[Emerald City Knights: DC Universe] Chapter O: The Silver Storm

[BlueBiscuit]

• Peaceful Easy Feeling
• OOC

• It' a pleasant day in Emerald City.
  
  
  There’s enough sunshine to make most anyone glad to be alive, and seemingly all of Emerald City has ventured outside to take advantage of it. Every downtown street is lined with people out roller-blading, walking their dogs, peoplewatching at sidewalk cafes, or doing a little shopping.
  
  
  Bargain-hunters are preeminently drawn to Yellow Brick Row, and most local merchants have sidewalk sales set up to greet them. Food and beverage carts aren’t hard to find, and city newcomers are bound to notice the Row’s restauranteurs offer cuisine with an Asian flair. There are plenty of burgers and fries to be had, but just as many good spots to grab some pad Thai, teriyaki, and other Eastern delicacies.
  
  
  How you are spending your time in this otherwise beautiful day?
• Well then, let's get the ball rolling shall we? This is just to establish your characters position. For those of you that are going to get empowered by the Storm, you should be around Yellow Brick Row.
  
  
  There's any number of things you could be doing: shopping, dining, or working in a building in or near the disturbance. You could also be on the move driving, walking, biking, or riding a bus close to the area.
  
  
  

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Beam wasn't thrilled. Oh, he liked the sunshine plenty, but he greatly disliked having to be dragged through the busy streets by his parents, where most people, if they even paid any attention to him, thought he was a little kid, despite being in high school. Couple that with the fact that his parents, and other siblings were all normal-sized, and he felt different.

 

[Belial]

Ash was sitting at a stoplight that seemed to never turn green. He had been awake for almost a month now and aside from the moment he came forth from fire and shadow, he still hadn't herd the call, no orders to kill, no targets, not even a reason for his existence. Many times since he had awoken he had called out asking for reasons, but it always was met with silence. Now he sat there at a stop light, in a world he scarcely recognized, on a contraption he barely understood, he was only glad that the motorcycle was actually fairly intelligent and able to steer itself and that it currently wasn't on fire, the fact that it looked like an amalgamation of a metal skeletal horse and machine was sort of just cool.


The bike rumbled beneath him and still he wondered why he had come into existence, what his purpose was, had he not served his purpose the last time, did he not preform his duty's satisfactory? Why was he summoned again, who was he, what was he, did he not deserve the answers? He thought to ask the Nightmare but it had never given him answers before and it would look weird for him to talk to his motorcycle in the middle of traffic.

 

[shepsquared]

Cain is walking through the Row, munching on a kebab he'd bought and keeping an eye out for his friends. The plan was to meet up in an hour, but it was entirely normal for them to turn up early like he had.

 

[Stealthfox16]

Damien, as is his usual custom on such a glorious day, is spending his time in the park, headphones blasting music in his ears while he reads through the latest Dresden File's book. His morning classes had been as mind numbingly boring as usual, but thankfully on this blessed day he had the afternoon free of classes. Every so often he'd look up to take in the hustle and bustle of everyday people before diving back into his book of private investigative wizards, faeries, and more pop-culture references than a south park episode.

 

[BlueBiscuit]

• It Begins
• Jack
• Damian
• Cain
• Ash

• 
  
  
  The loud, heart-stopping sounds of an explosion and shattering glass along with the accompanying shock strike you all without warning. Within moments, a strange cloud of silvery mist blankets the surrounding area. Just as panic and flight are about to take hold, the cloud begins to swirl without any evident prompting from the wind.
  
  
  It whips itself into a cyclonic mass, discharging what appear to be bolts of bluish lightning both within itself and outward around its immediate vicinity, dealing great damage to buildings and destroying vehicles.
  
  
  Both blast and bolts subside and begin to dissipate before anyone (yourselves included) can arrive on the scene, leaving the dead and injured as the most immediate concern.
  
  
  The fleeing panicked crowds and hopelessly jammed roads make you all the only first-responders available for the critically injured now.
  
  
  
• The shockwave of the blast, coming somewhere from behind you knocks down your family along with almost everyone else. You barely manage to keep your footing, but before you can do anything, you're struck by a lightning bolt.
  
  
  For a fraction of a second, you experience the worst pain you've ever felt in you're life. Just as you're about to faint, the pain dissappears as quickly as it came, and in it's place comes a feeling of....awareness.
• Even through your earphones you can hear the sound of the explosion. You raise your eyes just in time to see the silvery cloud rise in the sky above and start discharging bolts of white-blue lightining around itself, damagining.
  
  
  You can't even blink as one of these bolts hits near you, and you find yoursef thrown back several meters. You smash into a tree, but instead of it breaking you're back, it's the tree itself thats broken. Still dazed, you can see with horror as scales start grow on your hand.
• As you're enjoying your kebab, you notice with the corner of your eyes a small panel truck marked "Redshift Energies" moving through an intersection not far ahead of where you are. Before you can take another bite out of your lunch, the truck explodes, and the shockwave knocks you, on the ground.
  
  
  As the people around you start to panick and flee, you can see a silvery white cloud rise out of the wreckage of the truck, and rapidibly extend outwards, quickly reaching you. As you are blanketed by it, you start to feel a wierd tingling all over your body, and then immense pain overwhelms everything else. It doesn't last long however, and as you endeavour to get on your feet, you see that your short lives spasms your fist have actually dented the sidewalk.
• The explosion knocks you out of your musings, and as you see the Storm strike and wreak havoc, you hear a voice, one a bit different from how you remember it, whispering a single word in your mind
  
  
  Go

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

It was amazing. He felt like he was aware of things he never thought about before, and for a split second thought he might be dead, or dying, and that this is how you feel, but the pain of his right arm grating on the asphalt beneath him, crushed by his body, and the weight of someone else on top of him, brought him back out of his trance. His parents! They could be hurt! He had to get free from under the weight! And almost like magic, he found himself standing just over there, on his feet, his arm still aching from the asphalt, and saw his family, still in shock from the events, trying to get up. He rushed up to them, and did his best to help them up. It wasn't much, but he felt better for doing it.


But a part of him wanted to help others, and see what damage has been caused, and whether there are those who might need help, but he knew his height will not allow him to get a bird's view of the area, when suddenly he felt vertigo as it seems like overlaid on top of the scene before him, he could also see a bird's eye view of the area. It was exhilirating, and frightening, all at the same time.

 

[shepsquared]

Cain stares at his hand in amazement for a moment, tentatively poking the ground before striking it again. Seeing a new crack appear he grins and slowly gets to his feet, looking at the people running away while focusing on the faint tingling that remained, feeling it all throughout his body.


He stepped forward and experimentally 'pushed' the feeling, falling flat on his face as his foot and leg passed straight through the pavement. Cain blinked as he processed the fact that he hadn't actually hurt himself when he fell. Instead his body was now phasing through the ground. He experimentally pushed his hand down, feeling the tingle change as his hand moved down. Cain laughed as he moved, easily standing up despite his intangible limbs. He pushed the tingle again, feeling it change back to it's original state as he started to move forwards, intent on checking out the crashed van.

 

[Belial]

Ash stomped on the kick start and fire burned away his skin and sheathed the motorcycle, as the wheels squealed and the exhaust roared. The Nightmare lunged forward with a streak a fire trailing behind him as he raced towards the event.

 

[Stealthfox16]

Oof... What the- Ugh... getting hot... Damien felt fire course through him, getting hotter and hotter, until his world was nothing but fire. A pillar of flame erupted from his form, and and Damien nearly passed out. Soon, it finished, and Damien slowly picked himself up. Ow, that was... unique... what happened... He brushed his long hair back, trying to right himself, when he felt something odd. His ears felt like... fins? Wha!? He pulled his hand back only to see it had turned scaled and clawed. In fact, his entire being had! Looking around, he found himself in a pit of seared glass, a few shards of which looked fairly reflective. Grabbing a piece, he examined his face.


It was still rather human, but the lines were sharper and he had fine scales covering his face. His teeth had all sharpened into a carnivorous smile, his eyes were slit and a bright gold color with no white, and his ears turned into a crest of fins with sharp spikes fanning out the edge. Then he felt something even more odd. Looking behind him, he saw a tail. A tail! A large, heavy looking tail with two lines of small spikes and covered in the red scales that engulfed the rest of his body.


Looking down at himself finally, he saw that on his chest, which was missing his shirt sadly, his chest and stomach were covered in broad, cream colored stripes of scales. Thankfully, his shorts had somehow survived the fire relatively intact, save for the slight singeing. As he looked at his feet, he lamented the loss of his new sandals. His feet had twisted into an odd shape, with three large claws instead of toes. After a few seconds, Damien tried getting up, but fell quickly, unused to his new feet. How am I supposed to do this? After a few tries, he finally figured out how to stand with digitigrade feet. Or claws...


After examining himself a bit more he started wondering what he was. A lizard? No, that wouldn't explain the fire really. A dragon? No, he didn't have wings. And at that thought he felt a slight pain in his back as a pair of wings erupted from them. After a few seconds of shock, he tested putting them back. And with a bit of fiery fanfare, they withered back into his body without a trace. Then he concentrated on his wings again, and there they were again. After a minute of contemplation, he started laughing. He couldn't help it, it was just too funny, too awesome, and way too weird. I'm a real Drake now ain't I? AHAHAHHAHAHA!


Looking around at the hurt people nearby, burning buildings, and messed up roads, Damien got an idea. It was time to test his new abilities, and what better way than to help out a few people, eh? Wings fully stretched out, he rocketed into the air, looking for people in trouble and diving down to help where he could.

 

[BlueBiscuit]

• Jack
• Cain
• Drake
• Ash

• From the high point of your vision you take the poor state of things around you. Overturned cars, people fleeing in a wild panic, hurting each other and risking to stomp over those that were still on the ground.
• Through a broken window, you see that inside the broken and overturned van are a woman and a young man. He's not moving, but the moment the woman sees you she calls for you with a desperate voice:
  
  
  "Please, help us! My son isn't waking up, and Oh god, I can't move my leg! I think I've broken something, please!"
• Much like Jack, your bird's eye view allows you to realize just how much damage was made in such a short time. A building on fire catches your attention, and you hear screams for help come from inside.
  
  
  From the corner of your eyes, you see another streak of fire, moving rapidly on the road towards you, and it looks like a....motorcycle?
• Destruction and pain everywhere. As you weave through the wreckages of vehicles, cries for help, and those of pain, fill your ears. Pressing forward, your attention is caught by a build on fire. In particular you can see a winged figure up in the sky diving towards it.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Jack sees some people fleeing about to trample a little girl who fell, unable to keep up with her mother, who was too panicked to notice. His heart went out to her, and he felt power swell inside him, as he wished for the ability to help her. And he was astonished when he could suddenly see her disappear and then appear a distance away, behind an overturned car, just in the path of her mother. The mother stopped in her tracks, realizing her little girl is suddenly ahead of her, and then picked her up and ran with her.


Jack's heart swelled with pride, but he could see others were in need of help, and so he set his jaw, and began wishing for others to be moved about, and seeing it happen. He didn't fully stop to think about how and why it happened, as he was too focused on getting it done.

 

[Stealthfox16]

Seeing the burning building, Damien streaks down towards it. Only a second before impact does Damien realize he doesn't know how to land...

 

[shepsquared]

Cain smiles and speaks calmly to the woman. "Of course ma'm. Just stay calm, I'll get you out."


As he does so he grabs the door and pulls it off of the car, throwing it aside and leaning into the van, surveying the woman and her son.

Spoiler

Can I roll treatment to see whether I should be moving them?

 

[BlueBiscuit]

• Jack
• Drake
• Cain

• It takes you a few minutes, bu thanks to your help, many that wouldn't have gotten out or would have left behind. However you still hear commotion from where the blast came from.
  
  
  Spoiler

  You gain a hero point for the help you gave"
• Roll Agility (or Acrobatics, if you have it) to see how well you manage to land while crashing through the buildings wall.
• OOC: Sure, roll away.

 

[Belial]

In a gout of flame the nightmare transformed into a Flaming pale white skeletal horse as he road towards the building. As he came closer he pulled back on the rains and the nightmare reared back as it leaped onto the building and began running upwards towards the winged being, fire trailing behind him causing the glass to melt and crack beneath the hooves of the night mare.

 

[Stealthfox16]

• ooc
• IC

• Well, this will be... amusing.
• Damien, with all the grace and finesse of a falling brick, barrels right into the building.

[dice]5086[/dice]

 

[shepsquared]

Spoiler

Here goes

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Jack felt power in him, but all this thinking about who should be saved, and then seeing it happen as if from a bird's view, it felt a bit much, so he let it go, and turned to look at his family. "Mom, Dad, are you ok? did you see how I helped these people?"


He was still confused, but as it happened he began to think that it's somehow his doing it, after all, he saw no one else doing this. A part of him wanted to go help others who might need his help, but he had to make sure his family was safe, now that those in the near vicinity were safe, for the most part.

 

[BlueBiscuit]

• Drake
• Jack
• Cain
• Ash
• OOC

• Still unfamiliar with your new limbs, your awkward balance causes you to lose control in your descend, and so you crash thorugh the exterior wall of the building. Thankfully, you apparantly even tougher than you look now, and though you certainly felt the impact, you aren't particularly hurt by it. Still, a you don't really look dignified, flat on your ass.
  
  
  "HAAAA, a monster! Help!" you hear someone scream.
• Your parents are both fine, if still shaken, but your brother is still unconscious.
• OOC: Hmm, where's your roll?
• The winged creature, that up close you realise looks like a dragon of some kind, apparently loses of it's flight and clumsily crashes into the building face. Fragments of the knocked down wall fall towards the street down below, and you find yourself in their path.
  
  
  Spoiler

  Roll Vehicles to dodge the falling debree
• Sorry if I took so long, everyone.

 

[Red Shadow Claws]

Looking around, Jack realizes that this is still too soon for emergency crews to reach here, and even if they did, there are many who may need medical attention. And the hospital was distance away. Something came into place for him. He has managed to move people about, from a distance, but has so far done it one person at a time. He took a deep breath. Time to find out the extent of his powers. And so he spoke, not lifting his head, still looking at Josh, his brother "Mom, Dad, I think Josh needs to get to the hospital fast, and with all the troubles this thing brought, I don't think it will be easy for emergency crews to get here. I'm gonna try to teleport us all there, or close by, but am not sure if I can, if not, I will take him there myself, and you make your way there. Do not be alarmed, if I'm right, it should be easy." He was scared. This was new to him, but he knew he had to try, but this was his family.


Another deep breath, and he concentrated his power to try and engulf all 4 of them, and sending them to the nearest hospital.

 

[Belial]

Ash pulls on the Nightmares reins spiring it to the side as he leaned over as low as he could, trying to dodge the debree, aiming the nightmarish horse towards the breech in the building.


[dice]5108[/dice]

 

[Stealthfox16]

Woah woah! Wait a minute! I'm trying to help! Drake gets up and brushed himself off before looking around.

 

[shepsquared]

Here. No clue why it didn't turn up.


[dice]5092[/dice]

 

[BlueBiscuit]

• Jack
• Ash
• Drake
• Cain

• You feel your power straining to it's limit, trying to "move" all your family, but then you feel something 'break' within you, and you are forced to end to teleport. It seems trying move all of them is a bit too much for you.
  
  
  "Son what did you just try to do? Are you all right?" Your father asks with worry.
• You move with swiftness and precision as you dodge the falling pieces of building, and after a few sort seconds you find yourself upon the breach made by the flying creature. Inside you hear screams
• Thanks to the hole you made, the smoke is clearing a bit, and you can see who it was that screamed: an young woman, backed in a corner surrounded by fire.
• The young man's breathing and heartbeat seem normal, and you don't see bruises or any other sign of trauma. It should be safe to move him, if done carefully.