[IC] The Wicked, The Damned, and The Lost

[PopeMaddi]

Slow footsteps echoed throughout the alley as a woman dressed in black stalked through the shadows. She walked with a fiery confidence, despite the eerie atmosphere surrounding her. She also held a bag, which contents were unknown. As she walked deeper into the alley, she came upon a large, metal door. After stepping inside, the door slammed shut with a loud bang, leaving the alleyway in silence once more.

The pitter-patter of fingers connecting with computer keys filled the otherwise silent room. A man- presumably in his late twenties- sat in front of an old-school looking computer hooked up to liquid-filled tanks. Inside of the containers were different specimens, most human. Some were severely malnourished, others... even worse. Suddenly, the man stood, his chair rolling away from him. He was breathing heavily with a devilish smile on his face.

"I've got to tell Adelaide about this!"

He ran to the door, almost forgetting to grab his keys. Just what was he so excited about..?

(( Hi there! This is just a little thing I wrote up to start the roleplay off. This will be a supervillain/superhero roleplay, with me being the two characters you saw here, Adelaide and Vin. Yes, there can be romance. No, there will be no 18+ content. I already have most of the story laid out, but if changes need to happen, I will change a few things. PM me if you need any more info! Have a nice day!))

[Netoraremancer]

It was 0630 hours, the sun had begun to rise. Nikolai however had been up for hours. The free waffles he was munching on in the Dive Bar/Wafflehouse Der Panzerwaffle always tasted like the best he ever had. It'd been a full year since he last hat to pay to eat here. With a raised beer or coffee mug, depending on the person, he'd always gotten his breakfast or dinner given to him. A reward as thanks for another job well done. This week's target, some punk who killed a little girl in a drive-by shooting. He begged for mercy, but refused to admit he did anything wrong. Not even the liveleak video of the event was enough to convince him of his guilt. Another easy $500, another piece of filth out of the picture, and another plate of the best chicken and waffles on the west coast. The drizzling rain outside of the tinted windows fell like almost weightless crystals. The lightning danced among the clouds, there were definitely advantages to being trapped in slo-mo. The vigilante could see the refractions in each rain drop as the gently fell to the ground, it was a familiar sight in this part of Washington state, but with his gift (and curse), he could experience it in all of its glory.

Then, a familiar, portly officer stopping in for his morning joe took a seat across from him. Nick hated talking to people, but it was something that just couldn't be avoided. Every syllable sounded like a distorted parody of an imbecile, but it really was just him. "Hey buddy, I got a lead on something incredibly fishy you might want to take a look at." At a mile a minute, like a chipmunk hopped up on Adderal, the mercenary replied. "Hey Deckard, been a while, you should really lay off the powdered donuts if you ever want to make your physical. You only ever talk to me when you're a weeping mess, or have some justice for me to dispense." The officer had to take a second to process what he just said, but failed to. "...anyway," he pulled out a manila folder from a laptop case. "...we've seen quite a few suspicious purchases from hardware supply stores in the area. Miles of acrylic tubing and Plexiglas, water pumps of all shapes and sizes, all sorts of suspicious chemicals, all either paid in cash, or with crypto. We'd like you to look into it, just in case we got a wannabe mad scientist or a chemist cooking all kinds of poison." Nick ripped the folder from the officer's hand, and thumbed through the pages at a blistering pace. Before the last page even settled, he slammed the folder onto the table and passed it back. "Tell the boys to scrounge up a rack and a half, I'll need equipment, plus hazard pay in case I have the whole fucking triad jump down my throat.Keep me update if you fellas find out anything." With a tip of his hat, the officer picked up his folder, coffee, and assorted box of donuts, and then left.

Nikolai then shoveled the rest of his food down his gullet, slammed the last of his ale (booze slowed his mind down somewhat) and headed off through the door. Since the regular patrons overheard the whole thing, they raised their drinks and their weapons and shouted "GUTE JAGD!"

[PopeMaddi]

A soft 'meow' greeted Adelaide as she walked inside of her apartment. Her cat, Sammy, hopped onto the counter, readily waiting for his breakfast. Adelaide emptied the bag's contents onto the counter, mostly consisting of cans of cat food. "Yeah, I know you're hungry Sam." She mumbled, opening the can and placing it on the floor. As Sammy took greedy mouthfuls, Adelaide put the rest of the groceries away, but was interrupted by the noisy sound of her phone going off. "Vin? At.." She glanced at the clock. "..Six in the morning?" Though confused, she answered.

"Adelaide, I need you to come over to the lab ASAP, you hear me?" He sounded... excited? "I found something..." He continued saying something under his breath, then hung up. Baffled, Adelaide tried calling him again, but to no avail.

"Why did he bother calling me if he was just gonna confuse me?" Even though she was annoyed by his vague message, she got ready to leave. Sammy's sorrowful mew followed her as she left.

As Adelaide drove through the heavily-populated Ellicott city, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of loneliness. All these people, and her only friends were her cat and Vin. That's all I need. She told herself. The only thing 'friends' will do is slow me down. Slowly, she made her way through the heavy traffic, and onto a discreet side road. A large, abandoned building, most likely an old factory, grew bigger and bigger as she drove closer. This was Vin's 'lab,' where he both kept and conducted experiments on those unfortunate enough to cross him. She didn't agree with his methods, but if they helped her grow stronger, the risk was worth it.

Adelaide stepped inside, unaware of what the future may hold.

[Netoraremancer]

0700 Hours

After donning his masked battle dress,finding a lead wasn't all that hard. There aren't many places who sold industrial water pumps, and with a list of people of interest, it wasn't hard to narrow down a suspect. The shopkeepers he'd saved from a few armed robberies before were happy to finger the anorexic manlet by the name of Vin. While Nikolai was confident in his abilities in combat, the weaklings never fought fair. Fortunately for him, he stopped fighting fair in South Africa. After making a few suspicious purchases of his own, He left town for the industrial park. Cliche, but scum of all kinds just seem to love his favourite arenas. The huge concrete ruins makes for great backstops, he can go all out without having to worry about any bystanders getting hurt in the crossfire.

0730 Hours

Nick rolled up to a vacant machine shop in the Vigrid industrial district. It wasn't much, but it was his base of operations, and in just the perfect spot for the events to come. His souped-up but shabby looking '99 Honda Civic was the perfect, unassuming vehicle for an assassin. While he wasn't exactly squatting, the $100 bucks a month he paid to live here was barely worth it. It wasn't comfy in the slightest, but the electromagnetic shielding the place provided, along with its obscurity meant that he was a living cypher when he wanted to be. Nikolai ripped open the tube of caffeinated, sugary gel in his hands and slurped it down. It helped sober him up and fuel his brain for the surveillance to come.

Since this whole district was his home, and his enemies were legion, he had rigged up an entire network of surveillance devices (with the greasing of a few palms for permission of course). Little self-powered audrinos slaved to his master laptop means that he can see and hear everyone that his cheap Chinese phone cameras and microphones can pick up. Nikolai quickly scanned through the past 24 hours of surveillance footage for anything unusual, and there he saw it. The woman in the little commuter driving up to an abandoned factory was very unusual indeed. Though the irony was not lost on him, he had little time to contemplate. The mercenary grabbed a heavy ALICE pack of equipment, his trusty Maxim 9 pistol, and bolted out of the door for some further reconnaissance.

[PopeMaddi]

Inside it was dark and musty, with broken windows as the only source of light. It wasn't one of the best places to hide out, but it was one of the only places discreet enough for Vin to do his business. Adelaide ignited a small flame in the palm of her hand for light, then proceeded to walk deeper into the dark depths of the building. She reached the opening to the 'basement' (It was really just a large room for storage,) where Vin would be.

A dark green light creeped out from under the door. It gave Adelaide an eerie feeling, but she stepped inside anyway, revealing Vin standing in front of one of his desks. His arms were crossed as he stared at the surveillance system. Eight monitors were set up, all showing different sides of the building they were in. "Adelaide." His lips curled into a smile, "You know how we've always had these plans to.." He paused, trying to find the right words, "..to get back at those who've ignored you? Who abandoned and hated you?" Adelaide nodded. She knew what he was getting at. "I've finally found a way." He stepped back, revealing his newest creation.

It was a supersuit. It was all black, with the fingers cut out, possibly to make it easier for her to summon flames. Dark green stripes ran down the sides of it, and as Adelaide kept admiring it, Vin started stating what it could do. "Since the material it's made of is fireproof, you shouldn't have to worry about setting yourself on fire. The palms and feet have extremely small suction cups for climbing, and using new technology that I created, you could fall from a skyscraper and only have minimal damage to your legs and feet." Vin, feeling proudful of his accomplishments, let Adelaide admire the suit.

But that didn't last for long. Movement on one of the screens of the surveillance system alarmed Vin. "It seems we have a visitor." It was hard to see, but a man who looked to be walking way too fast was coming closer and closer to their hideout. As he covered up his experiments, Adelaide put on the suit Vin had made. It felt perfect on her body; not too tight, yet not too big. She started wondering how Vin got her measurements...

As Vin flicked the lights off, Adelaide crouched behind one of the large tanks, listening..