Athinar — Roleplayer Guild

“Are you getting this Dennis?  Keep the camera on them!”

Sarah Winslow, an up-and-coming news reporter for Lost Haven Channel 12, was busy fixing her hair for her next “eye in the sky” report in the team’s news chopper.  Accompanying her was Dennis Mackey, an experienced cameraman grumbling at his new co-worker barking orders at him as if he were some novice, turning the lens to focus in on the two superpowered combatants below.  At the helm of the whirlibird was a man named Thomas, a veteran helicopter pilot, who was adeptly circling the area despite the chaos ensuing below, not a care in the world for the old man.

“I got it, I got it.”  Dennis huffed, leaning out of the helicopter to keep the action plastered on the metas. “Can you believe this?  Second attack on the city in a few months, what kind of crazy shit is that?”

“Yes, yes, it's simply awful, but what a scoop!”  Sarah replied, sitting beside Dennis while redoing her makeup, smearing numerous powders and mascara onto her face, “I can’t believe how much press we’re getting.”

“Yeah, it’s not like everyone gets a career off of the city being destroyed.”  Grumbled Dennis.

“Oh, hush, there is nothing we can do about it.  The best we can do is keep people informed.”  Sarah replied, running her fingers through her hair. “At least that way people will remember what happened here.”

“Yeah, whatever, you’re on in five, by the way.”  Dennis replied, pulling back into the helicopter to get the young woman into the shot, as well as keep the two metas in the frame, which was easier said than done with how fast they moved.  In the blink of an eye they could be down the street a half a mile away from where they started, leaving rubble and destruction in their wake.

Dennis countdown with his free hand from five to one, allowing Sarah to get into her position and ready up before the broadcast brought it over to her and her team.

Without missing a beat, Sarah dropped her normally fluid, snarky tone into a monotone, business-like voice, the rest of the crew becoming dead silent as her report began.

“Chuck, it’s been over four hours since the city began to riot, and things do not look like they’ve improved since then.” Sarah began, “The city is in flames, and it seems at least 60% of the city is embroiled into a mass riot that has taken the town, with all of Lost Haven Police being called in to contain the spread of this uproar.”  She gestured out the window, pointing at the two metahumans as she spoke. “However, with that said, the metahuman population has also re-appeared to contend with the riots, but what is even more confusing are the ones that are fighting amongst one another.  We can see out there a single metahuman having a brutal conflict with what looks like a 12 foot armored suit near the Little Sicily Water Treatment Plant.  The robot suit we have no record of, but the human fighting it has been seen in Lost Haven before.  Reports indicate that the silver-clad human goes by the name ‘War-Pulse’, he is a notorious criminal-for-hire who was last seen defending the city from the notorious ‘D-Day’ a few months back.  His motives for appearing in this time of turmoil are unknown, but it can be safe to say that the mech suit he is fighting with could be assumed to be either a bounty hunter or superhuman trying to bring him in for his crimes.”

“Sarah, what’s the status of the area around the two metahumans?”  Came Chuck’s voice into her earpiece, the eagerness in his voice indicating how well her information was keeping the attention of the city’s viewers. “Are there any rioters still in the area?”

“Absolutely devastated.” She replied “If there are any rioters here, they have either hidden, or are dead from these two titans tearing apart our streets.  It looks like from these two alone we have lost...at least two blocks, if not more, most of the streets are now craters, with dozens of vehicles overturned from this battle.”

“Does either show any sign of ending the fight?”

“It’s still pretty up in the air, neither side has a definitiv--”

Sarah’s broadcast was interrupted by the sensation of the helicopter rumbling and twisting, causing Sarah and Dennis to shift. 

“What is going on?”  Sarah griped, turning to the cockpit. “Thomas, keep the helicopter steady while we’re reporting!”

“I’m...trying…”  Thomas said, visibly pushing at the controls, panic starting to well in his voice.  “The thing suddenly went haywire, it isn’t responding to my commands!”

“What do you mean?  What are you talking about?”  Sarah shouted back.

“What I’m saying is someone else has taken control of our helicopter!  I got no control over where it’s going, no matter what I do!”

At that moment, the vehicle suddenly began to dive, descending rapidly out of the air.

“Sarah?  Sarah, what’s going on?”  Chuck asked from the earpeice.

“We’re going down, Chuck, that’s what’s going on!”

“What?  Sarah, hold on!”

“I can’t stop it!”  Thomas screamed. “We’re headed straight for the fight!”

“What?  No!”  Sarah rushed to the cockpit, followed quickly by Dennis and his still-rolling camera.

“We’re going to crash straight into the War-Pulse guy!” Thomas pointed out of the cockpit, indicating their trajectory.

“Pull up!  Pull up!”  Dennis yelled.  “I don’t want to die!”

“I can’t, we’re gonna--”

The last sound heard on the newscast was the three in the helicopter screaming as the camera recorded the helicopter slamming into War-Pulse, followed by a rush of fire, then static.@NeutralNexus

Angel waved his hand, turning off the large television monitor, slumping over his desk, shaking, covered in sweat. He sat in a chair in the corner of his garage, ATD suit in the middle of the large room, hooked up to a powerful thorium generator, recharging. Sparks fell as several robotic arms worked on the suit, repairing the dented chestplate, and replacing the overloaded cameras, blown out from the fight with War-Pulse. 

Slumping down in his chair, he was on the verge of throwing up. What.... What did I do? Three people... all completely innocent... I killed them! They were just flying overhead, and I killed them! For what? I didn't find out what the meta was trying to do, I didn't stop it, I didn't bring him in... I killed three people for nothing!

With a mild cough, and a concerned look on his face, a figure, who could only be described as Sherlock from... well, Sherlock, appeared on Angel's TV screen. 

"Sir? Are you okay? I found out what happened. Are you hurt?" 

The voice was a welcome distraction from his problems, and Angel turned to his monitor, surprised. 

"Sherlock? Is that you?"

The A.I., obviously pleased with himself, waved a hand over his computer form. "Yes sir. Whilst I was trawling for information on Lost Haven, I found an massive data dump, indicative of another Artificial Intelligence. However, it is.... way beyond me. It is enormous. The A.I. in question's attention was focused elsewhere, so I copied a code that is apparently used for translating an A.I. into an animated form. It's quite pleasant, finally being able to speak to you directly, with no need for walls of text."

Angel smiled, distracted, for the moment, and happy for Sherlock. But then, a thought came to him, and he frowned. "Are you sure you covered your tracks? For all we know, this could be a S.T.R.I.K.E. containment, and it could come after us." 

Sherlock grinned, and said, "Don't worry, I didn't leave any trace whatsoever."

Satisfied, Angel said, "Well, okay. But still, we need to look into this A.I. We don't know what it is."

With an ominous grimace, Sherlock said, "Well... I didn't look into that A.I. much, because there was something... else. I don't know what it was. It was.... enormous, not as large as the other one, but it was ever expanding, like it was the memories of several billion A.I. such as myself, all combined. Not infinite, but it sat on its own network, taking up 1e+15 terabytes by itself. I couldn't even get a glimpse of its data storage. As soon as I started probing at it, snooping around, I had to break away. It immediately grabbed me, and I had to scythe a few packets of data on The Cowl I had retrieved to escape. Luckily, the data had no personal traces, and it was a clean break, but still... I think that that... thing, wasn't made by humanity."

Angel frowned darkly, and said, "This would corroborate with some of our evidence that there is a hostile alien presence in Lost Haven.... We need to follow up on this, ASAP. The seemingly benign A.I. can wait. I'll send some tracer programs to monitor its system, but from a safe distance. We don't want it to find us." 

Sherlock nodded, and said, "All right. I'll see if I can find some more info on The Cowl, and that mercenary, War-Pulse. Maybe they're working together?" 

Angel rubbed his chin, lost in thought, and eventually shook his head. "No, it doesn't make any sense. From what little we know of The Cowl, he likes to keep a lower profile. War-Pulse is too flashy for him. It's gotta be someone else. We need to find out who, and what he was doing at the Little Sicily Water Plant."

Sherlock nodded, and said, "Get a good night's sleep, Angel. You'll need your rest."

Yawning, Angel didn't realize how incredibly tired he was, until Sherlock had brought it up. Standing up, stretching, Angel waved to the A.I., and said, "Night, Sherlock. Good hunting." The image of the artificial intelligence nodded once, smiling, and winked out. Walking up a set of thin metal stairs that led up to a catwalk overlooking the factory floor, Angel opened the door to his room, a refurbished manager's office. Falling on his couch, exhausted, Angel locked down the factory, halting all repairs, shutting off all lights, turning on the security systems, and securing every blast door in the building. Fading into unconsciousness, Angel remembered to hook up with the security system, waking up at any intrusion of any kind. Then, the young Meta finally went to sleep, tired beyond belief.
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