Fantasy Superhero Times

[Deathkitten]

Oracle​

Chrysanthia hopped through the portal as soon as her new teacher was through, grinning as wide as could be, "Bye mom see you later! Love you!"

"Love you too, sweetie," Rosemary mumbled into her coffee. She had some worries about her daughter's safety, but... eh. To be honest? That woman would keep her safe. She had the power to do so. Rose had to put her trust in that power. Plus, if Chrysie didn't get to go out soon, she'd start sneaking out, and breaking her daughter out of vigilante jail wasn't something she wanted to have to do.

Two rings appeared orbiting Chrysie, and her outfit changed as the two engulfed her. She now had on a flowing, sleeveless dress with a tight collar that draped around her knees. The dress shimmered with spots of light like stars that moved as she moved, and sometimes, even nebulae or something more interesting could be seen. Her eyes, which were previously blue, were now a similar galaxy color. Her hair, which had gone down to her lower back, was now short, just about to her jaw. She beamed with a smile, "And when I'm like this, Cosmic Arbiter, could you please do me the honor of calling me by my title, Oracle?"

"I inherited it from my grandmother," she explained, "For the next head of the family." Her two rings now orbited her waist, floating about without her needing to do anything. She shuffled excitedly, "So what's the plan?"

ManofManyRoles

 

[Djinni]

Tessa Ledo, Grave Speaker

Ever since the explosion caused by the Occard Alliance, few things have gone well for Tessa Ledo. Also known as the S Rank Hero, Grave Speaker, she was a specialist in affairs of the dead and restless spirits. But something about the blast had a twofold effect that particularly perturbed the woman.

The first effect was that it made the souls of those killed by the blast vanish into thin air. Even the Reapers themselves didn’t know what was going on, which Tessa only knew because she could listen in on them in her Sanctuary in the realm of Limbo.

The second effect was that it seemed to make it far easier to become a violent spirit. This one had the reapers just as mixed up, but she didn’t need to listen in on them to know about it. She was the one who had to clean up the damn mess in the first place.

Such as this case.

On the edge of the crater made by the blast itself lay a house that had been causing trouble ever since. It was a two-story farmhouse-style home, grey-blue in hue. It was previously owned by someone named Stephen Hawkin, a middle-aged man without any particularly traumatic memories or injuries that were recorded. Had a wife who died in a car accident several years ago, but records indicated he was handling it as well as could be expected. He died as a secondary result of the blast, though the flood of bodies at the time ensured that there was no autopsy. Preliminary guesses indicated that he was struck in the neck by a blunt object, likely an old shotgun that was a family heirloom like the home itself.

Chekhovs Gun finally got some action when, according to the spirit grapevine, it fell and crushed the man’s throat.

All very traumatizing to be sure, but not the kind of recipe to make a ghost. This was a normal man. There were no normal ghosts.

And while it wasn’t the most uncommon thing for ghost hunters to become ghosts themselves, given the mental dispositions they tended towards, it was absolutely obscene for no less than twenty of them. This place had drawn many ghost hunters after the story got out, usually amateurs. This remained the case for the first nine years, but in the last year, people had begun to disappear, and this drew the hardcore and professional ghost hunters. But even they, who knew how to broadly protect themselves, were made to vanish. Sometimes at the moment, sometimes later on. From what she could see with her spirit sight, there were at least twelve of the dead here. Scouting reports from ghost friends indicated more than twenty. It made no sense.

All of this was learned by the 5’7” woman, who pulled down the brim of her broad black witch’s hat to protect her eyes from the dust kicked up in a breeze as she looked over the edge of the hole. Her normally mid-back length black hair was tied up in a bun under the hat. Beneath that she wore what would appear to be an equally dark, many-layered robe, which fully covered her from collar to her ankles. The only thing to deviate from the stereotypical witch’s garb was the slit up the sides of her legs with black leggings beneath. That and, of course, the Kevlar bodysuit she wore underneath the robes and leggings.

Most of this was hidden from mortal eyes, however, beneath an intense shroud of black fog that clung to a vaguely humanoid shape. It rolled and roiled around her, with only two white eye spots to indicate a face. In reality, it was two feet taller than her, and anyone attempting to shoot her in the head would find it much less effective than they would think.

That damn crater. That damn organization. And now this damn alert. She had been researching this job for over a week already but wasn’t ready. However, if she didn’t come to handle it, who knows who would? It could easily be some conniving bastard who would capture them for use or even someone who might try to destroy them altogether. Kill them unjustly a second time.

That wouldn’t do. Especially with so many here, it would be a massacre. No, she had to handle this - and now. Ready or not.

Time to go.

Turning away from the vast hole that has made things so difficult, she approached the faded white door to the house. Opening it with a flourish, an attempt to get attention from the spirits, she stepped into the house with a stride closer to a smooth glide. The inside was filthy from exposure and vandalism, but aside from the basic dirt, dust, and spraypaint, there was nothing exceptional about it.

Not from a normal perspective anyway. To her eyes, though, the place was crowded with the passive spirits of the dead and stuck. None of them even looked at her… none but two. A pair in the living room, in front of the ruined and broken couch.

She knew who to talk to, then. Walking up to the two, they began to slowly and uncomfortably scoot away. “Hey, it’s alright. I'm Tessa Ledo, people call me Grave Speaker. I’m not here to hurt anyone. Can you speak?” They didn’t respond, just giving each other a baffled look. “I can see you, and I’m here to help. I know you aren’t here willingly, and that it all started with the original owner of the home. What happened to you? Why are you trapped here? Are you coerced to stay, or can you not leave?”

 

[Deathkitten]

Haunted House​

"I.... I can speak...," the girl muttered. They looked like brother and sister, both mixed Latino kids, barely adults if they were at all. She had dark hair clinging to her cheeks, lightened by her ghostly appearance. There were no clear wounds, and her voice, though quiet, was clear, "We... we were here to s-see ghosts... You should leave while you still can, miss. I don't want more people to get hurt. We... can't leave... We tried."

The boy chimed in, "There's a monster here. It curses people... or... just eats them..."

"We got...," the girl stuttered, staring at her hands, "we..."

"We got eaten," he finished for her, "It wants food. It's always hungry. Run away, miss Ledo."

Their discussion got the attention of another spirit. Not a human nor an animal, but a little spirit creature that popped its purple head up out of the floor nearby to look at the commotion. It glowed with a soft light like many spiritual things did, and as it came up to stand on the ground, it looked like a mix between a ferret, otter, and lung dragon. Tiny and incredibly cute. These sorts of things were often harder to see than even regular ghosts, however, and the two teens didn't seem to notice its appearance.

The creature trilled to signal its arrival and wound its way around Tessa's legs like a cat, soft fur buzzing like static as it touched her.

Djinni

 

[Djinni]

They could speak. Good. They were recent victims, if she guessed who they were right; a couple of young C rank heroes. The girl could fly, and the boy had mild super speed. The two of them were known as Dior and Rapid Stop. This was pretty important to know, since some spirits could copy powers of consumed or trapped souls... while flight would be nothing new for such a spirit, the speed would be an issue. She'd have a hard time activating her Force Dampener in time.

"Ah. Dior and Rapid Stop, recon specialists," she identified. This was, of course, a very kind way of saying they were amateurs who went in to record ghost activity and post it online. They seemed startled and shuffled about a bit, embarrassed. "That's what I figured happened, but I need to know what exactly happened to you. You know the signs. Tell me about it, if you can," she asked, her attention only briefly drawn to the small creature in the floor. It was common to see such creatures in these locations, drawn to the energy of the area. It might be a problem, but it only would have begun AFTER the murders began, once intense spiritual energy was present. The chance of it being the source of the issue was highly unlikely.

The spirit that co-occupied her body, Reth, stirred. He was a silent one, usually content to observe and posit his instinctual responses, but he seemed bothered by its proximity. 'Relax. It's not going to cause any problems.' This just got the equivalent of a grunt in response, before settling down... but still ready to act at a moment's notice.

 

[Deathkitten]

Haunted House​

"W-well," Dior mumbled, "We headed into the house... a-at night... since... I mean... that looks better and its scarier... We went inside and, I mean, it was unlocked. Inside it looked all disheveled like it does. It was pretty quiet. Lots of ghost orbs on camera, though... which... I guess makes sense why now..."

The small creature crouched and sniffed at Tessa's ankles, curious of Reth. Usually people didn't see it! Not to mention usually people didn't have a spirit attached to them like that! It continued shuffling around her, like it was trying to get a better look at Reth. Oddly... there were no other spirit creatures nearby. It was the only one. With this many spirits around, she could expect many more of these cute nuisances.

"After we went i-in...," she stumbled over her words, "Nothing happened for a long time. We were there for a few hours... it wasn't until we found a cellar... th-that..." Dior couldn't manage, tearing up.

Quick Stop swallowed and followed up, "I... went down first. Our flashlights stopped working. It was so dark. Houses don't have cellars usually here. Earthquakes make it hard to build. S-so... it was really weird. We got to the bottom of the stairs, and this... beast's growl... it came from all around us. I don't remember any pain... but..." He looked at his sister, who was shaking from the thought, "She saw it before it ate her..."

"I-it was big... an-and dark... with long fur and sharp teeth. Eyes that... glowed sickly green... awful... I've never seen anything like it. I think it lives in the cellar..."

Djinni

 

[Djinni]

As the story was told, Tessa became warier of the creature sniffing at her heels. But for now, it was curious and harmless. Best to keep it that way until she was ready. "What did you see? Glowing eyes, fur, teeth... what color was the fur?" She asked, trying to give no sign that she knew that this thing was unusual.

A few things pointed to it being the killer, despite the unlikely circumstances. First off, these things were like gnats; they swarmed. There should be many of them. It wasn't weird for them to congregate in one place of power, like a basement, but if she drew one she'd draw many. The second was that it was actively investigating. They usually just hung around, soaking up ambient energy, but in rare cases they could become parasitic... and could become very powerful given the right circumstances. In becoming powerful, they began to develop more of a mind.

This complicated things. Normally she might just squash such a creature if it were too much of a nuisance. They were more like spiritual artifacts that popped up where there was power to soak up, not truly alive or sentient in any way. Once energy dissipated, the few strong enough to survive without a food source wandered away like a magnet, but most simply faded out of existence.

This one wasn't like either of those things. It became capable of learning, and learned how to generate energy. Death. But how aware was it? Was it only dimly aware of what it was doing, or was it an act of malicious intent? A lot could happen with these things over the course of a decade. Reaching into her voluminous sleeve casually, she called upon her deck of spell cards.

Tessa herself wasn't much of a caster; she had only moderate amounts of energy, and little talent for casting in the moment. But what she could do was enchant with the best of them, and that let her get around her little problem. By enchanting cards in a deck and storing a spell, she could cast it at a later time, and with the kind of power you could only expect with a spell circle, ritual, and external power source, and in just the time it took to activate a card. In short, she hit like a freight train. Fortunately for most, she had little interest in harming the sentient... and it seemed as though this thing may well be that.

The best way to test that was with one of her Manipulation cards. It was invasive and definitely not respectful, but the circumstances called for it. Who knew what kind of abilities it might have? Best to get the jump on it.

The feeling of the thick, cool silver slid between her fingers, with the dense inner crystal core making it sit heavy. Quickly tracing a shape on the card, it activated. "Did the creature speak at all? Did it show you that it understood what was going on? Did it hurt you out of maliciousness, or is it just hungry?" She asked, phrasing the questions to the twins but not truly speaking to them. It was meant for the creature.

 

[Deathkitten]

Sylvia Marshall​

"Misty? M&M, sweetie?" Sylvia called out across the house, taking a tray out of the oven, "You and Dunnie need to come over and get some food. Ok? Fresh from the oven." Adam had brought home a kid around Misty's age. Some scared little eldritch mix. She sighed inwardly as she set the tray on some trivets. Their life was so complicated sometimes. She waited for a moment for the girls to appear before calling out again, "Misty! If you're in your daddy's office you're gonna be in trouble!" The girl was getting bolder with every year that passed, and Nyarlathotep wasn't a good role model, either. From what she understood, the eldritch bastard wanted her as a cult leader down the line.

There was still no answer.

"Misty...?" Sylvia meandered down the hall. The door to Adam's office was shut. She gave it a knock... No answer.

"...Fucking hell," she huffed out and steeled herself to open the door. Just stare at the floor. Stare at the floor and nothing else. I gotta check if the girls are inside. She opened the door with a quick swing, saw that there was nothing inside, and closed it in nearly the same movement. Sylvia grimaced slightly, a headache ringing through her temples. Not too bad. She had no idea what she would have seen, to be fair, but anything her love dealt with gave her headaches. She was lucky she hadn't had worse.

"GIRLS!?" she shouted, voice echoing through the house. She knew she wouldn't get a response. A few moments passed in silence, "God damn it all." Sylvia slid her phone out of her pocket and rang up her husband. At the same time, she summoned a few spirits to help find the brats.

"Adam? Hunny? Hi. Misty and Dunnie are missing. They aren't in the house. They went to M's room to play, and I was focused on cooking so I don't burn the house down, and now they're gone. They're not in your office, either," she huffed out quickly, angry, though of course not at him, "It's been maybe thirty minutes since I've seen them. Damn it, love. Misty is ten! She should know better by now. I'm sending some spirits to look, but I don't know how they'll react to Dunnie. What do you want me to do? I can... call Nyar... if needed... but I'd really rather not. Sorry. I know you're busy at work. I'm worried, what with all these reports of kids going missing. If she just wanted to go take a walk that's one thing, but they didn't say anything to me."

ManofManyRoles

 

[Deathkitten]

Misty Marshall​

"Misty are you sure this is a good idea?" Dunnie whispered, trailing after the other young girl.

She was following a small spirit that had caught her attention. It was nothing more than a wisp, but it felt different! And Dunnie was here. She wanted to seem cool and knowledgeable for her new friend. Her mommy dealt with spirits all the time, and her daddy was really cool and did stuff with eldritch beings. Seeing something strange, she wanted to explore it. She wanted to investigate it like a detective!

“It’ll be fine! My mommy does this sort of thing all the time,” Misty replied, squeezing Dunnie’s hand. She was in her human form, which was good, since humans didn’t do so well with eldritch forms. That always seemed so odd to Misty. She didn’t understand why it was hard for other people. For her it was just normal!

The sprite led the girls out of the house and away to a nearby park, weaving through trees as it urged them to come deeper into the shade of the small forest.

ManofManyRoles

 

[ManofManyRoles]

Natalie Brenton

Natalie practically shrunk in on herself as she was matched rather eloquently in scripture by the man who taught her. Where the hell did she think that was going to go, don't go playing words with a master. "Yessir," she grumbled slightly, giving the floor a right sour expression. "I- wait a minute. I might know better, but I was in a right panic! Lapse of judgement, yea? I was still a fe-...I was still a kid, I was none too eager to meet my maker that early on in my life. But...yea, right lapse of judgement is the term I'd use. She's a pain every moment of every day." Natalie shifted her weight from one foot to the other, giving a shrug. "I don't fek-...I don't know Mason, if I had more answers I wouldn't be so right annoyed." As attention shifted to Darren and his sibling she gave a nod, eyes settling on Tracy as she spoke, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as if to say shut the hell up! Too late, cat out of the bag. Shite. "I uh...yea, I've got nothing on that one, Mason. They got spooked and decided to take refuge up in my skull, so it a bit crowded up here right now." Natalie reached up, gently tapping at the side of her skull as she continued. "Darren I'm not really worried about, he's a good kid. Besides, if he acts up I'll just punt him into the Atlantic for a few days and we'll be good. Tracy shouldn't be an issue, because Agas already promised to eat her soul if she acted up so that's probably a good incentive to behave." Natalie flashed Darren a teasing grin as if to say 'joking', but given it was Natalie...there was a good chance she wasn't. "So uh...another thing you should probably know. I'm a hero sponsored by the church, so I tend to have to run off for one reason or another....uhm...anything else?"

Deathkitten

 

[ManofManyRoles]

Casey Kemp

Before Casey could follow through with mopping the floor with Sean he suddenly blinked out of one space and into the next behind him, the merc quickly spinning about-face towards Sean, rolling his shoulders slowly. Casey's eyes narrowed on Sean as he tapped into that chaotic energy he had spoken of before, slowly starting towards him. "Boy, you've got exactly ten seconds to look around and find some confidence in yourself. Be it magic or some superpower, control comes from confidence in yourself and your ability. So find it and use it, because otherwise I'm going to put you on your ass." Despite the harsh training encouragement, Casey didn't slow his march forward towards Sean. He was still down on his ass, which wasn't a great position to be in a fight. "Always find your footing, you're dead on the ground." To prove his point, Casey quickly shot a leg out, the inside of his foot going towards Sean's shoulder in an effort to spend him sprawling in a quick kick.

Deathkitten

 

[Cam E. Leon]

Chyrsos calmly shifted gears as her sped up on the highway. "uhh Sorry about the lack of space Ms. Jupiter, I uhhh. I dont really expect company, Most of them arent loaded anyway, Keep the ammo separate for safety reasons." He said as true enough his car was quite crowded. Filled to the brim with guns and weaponry. A few magic tools as well. It was clear this car alone could probably arm a small group. Chrysos looked in the mirror at Jupiter, the hero who returned from the dead huh, A living legend, then again, his teacher was also one. "My mom was really happy to hear you were alive Ms. Jupiter, she was a hero before she retired as well. Don't know if you'd know her or not, she was only active in San Diego." He said trying to have some small talk as they drove towards Mrs. Jewels house, Chryos was not looking forward to it, JEwels kids were.... Energetic, however a guy with a normal body like his isnt really suited with playing with kids who can't control their powers. He remembered the first time he met them, he was almost knocked out from a simple tackle. SO anything to take his mind off the oncoming torture was welcomed.

Deathkitten

 

[Cam E. Leon]

"All officers we have an APB out on a stolen car, do not engage if found, suspect is a class 2 government asset, motives unknown, description and images of car are being sent out. License plate reads "SCINCRLS" if found please notify agency for hero dispatchment." The radio said as A cop sighed, eating his sub. "every hour it's something new in this damn city." the large cop said as he took another bite. "Uhhh sir, I dont mean to be rude, but should you really be eating at the wheel?" his new partner asked, The cop sighing, "kid, we are in deadlock traffic in downtown LA, we got ten minutes before this car moves an inch." He said taking another bite. The young cop looked around them awkwardly to see that was true. And gave a small frown before unwrapping his sub. "MREOOOW" his meal was quickly interrupted by the large meowing of a beast charging by them, barreling cars off the street as it weaved through the traffic quickly. "Holy shit holy shit!" The rookie said as he quickly tried to unholster his weapon and open the door. only to see it get locked. "Sir! We need to help them!" He shouted unholstering his weapon. THe cop just sighed and looked at the rookie. "Kid. in your hand is a glock 22. Chambered in .40 S&W, with a standard 15 round mag, as well as the two extra you have on your belt. That right there, Was a feline beast the size of a schoolbus. WHo just pushed the truck of an insecure man aside like it was a paper wait. Tell me, honestly, if that weapon will put down that beast? Your just gonna piss it off. We're cops, we do what we can to minimalize casualties, The cat aint attacking people. ITs just running around. So ya wanna know how to minimalize casualties." He said calmly picking up the radio. "This is Sqaud car 34, we got a Mid level threat, code 805, large Feline beast is currently rampaging in downtown, heading off our position on 12th street westward. Requesting Hero support." He said like a machine before placing the radio back on its holster. and leaning back in his chair. "Now we wait kid. we aint superheros. Its one thing to sacrifice yourself to save others, But a meaningless death wastes all the chances you have in the future to help others. Value your life kid, I dont like watching rookies kill emselves. " he said calmly as there was a bit of sadness in his eyes

 

[ManofManyRoles]

Sorrow

You had nightmares again, I gather? The somewhat distorted feminine voice echoed in Ivory's head, reminding the scot she was never truly alone. What Sorrow did when Ivory slept was really anyone's guess, considering the symbiote didn't really express a need or desire to sleep. A grumble of annoyance could be heard resounding within her mind at the scalding water being applied to her hosts face to wake her up, her two cents offered without request for them. Are you trying to burn your face!? Turn the temperature down! A thin white strand suddenly shot out from Ivory's neck, unprompted and unrequested, only to land on the other nob for cold water and suddenly jerk it, turning scalding into just unpleasantly warm. With its goals accomplished, the strand of the symbiote returned to disappear beneath Ivory's skin to the subdermal level. You want to burn yourself, do it when I'm not at risk of being scalded as well! What are we doing today? Please tell me I don't have to sit through that accursed science lab again...so many beakers and burners. A flash of discomfort from the Symbiote there as it expressed its distaste for the objects it associated with an otherwise traumatic period that it was still hung up on.

Kameron Esters-

 

[Djinni]

Glass

Beep, beep, beep... went the earpiece underneath the hair of the A-Class hero named Glass. The dark-skinned woman glanced up at the door, annoyed that her engagement was being disrupted... yet again. This was the third time that it happened. If she didn't know any better, she'd say that this whole thing was cursed. Letting out a soft sigh as she finished the page of her book, she closed the cover.

"Well, children, I'm sorry to interrupt the reading... again... but it seems that someone needs my help," she said, giving them a sweet but sad smile. "Unfortunately, that means the book signing will also have to be cancelled for the time being. For those that want to stick around, I will try to come back after this problem is solved, an-"

Words cut off as a vision flashed before her eyes.

A truck. A large truck being flipped and shunted off the road and into the building. It didn't go in very far, but close enough to injure the cashier and older couple they were serving.

Her visions never gave Glass much time to work with, but in this case she didn't need it. It was a simple fix, but she needed to act fast. Striking down with her foot, she set into motion a spike of earth. It ran through the store, destroying the floor in its path as it zipped around people in the way. By the time a creature barrelled by the size of a bus, it had already reached a defensive position. It expanded broadly, shielding the three from what would have been a painful fate. The look on their face, and those of the customers that had a ten foot tall spike dip around them, was pure surprise as they processed what just happened.

The air around her vibrated, booming out noise as she spoke. "This is Glass, A Rank Hero. An incident is underway. Everyone needs to make their way to safety. For the time being, please gather in the center of the store, where the management will direct you how to evacuate. Thank you, and please, stay calm. I will resolve this."


Murmurs began to pass around the room, stroking Glass' ego. The fact that no small number of people here were her fans, and had just gotten to watch her in action, left a small crowd amazed. A lovely feeling, even if this was more dangerous than it should have been. A two foot jet of flame came from her shoulderblades as a similar jet of ice fired from her palms into the ground. This created an ice path, rocketing her forward through the store and out of the front. As she passed, she glanced inside, seeing the driver had passed out on impact.

Unfortunate. But nothing to be done for it now. She'd just have to trust the paramedics with it. The stone wall slowly crumbled as Glass left, slowly lowering the truck to the ground. Everyone had ample time to move.

Once outside, she zipped along the path of... what the hell? "Is that a fucking cat?" She asked, startled. Well that was more interesting than last time, that was for sure. Raising herself above traffic, she expanded the flame... then concentrated it into a blue jet that had her taking off at very high speeds.

Catching up to the cat, whose size did not benefit their speed as much as she might expect, Glass tried to redirect it with a wall of stone rising sharply from the earth. This flipped an empty car onto another empty car, but the stone was thick enough it should prevent it from just busting through, or at least slow it down substantially.

More subtly, at the same time, she tried to read its mind. What was going on? What was this thing? Why was it acting this way?


Cam E. Leon

 

[Osuka]

Alexandria Norman
Location: [Redacted]

Giant fucking cat in town!!! A giant fucking cat! Oh there was absolutely no way Alexandria was going to miss this, and as she skittered around her launching bay, she couldn't help but start laughing to herself. Of all the things in all of L.A. to get radioed out by police, it was a gigantic fucking cat. Still, this was a job, and even if she couldn't be professional about it, she could most definitely do what she needed to do. Even while she was tying back her hair, throwing on her combat nanosuit to wear underneath her exosuit, checking her beam blade, then rechecking her combat suit hud and its link to her energy-directed sidearm, she was still giggling.

To her credit, it was about the dumbest thing she had ever heard of. Whoever had let loose a gigantic cat of all things were going to have hell to pay, and she couldn't wait to watch the courtroom footage later on. Just thinking about how some dumb shlub was going to have to explain that his experiment on his house cat got out of control to some wrinkly, grumpy old codger in a robe holding a gavel was going to be prime-time entertainment on television, nevermind all the edited clips and memes that were going to spring from it.

A quick check of the Mantis systems with Namina's assistance read that everything was fine, and after slapping on some equipment - including what amounted to a taser rifle and the Mantis's riot shield on its back, her VI would sync the weapons to her hud and begin opening the hatch above.

"Dr. Norman," Namina started, a visage of the VI popping up to the upper right corner of her screen. "Are you sure it's best to find this situation comical? The beast that has been reported has already caused plenty of damage throughout the immediate area where the call had originated."

"Dear Namina, you sweet summer child," Alexandria quipped as the thrusters of her suit catapulted her through the launch tube and out into the world. "It's not every day you get to hear the police scared about a gigantic house cat-"

"But the report said nothing about it being a house cat?" Namina questioned, her visage lifting a brow to emulate an expression. "I recommend taking this situation more seriously."

Alexandria rolled her eyes, but once she had arrived above the scene, thrusters hot as she hovered, she couldn't stop but raising both her brows and whistling low... and then groaning.

A popular face had shown up. Codename "Glass" was already on the scene and trying to get the... Very giant cat to move in a specific direction with her elemental manipulation. She was popular enough to do public events like merchandise and all that, and Alexandria was no fan of being reminded that just being around other heroes immediately made her look like she wasn't a welcome sight. Still, she had a job to do, and she damn well was going to do it whether the people liked it or not. After all, she was a nerd, and nerds always dream of doing cool shit like taking out a gigantic taser rifle she dismounted from the front of her exosuit and closing the distance to not more than twenty meters away from the damn thing....

Then firing.

The result of the trigger pull was a three-round burst of cylinders the size of a beanbag containing a plethora of progs that would penetrate the shell and stick to its target. Once it had a hold of organic material, the battery inside would respond to the resistance against the prongs and, if it connected with the gigantic feline, send out a harsh electric shock. She was hoping that the spasms alone would cause the cat to tumble into the wall that Glass had thrown up in front of it and stop it in its tracks for the moment.

"Hey Glass - try to get higher walls around it with a small enough hole to contain it up top!" Alexandria barked as she fired, sending out two, then three more bursts at the beast. "If we can enclose it, I can tire it out until a containment team arrives! Just don't kill it, yeah?!"

Say what you will about the woman, but Alexandria had a soft spot for anything that had fur or feathers, and that thing was an entire school-bus sized bounce-house of fluff, and if she could get the rights to own it, she was damn well gonna try. After all, who wouldn't want to own the world's biggest house cat? Aside from her own selfish desires to have a gigantic feline companion, maybe the unintended consequence would be people seeing her in a different way - maybe as someone who wasn't a stain on the Hero archives? Or maybe she'd get the chance to meet some of the really cool nature conservation folks on television?! If Steve Irwin was alive, she'd kill to meet the guy- er, well, maybe not kill... She had a steadfast rule about not killing, but meeting someone as legendary as that guy would have been-

Dammit, she was in the middle of a fight! She couldn't just think about this! What was important was subduing the cat before it could cause anymore damage - or Darwin forefend - casualties in the streets while everyone was trying to flee. This couldn't drag on for even a minute longer if they wanted to really minimize the possibility...

Cam E. Leon Djinni

 

[Cam E. Leon]

The cat barreled down the street knocking cars aside until from nowhere a large wall rised from infront of it. With a large bonk the cat ended up sliding face first into said wall, falling to the ground before skittering back up, its mind was a torrent of fear, panic, pain and confusion. The cat was probably more scared then the humans around it. It, begun to try to leap over the wall until a sharp pain shot into the ctas back before its entire body was shocked by the tazer. "MREEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWWW" IT howled as it rampaged knocking cars aside as it tried to reach its back to stop the pain. It.... it honestly looked like a cat chasing its own tail.... Despite its size and danger, it was cleary still a normal cat on the inside. The only peculiar thing about it was the strenge collar it had on, with an unearthly gem and inscriptions adorning it. As the cat thrashed about in agony, a young kid on a bicycle was out of breath as they arrived to the scene, "oh no heroes are here. " The kid said before shouting to the cat. " Elemeownta! PLEASE STOP IT YOUR HURTING ELEMEOWNTA!" THe kid shouted at the heroes while trying to approach the cat but having to duck as a large car fly by it. "AAh!" the kid screamed.

A suit of armor camly swept the debris away from the front of a cafe. Ignoring the nearby chaos.

Djinni Osuka

 

[Deathkitten]

Ele-meow-nta​

Elementa wasn't even in her hero outfit when her coffee break got totally interrupted by the noise of the nearby giant cat. She grimaced and set the partly-finished coffee down on the table in the cafe, and looked at the armored... maid? Whatever they were. "Hey, thanks for the coffee. I gotta split and deal with... whatever that was," she said, giving an apologetic smile, "It was good."

She rushed out and into the air, discs of pressurized air beneath her feet allowing her to run on nothing at all. As she arrived, she saw the kid, and her arrival was heralded... as... Elemeownta? The... what? She broke into snickers and giggles as she forced herself to land beside the kid and surround the two of them with a protective forcefield that looked like a mesh of plants. "Well that's gonna make the news more interesting today!" she teased, patting the kid on the head, "It'll be alright. That's your kitty, kid? We'll be careful not to hurt them, ok? We're professionals! We got this!" She was beaming confidence and smiles, "Machina! Glass! I don't know the situation, but the kid's attached to the kitty! Try not to hurt it too much. Stun and capture! Try to guide it away from such a dense area, too. Less people the better."

Urk. Glass was here... That was... kind of awkward... not that she would let it show. The kid needed confidence right now. Later, she'd have to freak and whatever. Should she text Auntie Tessa? ...what would she even tell her? But would she get scolded for NOT telling her? Ugh. Whatever. For now there was a cat to deal with.

"I've got the kid's safety, so don't worry about what you do!"

Cam E. Leon Osuka Djinni

 

[Djinni]

A few things happened simultaneously right about then.
For one, the scene got a lot more crowded, and people seemed fond of telling her what to do. In particular, a fellow A rank hero named Machina arrived. A former villain as well... though this one was a known villain. She could sympathize with a few of her struggles at least, though she was being screwed out of S rank Glass had heard. She should donate to former inmates rights groups...

Second, she heard the most hilarious name she had the pleasure of learning in quite some time. Elemeownta. A giant cat... named Elemeownta. A cat that, now that it was somewhat still in a seizure, could be seen to have a strange artifact on its neck. Some kind of magic. Truth be told, elemental magic wasn't her thing, but the creature reeked of life magic. That was what was doing it.

Third, the top hero arrived. Elementa, in plain clothes... and with the most dreadful timing. "Elemeownta?" She asked, probably on live television, looking at the famous heroine. Well fuck.

Not the time. Taking up Machina's instructions as a good idea, she slid-flew her way up to the cat... and formed an obsidian blade gauntlet on her arm, slicing the collar off of its neck and grabbing it at the same time. Trying to go for a wind jump, Glass began to build a stone box around where she last saw the great cat, attempting to block it in.

 

[Osuka]

Name: Machina
Location: The most a-meow-sing moment she's ever had

Ele... El... Elemeownta?? It was going to be impossible to stifle her laughing, and as she tacked her rifle back onto the front plate carrier of her exosuit, Alexandria let herself burst out laughing, clutching at her stomach and doubling over as the thrusters had finally given way. Thankfully for her, she didn't feel too much of the impact as she all but cratered and split the sidewalk she had landed upon, kicking her legs and pointing at Elementa as she cackled and howled her way into what she thought was about to be her afterlife.

"EleMEOWnta!!!!" She choked, pointing at the hero in her plainclothes through bubbling laughter. It was almost impossible for her to gather herself to her feet and try to shift her focus back, but she literally couldn't stop herself from laughing. L.A.'s premier, most loved Hero had just made her day through serendipity alone and there was no way that Alexandria was going to ever let the S-class live it down for as long as there was a beating heart in her chest. But, of course, back to business, and the only kind of business that Alexandria could decide to take on with cold determination.

Even if she was still laughing as she plucked the rifle back off of her chest plate:

Help EleMeownta take a catnap.

Again, she took off into the air, far above Glass and the others as she took aim again and waited. She'd only fire if the cat had decided to get the Zoomies again, and she already had the trigger to the wall of its pull. If the cat so much as twitched in the wrong way, Machina was going to make sure the only twitching it did was on its back-

Well, maybe she wouldn't use that phrasing. The thought was darker than she had meant, admittedly, and there was no way she was going to kill their furry feline friend here, but if she could keep it restrained until it tired out and they figured out how to tame it, that'd be a win in itself. Aside from that, it'd just serve to feed the image she had now, and that was fine.

Cam E. Leon Djinni Deathkitten

 

[Cam E. Leon]

The kid looked up to the new face next to him, and went silent. It was THE ELEMENTA...and he just shouted Elemeownta... "Y-your..."The kid said stammered. "Pl-please help Elemeownta, shes just a normal cat! she got hit by a car, a-and i tried to pick her up and run to mom, but when I ran inside I met a weird man who told me that collar would save here, Elemeowntas not a evil kitty." The kid said with tears in his eyes as he clung to Elementas clothes looking up at her. Elemeownta ignored the woman cutting the collar off he, and looked around while stone walls raised up. She ran in circles against the walls before she began trying to climb the stone walls. but as it put weight on its front paw to climb over. The cat fell down hissing in pain licking its paw before looking around to see it was boxed in. its hair was on end as its tail was frizzled. "Mreeeeow!" it hiss at the people flying above it. The collar lied on the asphalt of the highway, motionless

Deathkitten Djinni Osuka

 

[Deathkitten]

Ele-meow-nta​

Elementa gave the kid a smile, "I trust you. I trust Elemeownta's not a bad kitty. It's bad to take stuff from strangers, though, when an adult you trust isn't around." She looked over towards Glass, "AY! You're a mage, right Glass? And you're good with nature, too! Can you make some catnip maybe? And it looks like the cat's paw hurts or something - cats are dumb, they aren't good with panic."

She was still trying to ignore the MEOW in her name, but her cheeks were flushed red in embarrassment as Machina laughed her ass off. She was struggling so hard with keeping a straight face and not laughing her ass off herself! Quietly, she was snickering as she held the kid.

Cam E. Leon Osuka Djinni

 

[Djinni]

Glass

Glass was getting ordered around a lot today. She was not a fan of this. But either way, she was planning on doing so. It was clearly injured somehow, she just needed to tell... which might be difficult after it was electrocuted. But it did lick its paw. And it did seem to limp slightly... so its front right paw.

Taking advantage of the darkness of the box, she flooded their mind with calming images and ideas. Their mother, milk, warmth, a nice sunspot. It seemed to calm the creature enough to let her approach, and she did so cautiously. It was definitely still prone to swiping with its injury. Trying to get a good view, she could see... it was a whole ass piece of rebar. She could see about six inches of rebar, but given how it stuck with how much it was running, there had to be substantially more of it in there. Holy shit. That was probably at least a foot.

Well... thankfully she was tough. Stepping back out of immediate reach, even if it leaned forward, she reached out with her telekinesis to yank the bar out quickly.

 

[Osuka]

Name: Alexandria
Location: Nyear the incident up in the air

Well, aside from her small bit of help, it seemed like this situation was about to get wrapped up since Glass seemed to have closed the distance and use... Well, whatever weird thing she was doing in order to try to calm Elemeownta down, but she wasn't going to lower her rifle just yet. If the cat freaked out again, she'd have to finish pulling the trigger just to make sure Glass didn't get shredded, let alone allow it to jump out of its new enclosure. The kid is gonna hate me, though, she thought to herself with a frown. It was kinda like how police officers used to get into deep shit for even tazing a pet, let alone just straight-up killing it, but she wasn't about to apologize for it.

"Dr. Norman, I'm zooming your heads-up display in," Namina chimed through the headset. "Please observe."

And with a quick adjustment of her display.... It had an entire foot of rebar sticking out of its paw. The damn thing was about to trash this side of L.A. over a piece of rebar. A sigh parted her lips as she resisted the urge to shake her head. The cat was in pain and wreaking havoc in the streets, but even then she didn't feel bad for using her rifle to pin it to a single location long enough for Glass to work her... Whatever it was. magic? Was it magic? Or was it just some... Weird hoodoo stuff?

It didn't matter either way. For now, Alexandria just had to keep to her position and cover Glass until the job was done. Until then, she couldn't really even say anything else. There was the possibility that her shouting to her new, temporary teammate would startle the overgrown pet and start a whole new series of rampages, which would only drag everything out even longer. No, she had to stay silent, though she still couldn't help but chuckle mentally.

"Fucking Elemeownta," she thought to herself. "I'm definitely mailing her a container of silvervine later this week."

Cam E. Leon Djinni Deathkitten

 

[Cam E. Leon]

The cats hairs slowly lowered as the images flooded its mind, before the sharp pain in its paw left, feeling relief finally. The cat looked around the dark enclosement and went to a corner. Curling up and making itself as small as possible, licking its paw while looking at Glass, it was clear it was still weary of them all, but it was much was calmer now. Its tail swished slightly as it let out a lur murr. "H-he said it would save her...." the kid said sadly as he nodded some to elementas light scolding. He was more focused on the fact the cats raging stopped. "I-is, Elemeownta okay?" he asked worried?

"Hmm how troublesome, the collar is trapped in the stone walls. That makes this a bit more tedious, and three heroes on that..... hmmm Come now Cain, what would Cain do." A strange man said watching the scene from an alleyway. He observed them and kept an eye out for a chance to grab the collar. Hed had to sneak in and out of the stone box however, Heroes must always be so convuluted must they?

Deathkitten Djinni Osuka

 

[ManofManyRoles]

James

"Don't encourage her," James mumbled softly at Vice's comment about the display of power being 'hot', quickly sucked into the 'communal area' with the spoils of combat and leaving a very distraught Kami to have their mental breakdown while Thyris and whatever dumbfuck demon that was duked it out. James settled into the couch, temple still throbbing with irritation at the literal everything, glancing at the hole in his shirt. "I'll sew it myself later, it's fine. Shouldn't have left Sato and the rest there."A grumble of irritation at Vice's analysis of him being a 'god' of the grimoires. Sure, lovely. If he was a genuine deity to the books, he could undo the binding spells without an issue. But he couldn't, he never could. It'd take weeks if not months to untangle the metaphorical net that bound the girls to their respective books.

James gaze settled on Vice as she voiced the fact she was frustrated too, that throb in his temple growing and lessening with each beat of his heart. He was going to have a migraine later, he could feel it. "It's not mostly selfish reasons. I've given up on caring what happens to me. If I die tomorrow, I'm probably going to fucking end up on a new plane of reality, that's just my lot at this point. I care that the others are stuck in a perpetual hell for at least half of them. They finally had a chance at normality, finally had a chance to be free and start over. And then I get hit by a fucking train, and here we are. And until I do whatever the fuck it is I'm supposed to do here, they won't get that back again, unless I can undo the bindings. I don't like asking you to do anything you don't like to do, same for the rest. You don't like fighting, so I won't ask you to fight. Also, to clarify, I've been hit, crushed, stabbed, bent into a pretzel, drowned, impaled, Hignar alone has like twenty counts of sexual misconduct, set on fire-" James continued on, a rather worrisome and extensive list rattled off over the span of five minutes leaving one question...How the fuck was he still alive? James glanced around at the body parts on the floor, a worried frown on his face. "That's very sweet, even if I inevitably end up having to be a lot more careful about what I say...well, what now Vice? Wait for this guy to wake up? What about Sato, as far as I can tell she's having a PTSD attack. Thyris is entertaining 'dipshit of the week', so she can't support Sato."

Deathkitten