[center][b][u]March 25th 8:00 p.m.[/u][/b] Cool night kissed the side of his face. Beneath the veneer of the City That Never Sleeps was the city that eternally weeped, for when the honest people retired for a night's rest and the gatlin repetition of the nightly news, the ghouls awoke: prostitutes, pimps, addicts, corrupt cops, heroes. From his vantage atop the warehouse, he watched the city morph before his eyes. Casual business suits and loafers replaced by arms laced with track marks, the soft click of the working woman's heels against the indifferent concrete beneath her feet. Bare light raised and danced from the tight crevices of the alleyways where the city's resident homeless community convened for fellowship and warmth. As the streets filled, Tiger bid his time--he had to wait for the right time to strike, as all hunters did. It had to have been another twenty minutes before he caught sight of something: what looked to be a dealer and a willing client receding into the alley to do their business. Now was the time. Once Tiger had a running start, he leapt from the edge of the warehouse roof atop a fire escape; he gave himself no time to settle before he had once more descended the fire escape in a series of highly coordinated twists and leaps until the soles of his boots finally touched the wet gravel residing atop the concrete of the alleyway adjacent the alleyway in which the deal was happening. He rose to his full height and got into a crouch; he had to use the cover of night and the scarce spot-lighting offered by the few streetlights hugging the sidewalks. He couldn't alert anyone, the local streetgangs corner boys were out in full force and as much as he enjoyed laying people out, he didn't yet know the full extent of his newfound abilities--and even with a vest on, getting shot still hurt. Now he had to survey his options: the ground route was to be difficult but it would also be the quickest; the buildings would be of greater ease, but he would expend a lot more energy than necessary trying to close the distance. Predators always chose economy over flash. He would use the layout of the land he knew well to maneuver. Using the shadows provided from black splashes where the streetlights did not reach, Marvin weaved an intricate means of movement throughout the lowrise projects. With timing keen, he stood with his back pressed against the brick wall. He was near both of his targets and it was time to pounce. And pounce he did. From around the corner he swung--he was immediately met with twelve sets of eyes, all with a strange [i]desire[/i] resting in them. Something was [i]not[/i] right, yet in the few seconds he had to process what this something was, they had closed the distance! Were it not for his martial training he might have been mince. Now, Marvin may have been able to owe such a unified reaction to primal fear; he was a 6'4 man dressed like a military agent with a cat-esque mask on his face, it would strike worry (or muse) in anyone delving in the illicit. Of these six men, four were hobos--persons who would normally [i]run[/i] from such a strange sight (or cower), not fight. As for the other two--the dealer and the buyer, they too seemed immediately alert to Marvin's presence. Never did he know a dealer and a fiend enjoying the sight of vigilantes or fiends, but they seemed neither bothered nor afraid; they simply advanced alongside the four homeless men. Before Marvin knew it, the bullet from the Elysium dealer's gun had knocked him several meters backwards and he soon lay facing upward at the stars. Smoke steamed from the crushed round as it lay lodged in the front of the vest. Marvin's suprise kept him grounded long enough for the four men to soon surround him, with two of the men attempting to grab his feet and another attempting to hold one arm down while the last--the dealer--attempted to pull off the cloth mask and force feed Marvin the Elysium. Duly, their efforts failed with tremendous raucus. In one swift motion the now heavyweight former boxer somersaulted backwards and was soon on his feet. There was, of course, one problem: he was severely outnumbered. The new slaves underneath Elysium's mind control began appearing out of seemingly every cavern in the Marcy low-rises. 100:1? He had been through worse. --- [u] [b]7:48 PM, March 25th The Wedge, Hub City[/b][/u] “Supper was a [i]lot,[/i] easier to deal with thanks to you,” Karen grinned to Clarissa, the pair lounging on the couch after a hard night of preparing a meal for their father, as well as themselves. “You ought to sleep over more often.” Clare scoffed, never taking her eyes off the new [i]Vampire Academy[/i] series they had recently gotten into. “You just want an extra laborer.” “Yeeah,” Karen snickered in admission. “Still, it feels like it’s been too long since we just sat here and watched –“ “We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming for special News Alert." Karen felt her shoulders sag slightly, as she had been eagerly anticipating this weeks' episode. If Clarissa's posture was any indication, she felt similarly disappointed. "Ooh, what's this, now? Couldn't it [i]wait?"[/i] "Riots have engulfed the streets of New York. Seemingly without warning or reason, rioters have began swarming onto the streets of downtown Manhattan, causing widespread property damage and in many cases, loss of life. Disturbingly, there have been multiple reported cases of those who were initially assaulted by the rioters joining their ranks immediately after." Karen stared in silence at the news broadcast, a chill working its way up her spine. She slowly turned to look at Clarissa, only to find that she was already staring back at her. "...It really is like you said, Clare." "Karen!" Samantha leaped over the back of the couch, sinking her claws into the girl's shoulder hard enough to cause her to yelp. "Hurry up and transform! I'm feeling a strong arcane presence at work to the east!" --- [u][b]8:53 PM, March 25th Kasimir Castle, Gotham City[/b][/u] "Test one of the Spinal Hud," Zoey's voice once more filled the cavernous room, her voice low and almost bored. She was back at her work station, though the bored tone could arguably be from the lack of alcohol she currently possessed. Patrol later that night would be difficult if she was completely inebriated, sadly, and Blackrock Medical hadn't developed that cure for drunkenness [i]or[/i] a hangover cure. Honestly, what did she pay them for? "Test material is swine... god, I could use some wine right now," Before her sat the spine-like object once more, but in a plastic container beside her was also a rather meaty leg of an animal - pig, as she had mentioned, ending in a hoof. Without further ado she removed it from the container to lay out on the somewhat cleared off work space, brown paper placed down to keep blood and [i]other[/i] fluids off the surface. Without much fanfare Zoey then lifted the spine-like object and set it on top of the meat, fingers going to the very top of the spine with the vicious looking needles. Pressing the activator Zoey then stepped back to observe. The spine lit up with a white light emerging from the cracks in the creation, faint but noticeable. The parts almost seemed to shudder... before the mechanism in the top plunged the two one-inch needles into the flesh with a vicious jolt, a series of much smaller ones along the spine repeating the motion down the flesh. She waited a full minute. "Hm, that worked better than anticipated. No maiming at all," Of course she had to jinx herself. Almost as soon as the words left her lips that the smoke started rising up from the main section. Then lit on fire. Zoey stared at the small fire in silence, before calmly reaching below the worktable and retrieving a small fire extinguisher. The fire was put out and the Spinal Hud disconnected from power shortly. "Well, that didn't work," Sounding rather upbeat - that was about her luck after all - Zoey set about cleaning off the foam, smoke, and pig fluid from her device, once more humming under her breath as was her wont to do. At least this was just a spare project to keep her mind off that damnable Electrocutioner box, for now. She'd go crazy if she kept hammering away at it every night. Besides, what's a little fire before patrol? An alert sounded out from the computer to her left, drawing Zoey's gaze to the large screen mounted on the cavern's wall. A page opened up automatically, a clip playing from the news site. "Since when have riots been breaking news?" Silence engulfed Zoey however as she watched the news clip, her eyes narrowing. She supposed a large death count could make a riot news worthy, as seemed to be happening. Her fingernails tapped against the surface of the table as she hummed again, considering what this meant. Her initial instinct was to dismiss it, as a riot wasn't something she'd normally fly out for. In Gotham, sure, but New York? But then the voice over mentioned it... "Disturbingly, there have been multiple reported cases of those who were initially assaulted by the rioters joining their ranks immediately after." Now [i]that[/i] was interesting. Zoey's gaze flicked to the box still sitting in it's prison, almost innocently. She [i]had[/i] just been musing on needing more test subjects, hadn't she? It was hard to say if this was one of those things, but what could it hurt? It's not like it'd be a waste of jet fuel if Grim could at least help with the riot some, even if the mythical angle turned out to be a bust. Mind made up Zoey moved to grab her gear, pulling it on in record time. Looks like she had a plane to catch. Oh, and a text to send. [i]"I left part of a pig on the work table, be a dear and clean it up before you go to bed please David."[/i] --- [u][b]8:54 PM, March 25th Kasimir Castle, Gotham City[/b][/u] "Twelve o'clock," David said, twisting around and hitting the imaginary opponent with his bo staff. "Six o'clock," another twist and swing. "And last but not least," he rolled forwards, stopping with a crouch and sweeping the last imaginary opponent's feet from under him, finishing with a swing of his bo staff to the head. "And that's that." With a grin, the boy wiped the sweat off his brow, heading to the bench to get a drink. After a swig of water, his phone buzzed, and he checked the message. "... She's heading out again." This would be the third time this month she had left him home, and he was tired of it. It wasn't like he was a kid or something. "Not on my watch." With that, he rushed to the wine cellar, suiting up in a flash. Had Zoey already left? Where was she, where was she... There! "Zoey, wait up!" He ran to his adoptive mother. "What're we doing tonight? Routine patrol? Dealing with Anarkee? Ooh, let me guess: we're beating up hobos like that one guy in Hub City, right?" He paused for a second, saying: "Oh, and I cleaned up the pig like you asked, so I can come, right? Right?" --- [u][b]8:59 PM, March 25th New York City[/b][/u] Harris felt sick from flying so long, his stomach growled at him and his wings felt very tired, thankfully every few seconds his body absorbed a little more sun, reducing the fatigue, not removing it completely, but reducing it, he could have probably flown for a few hours longer if the sun wasn't going down, but just as it was now he was beginning to push it. The sprawling cityscape of New York brought relief to his tired body, and he looked over the city, feeling the influence of the Green as his anger grew at the fact that they'd removed pretty much all flora from the area. He sighed, New York had been around longer than he had, The Green would just have to deal with the fact that Harris had a human half. He cared more about people than plants, not that he was overly biased to them, now that he knew just how much plants understood without telling the world. Sometimes he wondered whether he needed to find a good balance between his care for humans and The Green's militant love for plant life, it'd be hard, but perhaps that was the best option. Then he saw the smoke rising from the city. Fires lit up across the massive city, smoke choking the air along with the sounds of screaming and other noises, such as the blaring of triggered car alarms and the smashing of glass. Harris felt his limbs weaken as he flew into the city smog, he felt tired and ill, his head throbbed in pain and his stomach twisted. He began to feel that numbness, that same needly numbness that he felt when The Green began to assert its influence. As he lowered to the ground, he saw people rioting, brutally killing each-other, shooting them, he felt afraid, angry, but most of all saddened by this. Then all of his thoughts were replaced by unyielding rage. But he refused to let the Green take over, he knew how violent it was, he'd have to do this himself. --- [u][b]March 25th 8:03 p.m.[/b][/u] As they closed in, he readied himself; there was no path to escape, he would need to make one of his own. The four men who surrounded him closed in with a supernatural quickness, but these men had no skill; in one swift motion he had flipped one of the hobos over his shoulder and slammed him atop the concrete below; while retaining his grasp on the downed hobo's arm, he lunged forward on his back foot and planted a sidekick into the solar plexus of the second hobo. The last two were dealt with in equally sufficient order; the drug dealer had his kneecap caved in when Marvin caught him with a stinging low kick right at the head of his patella; the fiend was indisposed with a transitioning roundhouse head kick executed in chain from the low kick. For each he disposed, there were four or five to replace; he would be overwhelmed in minutes. In his search for an escape he found what he was looking for all along; the pill the drug dealer dropped--some Elysium. Except it skid behind a crowd of hobos who were lined up near the end of the block and who were also beginning to close the distance between themselves and Tiger. He came here for the sample and he was going to get it, no matter who he had to go through. . . or over. Beneath the cloth mask he smiled; Tiger got into a tracker runner's stance before he shot forward--as he picked up speed and drew closer to the line of hobos who stood between him and the Elysium he began to gather his footing. At just the right moment, he propelled himself over the heads of the set of hobos at the end of the street and landed in a crouch; one last burst of speed and he scooped the Elysium pill from the wet concrete. Then he heard the police sirens blare. People under the influence of Elysium had poured into the streets in droves, armed with makeshift home appliance weapons of varying kinds. The only safe way of passage were the builings. A sharp change of direction and Marvin was soon climbing up the project building's face. Some of the windows were open as the residents had evacuated to the streets. Marvin figured it would buy him some time to think if he was inside instead of the streets. Maybe he could find some 'supplies.' -- [u][b]9:14 PM New York City[/b][/u] The trip from Hub City to New York hadn't taken long. Few trips ever did now that she was Lady Arcana. What had taken a long time was finding a quiet place to transform, since Karen had learned the hard way that turning in her house was a bad idea...not that there were many [i]good[/i] locations left now. [i]Hub City Electrical[/i] had really made themselves a pain in her ass as of late, seemingly in a panic over the string of "mysterious electrical discharges" throughout the city. They had started installing cameras in various locations throughout the city where these "discharges" had been sighted in the hopes of catching one. Effin' [i]morons.[/i] Still, now that she was here...yeah, things were pretty bad. It was almost word-for-word like Clare had described it: a bloody, city-wide riot that threatened to spill out into the countryside if not somehow checked. [i]Somehow[/i] being the operative word. Sure, she could fly down there and start knocking heads, and against regular thugs or soldiers that would probably work. Their morale would be destroyed, they would surrender or run. But these guys didn't [i]act[/i] normal at all. They didn't seem [i]afraid[/i] of her, or anything really. "Hold on," Lady Arcana spoke softly, ripping the side door off of a chrysler that had been flipped onto its side in the middle of traffic, as rioters swarmed the streets with an almost drone-like relentlessness and coordination. Pulling the elderly man out of his car, she princess-carried him to the hospital in just a matter of seconds, gently lowering him onto one of the many prepared stretchers out front. She had asked the hospital staff to set them out there for her, and thankfully they had complied. The riots hadn't reached that part of the city yet, and she didn't intend to [i]let[/i] them. Flying back downtown, she saw a rioter attempting to smash in the windshield of an SUV to get at the family inside. Smacking him across the head with [i]just[/i] enough force to knock him unconscious, she quickly moved to lift the entire SUV up from the dangerous highway, intent on taking it somewhere safer. That was another thing: they didn't seem to acknowledge pain, and wouldn't stop coming at you unless you KO'd them. It was like their only purpose was to kill, or spread whatever was driving them insane like this. It felt like, for all her power, brute force wouldn't be enough to solve this. --- [b][u]9:33 PM New York, New York[/u][/b] Blackstar was lucky that she wanted to get to New York as soon as possible. Maybe he was right that she should bring him along more, but Grim wasn't about to admit that. He was still just a teenager after all. However at this time it didn't take long for Zoey to relent, considering the fact that with a riot it was really a numbers game. Yet from the moment the jet had set down and she had taken to the rooftops of New York to survey the scene going on below it became obvious that the news story wasn't wrong, and this wasn't an ordinary riot. Maybe she should've left Blackstar. "Stay close," Grim rumbled to her sidekick from their perch, her lens zooming in on the streets below. "More are joining them, I don't know what's causing it but I don't want either of us to be caught off guard alone." A loud bang sounded out as her hookshot penetrated the roof of the building they were on, ready to grapple down. "Focus on rescuing anyone not part of the riot, secondary is disabling those who are threats. If you see any clue for what's causing this let me know." A deep breath, rumbling in the mask before she glanced to Blackstar. "Ready?" "Ready, Freddy." Blackstar says with a grin, his own voice running through a voice modulator. "And remember," Grim continued, pointedly ignoring his addon, "If you get overwhelmed there's no shame in retreat." The last of her little 'pep talk' done Grim gave a short nod to Blackstar before jumping from the building. Her hookshot, caught in the roof, immediately slowed the descent until she neared the ground, where a trigger released the hookshot from the roof. As soon as her feet touched ground sparks lit up from her right glove, immediately on the offensive to move to where a group of the rioters were trying to break into the front of a restaurant being used as a safe haven. Time to work once more. Firing his hookshot into the roof and ensuring it was secure, Blackstar followed his mentor and jumped off the building with a front flip, letting out a small whoop of excitement as he did so. Upon hitting the ground, his hookshot retracted into his gauntlet, and he looked around for what he could do. [i]'Okay, Grim's dealing with the group in front of the restaurant, now where could I... There.'[/i] Deploying his bo staff, Blackstar ran towards a group of four rioters attacking two people. Leaping into the air, he brought his staff down on the head of one of the rioters. The rioter spasmed, before collapsing, unconscious. "One down, three to go." And with that, he jumped into the fray. --- Harris dove into the rioting crowd, smashing into the ground near enough to a rioter to knock him off his feet. He stood quickly and grew a wooden cocoon around the rioter that prevented him from moving. [i]What are you doing? kill him[/i] Harris ignored The Green's interjection, grappling a rioter's weapon from his hand and smashing it with a squeeze. The man was then seized around the neck by a vine growing from the ground, pulling him into the ground where he was grabbed by a number of other vines, one for each limb. Harris looked up to see a group of at least ten charging right towards him. He could easily handle this, time to learn a lesson about the dangers of drug abuse. The quickest rioter approached him within seconds and attempted to grab at Harris' throat, only for his hands to sink into Harris' skin, trapped. Harris punched the man once, knocking him out cold, before freeing him and letting him flop limply to the floor. A tree from the floor grew beneath one of the men, growing up and around him, trapping him within the trunk. Another ran face-first into a wooden wall, which sprouted vines and tied him down like a hospital gurney, forced to watch as his ally was dropped onto the ground, his feet pulled away under him by a vine from Harris' arm. Two more were grabbed by yet more vines and tied down to the ground. The last four had entered melee range by this point, and all struck at once. One was stopped by Harris' fist growing from the ground and grasping him by the head, unable to do anything but flail against it pointlessly. Harris now had one arm trapped below the ground, perhaps this was a bad idea. Oh well, he supposed as he tripped one last rioter and held him down with a foot. Of the last two, one was forced to sit in a throne made of a manipulated tree, and the last was taken in Harris' hand, grown to the size where the only things sticking out of Harris' fist were the man's head and feet. That was a rush. Harris had never done that before, clearly, due to the rookie mistake of forcing himself to fight one handed, but he still won without taking a blow! Well, kinda, he did basically get grabbed, but he won still! That was not surprising to be fair, considering he could do anything he wanted basically, but it was so fun! Harris released the man held by the head, having been choked into unconsciousness by now, and the other found himself slammed into the ground and secured by vines. Harris smiled at the scene he'd created, though he was worried to not see a single person who wasn't in a manic state, hopefully he'd find someone, anyone. --- [u][b]9:35 PM New York, New York[/b][/u] Lady Arcana had continued to disable and rioters she came across for the half hour or so that she had been here, binding them with metal girders or pinning them under debris so that they wouldn't be able to threaten anyone again, even if they awakened. That had, from the start, been only her [i]secondary[/i] goal, however. Her primary mission was to remove any innocents who were in harms way. But in truth, the line between innocent and attacker was extremely blurred here. She had witnessed first hand what happened when they forced pills down the throats of those unlucky enough to be captured. They, despite screaming in terror moments before, would calmly stand and join the mayhem without a word. No, this wasn't a battle between criminals and victims...[i]everyone[/i] was a victim here. It wasn't enough just to save those fleeing from the rioters, she needed to somehow find a way to help those very same people who were trying their best to kill or corrupt her. "Wha?" Arcana's attention was diverted from the next batch of rioters a distant crack, the sound of concrete being ruptured by some unknown force. It was loud enough that she felt compelled to divert her attention from the rioters for a moment to investigate, just in case it was even more trouble for her to deal with. What she saw was an instantly familiar sight: dozens of people entrapped in vines, trees, and other assorted plant matter. There was only [i]one[/i] individual she knew of that was capable of making trees grow on command and in such a controlled manner. She had met him - fought him - months ago in a forest on the outskirts of Hub City. The strange plant-bug-man named Harris. She hadn't heard a thing from him since then, but apparently wherever he was, news of the riot reached him. Scanning the area for the rather unmistakable sight of her tree friend, it didn't take her long to find him standing amidst his impromptu garden of prisoners. "Harris!" Lady Arcana called out to him, descending to the fractured concrete. "Woah, you detained a [i]lot[/i] of them! Nice job." --- "Here's the pitch," Blackstar draws his bo staff back as the rioter runs at him, "and the swing!" With that, he swings the bo staff at the rioter, hitting him in the head and knocking him unconscious. "OUT OF THE PARK! FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH, FUCK YEAH!" "[i]Blackstar![/i]" A loud bang rang out even through the chaos of the streets as Grim shouldered the bent door of the pizza place back into place, probably with more force than was strictly necessary. In an almost perfect circle around her, as though a mockery of art, was a pile of those who were previously trying to wrench the same door out of place, very nearly succeeding in getting to the frightened people inside. The valves on the palm of the vigilante's left hand shut off with the threat not in her immediate vicinity, however with the door in place Grim whirled around, attempting to burn through her own goggles with the force of her glare to the young man. "[i]LANGUAGE![/i]" "SORRY!" The teen yelled, whilst delivering a leaping kick to another rioter. "I GOT CAUGHT UP IN THE MOMENT!" He said to his adoptive mother, whilst twisting around to deliver a punch to another rioter's solar plexus. "BUT IT WAS AWESOME, RIGHT?!" "You're going to be sorry if you do it again!" Grim snarled out, the voice modulator in her mask buzzing with a brief moment of static from her earlier yell. Without even looking the woman's hand shot up, catching a charging woman directly on the face with her left glove. The hiss of the valves opening started up once more, flooding the woman's face with concentrated anaesthesia. She dropped quickly. "It was a well executed move, though," The vigilante relented to her son, only to shake her head. Turning her gaze back to the people surrounding them she began up the street, lifting her glove and electricity buzzing on her knuckles before a pair of prongs shot out to hit one of the group of men approaching. "Now come, we need to move deeper to find the source of this." --- Harris turned towards the voice, smiling as he recognized the woman who flew down. Her name escaped him however, Lady Arthitis? Lady Arctic? Nah, those were both stupid, there was no way. He'd just have to rely on his charms in the absence of his memory. He pulled up a tree next to him and leaned against it, trying to seem like he didn't care. Wait, this is what guys did when they were flirting. His pupils turned to pinpricks as he attempted in a panic to think of what to do or say... in the end he just ended up standing unevenly and pointing finger-guns at her. "Hey... person!" Oh god he was going to die. He was going to die and he was going to turn into a tree. Lady Arcana tilted her head to the side when he grew a tree and started acting like he didn't see her. This was disturbing for several reasons. One, it felt like he was flirting with her, and she was really not into...whatever you would classify him as. Two, he was doing it like a cliche leatherjacket-wearing bad boy, but he absolutely couldn't pull that image off, for whatever reason. He also apparently forgot her name. Guess he didn't watch the news very often. "Heh, Lady [i]Arcana[/i], remember?" Folding her arms as she landed in front of him, she gave a second appraisal of his handiwork. "I'm glad you're here, though. I could use all the help I can get." "This is no normal riot," she explained, performing a vertical lean to match his, except on thin air. "Sam said there was magic at work, and now I can feel it too, sort of. Somebody [i]really[/i] knowledgeable in the arcane made this drug." Harris nodded as she re-ignited the memory of her name, Lady Arcana, he remembered it being a little pretentious, so that makes sense, and he recalled her being able to fly under her own power, so her leaning on thin air made sense too... kinda, not really. Apparently the riot was due to... magic? Okay, fine, but the magic being drug magic just made this sound like a bad cartoon plot, the type of cartoon that tells you to stay in school and not do drugs at the end of every episode. Still, he supposed, if he can exist as a giant bug man then magic is just as fine. "I see, Arcana, like magic, okay, got it now," he said with a tap to the side of his head. "But er... magic? Couldn't it just be guys pissed that their team lost a hockey game? That's how it is in Maine." "Wait who's Sam?" He asked, scanning the area to see if this "Sam" was nearby. Lady Arcana blinked at his last question, "Oh, that's my cat. She talks, and knows a lot more about the magical world than I do." "And well, I don't think the New York Rangers turn bystanders into rioters by forcing hockey pucks down their throats, or anything like that," she noted, looking at the still struggling rioters confined within Harris' vines. It seemed like they were going to keep trying to fight them until they figured out a way to cure them. Cupping her chin for a moment, she considered his ability to command nature. "Hey, aren't [i]your[/i] powers magic, too? Like, nature magic?" I mean, she definitely had never seen anything like Harris [i]before[/i] she became The Wizard. Harris stared blankly as she spoke. Her... cat? This had to be a joke, and if so, it was a pretty funny joke, in fact, Harris began to snort, covering his face with his hands as his shoulders shook violently with each snicker. Finally Harris let out one huge wheezing laugh, smiling at her as he continued chuckling "Good one! Really funny, hilarious even! It's so funny that you're not laughing and I don't think you're joking anymore." Harris' smile faded as he continued to look at Arcana's unchanging expression. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and avoided eye contact. "...Okay... Erm..." he coughed out. "Well, talking cat," he said, holding his hands out to his sides and then letting them drop against his thighs. "Talking... cat... and this cat... told you that these rioters were on... magic drugs?" he wondered with clasped hands. "As a giant talking bug man made of wood, that is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." He had begun to worry for this woman's sanity. But he ignored that and moved on. He had barely heard the rest of the conversation over the words "talking" and "cat", but from what he understood, she had inquired about his abilities. "Oh, my abilities... magic?" he asked her with a nervous smile. He had no clue himself, honestly. "Uh, sure? If that's what you want to believe, I have no idea honestly, all I know is that one day I was suddenly a plant creature, who knew?" "Well, actually, it wasn't [i]just[/i] my cat. It was [i]also[/i] my best friend who sometimes has erotic visions. She was the one who [i]originally[/i] told me everyone was on magic drugs," Arcana clarified. She then stared down at the ground for a moment, before slowly looking up at Harris. "I have a really weird life, don't I?" Then again... "Mysteriously waking up as a plant creature before being seduced by a drug-addicted traveling guitarist with mind control powers is pretty strange too." Harris nodded in response to the woman's query as to the strangeness of her life, and then nodded once more at her statement about the strangeness of his own. "Yeah, well, it's only getting stranger, considering I'm sharing my body with the amalgamation of all plant-life's rage," he dismissively waved his hand. "No biggy." If they were going to have a strangeness contest then he was going to fight to win, he had yet to discuss the cellphone and the fact that he was literally living in a tree. Whilst this was happening, another rioter approached the duo, running full-tilt towards Harris' back. He felt his feet treading on a few blades of grass sprouting from cracks in the concrete, and entrapped the man in vines without looking. "Perhaps we should look for others? Anyone not effected by the dru- er, [i]magic[/i] drug that we could help out, and maybe put some of those [b]goddamned fires out before I choke to death![/b]" Harris yelled, his voice suddenly shifting mid-word. Arcana quickly signalled her agreement with a nod, smiling when he effortlessly detained the rioter. She [i]really[/i] wanted to learn some magic too, so she could pull off neat tricks like that. But this wasn't the time to be worrying about stuff like that. "Honestly, we shouldn't be wasting time chatting like this," she admitted, scratching the back of her hood. "Your idea is sound, about putting out the fires, but even more important is figuring out how to return these people to normal. I don't think the riot will end until we do that." Not that she really had any idea [i]how[/i] she was going to pull such a thing off. She [i]had[/i] managed to obtain one of the pills, at least, but she would have to take it all the way back to Hub City to have Samantha look at it. Granted, she was fast enough to where that just might be a practical course of action, but-- "...Did you hear a bunch of swearing just now?" From a little kid, it sounded like. What a foulmouthed little punk. She liked him already! All the more reason to hurry up and make sure he didn't get turned. Harris agreed with her, finally moving away from the tree as she spoke, a hand placed thoughtfully on his chin. Then his head turned away from his hand as he heard the voice. He took two steps towards the voice as Arcana wondered aloud. "Yep, if they're saying anything it's more than we've gotten out of these guys," Harris said, crouching next to an entrapped rioter and giving him a hearty bop on the top of the head. "I say we head over there, kick some ass on the way... er, I mean, unless you'd rather we didn't," he stuttered out without confidence of any kind other than when it came to kicking posteriers. He began making his way over the the voice's location at a slow stroll, pulling a large stick from the ground and placing it on his shoulder, then dropping it when attempting to spin it in his hand. --- It was really more of a 'grey' area, breaking into a place that was already broken into. At least that's what Grim told herself, not that it mattered - she's [i]technically[/i] been a wanted person ever since she started vigilante work. Anyway, the point was this wasn't any more or any less illegal than her usual work, breaking into the ambulance that was turned over on its side. One of the paramedics was half out of the front seat, draped over the sideways roof of the cab and completely still. The other was the reason Grim was having so much trouble finding what she was looking for, considering his blood and brain matter was all over the equipment in the back. The place looked like a train wreck, which was comparable to what happened most likely. Ah, there's the responder bag. "A little longer, Blackstar - I found the bag," Grim called over her shoulder, digging through the equipment inside. Everything was knocked around between the ambulance's crash and the man back here no doubt desperately looking for something to defend himself with. He was probably a first responder, and now his family wouldn't even be able to have an open casket. She'd really like to find out who did this. "Here we go," Excellent, they had both syringe and nasal form. The vigilante pulled out the case of Naloxone, retrieving one of the nasal applicators as she carefully climbed back out of the ambulance, already talking to Blackstar. "We're going to need a conscious one for me to apply this. It's going to be tricky with so many around - you up for it?" "Up for it? I'm so up for it, it'd take a metric ton tied to my ankle to drag me back down." Blackstar replies, grinning underneath his mask. "I'll be back in a bit, ma!" With that, he raced outside, searching for a viable subject. "Well... There's a lot to choose from." Spotting one rioter that was lingering away from the majority of the crowd, Blackstar ran towards her, cartwheeling behind her, kicking the back of her knee so she would fall into a kneeling position, and grabbing her arms and pulling them back. He used one hand to keep her arms in place whilst using the other to pull out one of his zipties. Tying her arms together, he pushed her forward and back to the ambulance, arriving not long after. "Got one, Grim!" -- [u][b]March 25th 10:00 P.M. The Claw[/b][/u] The lamp emitted its soft gold rays atop the Elysium pill which sat in a small container elevated by two prongs. Overhead, the massive computer monitor relayed a digitized model of the human mind with various neurotransmitters lit up along the hypothalamus. There were succinct and sharp spikes in activity along small intervals. "Yes, yes, hormone increases, I know. Does not tell me anything." He swiped his finger along the screen so as to zoom and focus thus on the thalamus; he found a distinct lack of activity occurring here in particular. "Couldn't effect their attention, they were well awake and aware. Memory? No, the sensations are implanted in the addict's mind. Must be pain. Explains why when I broke the hobo's kneecap he didn't scream." He spun around in his favorite swivel chair as he talked to himself before he returned to view the readings on the screen. "Lack of transmission between pain synapses. Zombie like attitude; hallucinogen? Activity spikes too severe to be a simple hallucinogen, maybe it only appears to function like a hallucinogen, closest thing the brain has to forming visions. Why attack me, though? Cocaine, stimulant, doesn't make user aggressive; heroin makes them nod, still not aggressive. Users call it Elysium, but no street name." He ran a search of the term through his database. Nothing out of the ordinary. He began swirling around in his chair again as he began some simple deduction, "Drugs make desire for more, more drugs or more hallucinations depending on type. Hallucinations and magic, quite similar. Addict's brain on Elysium shows significant alteration in occipital lobe, unlike other drugs. Real change. A different reality--but too strong to be mere hallucination. Kitty, run etymology on names of recreational drugs." [i]Calculating. . .[/i] [i]Locating all known entries. . .[/i] [i]1029384038432 entries located. . .[/i] In rapid succession down his screen appeared the origins of the names of all known illegal drugs, "All nouns. Latin and Greek roots; all literal meanings in original languages, nouns--people, places, things. Kitty, run history of all people named Elysium." [i]Calculating[/i] [i]Locating all known entries. . .[/i] [i]None found[/i] "I figured. Who the hell names their kid Elysium? Things and places, then." Marvin lifted the bottom half of his cloth mask to sip from the steaming cup of hot cocoa sat atop the tray carried by his electronic butler, Bob. "Things and places. Elysium is a place then, drug name must just be an ode to the..." then it hit him, "ohhh! Right. Magic--gateway. Definitely gives a new meaning to gateway drug, heh!" He laughed at his own bad joke, Bob the electronic butler beeped bemused. "So it takes them to a [i]truly[/i] different world. Explains the hunger I saw in their eyes earlier; they wanted me to go with them. They wanted [i]all[/i] of us to go wherever this place is." Marvin pulled the white cloth mask over his face, and with the flip of a lever the floor beneath him opened up and he was dropped back to the lower levels of the Claw through an air-sealed tube and into the actual warehouse where his training facility was. With the Elysium pill pocketed, he paced back and forth. Through the window he could see the deep reds and light oranges from the fires rising from inside the empty project buildings across the street; firefighters had arrived to snuff the flames which could be seen from several blocks away, but to no avail--the rioters were soon to encircle the servicemen. "A magic dimension right on the edge of the natural world," Marvin spoke before shifting into a sprint and bursting through the warehouse's front door, "explains Arcana's appearance then. If she came from another world, how many of them are out there?" his speech was audible as he once again flipped into action quite literally, serving as the lone defense between a hoard of rioters and four frightened firefighters. By now, Marvin knew the drill, 10:00: Two rioters charged, Marvin cut them both down with a leg sweep. He sprung off his supporting hand and into a standing position where he delivered a heel-to-face axe kick upon the first rioter's face before he turned his boot inward and slammed the tip of the boot into the second rioter's jaw, careening his face sideways. Both slept well. 10:01: There were soon another four to take the other two's place. He grabbed one by the arm and twisted said arm to extend his ulnar bone and make the arm snap, the other he dealt two quick jabs to the face, the first hard enough to break his nasal bone, the second--an uppercut--hard enough to shatter his jaw and lay him flat out. He couldn't keep up at this pace for much longer, however and would soon need to evacuate. The Marcy project buildings continued to burn, fires high and bright. Marvin kept fighting beneath the blaze long enough for the firefighters to flee. -- "I'll fly up ahead and check it out," Lady Arcana called out to Harris over her shoulder, already drifting skyward. Weaving through the buildings - some of which now sported more than a few broken windows - and power lines, she couldn't help but feel a chill dart up her spine at the sight of all the abandoned cars littering the street below. She would [i]like[/i] to think that all of their passengers had fled to safety...but the more likely outcome was that they were dragged from their cars and force fed that pill. Harris watched her leave, his walk slowing and finally stopping as she flew away at speed. He watched her form grow smaller and smaller over the horizon before he lost her in the smoke. He looked around, up and down, trying to figure out how he could catch up, before resigning himself and running after her. She then saw an ambulance, and immediately felt even [i]worse[/i]. To think there were people out here who had been trying to help save people, only to be turned into bloodthirsty killers...she had to stop this, and [i]soon.[/i] "Wait.." There were people down there, still...some kid was dragging a bound woman towards the ambulance. Was that the swearing boy? If it was, then that was a positive sign, since the fiends didn't seem to speak, much less [i]shout.[/i] "Hey, kid!" Arcana called out to him, landing beside the ambulance. Doing her best adult impression, she placed her hands on her hips. "You've uh, got quite the mouth on you young man." He..looked kind of like a little Grim! At least she apparently wasn't the only kid hero...although as far as he knew, [i]he[/i] was. "Nice outfit. Are you helping to stop the riot?" Glancing to the woman he had bound as she silently struggled, Arcana could only presume so. --- It was just after Blackstar called out to Grim that some lady in a weird and colorful outfit flew down and landed nearby, scolding him for his language earlier. His face went blank, listening to her continue on whilst scanning both her and their surroundings for ways to take her down if she proved to be hostile. A moment of silence after she last spoke, then he bluntly asked: "Who the hell are you?" "You really don't know?" Arcana tilted her head slightly. "I'm Lady Arcana, the flying superwizard?" "... Ohhhh, right. You were the lady that helped my mom capture the Electrocutioner. She also said something about a fedora wearing trench coat guy. The Punctuation? The Clue? The Fact? Eh, I'll think of it." Arcana nodded at this, smiling. "Yupparoo! Err...Yes, of course. It was an honor working with your...mother?" Well, that was surprising. And it confirmed The Question's theory. Amazing, he [i]was[/i] really right about something! "Blackstar," The crack of a modulator cut through their conversation as Grim emerged from the back of the turned ambulance, turning her gaze upon her son. She wanted to berate him for not keeping to codenames, but after a moment just sighed. The damage was done. "Remember your manners. Lady Arcana, this is Blackstar. Blackstar, Lady Arcana. I'm not that surprised to see you here. Any leads on what's going on?" As she was speaking Grim was taking apart the packaging on the naloxone, readying the applicator. She gestured to the woman her son was holding. "Otherwise I'm about to see if an anti-opiod will work to calm them down." Her face brightened when she saw Grim, glad to know one of the heroes she had worked with before was here. Harris was nice and all, but she hadn't really considered him a "hero" until he had started detaining people back there. "All I know is that the pills they're on are magic in nature. There is the unmistakable presence of magic looking over this entire riot," Arcana explained, reaching down to remove a pill from the groove of her belt, handing it over to Grim. She glanced towards the bound woman, silently wondering if giving her the anti-opiod was a good idea. After all, how would it react to magic? Not that she had a better idea at the moment. "Magic?" That gave Grim pause, but she quickly moved to take the pill from Arcana. Examining it didn't lead to much clue, it just looked like an ordinary pill. "Hold this." She shoved the anti-opiod to Arcana before flipping open the compartment on her gauntlet, usually used for DNA swabs, and inserting the small pill. The small screen lit up, informing her of the contents and the fact that, yes, it definitely had magic in it. Interesting. "It's always magic," She muttered, shutting the compartment and keeping the pill firmly inside. Suddenly Grim raised her right gauntlet, two prongs shooting between Blackstar and Lady Arcana to light up an approaching woman holding a bloodied shovel. Magic or not, they still went down like an ordinary person, even if they didn't have the brains to not approach the three obvious threats. Disconnecting the prongs with a flick of her wrist she then took the nasal applicator back and turned to the bound woman. "I doubt this will do much then, but considering it's still a [i]drug[/i] it might work somewhat. Tilt her head back, Blackstar." "... Huh? Oh, right." Blackstar replied, having been examining some of the equipment inside of the ambulance. "Open wide, and make sure to swallow... That came out [i]really[/i] wrong." With that, he opened up the rioter's mouth. "I hope euphemisms aren't what you're learning at school," Was the muttered response from Grim as she focused on the task at hand. Her left glove grabbed the woman's chin to help ready her with Blackstar, the other pressing the applicator firmly to her nose. A quick depression of the plunger had the naloxone entering her system, Grim making sure the entire thing was emptied before tossing it to the side. Littering wasn't exactly a concern of hers right now. "Should work in a minute or two... if it works at all." A minute passed, and then two...with little change in the woman's behavior. She continued to struggle in vain against her bindings, never muttering a single word or even sound of protest. Arcana frowned at this, but wasn't really surprised. "Figured it couldn't be that simple. Maybe we could synthesize a cure?" She suggested, her gaze shifting over to Grim. She really didn't look much like a woman in all that armor she wore...she was kind of curious about what she looked like beneath it. Her face, she meant. Of course. "Hey!" Harris yelled as he approached at a swift jog. "Arcana! I caught up!" He approached the small group, panting and with hands on his knees. Usually he didn't get tired so easily, but with the smoke from fires blocking out the sun he began to feel just a little fatigued. He looked up and froze as his gaze met two others, both dressed in odd costumes. He stared at them, eyes wide, before coughing and offering a small wave. "Er... hello, don't mind me, I'm just... gonna hang out here for now," he said, stepping back and slouching his shoulders. Hurray, more people to tramatize with his existence. Currently, Grim was eternally grateful to her mask. Her lips had been parted to reply to Arcana only for the sound to die an ignoble death on her tongue as this new person landed. Creature? The goggles hid the way her eyes flicked to Arcana briefly, seeing as he had called out to her, but the other vigilante didn't seem bothered at all by their appearance. Slowly her mouth closed and her gaze returned to Harris, examining him. A giant... bug-tree... is that a tail? ... That's kind of cute, actually. Like the triangle-shaped tail of an overly fluffed kitten. "The pleasure's mine," Grim finally responded to Harris, well-bred manners emerging. She dipped her head to him in acknowledgement before finally shifting her gaze to Arcana. What was she saying? Right. "I could get a cure synthesized with enough time, but it doesn't solve the here and now. Even as we talk more people are in danger." Arcana smiled at Harris when he finally managed to jog his way over to them. She could've [i]sworn[/i] that he could fly, though. "You're right, Grim. I [i]could[/i] just fly around trying to knock out as many people as possible, but..." she trailed off, having a feeling such a simple solution probably wouldn't be the greatest idea. If they had a [i]cure[/i], though... "With a cure, I could probably just shove it down all their throats if I had to, but even so, I'd definitely miss some of them." -- In the heart of the Marcy projects, Tiger bodyslammed one of the rioters while delivering an arcing roundhouse across three jaws of three separate men. Soon enough, the hoard had near surrounded him again; the low-rises had too much open space, he would need to lead them into a place more confined. To his right there was a light pole; Tiger leapt and grabbed around the middle of the lampost before he vaulted to the top of it. He made sure he moved slow enough so the Elysium slaves could track him, but quick enough that he kept a good distance between himself and his attackers. As he leapt between buildings--fluid as any acrobat--he drew closer to the more populated area of the city where there were ambulances and broken restauraunt windows. To his surprise, there were also other people. . . dressed rather questionably--though none more or less questionable than himself. Except for the one who looked like a plant. He could either keep running and make his escape, or he could warn this quadruplet a set of one hundred or more hoarders was soon to come their way. [i]"With a cure, I could probably just shove it down all their throats if I had to, but even so, I'd definitely miss some of them,"[/i] Marvin heard Arcana's remark; his sense of hearing far more keen than the average human, and perhaps sharper than other metas. It was a recent development of his physiology, however, and he was just beginning to learn how to suppress it for when it was necessary. From a crouched position, he perched on the ledge of the restauraunt roof; he could hear the stampeding of the rioters he had escaped drawing nigh. It would only be a few minutes before they arrived, and so Marvin figured he had better inform them of what he found. A strange introduction it would be, but those who knew how to survive in the wild--urban or natural--knew that social customs meant little when one was being hunted. In a single leap, he unfurled his body and landed softly--and near silent--atop the roof of a car; a [i]strange [/i]defiance of physics for a man of his size. Marvin had approached the group with scathing quickness, "You don't know who I am, but that doesn't matter. We can introduce ourselves later. There is no cure for this. . . thing. And it is only a drug insofar as it placebos the same symptoms as a drug," he turned to Lady Arcana, the one he knew for sure had some connection to magic, "what this 'Elysium' is is an actual place, a magical dimension somewhere on the edge of our own reality. My guess? The only way we are going to cure these people is if we a) travel there and deal with the source of the problem b) find out what the tether of the magic is and disrupt it or c) draw whomever is behind this [i]out[/i] of whatever hole he/she is hiding in." His ears looked like they had 'perked' beneath the mask as the hoard of one hundred rioters were less than a block away, he shifted his entire attention to the group and spoke again, "There are also one hundred rioters who will be here in exactly 5..." "4" the sound of sneakers and boots dragging against concrete grew, "3" one could hear the chains and metal pipes dragging across the pavement, "2" someone had hurled a molotov cocktail overhead, it was about to land in between the five heroes where they stood, "1" they had arrived.[/center]