Alternax

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Lights flashed all around David, turning into a stream of bright colors enveloping around him, forming a tunnel that seemed to stretch out into infinity. Down either side all he could see were those colors, stretching out forever, with no door or light at the end like he would have expected from a movie. He started to wander down one end, but stopped as what appeared to be pictures started to swim down the ‘walls’ and ‘ceiling’.

As they came closer they started moving, or rather, he could start to make out movement; each one was different, with many of them showing people and places he couldn’t recognize. David moved to touch one, and it expanded, creating a whole new reality around him. The rainbow tunnel from moments ago gave way to a scene in a forest.

Hundreds of odd looking trees had fallen around him, the forest stretched out further, but all around him were crumbled branches and trees snapped at various points. At the center there were two figures, it was a man wearing some kind of animal skin over his body, and another that seemed like…

“Me?” David said aloud, and then shook his head.

“No, it can’t be…”

He wished that the Earth, the one responsible for these odd dreams, and his powers, would bother explaining things at some point. But his attention snapped back to the fight in front as the animal man brandished some kind of axe, and the other Terra threw an arm to his side; a long beam of light extended outwards, shifting itself into a blade of its own, connected to the other Terra at the hand.

Just as David found himself interested, a new scene washed away the one in front of him. The vast forest from before gave way to a barren field of snow, with nothing in sight but distant glaciers and the sun. A bright light suddenly appeared in the sky, shooting downwards in an explosion of energy, blowing at the snow and ice, so much so that it threatened to bury him. He turned and broke out into a sprint, but never stood a chance, the giant wave of snow and ice overshadowed him by miles, quickly crashing down around him.

-----

Location: Lost Haven, Candlelight Trails Suburb
Time: 3:00am

A pitch black world embraced him, he started to feel himself panic, his breath quickened, and sweat coated his body. Then his eyes adjusted, his fear and confusion evaporated as he slowly came to his senses; he was back in his bedroom.

Just a nightmare huh?

Although the dream had left him, in its place was a persistent nagging feeling, a subtle, anxious feeling, telling him to walk a certain direction; it wanted him to go far away from Lost Haven, somewhere to the North. After taking a moment to gather his breath he moved to leave the bed, taking care to gently move the blanket off, but it was pointless.

_“David?” A voice beside him asked, it was a little hoarse and tired sounding, and for good reason. Looking towards the clock on the nightstand it was obvious.

3:00 am

“Where are you going?” He looked to face Cecily, her hair was a mess and most of it covered her face, she only moved the bare minimum out of the way to talk to him.

“Just going to walk around.” David mumbled back, he really wasn’t sure what kind of lie he could or should tell at this hour, and he was too tired to put effort into it. A quick fly to the North Pole and back should be no problem for Terra Firma. Cecilia looked like she was going to stop him, but David waved her off.

“Nightmare, I’ll just walk it off.” He whispered, and it seems it was enough. Either that or she was too tired to pursue it too. David thought of other excuses for a few moments, he knew this wouldn’t hold up later, but he had to shelf that for now.

He quietly closed the door to the bedroom as he left, and gently peaked into Madison’s room to check on her. Her bed was a mess, the blanket had nearly fallen off, and she had managed to spin herself almost 180 degrees, David took a moment to at least put her blanket back on properly before leaving.

-----

Before David left he thought it would be quick, but he had never traveled intercontinental like this, so he felt it was taking a little too long, and then remembered his control over Earth. It moves like an extension of his limbs, from giant fists and whips to, well, bigger fists. It also occurred to him that he wasn’t very creative, but his constructs always moved a different speed compared to him, sometimes faster, sometimes slower.

So he hovered closer to the ground, and drew up stone from several dozen feet below the ground on the side of a road. He maneuvered his hands, forming curves and cutting at angles, giving shape to what he thought he wanted. David knew the trip to the North was no stroll, as he had found for himself, so he felt he’d need something thick, maybe even a little aerodynamic, and so he had decided to fashion a sort of ‘homemade’ surfboard.

Instead of ‘willing’ himself into the air, he used his power over the Earth to move his ‘board’, carrying his body with it. Together they rose up and down occasionally, he almost fell off several times before he decided to just connect the board to his feet with a sort of crudely made clamp, with this David had managed to master it, or at least feign mastery, and flew off.

-----

The frozen wind blew at him furiously as he flew against it, despite the fact that it was cold it didn’t bother him like normal, and he was grateful to that as he got the feeling he’d be here for a while; making a liar out of him once more. He briefly thought of going back to the house to say goodbye, or leave a proper note, but that thought banished itself as quickly as it came. A research boat holding position a few dozen feet away from the nearest icecap waved him down, and he obliged.

“I remember you from the news, you’re one of those heroes that stopped the Hounds!” The man shouted as he gestured to a TV on the side of the boat.

David nodded in response, and the man continued.

“Well I don’t know how you knew about this, it only happened just moments ago, but that giant thing came out of the sky, and then we were told to back off by the military. Their jets showed up and then this guy came out and completely destroyed them!”

David looked to his side, he could definitely see what the man was talking about, like as if someone decided to make Mt. Everest into a factory, and crashed it right into the ice. It was way too big to be human, but there was no way it could be alien, those didn’t exist.

“I’m going to have a look, you guys should back further off.”

The man nodded and ran back into the boat cabin, and then David rose higher into the air, flying closer to that machine. The remains of the destroyed jets littered the outside of the structure.

Am I really qualified for this?.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

@Liseran Thistle
That's mean to oscar winners
I'm glad you had a great time, and happy birthday!

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Time: After Hounds Encounter

With his business with the Hounds finally concluded David quickly rushed back to the airport, eager to check on his family and wrap them in his embrace again. During the fight at the airport he had done his best to keep them safe, and shut down the Hounds as quickly as possible; but during the last stretch something had gone terribly wrong, and that had been on his mind this entire time.

The police were keeping everyone there for a little longer, taking statements, and sorting out the injured, which meant that the building was just as crowded as it was earlier; which meant that nobody was really around to watch the stairs to roof access.

After several painful minutes David found his way back to the main terminal building where he had erected his stone dome with the intent to protect the civilians, and most importantly, his family. Most of it still stood, most of the people inside were excavated, and a large amount had been carefully torn down from the looks of things.

Various rescue personnel were working with a few of the heroes from earlier in order to tear down his construct piece by piece, it looked like it was slow work seeing as how this wasn’t something they usually did, and David had originally made the walls thick. He apologized silently.

-----

David moved swiftly through the crowd, bumping more than a few shoulders on accident while scanning over everyone’s faces as quick as he could, but as it turns out he didn’t need to bother as they found him first. A voice called out to him across the room.

“David!”

He quickly turned his head around to see Cecily waving to him, along with Madison right next to her. Seeing the both of them together lifted a heavy weight off his heart, and he pushed his way through the crowd towards them. The three of them gripped each other tightly, and simply held each other for a long while.

“Where the hell did you go?” Cecilia shouted in his ear, still refusing to let go.

“We got separated from you, then we got trapped!” Madison sobbed into his side, her voice was shaking, it hurt him to see them like this, and it pained him even more to hear that last part.

“It was dark, and then part of it fell down!” She continued to bawl, he couldn't blame either of them, this was something neither of them should have experienced.

David softly put his hands behind the both of their heads and drew them closer.

“I’m sorry I got separated, but I’m here now, we’re all here.” He said as gently as he could, his own voice started to tremble as well. David looked past Cecily’s head to see that stone barrier he had made for everyone, even with the tears in his eyes he could still see it, the part of it that had fallen first. Somehow the part that hid Madison had crumbled, letting her and those with her witness the fight; the part that had exposed her to potential stray bullets and shrapnel.

Why had it fallen?

Usually they never gave up that fast; either he or someone else had to tear them down. But this was a question for another day, for now he left things as they were. His family was alive.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

&

Location: At the HoH base
Time: Attacking the second Base.

---

Moments before the lockdown had been lifted, Fletch listened to Roadblock as he talked about the information sharing on the Penose. ”That sounds reasonable enough,” she replied. ”Certainly will let you know, just the method on how will be a thing we’ll need to figure out.” That was the thing, how were they going to contact each other in regards to the Penose? While the wording he had used suggested that he had a vague idea on who she was outside of the archer, but it was too vague to figure out if he had. Especially after she had been thrown against a wall.

”Well if you don’t feel like using nine-one-one, you could always drop by precinct 13 and ask for Roadblock. My name might be a secret, but I work with the rest of the LHSCD and that’s where we work out of for now.”

When the policeman said that the computer programme in the suit was nothing more than a glorified Google search engine, she was left feeling like he was trying to hide something. She thought about asking, but decided against it. Besides, there might be a reason to it, she thought. When Roadblock commented on how to contact him, she nodded. But before she had a chance to respond to the policeman himself, the archer had heard the click of the mouse. She guessed that the programme had gotten through into the system and had stopped the lockdown as soon as the lights returned to normal. Her eyes took a hit from the change in colour, making her head hurt, but it only took a moment for them to readjust when the security door to the control room had moved up. And it readjusted in time to see Nemesis begin her comical tumble onto her ass. Fletch chuckled to hear the loud grunt from her, causing her sides to hurt from the pain of the monster grabbing her. Reflexively, her left hand reached up from its resting position and pressed onto the gouges, still holding onto her bow. Then, with a cheeky look in her eye, she looked at her falled friend.

”Guess I won’t be the only one who’d make an ass of themselves today, eh?”

”Nice landing.”

Steading himself as he stood Hound Dog seemed to be fine at first but blood began dripping from his injury earlier and he hadn't yet noticed as he casually strolled up. ”Who the hell installs a laser defense system. Those just never work in movies. Kinda surprised none of the hounds got killed by their own security system. Anyway how's the hacking going Crash and Burn?”

“Oh shut the fuck up,” Racheli barked as she lifted onto her feet again.

“Lets see you avoid a batch of lasers eager to slice you into pieces and then open a door, only to have it abruptly open on you. See if you keep your balance well,” she pointed out, summarizing her experience as she dusted herself off.

“What the hell took you so long?”

”The Hounds look like they’re trying to be literal. There’s something else in here with us, and it wanted more than a few friendly pats.” Despite being a civil servant he wasn’t above a little sarchasm.

When Hound Dog walked into the room, commenting on the lasers they faced, Kayla noticed the wound on his shoulder bleeding. ”Yeah, they usually don’t,” she replied. ”Not from the movies I’ve seen anyway. The one thing they seem to be good at doing is reopening wounds that were stitched up. Much like your earlier injury to your shoulder.” While there was a simple solution to it, there wasn’t much she could do personally as she gave her first aid kit to Voyager to treat the wound as they were fighting the Hounds in Sherman Square. ”When this is over, I’ll go about tending to that shoulder to stop it bleeding until it gets checked by someone more qualified than me.”

Looking down at his jacket he simply sighed. ”Dang. I'll just take a seat for a while if I find a chair not covered in blood.”

Fletch chuckled as Nemesis swore at them for making fun of the fall she had to take, turning her gaze towards her fallen friend. Though there was amusement to be had, her eyes grimaced from the pain at her sides. Much like Hound Dog, the metahuman talked about the laser system. ”To be honest with you, I’d rather deal with the lasers than that thing that triggered the lockdown in the first place.”

As Roadblock spoke about what had attacked them. ”Well, if you count it being pissed off with them in the first place and becoming a murderous rage monster.” She lifted her left hand from the wound on her side, indicating the bloodied hand and handle of the blow. ”It’s things like this that I wished that I wasn’t as… vulnerable… in comparison to you guys. But we’ve managed to get into the system and lift the lockdown. Hopefully, we’ll find what we’re looking for and get the hell out before it comes back.”

”Before we talk about that again, why are you doing this, especially since you seem a little more than vulnerable?” He gestured to her bow with a slight nudge from his head. Both Nemesis and that Dog guy had decent sounding powers, they seemed to handle themselves well all things considered, even Fletch from what Artemis had shown him.

But there was a critical difference, that bow. Fletch somehow managed to fight off the Hounds well enough, but could she really carry on like this. Why did she want to be a hero, that might be too personal, but he had to ask, especially since she always seemed to be at such a disadvantage.

As Fletch was left to answer Roadblock’s question, Rach decided to take matters into her own hands. They needed strips of cloth to stop the bleeding and possibly something to sterilize the wounds. She moved into the small office. Rach abruptly stopping right at the corpse as she leaned down, her hand reached for the sleeve. With a sharp tug, the cloth ripped loudly off in one movement. She repeated the action with the other sleeve while the two talked.

As Fletch finished speaking to the group, Roadblock had asked her one simple question. It was simple, yet a defining one that took her back in it being asked. Why I am doing this? she thought. In that one moment, the key moments that had spurred her into becoming Fletch come to mind. The first, which isn’t too much of a surprise, was the night that Jason died. Learning that the people who killed him were now coming after her is pretty much her driving force. But for her to become a vigilante? It was the night when they blew the bus up, almost killing Mark and leaving her friend Mia traumatized as a result. She hadn’t forgotten that feeling, the sight of her childhood friend being in that same position she had been in all those years ago. And with the man that had caused it being close by when it happened, she vowed to get answers. She placed her left hand back onto the wound on her side, eyes looking down at the console. Her eyes gave a sense of melancholy as she gave her response.

”A lot of people close to me got hurt. And when they did get hurt, I had been helpless to stop them getting hurt.” Her right hand, hanging down along her side, clenched into a fist. ”There was nothing that I could do that could stop them from feeling hurt. And when I saw the face that had caused it, right there in the moment of me feeling helpless, I thought enough is enough. No more would those I care about be hurt again. Those that would hurt them will face the justice they deserve. And if anyone along the way was getting hurt, they’ll face that justice.” Her eyes looked up from the console and turned towards Roadblock. Unlike a moment ago, there seemed to be a relentless fire burning within them. ”If that means that I’ll have to drag my broken body to achieve that, then so be it. Does that answer your question?”

Those eyes...

”Revenge, and justice, I understand. It seems we’re doing this for the same reason,” Richard replied solemnly. He didn’t know why she chose a bow of all things but that didn’t matter, that passion in her eyes reminded her of him. It was for that reason he understood and sympathized with her so easily.

”Can you keep up like that?” Richard gestured to her hand from earlier, he didn’t have a medkit on him, so unless one of the metas had some kind of healing power, it looked like she might not be able to fight.

“Are you done nagging her?” Rach asked as she stepped in between the two.

”She's a sunny one.”

There was several strips in her hands now, her mind paused long enough to divide them evenly then pass the second batch to Hound Dog.

“Have him help you use those to patch yourself up. If you need longer ones, we’re going to have to tear off the corpse’s pants and see if they work,” Her voice was neither amused or joking.

She then added, “You two might want to attend to your wounds outside.”

”Well if the lady says so. How badly are you hurt Fletch? Any pain?”

”Yeah, I’m in a bit of pain. Concussion, probably a couple of broken ribs and at least 4 gouges from where the wolf-like monster grabbed a hold of me and then threw me against a wall. And just a heads up, it has a caustic blood that hurt my hand a little, though I can still use it to use my bow. I’ll leave the punching to someone else.”

As she mentioned the gouges, Fletch lifted her hand up once more to show the claw marks on the left side of her rib cage before returning it back to her side.

Racheli frowned then glared at the two. Her expression screamed for them to move it or she would do it for them.

”I’m hoping you’re more gentle than you let on, if you feel like playing nurse you’re going to have to be careful, especially with injuries like those, and try not to use any contaminated pieces of cloth.” Richard said; although he tried to give advice earnestly, if Fletch really had the level of injuries they suspected she definitely wouldn’t be able to do anything here and now, the least she could do was be gentle, but it didn’t seem like that was in her personality. He pitied Fletch.

He gestured for Hound to leave with him before unplugging himself from the computer and tossing a quick look at Rach and Fletch.

”Knock when you think you’re done, I’ve got something to tell everyone.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rach said, seeming uncaring about his advice.

Rach eyed them through the door as she paused, shifting to ensure it was closed completely. To be honest, she suspected neither had been laid with for a good part of a week and would gawk at a partly naked woman in their midst. She didn’t want to deal with the distraction. After she find satisfaction with the door’s seal, she turned back to Fletch then spoke.

“Well, pull off your shirt so I can look at the damage. You mentioned four gashes and bruising near the ribs. I want to make sure that’s all the damage done. Or do you need help?”

Her arms crossed her chest as she waited for an answer.

As the bandages were handed out, Fletch feared that both hers and Hound Dog’s wounds were being treated in the same room. But she didn’t hide the sigh of relief as both the men walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. As Nemesis checked to see if the door was closed properly, the archer placed her bow on the console so it was ready at hand in case the wolf monster came back.

”Four gashes from what I know and there will be bruising. Not 100% sure if there’s any broken ribs, but that can be checked by a doctor at a later point.”

With both hands free to help both the customized jacket for her archery and her top, she began zipping the jacket down and took it off. While the pain in her ribs nagged at her, it hadn’t been much a problem. When it came to the shirt underneath, it became clear that the ribs would be a problem. Nevertheless, she managed to get the top off. The falcon tattoo on her shoulders and the scar going through her left shoulder and the upper part on the left side of her chest. The four gashes on her left side ran for about 2-3 inches along the lines of her ribcage.

Racheli edged closer. About five makeshift bandages were still dangling in her hand, thin and slightly shorter than she would’ve originally liked. As she looked over the damaged areas, her lips curled into a tighter frown.

“He got you pretty good,” She stated, then asked, “Tell me you at least got a chunk of him too?”

Already her eyes were examining the first cloth for any blood. There wasn’t any. Relieved it wasn’t going to cause infection, Rach then sat down behind Fletch. With surprising gentleness, the cloth was applied and fixed in place. The ends were tied to other strips, making the bandage slightly longer. Easily they wrapped about the wounds about three times before she knotted it off.

“There doesn’t look like anything is in them, but if you feel feverish then tell me quickly. We’ll find some painkillers or something,” Rach’s tone had taken on a softer version, through it still held a hint of attitude within it.

”Yeah, though I think I did piss it off by jabbing one of my arrows in its back,” Fletch replied. While her cowl was still on her face, it shifted to show the smirk underneath. ”And that was after I nailed it with a shot from the bow.”

As the bandage was about to be applied, Kayla braced herself to feeling a bit of pain from when the wraps go around her chest. But as the wraps were being built up, she had been surprised with the notion that Nemesis was applying the bandages gently, though firm enough to keep the pressure on the gashes on her side. As there wasn’t too much of a sharp pain in her ribs, her earlier assumption of broken ribs was put to rest. Looks like there’s just a lot of bruising in the area. With the wound now covered up, she checked to see how viable the bandages were with the use of her bow. Just by raising both her arms to the position they would go at full draw, she felt satisfied with the positioning. However, the impact with the wall seemed to make her left shoulder feel a bit uneasy, trying to relieve it with a few rolls of her shoulder.

”I think I should be fine in terms of the infection.” Kayla replied. ”As long as I get some painkillers and antibiotics within the next couple of days, I’ll be safe from the bandages.”

The archer had been surprised with the softened tone that Nemesis was using when talking about the possibility of infection. In her mind, it showed that there was more to her than the usual tough exterior she put on. If that’s not proof that she’s human, I don’t know what is, she thought. Rolling her shoulder one more time, she reached for her top and put it back on. She noticed the slight burn marks on her right hand, but it hadn’t looked too severe so she didn’t take notice of it. ”I’ll definitely say one thing. I’ve never seen anything like that monster. And as a heads up, one that had that Alien-like shit with something caustic in its blood. Much different than what I’ve seen with you back on the rooftop.”

Racheli’s eyebrow raised. She was not happy to hear something else had untouchable blood as she had been considering what to do about the bruises. Her head turned to the door where the boys were likely wrapping up.

“Just when I thought this place couldn’t get any more complicated… it turns into a sci-fi horror,” She mumbles as she knocks sharply on the door.

“You two can come in, now.”

----

Richard walked just a little past the door, enough that it closed by itself, allowing for Fletch and Nemesis to have the privacy they wanted. Although he had a good amount of medical training, per his academy days, he suspected it might not look so good to certain higher powers if he tried to push to stay in the room, even if it was to help Fletch. The best answer here would have been to tell them all to wait for an ambulance, but this Fletch should know her limits by now, and he wasn’t going to deny her justice.

Following behind Roadblock, Hound Dog had already began taking off his jacket revealing a unique layer of padding underneath.

”Huh, take a look at that padding, Richard. It never got public mass production, but I remember reading some research journals about it. That’s a type of insulation, this ‘Hound Dog’, apparently can’t take his heat.”

Insulated padding, and no form of directing equipment. The problem isn’t that he can’t control his powers…

”You’ve got some kind of special insulation, can’t handle your powers?”

”I can handle lighting. But the heat no. Once broke a thermometer trying to gauge how much rubber I burn. What about you, that suit of yours? Didn't realize that LHPD had a mech unit. Does that thing have a AC unit? ”

”Technically, this is the LHSCD’s mech, and yes it does come with AC. Can you imagine lugging yourself around in a metal shell with no air at all? Sounds like torture. Hmm, your skin’s a little dry and cracked, but nothing I can really help with, you should heal on your own soon enough.” Richard said, he was about to hand Hound Dog’s jacket back but suddenly stopped mid motion.

”Say, do you mind if I lifted some of this padding off your jacket? I’ve got the feeling it’s rare, could be handy for me in the future.”

”I kinda do. Heat is a major concern for me but I might try and see if SPARK is willing to hook you up.”

”Please, if it’ll help the boys and girls in R&D work on something a little slimmer that would be great.” Richard casually mentioned one of the gripes he had with the suit, completely forgetting about a certain factor.

”Are you calling this suit fat?” Artemis' voice suddenly oozed with hostility, Richard broke out into a cold sweat. A couple knocks sounded on the door from the other side, and then Rach called out to them.

Saved by the bell.

”Well what do you know, she knocked, come on. Time to get to business.”

----

As Richard walked in, he was surprised that Nemesis ended up doing a decent job wrapping up Fletch’s wounds, she should still visit a real professional, but until then, at least she won’t fall apart. He gave a nod to them as he walked in.

”I know both Hound Dog and Nemesis encountered the Hound’s defense system right outside. But inside the control room, both me and Fletch were attacked by a ‘werewolf’. As weird as that sounds.” Richard said as he moved back towards the central console.

”As we all know, the Hounds have made it their mission to attack anything Metahuman related, or other.” Richard continued as he pulled up several tabs and displayed them on the giant wall-sized monitor. The screens changed from the previous lockdown shutdown window, to a window displaying detailed medical data on the sides of a box, with the silhouette of the werewolf from earlier in a static pose.

”According to what I pulled from their science logs, at the beginning they realized they didn’t have the firepower to attack certain beings, so one of their first goals was to abduct some of these beings, whether they be meta, or supernatural.” Richard changed the screen to display a list of some of their weaponry, to view it all would require him to scroll down more, indicated by a thin vertical bar on the side.

”They managed to find, and capture a werewolf. Over the course of their experiments, they found ways to alter and attack the bodies of meta and supernatural beings from the inside out.” Richard pulled away and turned to face everyone else.

”And that’s all I pulled before someone shorted out the main data banks, I’m assuming that was you Hound Dog.”

”I suppose in the end,” Fletch started, with the whole story about what they were facing finally sinking in. ”I’m just glad that I didn’t get bitten by it. That would complicate things on a different scale.”

”We should keep an eye out for it. Finish it off before it can get topside if possible. I hate to think what kinda damage it'd do if left to wander. Assuming it's still around.”

”Agreed. I downloaded the layout of the base earlier.” As Richard said this Artemis was kind enough to display it on his visor for him to see.

”The vents leading to and from this room don’t actually connect to the outside, but instead, to a mechanical room two floors below us. The rest of the Hounds have probably been taken out by now, I’ll handle this ‘werewolf’ the rest of you should go home, get someone to look at your wounds.” Richard aimed his words at the group as a whole at first, then looked at Fletch for the latter part of his statement.

At first, Fletch wanted to object to Roadblock’s statement. She had been involved with this fight with the wolf beast, she wanted to see that job through. But the returning feeling of pain in her side as she reached for her bow made her doubt that conviction of seeing the fight through to the end. So if you decide to take the fight on in your state, she thought, weighing up the options through. You might be hindered by the injuries you’ve sustained. And if you have an concussion, your focus will be out of whack. That near-hit on Hound Dog earlier today will not be that fortunate if you’re stuck in that situation.

”You’re right,” she admitted, a mixture of defeatism and relief in her voice. ”I need to see out these injuries. I’m probably going to be another person to watch out for in case that thing reappears.” With the adrenaline slowly easing out of her system, the familiar throb from the gunshot wound was returning to her leg. ”With the Hounds gone, it’ll be easy for me to head on out of the building. Will catch you guys at some point.” With her bow in tow and Archie still cowering in her trouser pocket, she began limping out of the control room to make her way back to the van.

It was clear to Richard that Fletch was taking this hard, he personally didn’t mind these vigilantes running around here, since he wasn’t supposed to be here either. But she had already been banged up pretty good, and if they pursued that animal further they might end up walking into an ambush.

”I know you wanna take the fight to the Hounds, everyone here does, but you don’t need to die for it. I’ll be more than happy to fill you in when you’re ready.” He knew his words would be nothing more than a band-aid but he felt he had to say something, and he was ready to leave it there when he noticed her limping.

”One of you give her a hand, there should be an ambulance outside by now, have them take a look.”

“ I’ll do it. I’m dead weight anyways,” Racheli huffed, turning on a dime to follow Fletch out.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

and

Leanna watched as the various group of terrorists gave up under the onslaught of heroes from the Square and the police from outside. She signalled to several officers to follow her and led them to the bubbles she had trapped Hounds in, then, once they signalled they were ready, constricted the bubbles once, then let them fade. The constriction left multiple broken bones and burns, but nothing serious, and far less than these men and women deserved.

With her powers returning to her after the expenditure of keeping her constructs up, she sighed, stretching her arms until her shoulders popped. Iron Knight’s announcement didn’t go unnoticed to her, but she needed a minute to regain her composure. Which was when she heard the request for assistance. She walked over to the mech suit with the police insignia on the surface and said, hesitantly, “Officer, how can I assist?”

Artemis, damn you, If I speak now..I’ll… Richard shifted his face into a grimace as he hesitated on using the mic for himself, and then Artemis saved him, or rather, finished what she started.

”Oh, I recognize you from our files, you’re Blacklight right? It’s good to see an older hero like yourself out and about again.” Artemis replied with a cheerful tone, and Richard continued to stretch his face into a scowl as he felt as if he’d been taken hostage; but his face softened slightly as he realized she had just introduced the new, or rather, older meta to him.

”Yes, I can’t fly, so I was hoping someone would be kind enough to give me a lift.”

”Well, that’s only a little of a problem. I assume you’re coming with to the raid. It’d be good to have an official presence around.” She looked the mech up and down once, critically, with her dark eyes.

”So how much pressure can this tin can take? Better than a car? A tank? If I’m gonna get a grip, I don’t want to violate the structural integrity of your armor. Also, how much does it weigh? That’s going to effect speed by quite a bit. Even as strong as I am, carrying a big hunk of metal is going to slow me down.”

”Hhhmm, well, it might be best to treat me like you would a car. Hard metal shell with with some delicate insides. As long as you’re not trying to blast off into orbit, I can probably take the G’s.

Dammit, Artemis, I’m a Detective not an astronaut, don’t go giving her ideas! Richard chose not to voice his feelings due to how close this, Blacklight, was, but he really did feel like he was losing more and more control each second.
”Alright, but if you feel like you’re going to pass out, let me know.” Her ‘wings’ flared to life, and she flapped once to launch herself over the mech, then, turned and placed her forearms under the ‘armpits’ of the machine. ”Alright, lifting off now. Don’t touch my wings or you might lose some parts, ma’am.”

The wings flapped once, twice, and then were beating rapidly. And Leanna hauled with a significant amount of her might. Not enough to tear things apart, but lifting with her forearms took more than she thought it would. Glancing around as she rose into the air, she followed to the plans she remembered from Iron Knight’s projections and moved towards the east, rain spattering on her head in ever-increasing patterns as she sped up. At this point her black hair was plastered to her scalp.

”You doing okay, officer?” she called out. ”I guess we’ll probably be there in around fifteen minutes. Sorry I can’t move as fast as some.”

As Blacklight lifted him, or them, up into the air Richard had to fight down a slight yelp as the liftoff had felt a bit sudden. But this was going better than he thought, he had the impression she was one of the faster metas, and that he’d start losing his lunch upon take off. Although, as soon as he looked down at the ground he realized that possibility wasn’t too far off.

Artemis had a different view on the situation. She had several hundred files on Meta’s and their powers saved to the on-board storage just in case she and Richard ever needed a reference to them, and Blacklight, a former STRIKE sponsored hero, would no doubt be in there. According to notes and history files it looked like she had spent some time voluntarily at various labs, not everything was recorded, but what was written down was amazing. Her powers interacted with light and temperature very similarly to a black hole in that everything was absorbed, head and light were touched and absorbed completely, her powers even put out heat, but thermal scanning showed that the ‘center’ of her powers was completely cold.

To think, that energy was doing this, was impossible, and this spoke to Artemis on another level. The Roadblock suit had to be redesigned for general use, but it was still outfitted with numerous imaging and sensor capabilities to track Metas, so she wasted no time pointing it all at Blacklight, unfortunately, she wouldn’t be gathering much. The R&D team had often played with the idea of changing out certain parts for more detailed sensor equipment to follow and study some metas, but those ideas had never actually reached the light of day, nor would they have ever been approved by the LHPD top brass.

”You’re doing great, you’re faster, and safer, than the alternative!” Artemis shouted back. Richard continued to stay silent for this, but he felt like part of that was directed at him, no, some of it definitely was.

Blacklight curved as they flew over Carver, the rain that slammed into her energy trail slacking off and leaving them in relatively windblown silence. She guessed they were probably going a quarter of her maximum, or around half the speed of sound, which was alright with her, as sonic booms over residential neighbourhoods were extremely restricted.

”So how, exactly, did the LHPD get a mechanical suit, or is that on a restricted knowledge basis? It seems kind of…” she struggled for the right word. She had never been much of a speaker.

”It seems a little excessive for street crime, you know?” She glanced at the houses down below her, remembering the tactical layout. ”Around ten minutes, officer. IK says there’s three targets. How mobile are you in this thing?”

The pixel face at the bottom of the Roadblock screen changed into a wide grin, then Artemis let out a short and hearty chuckle.

”Heheheh, this isn’t just for street crime! This suit was designed for the Lost Haven Special Cases Department to use in ‘special cases’ which more than often, turn out to be the rogue metahumans known as supervillains!” Artemis sounded insufferably pleased with herself for some reason, even giving the odd sense that she was proud of it.

She didn’t even make this thing! Richard thought to himself as he was forced to listen to her spout off.

”Hhmm, as for how mobile, that’s situational. We can move pretty well on the ground, but as you might have guessed, we can’t fly. The jets aren’t for show though, they just aren’t meant for flying, and they wouldn’t hold up under the stress they would take to make it to Carver.

”Well, if you’re not a flyer, there’s two other targets, I think? Sounds like we’re sealing them off and closing in from each entrance. Looks like flyers are heading for the helipad, which means I’m dropping you off to decide on your own, ma’am. If you have a preference, I can drop you at either location.”

The rain looked like it was heading inland, chasing them as they flew, though Leanna was sure she was outpacing it. She adjusted her grip on the mech beneath her, careful not to drop it or to grip hard enough to damage systems in it, a delicate balance she wasn’t used to.

At a glance the Hound base looked abandoned and in disrepair, the rain emphasized upon the moisture eroded surface, and it was easy to see why the building had been overlooked until now. As Blacklight brought them closer to the ensemble of heroes Richard noticed her shifting her grip occasionally, and he didn’t blame her.

The suit wasn’t designed to be held by human hands at any angle, so it was undoubtedly a little unwieldy, but that wasn’t the first thing on his mind. It would have made more sense for him to be a little more worried about her slipping, especially with the rain moving in, but as they approached the other heroes he was just glad he wasn’t being held bridal style.

An abandoned building...

”How cliche.” Artemis said as they closed in on the Hound’s base, she coincidentally finished Richard’s thought, but it didn’t strike him as weird. As a normal detective there were dozens of cases that led him to an abandoned apartment or building of some kind, it must have been the same for her and the others before he joined.

”Looks like that garage and the rooftops are covered. Take us over to that dockyard, if worse comes to worse this armor is more or less waterproof.”

“More or less? You can’t be vague with something like this!” Richard hissed through his teeth, doing his best to keep his voice from activating the outer mic.

Leanna looked down at the top of the...head? She wasn’t sure how to describe a robotic suit, honestly. ”Alright, I can do that, Officer. Speaking of which, while you know me as Blacklight, I feel kind of awkward just calling you by your title. Have you got a name, ma’am?” As the rain slacked off, the hiss from the outer area of her energy continued to slack off, but she still had to shout over the wind of their travel, or at least she felt she needed to. As she streaked in to land, she set the mech down on its feet, careful to not over balance, and nodded to the two women she had seen earlier, one of which was looking at her almost analytically.

”Hhhmmm, everyone likes to refer to this suit as ‘Roadblock’, so that should suffice, and thanks for the ride, you were very gentle.”

She grinned, hovering just in front of the mech. No problem, Officer, any time. Maybe we can grab coffee after all this is over. I’ll leave you to this section, I’m going to go help the flying team and provide some overwatch and support.” She held out a business card. ”My cell phone number’s on that, use your fancy suit to call me if there’s any trouble over here and I’ll be as quick as I can.”

”Hmm, it would be nice to see you again, and you know where you can find me.” There was a momentary pause in the conversation, Artemis had no control over the limbs, and so Richard reluctantly played along by accepting the card.

Oh no, Artemis, I don’t know how much more I can handle.

”Thanks I’m sure we’ll be fine, good luck.”

”Good luck to you too, Officer.” with a final, frosty salute, Leanna turned and, with a flare of her strange energy, she flapped her ‘wings’ and took off north towards where the flying heroes had started gathering near the helipad target, leaving her passenger and other nearby is a hissing cloud of oddly cold steam as the light rain hit the trail she left behind.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Roadblock

Location: Sherman Square, Lost Haven

The mechanized suits the Hounds used seemed to be similar in that there was a person underneath, completely relying on the outer metal shell for defensive and offensive purposes, but it would seem that would be where the similarities ended. They were a few meters larger than him, and they appeared to have no reservations about using their military grade weapons in the city. Even Richard kept most of his weapons aiming up and away from buildings.

But in between dodging weapons fire and brawling with Hounds he managed to catch a glimpse of Iron Knight and his own fight with another Hound in a similar looking suit. The end of the fight anyways, Iron Knight shot a cable around the other man, and quickly flew off somewhere.

“He has a cable too, is he copying us?” Richard jokingly spoke into the helmet.

“He’s more famous than we are, at this point it would seem like we’re the copy cats. But our cable might have a few more features than his.” Artemis replied; the pixel face at the bottom of his screen changed into a wink for a second before switching back.

“Where's he taking him?” Richard asked as he quickly shot a glance over his shoulders, making sure his immediate area was cleared.

“Hhmm, judging by all the radio chattter I’d say he dropped him off at HQ.”

“That’ll keep them busy, hopefully that’ll keep them off our backs a little longer.”

“Are you worried they’ll see us, a little late don’t you think?”

“Oh they’ve seen us already.” Richard replied as panned his vision across the square, catching a good look at several traffic and security cameras.

“I just want to know if I’m going to get yelled at today or tomorrow.”

Iron Knight returned to the square a few moments later, announcing to everyone that he’d found the satellite, and that the space capable heroes should get to work.

“Artemis, can we-“

“Don’t even think about it.” Artemis anticipated what he said and curtly cut him off. But of course he had to ask, who didn’t want to go to space, to see if it was anything like the movies, to see what the Earth looked like from high above. Although, currently the armor didn’t have anywhere near the thruster power to escape atmosphere so space was a little untouchable right now. Besides, if he wanted to go to space he should have become an astronaut. Then Iron Knight mentioned that he had found the main base, and that was something he could do.

“If my readings are correct, the Hounds have a base located on the waterfront of the nearby suburb, Carver. If someone here can’t fly or have some other form of transportation, you should pair up with someone who can. We need to strike quickly or all of this will be for not.”

Carver? I guess that’s nearby… if you can fly. Richard thought as he looked longingly at certain flight capable heroes nearby, he stopped as soon as he realized, and hoped that everyone was too focused to care.

“We’ll be heading westward to Carver. For those who can’t fly, I’m going to make sure the traffic lights don’t slow you down.” After saying that Iron Knight then projected a map of Lost Haven showing the path they would take to the Hounds base, and where it was.

“We can keep up if we use the jets.”

“No way, that’s not what they’re for! If you try to push them like that all the way to Carver you’ll blow them out!” Richard instinctively jerked his head to the side as Artemis suddenly raised her voice.

“Well running’s out of the question, we’ll never get there.”

“You don’t have to go, Iron Knight is going, along with these other metas, and those ones in space might come back down to help too.”

“I didn’t become a cop to leave things to other people, and besides, I wouldn’t be able to sleep unless I personally get a chance at their boss.”

“Good answer.” Artemis said; Richard thought he heard a hint of approval in her voice, but for what, this was his job, and he imagined this was why she was made in the first place.

“…Mr. Hunter, you can switch the speaker on, yourself..” Artemis added after waiting a few moments.

“I...still think we can make good time with controlled boosts.”

“..There are plenty of flyers here, I’m sure one of them could carry you.” Artemis uttered again, but Richard continued to be adamant in his choice.

“We’re fine.” He continued to insisted.

“Now that we know where we’re going, let’s roll out.” Iron Knight apparently felt that was enough time to memorize the map. So Richard turned to move out, keying up the boosters on his back, they hummed to life then started whining to a sudden quiet.

“Artemis, what are you doing?” Richard turned his head as if he was addressing her, but he still only had that small pixel face at the bottom of his screen. A second later the microphone in his helmet clicked on, but not for him.

“Excuse me, is there anybody here that could give us a lift?”

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Location change: Sherman Square, Lost Haven

The tires of a Hounds of Humanity van screeched loudly as they attempted to drive off, probably away from that weird mist making its way around, or maybe David just caught them at a bad time. He stood firm in the path of the vehicle, holding it by the sides, his hands dug into the metal as the back of the vehicle swerved to the sides slightly as the Hounds attempted to free themselves. He pushed his hands in a little further, put them over his head, quickly shifted his hands to grip the cabin, and tossed them into the air like a pizza, sending them into a quick spin before he caught them.

David set down the van upside down and ripped open the door. He learned a long time ago that as Terra Firma he definitely lifted above his normal weight class and took great pains to pull his punches, so it felt extremely liberating to finally flex his muscles slightly, what with all mecha and armored vans.

The men inside were dizzy, a couple were on the floor struggling to stand, those left standing attempted to draw their weapons on David, and whether or not those guns would hurt wasn’t important. David briskly stepped inside and gave them a firm slap, each and every one of them, and their bodies dropped down onto the ceiling.

As soon as he stepped out he took a moment to look around, he thought he saw that Fletch person, but she was gone as soon as he thought he spotted her, nevertheless he thought he saw a bow and he was pretty sure that couldn’t have been anybody else.

A bow in this day and age, is she serious? Well it seems like she’s doing well, and she was pretty strong the last time I saw her, so I guess it’s fine.

A few more glances around and he managed to spot Pantheon again, and this time he was carrying around a weapon.

Where the hell did he get the bat, and it has spikes?

A woman had come face to face with Pantheon, he couldn’t hear the details, but he could read the bodies, they were having some kind of disagreement, probably about Pantheon. He hoped they wouldn’t start fighting now of all times, but if it came down to it he would charge in there too. But he hoped they would both see there was a bigger problem than Pantheon’s disregard for life, and it looked like they did as they both went back into hitting the Hounds.

David had no doubt in his heart that Pantheon had ripped apart even more soldiers before he got here, and he would have liked to have given him a piece of his mind. But the last time he tried it didn’t exactly get through, words wouldn’t be enough, and starting a fight with him would be pointless, no matter who won that nobody would change their ideals. That kind of thing was for another day, and maybe even for someone else.

Right now the enemies were the Hounds, so David went back at it. It seems that some of the others turned most of their attention to the mecha or the helicopters flying around, but the foot soldiers were still coming in great numbers, and they could easily catch the less bullet resistant heroes by surprise if they got lucky.

He felt a little apprehensive about using his other powers again, he felt a little winded last time, but David managed to push those feelings back as he drew into his earth powers again. Large hand like structures pushed out of the ground, cupping themselves over Hound vehicles along with a number of their soldiers, enclosing them in a stone prison.

“Whoever of us can reach and survive in space better get up there and take out that satellite,” Someone had shouted. “The Hounds are communicating with the satellite and I doubt they’re going to be sending us kisses and hugs.”

David turned his head to see who was talking, he couldn’t identify them but he could see that the man was making his way over to Icon, and it looked like they knew each other.

David wanted to join with them but space wasn’t like anywhere he’d fought, and he wasn’t whether or not he needed air as Terra Firma. Although, so far, it looked like he didn’t actually breathe. He had vague memories of fighting on the ocean floor, debris and smoke didn’t bother him, and his recent experience with landing a plane on the ocean seemed to reaffirmed all this.

Even if some problem arose he could probably fly back down to safety, and besides, fighting a giant space gun is exactly the kind of story he wanted to tell Madeline one day. So he quickly made his way to Icon, who was now holding some kind of mech, though it was different from the Hounds, bigger and a little more intimidating for one.

“You said we found the satellite right? I can go with you. I want to help take the fight to the Hounds and that damned satellite!”

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Location: Haneson Airport, Lost Haven

“We’re still too steep!” Another hero shouted. Multiple places on the front and underside of the Boeing 747 were bent or warped slightly from the strength of various heroes, all trying to push the plane up, although they were struggling just to fix the pitch angle so they wouldn’t slam nose first into the ground, and with the average jumbo jet weighting in at around three hundred tons they weren’t making a lot of progress.

They had managed to gain some altitude, but instead of crashing nose first into the landing strip, it looked like they would plow right into the terminal building. David’s walls could still be seen and they were mostly in once piece, but a tiny section towards the front had collapsed into a pile of dirt, giving the formerly shielded civilians a good look at their impending doom.

“It’s not working!”

“Just keep trying!”

“We can’t do it, we’re not strong enough!”

“Yes, we can, keep going!” David shouted back. He felt like his body was melting, slipping away, his reactions felt slower, almost like he was losing connection with his senses.

It must be worst on them, they still have normal bodies.

The shape on his chest started to pulse out across his torso, like a ripple in a pond, and strangely enough he thought he could hear his own heartbeat for a moment.

The other heroes were losing faith in themselves, but the people on the plane and on the ground needed them now. They couldn’t possible give up now, to leave those people behind was downright ugly, unforgivable, and nobody here wanted to do that. To let all these people down, to allow his family to die in such a way, he couldn’t allow this at all. As if responding to his feelings, something awakened within him, it felt familiar, and yet it was new. That feeling evolved, changing into a new energy, surging through his body, rejuvenating him, and empowering him.

The energy around his body suddenly exploded outwards, shooting off violently in multiple directions, as well as engulfing a good part of the jet’s nose, it startled those near him, but it was surprisingly harmless, and instead of running away the heroes beside him continued to help. David smiled deeply inside, and gave the plane one good push.

The plane rose up, just barely avoiding the building, with the tail bumping into the tip of the roof. Once it cleared the building David moved towards the middle to get more lift, energy continued to shoot wildly off his body as he moved, but now it was situated underneath the cabin. The plane had completely passed over the airport, along with a nearby parking garage, and he felt like carrying the plane this long was already pushing his luck. They managed a miracle for sure, but he wasn’t sure how much longer it was going to last.

One of the other heroes must have had a similar thought.

“Put us down over the harbor, we passed the strip, harbor’s the only safe place left!”

----

The other heroes stayed with the plane as long as they could, but dashed up and away as the plane landed in the water, with only David staying under to smooth its landing. The planes’ doors opened, and the inflatable slides shot out. A few of the other heroes went down, probably to reassure the passengers.

David took this moment to look his body over, it was hard not to see the energy from earlier exploding off his body, but he was fine now, and this body was just as normal as it ever was.

What was that about?

“Not sure how you did it, but nice job, name’s Gangway.” The hero that approached him earlier had come to him again. His teal and white costume had some kind of ‘arrow’ design, several upward pointing lines, a sleeveless top, along with some kind of fat domino mask. And for some reason, an arrow pointed downwards from his abdomen. David opted not to talk about that.

“Terra Firma.” David stated plainly. Several boats were coming closer now to the plane, no doubt they had seen it, or heard it, and were coming in closer to see if they could help.

“Well then, Terra, how would you feel like sticking it to the Hounds even more tonight?”

“You mean back at the airport?”

“No, me and a few of the other heroes took care of them, the ones that didn’t go after you anyways. You raised quite the ruckus on the landing strip, hard not to join that kind of party.” Gangway paused a moment and then continued.

“You know, most of us might have come here for the same reason. But if you can forget about that, if you want to hit the Hounds again, you might be able to. A friend of mine showed me something before the signal cut out.”

Gangway reached into a pocket, a pocket David didn’t see and regretted thinking about, then pulled out a phone.
Gangway showed him the last message of his last conversation. David did his best to keep his own prying eyes under control and focused on what Gangway was trying to show him.

Tanya:
<Icon and Iron knight at Sherman square!>

There’s some kind of face picture under the text?

<Hurry and get your butt over there, you could get famous from this!!!>

“You’re not going yourself?”

“No, frankly, I’m too scared. I handle bullets just fine, you have to if you do this kind of thing, but being bombed from space. No…..I’m not ready for that. Besides, I don’t really have the right power set for fighting the Hounds.”

David paused a moment to think, Icon was supposed to be a big hero, along with Iron Knight. Without detective skills of his own teaming up with them would be his only option to putting a stop to the Hounds, but there’s just one problem. If he left like this, he’d be leaving his family behind, trapped behind his stone walls. They were meant to protect them, temporarily, he planned to free them as soon as he got back, but…

“Since you’re here I’m assuming you came with family too, or at least people you care about. Don’t worry, me and some of the boys plan to head back, and there are some of us that couldn’t make the journey here. Whoever you came here with, they’re in good hands.” Gangway was practically reading his mind, his situation might have been scarily similar, or maybe this was just a hero's life in general.

That was probably true, if he was going to leave this would be the best time, and when he showed up again as David he could excuse it on the Hounds attack. If he showed up to say excuse himself, they’d get highly suspicious, and they’d rightfully try to stop him.

Before he left he spotted a kid looking out one of the windows, he waved to David, and David waved back before giving a firm thumbs up and lifting off into the air.

-----

Location change: Sherman Square, Lost Haven

It took him a little longer than he would have liked to find Sherman Square, he might have had an easier time on the car since like most people he was used to navigating buildings, but as it is, he had to reorient himself several times, and when he finally arrived he was speechless. Though it wasn’t as though he there was anybody else he could talk to, the Earth had spoken to him once, but that was so long ago David was sure that was just part of that vision.

Who he thought were heroes, hoped anyways, were all over the place, explosions and gunfire were scattered all across the square. The air was unnaturally chilled, some kind of disks where spewing out ice, and the wind was unnaturally heavy.

Shit, just a few weeks ago this was a safe place for families to have fun, and now…

Helicopters, planes, and even more of those mechanized suits were rampaging everywhere, although it looked like a couple of them were on his side. He hoped, anyways. David was still trying to take in what he was seeing when his gaze quickly darted to someone he immediately recognized.

Pantheon, so he’s here too? Let’s just hope this time he has all his marbles.

“Heh.” David softly muttered to himself.

I hope? I have the power to bend steel, I just helped land a plane just a few minutes ago. I can do more than hope.

David smirked on the inside, and quickly swooped down into the square. With two large gestures he conjured several varying sized hands, seizing Hounds, trapping them in a stone grasp, or forcefully binding their hands and feet together. He tackled a couple trucks in a similar fashion, by semi submerging them into the ground, keeping them trapped behind their reinforced vehicles, or by disabling some of them by blowing out their tires underneath them.

Dealing with helicopters wasn’t fun the last time, let’s hope I can leave that to someone else.

Even though he decided to leave the helicopters for one of the more aerial heroes, there was something else up here he could touch. In a wide motion David swiped his arms around him in a circular motion, bringing his arms close to his chest, and around his body. Lightning gathered around his body, drawing itself to his arms, then to the tips of his hands and shot outward as he aimed his limbs towards those disks in the air, bringing several of them down in an explosion of residual frost and scrapped metal.

David thought as he brought his hands together one last time, and swiped down. A furious thunderbolt shot from the sky and down onto a mech, stopping him in his tracks, and letting out a furious shout from the man inside. David followed up by cuffing his arm around his helmet, and bringing them both down onto the ground. The both of them falling let out a heavy metal thudding; the suit itself appeared to be out of commission as sparks had started shooting out of certain points, along with several of the armor panels being too warped or melted to allow movement. The low sound of a groan escaping the cracked helmet told David the man was still alive, and out cold.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

You know, honestly the name isn't that bad. What is bad, however, is that I've only felt like writing late at night recently. Is it the same for any of you guys?

My Hider

I'm sorry guys, I can't edit this anymore or I'll go mad, I'm on like draft 7, it's not worth it. I just wanted to fight an airplane, and then go fight the Hounds with everyone.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG Season 2- New Horizons (Closed)

Location: Haneson Airport, Lost Haven

The airport, as usual, featured several wall mounted screens displayed various arrival and departure times. And like usual, the check in desk and luggage lines were backed up with dozens of people. However, due to the Hound’s recent satellite attack, many sought to leave Lost Haven, a place that has seen many metahumans, and rumored by many to be the next target. What would have been an as usual crowded and busy airport was multiplied by several hundred more people looking to flee.

David overheard various bits of conversation, just bits and pieces, but all of it consisted of worried remarks and anxious questions. Many had already seen the Hounds personally in action, along with their fights with various ‘superheroes’, and none of them wanted to end up like Paris, Texas or Philadelphia.

And he sympathized with them, the Hounds seemed to be crawling over Lost Haven, he helped stop the ones he encountered, but he had merely stumbled upon them. David had no way of tracking down the Hounds’ real source of power, and he felt he had failed his only mission. The vision the Earth showed him a year ago, it had to have been talking about the Hound’s satellite, what else could cause such destruction?

David looked to the faces of those close to him; Cecily met his stare, she was probably filled with the same worry and uncertainty he was, his daughter Maddie was focused on her phone instead, and texting with her friends. Normally he’d say something, he always did feel a little outdated, but he held back this time, and if they really did move away this would be the only way she could talk to them.

Trying to run away from Lost Haven felt bad enough as is, as if he was betraying something inside himself, and this certainly wasn’t an easy choice from the beginning. In doing this they’ll lose their friends, their jobs, and he had to ask himself if this was really the right choice.

The president was due to make an appearance in a few moments, David turned to face one of the many wall mounted TVs, this was something he couldn’t miss, although it’s not like he had anything planned. The screen switched to President Blake, but just as he opened his mouth the screen changed, showing static instead.

Confusion escaped the lips of nearby people.

“What the hell? No signal.” His daughter had muttered.

“Hey, watch your langu-“David stopped himself midsentence, or rather, what he just saw outside the terminal buildings’ windows. Several vans and a helicopter had just shown up on the tarmac, and David recognized them immediately; how could he not, after having faced Hounds several times in the past couple days. A few people were surprised to see anything other than an airplane on the landing strip, and a few surprised and anxious mutterings started getting passed around.

Following the immediate appearance of the Hounds, the power went out, the static filled TV’s and the lights both went dark, leaving the entire building in darkness. The only lights still on were from phones, or outside sources like street lamps, and even then it wasn’t enough. The sound of glass shattering, followed by the thundering of gunfire pierced the darkness, drawing a panic from everyone.

“David!” Cecily yelled for him, she was already dragging Maddie by the hand, the both of them running away from the gunfire, doing their best to navigate through the darkness, relying on the flashlight function of their phones. The only way they could escape would be to get into the other building, but he knew they’d be there too. He thought about changing into Terra Firma here, to fight the Hounds off, but he hesitated as he thought about the satellite weapon again, his waking nightmare from before put the brakes on his legs.

He was shaken out of his daze by his family, along with several hundred people who had taken to pushing and shoving, desperate to get away. The sounds of gunfire and the screams of the unfortunate echoed throughout the terminal building, it shook something inside him, and it made him restless. At this rate they wouldn’t get away, not before the Hounds mowed them down in the back, and he couldn’t let that happen. Not ever.

Something ignited inside him and he found his spirit restored, determined to put a stop to this. He was already having a hard time keeping close to his family because of their head start, so this was the perfect chance to leave. David let the other civilians blow past him as they rushed forward, he almost fell over a couple times.

“Dad!”

“David, hurry!”

“Go! I’ll catch up!” David shouted back to them as someone bumped into him, almost knocking him down. With everyone doing their best to escape the Hounds nobody would be looking closely at anyone’s face, and with the lights out they wouldn’t be able to see even if they wanted to. The time was now.

An explosion of light blinded those near him, an unfortunate side effect, good news was that it also blinded some of the Hounds, with many of them desperately attempting to cover their eyes. The welcoming warmth of the Earth’s power, along with the feeling of its raw energy inflating him, gave him a much needed courage boost after watching all those news reports. He really felt like he could do it, and this was the time to show it.

David shot up high into the air, nearly crashing into a ceiling mounted light, bullets followed him soon after. As he moved further away from the crowd David considered his situation. With so many encounters with the Hounds he had some idea on how they operated, how methodical they were, and their apparent obsession with killing metahumans without a shred of regard for innocents. He’d have to rein that in, his family was here, and that meant nothing could happen to them.

“Stay close to the walls, don’t leave the area!” David shouted, his voice echoed slightly throughout the building, he wanted to keep the other people somewhere nearby where he can guard them, if they left for another section of the airport he wouldn’t be able to do anything for them. The neat patterned flooring of the airport shattered as David summoned thick stone walls that circled around the civilians; they quickly shot up towards the ceiling, marking a firm line in between the civilians and the Hounds. He created several more walls to cover those who weren’t as close as the others.

Of course, some of the Hounds had tried to make a move during this, attempting to sneak in to attack the civilians, but they were all launched backwards as the stone barriers uprooted them, bursting from underneath their toes.

But if the Hounds were to be applauded for anything tonight, it would be for their quick response times; even as he summoned his earthen barriers several Hounds had already begun emptying their clips at him, a barrage of lead that amounted to nothing except for empty shell casings scattering across the floor. With the civilians behind a bulletproof barrier of their own David decided to get into the thick of it, he rushed the Hounds forces head on. They attempted to stop him with explosive rounds and a barrage of grenade launchers, he felt the explosions of the grenades rock his body, but he could keep going, and he did. David plowed right into them, knocking several of them off their feet like bowling pins.

Continuing with his momentum, David grabbed a Hound soldier by the ankles and swung him around in a circle, clobbering his friends, before he finally threw him into more of his allies. Some of them attempted to reach for their guns on the floor. David put a stop to that by flicking his arm towards them, thin streaks of lightning shot off his arms, skewering the guns, leaving red hot holes in the middle of the rifles. The grenade launchers gave him some pause, he didn’t know how far their rules for friendly fire went, he didn’t want any of their blood on his hands so closing in up close might be a bad idea, and a lightning bolt might prematurely set off a round.

So he wouldn’t touch them at all. Several “hands” burst from the ground, they flew around disrupting the Hounds formation, slapping them, punching them, but they all aimed for weapons, grabbing them and diving straight back into the ground. To wipe up the last of the Hounds, a long line of stone shot up from the ground, and into David’s hands. It “merged” with his arm and he swung it into the Hounds, the stone quickly bent and changed into a thick, slimy, muddy whip that swallowed the Hounds.

David thrust his construct into a wall, with a loud, wet thud the mud whip slammed into the wall. He jerked his hands around slightly, and the rest of the Hounds fell limply down onto the ground, leaving their rifles stuck in the now rock-hard construct. With this area cleared out David moved out onto the landing strip, it was somewhere that could be seen by everyone in the airport, and that was what he needed if he wanted the rest of the Hounds to stop prowling around and come right for him.

Except it looked like he was going to be busy here too, a large armored Hound had just turned around to face him, along with a couple more squads. David decided it would be best not to let them demonstrate just what made them different. Electricity coiled and snapped around his arms, he flung his arms forward and the lightning shot off his arms, each bolt branched off and struck at a Hound weapon. Their rifles began to glow red, and the Hounds abandoned their weapons, all except one. The air around the weird Hound distorted and the bolt that was supposed to hit him curved around him instead, and crashed into a pile of opened luggage.

David might have thought that Hound suit gave its use some kind of control over electricity, but with that warping and odd curve, that didn’t seem right. Regardless, Lightning was just one of his favorite powers, he still had another. The ground around the Hound began to rumble, the stone pillars David was going to use to trap the Hound suddenly stopped, and fell back into the ground. It felt as if something had pushed down on it, and whatever it was it was still pushing.

That’s never happened before.

He went at it again, this time several chunks of cement lifted off around him, and rushed at the powered Hound. The blocks sped away, but they suddenly stopped and came right back at him, David probably could have reversed them too, but he found himself frozen with bewilderment; allowing the cement chunks to crash and shatter against his body, pushing him backwards slightly. With only his fists left David readied himself to jump into a tackle, but after he had taken only a single step the Hound raised his hand at him, and David’s body began to grow heavy and stiff.

David tried to take another step forward, he had to push with all his strength, strength he never knew he had, just to place his foot down, and as soon as he did the ground underneath him cracked and depressed into a crater. Whatever this pressure was it was becoming too much. It felt like a giant stack of bricks was constantly pushing down on his entire body, and to make matters worse there was this odd tingling in the bottom of his stomach. The pressure seemed to increase suddenly and David was forced onto his hands and knees, again that same force multiplied, and he dropped onto his stomach.

Shit…this is bad.

David grunted as he tried to push off the ground, he also began to try to move the ground again, but any constructs he tried to form were immediately crushed just like before, or where shot into harmless pebbles by Hound reinforcements. The Hounds began bombarding him with everything they had, and he had no choice to but to take it as his body grew heavier by the second.

Hundreds of bullets crashed into him, while grenade after grenade was launched at his prone body, each of the explosions rocked him to his core. He didn’t know if they could kill him as he had no reference for that, but he was starting to feel weaker, it might be possible if he just kept sitting here, meanwhile that tingling in his stomach had been spreading. Each second he stayed like this that tingling in his gut expanded, covering his whole body, like when your arm or leg fell asleep, except for your whole body.

But, this doesn’t feel that bad, almost like there’s….something else.

This wasn’t something he did often, searching his ‘insides’ with his ‘feelings’, how would you even describe this to a normal person? It felt almost like sifting through sand, he felt swallowed, and drowned in that feeling. After a few moments the tingling passed away, replace by a feeling of familiarity, like remembering something after having forgotten it for so long. Whatever it was that was making him heavier, he could touch it, reverse it, and so he did. His body began to return to normal, the overbearing pressure of heaviness left him, leaving only the constant barrage of Hound weaponry. Of which he planned to stop this instant.

David pushed off the ground, a little harder than he had intended, launching himself high into the air, giving himself a nice view of the landing strip. He swept his arms around in a circle, causing the cement and dirt underneath the Hounds to begin swirling as well, making them lose their grip on their guns, as well as losing their footing. David changed certain parts to mud then back to hardened cement again to trap the Hound soldiers in the ground, keeping them away from their guns, and taking them out of the fight.

Meanwhile, the armored Hound had become beyond confused, he spent those next few moments switching between hands, and adjusting the controls on his gauntlets. The Hound did his best to pin David again, but to no avail, despite all his adjustments nothing was working. However, it still worked on other things, like the luggage carts, and the unused grenades of his unconscious allies.

The suit gave him more than just control over how much gravity one was experiencing, but also its direction and speed, as he demonstrated by sending numerous grenades and the nearby luggage carts at David. The hero swiftly dodged out of the way of the carts, but it seemed hitting him wasn’t the goal, the grenades collided into the carts as they passed behind him, the explosion blew him out of the sky, and back onto the ground.

With most of the other Hounds down and out, and with his own gravity suit slowly loosing effectiveness, the armored Hound was quickly running out of options. He tried to fling more cars, luggage bags, anything, at David but only just managed in slowing him down. As David closed in on him he shouted, a desperate, anguished shout.
“We can’t fail here, and definitely not to some nobody hero!” The Hound shouted from the depths of his gut.

“You must not be a big fan of Odysseus then.” David quipped as he rushed up to the Hound. Suddenly David spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something large and white was coming at him fast, he quickly jumped backwards. It was a wing, a wing of a nearby landed plane, and he wasn’t stopping there. The landing gears, seats, hull, it all came flying at him. David managed to avoid the bigger things, but flying wasn’t his forte, and so he couldn’t dodge everything.

This was getting out of hand, the armored Hound had surrounded himself in a vortex of metal, constantly swirling around him, striking at David if he was too slow. Aside from personally grabbing everything and stopping them, David couldn’t think of a way to stop him from tossing metal around, but he had to stop him before he started hitting the buildings.

Then he noticed something, the Hound had been making him move this entire fight, but the Hound himself had not actually moved an inch, probably too busy micromanaging all this debris. So David decided to go forward, to force himself through whatever the Hound threw at him, and just get him.

David took a moment to brace, then sprinted forward, and launched into the air with his arms forward. That Hound didn’t look like he was just going to let this happen, the metal swirling around them moved to intercept David, and judging from the sound of metal tearing, the Hound must be taking apart more of the landed planes. Most of it was small enough he could ignore it just by pushing forward, but something bigger hit him, he didn’t see it but it caused him to start spinning. But he didn’t let this stop him, he was determined to stop that man, so he continued flying, he continued spinning, and tore right through another piece of plane, and another, and finally into the Hound.

He considered himself done with the man, the sooner he could yank him out of that armored suit, the sooner this would end. Then they both heard it, a jet coming in closer, it must have been due to land around this time.
The Hound turned his hand toward it, and David promptly intercepted his arm, but he could still turn his hands, and that was all he needed. David firmly grabbed the back of the armor, braced his other arm on the front side of the armor, and tore it off. The suit snapped into a mess of loose wires and bent metal, electricity sparked momentarily before it died out. The suit was done for, the Hound was more or less harmless now, but the plane was a different story.

Before he was stopped, the Hound had managed to use his power on the plane, whatever he did caused the plane to suddenly dip, and even that momentary exposure to the Hound’s power must have damaged the wings as the engines had caught fire.

“Dammit” David muttered, he launched back into the air, flying as fast as he could to the plane. He didn’t get there as fast as he would have liked, he didn’t know if he could even help, David was completely out of his element. But he had to try, so he moved under the nose and started pushing up, doing his best to ‘carry’ the plane on his back.

David gave off a loud strained grunt, to get it as flat up as possible, and hope they could still land it. But it didn’t look as if he had the strength for it, he had never landed a plane before, and he hoped this wouldn’t be his first crash.

“Let us give you a hand!” Another voice shouted. David quickly swiveled his head around to face him. Another hero, he was wearing what David assumed to be his costume, there were several tears all over his body, showing he had been in a tussle with the Hounds as well. A few others followed up behind him, all flying up towards them, many of them wore inversed jackets or scarves around their face, and some of them had managed to slip into their costumes.

They didn’t wait for any response on his end, and moved to take a position around the plane.

----

Inside the cockpit of the plane, both pilots were flipping through their flight manuals trying to find something to save them, while simultaneously eyeing their instruments to keep them from breaking any further, the sound of passengers panicking behind them only made them sweat harder. The co-pilot spotted the heroes and tapped the shoulder of the captain to get his attention.

“Those guys are crazy, you think they’re going to be enough?”