[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4331699]Previously...[/url]

By the time David had made his way down the stairs, he had pulled up the ENTV livestream on his phone. He knew that they always ran one when Epic things were happening. He would have preferred to keep in the fight, but Phantom had...surprised him. Maybe he hadn't been pushing himself enough, because he had never been surprised before.

He'd...woken himself up? That had never happened. Then again, he'd never gotten that big before, either. Phantom had been huge. His voice had shattered glass and set the horde of rats on the run. His physical body had heard his own voice, and David had a theory that the weird feedback of recognizing his own voice from blocks away had shaken him out of sleep.

Not that he'd really mattered, in the grand scheme of things. He was basically just a giant distraction, more than anything. "Fucking kill me," he mumbled, running a hand down his face.

If only he had more physical stuff going for him. Like, well, like...if he could make people afraid by looking at them or something. He knew that as he passed through people, they got scared. That was simple. But he couldn't direct that fear in any way, and it drove him nuts. He should be able to do that, right? He was an Epic. He could fly, turn invisible, and terrify people. He was a god damn horror movie waiting to be written.

Instead, he felt like Casper, a little weird goober who sometimes was recognized on the fringes of society. Not that he wanted to be recognized or anything. He just wanted to be useful. It was always fun to be a hero, and it felt good too. That was more than his childhood had going for it.

He mulled all this over while he ran as fast as he could toward the danger zone. It was only when he nearly tumbled into the middle of the scene that he realized his blunder. Nobody knew who the fuck he was, except that he played the violin. If he came rushing into the scene, still clad in the tux, it was going to raise some serious eyebrows--Groucho Marx levels.

Nobody had seen him yet, so he surreptitiously slid off the sidewalk, joining with a small crowd around the outskirts. He had to be doubly careful, he realized: he was super fucking vulnerable. Any trace of remaining danger could result in him dead. No Phantom to save him here.

"Fuckin' wild shit, man," came a voice next to him. "Haven't seen this much chaos since Lancelot and Camero wiped each other out. That was a wild time, let me tell you."

David glanced over and met eyes with a tired-looking [url=https://i.imgur.com/rIDk1FZ.png]woman[/url]. She was average height, covered head to toe in swathes of dark fabric, and had a backpack slung over one shoulder.

"Yeah," David said. It would have been rude to ignore her. 

Besides, he had been there for Lancelot and Camero. Originally, they'd been a criminal Epic superduo. Camero could turn anything she touched into a bomb, and Lancelot had been able to turn any physical material into smoke. When they worked together, they had almost required the High to step in. Tons of carnage, terror, and robberies.

But then they'd turned on each other for some reason. Rumor was that the Clairvoyant had actually gotten involved. No one could say. Camero had turned Lancelot's gun into a bomb, and when he shot her in the back, it blew up in his face. Camero had still gotten shot, though.

"Worst part is, I'm gonna be locked out of my place for at least a few hours, now." She huffed, switching the backpack to her other shoulder. "Been itching to write a few riffs down before my muse deserts me again."

"You're a musician?" he asked. That caught him off guard, and piqued his interest.

"Sort of," she said, flashing a quick, almost feral smile. "I play the piano a bit, but really I'm just in the scene. A DJ, I mean. Why, you play something, tux-guy?"

David laughed--more of a chuckle, really, and looked down. "Yeah, actually. Violin. My parents..." he shook his head. "I make some stuff too, but I'm not good. Not really a DJ, more a producer."

"Oh yeah?" the woman tilted her head at him. "Violin, huh...got any good samples I could bum off you?" She stopped and stuck out a hand. "Uh, sorry. Kenny. Kendra, really, but...Kenny."

David took her hand. It was firm, tough. He liked this woman. "David. Just David. Unless you're fluent in Mandarin."

She shook her head. "Nah, dude, I took Spanish in high school. Music's my second language."

He could relate to that. "No worries, there. It's not something for everyone. Besides, I wasn't ever given a choice."

Kenny laughed, a short, hearty bark that he almost felt in his chest. "True, true. Good shit. Hey," she said, raising a hand to point at him. "You doing anything, 'just-David'? You might like my backup home. Oh, don't worry," she said quickly, as they both realized how that sounded. "No, man, it's totally public. Good people there. Trust me, I'm not that kinda gal."

What a chill woman. David appreciated that. "It's fine, Kenny, I'm game. Lead the way."

He turned away, but then glanced to look at the carnage behind him. He'd just been a part of that, and now he was dashing away to the...underworld or something. Oh well. He shrugged and started walking. Then jogging. Damn, why the hell did she have to move so fast?