Shelly / Garbage

"3, 6, 9 damn you're fine, move it so you can sock it to me one mo time
Get low, get low, get low, get low, get low, get low, get low,
To the windoooow! To the wall!
To the sweat drop down my balls
To all these bit-"

Shelly scooched the door open, operating the door handle with her elbow, to find the usually vaccant lounge not vacant. She unscooched the door closed and began fumbling with her phone to find the calendar and stop Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz from dropping sick licks while she was attempting to concentrate. A series of plings, tones and chimes reminded Shelly that she really hated the calendar app, and that she'd would be having visitors. The calendar was switched back off again despite its feeble warnings and Shelly prepared herself for meeting new people. She set her tea down on a nearby table and began pulling objects in and out of her hoodies cavernous front pocket. Phone away. Mask. Gloves. Phone. Phone away again. Cutiepie Miffy Scrunchy! Alright, time to make a great first impression.

"Hey-yo!"

Spot on.

Shelly had already spent a great deal of time ogling their physiques to guess their measurements, prisons didn't take the inner leg, and recognised them easily from their file photos and CCTV recordings. She'd still give them the opportunity to introduce themselves as not to appear a creepy stalker. She smiled, relieving the manikin woman of a slice pizza with a little "thank you!" and an equally little curtsy before she plopped down on the end of the corner sofa with a good view of the AIs endlessly driving at a moderate, noncompetitive pace behind a scoreboard.

"I'm Garbage by the way, I'm part of the team that'll be modifying and making supersuits for those that don't them already. Now don't worry, you guys aren't going to look like the fantastic four, its unfeasible and horribly cliche, the suits will be made to your specifications just as they're made to your measurements. Oh and please don't worry about my mask and gloves, they're for our protection, I got one of those dumb gifts you can't turn off. Did someone mention Capture the Flag?"

"Thank you." Tanya said while grabbing some of the Chinese takeout that was ordered. She noticed the group gathered around the new arrival and was rather tempted to just ignore them. The temptation was strong due to how strange they all seemed, but it was pointless considering that they would all be working together soon. She let out an internal sigh and decided to approach. Her mind went through a dozen potential futures including all their responses and even Garbage's arrival.

"Nice to meet you Garbage. I'm Tanya Watson."

Tanya veered into a future in which she shook the woman's hand, but even then she was unsure of any long term harm. Still she seemed nice with an interesting name. "They'll be a paintball match soon with powers. Not sure about joining in myself since I don't think I'll be that useful." That was a lie since her abilities would be very useful for this, but Tanya wasn't entirely confident in her potency. She still had trouble trying to not get confused when seeing the future. Even now it was a little annoying trying to get a feel for the right timeline.

Ajax always thought that the radiation wave that swept the world only affected people on the inside. It was not until he had a meet-up with all the oddballs in Saturn Prison that he actually realized the permanent consequences it etched on those less unfortunate. Ax made it easy; he had an underdeveloped power, but it took four months of active vigilantism for him to get identified as a Gifted. Even then, the Saturn staff couldn't believe he was capable of causing any harm. But then he came across Heather who was technically a disembodied voice, and that fascinated him, especially considering she...or it, was also a Gifted. Then entered another Gifted, a female. She had a very confident aura surrounding herself, almost as if she'd been on the facility before. She reached for a slice of pizza, prompting Ajax to do the same. He'd forgot there was pizza around. As "Garbage, apparently that was her alias, talked about her role in the team, Ajax froze, a slice of pizza on his right hand and a bottle of coke on his left. His Weaver alter ego always wore a makeshift costume he hastily put together. He never had a chance to get into something more comfortable and adaptational to a battle situation.

"Hey, is it possible you could build a costume that can somehow propel ropes from itself?" Ajax queried, fitting the delicious slice of pizza in his mouth. If there was anything he needed, it was that. It would indirectly enhance his ability and provide him a tactical advantage.

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@Morose

Archer really was pumped for some paintball. He hadn't played for a while, but still. The objective was pretty easy. Shoot to win, and capture the flag. Archer was also really glad he was on the team with the soldier of the group. Considering that he was the man that had more training then anyone in the room. Archer's hand pulsed with red energy, and sparked. "Whoa..!" He yelled, practically jumping like an cat.

Apparently his powers also work when he's excited, surprising. He just hoped that they would be able to use their powers on the battlefield. This was going to be fun he thought. "Hey, Vivian, you good at paintball?" He asked, he didn't want a bum on the team. He was really competitive.

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Vivian paused, wrinkling her nose at the latest newcomers. It wasn't so much that Vivian hated her or even disliked her -- it was that the girl's name was Garbage. It was practically inviting Vivian's distaste and contempt. But beyond that, Garbage reminded her of the tailors her parents would drag her to, forcing her to wear dresses and gowns to formal events.

She never cared for the finer things in life.

However, Archer interrupted her train of thoughts, asking if she was good at paintball. She smirked slightly, closing her eyes briefly.

"I'm certain it can't be much more difficult than being shot at by thirty members of New York's finest and escaping without a single scratch, loot in hand," Vivian chuckled. "I'm more worried about you--don't freak out and piss strawberry guts from your hand or whatever, alright?"

Heading outside, Vivian tossed the other flag to Light, and then looked around for a good place to hide their own flag. Archer and X, she figured, would be better at offense. Defense was where she shined.

Light was a bit confused at what Heather was saying. "I said Mr. Cyborg. Are you a guy inside that shell?" Light said, sticking her tongue out playfully. "No, I'm talking about that guy." Light said, pointing at Soldier X.

A newcomer entered the room, introducing themselves as Garbage, which Light though was an... interesting name. More so she couldn't help laughing a bit when they introduced themselves. Sure they were a cloths designer by what they were saying, but they could've came up with a better name. Tanya, someone who Light didn't know every well, offered her a welcoming hand. Archer then approached the group, eager for the paintball match, much like Vivian who tossed Light a flag and declared her team the victors more or less.

"I'll take whoever wants to join my team. If its too one sided, you all could play 'hunt the monster' with me as the monster too I guess instead." Light said at Vivan's declaration. "I'm not good at paintball. I forget, can I jsut walk through the paint balls and take the hits, or am I out if I get shot?" Light said, scratching ehr head.

Shelly / Garbage

"Nice to meet you Garbage. I'm Tanya Watson. They'll be a paintball match soon with powers. Not sure about joining in myself since I don't think I'll be that useful."

Weird, between introducing herself and telling Shelly about the paintball she changed as if she'd been fairly strongly effected by Shelly's gift and wasn't exactly sure what happened. This was partiluarly weird because she hadn't moved and if she had ESP she would have expected to be freaking out, that would be way to big a dose of Shelly's garbage sensory information. Tanya could have been one of those super perceptive types like Wolverine and her mannerisms set her off? I swear I read her file...Who knows, she needs to be careful though, any effect will wear off when she stops paying to much attention to Shelly.

"Hey, is it possible you could build a costume that can somehow propel ropes from itself?"

Did he mean like spiderman, from the wrists? Or in an area around him? Shelly had no idea if it was possible to build a costume that propelled ropes from itself, and even if it was possible she didn't have the foggiest idea how to do it. Luckily thats what those basement dwelling engineers were for, not that she was going to let the boy know that. She did the designing, fitting and the needlework, which some people required more of than other. Ajax was one of those people. Is power and talents meant he needed a careful balance of materials to use and weight. Kevlar was going to be a must but it was likely manipulating the kevlar might make it less effective, so he'd need something else synthetic light weight and strong to fight with. Nylon? Spandex? Could try out some of those experimental textiles too. And then it needs to be comfortable to wear, soft on the skin, not sufficating. It would be easy enough to swap out undershirts until he was sure which one he wanted. She could agonise over it later, it was time to socialise. Shelly pulled her phone out and bashed out a "note" to "herself".

To: Q.Handel@ProjectG.com, J.Jameson@ProjectG.com
Sup Nerds,
Ajax wants ropes propelled by "somehow", can you make it happen?
Expect a lot of these kind of requests in the future.
Hugs and Kisses,
Garbage

"Of course it is! I'll just set a reminder and when I get round to working on your kit again. There done, I'll let you know when their ready for a pre-alpha test.

From the corner of her eye she saw Vivian wrinkling her nose. It made Shelly smile, the fashion industry was propped up by a perpetual state of nose wrinking, if there was anything she could deal with it was wrinkled noses. That would be fast ironed out when Vivian saw what Shelly had in mind for a costume. This did not mean Shelly was under any delusions that she and Vivs were destined to be biffles (Best Friends For Life), you can't bond over trust issues, it doesn't work. Till then Shelly would just have to not rise to her passive aggression, easy enough.

"I'll take whoever wants to join my team. If its too one sided, you all could play 'hunt the monster' with me as the monster too I guess instead. I'm not good at paintball. I forget, can I jsut walk through the paint balls and take the hits, or am I out if I get shot?"

Hunt the monster. Wow, that resonates the wrong way with me. Anyone with a decent angle on Shelly's face would have been hit hard with her gift, if it weren't for the mask. Light's skill with the air rifle really didn't matter, this was more about getting to know each other than it was about winning.

"No monsters here, guess that puts me on your team. Joining us Weaver? Heather? Tanya?"

No monsters here. Was she reassuring Light or herself?

She headed out into the vast gardens, who's beautifully manicured foliage stretched for what looked like miles. It would have been the perfect place to play paintball, a huge variety of cover, mixtures of tight and open spaces, a perfectly balanced asymmetry likes of which Shelly could only dream of capturing in her own work, except the grounds keepers would have killed them in their sleep. Paintball was supposed take place in the forest adjecent, specially constructed scenarios had be layed out: little wooden villages complete with townhall and a church, a fort, a bridge, a tall wooden laberynth, all coated in luminous paint splodges.

"Don't stop shooting till the hands quiver up in weak surrender, ok Light? Its what they'd want"

"You know what I might as well join. I'm Tanya and I can see 30 seconds into my own future, so I hope that helps." there was little enthusiasm when Tanya offered her own assistance. In any other situation paintball would sound pretty fun, but when it was mixed in with fighting against super powered individuals then the realization this could end in a lot of pain hit her. This wasn't enticing at all yet the nervous gifted joined because it was the only way she would be able to get to know these strangers better. If she did then maybe it would make it easier to work with them and hopefully survive long enough to be free.

Regardless of the answer she followed them where the match would take place. The opposing team already disappeared and likely began setting up. Tanya spent time analyzing her surroundings as if trying to map it. She even looked into separate futures that involved her running around the place. Each time discovering something new that could help develop a small mental map of the area.

"Has anyone here played paintball before?"

While a game of paintball was being set up someone new came in, Shelly. Right away Heather could tell that this girl's and her own personalities did not match in the slightest. Though to be fair anyone that was really expressive was pretty far flung from Heather since she was "gifted". Perhaps it was being essentially a disembodied digital consciousness that made things seem insignificant.

Though there was no face to express anything the rest of her body language suggested that she was bored. Leaning har arm against the counter and resting her head on her fist she watched as several others ran off to shoot paint at one another. Somehow she failed to see the point after having fired real guns into real people. And unlike the others she didn't have to train her body to react the way she wanted or to get better. If something wasn't working right she just had to make an upgrade or modification to her chassis.

However while she had no intention of participating it would be advantageous to observe and see how they all operated and also how they used their powers. She'd missed the demonstration but had the chance to see a recording afterward. It was then that Shelly asked directly if she or the others would be joining. Reluctantly she stoo up straight and followed with a robotic sigh. "Might as well. Not a whole lot else to do right now. Whose team am I on?"

The young super took a sip from his glass bottle in order to facilitate the digestion of the last slice of pizza, his gaze fixed on Garbage as he did so. How low should your self-esteem be to name yourself 'Garbage', he thought, throwing the empty bottle on one of the cans. He could trash talk (see what I did there?) about her all day, but he couldn't deny that she worked fast. His only response to her reply regarding his order was a nod, followed by a smirk, a genuine one. He thought of raising his glass in a mock celebratory gesture, only to hang his head low once he realized he had tossed the bottle away. He could be an idiot sometimes.

Ajax almost jumped once Garbage laid down her invitation to join her paintball team, but he held himself at the last moment. He was mildly surprised to hear her refer to him by his alias, even though he sharply recalled that he never disclosed that piece of information with her. However, he did not make a big deal out of it. She most likely asked around about her teammates. It was also something Ajax would do, if he wasn't so hastily shoved in that flying metal container. His sight veered off into Heather as she was also asked to join Garbage's team. As a brash 17 year old kid who had no prior contact with another Gifted, Ax was truly fascinated by her powers. He was staring at her for a prolonged time, in a manner that was probably inappropriate. He wanted to know how much her powers had affected her personality. He could guess that it was a lot, as so far he only detected small traces of a personality. He visibly shook his head, essentially spilling out all the perturbing thoughts out of his head. His eyes changed location yet again, this time moving back to Garbage. His lips curved upwards for a blink and you'll miss it moment, until he opened his mouth to speak.

"Eh, what the hell. I need to hone these powers somehow. I'll join in."

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Already out in the woods, Vivian grinned, feeling the wind on her face. She had already scaled a large oak tree, nestling herself in some of the highest branches. As far as she was aware, no one there would be able to fly--and with her mind, she could keep the flag perfectly out of reach.

However, an enticing option presented itself: she could escape. The security appeared to be lax, and as far as she could recall, they never injected her with anything. Closing her eyes, she could feel everything around her, gently brushing up against her mind. The urge, the drive, the determination all came back to her, and she remembered the glories of going on a heist, of casing the joint, and finding the spoils.

"Let's not burn bridges," Vivian muttered to herself. That had been part of what got her caught--making enemies when there was no need to. For now, she had a time to start over. A chance to woo some of the more powerful gifted present, and start over.

Who said second chances were just for heroes?

Chuckling a bit, Vivian flicked her finger at the flag, causing it to shoot a good fifty feet up into the air. Concealed by the branches of trees nearby it, Vivian concentrated on moving it more into an open area, in such a manner that no one would be able to grab it, without risking great peril.

And if they did try to grab it, she'd send it up another fifty feet higher! It wouldn't matter to her at that point that it could be seen.

It would only matter that they would win.

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Ezra looked around the room, and raised his eyebrow. Ezra raised his eyebrow around this little group of weirdos, he fit just right in. Ezra smiled. "Paintball, huh? Cool." He hoped no one would walk up to him and ask him who he was. David knew, and that's all he really cared for who knew. As matter of fact, this group looks shitty. He didn't really care for being a friend with any of these people. He'd rather stay from getting close to one of these guys.

As he heard about paintball he couldn't wait. This would be fun, too bad they couldn't use their powers. It seemed that the person known as Archer Kent, was on the opposite team. He'd love to wipe that smug look on that pretty boy's face. He was in the forest and was ready to shoot, he didn't know why. But he was targeted that Archer guy, just to prove that he's cooler he guessed. Or was it something else?

Archer looked around, and looked at the Paintball gun he was holding. It looked like it was a modified Tommy Gun, which was very cool. The downside is that it was kind of heavy. He looked around, and walked close to a tree, taking cover. Just to make sure no one had him in their sights. [color=red]"....Come on, I know someone's there." He said loudly, the intention to bring someone out.

A paintball had hit his gun so hard, the air tank gained a dent in it with a speck of red paint. Luckily paint on guns don't count, but who was that? Obviously someone was aiming right at him.

"Bring your face out, pretty boy!" Ezra yelled at Archer, aiming at the tree he was at. "You look like a teenager, and you have the nerve to call me a pretty boy?!" Archer yelled back at him.