beat up and waking up in the hospital..but it's good for rp)