canaryrose

Young Justice

-and-

Kila rested in the dressing room, looking into a lighted mirror. He was dabbing tissue at his chest as the flimsy shirt of the outfit could not completely endure the tiger’s claws. He wondered how his chest hadn’t been torn to shreds, only having a few spills of blood here and there. Fingers absentmindedly going over the scars there, the place his most painful of memories were. Kila had come to the conclusion that his skin had become calloused.

Although he meant that more metaphorically, he came across a patch of his skin that felt off…It was abnormally rigid around where one of the claw strikes were only to return smooth in minutes…it felt like elephant skin. Before he could ponder further about the Power of The Red that lied subtly in his veins, there was a knock at the door.

Remembering quickly that they were still on a mission, despite being undercover, Kila prepared himself for any potential confrontation. However, from the other side of the surface, the voice of the android girl announced herself. Despite being one of the more verbal members of the team, Kila had rarely interacted with Alisa. Still, she seemed pleasant enough, compared to some. Moreover, her status as having robotic qualities should prove helpful to an extent in gathering information.

Thus, he allowed her in, listening to her explanation of her search of the Fortune Teller’s quarters. The more she talked, his eyes narrowed.

“The one, the man who smelled your things; likely a grunt of some sort. I am willing to say that he was coming to give the Fortune Teller some sort of message. However, your presence there instead as a newcomer, may have made them suspicious of your intent.” Kila thought aloud, starting to pace, abruptly stopping as another situation came to him.

“Something else to keep note of…These performers are very probable to have abilities as we do. The man smelling your garment was clearly some attempt to identify you. Hopefully your more inhuman qualities act as a counter to his capabilities in that sense…Have you seen anything else out of the ordinary?”

Alisa shook her head. “Besides those two things, no. I didn’t get a chance to go through her room completely, but what I saw seemed pretty normal. Have you?” She turned her gaze to Kila. The two of them had spoken little, but she knew enough to notice that something was a bit off. Only hours ago he had been acting upbeat and goofy, but now he seemed, well… serious. Had something happened? She scrutinized him, noting he was shirtless, before noticing the little wounds on his chest. Claw marks?

She frowned. He looked fine- sympathy over concern was probably the way to go. “Ow,” she said in sympathy, although she had no real point of reference for the sting of blood. “Did the tiger get you? I thought you were supposed to be the animal whisperer!”

Kila paused after what she asked, touching his chest again. Memories that did not belong to him briefly came to mind at the mention of the tiger. It was a quick flash of images; tall grass, a roar, men in black jumpsuits, tranquilizer shots. It was an intense but brief staring session into the wall. Pulling his hand away from his chest to look down at his palm, Kila blinked. That was new.

“I suppose that I am…The tiger has been through many bad things before they put her in that cage…I fear what would have happened, should it have been anyone else’s act.”

A genuinely sympathetic frown crossed Alisa’s face. “How terrible. They shouldn’t do that to the animals, let alone let them “perform” in front of an unguarded crowd. I’m glad it was you, then. Even if you did get a bit scuffed up.” She sat down in a chair by the door and leaned forward. In the month she had been on the team, she had spoken very little to Ja. He was intriguing, to say the least.

“I’m terrible with animals,” she said, remembering yesterday’s incident. She laughed. “I mean, I adore most of them, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t like me back. It’s probably why I volunteered to shove a katana down my throat rather than have to deal with anything alive,” joked Alisa, trying to lighten the mood.

Kila nodded, “Right…I imagine that would not bother you much? Given your mechanical insides.”

“Not really, no! I mean, it hurts a bit when I scrape the back of my throat and I have to be a bit careful with my vocal box, but I don’t have any fleshy bits to puncture. Or any blood.”

Kila slowly nodded again, though staring at Alisa’s eyes. It would appear as though he were searching for something, because honestly, he was. The concept of artificial intelligence vexed him quite a bit. Why would one want to create a machine with, or ability to mimic, the human mind? There seemed to be something different about her, opposed to Red Tornado who acted as their overseer.

He didn’t care much about it being awkward, but would have apologized in courtesy of possibly making her uncomfortable. What stopped him though, were the sounds of somewhat distant screams. These were not screams of joy however…they were screams of terror. Quickly snatching up the mask he wore earlier, he started for the door.

“I do not like the sound of that. We should investigate.”

Alisa stared back into Kila’s eyes, unblinking. Why was he staring? Had she done something wrong? Before she could get a chance to interrupt, however, she started to hear screams. They were rising in volume and number, coming from… the circus tent? She swiveled her head to the door before standing and walking to the door with Kila. “Yes,” She opened the door, only to hear the screams escalate in volume. “Yes, we should. I think something’s very wrong.”

She started to speed-walk down the hall and then started to dash. The two of them burst out of the tent together and raced across the field towards the main circus tent. People were streaming out of the big tent, screaming in terror.

The only possible explanation was that someone had attacked. But who? And why? Gotham had its own horde of supervillains, but an attack from them didn’t make any sense. And this was a recon mission at a circus- they weren’t invading an enemy base.

Then, they entered the stage, coming behind Zach, Daphne, Aleen’a, and Kassy. Alisa felt fear start to clog her thoughts. I fucked up. The horses that Maya had convinced her to free yesterday were here, giant and vicious. A look of horror and guilt crossed her face as she stared at the scene. This was her worst nightmare.

At least the wall offered them a moment of respite. “What-what should we do?” Her voice wavered. Kila quickly studied the scene.

“First priority is to remove innocents. If even one person dies while we are active, our mission is already a failure.” He explained, instantly sprinting off towards the group.

Alisa ran after him. They came to the forcefield. Kassy’s flickering illusory wall and Zach’s forcefield were keeping the crazy ponies away from them and anyone who had managed to duck behind them, but not much else. There were still people being terrorized outside. Alisa sucked her teeth- she truly didn’t want to go out there and fight, but it seemed as though there wasn’t another choice.

“I think Aleen’a’s right,” Alisa said, her hands curled into fists. They had come in just at the end of Aleen’a talking, so she had caught the tail end of it. “But there’s no way we can contain them while they’re like this. I think… we need to fight them and herd them all into a group so Zach and Kassy can create a forcefield to trap them.”

Once she finished talking, Alisa figured that she had to do something. People were getting hurt, and they were the only ones around who were capable of doing anything about it- even if it meant risking their cover. She still didn’t want to get close, though. So with a heft of effort, she squatted down and picked up a box- used for propa, but still considerably heavy- and chucked it at one of the horses. The rabid animal was knocked to the ground. Several more came running at her. Alisa screamed in what sounded like fear and threw a punch at one of them. The horse neighed in rage, and then Alisa was caught in a frantic melee with two horses, looking absolutely terrified.

Kila, meanwhile, lassoed one of the rabid ponies around the neck and pulled it away from someone, trying to herd it to the center of the ring.

《 H.E.R.O. 2064 》

Hey guys! Canary here. We've already discussed this at length in the Discord, but @Hitman has regretfully decided to leave RPG for the foreseeable future and has left me in charge. Although it says otherwise in the top bar, I am now GM and @Zoey Boey is the new Co-GM (thread status pending). We've already contacted a mod and it turns out that it's not possible to transfer thread ownership, so Hitman will remain the GM in the top portion unless we switch threads. The permission difference is fairly minimal, thankfully. There won't be much of a difference.

Please direct any and all questions to either me or Zoey! We're undergoing a period of reconstruction at the moment so things will be slow.

《 H.E.R.O. 2064 》

-and-

---

“I think they do… Or we get a 20% discount. Get me some chocolate milk if you’re going.”

Travis flashed the smaller girl a thumbs up and nodded, before turning to the entrance to the next car. He was more of a strawberry milk kind of guy, but his mouth wasn’t really in the condition to talk about pointless nonsense like he usually did. Now that Marcie had made sure the maimed pirates wouldn't be able to escape, he was eager to leave. The smell was getting pretty bad, and Travis had experience with blood and gore (even if it was mostly his own). The stench of death was a bitch and a half to get out of clothes.

Clothes… Travis grumbled slightly as he noticed the damage to his ‘costume’. The damage to the chest of his hoodie seemed salvageable enough - until he saw that the entire left shoulder was barely connected with a few scant threads. He didn’t even try to assess his shoes - the blood and other bodily substances made them unusable. Angry flesh poked out proudly from beneath the ruined fabric of his hoodie, blood slowly oozing out and staining the surrounding white fabric. Travis grimaced at the sight, rubbing his jaw as the pain slowly came at him now that the adrenaline was fading. Thankfully, getting shot with noise was nowhere near as bad as getting shot with lead.

‘This was one of my nicer hoodies…’

Travis carefully made his way to the door of the next car, doing his best to avoid the various pieces of debris and viscera that littered the floor. Unfortunately, with all his attention on the ground, Travis failed to notice his and Marcie's would-be-assassin until it was too late.

Before Travis could make his way over to the snack counter, however, a woman seemed to materialize from the shadows. She drew her swords, blocking his way, and attacked. Her twin katanas swung out at him, barely missing but forcing him back into the storage room. No words were spoken, no sounds made- only a look that could bring the best of men to their knees and a blinding speed with her swords. This woman was out for blood, and her strikes showed it.

Marcie, meanwhile, had sat down and pulled out her phone in the corner of the room, taking care to avoid the viscera. At the sounds of startled yelling, she looked up. Her eyes widened at the sight of the swinging katanas. “Woah! Jesus!” She hopped to her feet, and the air started to chill around her. She wanted to freeze the woman in place, but she was moving too fast, so she’d have to settle for throwing snowballs. Or, ice balls. One began to coagulate in her hand.

Travis continued to backpedal, sidestepping and jumping away blindly to avoid the woman’s strikes. Her sudden arrival and murderous glare scared the younger man, forcing him back and scrambling to avoid the woman. Not to mention the badass katanas. If it wasn’t for the gore and body fluids that slicked the floor, then the assailant would have found her mark - but she had managed to barely miss 3 blows before Travis was backed against the wall of the car.
”Shit!”

Travis instantly turned to Marcie, who was forming a ball of ice in her hand to pelt at the woman. He didn’t know why Marcie wasn’t freezing the woman in place, but the fact that she wasn’t probably meant there was a good reason why she couldn’t. If he survived, he really needed to read the mission briefings from now on…

Ducking down, Travis swept his leg out towards the assassin, hoping that the quick movement and slick floor would be enough to trip the woman over and give Marcie time to throw her ice ball. It worked well enough in the cage matches that Travis participated in… but then again, there was a big gap between half-drunk thugs and a trained mercenary.

Unfortunately for Travis, ‘sweep the leg’ was not a technique that worked on highly trained assassins. She leapt over it smoothly. Angela did, however, find her footing a bit compromised among the blood and ice shards. Upon coming down, her foot got caught in the slickness and she slid off her balance a little.

That left Marcie a chance to pelt her with ice balls. They smashed into Angela’s face and shoulder with surprising accuracy, sending her stumbling into a box.

As Angela stumbled Travis quickly moved forwards towards her, attempting to capitalize on the loss of balance that Marcie’s blow afforded them. He nearly slipped on the fresh ice shards that littered the ground in the process, but the important part was that he was close. In Travis’ mind, this left only two options - the killer could either retreat to deal a lethal strike, or be limited to only light cuts.

The fear and surprise was fading now that he was on the offensive, and Travis lunged for one of Angela’s blades, attempting to wretch it from her grip.

As Travis’s hand latched onto the katana, Angela rotated it outwards and thrust it into the meat of his hand, creating a deep wound. Then, using his shock at the pain, she dragged the blade out of his fist and rolled to her left, away from Travis and closer to the train car entrance.

“Did you seriously just try to grab a sword?” she said, almost looking stunned. “No wonder I killed your two coworkers so easily. Jesus.”

Meanwhile, Marcie was hiding behind a box, trying to lay down slick ice traps for their new companion. She planted several behind the woman, near doors, and in places where Travis could clearly see them. She was also forming some sort of a handle-less ice spear.

As the blade was wretched from his grip, Travis briefly paused his assault to check his hand. The skin was already turning brown and hardening, spreading quickly up his arm to coat the rest of his body. The flow of blood from the wound was slowing, hissing slightly as it began to clot. This was good - it’d be a lot harder for this woman to bisect him now.

More importantly, the blade only cut his palm. A deep wound to be sure - that hand would be out of commision for a day or two. But it was nothing he couldn’t heal off. Losing the fingers would be a much bigger deal.

That wasn’t the only reason he paused, however. This woman had already killed two other heroes…

The news was upsetting, but not because Travis cared about the two dead heroes. Other than Pandora and Marcie, he didn’t know anyone else here. No, it was bad because that meant 3 heroes died in this single mission. The director was sure to be dissapointed.

Travis went back on the defensive as he noticed Marcie’s traps. Dodging and taking small hits when he could, slowly leading the attacker until she was close enough to the trap to push. Travis wasn’t fast enough to reliably hit the Assassin - and even if he was, his blows wouldn’t have enough force behind them in this condition. He didn’t need to though. Travis couldn’t see the ice spear that Marcie was forming, but from the ease with which she took out the other pirates, he knew that all she needed was a chance to hit their new enemy.

Angela continued to back up while she tried to catch her breath. Eventually, she ended up warily circling Travis, waiting for an opening. She sheathed the katana in her left hand. Narrowing her eyes, she watched his body start to harden. Then, with seemingly no warning but a tensing of her shoulders, she sprung forward to get another slice at Travis’s throat.

Right before the assassin could slit Travis’s throat, however, Marcie aimed her ice-spear and fired at the woman’s right shoulder- somewhere to disable, but not to kill. Killing was bad, right? Right. Even bad guys. The spear impaled her quite neatly. It passed through and shattered on the wall of the train car. Angela staggered back as it hit her just as she was about to bring her blade down on Travis’s throat. She hissed in pain. Red was already coming through her jacket.

“Aborting mission. Meet you at drop site,” she said as she touched something in her ear.

“But before I go… I have a gift.” Angela staggered back and pulled something out of her jacket, dropping it onto the floor. She was against the melting ice now, and with a kick, it fell away, and she jumped out of the moving train into the urban landscape below.

As soon as she left, Angela’s “gift” began to exude a horrible smell. Marcie emerged from behind the boxes cautiously to investigate. The “gift” was shaped like a grenade, and it was starting to emit a quickly-spreading yellow gas... Oh, shit. She jumped back. “Fuck, that’s a gas bomb. We need to get out of here.”

Travis didn’t need to be told twice - almost as soon as the acrid fumes had been released, the young hero was already scrambling. Fucking vape smoke rendered him into a coughing mess, let alone weapon-grade gas.

Travis quickly buried his face into his arm and began running to the next car, nearly tripping over one of the dozen bodies in the train car. He paused at the door to the next car, turning back to look at the few surviving pirates as Marcie caught up. When the bomb goes off, they’d surely die - maybe Travis could try to kick the bomb out of the train, or Marcie could cover it in ice-

Travis was nearly blinded as the yellow gas lightly touched him, his vision clouded by a sudden burning sensation. Travis turned and continued running.

Their group was responsible for three hero deaths, and who knows how much damage they’d have done with the Plutonium? Besides, there was nothing they could do - they were all covered in ice already!

Excuses. He just didn’t care if they died. Fuck them.

Travis didn’t stop running for several cars, only pausing to violently rub the tears and mucus that had formed from the brief encounter with the gas. Thank god he didn’t try touching the device...

A vibration went out throughout the train. An explosion. Or, as close to an explosion as you can get with a gas bomb. Travis had no clue how far it would spread, so they’d have to keep moving. Maybe he should have grabbed one of the jetpacks while he was leaving…

They'd have to evacuate the civilians as quickly as possible. Travis turned to Marcie and pulled out his phone, typing out a message with a deadpan look.

The robotic voice spoke out.

“Ready to get that Chocolate Milk?”

Marcie bolted after Travis as the acrid yellow gas began its spread across the train cars. She wasn’t about to get caught up in this, even if it meant saving a few pirates’ lives. She felt terrible, sure- leaving them to die a terrible death- but there was no way in hell she was fucking with that gas.

Just as she was running to the next car, however, something shot out and grabbed her ankle with a snake-like grip. She screeched in terror as her body hit the floor, and she started to be dragged back into the storage car. “Jesus- FUCK! Let me go! Let me go!”

“Fuck… you…” The voice of a man, probably one of the pirates, sounded from behind her. Marcie struggled even more, freezing the man’s hand. But before she could finish, the gas enveloped her and him. She futilely held her breath, clawing at the pirate’s hand with ice, but she gasped anyway and breathed it in.

Finally, she freed herself, staggered to her feet, and started to run again- out of the cloud of yellow gas and towards Travis. She was gasping and spitting up, her eyes watering as they burned. Her lungs felt like they were on fire as she took in every breath of fresh air. Pirates were such assholes!

She looked up at Travis as he hit ‘play’, hacking up spit, and she pulled the fire alarm. “Maybe later,” she choked out. The alarm started to ring out with a deafening noise, and she pulled her headphones over her ears again. The train screeched to a halt. Time to look for an emergency exit… Conveniently, there was one nearby, and she swung it open to reveal them being an easy 100 feet off of the ground. Marcie glared, focusing, and a sort of ice slide began to coalesce out of thin air. It was hot out, which made the progress slow, but when it was finally fully formed she slid down it on two feet.

The other passengers were evacuating via a few inflatable slides on the side of the train car, which Marcie belatedly realized would’ve been easier… but still. She sat herself on the grass, gasping and coughing and crying, and realized just how much they had fucked up.

Young Justice

---

Location: Circus Dressing Rooms Interacting with: 'Madame Xanadu' (@dreamingflowers), KJ (@DClassified)

---

Sword-swallowing, it turned out, was not as easy as Alisa had thought it would be. Although she had no fleshy esophagus to pierce with the razor-sharp blade she was shoving in her mouth, it still hurt when it scraped the back of her throat. It had taken several tries (and several dozen YouTube videos), but Alisa finally figured out how to get it down her throat properly. Now, she stood in her dressing room, laptop open to a YouTube video, practicing lowering the long blade down her throat. It was one of Viktor’s katanas that he had allowed her to borrow for the show. Alisa was being extra careful with them- he wouldn’t be pleased if she scuffed up one of his swords.

After about thirty minutes of practice, Alisa left the tiny dressing room to go do something else. Anything else. Maybe I’ll go watch the performances. Or sort through some of the suspects’ garbage? Both were good ideas, although one of them was much grosser than the other. Alisa adjusted her little plastic mask while she wandered down the hallway, looking for something to do.

Just then, a sequined purple cape entered the corner of her vision. Alisa turned to see the fortune teller… one of their suspects! She grinned and followed the woman down the hallway to her room. “Ma’am! Ma’am!” Alisa rushed to meet her. “Sorry… I just wanted to catch you to tell you what a huge admirer of your work I am. I love… the occult. I’m Ava.” She stuck out her hand. “And, erm, I also wanted to get a fortune? If you have time? I’ll pay once we get our paychecks, if that’s okay.” Of course, it was all a lie- Alisa definitely didn’t want a fortune- but if it got her into the woman’s dressing room, so be it.

The fortune teller, Madame Xanadu stared at Alisa with an intense gaze, taking her time in answering the petite android. She looked to her sides, making sure they were alone before beckoning Alisa to follow her. The woman didn’t acknowledge Alisa’s faked enthusiasm and entered her dressing room. Once Alisa was inside she closed the curtains.

“Please sit, as you don’t have any money, place something of value inside the shell”
On a table there was a silver bowl, shaped like a seashell. It held the earnings of her previous reading. The woman took off her cape and disappeared to the back of the room. It was difficult to make out what she was doing there, a set of drapes concealed her from any clients in the main area of the room.

Alisa drew back, surprised. How had the woman known she didn’t have money? X-ray vision? Creepy. Still, she sat down cross-legged on the pillow in front of the low table, twiddling her thumbs as Madame Xanadu did something in the back. Something of value? Alisa was only wearing her skintight blue performance suit, black performance flats, and her mask. With a sigh, she untied the ribbon on her mask and put it in the shell, revealing her face. What was the harm in it, anyways? She wasn’t recognizable.

“I’m ready!”

There was no reply from the back of the room. No moving of curtains, or any other sound for that matter. It was suspiciously quiet. The only sound came from a set of wind chimes, which was strange because there wasn't any wind. Minutes passed and it seemed more and more likely Alisa was alone in the fortune teller's room. Madame Xanadu had pulled off an impressive disappearing act, almost as if she knew Alisa was coming to see her.

After a minute of sitting in silence, Alisa stood. Something was wrong. “Hello? Miss?” There was silence in return- Alisa couldn’t even hear the sound of breathing.

Perhaps this ‘Madame Xanadu’ was their Kobra operative. The innocent didn’t run. If she was, the team had a much bigger problem than before- Alisa had just totally blown their cover! The girl opened the curtains cautiously, going into the back room.

The back room was full of papers- bank statements, letters, notes- but Alisa didn’t bother with those. Where had she gone? There weren’t doors or windows back here, but the woman certainly hadn’t just walked out the front door. Her being a teleporter was unlikely, so she had to have gotten out some other way.

That was when Alisas eyes fixated on the wind chimes, ringing despite the lack of wind. Her eyes widened. There was a secret entrance! She began to scour the area for any sort of secret opening, upending furniture and putting aside documents for later.

“Xanadu…” A lower male voice hissed from the entrance. He stepped into the room looking for the fortune teller. His eyes shifted from left to right nervously, he didn’t want to linger around too long. On the table he spotted the money shell holding a very strange object… a ribbon?

He walked over to the table and picked up the blue satin ribbon, holding it between his fingers. The man brought it up to his nose and smelled it, it didn’t have any distinguishable scent. There were some sounds coming from the back, but it wasn’t Xanadu, or she would have answered him.

He couldn’t risk it, he had to get out without being spotted. The man quickly scurried out of the room, bringing Alisa’s ribbon with him.

Upon hearing the unfamiliar voice, Alisa stopped looking for the secret door and pressed herself against the wall. She peered out the gauzy purple curtain, not making a sound.

At first, she thought he was just some guy mad at the fortune teller… but then he smelled her mask and ribbon and took them. The guy looked nervous, glancing around, and then left.

Maybe he was the Kobra operative. Alisa glanced around the room, looking at documents. Not for the first time, she wished she had brought a purse… but while she was looking at documents, the guy was getting away! She was briefly agonized between going after the fortune teller or going after the man. One was technically her mission objective, while the other was much more interesting. And he had taken her stuff.

Alisa needed to go after the man- she would come back for the documents later. She discreetly speed-walked out the door, going in roughly the direction she had heard him go out in.

---

After a few minutes spent searching, Alisa saw no sight of the man. Goddamnit. What a waste of time! She then walked back to the fortune teller’s room, to find the door closed and locked. Evidently, Madame Xanadu had come back… and had probably found her things upended, rifled through. Alisa had no mask, had maybe just blown their cover, and had nothing useful to account for all that mess. She scowled and put her face in her hands. She had fucked up.

She still needed to go tell someone, though. Hadn’t Ja just finished his act? He had been in one of his good moods lately. She should go talk to him.

Moments later, she knocked on the door of Ja’s dressing room. “It’s Alisa. Can I come in?”

Once let in, she leaned against the wall. “I hope your act went well! I went to talk to the fortune-teller. I can’t say if she’s the prime suspect or not, but it was weird. She snuck out through some sort of secret opening in the back as soon as I came in, so I started going through her things, but then this guy came in looking for her. He seemed really nervous. He picked up my mask and ribbon and smelled it, and then left. I tried looking for him, but I couldn’t find him, and by the time I went back to her room the door was locked. I didn’t really get enough evidence to confirm anything.

“Anyways, I figured I’d come and tell someone what was up. That’s weird, isn’t it?” She looked a tad bit embarrassed as she said all this, perhaps aware of how dumb this all sounded, but otherwise looked fine.

Looking for a detailed, Long run, Slow, Dark RP with world building

This should be in the 1x1 interest check section, not RP Discussion.

《 H.E.R.O. 2064 》

_{September 21st, 2064
Castleburg Bullet N-Train
Unspecified Industrial District}

“No no NO!”

Pandora’s trick had worked. The nuclear weapon went careening to the ground, taking Pandora with it. The jet jolted as its heavy load was unsteadily released, sending the cockpit (and possibly the person clinging onto it) rolling. Meanwhile, the bomb was aimed squarely at the clearing. Much to everyone’s surprise, however, a racing bullet of a man- Blitz- came running and caught the bomb in his hands. The heft of it would be enough to send any man to the ground.

Meanwhile, in the cockpit, Sam raged. She banged on the dashboard, screaming in frustration. “God DAMNIT! Fuck you! Fuck you all! I’m going to fucking kill you bastards!” Her face was red as she turned some switches and armed the jet. “Angela! Kill every other fucking hero you can find on that goddamn train. We’re sending a message.”

“Message received. On route now.”

“And for these guys…” Sam smiled wickedly. “They’re getting a mouthful of bullets. Starting with this fuckboy on my windshield.” Then, casually, Sam pulled out a machine gun, rested it on the dashboard, and began to shoot at Dawnbreaker through the glass of the cockpit with one hand. All the while, she used her other hand to aim her mounted guns at Pandora and Blitz and started to shoot, rapid-fire at them.

“Can’t hear you, shitrooster, but you’re about to die.”

---

Mission: On Cloud Nine Location: Castleburg Bullet N-Train Interacting:Dead Man (@Duoya)

The train car was a mess. There were bits of blood and gore streaked over everything, including Marcie, and the few pirates who were alive were struggling helplessly on the floor. They made miserable moaning noises, curled around their gory wounds. Marcie winced, her stomach turning. She needed a shower and a ginger ale ASAP.

Just when she thought the battle was over, though, there was a shrill rending sound. A red laser sliced a hole in the wall and, before Marcie could react, the bomb was gone, along with the man who she had encased in her ice. She blinked, stunned. That was fast. In her head, the tired girl resigned herself to failure, but then Dawnbreaker, Pandora, and Blitz leaped out of the hole in the train car in pursuit. The train rocked, sending Marcie’s stomach roiling again. She approached the hole with Travis, wondering if she should go after them. She gulped, staring at the long drop. Hell no.

For now, the two of them seemed to be on clean-up duty. As Travis requested, Marcie started to freeze the bodies of the alive pirates, although she quietly wondered at the point of it as they were horrifically maimed. She also went around reinforcing the frozen-over holes in the wall, just in case any came back.

“I think they do…” she replied, frowning in thought. “Or we get a 20% discount. Get me some chocolate milk if you’re going.”

---

On the train, a woman stalked the halls. This menacing figure, unlike Sam, seemed to be taking things completely in stride. She was tall, with dark skin and black, curly hair. Without a sound, she wiped and cleaned her bloody dual katanas. The two on the floor had put up a fight, but they hadn’t been a challenge. Amplify and Dhampir laid on the floor, both unmoving. Amplify looked very dead, having been split open sternum to navel, but Dhampir at least still seemed to be breathing.

With a sigh, “Angela” sheathed her blades. That fight had been a bit messy for her liking. Dhampir and Amplify had put up a good fight, but she had prevailed. Perhaps the heroes towards the back of the train would be as much fun.

---

Only moments after Marcie announced her intent to chug down a glass of chocolate milk, “Angela”, with bated breath, hid herself behind the doorway into the storage room. As soon as Travis would walk out to buy food, she would ambush them- and hopefully succeed in carrying out her mission of ending their lives.

---

---

_{September 21st, 2064
'Totally Innocuous Warehouse'
Brookside, South Castle Island}

The men outside of the warehouse seemed to be having a bit of trouble. They had taken out the lookouts, but they couldn’t find their target. If a hero looked out the window, they’d notice men in suits casing the area, murmuring amongst themselves.

Finally, one seemed to decide to stop looking around and start actually being useful, and he headed into the warehouse. He set down his heavy-looking briefcase as he walked in, brushing dust off his suit. This guy was a towering blonde white man wearing a suit. “Yo, guys,” he said to Beth, Leon, and Nilin. “I can’t find her. Any idea where she is? I’m, uh, Sam, by the way. You could call me… Strong Boy, too, if you wanted.” ‘Sam’ scratched his head, looking around, bewildered. If one looked close enough, they could see at least three visible guns on him. Strange for someone named ‘Strong Boy’...

The Borehole - A Superhuman Prison Break RP

Interested! (again)

The Borehole - A Superhuman Prison Break

Interested!

《 H.E.R.O. 2064 》

@canaryrose @Hitman Felicitations, malefactors. I'm here with a sheet for a secondary character incase Shadow Scythe has to take a back seat for one reason or another.

There's kind of...a lot? Here? She's just a secondary and I got a little carried away with the Iron Man fantasy perhaps but, she's a self-made rich bitch with something to prove, so. I thought it might be fun. Let me know what you think

Project Gateway

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G A T E W A Y

"At your service! ...For a price.

...A price already covered by your tax dollars so you’ve nothing to worry about!"

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[ NAME ]

Summer O’Shea

[ HERO IDENTITY ]

Project Gateway

[ NICKNAME/ALIAS ]

Gateway

[ AGE ]

Twenty-one

[ GENDER ]

Female, she/her

[ AFFILIATION ]

H.E.R.O

[ APPEARANCE ]

Dazzling, naturally pink hair is Summer’s most identifiable trait. Usually she wears brightly colored, form fitting clothes and her favorite blue and white jacket. She stands at 5 feet, 6 inches and has a toned physique. Also distinct from most people in Castleburg is her Northern Irish accent.

The powered suit she wears is also very form fitting. The helmet is completely smooth, but Summer can see perfectly with sensors and imperceptible cameras. The faceplate also retracts, if she needs some fresh air or to make eye contact with someone. On the right side of the base of her skull there is a black square, something like a cybernetic implant that she uses to alter her brain functions.

When it is equipped with utilities and weapons, those can add onto the suits bulk and change how it looks.

[ PERSONALITY TRAITS ]

Summer is a boisterous, swaggering young woman who isn’t afraid to make a fool out of herself. Always acting like a clown for a joke or a laugh and constantly propping herself up. Some might view it as arrogance, but it’s simply the way she enjoys behaving. The center of attention is where Summer likes to be.

Greed is one of her primary motivations for being a hero, and Summer isn’t afraid to show it. Between her merchandising and her hero alias being a usable hashtag on social media, Summer is always trying to cook up ways to get more bang for her buck. Spreading the love is not an issue, and if she thinks more people can make more money, she’ll jump at the opportunity. Cooperation is just another way of getting rid of the competition, really! There’s plenty to go around, if only folks are willing to put the work in.

While she certainly might be off-putting or unlikable to those with more traditional views of heroism, there’s little malicious about her behavior. Beneath all the bluster is a bravehearted person who really does just want to help. Help everyone. Including herself! And her friends! Is there really anything wrong with that?

Summer also wants people to recognize and appreciate her and her friends' intelligence. As well as prove that just because she doesn’t have powers, that doesn’t mean she can’t be the best hero around.

[ BIO ]

Summer calls the idyllic countryside outside of Belfast, Ireland her home, growing up in a picturesque small town that she would now refer to as ‘boring as hell’. Beautiful town though it may be, her father and mother were quite poor, and Summer got a job early to help out. With no siblings and her parents busy, Summer ended up being quite lonely. The X-200 had given her the worst superpower ever- the ability to have pink hair all the time and she can’t turn it off. Bafflingly, this made the other kids distrust and dislike her, claiming that she was bound to have other secret powers as well. Or maybe they just wanted an excuse to pick on someone who was different. Being a ‘nerd’ didn’t exactly help, either. Ireland wasn’t all bad; the adults there treated her kindly and her parents loved her dearly. And when she left her hometown and went to neighboring towns and cities, she found herself making temporary friends with strangers. Perhaps the only problem was Keelin, a very rude popular girl who seemed to position herself as Summer’s arch nemesis… or maybe that was just a reductive way of looking at things.

People thinking she had secret powers made Summer both loathe the idea of superpowers, and become infatuated with the idea. This conflict drove her to want to become a superhero, powers or not. Not just a cop, or a protector, or work with heroes- an honest to God superhero with a name and a gimmick and a fanbase. That would show them. And another thing- she’d never be poor again. These ambitions stuck.

Being bullied didn’t matter. No, it didn’t bother young Summer at all, for she found refuge in her studies and the internet. Over the next several years she developed a tight knit group of like minded outcasts and oddballs like herself. In search of power and glory they formed Project Gateway, the world’s first non-powered superhero. Each of them had a different skill to bring to the table, and together they began to put their plans into action.

It took a lot of hard work, but eventually the five of them got a lucky break. They got a corporate sponsor in the form of GatewayX, a private space program. Thus, they renamed Project Mecha-Bitch 3000 to Project Gateway. Summer served as the only non-powered superhero of CELT’s Northern Irish branch. Eventually she was zooming all over the Great Britain area. The support of the Irish government wasn’t far behind.

A strange problem occured. There wasn’t enough action. Summer wanted Project Gateway to go global. Perhaps rub her success in the face of heroes all around the world.

Thus, #Project Gateway was cleared to travel to the supervillain hero capital of the world, Castleburg. She’ll be arriving shortly.

| MISCELLANEOUS |
Members of Team Mecha-Bitch

Electrical Engineer

Balavan Lohar

“Hello? HELLO? Is this thing on? Let’s get this party started already!”

The original candidate for the pilot of the suit, this Indian born lad is a fiercely competitive electrical engineering genius. Unfortunately, a car accident left him bed-ridden for a long time before the project went live. While he’s better now, no one could possibly separate Summer from the Suit, now. He designed the incredibly compact power systems for the suit and the heads up display.

Mechanical Engineer

Dimitri Alexeyev

“This will work. You should all be ashamed, but I will make this work.”

Isolated, cold, and alone, Dimitri wouldn’t have it any other way. From his palace made of ice, foundations constructed of the skulls of his enemies, (allegedly) Dimitri is the mastermind behind implementing and ensuring the consistency of the weapons implemented into the Gateway suit. He operates from somewhere in the Baltics.

Chemical Engineer

Awa Yoneyama

“Pink is cute! Like your hair! Everyone will like us, yes!”

The heart of the team and it’s second youngest member, Awa is the mind behind the Gateway suit’s most iconic weapon, the Bubblegum formula. She also designed the aesthetic of the suit and while she is sad that Bubble Gum Glue Girl is not the name of the superhero, Gateway is better than Mecha-Bitch 3000. She is also the most skilled in the medicinal arts of the team.

Technical Support

AMI

“SEARCHING FOR FILE: ‘FUCKS TO GIVE’. FILE NOT FOUND.’

A rogue chunk of loose traffic managing AI code developed in South Africa. AMI stands for Advanced Machine Intelligence. She is the youngest member of the team at only ten years old, but she certainly has a vast array of knowledge on many topics. She is best at the remote operation parts of their missions, controlling cameras and drones.

Abilities

[ RANKING ]

E Rank when out of suit. Estimated B- rank when in suit.

[ POWERS ]

The Mecha-Bitch 3000, or rather, the Gateway Armor, is a form-fitting, highly durable and mobile suit that has many configurations and modifications available to it. Being very versatile, Summer can serve almost any role in a mission, but she is often out-done by powered specialists. Her greatest strength is being prepared and bringing the right tool

For the below-listed rankings, please rank yourself using the colored and uncolored boxes on a scale of 0-10, with a 2 corresponding to what an average, non-powered human can put out, and provide a brief explanation for the reasoning of said ranking. See "Power Rankings" hider below for more guidance.

■■■■■□□□□□

[ PHYSICAL STRENGTH ]
■■■■■■■□□□

The suit, by default, has enhanced strength to allow Summer to bust through walls, pick up cars, and knock people around. Useful for saving people and crowd control. 7/10

[ AGILITY ]
■■■■■■□□□□

Summer is no slouch when it comes to being athletic, and the enhanced strength of the suit only increased this attribute. She can jump high, be mobile, and do anything she can do outside of the suit, only more than twice as well.

[ INTELLIGENCE ]
■■■■■■■□□□

Summer is the maintenance technician of the group. She has an excellent memory and knows how to put things back together again. She knows the suit inside and out, and electronics and mechanics in general are her domain of expertise. This alone is very useful, but she also has a panel of experts at her disposal at all times, and they are never afraid to chip in. 7/10

[ DESTRUCTIVENESS ]
■■■■■■■■□□

The Gateway Suit is capable of a great amount of destruction, especially with it’s modifications. 8/10

[ LETHALITY ]
■■■■■■■■□□

One of the reasons Summer has come to be the permanent pilot is her temperament. Unlike the others, she is willing to do what it takes while having an even mood, being the most calm and collected under pressure. The Gateway Suit has a variety of lethal weapons for putting down dangerous targets quickly in order to minimize loss of life. 8/10

[ ENDURANCE ]
■■■■■■■■□□

Given how Summer is just a squishy human, it was very important the suit be capable of taking as much damage as possible in order to give her a chance to escape or turn the fight around. Being bulletproof was a complete necessity, and she definitely is. Shock and impact damage was next. The only unavoidable weakness was that to piercing damage by heavy objects with a consistent pushing force, in other words, close ranged stabbing by someone with a melee weapon and super strength. But building the fabric and metals of the suit to combat that would be too much and would lower the effectiveness of everything, putting Summer into more danger. The suit also has an in-built medical system to stabilize Summer if she gets hurt. 8/10

[ EFFICACY ]
■■■■■□□□□□

The Gateway suit can be on for a long amount of time, and since Summer herself is mostly spared the exhaustion of her physical actions, she can operate under duress for a great amount of time. However the Gateway suit does need recharging, on average, two or three times a week.

[ SKILLS ]

Besides her knowledge related to her field, Summer is a decently trained hand to hand fighter. She’s light on her feet, and is a really good dancer.

[ EQUIPMENT ]

Configurations

Bubble Buddy

Bubble Buddy: A go-to non-lethal loadout, equipped with Yoneyama’s bubble weapons.

Bubble Launcher: The suit’s hands are modified to fire projectiles out of the palms and index fingers. Fire high speed, high impact gum rounds that explode on impact. One or two is enough to knock an opponent over and then stick them to the ground. Stronger targets require more bubbles, but getting hit by them is a huge annoyance, even when blocked.

Bubble Bomb: A small pink pebble that, when squeezed, expands into a grenade sized sphere. When thrown, there are a few seconds of wait time and then it detonates, spreading adhesive over a large area and knocking targets away.

Silly String: Fire out sticky pink string for various purposes and in various forms.

Limited Hovering: Bubble Buddy can float in the air and move at slow speeds.

Sticky Hands: The Gateway Suit has an adhesive on her hands and feet that can be activated to allow her to navigate walls and ceilings at higher speeds.

Adhesive Healing: An altered bubble formula can be applied with a touch to safely stop the bleeding of wounds.

Solvent Mist: A special formula that can disintegrate the sticky adhesive. The bubblegum dissolves within 24 hours unless modified, but this can always be useful. Kept in a can.

Stungun: A high quality stun gun to debilitate close range targets.

Taser: A taser with longer range prongs and penetration.

Strengths: Non lethal damage, crowd and damage control, urban movement, defense.

Weaknesses: Elemental attacks, flying enemies, artificial enemies.

The Think Tank

Exoskeleton: An armored exoskeleton is mounted onto the suit, increasing Gateway’s height, strength, and durability manifold.

Kinetic Enhancers: While the exo-skeleton already boosts her strength, two hand holds around her arms give her access to a pair of piston-esque implements. The pistons have good freedom of movement and are capable of outputting a huge amount of kinetic force, rivalling those with super strength.
Portable Energy Shield: Arm mounted hard-light energy shield she can use to defend herself and allies from bullets and other hard hitting attacks.

Shoulder Mounted Rocket Launchers: A pair of four barreled rocket launchers. They auto reload and can fire munitions of various types.

Strengths: Killing people, destruction, offense, tanking.

Weaknesses: Mobility, elemental attacks, kinetics.

Bomber Man

Enhanced Flight Systems: Mounted on ankles, palms, and back, a miniature grafted exoskeleton that drastically increases her speed and mobility in the air. Energy engines leave pink trails where she flies.

Beam Projectors: High powered beams made from leftover kinetic energies of the flight suit. Capable of being fired from clenched fists.

Grenade Launcher: Semi-automatic shoulder mounted grenade launcher capable of firing a variety of projectiles at a decent rate of fire. Usually loaded with bubble grenades, but more lethal munitions are available.

Strengths: Evasiveness, mobility, fighting against kinetics and casters.

Weaknesses: Durability, close quarters, high durability targets.

Deliverables

With every loadout and configuration, Summer can call in reinforcements with drones deployed from around the city, or the HERO blimp. Alternatively, she could equip herself at the start of the mission and only call in other deliverables later. These weapons and tools can be equipped in any loadout, and it’s rare that she goes without one or several of the items on the list, depending on how heavy and cumbersome they are.

Super Special Pistol: A large, ‘U’ shaped pistol with multiple functions.

Adhesive Net: Fire out a large, ropey net made out of adhesive bubblegum.
Knockout Pellets: Fire slower moving projectiles that shatter on contact, releasing potent knock out gas on a small area.
Bubble Blast: Short range shotgun blast of adhesive projectiles.
Bubble Bolt: Long range, high speed spear-like adhesive shot. Requires charge up.

Heavy Plasma Gun: A machine gun that fires a volley of high speed, red plasma bolts in something similar to a laser gun.

Minigun: A minigun.

Grenade Launcher: A two handed grenade launcher, equipped with multiple types of munitions.

The Big One: A battering ram tool in the form of a long black cylinder, held in both hands via handles along the top. Can turn people, walls, and steel into pulp when ‘fired’. A short range mega-punch. Don’t miss, it has a hefty recharge time.

Shield Projector: Two shield projectors that create a ten by ten by ten diameter translucent pink hard-light shield. Default settings are that people can go in and out, but projectiles can’t. Can be tweaked if fiddled with before or after deployment.

Shield Wall: Fifteen by ten foot, slightly curved see-through shield wall of hard-light.

Shield Drone: A drone equipped with a hard-light projector shield.

Bubble Drone: A drone equipped with a short range bubble blaster.

Gas Drone: A drone equipped with a short range gas projector. Knockout, smoke, or tear gas.

Plasma Cutter Sawblade: A two handed melee weapon and utility item for cutting through the most durable surfaces. Or enemies.

Isolene Injector: For shutting down defeated enemies with dangerous powers that can’t otherwise be restrained.

@Zoey Boey

Love her! One small nitpick: you forgot to delete one of the filler paragraphs in the Abilities section as well as the example boxes below it. Other than that, she's accepted.

Young Justice

-a n d-

Once the team arrived at the fairgrounds, Alisa went off by her lonesome. She wandered around and marveled at the spectacles. All sorts of games, food, exhibitions, and attractions abounded, and ambiguously safe-looking rollercoasters towered above. She had never been in a place like this before and was constantly being surprised. The colors, the people, the noises… it was all fascinating. An hour into their trip, she had visited an art competition, an animal show (taking care to stay far away from the stables), and had even rode a few rollercoasters.

All the while, she was keeping an eye out for her teammates. While she had purposefully gone off on her own, she did still want to see how her friends were doing. The fairgrounds were so large, however, that she couldn’t really find anyone. She had half a mind to go be useful and scope out the circus, but she was loving this. People-watching was good enough for her. Eventually Alisa bought a giant fried corn dog, a funnel cake, and a milkshake and sat down, a peaceful smile on her face as she watched the fairgoers go about their days. She drummed her fingers on the picnic table, munching on her food.

”You got room over there?”

Maya sauntered over towards the table Alisa was sitting at, a happy look on her face as she made her way over to the table, sitting down next to Alisa before she was given permission to do so. Maya looked a bit like a cowgirl in her current attire, wearing a low-cut cream-colored gypsy top, a pair of jean shorts, and tall cowboy boots that rose up to her knees. On top of her head of wavy brown hair was a comically gigantic cowboy hat that Maya had won at a carnival game, and in her arms were a slew of stuffed animals that Maya had won, which she let spill out onto the table.

”Turns out that after you win 10 of these in a row, they send security after you. Fun fact!” Maya said mischievously as she looked at her stuffed pile of loot. ”You want one? Here, take Fluffy.” Maya rested a large stuffed poodle in front of Alisa. ”Alicia, right? Sorry, bad with names.”

Alisa smiled- a bit nervously, perhaps- at Maya’s sudden appearance. She scooted over on the bench for her, making room. She wasn’t yet sure how she felt about Maya. Her arrival had been significantly overshadowed by Bex’s, and she certainly didn’t like Bex. But a stuffed animal certainly did make her like the Maya a little bit more. Sweet! Another to add to her collection. She laughed at Maya’s anecdote and took the poodle graciously, embracing it. “Ooh! I love him. Thanks!”

“Alisa,” she firmly corrected. “It’s alright, though... I know who you are! You’re Maya Kobayashi. Demonslayer… but you prefer Maya,” she supplied, before realizing this might be a strange thing to say and hurriedly followed up with, “I’m Alisa Fields, but my… alias, I guess, is Cybergirl. It’s nice to meet you!”

If Maya was perturbed by Alisa’s strange response, she didn’t show it at all, instead giving a cheery smile. ”Oh! Sorry, names are tough. Alisa. That’s a very nice name,” the Asian girl said as she removed the ginormous cowboy hat from her head, resting it on the table in front of them. ”You want to grab a bite to eat? I heard the cotton candy here is really good.”

“Oh, no, I already did! But you can have most of mine if you want.” Alisa pushed over her giant, barely touched portions of food to Maya. “I don’t like to eat a lot, so have at it.”

”I don’t know how you can have energy to beat up bad guys if you don’t eat,” Maya said with a snicker as she pulled the food in front of her, sticking a fork in.

“Oh, I’ll live without it! Sometimes I’ll even go a week or two without eating… I don’t really need it,” Alisa explained, not understanding that this might be extremely confusing or alarming to someone who didn’t know her well.

”More for me, I guess. Here, though, let me make it up to you.” Maya stuck her hand into her pocket, pulling out a handful of things. ”I got 27 cents...two sticks of gum...you like gum? Ooh!” Maya dropped two slightly-crumpled tickets onto the table in front of Alisa. ”They’re having pony rides here! We should do that. It’d be fun! Where else can you get pony rides, after all? Let’s do that!”

Alisa smiled, and then blanched, realizing what Maya was talking about. If it was possible for her to sweat, she would’ve been- there was no way she was getting on a fucking horse. “Oh, erm… I’m alright! I don’t wanna do that… Why don’t we go ride a rollercoaster instead?”

”Aww, come on! I already rode on a rollercoaster today. The pony thing sounds super fun, though.” Maya casually slid closer to Alisa, the taller girl’s shoulder rubbing up against the android, the smell of orange blossom perfume emanating from Maya’s body. ”I think it would be so cool if we could go together. Pretty please?” Maya batted her eyelashes, a frisky simper forming on her lips as Maya eeked into Alisa’s personal space.

Alisa crossed her arms and leaned back, an uncomfortable look on her face. “I have qualms,” she said, awkwardly, not looking at the girl with the puppy eyes in front of her face. “About… animal abuse. Yeah, um, that. I’ve heard that they really abuse all the animals at these fairs. I don’t want to, uh, contribute to that… Do you?”

”Animal abuse?!” Maya’s eyes widened, and she pulled back sharply. ”Why didn’t you say something, then? We have to go save those poor things! ” Maya quite literally jumped out of her seat. ”Let’s go! Right now! Every second we waste is a second more that those poor animals are stuck in those stables! Ooh, maybe we can convince Red Tornado to keep them in the base for a little while, until we can find them a home!”

Oh God, what have I done. Alisa stood, too, although much more cautiously. A horse rescue mission sounded much worse. “Let’s not get too hasty,” she placated and reached her hands out. “We both care a lot about horses-” A lie, horses were the worst animal- “But we’d be breaking our cover. Jeopardizing the mission and- and our teammates! Plus… Red Tornado is really strict, and he has a no-pets policy. We’d get grounded! Well, you’d get grounded, I’d get more grounded…”

”You kidding? This is important, Alisa! Those poor ponies...poor, poor ponies...” Maya shook her head in sadness at the thought. ”Being a hero is about being a hero, you know? Like, you have to stand up for what you believe in. And also take autographs, hopefully. Come on!”

Alisa shook her head violently. “But Red Tornado said that, um. He said if the new people get in trouble at the fair or breaks a rule on this mission, they’ll get kicked off the team!” That was absolutely not true, but sometimes lies were necessary.

”Come on, Alisa, loosen up!” Maya said playfully. ”We won’t get kicked off the team because we won’t get caught. I mean, I know I won’t get caught. And you probably won’t. You’re in good shape,” Maya said offhandedly. ”You sound awfully robotic right now. We’re superheroes, remember? This’ll be a walk in the park. Literally.”

Alisa blushed at Maya’s compliment, but kept her arms crossed and her eyes to the side. “One, that’s offensive to robots. Two, you don’t think two horses are conspicuous?” Alisa retorted.

”Three, who cares about a bunch of dumb robots? They don’t feel anything. And four, we can just take them out the back when the people in charge are distracted. I’ll make a distraction, and you take the horses out the back. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.” Maya rubbed her hands together. ”This’ll be just like Ocean’s Eight! Except with horses, and not a cash grab.”

Alisa suddenly scowled, looking pissed. She wasn’t sure if Maya knew about her metallic insides quite yet, but that was still… well, maybe true most of the time, but she didn’t like it! “There are robots with feelings,” she snapped. “Asshole.” She then pondered the plan for a moment and sighed. There would be no convincing Maya.

“Fine. But I’m distracting.”
”OK, OK, jeez.” Maya rolled her eyes. ”Whatever you say.” Maya stood from the table, gesturing for Alisa to follow her. ”Let’s go rescue some ponies! Woohoo!”

---

The duo arrived at the horse rides area, which only consisted of a small tent and a grassy area with a number of fences to mark the path of the ride. A few ponies were leashed to a metal fencepost nearby. Maya stretched her arms. ”Remember the plan. You keep the guy working the horses distracted, and I’ll free the ponies. Then, you meet me out there by that big cherry tree over there. Got it?”

Alisa gulped, staring down the equine animals. Their beady eyes… their giant teeth… their horrible faces all gave her goosebumps. If she had a heart, it would’ve been beating in her ears, but her body settled for a light shaking. “Yeah, yeah. Got it.”

Once Maya left, Alisa walked up the counter, smiling broadly. “Hello, sir, can I-” She then practically threw herself into the table, breaking it with the force of her weight and fall, and began to scream. “MY LEG! MY LEG! Oh god, I’ve broken my leg! I’m going to sue all of you!” A more astute watcher would’ve noted the lack of any tears, blood, or a twisted leg, but this seemed enough to distract the employees. They rushed to her side, offering first aid and apologies.

Maya gave a thumbs-up before dramatically ducking down, rolling out of the line of sight of the pony rides operator and stealthily moving towards the place where the ponies were kept in captivity. As Alisa did her task, Maya quietly made her way over to the fencepost, holding out her hand. A small puff of red mist materialized at her palm, and in a split second Blood Moon appeared in her hand. With a single, precise stroke, Maya sliced free all the horses. ”Run free, horses! Run free!” she whispered, as her eyes flitted over towards Alisa. ”This is a bit over-the-top,” she muttered as she quietly made her way towards the cherry tree, the horses running wild into the plains.

Alisa wasn’t dumb enough to just walk away, so she ushered Maya over as she continued to fake-wail. “My friend is going to take me to the hospital, and then we’re going to sue you and your stupid horses! Right, Ma...ria?”

”O-oh, yeah, right!” Maya jogged over, helping lift Alisa off the ground. ”Let’s go, Stacy! I know a great lawyer that’s going to sue the pants off of you guys!”

Alisa hobbled away with Maya. She limped for a good few moments, putting her weight on Maya, before standing up once they were out of sight. “That… was actually easy!” She also hadn’t had to see a horse, which was great.

”Jesus Christ, you’re heavy...yeah, that was great! We did it!”

“It’s rude to call a girl fat,” Alisa teased.

”I didn’t say you were fat,” Maya retorted with a smirk.

“Not true! You totally did. Meanie.” Alisa playfully pinched a piece of skin on Maya’s arm.

”Hey!” Maya giggled, swatting back at Alisa. ”Stop that!”

Alisa swiped at Maya’s shoulder with her fist, laughing. “Oh yeah? Take that!”

Maya laughed again. ”Bully!” She wound up a fist in response, before stopping. ”Oh my God, Daisy came back! She seems to like you!”

Indeed, right behind Alisa was a tall white horse, which promptly breathed down the back of Alisa’s neck.

With a slowly dawning look of horror on her face, Alisa turned around to stare at the horse. The beast was far taller than her, and it breathed down her neck, going as far as to nose her shoulder. Alisa could only stare for a moment, stock-still, before she let out a blood-curdling scream and ran behind Maya.

“Get it away from me! Oh my God oh my God oh my God-” Alisa clutched Maya’s arms, using her as a human shield.

Maya stood in confusion for a few moments. ”Alisa, you realize it’s a...” The realization then dawned on her, and Maya began to start uncontrollably laughing, in dolphin-like spurts of squeals and giggles. In between laughs, Maya managed to choke out, ”You’re...hah...afraid...hah...of...HORSES!” She then continued laughing hysterically, as if this was the funniest thing she had seen in years, while Daisy nuzzled his nose against Maya’s outstretched hand (Maya’s other hand being wrapped around her stomach, as she was belly-laughing quite hard).

Alisa blushed scarlet, backing away in the meantime. “I am not! And it’s not funny. They’re… they’re freakish! Look at it!”

Daisy the horse stared back at Alisa with doleful eyes.

“It would kill you all in your sleep if it could!”

Maya rolled her eyes. ”Ah, yes. How could I not be scared of its intimidating glare, and its ominous neighing.” She laughed again. ”So, is your backstory your parents being killed at the Kentucky Derby? Or were you captured as a child by a gang of palominos?"

“No. My mom took me to a farm once, and had me ride a horse… and it kicked me so hard it dented my abdomen. Dented it! It also ripped out my hair. I had to get a whole new set.” Alisa still huddled behind Maya, watching the horse carefully as it stared at her with scheming eyes.

”Hey, I get it, we all have our phobias. You should've told me sooner and I wouldn't have- holy shit, wait a fucking second, did you just say DENTED?!”

“Yeah, so? It kicked me here-” Alisa knocked on her stomach, and a faintly hollow sound echoed- “and I got a giant dent.”

”Did you just say. Dented.” Maya repeated, more as a surprised statement this time as her eyes widened.

“Yes. Is your hearing alright?”

”...I am speaking to a robot.”

“I mean, I prefer android, but you didn’t realize that? I thought Katana would at least brief you a little.”

”No! I thought you were, like, an energy armor type! Not a fucking robot!”

“So? Do you have a problem with that?”

”Yes,” Maya said bluntly, scratching the back of her head, still looking a bit shell-shocked.

Alisa’s eyes then went wide, looking hurt. She had started to think that her unnatural origins might not have been as big a deal as she thought, but was she wrong? “... You do? Why?”

"I mean.." Maya's eyes twinkled. ”Why didn't anybody tell me? That is, like, so cool! Can you turn into a car like a Transformer or something? I didn't realize robots could be so...normal!" Maya started to check Alisa out. ”So, you're 100% robot? This is all metal?" she asked, gesturing at Alisa's synthetic body.

“... Mostly stainless steel, silicon, and plastic, but with some other alloys too…” Alisa’s hurt look morphed into one of confusion. Such a quick turn-around! “I don’t know what a Transformer is, so no, and yes, I am 100% synthetic.”

”Shit. That's why you weighed so much. I was starting to think you just filled up with Hot Pockets back at the base.” Maya laughed. ”So if you're a robot, can you, like, do my chores too? If you don't run out of energy or something?"

“I’m not that kind of robot, and I’m not doing your chores. I already have extra.” Alisa then raised a brow. “You haven’t told me anything about you, Maya.”

”Fair enough." Maya sat down, withdrawing her hand and signalling for the (very confused) Daisy to run off, which the horse then did. ”What do you want to know, then? It’s not going to be as cool as the whole ‘being a robot’ thing."

“It’s really not that cool. But where are you from? What are your abilities? How did you come to be with Katana? Why are you here? Stuff like that.”

”I’m from a little place called Gotham City and I’m here to carry this team," Maya said with a prolonged stretch of her arms, not a drop of sarcasm on her face. ”Me and Katana both use swords, so it was kind of a natural fit. Here, let me show you. Senshi!"

Maya held up her hand, and the katana phased into existence right in front of Alisa’s eyes

Alisa snorted. “Cool sword, but if you think you’re gonna ‘carry’ the team…” She then put a little thought into it, and smirked. “Tell you what. If you can beat Talon, Rain, and... let’s say, Brightheart in a fight, then you can say that.”

“What’s special about the sword?”

Maya gave a confident smile. ”I could beat both of those Batman wannabe emos with one arm," the girl boasted. ”Brightheart, no way. She is so hot. Jesus. How do you not get self-conscious?" Maya exhaled loudly. ”Damn. Anyway, this is Blood Moon." Maya held up the sword. ”There’s a whole-ass demon in here. Pretty cool, right?"

“You’d be surprised,” Alisa told her. In truth, there was no way that Alisa thought Maya could beat any of the three of them. “Although, I did beat Viktor in our first spar. Also, yes. Aleen’a is pretty, but very nice!” Alisa then shook her head, looking skeptical for a moment, before sighing and letting her shoulders slump. “I guess I’ve seen crazier things. Like everything Zach does…”

”No, it’s actually a cursed sword!" Maya twirled it above her head with expert control. ”A single touch onto a normal person will leave a wound of unbearable pain," Maya said as she brought down the sword, prodding Alisa with it. ”I guess if you’re a robot, you don’t feel pain, though, right? Lucky."

Unfortunately for them, Alisa did feel pain. And the sword happened to hurt like a bitch. Alisa gasped and screamed, again, jumping back from the sword and Maya. “Ow ow ow ow- WHY WOULD YOU TOUCH ME WITH THAT?!” She nursed her still burning hand, knowing there was nothing she could do for it. The sword had gone straight through her “skin” and some of the metal of her hand, leaving a significant slice of her wrist that showed the metal underneath.

”Holy shit I’m so sorry!" Maya said with a start, immediately dropping the sword and reaching to take Alisa’’s hand. ”Fucking Christ, why did they program you to feel pain?!"

“My mom hates me, I guess?!” Alisa closed her eyes tight, biting her cheek and trying not to scream again. She relinquished her hand to Maya, letting her see it. “Ow, god, that hurts…”

”Hang on one second, it’ll be all better in a second. SENSHI, FIX HER!" Maya yelled at the discarded sword next to her. Meanwhile, Alisa’s wound started to grow worse, the metal around the wound starting to corrode and flake away, the unbearable pain only continuing to grow stronger.

Alisa’s eyes widened in panic and pain as the rest of her hand began to corrode. “Make it stop make it stop make it stop-” She barely kept from screaming, only moaning and buckling over. “Seriously, stop it, Maya! It’s not funny, my hand!”

”Stop panicking! The worse you panic, the worse it gets! It’s a demon curse!”

“MAKE IT STOP CUTTING OFF MY FUCKING HAND THEN!”

The pain eventually subsided, and Alisa’s hand slowly stopped evaporating. ”There we go. Sorry, Lis. Didn’t realize that you, err, would notice anything there. My bad.”

Alisa looked substantially pissed as she stared down at the missing portions of her left hand. There was a large hole in the spot where the back of her hand met her arm, extending to just below her thumb. Metal and wiring was exposed, and Alisa scowled as she flexed her hand with a bit of fine dexterity difficulty. “I’m going to have to get that fixed, now that my only left hand doesn’t work. Thanks..” ‘Carry the team’ her ass. Maya couldn’t even control her sword.

”You’re welcome,” Maya shot back sarcastically. ”Why don’t you give it a few seconds?” Maya looked down at her wrist, where her watch would’ve been if she had a watch. Indeed, as if it were magic (which it was), the place that the corrosion had occurred was now repairing itself, wires shifting back to where they were before and fragments of metal growing from where the gap had once been. Soon, the only indication that anything had ever happened was a slight scar where Maya had originally sliced through, and of course, Alisa’s memories of the horrible, agonizing pain.

Alisa flexed her hand again, looking surprised after the sudden healing. “Huh… I’ve never had a scar.” She then shrugged. “Don’t try that again. Seriously. If I were flesh and blood, you’d be in deep trouble.”

Maya nodded intensely. ”Yep. And I owe you a favor. Big-time. Anything you want.”

“Anything?”

”I hate where this is headed, but yeah.”

“Hm. I’ll think about it. I mean, it won’t be crazy, but I’ll think on it.”

Maya sighed. This was gonna come back to bite her. ”Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Alisa! Don't forget to take Fluffy with you,” Maya added as she strolled back towards the fairgrounds.

“Oh, see you!” Alisa waved at Maya’s back, clutching ‘Fluffy’ in her hands. This had been interesting, but she still wasn’t sure how she felt about Maya. Only time would tell. She cast one last suspicious look at Daisy the horse, who was peacefully munching on grass, before walking off herself. Time to go find a rollercoaster… or maybe another of her friends.