[IC] The Coalition {FULL}

⋙: Ｅｐｉｓｏｄｅ １， Ｔｈｅ Ａｆｔｅｒｍａｔｈ

Feeling the waves of the assault on the Mayor, members of the Coalition are handling their emotions following the past few days in their own ways. When an airplane's engines fail, and its collision with the ground seems imminent, the Coalition springs into action. After managing to put the plane down, they meet a young girl, implied to be Enhanced. Upon returning home, someone is waiting for them.

_{FC: Joey King; e530f2}

This girl was found on the plane that was heading for the ground before the Coalition intervened. She has yet to speak, but was clutching a Coalition branded lunchbox. Inside of it was a note from the girl's parents, imploring the Coalition to take her in and take care of her. The note seemed frantic enough that the Sentinel took her home, and intends to keep her under his care.

_{FC: Jonathan Banks; 4d73d6}

EPIC Agent Hauser has been assigned to the Coalition as an 'advisor.' Unlike the rest of their career, they are now working under close supervision and guidance of a government entity, that they didn't know existed until today.

Coalition Report - Day 1

A heavy sigh came from the man sitting in front of the laptop. The assignment didn’t feel right, not to him. The Coalition had done nothing but protect their city since their first appearance. One failure, one appearance of someone who was able to beat them back, and his agency had to get involved.

They had actively watched the Coalition for some years now, keeping tabs on both the group as a whole, and the individual members. It was deemed necessary by the government of the United States that the covert E.P.I.C.U. (Enhanced Persons Investigations and Containment Unit, commonly referred to as ‘EPIC’) be founded shortly after the full extent of the Coalition was shown.

The Coalition has been led by Nathaniel Stroud since its inception, and the E.P.I.C.U. has been happy to watch from afar. They trust the leader to guide the Coalition on the right path, especially after talking to his former squadmates and superiors in the USMC. This made it easier for them to observer and learn, in hopes that they could understand the origin of the abilities the Coalition has.

Every answer, however, has led to more questions.

Most recently, the Coalition appear to have met their match. Another Enhanced person, whose powers far exceed their own. This has required EPIC to respond. Unfortunately, the Coalition were incapable of protecting their mayor, and were further incapable of taking down the enemy, and the fallout with the public, both local and non, is too much.

Without an official entity looking over them, the public opinion skyfalled into the ground following the incidents. No one seems to want them anymore. In fact, the hurried election for the new mayor features at least one person running on the platform of disbanding the Coalition and bringing down the ‘Rogue Enhanced’ with standard law enforcement.

Agent Terrence Hauser has been sent to the Coalition HQ, the Watchtower, to supervise and monitor the Coalition’s actions going forward. Officially, he’s an ‘advisor,’ essentially meant to take the reins for the team. Without his okay, the Coalition is not to respond to any further incidents.

Agent Hauser quickly confirmed his initial suspicions:

The Coalition isn’t fond of this idea.

---

---

_{E.P.I.C.U. Agent Terrence Hauser
Coalition Report
Day 1}

“I told you people they wouldn’t be interested in this. No one listens, though.

I was waiting when they came back from the airport. The plane was landed without any casualties, just property damage. It was impressive. Another mark on a damn near perfect track record, and if you ask me? We should just let them do what they’re doing, of course no one asks me; I’m just a messenger, and the person who has to limit people who have shown their strengths to be limitless.

The Coalition wasn’t happy to see me sitting on their couch when they rolled in. Why would they be? They’re on high alert, and someone they’ve never met having the keycode is cause for alarm. I was able to explain who I am, though. The badge helped, and it calmed them down. Only for about a half a second, as I told them I was their new government sanctioned advisor, which is something every team of super powered vigilantes wants.

I pulled aside the Sentinel — Nathaniel Stroud, in case you forgot — and he was easy enough to get along with. He seemed satisfied to know that via working with me, he’s working with a former military man. You never lose that feeling of respect for another person who’s served in active combat. After speaking with me, he was able to see, sort of, where we’re coming from.

They look like shit. People think they’re shit. Are they shit? No, I know they’re not. Whoever is listening to this knows they’re not.

Nathaniel agrees, though, that times are changing.

He’s playing ball, but we have to do him a favor. The Coalition’s family members are to go into witness protection, the highest grade we have. They don’t exist anymore. They never existed. Until the rogue Enhanced is taken down.

Then, their families can spring back up into existence.

Until then, I’ll be standing guard, I suppose. Hopefully he doesn’t show up again. Maybe it was a one time thing.

Agent Hauser, signing off.”

▹ No speed-posting. Give other people a chance to respond to your character but if it is a week after your original post and you are itching to post again, feel free to do so.
▹ Tag/Mention players you interact with like @Universorum
▹ Respect each other. Obey guild rules.
▹ If you have events or big scenes in mind, message us first before bringing it in IC.

Optional Header

[center][color=????][h3]CHARACTER'S NAME[/h3][/color]
[img]IMG/GIF OF CHARACTER[/img]
[color=????]Location:[/color]
[color=????]Interacting with:[/color]
[ hr][/center]

[Hey Im Jordan]

<sub>The Sentinel

Location: A Coalition Conference Room
Interacting with: Agent Hauser, the Team</sub>

---

This was absolutely absurd.

For the past two years, all they had done was help their community. They’d stopped bank robberies, murders, kidnappings, helped solve crimes, and ended murder sprees. For the past two years they’d had an impeccable track record. Zero failures, zero incidents. Very little property damage, never a civilian injured by their hand. By all rights, the Coalition had removed the need for the police department as anything other than filling out paperwork.

And yet, here the Sentinel stood, talking to a government agent who had been sent to be their ‘advisor.’ Nathaniel hardly even knew what that meant, at least in this context. He’d agreed to speak with the man, privately after they’d walked into the Watchtower and he’d been sitting there. Following a few phone calls, Nathaniel had verified that the man was real, that EPIC was real. He was sure that this was all very real. Even so, just because it was real, though, didn’t mean he had to enjoy it.

He didn’t like the idea of being ran by someone who wasn’t a direct member of their organization, and wasn’t sure how he felt about being watched. Because, that’s what was happening. They were going to be monitored, and supervised; the worst part was, they didn’t really have a choice. There were a few perks though, even Nathaniel had to admit that.

“I’m here to help you, really. From here on out, you’re going to have a team of EPIC Agents who will help with your public image. That means no more, or at least a lot fewer, press conferences for you. Aside from that, we’re going to do our best to help make it so the town likes you again —”

“What about the girl? Julia.” Though he appreciated it, Nathaniel didn’t much care about how many or how few press conferences he’d have to put on. They were shows for the press, sometimes necessary, but often just circuses he attended in hopes that it would get people to like them. As it stood now, it seemed that had all been for naught. It only took one mistake, one failure… that was all it took to leave an ugly, bloody wound on the otherwise mythical Coalition.

The girl, however, she was a new player in the situation. A wild card, one Nate barely had information about, but still. He felt obligated to do what he could for her, after all… the note she’d had (in a Coalition branded lunchbox, mind you) had begged him to take her in. The note wanted him — wanted them — to take her in, and he had no intention of denying the request of what he could only assume was the girl’s dead parents.

“What girl? The one from the plane? Well, we can have her put in a foster home —” Agent Hauser began to speak, before Nathaniel shook his head, and the Agent shifted his weight and folded his arms over his chest. “What, are you gonna take care of her?” The other man nodded, and the Agent sighed. “Okay. Let me put in some calls, we can go through the proper channels and have her become a U.S. Citizen. Her name is Julia Rhodes, right? I’ll have her placed under your care…” The Agent had pulled a device out of his pockets and was typing on it.

“Mine and Serenity’s. Barrage; she’s my fiance.”

“Right… And, for schooling? She will need schooling, you know.”

“Austin will teach her, he’s smart enough. Don’t worry about her, worry about us and your job. Your part of the deal has to include that.”

“Okay, okay. I can get it done. On the discussion of my job... We need to know more about you, if we’re going to help you defeat… whoever it was that put us in this mess. Now, I already know you’ll let us help you. But what about the others? Are they going to let us run tests on them?” The Agent asked, and Nathaniel shook his head,

“I doubt that very strongly. But I’ll talk to them tomorrow morning. You know, you’re lucky none of them have super hearing, or this wouldn’t be a very private meeting… Are we done here?” Nathaniel asked, and after a confirming nod from Hauser, Nathaniel turned to the door and opened it up to the team who had gathered in the waiting room outside of the conference and debriefing area he’d been speaking to Hauser in. “Alright, team. Agent Hauser and his people, who will be arriving over the next few days, will be staying with us for the foreseeable future. Their goal here is the same as ours: the capture and defeat of whoever or whatever killed the Mayor and kicked our asses. Now, I don’t like it anymore than you guys — being watched and monitored by the government? Not very high on my bucket list. But, the way I see it, we can use all the help we can get; so, I intend for us to work with them as best we can.”

He looked over the team, confident that they would respect his wishes, if not the wishes of the United States government. “For now? You’re all dismissed. Get some sleep, a lot of it, and breakfast too. We’re going to meet at twelve hundred hours tomorrow — instead of our normal meeting time of oh nine hundred hours — in the conference room, and talk about what our next moves are going to be, and give you the full details on the deal here. I’d wager that Agent Hauser is going to be sitting in on that meeting. Don’t let that stop you from bad mouthing him. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With that, their leader walked away and toward the elevator.

[smarty0114]

_{Callum McDaniel 🌑 Nox}
Location: Balcony -> Training Room
Interacting with: Himself, Carol the AI

---

First a plane almost crash lands right into the airport and now, the Feds send babysitters after them? Cal wasn’t pleased. In fact, he was as far from pleased as you could get. As Nathaniel relayed the information concerning Hauser and his team, Cal stood, arms crossed in silent protest, his annoyance with the situation on full display. Despite that, he kept his mouth shut about it. He was still a rookie around here, but even if he hadn’t been, he still trusted Nathaniel. Call it respect or idol worship, whatever, Cal trusted him to make the right call here. He wasn’t about to argue.

His mood dampened considerably, Cal turned and made his way out to the balcony, in need of some clarity. From up this high, you could see practically the entire city. Down below, people went about their days, ants trudging along their daily routine. Cal sighed. He envied them at times. What was it like to have worries that didn’t involve the entire city turning against you, or some superpowered psycho hunting down your family? Nice, probably.

Cal sat down on one of the deck chairs and removed his mask, sighing as the cool breeze met the skin that had been hidden away for the past few hours. Maybe everyone was right. Maybe the Coalition did need supervision. They’d failed with the mayor. That was obvious. They’d been overconfident, unprepared. They hadn’t faced an Enhanced before, why should they have expected one then? Cal knew the answer. You expected everything, you had to, that way nothing could catch you off guard. His dad had taught him that.

The young hero stood up, his melancholy and self pity shoved aside in favor of determination. He had better things to do than wallow out here, right? Grabbing his mask, he walked back inside, marching practically, and made his way to the elevator, where he went straight down. Past the multitude of floors, some empty, some housing equipment, some whose contents were unknown to Cal.

When the elevator finally stopped, Cal stepped out, into a spacious room, seemingly empty save for him. The walls were some sort of metal, Cal had forgotten to ask what kind, but they were meant to take a beating. The floors were made of a similar material, probably the same type. Stylistically, it looked atrocious, but it was never meant to look good. This was a room designed for Enhanced persons, people who could wreck a normal gym with the kind of training they needed.
Gritting his teeth, Cal put his mask back on, and looked up at the ceiling. “Carol, run simulation 3417A,” he said, his gaze returning to the empty room before him. The calm, slightly jerky voice of a young woman answered back, Carol, the Watchtower’s helpful digital assistant. “Running simulation 3417A.”

The whir of machines could be heard as piece of the left wall slid aside and allowed a faceless, pure white, automaton to walk out, into the center of the room. For a moment, Cal stood there, until suddenly, he wasn’t there anymore. He was on the rooftop of an abandoned building, and in front of him, the psychopath he and the team had faced a few days prior. The simulation was built from security camera footage, and the ones that were in most of the teams masks. It recreated the battle, but it also allowed for improvisation. The AI could act as the villain, given what it had seen him do that day. It wasn’t perfect, but it was something. And this something was gonna be the difference between last time, and the next one.

[GingerBoi123]

Taurus

Location: The Watchtower
Interacting with: Nathaniel (@Universorum)

---

Over the past few days, Ethan has been working out and training in the VR room and gym. Even throughout all hours of the day and night, if Ethan wasn't eating or sleeping then he was conditioning his body. For a man with super strength, he sure felt weak against the Enhanced Stranger. Ethan's been cursing himself ever since that day. Why couldn't he be stronger? Why was that the one obstacle he couldn't just power through? Now the whole city hated him, hated the team. Ethan was used to being under scrutiny from the public, mostly out of fear, but this was something... different. This was disgust, it was anger and hate all wrapped up with a nice little bow from the fucking media outlets who just loved covering their failure. Internally, it made Ethan furious. The Coalition did everything before the Mayor's murder. The police got lazy and didn't give a shit until the team failed, and every single news channel was clambering for interviews. They were leeches, and it didn't matter whether it was from success or failure.

As the call for everyone to attend a quick meeting, Ethan set down the 2,000 lbs weight from the bench press machine. A lot of the strength machines had been designed specifically to compliment the team's tank. Wasn't that what Callum called it? Being the tank? Some sorta gaming thing, he was pretty sure at least. Ethan quickly wiped himself down with a sweat towel and threw on his t-shirt. No doubt this announcement was going to be something important. Maybe the girl? Or that creepy bald dude that wanted to pull Nathan to the side. Whatever it was, it had better be a good reason. With that super-villain still running amok, the team couldn't afford distractions now, could they?

Ethan took a seat in the waiting room a few moments after arriving from the Gym. When Nathan presented the new arrangement, Ethan couldn't help but glare. The Government was getting involved now!? Great. Ethan figured that they've been wanting to get close to the Coalition since it's formation, and now they've been knocked down a few pegs they couldn't swoop in at a more perfect time. Immediately Ethan had a bad feeling about this 'Hauser' and the whole state of affairs in general. What on earth could this agent have offered to convince Nathan to agree without talking about it with the team. Maybe Nathan's not thinking straight? Is that girl distracting him? Maybe the murder had shaken up the Sentinel more than Taurus thought. When Nathan shot off to the elevator, Ethan immediately got up and followed.

"Hey! Hold up a second."

Ethan called out, friendly enough even if it was in his gruff voice. Ethan stepped into the elevator with Nathan and leant against the panels of the lift. "So... Boss. Any reason you didn't talk to us first before deciding to get the entire team in bed with some fuckin' Feds?" He immediately asked. Ethan had to get more information and quickly before taking matters into his own hands. "Pretty sure that would be on the whole: List of things I should discuss with the group before making a decision, kind of thing.

[Bee]

Location: The Training Center... on a beanbag.

---

Alec had strolled into the Training Room on his own accord. He was on his phone, not really paying much mind about what was going on around him. The only piece of information he'd gotten was that the government had sent some of their people to babysit them. Great. Just what Alec needed. More people for look over him and breathe down his throat. It was bad enough that he had the Mayor incident lingering on the back of his mind, but to have the Government sending their cronies all over the place and crawling in and out of this place like a bunch of ants to a picnic had quickly gotten on Alec's nerves. He wasn't that happy about it, nor was he in the mood to do the government's will.

It was bad enough that he was a part of a team that practically replaced the police department, but now... the possibility of moving up in the world hadn't sounded like something Alec was too keen on. Anyway... what was even the point? They'd just failed their mayor not too long ago, so what had brought the US Government to their door? Alec was beyond confused, but it wasn't his place to start questioning it. Instead, he just found a beanbag in the training center and plopped down on it. He was on his phone for the time being, scrolling through various items and pieces on his social media.

He was perfectly content with whatever it was he was doing, until the call to a meeting had come up. Sighing, he'd gotten up from the beanbag. Stupid government. What could they have possibly wanted now? Whistling to himself, he stuck his hands in his pockets and gotten into the elevator a mere few minutes after he'd just arrived. Alec wasn't exactly the most punctual nor the most caring person here. But, a meeting was a meeting, and as much as he didn't want to, he had to. The doors closed on the rather vacant training center as it descended down to wherever everyone was meeting.

The meeting had gone just as Alec had expected it to. More government cronies crawling in and out of this place. Great. He rolled his eyes upon knowing that their local government agent was going to be overseeing every single thing they were doing. Why did they need to do that? Didn't they have better things to do like watch Randy Rando jerk off to his little hentai through his laptop's camera? He was annoyed, and most certainly everyone else around to witness the meeting definitely was as well.

But before Alec could say anything himself, his fellow member had already done him the favor. Stepping up next to him, he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, any reason why, chief? We just had our asses kicked a few days ago... and now you have us all buddy-buddy with the government? What gives?"

[LovelyComplex]

_{Barrage
Location: Conference Room → Hallway → Bathroom → Stairs
Interacting with: Herself}

---

The smell of kerosene, gas, and other toxic fumes. The sound of an engine deeply growling, some oil rhythmically dripping, and a hiss, a gentle hiss, of pneumatics. The touch of a shifter, soaking up the cooling energy of the metal, as the chrome gleams from the sunlight peering into the room. This. The thought of her working on her current project, with enhancements from her dear friend, Austin, was where her mind was at.

Her workshop, her happy place.

Out of sorts, Serenity Lavi was mentally elsewhere as the meeting proceeded. She was diligent, usually, but as their reputations went down the drain, so did her morale, at least for today. She stared blankly at her fiance as she watched his mouth move up and down. Those cold, distant glacier eyes of her's shifted from him to the stranger in the Watchtower. Her home.

Her mind shifted from cars to the smell of peppermint, hair as white as snow, and skin that felt like wax. A older man with a tawny complexion, darker than her own, nods his head constantly, as if he understands the words being talked at him. He mulls over all the hardships he had to go through that led him to this point in his life. Stuck, in a nursing home, treated like a hospital patient, everyone just... waiting. Waiting for him to die. He who had nothing more to fight for, besides his last living relative. His sweet, strong, never-aging wife. "Tzeital..." He manages to whisper at his granddaughter, who was more than alive, and yet he couldn't recognize her as anyone else but the woman he owed everything to.

As everyone started to walk away, Nox taking his leave first, disappearing to do better things than think about a meeting that only achieved giving the party mixed feelings, Serenity shuffled behind them. She carefully watched as Taurus and Rush followed after their fearless leader, who too left the room. She would've listened in, but all she could hear was background noise.

Slowly, she walked past Agent Hauser and their eyes met. He observed her with intrigue and curiosity. He didn't need to say anything, for Barrage to automatically have her guard up. How was she expected to let someone like him in? Someone who was here to quote help them unquote? The mechanic chose not to acknowledge the agent's silent salutation, because he was not welcomed — not to her, not to the team, not to anyone. He needed to earn her trust, just like everyone else had to. These agents left her fiance with no choice but to agree on their terms. As far as she was concerned, he wasn't worth trusting.

The moment she passed him, exiting the door, his cologne slipped into her nose and without warning, her rosy glow that graced her cheeks disappeared in a matter of milliseconds. Her face turned gaunt, with little to no control on her part. Her stomach swelled and her left eye twitched, suddenly not feeling the best. Disregarding her teammates, and her fiance, she sped walked to the closest bathroom, but tried her best to hide the feeling written in her blue eyes. The next thing she knew, she was heaving into the toilet. The little food she ate this morning made a ruthless exit.

Did she have the flu?

When was the last time she got so sick it made her puke?

After a concerning amount of time, what felt like eternity, she picked herself up and went to wash her face, her lips, and inside her mouth. She hated being sick. After grabbing the hand towel off the rack and wiping it on her forehead and neck, her eyes closed while she did so, she decided she needed to go grocery shopping. Ginger ale, crackers, soup, and perhaps something sweet for Julia.

The woman who was supposed to be an inspiration for women and little girls alike needed to move fast before her beloved knew something was wrong. She didn't need him to worry about her and right now he needed to be a leader. He needed to assure the team the days to come would only benefit them.

...The Coalition needed hope more than ever now.

Slipping out of the bathroom, noticing Nathaniel was still preoccupied with their colleagues, Serenity made her exit by taking the stairs.