NeutralNexus

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I was going to make a post tonight, but I am just too tired tonight...hopefully A Cowl post and War-Pulse post will be coming soon.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

As expected, the man explained to him that the woman's powers were at this point unknown. Of course. A super secret job to chase down a woman who took out other metahumans with mysterious powers? Great, about as vague as you could get without Randall just shrugging and giving him the old 'I dunno". However, just before Trent was about to shrug and roll with it, the man produced him a bit of evidence in the form of an audio recording.

"...I'm...honestly a little surprised that your employers knew I was going to ask that question. More so that apparently you have dudes dying on tape and thought 'you know what would be great to keep around? This. I bet we're going to need this in the future." He chuckled and placed the earphones on, adding. "Oh who am I kidding? I bet this is comedy gold."

As advised, he placed on the headphones and listened patiently to the whole recording, and surprisingly, his attitude seemed to change when he heard the killings begin. His brow furrowed, lips pursing as he listened to the men describe what little they could explain about the attack, the woman's voice, everything he could analyze from an audio file went through his head. He made a few conclusions almost immediately, the people this group was hiring before him were nowhere near prepared to fight a superhuman. Whoever or whatever this woman was, she was fast, able to either dodge or avoid weapons fire, possibly resist it entirely as well from the sounds of it. Her voice at the end also had a clicking to it, either pointing to robotics or some kind of mutation, he couldn't tell which. He'd certainly be sending this information to Warden to see what he could make of it, but he was indeed dealing with a threat, not a victim. If this woman was going to be captured, she would not be captured without a hell of a fight.

And Trent would love every minute of it, guessing by the enthralled grin he sported when he put down the headphones.

"I think you've made a good choice hiring me, Randy." Trent said, popping the SD card out of the audio recorder and placing it with his dossier. "This ain't my first metahuman rodeo, and I don't need a gun to make an impact. I'll bring her to you alive, but don't hold it against me if the goods come a bit...damaged."

And with that, he tucked the dossier into his arm and got up from his seat. "Nice talkin' to ya, Randy. I'm sure we'll be keeping in touch."

---

"Welcome home, boss, I trust you had a decent flight from the East?"

A larger man in a suit was there to greet The Cowl and his entourage when they landed in an airport just outside of Lost Haven, shut down for the night after some money was exchanged for the airport's security systems to have 'malfunctioned'. He had a large scar on his right cheek, punctuating his strong jawline and slicked back hair, a smile on his face as The Cowl came over to shake his hand and clap him on the shoulder.

"It was long, but necessary, Wesson. It's good to see you're still in charge when I left."

"Well, I'm only running the manpower, Smith took over the books." the man known as Wesson smiled and placed both hands on Cowl's. "I don't know how you managed it all yourself, or how you kept that rat-bastard Teddy in check."

"Honestly, he was going to turn eventually, I just had to make sure I had a backup plan."

"You couldn't have taken him down without us losing a cargo ship?"

The joyful gaze of Cowl's turned sour on that question, his eyes boring holes into Wesson as he asked in a very calm tone. "Are you questioning how I handle things, Wesson?"

"N-no, I don't think--"

"Good, because without my careful planning we could have lost a lot more than one cargo ship." The Cowl stated defiantly, striding past the bigger man to the waiting limo. "Now, I trust that the party has already begun?"

"Most of the guests have already arrived." Wesson said, walking alongside The Cowl with a clipboard. "Gang cells from all over the city have appeared, the Syndicate still stands fairly strong, even with the inclusion of superhuman interference."

"Of course, there were a few absences, I trust?" The Cowl asked, a few of the thugs around him moving ahead to open the car door for him.

"That's where the interference comes in, boss." Wesson sighed, scratching the back of his head. "I know Mr. Stone could not make it, something about one of the places he shakes down fighting back."

"Is Mr. Stone attacking the defenseless again?"

"It keeps the revenue coming in."

“No it doesn’t, but that’s his problem.” Cowl muttered. “I offered him my advice, and as long as he continues to kick up to us, I suppose he can do what he likes. Is there anyone else missing the party tonight?”

“A few, Bulldog and Johnson are both pre-occupied in protecting your territory in Little Sicily, there are a few others dealing with possible heat down in the Financial District.”

“Fair enough, everyone else made it to the festivities tonight, then?”

“They’re already enjoying themselves back at your estate. Everyone is eagerly waiting for your arrival.”

“Then we should not keep them waiting, shall we?”

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I'm making a Cowl Post, but I'm holding onto it until some more posts go by.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

When explaining himself, Randall seemed to show no outward concern to his words, nor did he seem to have any ease about Trent's capabilities. The guy was indeed a hard man to read, but Trent assumed that was intentional, nobody wanted to come across as desperate or uncaring on the first contact, made setting the terms a bit of a hassle. If one side had a different amount of interest in a contract, it tended to give the other person a certain amount of leverage against the other, client or employee.

Once the original volley of back and forth was exchanged, Randall went straight to business, placing a briefcase on the table as he spoke. "You have done a number of bounty hunting jobs in the past, and your present task is simple. To retrieve a troublesome individual and bring her to a specified location alive. It is imperative that she be brought back alive"

Trent took the dossier when it was offered, allowing the man to show him the picture before he flipped through the possible sightings. He stopped and mused over the woman in question, tall, blonde, and sultry, a potent mix of traits, especially for one on the run. There were a few hunts he were on that had similar targets, and it was usually the pretty ones who hid the best. They could surround themselves with thralls of men desperate enough to let a pretty woman manipulate them into hiding them for a long time, ended with a lot more people injured than usual.

"This woman" Randall explained with a gesture. "has become a person of interest to our employers and they require that she be brought in for questioning."

And there was the other catch. Alive. A much more delicate procedure than dead or alive, or preferably dead. Usually when someone asked for a person alive, it meant a much higher paycheck due to the hassle. No wonder these guys were offering so much.

Randall then proceeded to give Trent a warning, how several operatives had already failed or something, words that Trent tended to tune out at this point. It was not that he did not care, or that the concern was not warranted, it was simply he had heard the warnings so many times he could recite the dangers of targets from sheet memory.

"Alright, Randy, this whole contract seems pretty solid, and hey, if this works out I'm absolutely interested in a continued partnership." Trent said, folding up the dossier. "But I gotta ask, what exactly is it that makes her so dangerous? I'd prefer not to walk into this with a cryptic warning and end up having her shoot surprise fireballs up my ass."

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

A small huff left Trent's lips as he propped his head in his hands, it had been a little too long for his liking for the appointment to get to him. Was this a negotiation tactic? Were his possible employers testing how badly he wanted this job? His hands drummed on the table, his eyes darting to the nearby bar, maybe another drink would wash down his boredom.

However, almost as soon as his mind began to wander, he spotted the tall blond man coming towards his table, dressed in a suit so fine even the other guests made a passing glance of envy at the gentleman. Though not exactly one to put on airs, Trent managed to move to his feet long enough to shake the man's hand and greet him professionally.

"I am Randall Weims." The man began. "And I represent our mutual employers. They are pleased that you agreed to this meeting."

"Nice to meet you Randall, though I gotta say you took your sweet time getting here, were you getting that suit made in the back?" He joked as he clapped his hand into Randall's. The man's grip did bring him pause, his brow raised as he shook a firm hand. Did normal humans have grip like that? He couldn't be sure, he had never been one, but it still raised some questions. Already this deal was becoming more interesting, and terms had not even been agreed to yet.

"Your track record is quite impressive."

"Damn right it is." Trent gave the man a cocky smirk in return to Randall's creepy grin. "You guys aren't hiring an amateur, after all, and I got enough dignitary's heads on my wall to prove it."

That's when the man brought up his track record in a way that actually caught Trent off-guard momentarily, his brow furrowing as Randall spoke.

"But on the whole your work has been done alone and has been less than discreet. Our employers require appropriate discretion in many situations. How well prepared are you to act in less public ways?"

Trent took a minute to process what had been suggested, were they asking him to do a sneaky job? They had read his file, right? That's why he was here? Why was he being called in to do something that required subtlety? Now he had to know the job, the curiosity eating away as he prepared his answer.

"W...well, I'm usually called in for heavy artillery, to be honest." Trent said. "I'm usually the guy who leaves a crater to punctuate a job well done...but that isn't to say I haven't done jobs that called for discretion." He leaned forward. "And if you're payin' how much you say you're payin', I'll make every effort to make sure nobody even knows I was there."

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Oh sweet! War-Pulse post coming up right now!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Not my best post, and a bit later than intended, but another Cowl post is out.

One more and I should be ready to create some mayhem for all you street level heroes out there!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

The jet's propellers hummed through the reinforced steel of the private jet, giving a tiny bit of background noise to the long, quiet ride of The Cowl and his best thugs, all sitting in a large communal compartment of the plane. The four subordinates sat together at a circle of comfy leather chairs with a game of cards at the table, a large pile of money sitting in the center. The four men chuckled and murmured between one another, the smell of cigar smoke beginning to burn the air as they played another hand. However, one man did not sit at that table, The Cowl was far too enthralled in his own work to play games of chance with his men. He sat away from the others, secluding himself at a solid mahogany desk, littered with newspapers of Lost Haven, every front page littered with pictures of meta-human activity, particular the recent "D-Day" invasion, as the papers called it.

"Incredible...simply incredible..." The Cowl muttered aloud, flipping through the page of a paper describing an early battle between the hero Icon and some criminals, the hero's picture at that point only being a small blur on the page.

Eventually, his peace was interrupted, a young woman came from the cockpit area, dressed in a fine silk dress and carrying a clipboard. She moved to The Cowl, waiting patiently at the man's side until he acknowledged her with a brief glance away from his papers. He sighed, motioning with a free hand for her to speak as he buried himself within another paper.

"We will be arriving in Maine in about 3 hours, sir."

"Ah, good...thank you." The Cowl said, grabbing a highlighter from the desk and etching out another sentence on the page before grabbing a second newsprint to compare the two, his eyes darting between the collection. It was not for another minute or so that he noticed the woman had not gone back to the cockpit, or to the others. "Was there something else you wanted? Or are you hovering over my shoulder because you have a problem with personal space?"

"N-no, sir, that's not it." The woman responded, seemingly shaken by The Cowl's annoyed tone. Of course, she had every right to be considering the man's reputation, The Cowl was a powerful crime lord, and she had been told before she got on this plane that he was not one for conversation while he was busy, and this was certainly one of those cases by the looks of it. Nevertheless, she spoke very curtly with him, hiting on the extreme sight of caution "I just...was curious about these heroes as well..."

Another pause, The Cowl took a minute from his paper before dropping it to the table, causing the four men at the table to snap to attention. They all now noticed the Cowl's change in positioning, his eyes now leering at the girl from behind his hood, his emotions hidden within his mask. It was a brief silence, but to the young woman it must have felt like an eternity, the five men now all glaring at her.

Eventually, the Cowl's body seemed to relax, he let out a small chuckle as he motioned to the papers. "As you should be, young lady, this is a once in a lifetime event." As soon as The Cowl's tone changed to a more friendly tone, the four men went back to their cards, no longer caring since The Cowl seemed delightfully amused by the woman, judging by his gesturing for her to look closer. "Well, twice in a lifetime if you were alive around World War 2, but still..." He pointed at Icon. "First this one shows up, and within a few weeks the city has exploded into a nest for superhuman activity." He pointed at another hero, one the paper called the 'Raptor', "Look at this one, a monster of some kind, possibly a hybrid of human and animal DNA." He then pointed to a woman hero, one the paper had not given a name, seeing as how she looked like she just put on whatever was available and started shooting lightning bolts at demons. "And we have people who can even harness the elements themselves...incredible, simply incredible..."

"And...that's bad, right?" The woman asked, pointing at the paper. "These people, they're putting a wrench in your operations back at home..." She looked to the man, raising a brow. "But you seem so...jubilant about the whole thing? If I may be so bold to ask...why?"

The Cowl paused, glancing back at the woman as he leaned back in his chair, his fingers drumming together as he responded. "Because, young lady, these people give me two very enlightening revelations. One being that the impossible is real, and two, the impossible can be bought."

"You're...going to try and buy meta-humans, sir?"

"You make it sound so cut-and-dry."

"That's...I'm sorry sir, it's just...buying superhumans? I'm not sure I understand."

"That's because you're simplifying it, my dear" The Cowl swung in his chair as he responded, scooting up flush to the desk as he continued. "The truth is much more complex, but it gives the idea context. While money can indeed be used, it is not always the case in terms of 'buying' someone's loyalty. Every person has their price, every politician has the dead hooker in the trunk, every law enforcement official has the unlawful brutality they don't want getting out to the public, every celebrity has their sex tape...everyone is vulnerable once you know how to negotiate with them."

"And you think heroes have things they want to hide?"

"Oh, I don't think, I know." The Cowl let out a small chuckle. "Identities, loved ones, weaknesses that are exploitable, all it takes is a bit of prodding, and they become another chess piece on the board." He gestured to the window."We've known a few metas existed. Hell, that mercenary War-Pulse was a great asset with our Teddy Williamson problem, wasn't he?"

"I-I think so."

"Of course, and as much of a pain in our ass these heroes will become, this isn't the end for our way of life...Far from it my dear." Another dark chuckle from beneath the hood. "This is the beginning of a new arms race, a test for how strong we really are. With the introduction of so many supers in one place, everyone will want a piece of the action. Yes, the people will herald these paragons of society as saviors...but they neglect their own failings, something we can reveal."

"You've...lost me again..."

"Do not worry, what I speak of goes far over your head, anyhow." He gave the woman another sideward glance, his fingers running along the desk as he spoke. "Just know that The Shroud Syndicate will prevail, and we will adapt to this new occurrence."

The sound of the plane's landing gear opening up punctuated the conversation, The Cowl rising from his chair to glide past the young woman. A snap of his fingers beckoned the thugs to abandon their game, following their leader to their secured seating for landing.

"Best get to our seats, then. It sounds like we will be landing soon."

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I should have a Cowl Post by the day after halloween and a War-Pulse post...hopefully soon?

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Looks good so far!