Mariel_Martog

(( as originally posted by Snowdog ))

Delta flight 231, PAR to ATL

Rachelle hated flying. Oh she didn't mind it when she was the one doing the flying, either in a piper cub in the Alaskan bush, or flying herself. But the security theater that went with boarding a commercial aircraft anymore really grated on her. True, she could have flashed her FBSA ID card, which technically said she was a law enforcement officer, but that would attract attention. And looking at the new broadcast on the tiny screen in the seat back in front of her, that would probably not be a good thing. They were after everyone, her included probably. If she hadn't booked the early flight out of Paragon City to go down to Atlanta to meet with CDC reps about the research she was supposed to be doing for them with the federal grant..they'd have probably arrested her too. Or tried to. Whoever was behind it, knew enough about them that she wasn't one of the ones shown in the fake videos committing crimes. Especially since for the last few months she's been in a half dozen conferences across the country, one international conference, and a trip to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize ceremony. Not that she got one, but it was still nice to be nominated, plus Sweden was lovely that time of year.

No, they wanted her for 'questioning'. Not that she could tell them much, she'd spent the last six months at least either in her lab, in the field, or in front of committees, all with lots of witnesses. Still, she was certain that there would be someone waiting for her when the plane touched down in Atlanta, and once in custody, it would be a matter of time until things got worse. She felt her ears pop as the plane started to begin its decent towards the Atlanta area. It was a typical Georgia late summer day, the clouds heavy with moisture, the promise of a drenching storm. She could work with that, but not from her seat. The fasten seat belt sign was still out, but they were descending through twenty thousand feet, she didn't have much time she thought as she made her way back to the aft lavatory. She'd never tried something like this, oh she'd manipulated weather on this large a scale before...but that was when under the mental domination of Pangs. Now? She'd have to do it herself..without alerting or endangering the flight. She braced herself against the bathroom door, hands out in front of her, eyes closed...feeling the air currents, the electrical charges in the clouds....



Gate B23, Hartsfield Airport Atlanta

The uniformed Longbow squad drew a large amount of attention. Flight 231 was eighty miles out, due on the ground in less than 20 minutes, and all they knew is there was a person on board wanted for questioning about a super powered terrorist spree in Paragon City. So they weren't taking any chances, part of the terminal having been evacuated. The Atlanta police captain in charge of the airport police force was in the middle of a shouting match with the longbow commander when the terminal suddenly shook, the sky outside going from a threatening overcast, to ominous black, lighting crashing down around the area. Lightning warning lights went red as the ground crews scrambled indoors, the airport having put the system in after losing several ground crew during a storm.

“what do those red lights mean?

The police captain just shrugged, looking out at the now howling winds, rain coming down in sheets “it means we're closed.”

“what do you mean closed? WE have a suspect to arrest!”

“I mean closed. No one's gonna be landing here for a while, and depending on their fuel...”

Flight 231

There was an audible groan from the passengers when the captain came on the PA as Snowdog left the lavatory. Bad weather rolled in suddenly, not unexpected for Georgia this time of year..but with their fuel state, they were diverting to their alternate, where they would refuel and continue onto Atlanta when the weather cleared. She just nodded to the flight attendant as he went down the aisle in the bouncing aircraft as they turned off towards the southwest towards Dothan Alabama. Not where she wanted to be..but she could work with that. One thing at a time.

(( As originally posted by Sareini ))

The Longbow Task Force given the job of bringing in the Guardian Angels were not having a good day. Of all their attempts to arrest members so far, none had been successful, and several had incurred casualties. But at that point, the small team of officers in Atlas Park were wishing they had been one of the less successful teams rather than the one they were on.

“Sarge... this doesn’t seem right,” one of the team said to his commander.

“We have our orders, Ross,” his Sargent replied, although if he was honest he didn’t feel very comfortable with this himself. “We’re to bring in all active members of the Guardian Angels.”

“Yeah, but Sarge... she’s just a kid.”

The team were watching their target in a park. The target, dressed in a school uniform, a pink and purple striped scarf and a pair of earmuffs, was playing on the swings and singing a song about Barbies. At that point, almost the entire team would rather have been on the team sent to bring in the vampire. Or possibly just jumped into Lusca’s tentacle range and hoped for the best.

The team leader stood up, took a deep breath, and steeled himself for what he was going to do. Maybe things would work out alright in the end, he thought. Maybe the kid would have nothing to do with all this and they could get her into foster care or something. “Move in,” he ordered.

***

Imagika stopped swinging when she saw the Longbow officers coming towards her, and jumped off the swing in mid-air to land in front of them. She smiled brightly at them. “Hi there!” she chirped. “Have you come to play with me?”

“Um, no Miss... Imagika,” the one who looked like he was in charge said. He looked serious, and maybe a little sad. “You need to come with us now.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to ask you some questions about things you and your... teammates have been doing.”

“Oh, I’m good at answering questions! Why?”

“Because... your teammates have been doing bad things.”

Imagika frowned. “No they haven’t,” she told the Longbow team. “Only the bad people do bad things. Mr. Fenix and Mr. James and Miss Caios and Miss Maggie and Schrodi who I love to give hugs to and... Miss Stern are good people.” She giggled. “You’re silly.”

The serious-looking Longbow officer sighed. “Now, don’t be difficult,” he told her. “You need to come with us, or...” He gestured to the other members of the team, “we’ll have to make you come with us. Do you understand?”

Now Imagika scowled at the Longbow team. “I’m not to go with anyone who wants to make me go with them,” she said, putting her hands on her hips and looking like the world’s angriest seven-year-old. “I don’t think you’re good people at all. I think you’re bad people dressed up as Longbow!”

The Longbow team had just enough time to consider raising their weapons before a trio of glowing pink figures appeared around them and started to power up attacks of their own. And then the world seemed to go very, very strange. And pink.

***

There was a ‘pop’, and Imagika appeared in the Guardian Angels base, surrounded in a pink bubble and completely unharmed. The bubble faded away and she started to skip down the corridor, not noticing at first that only the emergency lights were on, and even they were flickering.

“Hel-lo?” she called out, peering into a few rooms as she passed them. “Are we playing hide-and-seek? I’m good at that game, I’ll find you all!”

“Hello?” a digitized voice called back from the main computer room. “Who’s that- Oh, great. Of all the people to make it back here, it has to be the little imaginary girl...”

Imagika grinned. “Mr Fenix! I’m gonna find you!” She ran down the corridors into the computer room, where she found a holographic image of Fenix standing in front of the data servers and working frantically on an equally holographic keyboard. Imagika watched him for a few moments. “What’cha doing?”

“I’m trying to encrypt our databanks before the Longbow forensic computing team get through the last of my firewalls,” Fenix told her absently. “Not to mention keeping them occupied with a few virus spikes of my own, trying to trace back those videos to their sources and decode them to try and find out what’s going on and- Hey, don’t do that!” Imagika was waving her hand through his torso and giggling.

“Why?”

“Because it hurts.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Imagika went to try to hug Fenix, but stopped as she remembered he was essentially not there. The she remembered why she was there. “Bad Longbow men tried to kidnap me!”

“They’ve been trying to grab us all morning, kid,” Fenix told her. “They’ve got us on some trumped-up charges and until we get to the bottom of them we’re all on the run. You’d better make yourself scarce until you hear from one of us.”

“What does that mean?”

“...you have to go play hide-and-seek and one of us will find you.”

“Oh. Okay!” Imagika turned to leave, but something stopped her. “Are you going to hide too?”

“I can’t,” Fenix told her. “They cut the T1 lines to the base, as well as most of the power. I can’t get out of here unless I get those lines back up soon. But I’m damn well not going to make it easy for them to get me, even if they do get in here.”

“Are you going to hide in the computer?”

“Yeah, and encrypt so many viiri around me that they won’t know what hit them.”

“But... what if they take the computer with them and take it apart? Won’t they find you?”

The two of them, imaginary friend given form and holographic machine ghost, thought about that in silence for a few moments. Then suddenly Fenix stopped what he was doing, the holographic keyboard vanishing without a sound. Imagika squeeled, impressed.

“Okay kid, here’s what we’re going to do. I need you to find me a laptop from one of the offices, and a USB drive. Can you do that?”

Imagika nodded. “I can do that! Uhh... what’s a yooo-ess-bee drive?”

Fenix sighed. This was going to be a long ten minutes.

(( As originally posted by Caios ))

Caios took careful aim at the target in front of her. Guiding the weapon in her hand with unnatural agility she focused solely on the task at hand. It would be but a gentle push for someone like her to make the shot. A quick thrust and the white ball took off towards the number 4 ball. It was with no small amount of mirth that Caios watched the colored ball roll towards the side of the table and fall neatly into the hole. Before she could celebrate however she saw the white ball spin slowly but surely into the corner pocket, falling in with a playful bump as if to mock her.

It was official, Caios decided, she sucked at pool. When it came to games to play this one was just not her thing for whatever reason. Oh well, at least she could kill with darts. Both literally and figuratively. Plus it wasn't like there was anyone else to play with in this dive. With a disappointed grunt she set the pool cue on the table and walked back to the bar. When she sat down the bartender set a bottle of whiskey in front of her which she immediately opened and began to drink from quietly.

She hated waiting, it was something vampires had to do way too much of in their unlives.

"Can I get you anything else?" The bartender asked nervously.

Caios looked up at him with piercing blue eyes that completely unnerved the man before saying, "You already called the cops. Right?"

It wasn't a question, the bartender could only nod dumbly in response.

"Then you've done enough for me, thanks." It was hard to say if Caios was being sarcastic at the moment. Surprisingly she reached in to her coat pocket and pulled out a large stack of one hundred dollar bills, setting it on the table in front of the bartender.

"What's this?" the bartender finally managed to blurt out through his shock.

"No, it's not money from the Steel Canyon robbery." Caios answered the silent question, "You can check the serial numbers with the bank if you want. This belongs to a bunch of stupid rich girls who thought it'd be a good idea to join the Carnival. It's a long story, and quite frankly I couldn't care less if you believe me or not."

"But... why are you giving it to me?" The bartender asked.

"You own this dive right?" Caios replied, the bartender once again could only nod dumbly under Caios's gaze, "Then you'll need that to pay for damages."

"What damages?"

As if on cue, the doors to the bar opened wide and the entire room was quickly filled wall to wall with all manner of PPD units and officers, even a couple of mechs. Mixed among them were several Longbow operatives sent in to assist the capture. Every single PPD and Longbow personnel in that bar was surrounding the vampire, and all of them had guns currently pointed at her head.

Caios just continued to drink her whiskey quietly. " 'bout goddammed time you boys showed up here."

"Hold your FIRE!" a strong voice called out. "Nobody make any moves and relax your trigger fingers." From the mass of police a single detective made his way through reaching up to the bar. He took one look at Caios and let go a deep heavy sigh. Reaching for a stool next to her he set his hat down on the bar and sat down.

"Jesus Caios, what the **** did you people get into this time?" the detective asked.

"And a good evening to you too Detective Lacceter." Caios said, "It's nice to run into you, haven't seen you around much after you got promoted out of your Kings Row beat. Say you remember the time I saved your skinny *** from that Skulls raid? Man those were the days." She was definitely being sarcastic this time.

"Yeah, nice to see you too Fangs." Very few people could call Caios that and get away with it. Lacceter wasn't one of them, but he had done Caios a favor once for someone who could. It was his not so subtle reminder that she owned him one.

"I'm here, aren't I?" Caios shot back, "We both know those videos are total horseshit, so don't you dare try to play it against me."

"Yeah, I figured as much," Detective Lacceter said sourly, "But right now the evidence is pretty damning. Your best bet is to come in, quietly, and let us sort all of this out."

"You know I can't do that. Why do you even ask?" Caios told him.

"You can, you just won't." Lacceter corrected her. "But I'm gonna ask you regardless, cause that's the right way to do things. Caios, we have a warrent for your arrest. If you run you're only gonna make things worse."

"No." Caios said simply.

"Look around you." Lacceter said as he waved to the army of police and Longbow still training their guns at her. "We're not really giving you much choice here. Even if you get out of this building there's a small army of Longbow outside just waiting to take you out."

"I think it's cute how you still think you all can stop me." Caios smiled at him, "But the answer is still no. I'm not running, but I'm sure as hell not turning myself in. Whoever's pulling the strings on this can play the system like a fiddle. I go in and there's no telling if I'm ever coming out. There's way too many people who need me right now for that."

"If you do that there's no way you'll be able to beat the charges against you." the Detective suggested.

"I don't have to beat the charges," Caios shrugged, "I only have to outlive them. Ridiculously easy for me." She looked back at the detective, "This ain't my first rodeo you know."

"Look I'm trying to help you here!"

"If you want to help then find out what the hell's really going on!" Caios interrupted him. "Till then you can do me, and yourself, a favor. Actually two."

"Oh this should be good." Lacceter frowned, "Alright, what are you demands?"

Caios glared at him for a moment before grabbing the whiskey bottle - slowly enough so the men with guns didn't get too nervous - put the cap back on tightly, and handed it over to the detective. "First hold on to this, it's actually pretty good, and I'm hoping we can share a drink once this is all over. If not, well, I'd hate to see such good whiskey go to waste."

"Heh, alright." Lacceter said as he took hold of the bottle, "And what's the second thing?"

Caios just smiled at him for a second before saying, "Get down, stay down, and watch you head. This will all be over in a minute."


Mere moments later a dull explosion heralded Caios's appearance back onto the street and she burst forth from the bar through a rather large hole in the roof and into the air. In her fist she held the battered police mech she had used to literally punch a hole through which to escape. While in midair, the vampire twisted her body, turning sharply in order to toss the ruined mech back down at the street, directly into one of the nearby Longbow Helicopters. The resulting explosion knocked most of the Longbow on the street to ground.

On the other side of the street Caios landed nimbly on top of a two story building, allowing her to duck behind cover to avoid the hail of gunfire Longbow was sending her way.

"Caios of the Guardian Angels!" One of the Longbow Wardens on the street was yelling at her, "You're under arrest under the authority of the Longbow Task Force."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Caios yelled back, immediately she ducked back behind cover and cringed. Actually she had done plenty wrong, just not all that recently, and certainly not what they were accusing her of.

"You're assaulting Police and Longbow Officers!" the Warden reminded her. Alright there was that, but other then that she had done nothing else wrong. Recently.

"Then stop shooting me!" Caios yelled back in frustration.

"We will never stop trying to apprehend you." The Warden shot back. This bothered Caios, not because she particularly cared that they were shooting at her, but because if they continued shooting like mad they were bound to end up hurting some innocent bystander. Caios knew it was part of their training, against a high enough level threat - like herself - Longbow was authorized to used deadly force.

"Alright, you leave me no choice then." Caios told the Warden.

"Finally, I knew you'd listen to reason." The Warden smiled. He was still smiling when Caios suddenly appeared in front of him. It would be some time later before he would realize that the vampire had simply moved from the rooftop to him in the blink of an eye. The last thing he remembered seeing was Caios getting ready to punch him in the face.


A few minutes later Detective Lacceter managed to pull himself out of the wreckage of the bar and onto the street. As he looked up he was momentarily shocked to see the entire force of Longbow operatives had been defeated, laying in all various manner of unconsciousness across the street. Some where even hanging from the lamppost or sticking out of the second story window across the street. One of their helicopters had been blown up, the other had simply been ripped apart.

In the midst of it all Caios stood unphased, with a Longbow rifle in her hand. It had been completely bent out of shape and battered into submission. From the way Caios was holding it by the barrel it wasn't hard to guess she had been using it as a club. The detective let out another sigh realizing he should not have been surprised by this outcome.

Turning around Caios looked back at the detective and merely shrugged at him, "They started it."

"I'm sure that will hold up just great in a courtroom." Lacceter said.

"I don't care." Caios said frowning as she dropped the rifle to the ground, "Frankly I'm sick of all this ********. I'm tired of constantly having to dot every ******* 'i' and cross ever ******* 't' just to be allowed to do **** half ***** all the time. I'm done playing nice." She looked back at the detective and added, "If you still want to arrest me, go ahead. I'll even do you a solid and knock you out painlessly so you don't get in trouble."

"That's alright." the detective waved his hand, "After this whole mess I don't think anyone will have a hard time believing you got away from me."

"Good. I really didn't want to have to hit you too." Caios smiled, "It was really nice getting to chat, we should do this again. Only bring less guns next time." She knelt slightly before suddenly leaping into the air, and just like that she was gone.


Sometime later Caios was sitting on the edge of the roof of one of the tallest buildings in Steel Canyon. She was listening in through the radio she had taken off the Longbow Warden. Predictably, things were bad. They were going after everyone, even bringing in reinforcements from all over the city and Rogue Isles. Most recently they tried to take James from the University, but that was over half an hour ago, before she came to Steel Canyon herself. He'd be long gone by now, as were most everyone they had tried to apprehend so far.

Fortunately they had not yet managed to capture anyone. Good.

Caios took out her cell phone in order to try and setup some form of contact. The normal communication lines were out, they were jamming all known Guardian Angels channels. However they couldn't jam everything.

"Pfft, amateurs." Caios activated a few custom built apps on her phone and was soon able to hack into a completely separate satellite network. She knew this network was secure, not to mention completely untraceable, particularly since the satellite she was connecting to didn't officially exist.

She was gonna owe Hammond big time after this one.

She quickly began trying to see who she could connect to. They would have to go somewhere outside the normal networks to avoid being jammed so it would probably take a while. To her surprise she found a waiting message in a private network she barely even remembered.

<< NOT DEAD YET. FIND ME AT HERA'S VACATION SPOT. BRING CLOTHES. WTF IS GOING ON? -MES. >>

Caios frowned for a moment, thinking 'Who the hell is Hera?' It was probably something she should have known, or at least known what she was referring to, but she was never one for codes. Subtlety was never her strong skill. Also, why the hell did she need to bring clothes?

It didn't matter, at least they could communicate now. She sent back a reply to that text, as well as sending the same text message to any of the Angels she could think of:

<< GOT SECURE LINE. SAFE TO TALK. TEXT ONLY. SAFER THAT WAY. MUST MEET UP. WTF IS HERA? -C >>

(( as originally posted by Snowdog ))

Peregrine Island

The Longbow Warden cursed to himself as he walked towards the main door to Portal Corp. The first few take down attempts had gone badly. Very badly, not a single prisoner to show for it, and this one...well it was rumored that Dr Michelle Schrodinger , AKA Schrodi, dabbled with reality the way others may dabble with finger paints. In the field of exotic physics , she was right up there with Positron and some dude named Gordon out west according to their database. He had wanted to go in with just a small team, himself and a PPD officer, being that legally Longbow wasn't allowed to make arrests in the United States-the fewer people, the less risk. But he'd been overruled, a full company shipped back from the rogue isles. The air was heavy with the sound of the rotors as they fast roped down , the courtyard at portal corp not big enough for more than one or two to land.

He looked around and found the PPD officers send to do the actual arrest. Technically, Captain Spangler had them on a bit of thin ice here-if for some reason, the charges against the Guardian Angels turned out to be false, well it was against Longbow's charter to make arrests or perform law enforcement duties in the United States. They could assist..but not take the lead. Right now they had the political backing, but that could evaporate quickly if things went pear shaped. He had been along on a previous raid against one of this groups members, one that had blown up in Longbow's face, though honestly, that was more the former Lt Kadish's not following the rules and jumping to conclusions. Now he was in charge of this mission, and was NOT going to make the same mistakes. If they were wrong, the court would sort it out, but his troops would follow the law, and if the Captain didn't like it, tough.

Nodding to the Detective, he had his people fall in behind them, as they entered the entrance to the building, other troops and PPD sealing the area. The receptionist didn't' even look surprised, though the names of the wanted renegade heroes had been all over the news “Welcome to Portal Corp, gateway to the Future! Can I help you?”

“Detective Blake, PPD, We have a warrant for the arrest of Michelle Schrodinger.”

Portal Bay 17

It was louder than she'd thought it would be, the very sub atomic particles of the universe being pulled apart by the colossal machine as Dr Michelle Schrodinger stepped through. Still, the apparatus looked the same as the one she had left under Neuropolis. The Resistance had sent her to Primal Earth to both help them, and help themselves in the fight against Tyrant. Supposedly he was here too, but more benign. She wasn't sure to think about that, but odds are, there were a lot of duplicates here of folks she knew. And one of herself. She'd actually talked with her counterpart before crossing over, this universes Michelle Schrodinger going by the nickname schrodi, was able to port through dimensions as she could herself. Still there were differences, the Heisenberg principle pretty much guaranteed that, but she was looking forward to finally working with the equipment her other self had, and with herself as well.

Strangely the bay was empty, except for one man. Tall, dark short hair with a widows peak, and a gaunt almost skull like face, wearing a cheap suit and carrying a briefcase for some reason .

“Good afTERnoon Dr schroDINger. We have been exPecting you. “

“Uh thanks, where's Schrodi? I thought she would meet me.”, wondering about this guys weird accent. But then most of the resistance she'd found were harder to comprehend.

“Dr schroDINger had a late meeting, if you take the elevator there, you will be taken, to where you are needed in the lobby.”

She was wary-but then this was primal earth. No Praetors here, and she had been invited. “thanks “ she said as she boarded the elevator.


As the doors closed the strange man smiled “The right cat in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world...”

“what the heck does that mean? “she muttered as the elevator went up, grimacing at the muzak in the elevator. It may be another universe...but they still had Burt Bacharach.



The detectives were still arguing with the receptionist about the validty of their warrants and security clearances when the elevator dinged. Everyone automatically glanced towards it, then there was the sound of dozens of weapons being drawn It was her the Warden though-though wait, something wasn't right. She didn't have a cyborg arm...the hair was different...he started to open his mouth when someone , even before he could say 'you're under arrest' opened fire.

She blinked, she'd seen the Longbow uniforms before, but not this version of the PPD. As the shot rang out over her head she growled, tail thrashing behind her“you wanna chomp badgers? Fine, if you wanna get it polar-bear style without the syrup, it's fight'o clock!”



several hours later

he had prepared. He'd outfitted his team with goggles that would see through Shrodi's quantum illusions. But there was nothing about gravity going haywire, about her pulling objects out of a hole in space-time, and hurling them at his people. He watched the PPD get bowled over by a flying forklift, watched energy blasts blow holes in the wall, followed by panic and firing from outside. An entire company-and she got away. Two helicopters were lost, one knocked out of the air by a statue, another crushed as if gravity reached out and squeezed it like a beer can. The worst injuries were the burns from the helicopter crew-crew that she had paused to rip out of the burning aircraft, before vanishing, teleported to who knows where. Other than that, minor injuries was it, he himself had a broken arm, but he'd had wore. The press was going to have a field day with this, they were 0 for three with apprehending the Guardian Angels. Odder still was the phone call he received ten minutes after arriving at the hospital., odd enough for him head back as soon as he could break free, catching a cab from the hospital back to Portal Corp.

The man who met him was still in college, an intern. He stood in the hallway in the lower levels of Portal corp, frowning as he looked into the office. Not two hours ago he'd seen her ripping through combat ready troops-yet... “she's been here how long?”

“She's been out cold for about 20 hours now. She tends to work ridiculously long hours when she's got a project going, then crash for a day or three afterwards.” He looked sheepish “I was supposed to wake her when all this blew up, she was supposed to meet her analog from Praetorian earth...”

He peered closer at the sleeping physicist, curled up on the back of the couch in her office like a larger version of his daughters cat. It was the same face he saw earlier this afternoon-but longer hair, and two arms instead of one. “I think I met her...let me guess she worked with the Resistance there? Well this does explain a few things.”

“so what now, are you still going to arrest her?”

“no...if this is one of Tyrant's plots to destabilize things on this side, better to keep her here. You say she probably won't wake up for a while?”

“probably not.”

the Warden nodded “keep her here if you can, I've got to go check on a few things. Thanks” Once back outside and able to get a signal, he could inform Captain Spangler.



Malta listening post, somewhere in Talos island

“intresting theory, you say security at portal corp verified she hasn't left her office in almost 24 hours? Well then, come by headquarters, we'll go over it in my office. Yes, I know these are supposed to be encrypted, but I prefer face to face. Right, see you soon.”

The Gunslinger nodded to the analyst as the tape cut off “your right. This could be a problem...”

(( as originally posted by Sareini ))

His first class of the day was Abnormal Psychology, which James found particularly easy because it seemed that he had suffered though, or thought to have had, most of the disorders they were covering in the class. So he was just settling down to two hours of paying just enough attention to make the occasional note when he felt... something on the edges of his mind. Thoughts focused on him, and not in a good way. He looked around the lecture hall, trying to work out what the problem was, but he couldn’t see anyone who looked like they were angry at him. Most of his fellow students seemed to be fighting to stay awake if nothing else.

Then the doors opened, and the group of Longbow and police walked in. This woke a lot of the students up, and the professor stopped his talk on the symptoms of drug-induced schitzophrenia and glared at the newcomers. The warden obviously in charge of the group went up to him before he could start demanding to know what was going on, and the two exchanged a few quiet words. At one point the professor nodded and looked up at James, even pointing for emphasis.

James didn’t need to know what they were saying. He didn’t even need to hear when the Warden stood back and announced, “James Walker, otherwise known as the Guardian Angel Psychist, please come with us. We don’t want there to be any trouble here,” He could see it in their minds.

Armed robbery... drug trafficking... extortion...

Everyone was looking at him now, thinking at him. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to just run, but James knew he couldn’t do that. If he ran while surrounded by people, the Longbow would most likely just open fire and blame the collateral damage on him. His best bet was to just get outside and then get the hell out of there. Or maybe try to find out what was going on... no, that was never going to work...

He stood up slowly, and started to gather his notebook and pen to take with him. “Please keep your hands where we can see them, Mr Walker,” the Warden ordered him brusquely, “and don’t make any sudden moves.” James thought that was a pretty stupid thing to say to a psi. Didn’t they realise that he didn’t need his hands?

Then he felt something else. A pressure on the edges of his mind, trying to force its way in. James concentrated for a moment, and heard what was almost a whisper easing its way into his head: Just come with us. You don’t want to fight. You’re calm and subdued.

For a second, he almost listened to the whisper.Then something snapped back in his mind, and he pulled his shields up, hard.

“Stay out of my head,” he told the Longbow, glaring.

Surprisingly enough, it was the police officers who reacted to this. A couple of them immediately pulled their weapons, pointing them at James and causing more than a few startled cries and shouts from the students. James suddenly found himself in a growing space, as people quickly moved to get the hell away from him. The Longbow Warden turned to the police, about to tell them to lower their weapons - and James took the opportunity. He leapt the two rows of seats in front of him, adrenaline pumping now, and hit the aisle at a sprint, meaning to dodge around the Longbow and get out of the lecture hall. Running down the long corridor after that would be a danger, but he hoped that he would have enough of a headstart on them that they wouldn’t react in time to get to the large window at the ed of the corridor. Hop through that, and he was out in the open where he could just fly away and hopefully they hadn’t planned on that by having an Eagle squad or something waiting for him...

Now people were shouting, screaming and swearing, and quite a lot of it was aimed at him James just kept his head down, focusing on getting out of the lecture hall and nothing else-

There was a loud pop from somewhere to his left, and suddenly James felt like he’d been punched hard in the upper arm. He lost his footing and tumbled to the floor, even as his upper arm stung terribly for a moment and then started to feel both numb and... wet. Confused, he looked at it... and saw the neat hole in his sleeve, with the surrounding area starting to turn a dark red colour.

“Cease fire!” the Warden yelled. “We have civilians here!” Not that they were going to be there for much longer at that point, as now people were running screaming for the exits. James grabbed his arm, which was now starting to hurt again, and pretty sharply at that, and squeezed hard in an attempt to slow the bleeding. At the same time, he felt the pressure on the edges of his mind again, trying to just brute force its way through his shields now to shut his mind down. He could pick up images of white walls from it, which were obviously supposed to be calming as well as a way to ‘contain’ his conscious mind so they could take him in with no more trouble.

They were trying to lock him up again.

James acted on instinct. He spun around to face the Longbow and police who were starting to approach, and his eyes fixed on one officer near the back - a dark-haired woman in a trenchcoat who seemed somewhat... distant. Psi-cop. James focused everything on her, and sent a massive psionic push at her. “Stay. Out. Of. My. Head!” he growled, sending the words to her telepathically at the same time for emphasis.

The woman flew backwards as though she had been hit by a car. Her eyes widened in shock for a brief moment, before she hit the wall behind her with a crack and slumped to the ground, unconscious. Blood trickled from her nose and her ears.

Everyone stopped for a moment in shock. James realised what he had done, and his first instinct was to try to check on the woman to see if she was okay. He hadn’t meant to hit her that hard! But the moment he tried to pick himself up and take a step towards her, weapons were charged up and levelled at him,and he realised that he didn’t have any options left any more.

“Guess we’re adding assault of a police officer to the charges,” one of the Longbow officers said grimly, pointing his rifle at James’ head. James closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and trying to clear his head.

“For what it’s worth, guys,” he muttered, “I’m sorry about this.”

The psionic tornado erupted outwards from James, tossing everything in its path into the air. Chairs were ripped from the ground, books and bags went flying, and so did the Longbow and police officers, who were flipped into the air and each other like leaves in a strong wind. James was up and running before anyone had even hit the ground again, still clutching his injured arm. He didn’t look back as he heard the shouts and thuds, and he definitely didn’t look back when he heard the gunshots starting. He just ran straight for the window at the end of that corridor, telekinetically pushing anyone and anything out of his way and punching out the window with a telekinetic bolt just as as he came to it. He took a literal flying leap through the window, not even bothering to hit the ground on the other side. He flew up and away as fast as he could, thinking silent thanks that there were no flying units waiting for him as he did so.

James had no idea where he was going. With his free hand he tried opening a channel to any of the others on his communicator, but all he got was static. Not even Fenix was replying - had they managed to lock down his mainframe before he could get out of there and hide on the web? He couldn’t even sense any of them in the area, but that was at least more sensible. Either they weren’t in Steel to begin with, or they had already run, just like he was doing.

His arm still stung, and he was starting to feel a little lightheaded now. James shook his head, trying to clear it, and set off. He needed to go to ground, get his arm fixed up, and try to meet up with some of the other Angels, not necessarily in that order. And then try to work out just what the **** was going on.

(( as originally posted by EvilBenFranklin ))

University of Paragon, Steel Canyon Campus
Faculty Offices
08:23 hours

Moira Stern yawned as she stepped into her office, slinging her sweater over the coatrack in the corner. "Percival, wake up." Her computer beeped back an affirmative as its voice-recognition program shook its circuits to life. "Load file range: Term Papers 2010, all files inclusive in folder." *Beep-de-bleep!* "Mark anything fewer than 1,500 words with an F and a note regarding the nature of diligence as a virtue." *beep-bloop* "Load news stream, corner window. *Bloop-bleep!*

“The footage clearly shows several members of superhero group ‘the Guardian Angels’ as the perpetrators of this crime. In the wake of this shocking turn of events, more videos of other Guardian Angels members commit other crimes throughout the city have been brought forward. Video evidence of drug trafficking, extortion, arson, even murder, have all been making their way into the public.”


Her coffee mug slipping from nerveless fingers as she sat heavily in her chair, Stern Impact stared at the monitor. A hand reached out to maximize the video window, only to see herself shaking down a shop owner for protection money while Siberian Inferno casually blowtorched her way into the shop's safe with a finger.

Tapping her right earring, she murmured, "Comms: Contact Siberian Inferno, scramble channel, priority Red-Alpha." A few clicks and squeaks, and then the harsh buzz of an inactive channel. "End call. Contact Schrodi, same parameters." Again, a harsh buzz. "End call. Contact anyone in the Guardian Angels' leadership, and keep trying."

This time, there wasn't a harsh buzz, but the distinctive squeal of active jamming, mere seconds before a pounding on her office door. "Moira Elayne Stern, this is Paragon PD. Open the door and come out with your hands up."

"Bloody cliches," she muttered as she mustered her will, every molecule in her body suddenly quivering with potential energy as she directed them to jump to the nearby street corner -- and wound up slamming straight into the nearest wall in that general direction as her kinetic shift collapsed.

"**** me," she swore, glancing out the window as she rubbed her nose and put her glasses back in place. Police, a fair number of them at that, along with several heavy combat units. She could out run them, but she'd need a source of motion to draw upon, first.

Unfortunately, she was the only person in the room. Panic started to rise until her eyes fell on her coffee machine... and the "special" coffee that Schrodi had made her. The one that took a gravitic compression field to keep the neutronized coffee from energetically evaporating in a loud burst of SKOOM.

Bloody good thing I sprung for the top-end model, she thought as she got a pot going of "the good stuff," then poured a cup. She'd likely set off radiological alarms, but if it got her out of this...

One cup. Not so bad, skin feels a little tingly.
Two cups. The pounding was getting louder, and rhythmic. The police were trying to break the door down. ...I think I can feel my teeth vibrating.
Three cups. Her heart skipped the pounding stage and went straight into high-speed palpitations, as the door frame started to crack. Bloody hell. I think I can see through time.

Still, it wasn't quite enough to let her break through a reinforced wall, avoid major injury while doing so, and still have enough juice to escape. What the fookin' 'ell 'ave I got t'lose? she thought, and downed as much of the pot as she could.

...It's indescribable, it is. My god, it's full of---*

---

"...Authorities are still on the lookout for Dr. Moira Stern, aka Stern Impact of the Guardian Angels, after she apparently escaped being arrested this morning, causing her office to implode inward around her as she did so. While police initially thought she had committed suicide, scans show that there is not enough biological residue to account for Ms. Stern's body."

The scene cuts away from the anchorwoman to footage of the Steel Canyon campus. The walls of an office building start to shimmy, shake, and go faintly translucent as a Cherenkov-blue glow builds inside one of the offices, then violently implode as a cerulean streak shoots out of one wall and down the street, pulverizing sidewalk tiles, asphalt, and any unlucky trees in its wake. "Slow motion analysis of this footage shows Dr. Stern in this blue field. Some scientific experts are concerned that she may have gone to what they call 'near-relativistic speeds' within Earth's atmosphere, but one thing continues to puzzle them."

The scene cuts to a rather confused looking scientist. "What we can't figure out is why she would shred her clothing and leave it behind as she left. We found a sweater, a long skirt, shoes, undergarments, all of them partly embedded in the inside wall and totally destroyed, in the arrangement she was wearing them in."

Cutting back to the news desk, the anchorman quips, "Well, I suppose police will have to add streaking to the charges of extortion, grand larceny, and racketeering already arrayed against Stern Impact. The BSA has already authorized INS to revoke her status as a resident extra-dimensional alien in preparation for deportation procedures back to her home reality. And now, the weather..."

---
Somewhere in Perez Park, a tall woman, raven haired and blue-eyed, cowers in the trees naked and shivering from the cool air, and from the aftereffects of boosting herself so hard. Somewhere along the way, she's acquired a PDA from someone - hardly a crime worth mentioning compared to those she's already been charged with, and has shakily typed out the following message:

<< NOT DEAD YET. FIND ME AT HERA'S VACATION SPOT. BRING CLOTHES. WTF IS GOING ON? -MES. >>

Specifying a private network known only to a few, she taps SEND, and collapses into a dreamless, restless sleep.

(( as originally posted by Fenix ))

Fenix stopped the video of the Senator’s latest speech. “Son of a *****. Anyone with half a brain could see those vids are faked...” Well, half a brain who is also a computer program who was a member of the group in said videos, but that though wasn't in Fenix's head at the time.

Playback resumed. “I mean, who could believe that James, of all people, stealing some weed off the back of a tru-”

Stop. Fenix looked at the still image plucked from the data. That... That one wasn’t faked.


-------------------------------------------

A week earlier....

“Life Story of Fenix Alheron? That’s a load of bull. I’ve never even been NEAR Topeka. Let alone creating an internet cafe in Kansas City.”

Fenix read through his latest email with a note of amusement. Some fan had apparently written a story on his life, such as it was right now, but it was grossly inaccurate in some parts. Too inaccurate for anyone with half a brain to write down.

About then, he spotted it. The errors and inconsistencies... They were too deliberately placed. So much so, that it quickly became very obvious that there was a coded message in the email sent.

---------------------------------------------

“No! She’s ours! The traitor can’t live!”

“I don’t really care. The woman’s coming with me.”

The Knives of Artemis. One of the great niggling annoyances that came with being a high-profile hero, let alone one who doesn’t even hide behind a Hero Name. Fenix had to get to the top level of the abandoned laboratory, before they finished sharpening their blades and finished off the so-called “traitor” once and for all.

An ex-Artemis would do wonders in police investigations of hundreds of murders, and Fenix wasn’t about to let this one go down that easily.

---------------------------------------------

“Thanks for the help in there.”

“Don’t worry about it, Ann. Just make sure that you contact the police.”

“Oh, I fully intend to. Some of what those ******* in there were doing...”

“I know, I know. If you need anything, run into any problems with our mutual friends...”

“I’ll get a hold of you. Thanks for all of your help.”

At that point, the blond woman leaned over, and pecked Fenix on the cheek. At which point, they both disappeared, Fenix going back through the wireless signal, the Ex-Artemis agent evading patrols that might report her back to her ex-colleges.

---------------------------------------------

Of course, the video only showed the last part, then the lab exploding (Hey, there was a loose canister of some explosive material, and the Knives weren't watching their fire...) but still, it would be a bit hard to explain that image...

Fenix sighed as best a stream of data on the internet could. It was time to look into Senator White, see who was backing him. If there were any juicy bits, he’d leak them to the usual places. Wikileaks.... 4chan... Whoever could get the information out as explosively and noticeably as possible. And he’d better work fast, the Longbow data hounds were already on their way...

video to prove it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsN8F...layer_embedded

Sad to hear this....

personally the best gun is what my New Marhiel has




but then I have always liked the Star Wars look....

I like the over the top EMO drama where everyone dies and you can't get out of it... well maybe not

i just got lucky...well I asked her to sit and pose really but she was nice enough to let me try...





she even did the whole pouty lips thing...

---

and the two kittens are really cute but we also have two bottle feeders... Room Mate works for Pet Adoption... so we get homework a lot.

I have 2 cats Room mate has 4 permanent cats 2 dogs, and 4 kittens... during the summer we had 12 kittens.

Well My Cat who is Named Mariel btw, doesn't like to pose for the camera


however I have one good one



she likes towels

also my other cat he is named Peggy...yes no end to the Irony,... turns out she was a he... and a closet cat at that.




oh and a cute one of babies that we are rescuing right now



it was 110 when we got them so I put an ice cube in the carrier until we had a place ready to put them.

Thank you?...umm but where is the famous Virtue drama... well RP drama that is...

well I could say my favorite Hero is




But my favorite lovable villain is most defiantly



kind of a duhh really.

Interesting question, of which deserves a well thought out Answer.

I will start with Mariel Martog My Main. She was born an elf, and she was meant to be a force for evil. However, when I rolled her, long before city of villains, I changed her slightly using a long and sadly poorly written RP dialog. In that story I described how she went from being an Elf in a Sword and sorcery world, who had just drunk a potion made from the blood of succubi. To being kept by fashionable French Vampires in Boston, over time she has been cured of her curse and is free of any evil taint. This has left her as a pure lawful good being. Her true form has changed so much that she is now a being of light in elven form.

However since we now have Praetorian versions to play with, the Praetorian Marhiel is a bit different she was born good. However, in her fight for what is just she has become a criminal and a rather ruthless defender of the weak and innocent. Her true self is still elven but she loves tech and is very much grey.
As for costume sets see the pictures included. Notice the contrast.

Mariel walking about town
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...H/urbanelf.jpg

Mariel Martog true self costume
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/gothicshark/city%20of/MarielCOH/MarielArmor1.jpg

When in combat
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rielArmor2.jpg

Marhiel Martog

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rhielguns1.jpg

in combat
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...rhielguns2.jpg

oddly one of the best things in this game which beats out all other MMOs is that the GM/Devs/CS, ect... Actually care about us as individuals.

Ever how hard it is to believe. they actually respond to tickets faster than I can smoke a cigarette. some of my MMOs have characters with open tickets from...last year... Granted It was because I was reporting someones infraction of server policy. got to love the love I get on an Official RP server in the biggest MMO.

if I can I'll be on. 'Invader' would be perfect for my Spider, 'Evil Irken'

I had to think about it, since I have made alts of each type, in the end its just two roles, not classes I have difficulty with, Tanking, and Healing, conversely I love De-buffs and buffs, control, pets, range and Melee roles, I just don't like having everyone's life in my hands.

Sadly I will be ---> http://www.meetup.com/SoulGeek-Geek-Singles-Night/ <-- lots of fun, if I had a laptop and I had wifi... I probably still wouldn't make it.

As a person with bad Altism... yes I have deleted More Characters then Most have Rolled, and seeing a thread that just says 'Post a Character' ... I can't help it... and when I am in an odd mood, like tonight, and yes its "An Odd Mood" I figure I need to cheer up and smile, so I logged into this Other MMO that I am Beta Testing and it hit me Like a cramp.... I know My next Alt.


I give you the Most wrong Character ever... In so many ways I can't even count.


It might be subtle, but here he is my newest creation, 'Say hello to my little green Friend'....