Chimera ((Unionverse Open Roleplay))

((This thread is a follow on from Doctor Mechano's "Time for an advert break" thread. In the original thread I think Mechano's intention was to invoke interference from the hero community. Unfortunate for him I decided that this plot better suited my villain group Humanity First and let them loose on him. Anyway as a way of making amends I decided to help him kick off an open community plot that will hopefully incite more of the hero community to get involved.

Rules are like normal with the whole no god-modding etc. Doctor Mechano will be the overall plot moderator with myself acting as moderator for anything relating to Humanity First.

Let the chaos begin...))

10pm 3rd May 2010, The Printworks, Steel Canyon.

Gathered around a gigantic high definition LCD television that Loot had acquired from somewhere was a number of Humanity First's key operatives.

"Damn it Brickhouse loose some weight will'ya, you're hogging all the sofa." Yapped computer geek girl, and hacker extraordinaire Viral as she squeezed herself in between the muscled Blackshirt and Humanity First's master scrounger Loot.

"Shut up Viral a little runt like yourself hardly needs the room. Leave the beefcake alone." Quipped Catwalk who was sitting on the other side of Brickhouse."

"Uh... Look, I don't mind standing." Interjected Brickhouse who was feeling awkward thanks to the two girls who were sitting far too close for comfort.

"Oh hush Bricky-Boy. I'll just snuggle up and create more room." Catwalk replied knowing full well that would only make the incredibly shy Brickhouse feel more uncomfortable than he already was."

"How about all of you shut it. I want to watch this." Shouted Humanity First's propaganda specialist, Doctrine from behind them.

"Yes. Please be quiet. It's not often that I get to appear on the Ten O'clock News." Said the incredibly suave and handsome recruitment specialist Soap Box as he perched himself on the sofa arm next to Loot.

"It's on, it's on!" said Viral excitedly.

The Blackshirts all turned to face the TV. Behind the newscaster the video viral had uploaded to the internet was playing in the background. As the newscaster spoke all could see Soap Box pointing out various important information about Chimera on a computer monitor as well as delivering his speech about Humanity First's concern over these serious developments.

"...owing that if you have to get the word out the internet is the place to go. Getting almost a quarter of a million hits in it's first twenty minutes, the video posted by human supremacist organisation Humanity First warns about the maniacal Doctor Mechano's plan to clone an army of super powered walking bio-weapons under the auspices of a 'Project Chimera' The project, funded by profits from his company Necrotech's range of consumer electronics and it's controversial 'New You' program is meant to be Mechano's answer to meddling heroes."

"The video shows production models, formulas, as well as footage of of the prototype Chimera in action against Humanity First soldiers. Needless to say the carnage shown does a perfect case of supporting Humanity First's claims about Chimera."

The newscaster turned behind him and the background video, now with audio, came to the forefront.

"...must warn you the following footage contains graphic violence and gore."

The video went from a crisp clear picture of Soap Box showing off scientific data from a monitor to a shaky bit of video footage. On the screen the was a flurry of action. the scene was obviously some sort of lab in the midst of a battle. Smoke occasionally drifted across the screen, and shouts and gunfire accounted for almost all the audio. Without warning the person filming obviously spun around fast. Coming into focus was the frenzied Chimera surrounded in crackling electricity. A couple of Blackshirts went to engage the monster and were eviscerated on screen. The video then showed the back of Brickhouse throwing various bit of machinery and equipment at Chimera in a vain effort to slow it's advance.

"Hurry up Viral. We're bugging out." Could be heard from Brickhouse as he threw a prototype 'Walkie Waffler'.

"Got it!" shouted Viral in the background.

At that moment the person filming the video obvious turned and fled. The video shrank back into the background, and the newscaster returned to the screen.

"As well as the scientific data and that extraordinary piece of battle footage the video features commentary by the man on the screen identified Soap Box, as well as an invitation for concerned citizens to attend a rally in Kings Row's Crowne Memorial Hall at 7.30pm the 7th of May. Even if you don't subscribe to Humanity First's way of thinking it might be a date for your diary, it should be interesting to hear what they've got to say."

The TV screen flicked off and there was minor uproar from those on the sofa.

"I have seen enough. Everything is proceeding as planned."

Everybody turned around to face behind them. Standing there with the remote in his cumbersome metal hand was the metallic masked leader of Humanity First... Partisan

"I don't want to question anybody's judgement, but are you sure this rally is a good idea? I understand what Doctrine is saying about exercising our constitutional rights of 'assembly' and 'free speech' but you know the place is going to be crawling with Cops and Capes, and I'll be defenseless."

"I told you Soap Box any move made against you at this rally will be a massive propaganda win in our favour. Besides that isn't likely to happen. Think as this as your moment to take centre stage and get our message out without the need to do it on a street corner." Answered Doctrine, defending his plan.

"I know but can't I at least have a few snipers watching my back?"

"NO!" Interjected Partisan with purpose. "You will appear alone. We all face dangers in this war against the metas. You will face this one. Or do you forget your oath pledging your life to our cause?"

Soap Box looked at the rest of his comrades. It was obvious they were all thinking tread carefully here. Composing himself and putting on one of his most charming smiles he turned to face Partisan.

"Of course not. Just pre-performance jitters..."

Stiletto Breifing Room, Longstaff WarTech Rhode Island, May 4th 2010, 9:26am

"... it should be interesting to hear what they've got to say."

Suddenly, the screen flicked off, and all members of Longstaff WarTech's Stiletto Division turned their attentions to the prodigal Molly Longstaff, sat in her chair at the other end of the briefing room's single long table, staring at the now-inactive widescreen display as she idly tapped the remote against her lips.

"Yeah," Molly muttered quietly, as if to herself. "Very interesting for sure."

Everyone was lost for words at that moment. The chief of Stiletto, Crash Leadfoot, merely took the opportunity to pull her jacket into something resembling straight. Florian Uhrmacher, codenamed Sky Stormer, simply cleared his throat, while his partner in more ways than one, Masha "Mashup" Romanenko, along with the alien robot Star Splitter, stared into the space ahead of them, seemingly deep in thought until the Russian finally broke her silence.

"So what do we do?" She uttered, half-expecting an immediate plan from The Pink One. "Do we deal with this... Chimera thing or these so-called 'human supremacists?'"

"Mundane supremacists." Molly calmly corrected, glancing only briefly at Masha, who gave an understanding nod in return. "And we're gonna deal with both."

"Both?" Florian queried, promting Molly to slowly push herself out of her seat.

"Both." she answered. "First of all, we need to send an agent into that rally on Friday to observe, report, gather any intel worth a damn if such opportunities come up. In the mean time, we'll hang over out of sight on one of the dropships in case anything goes the way of the pear."

"And Mechano's little plaything, Boss?" Crash cut in. Molly merely smiled in response.

"Katana can start dredging up every scrap of data they can find on the Net, both on Mechano and these Humanity First goons. Break into Mechano's systems if needs must. Same applies to these dorks. They know the drill. Leave. No. Trace. Got it?"

"Uh... Understood, Boss." Crash answered with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"Who do you expect, if I may ask..." the robotic Star Splitter intervened in his usual tinny serpentine voice. "...to send to this... rally?"

"Hmm..." Molly pondered the question for a moment. "Good question."

"Yeah, we're all packing some form of augmentation here..." Masha said. "Except Splitter, what with him being a robot in the first place and seeing next to no upgrades since he meteored himself here."

Splitter raised a metallic brow at the 'meteored' comment. It was certainly a term he'd never heard before, though it seemed a little obvious she was referring to his crash landing on Earth. Still, it was rather curious to him.

"What about the division's new blood?" Molly enquired. "Any mundanes there?"

"None." Crash answered flatly.

"Crud. Alright, who else have we got? I need all hands on deck in Katana, so that's out of the question..."

"What about one of the lab techs?"

"Nah, none of them are cut out for spy jobs. They struggle enough trying not to blow the building up by accident, and I have zero faith in their ability to avoid doing the same to their cover."

"Office staff? Mailroom? There's that Jenkins guy who's had something of a history of industrial espionage."

"And happens to be mentally scarred from those experiences, Lils."

"Crud."

The entire room remained silent as everyone wracked their brains over who they could rope into spying on the rally before the silence was broken by a gentle knocking on the door. Enter one Julia Cravic, Molly's current secretary and the building's resident bag of nerves, fighting with her high heels as she stumbled through the door with a small pile of papers in her hands.

"Um, I w-was..." the twitchy redhead stammered. "I've got all of K-katana's sick notes now... erm... and I was..."

"Just leave them on my desk for now, okay?" Molly smiled. "And thanks! You're doing great so far."

The secretary smiled awkwardly before she took her leave, accidentally slamming the door. Everyone could almost make out the muffled curse that immediately followed. Then the room fell silent as everyone looked to Molly.

"Oh, no..." Molly groaned, slowly placing her face into her palm. "No, just NO!"

"She's as mundane as mundane gets," Florian calmly protested. "AND he's done this kinda job before."

"I promised her, for crying out loud!" Molly barked. She was somewhat adamant against whatever crazy idea they were quietly suggesting. "That kinda stuff is the reason she a total nerveball right now, do you realise that?"

"Yes, but Mo-"

"I am NOT sending Miss Cravic into that rally! Final! End of!"

************

Several minutes later...
Julia Cravic leaned back in her chair and looked around her working area, situated right outside Molly Longstaff's office.

She was starting to like it here.

Sure, there was the odd worrying rumble from the lower floors, and a few escaped projects tended to make their way up to this floor once in a blue moon, but for once, her employer wasn't sending her out of deranged espionage missions like her last few bosses seemed hellbent on doing. For once, her boss wasn't deliberately sending into life-threatening danger. For once, she felt like something wasn't out to get, gut or shoot her for the antics she never wanted to see herself pulling.

Julia then locked the fingers of her hands together and held them to the back of her head, settling them into her short, blood-red hair while she pushed the chair onto its rear legs.

For once she had the opportunity to speak too soon.

The sudden bleeping of the desk phone's ringer sent the poor girl tumbling backward onto the floor behind her. Luckily, there was plenty of space to fall back into without bashing her head off another piece of furniture, and the carpet was like new. Nice, soft and fluffy enough for a mostly painless impact when her head collided with it. Mostly. It still throbbed like hell moments later.

After nursing her head for all but a few seconds, Julia scrambled back up the desk and clumsily picked up the receiver.

"Y-ow... Yes?" she groaned into the receiver. She hoped she was holding it the right way.

"Uh, are you okay?" Molly's voice asked with concern. "You sound awful."

"I'm- I'm fine, I... I... I-I just bumped my head a little, that's all."

"Sounds a lot worse, if you ask me. Um... can you come into my office in a few? Something's came up... something you're really gonna hate me for..."

Yep. She spoke too soon.

TV screens across the land flickered, replaced by the now infamous skull and cog logo. This was no advert, the standard old school method of Mechano was showing true.

Edward appeared on screen and he looked angry, really angry, possibly angrier than anyone had seem he before...a righteous fury etched onto his face.

"This is a warning to those heroes of Paragon City, stay out of our way...this is far more personal than you could imagine...since you have failed at cleaning up this Humanity First filth, who preach hate and lies within your own city, to ignorant, uniformed citizens who have no right to decide on ANYTHING!"

Edward took a deep breath, "People of Paragon, by now you know of Project Chimera, I will say this...Project Chimera is Alpha and the Omega. She will be the start of a new breed of superhumans and she will be the end of Humanity First..."

"Ordinary citizens, you have nothing to fear, you will not be harmed this is personal business...the same goes for you caped crusaders out there, as I said before...stay out of her way and the only ones that will be hurt are those faschists in Humanity First."

"If there's one thing I cannot stand...it is bigots...whether they discriminate against gender, age, skin colour, religion or the empowered...I am a fair man, I have no bias against those wishing to partake in the New You program...any and all are welcome at the Toasty Dreams private hospital, I never turn a soul away because of who they are...I am empowering those who are informed enough to make the right choice...to choose freedom..."

"Paragon City...consider yourself warned...."

With that the signal cut out, returning to your scheduled programming.

A figure stalked across a room, hidden by the shadows it climbed into a bath tub like dip in the floor, laying back and placing a cage of metal and blinking L.E.Ds over its head, fingers brushed a series of buttons, with a low whirr a lid slid forward, leaving the figure laying in its dark pod.

Liquid began to flood the pod, and the figure struggled briefly, unable to suppress its panic, as it had to take a lungful of liquid, luckily the fluid was oxygenated and designed to be breathed, the figure settled down suppressing instincts that were screaming how wrong this situation was.

The pod pulsed with lights, and there was a moment of separation, as the figures awareness leapt from the pod, travelling digitally across Paragon City, a moment of darkness, then light filtered in, cold mechanical sensors replacing flesh and blood senses.

The figure checked its new limbs, all twenty eight of them, mentally setting a switch that changed inbuilt weapons to none lethal settings. The figures awareness filled with a series of charts, listing the current status of its new bodies.

“All systems green. Giant Killer ready for deployment.” The figure said through six vocal units.

.while the TV's picture returned to the news program Dr Mechano had so rudely interrupted , its viewer's face broke into a wry grin ..

“..a opportunity I believe , and one not to be wasted ..”

The figure stood and moved across the room , and opened the door to a walk-in closet ..

“..hmm now what to wear ..”

Kata tapped her fingers contemplatively on the desk.

"So he's gone nuts again."

The man speaking wore US military parade gear. His name was General Armitage and before him, in a conference room located on the top floor of a skyscraper in Steel Canyon, sat Arctic Princess and an assembled group of military technicians.

A projector screen had been set up and the 'advertisement' played on a loop.

"Doctor Edward Mechano is unstable, unpredictable, and most importantly, very good at what he does." She finally replied.

"Yes... that incident with the Freakshow a few years ago..." the General mused.

Kata nodded.

"He's capable of a lot. And our little ploy to flush him out didn't work. I suspect because it was too obvious who was trying to contact him."

"Well, we saved the effort of paperwork over the woman's inevitable death. Where is Agent Holm now, anyway?"

Kata smiled.

"And here I was thinking that you had your finger on the pulse, General. Agent Holm was reassigned to Colorado. And all the training that went into making her a double agent was wasted."

The General bit his left index fingernail, a sign Kata had picked up on that he was angry. But her job these days entailed talking to men like Armitage, who perhaps didn't see the bigger picture when it came to domestic affairs. She could afford riling him a little.

"These are trying times ahead, General. What with S.A.M. poking their head above the waterline, increased reports of portal activity from Praetoria, and we've still got the War Zone to keep tabs on."

"But that's Vanguard's remit. The War Zone I mean." The General sounded flustered.

"Yes, it's their remit to keep the Rikti at bay. However, as you know I work for the FBSA now and I'm here to remind you that it's a difficult time. For us to commit resources wholesale to combatting another of Mechano's schemes would be idiotic. We need military help."

The General grunted. He scratched his chin, the universal sign for 'I'm thinking' which required no deciperhing on Kata's part.

He was about to mention Longbow when Kata interrupted him.

"No. Ms Liberty's forces, regardless of UN vinidcation to deal with such threats, are also stretched thin enough. Their recruitment policy is questionable, and to have more deaths spread across the front page of the Paragon Times would be unsettling."

Of course, it won't stop them becoming involved she traitorously thought to herself.

"We are both doing our jobs, General. I'd like an answer within a week."

"And what if you don't garner our support?"

"Well, then I'll just have to think of something else, won't I?"

..the car made three , different , circles around the Kings Row's Crowne Memorial Hall , Whisper drove at the same pace as the other traffic , but the evening rush hour of homeward fleeing workers meant that it was more than slow enough for him to be able to scope out the vantage points and deadground around the hall ....

..leaving the car parked at a near by apartment lot south of the Hall , Whisper made one walk by , to confirm his impressions of the site . One last visit to the car to collect his overnight bag and Whisper disappeared from view like the fading sunlight from the sky . . . .

((Warning, rush-job >.>))

Katana Division, Longstaff WarTech Rhode Island, May 6th 2010, 1:03pm

"We ain't found squat!" declared a pigtailed young woman from the centre of a ring of multiple computers, most of them towers with a lesser number of laptops sprawled about. "And frankly, at this point, I'll just be going around in circles."

Florian glared at the girl with his good eye. He knew she'd found something, but more often than not, Sophie Larkin, the newly-appointed chief of the company's cyber tactics division Katana, had a tendency to disregard information she deemed unworthy of note.

"Don't you -dare- give me the evil eye, buddy!" Sophie yelped, pointing an accusing biro at the Stiletto agent. "It's not gonna work on me this time."

"I know what will." Florian muttered, before leaning over and whispering "I wonder how Karl over there would react to my telling him that you've got the hots."

Sophie suddenly snapped her head around to look at a young man in a blue Hawaiian shirt. The scrawny looking fellow who clearly needed a haircut, judging by the wiry mess that could almost pass for an afro, was far too busy tearing apart what looked like a computer dating back to the mid-nineties to notice Sophie's eyes training on him before she snapped her head back to Florian.

"I hate you. Fine. I'll fire all the useless crud I did find over to Lill's printer, that okay?"

"Very much so." Florian answered as he turned to leave, failing to notice Sophie flipping him the bird.

******************

Julia Cravic's apartment, Talos Island, 6:23pm

A smartphone.

That was it.

A single stupid smartphone.

The only thing she could take with her into that blasted rally. At the very least, she could have been given a sidearm, surely?

No, that could have gotten her caught out. Humanity First might accuse her of being an assassin or something.

Julia sat on the bed twirling the smartphone in her hands. Just hours earlier she'd been told that it was the only peice of technology she'd be taking in there. A consumer gadget of all things.

The unfortunate secretary tossed the phone onto the nearest pillow and hopped to her feet. Time to find something to wear, then.

Skirts, shirts, jeans, various pieces of underwear, all travelled across the space between the wardrobe and the bed as the redhead sifted through every probable combination of clothing. She even went as far as attempting an updo, ignorant of the fact that her hair was far too short to achieve such hairstyles.

"What the hell am I doing?" She muttered to herself, pinching the bridge of her nose after throwing her last attempted combination onto the bed. "It's a bigot rally, not a prom! God, I'm such a moron!"

Okay, she then thought to herself. Just pick out the blandest thing you can pluck out. That'll do ni-

Then she noticed something. A reddish light just out of the corner of her eye? What the hell was...

"No..." Julia quietly gasped. The red light soon became an unsteady dot on the wardrobe in front over her. Now she was frozen on the spot. Fear suddenly forced her body to ignore her mind screaming at it to run like hell. "Please, no, not again..."

Then the dot disappeared, gone as soon as a youth directly outside her window released the button on his laser pointer and made a break for it.

And Julia Cravic was left to slump onto the floor and curl up, a gibbering wreck both all too eager yet far too afraid to scream.

May 7th, Early Morning, Somewhere in the Rikti War Zone

"Ok, What the hell are you doing now?"

The Blackshirt Kitbasher known as Crash Test turned to face his curious colleague Spanners. "I figured I could get more power out of that microwave cannon we swiped from Mechano's factory if I added some modified circuit boards." He then held out the circuit board he'd been working on for Spanners to check over. "What do you think?"

"I think one of these days im going to be collecting your corpse with a mop and bucket. You can't possibly think Mechano's weapon's engineering isn't up to scratch?"

"Oh it ain't bad, but definitely could do with improvement. take a look yourself."

Spanners started walking around Crash Test's makeshift workshop. "Where is it?"

"Over on that other workbench."

Spanners walked over to the other workbench and sighed when it wasn't there...

"No it isn't."

Crash Test turned away from his work. "Wha... but I swear... Oh man! I swear if one of your boys has used it to help shore up one of the ceilings in this dump im gonna be mighty peeved!..."

Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.

As Soap Box looked out across the hall from the podium he was filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand he was immensely pleased that the hall was almost filled to capacity, but at the same time annoyed that he could never draw a crowd like this when he was a theatre actor. Directly in front of him sat dozens of recently recruited Humanity First supporters, each wearing a black t-shirt emblazoned with the Humanity First logo. Behind them was the curious, opposed, the press and even the occasional obvious and not so obvious meta. Spread out amongst all them was a sizable contingent of PPD officers, there to keep the peace.

As Soap Box scanned the crowd he did his best to pick out notable attendees, as well as any potential threats...

Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.

About two thirds of the way back from the podium and along the side wall stood a Brioni suited Britanic quietly surveying the gathered crowd. He inwardly wondered if his coming here might not be a mistake. After all he'd been practically inactive since his return from the Netherworld and it wasn't like there was no one else here who'd jump in if things turned nasty. However unlike most of the foes Britanic ever battled his conflict with Humanity First was extremely personal. That alone would probably been enough to guarantee his presence, but with a very real threat by Doctor Mechano, another enemy of Britanic, he felt duty bound to be here.

I must be bloody mad. I bet Suzi would of talked me out of coming here... That is if I'd let her... Britanic quickly dismissed the thought about his increasingly estranged wife and continued to watch the crowd.

Vix glanced around, eyeing the crowd. A very mixed bunch, here.
She herself was dressed in her Chiron Centre doctors jacket and smart clothes. There was no real mistaking of who she was and, more importantly, what it was she did.
The Chief sat beside her, on one of the somewhat reinforced chairs that had been prepared for some of the larger and weightier people that could show up. He had forgone his tactical gear in favour of his red cape, bordered by runes of the Kaarinian language, his native tongue.
Fox was sat besides, glad in his trademark orange-fade-red power armour, mechanical legs crossed idly. Aside from the replacement lower legs, he was still fully human under the armour.

Wolf was nowhere to be seen. Yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.

....having let himself be carried into the hall by the inflow of the interested masses , Whisper found a side wall to sit by , and from here he mentally catalogued the Halls population . Currently wearing his Family Goon disguise , suitable toned down for such as public venue , he blended and made small talk with those around him…and waited ….

Halberd-class Longstaff WarTech Dropship "Schmidt", the skies above Galaxy City, approximately one hour prior.

"Julia?"

The secretary snapped out of her worried daydreams of the hours ahead to be greeted by a concerned Molly, now clad in her blindingly pink nanotech suit. Behind her, most of Stiletto were looking busy, presumably preparing for whatever they were expecting at the rally.

"Are you okay there?" Molly enquired. "You're not gonna flake out on us or anything, are you?"

"N-I'm okay..." Julia nodded, doing her utmost best to hide her panic. "Just, umm... a little worried about w-what'll happen down there."

"Okay, then. Right, all you gotta do is just find a good seat there. Somewhere in the middle should do, as it'll be the optimum spot to take footage with the phone's camera."

"And don't worry too much about the phone running out of memory either." A voice from behind Molly yelped. "I hacked that thing to pieces to cram in a good coupla-hundred gigs in there, -AND- tweaked the camera app in that thing just to remove any arbitrary limits on vid size. Go nuts, my little cameragirl!"

"Sophie, won't they start suspecting something if they somehow find out about those?" Masha called over from the other side of the dropship. Her eyes were fixed on the small box-like device in her hand as she fiddled around with it."

"Pfft, nah!" the unseen Sophie answered with absolute confidence, though it did little to boost the technically-challenged Julia's. "The memory's the same stuff you find in everyday flash drives, and the hacks can be pulled off by any old geek these days. At the most, you'll look like a geek. A hot geek, but that's it."

"Uh, yeah." Molly added. "Just keep the camera pointed at the stage and you'll be fine, okay?"

"A-and if something goes... goes wrong?" Julia stammered out her last question.

"We'll port you out of there at the first sign of trouble. You'll be fine."

Julia simply nodded.

******************
Freedom Court, Galaxy City, five minutes later.

Just a second ago, Julia was aboard the Schmidt, dreading the process of being teleported and generally fearing for her life. What if something went wrong with the teleport? What if it ended up killing her before Humanity First or Doc Mechano got the chance?

Now, she found herself looking out of an alley onto Freedom Court, heavily disorientated and bordering on falling over herself before she found the nearest wall to lean against.

"Okay," she slurred to herself as she waited... -willed- her head to stop spinning so she could walk straight again. "Could have gone better, could have been worse... hope that doesn't happen all the time..."

When her head finally cleared, the redhead made a few checks on herself before she even dared set off for Kings Row.

Clothes still here and not fuse with her skin? Check. Julie took a moment to straighten out her demin jeans and jacket, as well as ensuring that her white and black fedora was still sitting comfortably on her head. It was the only hat she had, much to her annoyance. She also ensured that, yes, she was still wearing her current-favourite "Another Visitor" tee, still white text on black fabric and no, she was not exposing anything she shouldn't have been.

Smartphone intact? Check, and with a few texts from the Schmidt already. She would read those on the way.

Skin not inside out? Check.

With everything in check, or so she hoped, Julia took a few deep breaths before making the first steps toward Kings Row.

******************
Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.

"E-excuse me," Julia stammered as she pushed through the crowd in her efforts to find a seat in one of the middle rows. "Excuse me, c-c-coming through!"

It wasn't easy. She not only had to squeeze past a full crowd of presumed bigots, some of them far larger than they should be, but she had to ensure she kept hold of her smartphone while at the same time keep her fedora on her head the whole time. It wasn't a necessity, but the less nobody saw her face, the better.

Eventually, she staggered into the middle seats, almost falling into the first few of the row she stumbled to, and proceeded to tip-toe over to a free seat just a few chairs along the row from her end.

******************
The skies above Kings Row.

"Alright," Molly called over to the dropship's pilot. "Flick it to whisper and hold it here. "You sure we're stealthed now?"

"Pretty certain, Boss!" the pilot called back.

"Okay, good." Molly responded. She then slid herself into Julia's old seat and looked to the suited-up members of the Stiletto Division, all of them ready for the probably battle ahead, if not all too happy about such probability. "Okay, now we wait. Everyone grab a gravity emitter in case that Chimera thing shows up, and someone pass me one too. Six of us with one each -should- be enough to anchor that monster if it strikes."

"You hope." Florian muttered, never the fan of the experimental.

"I really do."

Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.


Seven bodies walked into the hall, their arrival spread out over twenty minutes or so, the first to arrive were a couple, man and women obviously married and carrying their two young children on their shoulders, the children looked around in a generally polite but wide eyed way.

Next to arrive was a Rabbi, then several minutes after him, two men dressed in road workers clothes, a body builder arrived ten minutes after them, soon followed by a bookish woman and finally a slightly overweight African American man, each of the hologram disguised bodies took position around the room, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

"Lady Peppermint," Growled a voice in the alley.

Peppermint turned.

Chief Jones was on the cusp of retirement. His lined face showed it, as well as his grizzled salt-and-pepper hair. He was in shape though, and was reputed to lead a tough precinct. He had Peppermint covered at gunpoint, his uniform crisp and his badge shined.

Peppermint seemed unperturbed. "Good evening, Chief," she said pleasantly, pulling up one of the zippers on the suit she was wearing.

"I ought to run you in right now," he snarled.

"But you won't." She smiled at him.

"You robbed the bank two blocks from here. Twice!"

"You don't have any proof of that," she reminded him. "No one was hurt, no witnesses, no video, no money missing, and most importantly no charges."

"Whose police cars do you think those bots of yours smashed through - "

"Now let's not be paranoid. Do you see any bots here? Besides, rumor has it the cars that responded to the call were old and needed to be replaced."

"Peppermint," he growled.

"And I hear unemployment numbers are way down," she continued, zipping another zipper, "Particularly in construction."

"Peppermint!"

"Yes?"

He glared at her for a minute, but she looked calmly back at him. Finally he holstered the sidearm. "What happened to - to whatever it was that you took?"

"I didn't take anything! Remember?" But she relented a little at the look on his face. "There was a rumor, though, about a problem about some scheme originating in the Rogue Isles. Some component missing from a doomsday device, or some such thing. Caused a bit of trouble for a while. That's all sorted now though."

"Hmph." He was still glaring, but seemed a bit mollified. "And why are you here today?"

"I'm not here to make a mess, if that is what you are asking."

"If that was what I wanted to ask, I would have asked it. Why are you here? You only seem to show up for good reason, but every time you appear, half the city ends up in ruins. Somehow it's never your fault but you're a bad outlier."

"Mmm... I suppose I can't fault that point of view," Peppermint looked more troubled by this statement than she had appeared previously. "If you must know, I'm here to watch, and make sure that things don't get... well, out of hand."

"And if they do?"

Peppermint considered this. "Then I am here to see what the game is. Not the show," she waved her hand vaguely at those who were still filing into the assembly hall, two blocks away. "That's the distraction, to keep the short-sighted occupied while the real power is played out, behind the scenes."

"Mmm-hmm. Anything - what is that phrase you use - temporally problematic?"

Peppermint stopped and looked, her eyes narrowing. She looked at Jones, at the alley, the gathering crowd, the sky. She looked very carefully before answering. "No... not at the moment."

"Don't give me that. There's something here that you don't like, or you wouldn't be here. What is it? Humanity First? Edward Mechano?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "My dear police chief, if idiocy of that caliber was temporally problematic, this timestream would have collapsed long ago, with or without an occasional nudge from me. At the moment, I would say that the timestream is stable." She wound up her short, pink hair close to her head, pinning it with a clip. "I am here to keep it that way."

He growled. "Look, I don't know about preservation of timestreams and I am not sure I believe all of this bullsh - erm." He caught himself. "All of this nonsense you keep spouting," he corrected. "But I promise you this - if you slip up, you're history. If I catch you so much as jaywalking, I'll - I'll - "

"I know, I know," Peppermint soothed. "You'll put me under the jail until the timestream rots around my ears. I assure you, I won't start anything. I'll be very careful of damaging your precinct. My only concern is to prevent as much loss of life as I can." She pulled a mask over her face, and disappeared.

"Couldn't you be concerned with keeping your prevention within the boundaries of the law? Just once?" The chief called back, but there was no response from the apparently empty alleyway.

"You really shouldn't tease him like that, you know," came Finder's voice in her ear.

"I know, I know, but I thought I ought to make an appearance for his sake. We haven't many allies in Paragon. I felt we ought to make an attempt to mollify those we do have."

"You're the boss."

"How are things looking from your end?"

"Everything is set up. We've got every temporally-weak spot in the area covered. If something happens outside of the hall, in addition to whatever riot Mechano starts, we've got a very good chance of an intercept, or at least being alerted to whatever is really going on."

"Brilliant. Where are the smores?"

"Battlebots in position here."

The holographic projection in front of her face, keyed to be invisible to anyone save herself, flashed up the image of the city, with a pulsing dot. "Excellent. Sugar and spice?"

"Support bots here," the dot changed location.

"Crackerjack?"

"Poor old assault bot - he's here."

"Good positioning," she approved. "Stealth on the team looks good... yes, I think all of this will do nicely. I am going in. Wish me luck!"

"Peppermint?"

"Yes?"

Finder's holographic face was looking at her piercingly. "Did you take the plans for those bots from Mechano? Or the stealth suit? Or any of the things that you've 'repurposed'?"

"Erm - " she stopped and considered. "No, I don't believe so. Did I? No certainly not... was it? I... hm. To be honest, I don't recall now where I got the original plans from. It hardly matters, did I ever tell you how dreadful the original blueprints were? Shocking! There's not a circuit in them that hasn't been replaced with something more efficient."

"That's not my point. My point is, will he think that you stole them from him?"

"The man is crazed. How am I supposed to know what he will think about anything?"

"Isn't there a diploma specifying the subject of psychology somewhere in that flock of PhD's?"

"I suppose that there could be... look, I haven't time to discuss it right now, people are gathering, I need to get inside."

"Just... be careful, all right?"

"I'm always careful!"

"More careful than your usual," he scolded.

"I promise. I'm heading inside - you'll be able to see and hear everything," Peppermint soothed.

Inside the place was packed, but only on the floor seats. The upper echelons of the building were clear, as was usual in assemblies such as this. Peppermint found a place in the rafters where she could both see clearly and move easily, set up her area, and waited for the show to begin.

Wolf scanned the assembly hall. He scanned the crowd. He scanned the cieling, the walls, the beam on which he sat, immobile, like a see through gargoyle. The redding rifle rested across his knees, in an easy position. He could go from unthreatening to armed and ready in an instant.

So he sat. He said nothing. He hardly breathed, body settling down into a steady sync of breath in, hold, breath out. His eyes flicked occasionally to his three friends in the crowd, before moving on.
He sat, and waited.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Interestingly enough, a show may well have already begun. Well, to Lady Peppermint at least, for she might've quickly discovered that she wasn't the only one sitting in the rafters. Of course, at an event like this, that in itself was somewhat normal. What wasn't was what gave the other presence away.

Not too far from her spot, yet still at a somewhat decent distance, crouched a creature that had much in common with a bipedal reptilian, yet just as much in direct antithesis thereto. had he been standing, the Khelari would've been at around two meters, a slim and lanky build that looked almost worrisomely frail. His proportions about followed those of a human, arms and legs, as well as plantigrade feet at stretched, yet comfortable lengths for his slim build, and the claws at the end of his long, skinny fingers looked to be more akin to fingernails than hooked talons or some-such.

His head and long, whiplike tail were of course exceptions, harkening to the reptilian with their semblance of velociraptor-, or perhaps deinonychus-like physiology, but the utter lack of scales on his leathery, deep-green hide tossed that comparison summarily out the window just as the rest did the human. No, this creature was neither a mixture nor a hybrid, but something entirely different and not of this world. In the simplest of terms terms, he was an alien, despite his choice of clothing looking rather terrestrial: a pair of black cargo pants and work boots, an open leather jacket in the fashion of a biker, and a simple white T-shirt under that. That was it. Not elegant, not fancy, but functional.

Not that the crowd below saw any of this. The Khelari was of course invisible. Otherwise he'd never have gotten in here. Actually, by critical logic, being unseen alone wasn't enough for that. There was something more going on here. More than met the eye, and in a very literal fashion - for though his deflector kept most of the electomagnetic spectrum off him and he didn't carry a unique scent, it still didn't guard against things like particulates or echolocation.

Or being a loudmouth.

"For pity's sake, they're Clockwork." he whispered out with just a tad too much volume, "Just leave 'em alone and they'll go away. That's what they do. Yes, I'm sure. Look, just stay where you are and quit pokin' me. It's about to start."

His voice sounded with not much difference to the average young human male, despite the ridiculous number of small, sharp teeth that lines his jaws, and if Lady Peppermint had the means to locate and query his identity from any number of records, getting his name and public profile would be a simple matter: Acid Zero, a small-time crook from the Rogue Isles. Longbow had some kind of hate for the guy, recommending caution and maximum firepower, but Arachnos and others didn't regard him as much more than a little fish in a big pond. Just what someone like that was doing here, not to mention who it was that he was talking to, was at this point truly anyone's guess...

Edward was expecting resistance...he knew the supers would see his warning and flock there in droves. He had begun to think that just one Chimera wasn't enough, he should have probably made two but alas he never really was good at planning these things out, not when he was angry anyway.

He was not foolish enough to be there in person, too many people in Paragon wanted to see his backside back in prison. He had dispatched a contigent of scientists to escort Chimera and one Proffessor David Thule to lead them.

Of the group of ten normal scientists, six were armed, three with plasma weapons and three with laser weapons. David Thule was packing his latest OK'd design, a flamethrower that spewed highly concentrated acid. They were under instructions to not fire on any civilians and only fire on superheroes in self defence.

David was a lanky, bean pole of a man with the requiste wild Einsteinien hair that every self respecting mad scientist wanted to have, tatty lab coat with holes burnt, melted or cut into it, a nice white shirt with black tie and a pair of scuffed, well worn jeans.

Dropping in through the surface would be suicide and they'd get all of ten feet before being dogpiled by supers and PPD. No they would take the traditional villainous way in, through the sewers and burst up through into the Crowne memorial hall.

In the midst of the group of scientists were two hulking figures. The first was Chimmey, the creation that Dr Mechano had spoke of, a hulking catgirl patterned on the Amy template, bristling with cybernetics.


The other hulking figure was illuminating the sewers with a sickly green glow, the ever popular Steve the Shivan...well that's how he liked to think of himself. Steve wasn't actually here for muscle purposes he was here as an executive manager to oversee the operation. Under his gelatinous arm was a clipboard. Absorbed into the goo could be easily made out an equally glowing badge saying "Hello my name is Steve, please ask me questions on Project Chimera" The whole reason he'd bought the clipboard was to write down answers to any questions.

David raised his hand as he looked once more at the map, "alright we're where we need to be, below a store room out the back of the center so we don't come up in the middle of civilians.

"Hu...Fur..."

"Yes Chimmey hunny you'll get to grips with those people that killed Mike soon enough."

Chimmey gave a slow, slightly dimwitted giggling laugh...it was obvious she wasn't created for conversational reasons, infact she was no smarter than a three year old child.

Not long before 7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall, Kings Row.

Head hung low a young woman adjusted her battered leather jacket over her cropped shirt emblazoned with the Humanity First logo. Her eyes, slightly tired yet determined, were all the more striking thanks to the ninja mask covering the lower half of her face and the bandana holding her mousey blonde hair in place. Despite her unfamiliarity with the other newer recruits of Humanity First she gave a simple nod in greeting before hopping up and into a seat, heavily booted feat hit the seat first. Landing in a crouched position she balled her hands, covered in soiled adn bloodied wraps, into fists and scanned the crowd, alert to all around her and looking set to pounce at any moment.

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Altair Stevens shifted uncomfortably in her seat, giving a mildly disdainful look at the girl sat next to her holding two toddlers. "I cannot believe you tricked me into coming here Sabrina" she moaned.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine" Dragonfly lied, secretly nervous about the increasingly crowding hall. She was starting to regret bringing the babies to a potentially violent rally but Altair was childminding Damsel and Pious's foreign kid Hazel all evening and Sabrina regarded coming alone as a non-option. She needed Altair for moral support and as back up should something be starting.

"So this Chimera project huh?" said Altair, making conversation. "Remember Ed used to work at our church in Astoria? Man those were the good times. He was always a little on the strange side but I figured he was alright. Didn't really know about his comic-relief looney-villain days though. But now this?"

"Don't worry, he's still a comic-relief looney-toon" said Dragonfly, petting her son's jet-black hair. "Humanity First are going to talk to us about coming together to stop looneys exactly like him distrupting our peace, know what I mean? Should be a good meeting. Don't worry."

But Altair did worry. She wasn't supposed to be here and neither were the children. If Pious found out, she'd be in a lot of trouble with the other nuns.

7.30pm, Crowne Memorial Hall.

As Soap Box continued to scan the crowd he couldn't help but inwardly smile. Of the hero types assembled half had come equipped and costumed almost like some silent protest of their own. Meanwhile the other half had donned clever disguises, left obvious weaponry behind, or otherwise down played their presence in some other way in the hope they might get the drop on any trouble through the element of surprise of surprise. Still however they came Soap Box thought it was ironic that they, along with the PPD would provide him protection from any potential threat from Mechano.

Taking a deep breath, and flashing his most charming smile he started to address the assembly...

"I want to take a moment to thank you all for coming. It brings me great joy to see that so many of you have the wisdom and the courage to be here today and hear my words. I especially want to thank those amongst you who have attended even though your views differ from mine and Humanity First. Perhaps what I have to say might enlighten you."

A cheer and some clapping went out from some of Humanity First's more overt supporters.

Again Soap Box smiled, and then poured himself back into his speech. For some time Soap Box spoke of times past. He theorized that the legendary Gods in ancient Greece and Rome were nothing more than unscrupulous Supers who used their fantastic abilities to manipulate and scare the ancients into thinking they were divine. He then continued to speak about other historical events and highlighting how they too might be related to manipulative metas, or the irresponsibility of powered beings.

He then started to speak of modern times and events familiar to many gathered in the hall, but even those had a slightly different spin to the original tale. Many of his theories seemed highly plausible, and only those who experienced the events first hand could honestly say otherwise. Ignoring any attempts of heckling or engagement by non-supporters he then started to speak about current and local issues such as the irresponsible heroing by reckless crime fighters like Captain Hollywood, as well as the shenanigans of the diabolical Doctor Mechano and his walking bio-weapon Chimera.