((Open RP)) Rosies RP Prompts

This is a weekly article, delivered to you every Wednesday. These articles are intended to be a fun exercise as well as a good resource for role-players to explore Character Development so please feel free to post your own characters reaction to the weekly prompt. So be sure to stay tuned to this blog for future installments!

What would your character do, if faced with a Major natural disaster?


Serena and Jake stood huddled in the middle of the centuries old cemetery, looking at the glory of the remnants of their victorious battle and the beauty of the forest around them set afire in a blaze of light so bright they had both had to put an arm up to shield their eyes from the light. When Jakes powers had surfaced through the trauma of great emotional stress, a whollop of adrenaline and the need to stay alive, the combustion of his person had completely immolated his clothing, caused the creatures around them, which had begun feeding on the blood of himself and Serena, to explode from the sudden heat like gluttonous leeches and unfortunately to catch the dry timber of the tree’s alight with now untended, dangerous and quickly spreading fire.

Serena stood awestruck at the sight of the horrific beauty of the burning tree’s, the snapping of the logs like the return of gunshots and the screaming hiss of the few creatures whom had managed to get away from them floated sweetly on the night air. Jake stood in mute shock and wonder at what his powers had done and he shivered only slightly when a gust of powerful wind pushed his brown chin length curling locks back from his soot covered face.

She was the first to move, taking a few steps forward toward the fire, the hot wind scalding her face the closer to the flames she got, the warmth of it spreading over her body and relaxing her tired muscles against her will. She needed to be sharp now, that much was clear and as the aforementioned gust of wind passed over her ripped and sodden clothing she knew they needed to move and fast.

Jake meanwhile was starkly reminded of his nakedness by his own body when having seen Serena illumined in the bright light of the fire, his eyes gazed upon her with wonder. She was tall, lean with a robust hot house beauty which seemed almost exotic in the fullness of her lips, large heavily lashed eyes, and the angular nature of her nose. Her hair which was blown back from her face was a wealth of ebony tendrils dancing in the blaze of the heated air. It was thick, straight and long, shining with a glossy quality in the rosy light of the fire. He forgot to breathe as he looked upon her and when he saw the furrow of her bright eye and the line of determination on what had been a pouting mouth he took in the sight of her and when the wind hit him, it made him gasp for the air he had not known he had been holding.

Glancing about quickly he spotted an old tattered cloak that one of the creatures had been wearing, it was only slightly bloody and in relatively clean, though it had been badly torn. Wrapping this around himself in a toga like garment and praised his alma mater and the boys at Alpha Capa Alpha for throwing so many Toga parties while he was there. So when Serena stepped towards him closing the distance between them quickly he was although ridiculously completely clothed.

“The wind has shifted, the fire will spread quickly with the forest as dry as it is now and will be upon us soon, we must hurry.” She said grabbing his arm at the commencement of her words and began to drag him headlong into the darkness of the woods.

There was no problem with light now; the forest was as bright as midday with the red glow of the fire which licked at their heels. The red waves of the fire sped along, igniting the dry autumn leaves, fallen rotted timber and driving all of the wildlife before them in a cacophonous roar of the cackling fire. As for the creatures, those whom had resided for so long in the very heart of this old oak stand of ancient tree’s worshipping dark gods long forgotten where now caught by the quickly spreading flames or to be caught by Serena’s merciless hand, or by a shot of fire from Jakes own hand.

Jake marveled at his new powers, and he fought to control them, lest he should become the living torch again and lose the last shred of his clothes. However his new powers came to him instinctively, as if he had been hurling fire his whole life, but he could feel the heat building up inside of him, could feel it coursing like lava through his veins trying like hell to get out. Serena, looking back as the man whom had rescued her twice now grabbed her hand and pulled her forward as a flaming tree fell upon the creature whom she had just been fighting she marveled at the hand which fate had dealt her.

She had come here hoping for solace, calm and a place to retreat from her dangerous world of Paragon City, now she found herself before her first day in Brook Haven was even through, nearly being Kidnapped, sacrificed to dark gods and now running from a forest fire. God, her Grandfather Ryan would say, was not without a sense of humor.

((I gotta say, you make these very interesting indeed. Really stretch the mind for unique situations for characters. Again, masterfully done Lady C. I loved it. Here then is my own humble attempt.))
　

Quote:

What would your character do, if faced with a Major natural disaster?

Quote:

　
The ship rocked again in the churning waves, the lightning flashed above the decks of the large cargo ship as the crew struggle to keep it on course.
Inside among the massive crates and barrels sat six men in business suits, tailored to accommodate the large caliber handguns each carried under his jacket. Five of the men wore fedoras in the old style of classic gangsters, which surprisingly is exactly what they were. They sat is chairs arranged around a medium sized crate. They were part of an organization known in Paragon City as, The Family. The last one, was bald, dressed in a pure white suit, he was obviously the one in charge. He was part of the Marconi Family, James "Jimmy the Noose" Gambani, and right now he wasn't happy.
"Jimmy this boat's gonna sink I tell ya," said one of the men sitting around the crate,
At that moment the floor tilted to the side and 3 of the men fell out of their chairs. Jimmy, who'd been standing, stumbled slightly.
"Shut yer face Franko," he snarled at the man who spoke, "I don't like this any better'n you. But, ya gotta admit, we're far less likely to get busted by cops, or any capes, in weather like this."

As the men talked, argued and complained a figure was above them on two truck sized crates above them, looking down at the circle of men below her. She crouched in the shadows, just managing to keep her balance as the ship rocked in the force of the storm. Her red hair was tied back in a high ponytail, her eyes covered by a slim silver visor. She was dressed in white, a stripe the color of dried blood red ran down her side, arms and legs, emblazoned on her chest was the Greek symbol for Psi, also in the same dull red color. She wore black boots, gloves and oval shoulder guards, and carries in her hands two 50 caliber desert eagle pistols. Behind the visor, her azure eyes narrowed at the men below, she'd been tracking this shipment of Dyne for weeks now. She was trying to determine the distribution source, but now this storm threatened that.
The woman, Courtney Jane Williams, known to the hero community as Seer Taboo gazed down at the men, gaging the distance and which targets she'd go after first. Courtney, or CJ as some of her friends called her knew that this instinct didn't originally belong to her. It came from Amanda Winters, the Syndicate boss she'd stolen it from when see was a Seer in Praetoria. A feat she still wasn't exactly sure how she'd accomplished. She stared down at Jimmy, her mind reaching out to pluck the information about where they'd picked up the shipment. Port Oakes, in the Rogue Isles.
"Bingo" she said quietly to herself, "Gotcha now boys. Guess its showtime."
　
Suddenly the ship lurched again, violently to port when a massive wave crashed into it. The sky filled with lightning and driving rain as the crew continued to struggle against it. Even though the cargo ship was large, the storm's ferocity was taking its toll on the vessel. Already several of the upper deck hatches had been torn off and one near the bow had come loose during the last wave. Several members of the crew rushed forward to at least do damage control, and they were sweap off the deck when the next wave crashed over the bow. Several gallons of water cascaded down the open hatchway each time the waves crashed over the bow and the crew seemed powerless to stop it.
CJ yelped as she fell off of the huge cargo crates she was perched on, she used her telekinesis to stop herself and hover in midair, instinctively she spun towards the family thugs and her twin weapons roared as they spat bullets at the men just starting to react. 2 Family thugs went down as those first rounds tore through the men. They were bringing up their own weapons, 45 automatics, and returning fire at the hovering woman. She used her telekinesis to alter the path of the bullets so they missed, even as she directed the fire from her own weapons at her attackers. Jimmy however, had not pulled a weapon, instead he was concentrating the air around him warped slightly and then there was a field of warping around CJ. She struggled but was held fast by whatever Jimmy was doing. She concentrated and managed to bring her left pistol up and shoot Franko as he was taking aim at her. Then the force around her began to squeeze, she let out a cry of pain and her pistols fell a few inches free of her hands.
"Well, well, well," Jimmy said in a smug tone, "What do we have here? A stowaway? I mean you're not on the passenger list little lady, so you must be a stowaway."
CJ gritted her teeth struggling to free herself and glared at Jimmy. He just smiled back at her, his men leered at her skin tight clothing. A tribute to her skills there were only two of them standing, but it seemed like that would be plenty. The deck underneath them started to tilt, and unlike before it kept tilting. Jimmy and his two thugs lost their footing, and started to tumble towards the port side of the ship. CJ used her telekinesis and again started to hover, she also grabbed her guns off the deck. She heard the groaning of the ship and it started to capsize and the sound of crates sliding along the lower deck, until one slammed into her. She fell to the ground her pistols flew from her hands. As she was crushed against the port side of the hull. She struggled to free herself, blood from a cut on her forehead splattered against her visor, he head was pounding in agony.
'Get a grip' said a voice inside her head, a feminine voice, somewhat familiar. 'Get your guns and get us out of here.'
CJ shook her head, trying to clear it.
'Its me murderer, or rather all that's left of me.' the voice was harsh, cold and decidedly unfriendly.
'What? Murderer?' she thought in a haze, 'Who the hell are you?'
'Amanda.' came the simple reply.
CJ blood ran cold. Some part of Amanda still lived inside her? No, that wasn't possible.
'Afraid so Miss Williams.' came then instant mental reply. 'Come on now, where do you think you get your backbone from? Certainly not inside you I'll tell you that. You're simpering little girl CJ. If it wasn't for me you'd still be floating somewhere in Praetoria.'
'That wasn't you Winters.' she thought back angrily, 'That voice was guiding, comforting. It showed me how to...'
'Murder me.' Amanda's voice echoed in her mind. 'I died that day and now this fragment is all that's left of who I was. Well, I want to live CJ so get your butt in gear and get us out of here.'

CJ telekinesiclly pushed off the one crate and floated above it, just as one of the bulkheads gave way and a torrent of water came rushing in. She concentrated and her pistols floated up to her hands as well. She was shown how to access the psychic plane and teleport, but it require intense concentration and her head was splitting. She again shook her head to try and clear it, then she felt a hand grasp her ankle. She looked down into the angry face of Jimmy the Noose.
"Get me out of here hero," he said to her, grabbing her other leg, around the calf, "it’s what you do. You can’t leave me here to die." A bit of desperation creeping into his otherwise menacing voice, his eyes widening with fear.
CJ looked down at him, things flew through his mind’s eye. His childhood, beaten by his abusive father, ignored by his mother. School, his lack of hair making him a target of bullies, until he started fighting back. His becoming a "made man" and getting his first dose of Superdyne, and his most recent bit of stepping on board the cargo ship, his contact in Port Oakes, a Angelo Vendetti.
"That’s what I needed," CJ says in a cold distant voice, "Goodbye Jimmy."
The gun was placed against his head and after one pull of the trigger, Jimmy’s body fell away. CJ looked at him coolly for a moment, then her face changed, a look of shook, horror overcame her. She held the image of him falling into the water, which was getting increasingly closer. She knew that if she didn’t teleport soon, she would share his watery grave. Her brow furrowed in concentration for a moment, then disappeared in a moment. A moment later CJ was standing on a dock in Independence Port, the driving rain quickly soaking her to the bone, but the shiver had nothing to do with the cold.
　
((Hope people enjoy. That was a tough one, and it took me a moment to try and come up with a story to fit this prompt. Thanks again for the challenge.))

((Very well done everyone, and welcome Warsuit!))

"Intercom frequencies have been opened to the other three ships, sir," Ren's assistant informed.

"Thank you Felicity," Ren responded as he got his bearings and stood up from his seat. The airship cabin rocked unsteadily as the vehicle exited the dimensional portal. Five minutes ago, the fleet had been standing by on an airstrip just outside of Galaxy City. Thanks to cutting-edge technology and smart preparation, the Paragon's Own Inc. fleet mobilized with extreme efficiency and now cruised low over the Chilean coast of South America. Satisfied with his footing, Ren turned around to address the crew.

"First off, my apologies for the lack of communication during scramble but time is of the essence. Twelve minutes ago, an earthquake registering 8.8 on the Richter-scale occurred off the coast of the Maule Region of Chile."

Everyone in the cabin glanced uneasily at their neighbors and murmured quietly amongst themselves.

"Planet Girl has already scouted the area and determined that Concepción needs the most immediate aid. The damage to the city's infrastructure was heavy and rescue teams are having difficulty reaching the city itself."

As the airship began its descent, Ren clutched onto an overhead strap to maintain his balance.

"We'll be landing about a mile outside the city center. Rusalka will accompany Trauma Team and assist in establishing a field hospital by the landing zone. Doc will accompany Salvage Team Alpha and deploy the mobile bulk-mass teleporter. Alpha team will be responsible for clearing the streets for the other emergency rescue teams. Planet Girl will rendezvous with Salvage Team Beta at the critical emergency site, the "Alto Río" building. That fifteen story building landed completely on its side and an unknown number of civilians are trapped inside."

The crew settled into a nervous hush as they surveyed the chaos through the passenger windows. Though local time was approximately 4:00am and dawn was still a few more hours away, but the crew could see hanging smoke plumes, flashing emergency lights, and crumbling buildings. After taking in the view, they looked back at Ren expectantly, their visages displaying a show of haunted expressions. The dire situation caused memories of the horrible Rikti invasion to resurface and weigh heavily on their minds.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Ren continued in a subdued voice, "You joined this organization to make a difference. I'll tell you right now...heroism is not about super-powers or skills. It's about taking action when others can't or won't. The time for action is right now."

The ship touched down with a gentle thud and bounce, but everyone in the cabin remained seated. Ren wandered down the aisle, looking at each employee before stopping next to the jade-skinned giantess. Her body quivered slightly as she hunched over in her seat, not making any eye contact. Ren placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and she snapped out of her grim thoughts. She glanced briefly into his eyes, and he smiled back warmly before continuing the briefing.

"I'm not terribly religious, but I have the utmost faith in all of your abilities to accomplish what needs to be done today. You're the best crew in the business, and I will fight anyone who dares to say otherwise. We will overcome whatever challenges that arise here today because quite frankly, we're just that ******* good. Just wear your helmets, remember your training and watch out for any aftershocks. Everything else will sort itself out as long as you perform your assigned jobs."

The rear doors to the airship yawned open with a hiss. Without another word or glance over his shoulder, Ren hefted a supply pack over his shoulder and departed the ship. His words echoed in the crew's minds before the jade giantess stood up proudly. With steely resolve in her eyes, she donned a simple yellow construction helmet marked "Sheryl" and clapped her hands to catch the rest of the crew's attention.

"Alright, you heard the man. Let's get to work."

((Fires, Asteroids, Earthquakes! Oh' My! I love it, keep up the good work people!))

((Must clear a block of time, I know where Warsuit's metorieds came from))

((may do another story about the earthquake... after all... i created my own Chilean team... and can use my own memory of the events... though here in Santiago was only 8.2

Need some time))

((Ok here we go, can't say I'm happy with it, I can see the whole sequence in my head. Wish I had more time and talent. Needs more detail, and yes I know I just described the effect of Jack-O-Vision the same way they describe the effects of phasers in Star Trek ))

<Jack>, the AI’s face appeared on the nanoswarm blackboard Jack was working on.

“Not now Karen, I’m busy”

<I’m receiving a Pri1 request for intervention from the Space Probe Operations Core Kommandl AI, he’s specifying you>

“S.P.O.C.K? Command with a K? Really? I didn’t name that one did I?” Jack asked as the nanoswarm saved his blackboard full of equations and began to display radar composite.

<No Jack, you are not responsible for that particular atrocity > the face in the nano swarm smiled <Though there are a considerable amount of WOLFETECH designs in the Near Earth Warning Array>

“NEWA really? Isn’t that a state in Nepal?”

<Jack! Focus>

The nanoswarm reconfigured itself into a three dimensional image taking up nearly a 3rd of Jack’s loft lab.

“Big rock, how close?”

<Less then 3 light seconds, moving at approximately 40,000 KPH, the mass is quite high, indicating a very dense core.>

Jack watched the time , range, distance, and impact calculations form inside the nano swarm. “Damn, world killer…… Did they call Eric?”

<Chemical/mineral composition indicates possible problems for the Ascendant entity, in addition his power set is suboptimal for close range interception>

“Statesman? No never mind, I should know better it's helmet waxing day, what about Valor?”

<Capt Valor is off grid, and his power set is suboptimal for close range interception>

“Sub….crap, it’s loose mass around a dense core isn’t it? They don’t want one of us to do the neutronium bullet, to shatter it, it’s too close, they actually want me to catch that son of a ***** and push it out of Earth’s orbit.”

<Power profiles indicated your gravimetric based powers have the best chance of…..holding the mass together>

“Damn, I’m too old for this” Jack muttered as he headed towards the balcony, the swarm displaying the asteroid and the Karen’s face followed him, “I assume full power has been authorized?”

<You have been cleared for full power assent once you're in the zone, in addition Vanguard has notified the Isles you will be violating their airspace and the rest of the world powers of your flight profile. No one should try to shoot you down this time>

“Ok, tell them to open the East Gate.”

Jack kneeled on his balcony and a white glow engulfed him, the newly formed cape swirled in the breeze as the he stood , his board shorts and T-shirt transformed into the Purple and White of his “Dress Uniform”, his unruly hair pulled back into his trademark ponytail.

<The uniform Jack?>

“Gonna save the world, might be on TV, the marketing guys will Kill me if I don’t wear it.”

The laws of physics altered as he stepped into the air, soon he was traveling at the maximum speed allowed in Paragon airspace, ahead a small crack appeared in the great storm door of the War Walls. Passing through the gap he accelerated to Mach 6, the gravitons of the singularity at his core pushing against the mass of the Earth. Soon he entered a very special, and very secret part of the Atlantic, a place designated and recognized by all nations of the Earth for his next maneuver. The part of his brain where he monitored a particular part of the EM spectrum tingled and a voice entered his head.

“Dr. Wolfe, this is US Space Command you are cleared, good luck”

“Dr Wolfe, the Russian Confederation clears you, good luck”

“Dr Wolfe Vanguard clears you for full power”

“Archanos clears you Wolfe, don’t screw up.”

“Love you too Recluse” Jack muttered as he looked upwards. His eyes brightened,ocean parted beneath him, and the Earth slowed imperceptibly in its' orbit as the mass of the black hole at his core pushed against the Earth.

Orbit and the calm darkness of space, Jack squinted and found his target, still over 500,000 km away.

“Accelerating Karen, intercept in 2 minutes” he told the radio transceiver in his brain

Space literally warped around Jack as his mass increased, several molecules of Earths atmosphere found him more attractive then Earth’s gravity, EM communications around him was disrupted as he his acceleration topped 1000 gravities, then 2000.

Two minutes later he was hovering less then 100 KM above the huge mass, gravimetric lenses where his eyes used to be scanned the entire spectrum. “Ok Karen like we expected, dense iron core, soft gooey rock outside, I’ve found a good place to push, but it’s gonna take hours for me to add enough lateral delta V to this thing to miss Earth….and we’ll be real close bythen. Watch for splinters”

Looking much like an acrobat doing a handstand Jack touched down on the rock and began to push. The soft rock cracked around his hands as he burrowed into the surface, 300 meters down he hit the hard core. Digging his fingers into the iron like mantle he extended his gravimetric field, protected the asteroid, held it together and pushed. The lateral forces built slowly, 1 gravity, then 10, then 50, and slowly great rock’s course changed. A few degrees, then 10, then 15, over 10 hours later Jack was exerting 100 gravities of force across the face of the planet killer.

<Jack, you’ve done it, Earth is clear and the asteroid will clear the moon Earth system in 2 days.>

“Good to hear Karen, I was getting tired” the old man said wearily as he let the asteroid continue on it’s new course. “We’ll have to get some boosters out here and push farther out system, start working on the calculations.” Jack floated free the hole, crater really, he’d created in the surface of the rock he enjoyed the view of the great blue orb filling his vision. Carefully he began to tighten his gravimetric field, suddenly a great red splinter at the edge of the rock’s claw like shape broke free, catching the edge of his contracting field; it was whiplashed in the gravity flux and accelerated towards Earth, towards Paragon.

“Damn, spike Karen, heading for the city, warn them to take cover, it’s gonna be raining rocks.”

His eyes narrowed and the gravimetric lenses in the sockets retracted, twin streams of microscopic graviton particles flowed towards the great splinter of rock, disrupting the strong attractor forces in any atom they met. The effect was negligible when they impacted on the side of the splinter, but as elections were sheared from the atoms of the rock heat and energy were released . The beams passed deeper into the asteroid, well on it’s way to becoming a meteoroid, more and more power was released, more and heat built up, soon the mass exploded, and a rain of fiery red rock fell upon Paragon, but at least the city would survive.

((Just a thought, but have you ever considered creating a group, possibly on deviantArt to collect all these prompts, Cyrsei? I could create a section devoted to it on the current CoH dA group.))

((Great stuff Jack, your a better writer than you give yourself credit for As for a DA group, I'd never considered it to be honest I haven't even started posting my writing yet to my DA page. Though I think its a fabulous idea and a great way for all of Cities talented and budding writers to feel apart of something greater. I fully support the idea and if you need any help just give me a holler ))

((I just set up a new folder within the City of Heroes deviantArt group called "Lady Cyrsei's Weekly Fiction Challenge. I figured it'd be nice to have a site to store the vignettes for future reference. What I can do is cross-post your prompt every Wednesday on the Group's blog. I should mention that dA is of course free to join, as is the CoH group there. The link to the group is in my signature. Anyone who plays CoH or is an artist who does/has done CoH-related commission work is welcome to join. I should mention that the CoH Art Lead David Nakayama posts his conceptual art for the game there too.

The fiction writers are a small segment of the dA population but I still think it's a nice place to post stuff.))