Dedonus

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

@Crosswire: Accepted.

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

@Crosswire: Once you made the edits that we discussed in Discord, your app will be accepted.

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

Christopher Arthur III

Chris sat at his desk while he peered over the small amount of evidence he had on the Hounds of Humanity. He started with metahuman traffickers, whom he and Slipstream, a new speedster on the west coast, had booked the night before. This incident occurred prior to the big world-wide broadcast that the Hounds used to reveal themselves. The first lead in this case was the white van that the Hounds were using to traffic the metahumans. However, the Hounds were at least smart enough not to register under their name. In fact, the plates on the vehicle revealed that it belonged to a local utilities repair company and had been reported stolen a few months ago.

Inquiry into both the victims and the perpetrators was equally fruitless. The metahumans who were being trafficked were high-risk victims since their “powers” made it difficult for them to blend into the rest of society, unlike some of the current heroes, like Icon and Lyger, who looked nearly identical to a regular person, or like the Albany kids, who can fake a normal appearance with technology. It was also taking some time to dig up dirt on the Hounds involved. He would have to wait for the Tri-P Police to conclude their initial investigation until Chris could work more on this angle.

The Hound’s worldwide broadcast was equally frustrating. Tracing the video back to its source had been just a wild goose chase. The signal bounced from server to server, country to country until it was evident that discovering where it was broadcasted was hopeless. He even tried using what he learned from Doctor Diplodoc’s broadcast when he announced his intent on bestowing metahuman powers upon the entire human race. But even this did not produce any results.

Other than S.T.R.I.K.E., the other targets that the Hounds more or less burned to the ground did not seem like relevant targets for the Hounds. The little S.T.R.I.K.E. intelligence that he could scrape up from the organization’s ashes did not shed any light on why these establishments were targets, although that did not mean Chris’ former business partners were not privy to the true dealings of those organizations, since there were secrets that S.T.R.I.K.E. even withheld from Chris’ knowledge. All Chris could do it make a wild guess that they must had some connection to the superhuman community.

Chris took one last swig of his whiskey before turning in for the night. The one thing that was biting him was the fact that he really had no solids leads on the Hounds. The only way he could advance his search for them was by the Hounds committing another atrocity, which meant more innocent lives would die. What pained his heart even more was that he was powerless at the moment to stop it.

While Chris was ascending the main flight of stairs in his mansion, he noticed that his half-sister was still watching television.

“If you’re still up when I’m heading to bed, that means it’s way too late.”

“But it’s not a school night!” Veronica pouted as she remained firmly planted on the couch.

“I’m fine with you staying up a bit later, but it’s ridiculous when it’s past four in the morning.”

“Fine,” Veronica whimpered while she dragged herself off the couch and up to bed. When she reluctantly passed Chris while making her way to her room, Chris noticed that she was not wearing her power nullifier. While her teenage rebellious nature to act contrary to what she’s told was not breaking news to Chris, he was stumped on why she still had her human appearance without wearing her power nullifier.

“Where’s your power nullifier?”

“Um…what?” Veronica asked with her usual teenage attitude.

“After last night, I’m not in the mood for your little games. I’m talking about the device I reverse engineered to hide your metahuman powers.”

“I think you better see a doctor for a concussion. I’ve never had superpowers, let along being a superhero.”

Veronica then turned and continued to her bedroom. Chris, on the other hand, remained on the stair case. Chris knew he was not going insane. He was in West Virginia where he saw Veronica’s serpentine abilities manifest. At first, he wondered if she had had some help curing herself of her metahuman condition. However, Chris knew that this could not be the case. Her snakelike abilities gave her one more outlet for acting like a rebellious teenager. And now that S.T.R.I.K.E. was more or less defunct, she would have even more license to be lax about her metahuman status.

Something strange was going on. First it was William Kovacs, who had called himself the Game Genie. He had no clue who the majority of the publicly known heroes were, except for maybe Icon. He also continued on about wanting to face a superhuman who went by the alias the Blue Blur. However, when Chris checked the database that he salvaged from the S.T.R.I.K.E. servers moments before Hounds blasted the spy organization to kingdom come, he could not find any recorded individual by that handle. Then, last night there was Newton, who was convinced that his family had blinked out of existence. And now, his own sister showed no signs of being a metahuman.

The last thing I need is another mystery to investigate. Chris thought as he once again headed to his bedroom. On top of the terrorist attacks instigated by the Hounds of Humanity, he also needed to look into the prison break that allowed Doctor Diplodoc and his associates waltz out of a S.T.R.I.K.E. containment facility. He was just fortunate that only the villains who had allied with the doctor escaped. All the rest of the prisoners were accounted for. After the Hounds had dismantled S.T.R.I.K.E., the United States government took the initiative to seize the facility to prevent any more villains from finding their way out. At least this would allow Chris to look in a few leads in both the Hounds and whatever was going on with the Game Genie, Newton, and his sister.

Chris was going to have many sleepless nights over the next few weeks and, unfortunately for Chris, none of them would be caused by Maya.

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

@twibble: Could you elaborate on your character's powers, especially the transformation part and how it translates into the speed and strength stats that you gave your character?

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

@twibble: Only GM approved CS should be posted in the character tab. If you are interested in the game, please post the CS in the OOC first.

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

<Snipped quote by Dedonus>

Yeah. It mostly comes from his cheetah form, which is the fastest of his forms.

@IrishAngelQueen

Then your CS is now accepted.

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

@nitemare shape@Hound55@Dedonus

The Nordic Gent

Lokyn Greywall

Physical Description:
At six feet eight inches, Lokyn towers above most people, and is tall, lean and muscled despite what his slim frame might tell you. With feathery, shoulder length hair that's dark mahogany at the top and slowly fades into light brown naturally, his hazel-amber eyes are alluring to some and unsettling to most. His high cheekbones and creamy, flawless skin make up for it though, and though he doesn't look the type, he has nordic rune tattoos on his right forearm as well as his parents names in the same letters.
Alias
Nattklov(Not-Clohv): Norwegian-Night Claw
Speech Color (Actually say what you're using): PaleTurquoise
Character Alignment: Hero
Identity: Secret.
Character Personality:Lokyn is usually calm, except for when someone or something he deems as his and belonging to him is in danger or being taken away, or when he sees animals, children and women being abused. He's hard to anger, enjoys animals, swimming, dancing and playing the guitar. He's very pro LGBTQ, all about women, children and animal rights, and refuses to talk politics. He's usually reserved, but if there is a conversation going on and it's a topic that interests him, will politely join in, and then he changes completely, going from quiet, to animated and excited. Lokyn believes in karma, that what you do will return to you, and that everyone should strive to be who they want to be, not who other people want them to be. When fighting, he's swift, efficient, fierce, and deadly. He has the capacity for mercy, but if it comes down to his life or that of a brutal killer, he will put the bastard down. Not a typically religious person, he respects the faiths of other people, and he would be considered a pagan. However if one tires to force their beliefs on him, he will quickly shut them down, and do it with a cold look in his eyes. His scariest emotion for other's to witness is his icy calm anger-you know shit's about to hit the fan and it's going to go everywhere.
Uniform/costume:
He wears all black leather armor, sort of like the stuff you would see an elf wear, but more form fitting.
Origin Info/Details:
Born in Reykjavík, Iceland, Lokyn was an only child to his parents. A few hours shortly after he was born, they discovered his natural claw mutation when he got upset for one of the many reasons that babies cry. Alarmed, yet accepting, they trimmed the ends so that he would not hurt himself or others with them. Growing up was somewhat hard for Lorkyn. His reserved and quiet nature made it hard for him to make friends, and so he was considered a loner. that worked just as well for him though, because he disliked the playground rama that went on, all the way up to high school. He had better things to worry than who dated who and whatnot. When he was nineteen, both of his parents died when a drunk driver crashed into them. All three people died that day, and Lokyn swore to never ever have more than one small glass of alcohol. He refused to let someone drive home drunks, buzzed or tipsy. It didn't matter if you were a stranger het met at bar or a co worker-he would insist on driving you home or calling a taxi for you.

When he turned twenty-three he moved to the US and bought a house. It was fairly large, and he didn't want to live alone, so he put out an ad for a housemate to share the bills. Two weeks after he first sent the ad out, CC showed up. The Frenchman's acerbic nature and biting sarcasm quickly endeared him to Lokyn and the two have been friends since then.
Hero Type (Select one):
Shapeshifter/Acrobat
Power Level (Select one below):
City
Powers (Be Specific):
He has claws that can extend from his second knuckles and curve over his fingertips, like diamond hard bone
armor. These claws are wickedly sharp, like sharpened razor blades. He also has heightened senses and can shift into feline and canine shapes, from Lion to housecat, wolf to chihuahua. He can change his pupils to the slit feline type to better see in darkness, and his canine teeth are longer and sharper than the average human's.
Attributes (Select one at each category):

Height:
6'8
Weight:
129 lbs
Strength Level:
60 tons
Speed/Reaction Timing Level:
80 mph
Endurance at MAXIMUM Effort:
5 hours
Agility:
15x Human level
Intelligence:
genius
Fighting Skill:
Mastered

Resources:
Large-ish. he has tons of armor and several mach bikes as well as a few Harleys stashed somewhere.
Weaknesses:
With his heightened senses, extremely loud noises, strong scents, and uncomfortable sensations can make him nauseous, dizzy and weak. If not careful, he can be easily trapped when in his smaller shapes, and therefore kidnapped and held for ransom or to be tortured. He has to be wary at all times of what shape he takes and where in each situation.
Supporting Characters (Does your character have a significant other? A mother? Friend? Who are they, what do they have to do with your character?):
He has a friend Named CC who's just a human who helps pay half of the bills on the house.
Do you know how to post pictures on RPG boards?:
Yeah.
Sample Post (Minimum Four paragraphs containing dialogue. As this is an Advanced Level game, Sample must also meet the RPG forum's minimum requirement of 12 lines. Only for first time applicants.):
The blaring of an extremely annoying alarm clock was the precursor to a certain acrobatic shapeshifter's dark morning mood, all dark clouds and swearing in Norwegian, Icelandic, English and at least three other languages. That is, until he had his morning cup of coffee. As the wording on his shirt said, "Today's good mood is sponsored by Coffee."
He'd found it one day when looking at the graphic tshirts in the men's clothing department. At the sound of bare feet padding on cold stone tile, swearing in the often flowery sounding language of French, he turned to see his friend and housemate of three years. Cutler Coma Argeneau was tall for a human at six foot six, and dashingly handsome with dark brown hair that barely reached past his jaw and storm grey eyes.

"Mornin," Lokyn offered the European male a cup of coffee. The male took it, muttering in French, took a few sips and relaxed slightly.
Neither one of them were morning people, even though both of their jobs oft required them to wake up at the ungodly ass-crack of dawn and keep odd hours, sometimes all nighters. They'd both pulled all-weekers a few times. Boy, by then end of the last all-weeker had ended,
Lokyn had been on the edges of his sanity. It had definitely been hell on his senses.

"Why in the hell you always wake up so awfully early i will never understand, mon ami," CC told his friend. Lokyn shrugged.

"I forgot how to reset my alarm clock and have no patience to relearn lately," he replied. CC snorted a laugh in camaraderie. He knew what that was like.

"Plans, min venn?" Lokyn asked, taking another sip of the sweet brown liquid that was surely the creation of the gods. CC shook his head.

"Non," he replied. "Marie has given me the rest of the month off to relax. She practically kicked me out, saying if she had to listen to me complain about whoever's idea it was to set up the work schedule the way it is must have been the product of several farm animals." the Icelandic male choked on a laugh and had to set his cup down to prevent himself from dropping it.

"Gudene har barmhjertighet, CC," he laughed. "Marie may well wash your mouth out with soap herself you keep it up." CC rubbed a hand along the back of his neck in slight embarrassment.

"I'll ask her our first, and if she says yes, i'll gladly let her make me eat soap," he said. "Solid liquid, inbetween, i wouldn't give a damn." Lokyn raised an eyebrow in slight mockery.

"Only took you six months to work up the guts, great job," he mocked. CC punched him in the arm. Hard. Lokyn Laughed and rubbed it.

"Well, I'm going to hit the shower and then go to work," he said, fist bumping him. "have a good day, CC."

"You too, mon ami."

@IrishAngelQueen

I have one question before I accept this CS. Does his high speed and strength stat come from his shapeshifting ability?

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

@IrishAngelQueen I'll take a look and get back as soon as I am done.

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

Christopher Arthur III

“I’ve got you.”

Chris pressed one of the metallic hands of his Iron Knight armor against the back of the last police officer who had been trapped on the ceiling by Newton. His other hand was slicing away the spider silk that Arachne had used to prevent the officer from falling to his death. Once he had severed the last strand keeping the man tethered to the roof, Chris swung his free arm around and caught the man’s legs. Now that he had secured the last officer, Chris began to descend to the ground.

An applause from the crowd attending the charity event erupted once Chris touched down and released the police officer. Photographers had already set up shop around his expected landing site and immediately captured the moment with their digital cameras.

“It was nothing,” Chris said to the crowd, “Just doing my civic duty.”

“Can we take pictures with you in your armor?” Someone in the crowd shouted out.

“This is a very dangerous piece of equipment. I would not be surprised if the U.S. government would consider it a Weapon of Mass Destruction,” Chris replied. “But I consider myself at least a somewhat responsible person. But I have to make sure one more hostage is safe before we do any pictures.”

“Don’t worry. I got her.” Chris turned towards the staircase that lead to one of the outdoor balconies, where he found Maya standing next to Arachne. The drideresque superheroine had also carried in Newton, who had been tied up with Arachne’s spider silk and was still knocked out. Maya dashed down the stairs, pulling the bottom of her dress away from her feet so that she would not trip and fall flat on her face. Arachne followed behind her, but at a walking pace.

When he saw Maya running in his direction, Chris immediately activated the exit protocol that allowed him to get out of his armor. Almost like clockwork, various pieces of his armor slide open and allowed him to step out of the power suit. Chris had switched into the sleek flight suit that he would normally wear in the armor before he began his rescue effort for the police officers. He opened up his arms and embraced Maya when she jumped into his arms.

“We haven’t always seen eye to eye, but thank you for saving Maya.”

“I would be a bad superhero if I refused, wouldn’t I?”

While he was still embracing Maya, Chris stretched out his arm towards Arachne. She hesitated for a moment, but eventually she accepted Chris’ handshake. After this thankful gesture, Chris placed his arm around Maya’s shoulder and walked back towards his Iron Knight armor.

---

Aubrey Adkins

For the next hour or so, everyone was crowding around Chris, trying to take turns taking pictures with his armor. While I did get a few photo requests, although some of them couldn’t tell the difference between me and Spider-Man, almost everyone’s attention was on Chris. Not that I really minded that. In fact, this situation gave me the perfect opportunity to sneak out. While everyone’s camera was pointed at Chris, I began my escape. However, I was unfortunate enough to have been spotted by one person.

“You really thought you could sneak out of here without me noticing?” I turned around and found Emily hurrying up the stairs to catch me before I left. It did not surprise me that she was still dragging me (or rather the decoy that Athena had created) around with her. In the hand that she was not using to grab onto my duplicate’s wrist, Emily held the same autograph book that she had asked Chris to sign earlier that night. When she caught up to me, Emily offered the book to me.

“Do you mind?” Emily asked.

“Um…I guess it wouldn’t hurt.” I pulled the book out of my friend’s hand, signed my superhero handle on one of the empty pages, snapped the it shut, and handed it back. However, once Emily got the book back, I suddenly realized that I goofed up big time. I made no conscious effort to change my handwriting. While I was smart enough not to write my real name, the “A” and “R” might be just enough to raise some awkward questions.

“Are you okay with a picture, too?” Emily then inquired. I hesitated at first, since I had already made one mistake already by not altering my handwriting when giving an autograph. But since Emily was my friend and I felt I could trust her, I caved and agreed to being photographed.

While Emily searched for someone to take a picture of the three of us, I got to get a good look at the duplicate that Athena created. I still can’t believe how real she looked. Even I might have been fooled by it, and I’m the original! When I took another look at the dress that I had picked out for this charity event, it brought back Maya’s initial comment about me. God, did that dress really reveal that much cleavage? No wonder she thought I was a pornstar. Guess I’ll be benching that dress.

Once I had finished taking that picture with Emily and my copy (I need to remember to ask Emily for a copy of that image. It might be useful for plausible deniability that I’m not Arachne), I finally slipped out of the event and crawled up to the rooftop of a nearby building. Athena was standing there, waiting for me.

“So, is it time to switch places again with my cloud copy down there?”

“No.” Athena stated without looking at me. “You’re going to have to wait until she gets back to your apartment before it is safe to switch back.

“Wait. What? Why can’t we switch back? I mean, it is over a dozen blocks to the Viera apartment complex!”

“Let’s just say that the process of acquiring the apparition’s memories is quite the unpleasant experience.”

“And why did you not mention this before?”

“Rest assured, there won’t be any physical pain. You will just appear like you’re freaking out or having a seizure. I doubt you want that to happen in public.”

“Well, I guess I now know why you haven’t been generously using this to cover for me.”

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

Kelly Brown | Jeanette Forestier | Samantha Kadowsky | Taylor Parks | Zac Wilson

Zac paced away from the circle where the four other girls were sitting. While he did care about helping out those who were affected by the incident in Washington Park, watching Sammy and Kelly paint Jeanette’s avian talons as if they were just human nails was not quite what he had in mind. It also did not help that he was the only person in his superhero costume instead of civilian clothes, making him appear more like a superpowered bodyguard rather than someone who was attending the support group. What would they do if the Hounds of Humanity would strike during the meeting? Sure, Zac, Kelly, and Sammy were not rookies anymore, but they have never faced a threat like the Hounds.

When the door to the classroom that they were using swung open, Zac unsheathed the three claws in his right knuckles. If the person who was walking in were an extremist from the Hounds, Zac’s speed would give him enough time to close in on that individual before that guy could get off a round of fire. However, instead of finding someone decked in tactical gear, a man wearing a black jacket and jeans stood in the doorway. His t-shirt had an AC-DC graphic printed on its face.

“Woah, now. I’m just here for the meeting,” The man exclaimed while raising his hands above his shaved head. However, when he noticed that there were four girls in the room with Zac being the only guy, the man grinned. “I half expected this to be a sausage party. Glad I was way wrong.”

“So, what’s your powers?” Zac demanded, checking to make sure he’s actually here to take part in the support group. He knew that his tone probably made it seem more confrontational than it needed to be, but they could not afford to let their guard down with the Hounds at large.

“Well, my name is Darren, first of all.” Darren said since Zac asked him about his powers before his name. “For my powers, well, they’re kind of contradictory. While I can breathe underwater, swim better than I could, etc., I can also do this.

Darren held his hands out in front of him. A small flame appeared in the palms of both of his hands and nestled itself there. He then clinched his hands, which caused the flames to be extinguished.

“When have you ever seen water and fire powers mixed together? Weird, right?”

However, before anyone could comment on Darren’s powers, they all heard a window on one side of the classroom shatter, which showered the floor right behind where the four girls were sitting with glass. A small, spherical object had been lobbed from the ground in front of the building through the broken window. It struck Taylor in the back of the head. However, instead of ricocheting off her and falling to the ground, Taylor’s powers absorbed the device into her body.

“What just hit me?” A faint silhouette of the spherical object cold be seen through her semi-translucent skin while it slowly descended down from her neck to her stomach, as if it were going through the digestive system that she no longer had due to her powers.

But the six metahumans soon found out what the device was when it exploded, spattering the room and the people inside of it with the slime-like substance that Taylor’s body consisted of. The room was filled with the screams of the three girls, first because they thought they were done for. After they realized that the explosion had not killed them, they were then more freaked out because they were now soaked in what used to be their Taylor.

“It’s in my hair!” Sammy complained. “I knew karma would get me for stepping on her!”

“Your hair? What about my wings.” Jeanette said while beating her wings to fling off the goo in her feathers.

Meanwhile, the slime began to congregate back together, crawling back into a single pile. Even some of the goo that had fell out the window scaled up the wall so that it could reunite with the rest of the mass. Once whole again, two egg-shaped ovals appeared in the little blob. When the color of these ovals changed in a way as if they looked like they were blinking, it was clear that they were supposed to be eyes.

“Are you alright?” Kelly asked what she assumed was Taylor. The little blob gave her a shrug, or at least as much of a shrug that her current form would allow.

“Looks like we have company.” Zac stated while looking out of the window. He saw several black-clad men, armed to the teeth with military-grade weapons, rushed into the entrance of their campus building. “Darren, I need you to trip the fire alarm. Just don’t burn down the building.”

The frantic stress of the situation momentarily paralyzed Darren. Most people will never experience a life-or-death scenario. The cozy lifestyle of the average person usually does not prepare them for such an experience. When inside the comfort of one’s own home, you can boast that you can handle danger, but once it happens, things quickly begin to become real. Once he had recollected himself, Darren grabbed one of the desks in the classroom and pulled it underneath the smoke detector. He jumped up onto the desk and pulled a one dollar bill from his wallet.

“Why must there not be any paper?” Darren muttered under his breath before igniting the green currency in his palms. He held up the smoking remains of the dollar over his head as close to the smoke detector as he could. It only took a few seconds before the fire alarm began to ring.

Meanwhile, Kelly removed the empty trash bag from the wastebasket in the classroom and set the trash can on its side in front of Taylor. The little slime blob peered at the container, then at Kelly, then back to the container. She then oozed her way into the can and, when Kelly stood the trash can upright, Taylor’s “eyes” resurfaced at the top. Afterwards, Kelly picked up the trash can, with Taylor still inside of it, and shoved it into Sammy’s arms.

“Jean will fly you two over to the next building’s rooftop. I’ll take the two boys.” Meanwhile, Zac was sliding open a window open on the opposite side of the room, the side without the broken window.

“I’ve only flown once!” Jean warned Kelly. “I’m not ready to carry someone at the same time!”

“You better learn quick,” Kelly asserted. She then turned her attention back to Sammy, who was giving her a look as if she wanted to beg her best friend to take her instead of Jean. Nevertheless, Kelly nudged her to the window and tried to console her that she would be standing right here, just in case.

“You’ve leapt off a building before. You should be fine!”

“But that was with Lyger!” Sammy said and she immediately turned toward Jeanette. “No offense.”

“None taken.” Jeanette answered Sammy.

First, they helped Sammy up onto the ledge outside of the window. Once outside, Sammy clinched her eyes shut while pressing her back against the side of the building and holding onto the waste basket as if her life depended on it. Next, Zac and Kelly helped Jeanette up onto the edge of the window. She beat her wings several times before she took off. For a second or two, she hovered in front of the window and then rose up and landed on Sammy’s shoulders.

“Ready?” Jean asked Sammy. She could feel Sammy’s nervous trembling through her avian feet.

“No.” Sammy replied. Despite this response, Jeanette took off. At first, they rapidly fell towards the ground, which caused Sammy to scream out her lungs. It took all of Jeanette’s strength to get the two (or three, if you count Taylor) of them flying again instead of falling. Even once they were moving upward, it did not stop Sammy from continuing to scream.

“It sounds like we better get going.” Zac recommended once he heard the clatter of running footsteps that were coming in their general direction. Kelly took the cue and took a hold of both Zac and Darren. There was not any time left for them to climb on the ledge one at a time. Instead, Kelly dove out of the window back first while she still had a grasp on Zac and Darren. Her wings began to buzz back and forth right when they went out the window. She flew in a “u” shaped motion as she built up enough momentum to allow her to fly up to the next rooftop while carrying to young adult men.

Once the three metahumans landed on the rooftop, they found Jeanette and Sammy sprawled on the ground while they tried to catch their breaths. In addition, Sammy had already pulled her cell phone out from her pocket and was talking to someone on the other end of the line.

“This isn’t the time for…” Kelly began to complain, but Sammy cut her off by placing her index finger over her mouth. Sammy then continued to talk into her phone.

“We’re at Adams Hall. Please hurry!” Sammy said. Zac and Kelly guessed that she must have dialed 9-1-1 as soon as Jeanette landed on the rooftop.

Suddenly, a bullet whirled past Kelly’s shoulder, missing by only a few inches. The boom of the gunfire caused Zac to immediately pull Kelly to the ground, despite being shorter than his girlfriend. Darren followed suit and hit the ground so that he too would not be in firing distance.

“Yes, that was gun fire.” Sammy cried into her phone to the 9-1-1- operator.