Diamond Age of Superheroes [IC]

[Adjectives]

Shadowrunner.

Plaza Hotel, NYC. 3:37PM

Shadowrunner stopped roughly where she had guessed the King's room to be by the directions given by the guard over the radio. She slithered out of the side of the carpet as a shade, feeling the harsh lights hitting her instantly and forcing her into her physical form before a group of guards who were staring her dead in the face. All seven of them raised their rifles towards her, and she lifted her bare hands in the air in surrender.

"Please don't shoot! I was only trying to get away from the killer!" She cried, gesturing in the direction of the sounds of explosions and gunfire several corridors away. The guards seemed hesitant, unsure how to respond to the strangely dressed woman, and looked amongst themselves for a moment. Yet the moment was all she needed, in which she unclipped two grenades and threw them in front of her whilst falling backwards and vanishing beneath the carpet as a shade.

There were curses and screams as the explosions ensued and the corridor descended into darkness. She rose out from beneath the carpet, pleased as she saw the charred bodies before her. "Eugh..." One of the men groaned, separate from the rest of the bodies. It seemed that one had evaded the explosions. She drifted down towards the man as a shadow, materialising over him and pulling out her already bloodied knife.

As she did so, the man's foot struck out in a sweep, sending her sprawling to the floor and dropping the knife. The man got to his feet as Shadowrunner did, fury in his eyes. "You evil little bitch!" He barked, diving forward and grabbing the knife on the floor.
She swung her foot into his face, vanishing into a shadow as he made an attempt to slash at her legs. For a moment there was dead silence, in which the guard got to his feet and stared around in the darkness. "Boo." She whispered from behind him, firing a shot into the man's head.

Vanishing into a shade again, she swept down the corridor and through the edges of the door into the King's grand hotel room. There she spotted the King standing away from the door, obviously having heard the sounds of the explosions outside. She flew towards one of the counters of the hotel room as she was being forced into her physical form by the room's lights. She fired one of her guns into the massive chandelier which gave the room it's beautiful glow, causing the massive feature to drop to the floor like a bag of bricks.

She resorted back to her shadow form, darting across the room before materialising with her white gun in hand. "Au revoir, your majesty!" She grinned, pulling the trigger so that she might liquefy the King.

[Mercenary Lord]

August 17
Jared Hale
Synthia Robert's Apartment
3:50 P.M.

Jared glanced at the address in his hand. Yup, this was definitely the place. He glanced behind him, at Albel. "Thanks for coming this far with me, Albel, but I don't think you want to come in with me. What I'm doing is pretty much against the law, and I could probably be arrested."

Albel chuckled. "I know that. Why do you think I'm here? I'm not here to help you out. I'm here to guide you here, remember? Do what you like, but I'm staying out of this." He patted Jared on the shoulder, and turned on his heel, leaving. Jared grinned at the back of the man's head. Albel was a tricky one, no doubt about it.

The door was locked well, but Jared was pretty sure he could deal with it. It was a good lock, but it was a tumbler model, and he might be able to 'fix' it. He concentrated briefly, and generated a few small gravity fields, trying to use them to displace the tumblers, and unlock the door. He felt them rattle, and jingle, but when he tried the door, it stayed stuck. He rolled his eyes, and then tried again. Still no luck. Jared groaned, and then went for broke. He created a field the size of the lock, and ripped the entire lock mechanism out of the door. He'd fix it up later. Maybe.

When he pushed the door once more, it swung open. He snuck in, glancing around. He knew no one was home when the door remained unanswered, but he wanted to make sure there wasn't anyone lying in wait. He began his investigation. He had never been an expert in forensics, but he could do his best. If he could find an unexplained weapon, or another form of discriminating evidence, then perhaps he could put this woman away legally as well as physically. He tried, at least, but he found nothing he could use. Whoever this woman really was, she was good. At least, good at hiding her evidence.

He took a seat on the sofa, and groaned. I just need to take little break. Perhaps I'll find something in a bit.

[Arkaei]

Kit saw a man coming up ahead, and tried motioning for him to run... but then he was gone. He felt a rushing gale as he turned to look behind him, where the new arrival now was, to see the man punching the man/creature/thing that was chasing him with such force that it was blown back a couple of yards, tumbling to the ground with a loud 'thud'. Kit let out a low whistle.

"Woah." He breathed in admiration. Taking a closer look, Kit thought he recognized the mysterious figure that had come to his aid. The humble robes, the shaved head, and the way he disappeared... Kit's face widened into a smile.

"You're the 'Spirit', aren't you?"

This man most definitely was the one they called the 'Spirit', and Kit could not believe his good luck. A real, live superhero had actually saved his life.

"This has gotta be the coolest thing ever! Definitely telling Alex about this!" He let out a little fan boy squeal that he was not ashamed of in the least, losing touch with reality for a moment as he became lost in his own thoughts. This lasted quite a while before he remembered that the monk had addressed him, and, turning back to his savior, waved it off as nothing; a gesture made rather silly by the copious amounts of chocolate dripping off of his person.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Thanks for the save, though, not sure if I could've gotten away from him. " He said cheerfully, and he looked back to the 'thing' that was chasing him, walking up for a closer inspection now that it was incapacitated, laying crumpled on the pavement. It looked like it was human, but there was something distinctly... unhuman about it. Maybe it was the grey skin, or the disproportionately long limbs, but before Kit could turn it over to get a better look at its face, the creature disappeared, almost as if it were never there. He paused a moment, a confused look on his face, before he fell to the ground, rendered unconscious by a swift, unexpected blow to the head.

[Squrmy]

August 17th, Plaza Hotel NYC, 3:42 PM

Ghost stepped back from the dying Guard, looking down at his gun. AK-47.. I could do with one of those. He leant down, picking up the gun – opening a small rift, throwing the weapon through it, before immediately closing it again. He heard the sound of footsteps approaching – obviously the Guards had noticed their comrade had gone quiet. Ghost stepped back into the shadows, pulling one of his pistols half-out of its holster.

A pair of guards rounded the corner, stepping into the corridor – each of them holding an automatic assault rifle in his hands. Ghost teleported behind the first of the Guards, reaching forwards and wrapping his arms around his neck, snapping the man’s neck and ending his life in an instant. The next guard was quick to react, spinning on his heel and firing off a burst of his gun into the darkness – the muzzle flash lighting up the corridor, the sound of gunshots echoing around the hotel. Ghost, however, had had the foresight to jump again – and he was now behind the man, firing off a shot into the back of his head, a soft grunt being heard before the man toppled over and fell face-first into the carpet. “Fuckers.” Ghost growled, taking a few deep breaths to steady his nerves. He was beginning to get somewhat excited.

The next group of guards came more carefully – a tightly-packed group of five men, with their wits about them. Ghost had more trouble with them. He slipped behind the group, shooting two in the back before he lost the element of surprise – the three remaining men lowered themselves to their knees, back-to-back, pointing their guns in all different directions – their eyes narrowed in concentration. Ghost grinned – they had all directions covered but one.. up.

He stepped into the air above the guards, falling through the air and landing on top of them – the men falling to the ground in a confused mass of flailing limbs, their guns forgotten. He stabbed one of the guards quickly and efficiently in the jugular, his blood squirting out all over the carpet. One of the Guards managed to get a handhold on Ghost when he went to teleport away - so he was pulled with him through reality. Luckily for Ghost, when one hasn’t moved through realities before, it is a rather disorientating experience – so when they re-appeared down the hallway a few metres away, Ghost was able to stab the man in the back and have done with it. The last guard, however, had reclaimed his gun – and fired off a burst of bullets at Ghost as soon as he appeared. The teenager swore beneath his breath, rapidly opening a number of reality rifts – most of the bullets passing through them harmlessly, and those that didn’t merely grazed his skin on their way past.

He opened reality again, concealing his movements from the guard’s eye – moving around behind him, stepping quietly, slowly and deliberately. “They don’t call me Ghost for nothing, you bastard.” Ghost hissed from between clenched teeth, stabbing the man in the back before he could even begin to figure out where the young villain was. “Don’t fuck with me when I’m on business, you shit.”

[TheIronRuler]

USA, NY, NYC, Millennium UN Plaza Hotel, The king's room
2012, August 17th , 3:38 PM.

The explosive noise of discharged bullets drowning the sound of whimpering men desperate for their last breath threw the king away from the window and back. He looked at Morocono as the man took one last swig of his bottle and threw it aside, going for his holster and retrieving his black Glock pistol. Something went terribly wrong outside, and someone is about to pay for touching the King's men.

The door did not burst open in a grand display of brute force but instead a figure emerged from underneath it as a shadow and manifested itself for a moment in the room. It drew a pistol at the King, and before his friend could fire his gun the woman fired hers at the King. It was a strange gun indeed, a small colorful device like no other he had ever seen. After she had shot the gun, nothing happened. The woman dressed in leather clothes and looking more like a dream than reality was then hit by a shot from Morocono's pistol. She was tossed aside but quickly drew back into her shadow form, running away from the King's aid and the assassin. The King pulled down the curtains covering the large window and illuminated almost all of the shades in the room before the assassin could get near his friend.

She snapped a small knife out of her boot and prepared herself as the man charged at her. She plunged her knife deep inside his stomach but the King didn't flinch. He grabbed her arm, the sizzling noise of her flesh echoing through the room and ran towards the window, throwing her and him down the building. He had to protect his last friend on this earth, even if it meant breaking his curse and meeting death.

He held the assassin tighter as she tried to stab him another time but the two then quickly entered the shadow cast by the building, a perfect route for the shadow assassin to escape in. The King fell down into the busy street, his body thrown at the front of one of the parked cars outside of the hotel.

[Lydyn]

Leo raised a subtle eyebrow to the man's reaction, though he smirked lightly as he continued on. He was glad he could make him smile, he figured, even in a time such as this. Though as the man walked past him and towards the creature, he narrowed his eyes. "I'm unsure if that is wise.." he mentioned, though it didn't seem like the man was listening. Leo shifted, walking a little forward as he tilted his head a little to the side. Something was odd about this, he thought and his attention was snapped back into place as soon as he saw the creature reappear behind Kit and knock him out. Though in the monk's eyes, she simply saw the shadow form of the creature quickly step around the man.

The monk frowned slightly. "Illusionist ..." He had figured it out already. The creature was not where his eyes told him he was. Leo could feel the pulses and ripples the creature made and coupled with his unbound mind, it made it easy to see the truth behind the magic. It turned around, giving the monk full view of his form now. It was hunched over with double the arm length of a human and had a sickly pale tone to it's skin. It's face was similar to a human, but the eyes were huge and bug-like and it's mouth was unusually large as if it belonged to lion.

It's dark purple eyes stared at the man, before speaking. "You're not meant to be here, ascended one. Your kind is a burden to us." It's voice was both shaky and dark and reminded Leo of an echoing sickness that hid in the darkness. The monk just stared as it spoke to him. "The boy and his book are ours!" it suddenly screamed as if it was enraged by Leo's presence. "You weren't even meant to exist! Your kind's place is to stay low, human! It's a curse on us for you to reach higher than your station. Arrrgggh!" Leo's expression became more calm as the creature seemed to become more angry at the presence of the man. Apparently, there had been others that interfered with their work.

In truth though, Leo didn't have time for this. It continued to yell before starting to charge, but the monk didn't give it a chance as he flashed behind it and folded his hands, bringing his full force of strength to bare as he pummeled the creature into the sidewalk. It caused cracks in the concrete, but the creature was only stopped momentarily. It had broken arms and ribs, but the bones instantly healed and snapped together, only leaving his muscles slightly torn from the experience. The monk sighed slightly as he heard bones snap back into place. The creature reached out it's hand and drug it's claws into the man's skin, causing him to groan in some pain. 'Magic,' he thought as the claws bypassed the spiritual defenses that made their home on his skin. He wasted no time in picking the creature by it's neck and throwing it against the nearby building. If he couldn't break it's bones, then he'd tear it's muscles apart.

The creature hissed and moan as it's spine snapped back into place and it tried to free itself from the indent it's body had made in the wall. Leo had been quick though, as he darted to it's location and slammed his fist into it's skull. As the skull reconstructed itself, he just hit it's legs next, then arms, chest, legs, head, repeating the process as the bones broke over and over and left the creature stunned as it's skin and muscles were slowly being ripped away from the broken bones. It was smart enough to understand defeat though and in the brief moment in-between punches, it snapped it's fingers and melded into the darkness, it's shadow darting along the streets and running away. The aftermath was Kit on the sidewalk, cracks next to the man, and a nearly destroyed wall - along with explosions of chocolate down the street.

Newark, New Jersey
August 17th, 10:53 PM
A Rooftop

Kit would wake up to the site of being on a rooftop of a medium height building and on the other side was the monk he had encountered before - the Spirit - looking over the city calmly with his hands folded behind the small of his back. The monk glanced back and then paused, smiling lightly. ".. you're awake. Took a nasty blow to the head back there," he said, walking over to the man causally. He knelt down in front of him and seemed friendly enough with the same soft smile on his face. "Though it seems we've a few things to talk about - wizard."

[Arkaei]

Kit Faulkner
Newark, New Jersey
August 17th, 10:53 PM
A Rooftop

Kit awoke slowly, head spinning as he propped himself up on his elbows.

"What happened... and why am I covered in chocolate?" He held his arm in front of his face dazedly, observing the sweet-smelling, caked on mess with apparent interest. He felt like he'd just been hit by a truck, and tried to remember what he'd been doing before a pain in his head caused him to clutch a hand to the sore spot, throwing all thoughts of the incident out of his mind. He could feel a breeze... he was outside, he supposed. Looking out into the distance, he could make out tall buildings towering over the streets below, cars bustling underneath the glowing streetlights, and he tried re-orienting himself for a bit before giving up, head feeling too fuzzy to do any real thinking.

"... you're awake. Took a nasty blow to the head, back there."

The disoriented young man turned to face the source of the voice, to see the face of the Spirit looking back at him with a smile.

"Wha...?" He managed to splutter in response. Then, in a flood of recollection, it all came back to him, the monster, the running, the saving, everything. He guessed that the monster had somehow knocked him out, cold, and he was once again saved by the mysterious Spirit. Shaking his head to further clear his mind, he grinned as the monk went on, even going so far as to call him 'wizard'.

"Wizard, huh? Nah, I wouldn't say that... I can barely cast a few spells, the best I can do is some enchanting..." Kit said modestly, scratching his head . Still, he rather liked the idea. Wizard... Getting up from the floor, he stretched out his limbs, rubbing the back of his head to ease the pain and continuing with the conversation.

"And if you're talking about why that thing was chasing me, well, I don't have a clue, either!" He said, laughing heartily. He couldn't say that he was totally unconcerned about the situation, but seeing as how the creature was gone, and that he had no idea where he might find it (nor any inclination to, at that), he decided it wasn't worth bothering himself over. Then again, something about what the monk said started to bother him...

"Wait a minute, how do you know about that? Me being able to use magic, and all." Kit was getting a little interested, now. Who was this guy? Did the monk know something that he didn't...?

[Lydyn]

Newark, New Jersey
August 17th, 10:54 PM
A Rooftop

The monk stood up slowly as the man did, holding his hand out a little to make sure he was alright standing up by himself. Though he seemed to be doing fine, so Leo retracted his hand and folding it back behind his back calmly. He smiled slightly as he heard him claim he didn't know anything and Leo believe him. "That creature of darkness.. inferred as much. I'm unsure of your skill, but it seems the book you have is quite the artifact," he explained, simply watching Kit while staying fairly still himself. "They - whomever 'they' are - are after your book. It told me as much.. then.." he paused briefly, "it decided to vent it's frustration about my ascension and how humans were never meant for such things - which shows it's a knowledgeable, if dark, creature."

Now that had calmed down, Kit could get a full view of the man without being fogged by over excitement or danger. Leo didn't seem like anything but a normal man, though he held a certain aura of power and his eyes seemed almost unnaturally calm. On his right bicep seemed to be claw marks, which was arguably from the creature, however the blood had already clotted and the wound already less than it was. Leo didn't have true regeneration, but his natural healing process was a bit faster than normal, which let him stay up and about for longer periods or recover in shorter time spans.

[Adjectives]

Shadowrunner
2012, August 17th , 3:40 PM.

Shadowrunner watched as the King fell away from her, the road hurtling towards both of them. She instinctively fell away into the shadows, yet with much less focus than usual; her bullet wound on her shoulder was immensely distracting. As a shadow she clashed with the wall and then materialised before hitting the ground, landing painfully on her bloodied shoulder. She let out a screech of pain and frustration into the darkening city before she stood and quickly decided to escape into the shadows before she was noticed; slithering down into the sewers.

2012, August 17th , 4PM.
Shadowrunner's room

A small shadow slithered up the side of the high rise apartment building, snaking in through the window. Shadowrunner materialised on the kitchen floor, breathing heavily and she grabbed the counter and pulled herself to her feet. Cowardly little bastard. Shooting me from behind; what sort of a man would do that? She seethed, looking across the room and to her alarm, seeing the lights were switched on.
She looked across the room to see a man standing in her living room - she instantly reached for her knife that was still bloody from stabbing the king - and pointed it at the man. "Get the fuck out of my apartment!"

[Mercenary Lord]

Jared reacted quickly to the woman, creating a gravity field around the knife. "Whoa, whoa! Easy there!" The field increased the gravity of the knife by ten times, making it much harder to hold on to. I'm not here to cause trouble! I just need to-" He broke off as he noticed the bloodied, injured shoulder. Even to his inexperienced eye, it was definitely the work of a bullet, and it looked excruciatingly painful. "Oh, man. You're injured! Hold on, you can try to kill me in a bit." Without waiting for her to reply, Jared closed his eyes. Because the bullet was inanimate, and the woman was alive, it was easier for him to locate the bullet, and free it from her. He carefully extracted the round from her shoulder, taking great are to avoid injuring her further. If she got hurt even more because of him, then it would be his fault.

"There we go. I don't know where you keep your first aid stuff, so this is all I can do." He sat back, and settled on the couch again. "Sorry for breaking in like this, but I need to talk to you, and I didn't know if you would use the door. I have to ask some questions." He paused for a moment, and then glanced up at the woman again.

"Why did you set fire to a nightclub? If I hadn't bee there, the whole thing could have burned down." He raised a finger, as though he was saying 'wait'. "And before you ask me how I found you, Synthia Roberts, I'll tell you that I have access to an incredibly high-spec lab. It wasn't that difficult with the trace of DNA I got from you. Don't worry, I haven't called the police or any form of government. Yet. I just wanted to get the facts. You are far too dangerous for normal people to get involved with you.