[color=orange][center][h1][i][b] Monday 13:32 Claremont College [/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]The Massive, Era Defining, Heavyweight Hero Fight[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [color=yellow][center][h2][i][b]Lightning Girl[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] Moving in a haze of static, the light grey-suited was on the scene to witness what was a robbery turned into a mental episode. Floating down, she noticed as the police kept a cordon and were moving. Lightning Girl nodded to the officer as she spoke and joined them in cover, a brick flying overhead that had been aimed at her, from afar. This was not expected, but hey, it was what she was paid to do, as she turned back to the officer in cover. "Where is he getting those bricks from? Right. Hold cordon and get ready to treat the civies. I'm going in." She nodded to the officer, with confidence. A couple of officers had been knocked out, and it seemed like Brick Frog was moving around, the entire dorm turning into a warzone. A robbery gone, very, very badly wrong. It was getting unruly. She charged past into one of the dorms at a side door, running inside, hearing sobbing inside one of them. "SDN, Lightning Girl here! I'll get you to safety! Follow on me, and I'll keep you safe!" She called out, as the door opened, and four college students who were cowering looked up, Sophie's aura and greyed eyes showing she wasn't someone else. She was Lightning Girl. Here to save the day. Maybe she hadn't been around the block much, but, SDN's socials, thanks to Hat Trick, had made sure her face was getting about. A part of her wondered if being this was perhaps too cheesy, too old school, too classic. But she loved it really. The suit, the aura, and well, in a moment like this, putting herself to the best use she could. Lightning was such a villain power. But she put it to positives. She didn't take them by the hand (for obvious reasons), but knocked on each of the doors, and with it, found a small gaggle of people. Lightning Girl led them through a corridor, going in front, as there he suddenly was, outside again, smashing a window in a kitchen. Brick Frog. The man in a frog costume with a massive bag full of bricks. And one in his hand. "Drop the brick, Brick Frog!" Lightning Girl called, as Brick Frog yelled back. "No." She sighed a lot. Fucking hell. Why did they not get it when a real hero turned up they'd rethink it? She let the power flow, and her hands seemed to sizzle, all that built up potency now unleashing it, her eyes turning grey. Lightning Girl ushered the civies behind her, yelling a simple "Go!" to them, as she built up power in her hands, looking him dead in the eye, closing the distance. She was taller than him, and the aura was intimidating. "Last chance. Drop it. Come on, you can go quietly...." She didn't have superhuman reactions, they were just enhanced when she had about a Tesla's worth of power inside of her, but Brick Frog decided to test them anyway, as those last words left her. Like he wanted her to shut up. The brick was aimed dead at her face, and at close range, hard to miss. Better her than them. But she could at least shock it before it hit her. She recoiled as the brick didn't disintegrate fully, but seemed to turn into a cloud of red dust, the scowl on her face growing as the brick turned to red powder and ruined her immaculately white and grey visage, the remainder of the bolt dissipating the brick bouncing off his rubbery-textile Frog-self. With little effect other than knockback. Her step forward past the cloud of red and ozone, hands visibly still shaking with electricity, her pride turned to a scowl. A hero scorned. And not all for show. "Or you can go painfully. I did warn you...." Lightning Girl put hand up, and picked her shot. She didn't aim at his body anymore, the rubbery suit needing far too much power to smack open from her earlier bolt. So instead, she just went for the face that stuck out of the costume. Turned down the power. But didn't forget she was gonna need to wash her hair out fully after this and she ruined a perfectly cleaned suit. And boy, did it work. --- A short while later, Lightning Girl had him in yellow zip ties that she carried in her hip bag, letting the police officer take. She had to brush the crushed up brick out of her hair and face, but not entirely from her suit, the big bolt of red across the side of Brick Frog's face illustrating where she'd tazed him, and then proceeded to smack him hard in the body with a lot more voltage than she would have liked, to overcome the icky rubber, punching him into the floor and dragging him into zip ties. She had to contain the situation. It was brutal, but there were civilians on the line. And her first properly successful dispatch since....the event, well, was a pleasant one to have. The officers eyed him up and down, then Lightning Girl. "He's yours. I think he's learned his lesson. Haven't you?" She turned to his face, as he muttered, sighing, the police taking it from there, as she wasn't sure how the fuck this much property damage would be dealt with. Probably by the university itself, it would be a civil matter, as the civies behind the cordon cheered, Lightning Girl giving a smile. A few of them were headed to hospital for some checks, cuts, bruises, the police that dropped also getting a check up. This is why she did it. The feeling of doing good was unbeatable as she waved to them, and the dusty, white-haired heroine was done with her work here. As beautifully as she could be. Sophie floated up onto a lamp-post, peeling a bit of power from it, knowing the job was all done and dusted, and her levels were feeling a little drained. She could hear them talk about giving him a misdemeanour charge. Probably for the best. Kid needed some mental help, not getting fuego'd in prison for being a Frog. Even though for assault, he really should have been, this was barely an adult. "Brick Frog is in custody. Civies are safe. Ready to go again, James. Where to?" She uttered into her comms, as she then lept off the post, and caught flight, cape fluttering in the wind against cordura, back to the offices. [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Dispatch Response[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [color=skyblue][center][h2][i][b]James Speight[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] In the office, the green ticks from successful jobs were coming back positive. [b]"Good stuff, Lightning Girl. Standby. I'm sure Brick Frog's terrifying supervillain presence will be no longer a threat." [/b]James kept the response simple to his sister, his eyes wide open that Eclipse had done exceptionally well at the school. He even had an email hit his phone, redirected from Gayatri's management of the SDN Claremont mailbox. [b]"Wow, well done, Eclipse. I know that wasn't your strength, but you smashed it anyway. They've already sent me an email about how happy they were with you. Good work."[/b] James gave the shadowy Phoenix Programme member a bit of a lift, the optimism. Even if he'd been called an idiot. But who the fuck else did he have? They were a subscriber, and well, with the others scaled up according to his spreadsheet, he....ah, yeah he fucked that up. Oh well. That was just a 40yd strike without a goalkeeper in the net then. Or some football analogy that the Americans wouldn't get. Basically, a fluke executed perfectly. [b]"Nice work, Princess. Though.....you telling me those geeks faked a call? I mean, I'll make a note of it. Oh well. That's a win, hope they feel they got what they paid for."[/b] James shrugged, not quite sure why a chess club had asked for SDN to come out, but if they were paying, they got service. And, it sounded like Princess had settled some disputes successfully. The other call seemed oddly the same. [b]"Nicely done, Asteroid, though.....Christ, we're having an anti-drugs talk. I get it, it's Cali, you frankly inhale the stuff walking in the street, but I can't have you stoned and picking up boulders. Still, good work. The City Council will take it from here and decide if they should stay. Probably will."[/b] James chuckled, knowing he had to put criticism in there but sandwiched it with a laugh, generally happy the job was resolved. And another big green tick. AMOCA's theft had been stopped too. [b]"Well done, Payback. That was a serious cultural asset you saved there. See, takes an ex-thief to know how to stop thieves. Don't get any ideas about their security system though..."[/b] James gave some encouragement, knowing that he wouldn't react to wordy speeches, but a little bit of a pick up. Cynical as he was, he wasn't afraid of praise. Especially for Phoenix Programme, who no doubt, were already close to being cut and needed something to keep them aloft. Even Hat Trick was on a roll. A PR hero that shouted more about himself than maybe the team, but, he was still out there and kicking ass. Rounding up the geese and returning them safely was certainly akin to foiling a robbery, given the threat a singular Canadian Goose could present. The ice-hockey adjacent hero was near perfect, perhaps more so than say, Eclipse had been earlier. But you took your wins and losses. [b]"Nice work, Hat Trick. Clean yourself up, and take a few minutes to round up some socials where you can. Those geese are evil, so I'm sure that's not the last we've seen of them." [/b]James replied back to the Canadian, glad civilians and people were saved from the scourge of the Canadian Geese. Then, the comms exploded with noise. And James for a moment just exhaled, one, continuous breath. He wasn't angry. He wasn't disappointed. He just.....questioned reality now. His hand shook on the mouse. He wanted to throw his headphones into a wall. But realised that a replacement set would be stupidly hard to find for this antique, fucking bullshit, crappy machine that seemed to manage one insanely dense, donut of a fucking person..... Was Madcap just high too? He normally didn't swear on the phone, this was a recorded call, after all. But to kill the comms, he hit the override, as he switched to a subscriber camera, seeing an elderly lady in a glass shaped hole like something from Tom and Jerry, struggling to move, EMT already on the way. And just inhaled as he replied. [b]"Madcap, what the fu....."[/b] [hr] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Until Breaktime[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [b]Soundtrack: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xODK_OwxpHM]The Who- Eminence Front[/url] [/b] The rest of the early afternoon shift went a little more tame than the first job the team had all been sent out. The sun slowly ported its way across the sky, the big orange scattering into a haze on the horizon, the sunset beginning to come in. James looked out through the window, the office getting emptied out, as people left, rather than came in. James kept the music on in his right earbud, his headset draped across his left, with an option to kill his phone's music on moment's notice. Not that he had to often, so, it played out to their second third of their shift. A small montage then. From social media, cameras, and the team getting into work. This was SDN Claremont in action, working their day away. Heroes in the mix. Doing what heroes did. The unglamorous bit not really anyone wanted to remember. More talking to police. Witness statements. Paperwork. Filling in witness forms. Helping police, security, other people to do their jobs. But with a bit of SDN magic on top. Cleaning, tidying up the mess at crime scenes that were too heavy or too messy to sort. In the office, James was throwing another two packets of Fisherman's Friend into Riley's bin, and chewing down more. Getting a cup of tea from Lightning Girl, between her deployment as she whizzed out of the balcony again, and sipping it down, a calm ahhh..... And back to the heroes. From helping police on patrol and shadowing them, community liaison work where heroes would meet the public and do some marketing for SDN, to stints in the office doing timesheets, requesting holiday, and general admin work. Smaller jobs, here and there, simple, easy and passed back to the police who paid SDN a pretty penny every time a hero had gone out. Lightning Girl had even gone and helped the local distribution grid poke a really high voltage cable back into place, which was a one minute job, in exchange for lots of free electrical juice. Then, the team had a mandatory session with James at 4pm. That was mostly forgettable. For some reason, mostly aimed at "Drugs in the Workplace". That there was random drugs testing. It was what James called a "Toolbox Talk", not really a proper training, but a reminder of some policies. Particularly, for two members of the team (and perhaps for a third for fucking it up so hard), but it felt like they were all there despite it not being targeted. They probably hated it. But Riley had done the same, just James had to put it in his report at the end, with his big stack of papers he stamped, signed and filled in for each dispatch. They may have hated it, but then again, James didn't hide that he was just doing his job, something he enforced dispatchers on himself. "So, in short, while California has a policy that there are multiple strikes, I need to remind you all, don't do drugs at work." James seemed almost exasperated. He wondered if Madcap was high right now. That would explain a lot. How in the actual fuck did you throw an old lady through a window and call that a success? Shit, if they weren't so in demand right now, he would have suspended him there and then, but that wasn't his call. Even Kat had thrown her cup at the wall of her glass office. "Any questions?" James asked, as Lightning Girl put her hand up, a shit-eating, soul destroying grin on her face. "If you really, really needed to take drugs to keep your powers, as per your contract with SDN, wouldn't that be a breach of contract because you'd be out of work here? Like you are, addicted to Fisherman's Friends." Sophie didn't glance at Eclipse, not really needing to, as she then giggled with a grin. James sighed, leaning against the table. Her sister, as usual, was deciding to be a bitch. What had he done to earn this? "It depends. The policy has more details. And you all need a break." James answered, with a long, beleaguered sigh, looking at everyone. If he could kick the shit out of Madcap, he would right now. But the others, they were doing well. And he didn't hide his respect they were stepping up, even now. [hr] [color=orange][center][h1][i][b] Monday 17:04 Break Room Claremont SDN [/b][/i][/h1][/center][/color] [color=gold][center][h2][i][b]Going Long[/b][/i][/h2][/center][/color] [img]https://i0.wp.com/intoindiegames.com/wp-content/uploads/IIG-Dispatch-ep2-1-00004.jpg?fit=2560%2C1366&ssl=1[/img] The break room was full of heroes of the new afternoon shift, and given the new additions, it made the place feel crowded, but in a way that James, who had popped in and gone back to his desk to keep working to file paperwork, appreciated. Most people were finishing and leaving the office though. From Gayita to Matthieu, they all waved and said goodbye, the eight armed Office Manager bringing in a massive box of jelly donuts that James had requested they get to keep spirits high. They were all working late, and James and a couple of other dispatchers getting the Night Shift ready, were all that were left. Lightning Girl, had also brought a packet of Rich Tea biscuits in as well. They were plain, so significantly less attractive than the donut box, as everyone grabbed at least one. At this point, the team had worked together very little, but the white/grey haired heroine that was Lightning Girl was now so full of juice she seemed to have more than the morning stint. She wasn't even the loudest anymore, no doubt Eclipse and Payback wanted to absolutely put Madcap on mute, but, she still remained ever friendly. She had brought a bag of Cheetos from her last dispatch while between jobs, taking the notion it was probably best to leave it with Eclipse after their long chat. Before say, Payback stole it, probably best to give it direct.. [b]"Crisps for you. Don't inhale them all at once....sounds like you did a nice job at that school, inspired a lot of kids. If you ask me, sounds like something a hero would do."[/b] Lightning Girl noted and posted him with a smile, the carbon fibre black-masked heroine adjusting her straps a little, the cowl covering her nose to her forehead, as she took the bag of Cheetos from her hip bag and left it on his table. [b]"And you did okay too! I reckon in your heyday you'd have been so much better at stealing ceramics than those losers were. Right?"[/b] She smiled at Payback with a little sarcasm, who was quiet as hell over the comms, Myla's casual look very different to the suited and booted appearance of much of the team. Sophie then realised, she was using understatement in a British tone. "Okay" could mean like six different things in England. It meant very specifically one here. She guessed. She worried. [b]"Sorry, I forget I'm so English sometimes! Like you did good. Sorry, that's what I meant!"[/b] She clarified it. Hopefully that wasn't sarcastic. It came across as a little bit more afraid from the person that was normally, a bastion of glow. Sophie inside was still trying to manage that. Lightning Girl kept going in the kitchen after wrapping that up, turning on the kettle, water boiling in the tank as she drew out a mug, coming across Princess, Asteroid and Hat Trick. The beautiful, after her origins, Princess that shapeshifted, the gravity-altering, black costume having Asteroid, and the indigenous, hockey armoured up Hat Trick were all rather different, but among them, Sophie seemed still the most traditionally planted of a hero, even if those three were on a broad spectrum from eldritch terror to PR glow. [b]"Hey, I don't think we've met properly in person. I'm Lightning Girl. Princess, I think someone said to me you're really good at shapeshifting? And you do gravity stuff Asteroid, and Hat Trick you're.....just Captain Canada? Shit, even geese scare me. I think I'd make a much bigger mess than just feathers, so well done."[/b] Lightning Girl might not have majored in charisma, she was mostly a face for show, after all, but she was absolutely a a beam of good. It felt genuine with her, even when the sarcasm dripped in, as she smiled. She would offer a hand, but, thought better of it given lots of electricity in her. [b]"Good to meet you all. You all finding the team okay? Like I said to the others before you arrived, you deal with James's.....way of stuff better with time. He used to dispatch me a long, long time ago. Kinda shocked he's looking after us now."[/b] She didn't reveal she was his sister. They might have put it together, but their hair being so different, and so on, made it feel a little like they weren't the same. He wasn't powered, and was in a different line of work, so with so many British people in LA ([s]including Prince Harry, of whom James had already received about four references to, and immediately decided not to chat to those people again[/s]), it felt like a small coincidence. She poured out the hot water and left some for others to make coffee with, pouring it into her usual mug, which had a massive blue bolt across it, a gift from her mum. Sipping it down, Sophie was not sure what to make of the day so far, especially with the fact she lost out on going to the ball later that she wanted to go to, but, a job was a job. And she had to bite her teeth. Maybe if she asked one of them nicely, they could cover for her and she could go? She wasn't sure. She'd have to earn that, but for now, she played it back in her mind what she could do to get that option at all. And then there was Madcap. Who, with a bug mask, and his powers of invulnerability, had thrown an old lady across the road. She hoped he would realise maybe that wasn't exactly the best way to introduce himself into the A-Team. Holy shit, it was so bad, it actually took heat off her for shocking two heroes. Like, his fuck up had managed to make even her own look pale. [b]"Fucking bullshit we have to stay. But crime never sleeps and all that...."[/b]