Paragons of Motor City IC

[The Kid Lantern]

Motor City [not Detroit] is a city full of pain and loss. After a devastating earthquake in the 1990's that emitted unknown chemicals resulting in the birth of superhumans the city hasn't been the same. Sure, part of the city was rebuilt, but other areas still suffer without proper funding and more and more superhuman criminals rise up to take advantage. However, part of the city has been put under the protection of the Droid. Created by Dr. Grimes, the Droid is active in the more technologically advanced areas of the city. But when the Droid is corrupted it's up to the Paragons to keep it from enslaving the population.

Motor City OOC

Rules:

1.) No back-to-back posting.

2.) PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND SET-UPS!!!

3.) Make sense. If we can't make heads or tails of your posts they're likely to get skipped over.

4.) Get permission before using another player's character in your posts if it involves changing the scene or making actions. Everybody will take beatings in this game in battle however, so don't get pissed if you get punched or blasted into a wall by the bad guys!

5.) Problems with the game or players should be sent directly to me through PM's. I don't want a bunch of bickering in the OOC.

6.) Abandoned characters will be used as NPC's or killed off within the context of the story.

7.) “I was waiting for [insert player/character] to make a move” is not an excuse to not post.

8.) My word is law.

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Motor City was a major metropolitan area much like New York, Chicago, or Detroit, but an earthquake in the 90's changed all of that. A city with a population of 723, 416 people dropped to 230, 904. A quarter of the citizens had little to no help getting back on their feet. Businesses tried to pick back up and were doing better after the introduction of Doctor Grimes' Droid technology began protecting another quarter of the population. But now, the Droid technology has become a techno-oraganic virus and enslaved the 59,000 people it once protected and infected at least 34,000 of them creating half robot half human cyborgs. But while the technological nightmare feeds on a fraction of the population, the rest of Motor City is filled with scared civilians who have already lost so much who are still being terrorized by the occasional metahuman criminal.

Thomas Winston, better known as Shotgun, was an up and coming hero who had been operating in the 'City as a hero now for roughly 5-6 weeks. Winston was a 22 year old cashier at a neighborhood gas station in South Highland who graduated from Jefferson High. Winston was still only back in town for just two months and had already got a low level job during the early hours of the day, a new superhero alias, and applied for an arts college for the next semester. Oh, and he took down the Madness in Church Circle.

Winston came into his appartment smelling like body odor. Working from 6-1 earlier that day, the young man came home to grab a shower and his costume. He checked his FacePage a couple times noticing he'd gained over 3,000 followers in no time at all, and a YouVid recording from a civilian's cell phone had over 200,000 hits. Winston grinned before spraying on some body spray. He knew he wasn't big time yet like that Lonestar guy out of Texas, or that green behemoth who leaps around smashing things in what always appears to be childrens pajamas, but he was getting there. Maybe someday Motor City would have the help it needs to get rid of the Droid once and for all. In another instant Winston grabbed his tobaggan and leaped out of his top floor window with a loud KA-BOOM! and began ripping through the sky towards the Droid infected area.

There were only 3 officers protecting a border safely away from the more dangerous infected. Just a block or so behind the officers puppets of the Droid tried to mimic human life with the occasional techno zombie attempting to walk a dog, or sell items in a candy shop, another with greying skin and red eyes shouted "Hot Dogs! Get ya hot dogs here!?" puzzled that he wasn't selling any of the rottened meat he threw into molding buns.

Minutes later...

"I have to find her, you don't understand...." Shotgun pleaded with one of the police in front of a large crack in the earth leftover from the quake that separated most of the Droid infected portion of Motor City.

"No YOU don't understand, punk. So what, the first girl you saved is in there somewhere, in some secret location with thousands of survivors...? Any civilians not infected were EATEN and harvested for raw materials..." an officer shouted back a bit offended this small time hero thought he was just going to go into an off limits zone.

"There's people in there, damn it! How will you ever know if you stop sending teams into the deeper infected areas?!?" Shotgun began as the officer spoke into a radio to get backup.

"Screw it..." Winston mumbled blasting into the air with another KA-BOOM! into the infected zone...

~KL~

[Blathers]

A seemingly teenage male with dark red hair and a piercing yellow gaze made his way through the streets. Ashter squinted with distaste at the robotic beings trying to pass off as human. He wasn't fooled by their demeanor, nor was he fooled by their distinct lack of a proper human soul. Ashter was an agent from the underworld, but he was not sent here for the sake of dark underhanded things. He was on here with the intention of stopping the conflict. At first the manticore in disguise hated the idea of playing servant to humans, even if it was in the name of the dark lord himself.

But the longer Ashter watched how the authorities handled the situation the more he learned to dislike them. Ashter would go to the ends of the earth and back to assist his fellow kin. How could humans do anything less? He slunk in the shadow of a police car trying not to attract attention. He could feel the distressed beacon of souls in agony. Of souls in danger off in what the city officials referred to as the 'infected zone'. In this area, the strife of others seemed apply pressure to the sides of Ashter's skull in small waves.

"Sad that the citizens of this city depend on the work of a hell-spawn to protect them rather then those they've elected to do the same." Ashter said to himself as he transformed into his true form; a manticore. He stood with a form of a lion in deep red. He had the wings of a dragon, the horns of a dragon and a tail with razor sharp spines that could penetrate the thickest of steel.
"There's some irony to be had there." The manticore grinned with grim amusement. His razor sharp fangs gleamed. Ashter manipulated the shadow in order to get out of the sight of the officer before spreading his wings for flight.

Ashter leaped into the air with his pitch black wings spread. His white pupil-less gaze was in search of souls that required his assistance. Whether it be to preserve their life... or to guide them to the underworld.

[TheAcmeEmployee]

"Look! It's LONESTAR!"

A gathering of worried civilians huddled at an infected zone border became a small crowd of cheering fans as the superhero Lonestar landed by them. Walking through the crowd towards the police at the border, Lonestar smiled and waved, pausing for pictures and autographing the Lonestar merchandise shoved towards him. Action figures, posters, t-shirts. Lonestar was huge, a house-hold name, a reluctant celebrity. Honestly, he did enjoy the limelight more than he cared to admit. Spending decades alone left him with a loneliness that only this kind of attention could satisfy. The love these people had for him wasn't a personal one, but Lonestar loved them back all the same. A screaming woman pushed through towards him, throwing herself at the young hero. A mortified man, likely a husband or boyfriend pulled the woman back as she professed her 'love' for the superhero at the top of her lungs. Lonestar mouthed an apology to the furious man as the hero escaped the crowd and walked over towards the police. He raised two fingers to his wireless earpiece, as the smooth, showbiz voice of his agent came through.

"Damn, 'Star! The ladies sure do love ya, and I can see why!"

"I dunno, Rick.." Cal said. "What happened jus' to takin' a lady out on a date?"

"You gotta get with the times, spaceman!" Rick laughed. "Anyway, you go do your thing, handsome. Just be back for your 'shoot in the morning!"

With a sigh, Lonestar approached the policemen, a simple nod from the hero letting them know who was in charge. Rick was flashy to say the least, almost fake in a way, but he was the closest thing to a friend Cal had anymore. Well, his only friend who wasn't retired. Lonestar's presence alone seemed to take the edge off the authorities, and they stared at him as if awaiting orders from an army general. Cal had learned to use his charisma and his relationship with the public just as effectively as his superpowers. Talking a criminal down was his preferred method of crime-fighting. Even then, fighting crime wasn't Cal's goal. Keeping people safe was the priority. But when push came to shove, Cal could go blow for blow with the strongest beings on the planet.

"Great to see you, Lonestar." the officer in charge said, clearly bitter that his authority had been diminished by Lonestar's arrival.

"Howdy, officer." the hero smiled charmingly, shaking hands with the man. "My agent's been keepin' me up to date on the situation, and with your permission, I'd like to go in and lend a hand. Any word on survivors?"

"Be my guest. We've heard of a small group of survivors hidden in a mall to the northeast."

[Hillan]

Johnny Moore, the mechanic laid in the bed of the finest silk in Motor City, in a very expensive condo belonging to some billionaire CEO he had heard about once or twice. He laid in the bed with a blonde woman ,a few years older than him, in her late twenties. She laid kissing him on his neck. His head was a bit blurry from the night before. It had included shots down at the bar after him stopping a bank-robbery, and he somehow ended up here with this beautiful woman. He smiled as he kissed her on the forehead, doing a quick mental sweep on her, to regain everything she knew about about him, her name, who's apartment this was, and he also gathered what time her husband would come back, the former heavy weight boxer, now turned businessman. He'd be home any minute.

Shit. Johnny thought as he gently pushed her off him. " Stay there beautiful, I'm sorry, but I've really gotta get back to work. I promise I'll call you." Johnny said with a smile ,as he began putting on his pants quickly. His head pounding too much for him to even be able to use his telekinetic powers, should he want to. Alcohol, my kryptonite. he thought to himself as she groaned and asked him to come back to bed. " Some other time sweetie. I have alot of work to do today. See you tonight?" Johhny said as she nodded and stretched in bed. He put on the Guns N' Roses T-shirt that laid on the floor as well as the black dress-shirt he had worn over his T-shirt yesterday. He wore black chinos and he put on his black leather shoes as he gently walked out of the room, as he heard the lock off the door gently turning. He groaned as the man came through the door, seeing him standing in the hallway " The hell?" The large man said as he took a stance as if he meant to attack Johnny.

Johnny gulped as he walked towards the man. "This might sting a little." He said as he walked over to the man, using his telepathy to putting his body in a sort of temporar stasis, delaying his thought process with a few micro-seconds as Johnny put his finger onto the man's forehead, removing any memory the man had of Johnny, but also putting in all the information Johnny had gathered from the mans wife.

" Sorry bout' bangin' your wife man." He gently said as he headed out the door, hearing a few seconds later how the man cheerfully spoke to his wife.

"Idol, saving one marriage at a time." He said to himself as he walked down the apartment building.


* * *

He had gone home, taken a shower and grabbed his outfit. The blue suit with the black leather jacket and the bandanna and shades. He couldn't explain why, but people somewhat forgot his face. They never could remember his exact feature even if they'd see him without his sunglasses. He guessed it had something to do with his telepathy, so he didn't really need to use a real mask. He made his way to the infected Droid-Territory. Sensing another few heroes in the nearby vicinity. He also sensed a few humans, about a block away form where he was, Only two, but there were certainly a whole group of infected about to attack them, since he could hear them praying for help.

He flew over there, landing with a heavy thud, letting out a psionic wave that staggered the infected that were close to the two, one teen girl, and what he supposed was her little sister. He formed his hands into gun-shapes, as he fired off tiny psionic blasts from his finger tips, knocking down the infected around them, it wouldn't destroy them or kill them. No, he was trying to reach telepathic contact with them, but yet he couldn't so he decided to knock them down and escort the civilians to safety. " Don't worry. Idol's here." He said with a smile as he formed the forcefield around the two, whom were still in shock as he flew over to the Police a few blocks away, along with Lonestar.

" Yo, Officer. Some survivors. I sensed more, but they are heavily guarded." Idol said as he nodded. The Police Liutenant really didn't like Idol, even if the young hero was pretty famous, being around Motor City for the past 3 months, making quite a fuss about himself. He smiled as he saw Lonestar. " Care to lend a hand with saving a few civvies?" Johnny asked him with a light smirk.

The field collapsed around the two females, whom both got out and cheered. " Thank you mister. You saved our lives!" The younger said to Idol as he smiled, hunching down and looking at her through his sunglasses. " No worries. What kind of hero would I be if I didn't help a couple of damsels in distress." He said with a light scoff.

He turned to the crowd that was around, smiling as the cameras flashed at him, unlike Lonestar, he was blatantly showing that he loved the attention. He soaked it in. He only wished they wouldn't scream so loud, he was still hungover.

[The Kid Lantern]

Now that heroes were around and there was a show, news crews and civilians alike now stood at the line where once only 3 officers patrolled the crack in the earth. Now at least a dozen officers were at the line that was fenced in most of the way around, but some holes have been made since then. Shotgun tore through the skyline of buildings in the infected zone of the city. He had heard some survivors speak of a place where the Droid was keeping humans alive. Out of the corner of his eye he saw and heard gunfire coming from the top what was once the Northside Motor Mall. Hundreds of techno-zombies walked aimlessly outside. It looked like the mall itself had seen better days.

Flying by, once the hero saw the man on the roof wasn't infected he touched down.

"It's about time one of you guys with superpowers stepped in. We've been out of contact now with the outside world for at least two months. You one of them Defenders or whatever?" the bearded man asked.

He wore a truckers cap with something patriotic on the front. He wasn't dirty, looked a little hungry, and had more ammo than he needed to pick off as many techno-zombies as he wanted in his spare time. If Winston had got to know the man longer he would've found out his friends used to call him Lucky, which he wouldn't be for much longer.

"No sir, that was just a movie. But I DO think the green monster guy is based on a real metahuman. Can you take me to the rest of the survivors? I need to know what we're working with..." Shotgun explained as the two men walked to the door on the roof.

"There's only seven of us. Two made it out of some place underground where they have some others held. We lost a man named Tony when we let James in. One of those things just Houdinied the craziest looking blades out of its arm and cut him in half. I noticed some of the machine is inside James, you can see gray lines in parts of his skin though he tries to keep them covered. I don't trust him. And something's off in his voice lately..." the old man explained...

Turning the corner of the stairs and entering the inside of the mall by way of the food court five of the remaining survivors hung out around a fountain in the center eating what food they had found. One was the girl Shotgun was looking for... Ashley. Everyone in front of Winston's expressions changed in an instant when chainlike tendrils coming from the arms of a more infected James ripped Lucky in half. As Shotgun turned around there was Lucky laying in pieces in pools of blood at the feet of James who happened to open the entrance to the mall to the Droid infected techno zombies outside with a dozen or so already inside!

~KL~

[Blathers]

Ashter could feel a soul dimming in his vision. That usually signified a death. The manticore aimed himself in that direction to lend assistance, or in the very least clean up the leftover souls. As Ashter got closer he sensed the wane of a soul unlike the others around. It glowed more fiercely with determination. The more it shined the stronger the will of the individual, and heroes were often credited with having the most powerful wills. Ashter groaned internally to himself. He sympathized with the civilian humans due to how they were betrayed by their leaders, but he still had a job to do while those claiming themselves to be 'heroes' did it to what he considered simple self satisfaction.

It was tiring to deal with those types. Especially those that assume that Ashter aligns with the opposite side simply due to his appearance. The only upside to their presence was that they actually chose to help people, even if it seemed to Ashter like selfish reasons. He touched down on the roof of the mall with his claws outstretched. His barbed tail hung above his head in self defense as he glanced about the roof for targets. There was noone present. The action seemed to be taking place indoors. Good. This sunlight was starting to get on Ashter's nerves anyway.

Ashter entered the room cautiously in his human disguise. He wanted to assess the situation before he turned into something that humans might consider a threat. He clung to the shadows and bent the shadows to help obscure his lithe form. A superhero clad in a strange costume and a small pack of humans were present. The souls of two recently deceased humans drifted in the air... along with one of the infected standing in their remains. He supposed it was time for him to introduce himself, lest the rest of the innocents become slaughtered.

A hail of spikes were fired from a dark corner of the room. They whizzed by the survivors and embedded themselves in their target, but Ashter was not sure what kind of effect they had on the creature. Ashter's eyes glowed an intense white but only a feint outline was visible due to his shadow manipulation. He didn't want to reveal his true self yet, not with a room full of armed humans and a super powered being that could turn on him.

"Pardon my intrusion. I am here to assist." He said with a calm tone. He glanced over to the hero present. "It's time we take control of the situation, yes?"

[TheAcmeEmployee]

"Idol." Lonestar nodded. "Mighty fine of you to lend a hand."

Cal wasn't sure how he felt about Idol. He was a hero, sure, but Idol was no role model. That's why the world needed Lonestar. With all the reality TV 'stars', and all the celebrities taking a revolving door approach to rehab, Lonestar was someone people could look up to. To him, fame was a responsibility. As he watched Idol soak up the attention from the small crowd, he couldn't help but chuckle. Fame and fortune could turn a man into something awful, not to mention a man with powers like Idol's. But Lonestar insisted that Idol was a good man, perhaps good for the wrong reasons, but good nonetheless. A little maturity, and Idol could be great. It seemed that Lonestar was one of only a few incorruptible, truly good figures in the world. And the people of Motor City needed a paragon at a time like this.

"Shall we?"

****

Rocketing towards the scene of the mall, Lonestar noticed the horde of infected men and women flooding towards the large entrance. It would obviously have been locked down beforehand, meaning that the survivors inside were in trouble. He flew overhead, looking down through the large domed window in the roof at the survivors huddled around the fountain. As the infected inside made a beeline for the fountain, Lonestar leapt into action. Crashing through the glass dome, he landed on the floor, planting himself squarely between the survivors and the oncoming infected. As one of them made a lunge for him, Lonestar swung a controlled punch, which sent it hurtling through the air and crashing through window of a shop. Cal watched as it picked itself up and continued towards him. They could take a few hits, that would make things considerably easier. The superhero turned, and uprooted the massive stone statue from the center of the fountain with ease.

"Mind if I borrow this?" he winked to the survivors.

Wielding the huge stone structure like a baseball bat, Lonestar began clearing through the oncoming infected, launching them in all directions with a swing of his makeshift weapon. Grabbing it horizontally with both hands, he began using it like a battering ram, shoving the infected back through the entrance, before wedging the statue in the large doorway as a barricade. If only it were that simple, there was plenty of ways the infected could force their way in, and Cal knew he couldn't barricade them all before the infected would overrun them.

"Alright. That ain't all of 'em." Cal began in an authoritative tone as he turned to face the others. "I'm gonna need y'all to- Oh."

He stopped abruptly as he noticed the man known as Shotgun and the shadowy figure standing by the survivors.

"Uh, howdy." Cal said.

[Aro]

KA-BOOM!

"Jesus Christ!" Jason shouted as he shot up in his bed. "Can't they do something about those damn things?" He asked aloud as he looked out the window by his bed to where three police officers gaurded the Crack. "Maybe I should try and get a different apartment. Although, with these being so close to the infected area they are cheap." He said to himself as he laid back down. "Although they are rather spacios for the price." He crossed his arms behind his head and looked out towards the rest of his apartment. Besides the room where he was sleeping there was a fully stocked kitchen and a rather spacious living room, spacious meaning it was empty besides a tv and a couch. "Eh." He mumbled as he rolled over onto his side and shortly fell back to sleep.

It wasn't long before though that he was woken up again, this time be the sounds of people cheering. "I need stop leaving the tv on when I go to sleep." He muttered into his pillow. "Wait a sec," Jason said as he pisked himself up. "I didn't leave the tv on. That's coming from..." He looked out his window once again. "What the hell are all those people doing out there? Nervermind that," He got out of the bed and slipped on a pair of pants before looking out the window again. "Oh, now I see." He muttered as he could see Lonestar and another hero he believed to be Idol. "Well that explains all the racket at least." He turned away from the window and put on a shirt, one of his favorites, an orange shirt with a radioactive symbol covering most of it. "I don't plan on letting the celebrity and cowboy there get all of the attention today." He muttered as he quickly put on his boots and vest before heading out of his apartment and up to the roof.

"It's days like this that I wish I knew how to fly." He said as he looked down at the ground, several stories below him. Turning his attention back towards the infected zone he could see that a few news crews had arrived, no doubt after hearing that Lonestar was saving people in the infected zone, he was rather surprised that more people weren't around. Further inside the zone he could see Lonestar rising into the sky before flying off towards the old mall. "Wonder what's going on over there?" He asked as he stepped up onto the small ledge of the apartment as a small disc of energy, nearly the same color as his shirt appeared in front of him. "I sure hope this works next better than last time." He muttered as he gingerly placed his foot on the disc, seeing that it would hold his weight he smiled as another appeared ready and waiting for his next step. "Since I did have the day off today I may as well get in a good little work out." He said before he started running, each disc appearing before his step would hit it and disappearing as soon as his foot left it. It was certainly better than the last time which had caused to spend a few days in the hospital while he healed up.

As he passed over the crowd of people he could see that several were recording him with their cellphones and even a few of the news cameras were turned towards him before returning to the reporter on scene. He continued with his run turning towards the mall. He couldn't see Lonestar anymore but he figured that he'd be at the eart of the scene so instead of heading to the main entrance where most of the infected were entering he angled over towards one of the smaller side entrances and touched down, instantly gaining the attention of the surrounding infected. "Oh, this," He smiled as he cracked his knucles and a set of brass, rather energy, knuckles appeared on each hand. "This is gonna be a great workout."

[The Kid Lantern]

The man known as James was having problems getting around the field around Shotgun. With every punch the hero had thrown splitting into several hits it was easier than expected for him to get around the more wild and random attacks of the organic machinery. The cowboy hero Lonestar decimated a lot of the techno-zombies back toward one of the entrances with the fountain statue. Idol seemed to be focused on keeping the survivors alive. With an arm cannon now forming on his left forearm, James looked as if he was about to get a few good shots in when Shotgun blasted into the high ceilings of the mall and back towards another entrance/exit. Upon impact with a wall that was mostly destroyed, Shotgun looked up from the wreckage of his landing with James to see a somewhat familiar face fighting off a few Droid infected civilians. Standing to his feet and dusting himself off he glanced down at what was left of James...

"Some people deserve to die. Others don't deserve to live. You were stuck somewhere in the middle, you sonofabitch." Winston said.

KA-BOOM! Shotgun had blasted toward the oddly familiar face and took out four infected civilians upon landing.

"You look like somebody I knew in school..." the rookie hero began saying, "did you go to Jefferson High?" Shotgun asked as the two heroes made it past a few more Droid infected civilians as well as what used to be a dog and back towards the rest of the group by the fountain.

~KL~

[Hillan]

Idol had followed Lonestar closely, finding the survivors without much trouble. However, as Lonestar got to banging the statute against the droids, knocking them apart little by little, Idol began feeling something. He used his powers to fend off infected from the few survivors, but there were two rookies amongst them, one that seemed quite brutal. As Lonestar continued his rampage, Idol sighed. "Brutes. You people have no sense of style." He said as his eye behind his sunglasses began glowing in a blue-color.

One of the Infected lunged himself at Idol, whom grabbed the infected by the head and used his telekinetic powers to restrain the man, and generate a forcefield around them. As he was about to crush the Droid's skull, he sensed something. There was still a mental signal in there. His eyes flared up brighter as he put his hand on the mans forehead, he stopped resisting and just passed out. Idol turned towards Lonestar and looked at him.

As the Statue was gonna come down for another swing, Johnny put up his hand and jerked it backwards, stopping the statue mid-air. "No. We don't need to destroy them. They all have a slight mental signal. There's still people inside of them." He said his voice was harsh as he used his other hand to fling away four infected from himself. "I have limited control of the electromagnetic spectrum, and if I combine that with my telepathy, I can make a mental EMP that puts them in stasis till we can began to figure out a way to cure them" Idol exclaimed.

" YOU WANNA SAVE THEM?! THEY MURDERED MY FAMILY!" A man shouted with tears in his eyes at Idol, whom nodded. " I do. They are as much the victims as you are."

It wasn't that that Idol really cared much about these people, because he had read their thoughts, they had all but given up hope. They were broken, even if their bodies did survive this confront, their minds didn't, no, but he did care about the headlines it would make.