HenryJonesJr

Avengers: Heroes United!

"Okay, enough awready," Sandman grunted, straining to hold enough of his form to talk. "I was contacted, 'bout a week ago. Guy wants ta use me for a job, tells me he knows Cap'n here is gonna be in town today. All's I gotta do is show up at the right time, make some noise, get yer attention. He wires half a mill inta my account the night he calls me, says I'll get the other half afterwards. Easy money."

Already knowing what the follow-up questions will be, Marko continued.

"B'fore ya ask, no, I don't know who it is," he said. "Never met the guy in person, never sawr'is face, only spoke ta him once over a burner phone. Couldn't make out half a' what he was sayin, on account a his real thick accent. Sounded like, I dunno, some kinda Euro-trash."

Forming a crude pair of arms, Sandman held up a pair of hands submissively.

"Tha'ss all I know, swear ta God," he said. "Now lock me up, take me to the Vault or wherever, just get me away from that freakin' duck."

@AndyC

The Sandman's words roll edaround in Captain America's head as the sound of SHIELD helicopters approached from the distance. Whoever hired Marko knew where Steve would be today. That was a worrying thought. Captain America was a lot of things, but surprised was rarely one of them. Did this mean SHIELD had a mole inside its ranks? Was there someone in Brooklyn spying on him? Whatever the case was, the Avenger was not happy to be played like this.

Suddenly, two SHIELD choppers, powered by Stark's repulsor technology touched down in Times Square. From one stepped Sharon, and from the other stepped Cap's friend Phil Coulson. The two approached, and Coulson nodded to the heroes, "Good work. We'll take Marko from here."

"Thanks, Coulson," he nodded to the agent. "I'll be in for a full debrief, but tell Fury that Marko was a distraction. Bait. Someone wanted to lure anyone's attention they could towards him, and away from whatever the real plan was."

As Coulson slipped a pair of power-dampening cuffs on the criminal, Agent 13 gave Steve a kiss on the cheek, "Glad you're okay....is that a duck?"

"Thanks, Spidey. Don't know how we would have handled that sign situation without you," he slapped the younger hero on the shoulder. He always liked Spider-Man. The kid was almost constantly in over his head, yet still managed to make it out of any situation. If Steve was being honest, he reminded him of himself from before the Super Soldier Serum. Spidey was never afraid to tangle with someone way stronger than he was. It was always good to have someone like that on your side.

Rogers then turned to the duck wearing the weird glove, "And...thank you. I take it you were the one that calmed everyone down and had them evacuating safely? And rhythmically?"

Avengers: Heroes United!

All good. Maybe we should try and check in when we're writing replies moving forward? That way we're not stepping on one anothers' toes?

Avengers: Heroes United!

" 'course, you was here back when the Dodgers was here, too," he said, his hands turning into masses of quills. "Speakin' of, why dontcha try dodgin' these!!!"

As the quills hardened to jagged rocky spears, Sandman flung them towards the Star-Spangled Avenger, a hail of tiny darts speeding towards the hero in a blur.

@AndyC

Cap's shield returned to him just in time to absorb the impact of most of Sandman's projectiles. Steve said a silent prayer to Howard Stark. His miraculous creation had saved Steve more times than the Avenger could count. Howard could have never dreamed all these years later his shield would still be covering Captain America's six.

Unfortunately, the shield wasn't enough to block all of Sandman's attack. Two of the quills scored grazing blows, one on his right thigh and one on his left calf. Little more than nuisance injuries, but they irked Cap none the less. Marko was nothing more than a punk. Letting him get under the Avenger's guard wasn't something Cap was proud of.

Luckily, something drew the criminal's attention away from Cap. The hero dropped his guard, and saw Spider-Man annoying the supervillain. The two had clashed many times in the past, and if anyone knew how to deal with the Sandman, it was the wall-crawler.

"Hey, Flagman! If there's any way that I could help you out, now's the time to make requests!"

@Master Bruce

Steve didn't waste any time. He pointed up towards the Hotel Carter, "Secure that sign! I'll worry about Sandman for now!"

Not wasting time to make sure Spider-Man followed his orders, Steve knew the kid would, the Captain took notice of the fire hydrant closest to Sandman. This wouldn't hurt the villain, but maybe it could slow him down until some more help arrived.

"Hey, Flint!" Captain America called out to the villain. "Time to wash your dirt off the face of New York!"

The Star-Spangled Avenger once again tossed his shield, shattering the hydrant and dousing Sandman in a torrent of water.

Avengers: Heroes United!

Brooklyn

The cup of coffee rolled idly in Steve Rogers's hand. He stared a hole into its inky-black depths before taking a sip. The bitter liquid made him wince slightly. They claimed this was the best cup of coffee in the city. Maybe it was. Cap came out of the ice a while ago, but he still couldn't wrap his mind around what the hell had happened to coffee in the time he was gone. That and beer. Whoever thought beer should taste like pine tar needed their head examined.

"If you don't like it you don't have to drink it," Sharon Carter, SHIELD's Agent 13, chuckled from across the table. She had been assigned to help him acclimate after he was thawed out, but she had become so much more. During the war, he had never considered falling in love. But now it was all he could think about. "I'm not sure you fit in with Brooklyn anymore."

Steve smirked and nodded at her, "I do tend to end up in more Snapgrams than I would normally expect."

"Snapchats, babe. Snapchats," Sharon shook her head in amusement. "We seriously need to get a pop culture refresh-"

Suddenly, both of their attentions were drawn to the TV hanging outside the cafe. A breaking news story flashed over the screen, showing Flint Marko, the Sandman, attacking Times Square.

"I'll go get the shield," Sharon got up and took off towards their apartment. "Go get your bike!"

Steve took off as well, ducking into an alley. He pushed onto the side of his wristwatch as he ran, and from it sprung his Captain America tactical armor. It spread over him like water, but in reality was a group of interlocking machines made by Tony Stark. It wasn't as strong as his armor, but it allowed Cap the freedom of movement and protection he needed.

He found his bike parked out back of the apartment, as he started it up, he looked up and saw Sharon toss him the shield. He caught it and she yelled down, "I'll get in touch with Fury! Go!"

Captain America fired up the bike, and sped off towards Manhattan.

---

Times Square

Steve weaved in and out of traffic until he saw Times Square looming a few blocks in front of him. Soon, the road was too full of traffic, and the sidewalks too choked with people to ride further. He disembarked the bike and sprinted the rest of the way. As he did, however, he noticed the people fleeing the scene weren't fleeing at all.

They were dancing.

Cap didn't have time to worry about that. He reached Times Square and found Sandman towering in the center of the landmark laughing and holding a car above his head. He looked to take aim at some of the evacuating civilians. Instead, Cap's shield cut through the sand forming his arms, causing the car to crash to the ground at the villain's feet. With a moment to take stock, Cap saw a sign above the crowd hanging on by a thread.

"Sharon, the Hotel Carter sign is about to crash into civilians," he said over his commlink. "I can keep Marko occupied, but we need someone to secure that sign."

Avengers: Heroes United!

Byrd, I hope to god Howard's podcast is about how the Philly Phanatic is a serial killer

Also, if we ever get a sandbox game going I want to see that shit play out.

Also, also Cap will be on the scene soon.

Avengers: Heroes United!

Andy, should we start putting things in the "Characters" section? Wasn't sure if you wanted to put something in the first post on there or what. Might be a good place to store the "clues" that we find about the Big Bad

Avengers: Heroes United!

<Snipped quote by HenryJonesJr>
Some people aren’t as open to Superherohype kindness, is all I’m saying. I know that I have to be comfortable writing with a group to keep having fun. If things are ridden with spelling errors, wonky characterization, and so forth I tend to want to dip out. I’m not that persnickety either.

@Inkarnate

Right, which is why I say "If they're open to constructive criticism" haha. It's a delicate balance to be sure, but I also realize I'll probably never experience the Hype days of old, may they forever rest in peace.

Avengers: Heroes United!

<Snipped quote by HenryJonesJr>
The problem with not having higher standards is those we end up writing with, I think. I think that’s been the biggest struggle since these things moved from Superherohype to RPG. Bigger audience and sometimes the quality drop effects morale just as much as posting “term paper posts” do. I’m sure there is a good middle ground somewhere.

@Inkarnate

Eh, we had not-so-great quality at the Hype sometimes as well. Hell, I know I sucked when I first started. But as long as players are open to constructive criticism and the like, we could bring them along.

Avengers: Heroes United!

I do like the minimalistic approach with sheets here, though. It’s just nice to not spend weeks on a CS and stammer like an idiot when it comes time to post.

@Inkarnate

I don't ever plan on leaving a mid-to-high casual setting for games again. Mostly because one of my issues with posting droughts is I feel pressure to keep up with people writing term-paper-length posts every 2 days and get instantly burnt out.

Avengers: Heroes United!

I think we do this every single time we get excited. It may be best to not repeat history here and divert our attention in five different directions.

Though I do have that Gotham City sandbox game I’m working on…

@Inkarnate

Oh I'm not even thinking about starting another game until this wraps up, to be clear.

I'll fiddle with my OU concept as we go, so as long as we see this one through I can follow it up with OU.