Hound55

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

I'll be fine though, having only heard of snow from fairy tales and weary traveller's stories from far away lands...

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

"Hound was unavailable for comment, but seemed to be in high spirits, laughing extensively at the news..."

"BAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! MINE! IT'S ALL MINE!"

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Isaac woke from his own bed with a jolt, as if he had electricity running through his veins. It’d been a few days since he’d woken in the hospital and he’d made short worse of leaving without a trace. Unhooking himself, stealing his file from the nurse’s room and making an unceremonious exit between their nightly rounds out the window.

Since then he’d put himself to work on establishing himself once more in this version of Lost Haven. Again, he leased several properties under a wide array of pseudonyms, with rent funneled via an untraceable offshore account carefully selected for its own lax extradition laws. None of the houses or apartments were particularly fancy, but they’d all serve a purpose. A quick refuge and a way of splitting his time, leaving no set patterns in terms of his place of residence.

He’d learned a lot about how to protect an identity over the past decade. And in this world, he knew that there were no cost for those experiences.

He also had the pleasant surprise to find that his trip to Gunny Bracken had paid off. Presumably, the old man had seen his exploits on what they now called “D-Day” and packed a kit bag full of supplies, leaving at the previously agreed upon dead drop.

In terms of his other activities, and alternate “nightlife” he’d been pretty quiet since that night. The finger had been healing, and he knew his priorities should be towards setting himself up. Bouncing around fighting a one man war, unprepared, and with less than full dexterity did not seem remotely intelligent. He knew there were others who could pick up slack in the short term – it’s not like the world was going anywhere, not yet anyway – and he had no cover story. A stranger from a foreign land with little plausible reason or alibi for being anywhere.

That was what he was getting ready for now...

He dressed decently, Terrarian Warriors jersey his response to the bitter cold weather, and shaved to make his first impression a respectable one. He checked the mirror and straightened the crooked collar over. Big day this one.

Isaac pulled the car up into the Visitors car park of Lost Haven University and stepped out. He walked across to the main quad where a girl 5 to 7 years his junior stood with a clipboard and a bottle of water.

A clipboard, a bottle of water and a group of kids closer to 10 years younger than himself.

“Okay! We’ve lot’s to go through today, and I have about 5 more groups to go through this morning!” she explained with far more enthusiasm than Isaac saw as necessary – or even possible – for what must surely be a tedious task at hand. The girl crossed off names on the clipboard and took off, with the group scrambling behind.

Isaac no longer had to ask himself the question of why she had the bottle of water on an otherwise cold and overcast day.

Isaac got dragged around several areas and sections of the school that had no relevance to himself. The sciences wing, dorms, had the odd frat house pointed out as they passed, the gymnasium. The girl pointed out a distant building as the Legal/Historic wing, which was of interest to him since he’d have a number of classes there, but was informed there’d visit that later in the tour.

“No time now! We hit that on the way back around!” she called back, zooming onwards ever faster. She had stragglers at this point, a few struggling to keep up with her breakneck pace. But the girl had a mission.

Liberal Arts building, more dorms, the on-campus post office, campus security building, Medical wing... Then Isaac saw something which took him back and gave him a nostalgic feeling he just couldn’t explain. The sports field they were passing. A dozen or so students playing rugby in the Maine mist and mud. Isaac gazed across the pitch with a smile crossing his face. He hadn’t played for years, but still it was something from home.

A mud-covered student limped to the side. Isaac looked for the girl leading the group but she was long gone. Apparently his wistful few seconds had been longer than they had felt.

“Oi kid. Need one more? Which way were you going?”

The student pointed in a direction, but Isaac never saw. He was already 20 metres across the pitch, running towards the ball.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Good stuff, Ded.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Helps with logic. Same with mathematics.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Good intentions dashed. Got home, just poured myself into bed and passed out.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

Hopefully should have time to get something up tonight.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to walk and run and climb and dance; one can not fly into flying.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Earlier

A solitary figure burst out of Little Ulster, the day the sky turned and the the space between spaces dissolved, creating a portal to Hell. Dennis Connolly had trained a little with his grandfather, but not for this. Nothing approaching this scale.

After all, what could prepare a man for the End of Days?

What would his grandfather tell him? “Keep calm, think clearly and do what you can”? He didn’t know if the old man had ever said those words to him, but in this instance they sounded right.

“No use to anyone dead, and you’re still new with this.” He thought to himself. The Golden Rod was a powerful tool, but Dennis was still very much an amateur with it. His grandfather and even Sean - who barely had the Golden Rod for a year and a half - could make it do things far beyond Dennis’ ability.

Far below him, Dennis saw demons terrifying the people of the now aptly-named Lost Haven. Dennis winced and turned his focus to a problem he felt he could solve, identifying a fire in a block of apartments caused by a car being hurled into the building by one of these dark beasts.

Dennis flies through a high level building’s window and…

...nearly explodes as a fireball blasts him back out of the building.

“Oh… right… fire feeds on oxygen.” He said, realizing his mistake. “Such an ID-iot! Less than a minute at this and I already nearly died…”

“Help..!” He barely heard a weak voice call from deeper inside the building. Forcing his negative thoughts aside he created a weak forcefield around himself with the Golden Rod and flew deeper into the burning building.

“HELLO?! Does anyone need help?! Call out! Let me know where you are!”

“In here…” The voice called, a little louder this time.

Dennis flew through and found an old lady pinned under a supporting beam.

“Oh God… I’ll get you out of there! Stay calm!”

Dennis first tried to lift the beam, but then found he couldn’t. It was a main structural beam that was holding the whole side of the building up.

“Alright, we have a problem here. I can’t lift the beam…”

“WHAT? What kind of damned hero are you? Get me out of--”

“I haven’t finished. I can’t lift the beam. But I think I can break it off. I think I can get you out of there, but the building might come down…”

“GET ME OU--”

Dennis got the message. Desperate times, desperate measures and all that junk. He eyed a fair way up the supporting beam, not wanting the cut off segment to drop right on her.

“On three! One-two…” Dennis never gave a three, he used the Golden Rod to sever the beam, scooped the old lady out and flew the pair out the nearest window - another fireball in tow - in seconds.

“My house…” the old lady moaned, once safely on the ground. Dennis barely heard. He’d pushed himself more than he could ever remember and just realized there may be others still inside. The weight of the building had shifted and the top two floors had sunk in on the corner he retrieved the old lady from.

“My Katie!” another lady yelled, pointing to her apartment. She’s still up there!

Seconds later, Dennis was back down with Katie in his arms.

“Alright, got Katie… now is there anyone else up there? And this time, if we could go with people rather than pet Yorkshire terriers first, that’d be greatly appreciated…”

* * * * *

Now

The old man spoke, the grandson listened.

“Overall, you did OK. I mean, sure you made mistakes, but people lived because of what you did today. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about. I mean, me? Your brother? You think we never made mistakes?”

The silence was deafening, as both were immediately reminded of the one mistake that Sean made which neither of them would never forget.

“It’s a learning curve, and frankly you far surpassed my expectations.”

“I’m still alive,” Dennis thought pessimistically, “so I far surpassed my own.”

* * * * *

Earlier

After numerous trips back into the burning building, Dennis stood doubled over on the street coughing violently.

“It’s alright. You did it, everyone’s out…”

“‘s not that. My grandpa… my parents told me… I should give up smoking… starting… to think… not a bad idea… ugh.” he spat into the drain.

RARRGH!

A demon bellowed in the street. The people screamed. Dennis quickly straightened with a surge of adrenaline. Reflexively, he drew down and fired an energy bolt at the beast with the Golden Rod. The demon hollered again, this time in pain. It reached across the street, looking for something to beat the cause of his pain with an chose a brown SUV.

It moved so fast. So strong. Dennis’ eyes doubled in size as it raised the car over it’s head. Instinctively he pointed the Golden Rod and…

...for a fraction of a second, the demon seemed trapped in two places. Somehow both frozen in place, and stretched out, as if dragged back towards the epicentre of it all - the portal - before it suddenly ceased to be.

But there was still the car. Held upside down by one of Dennis’ flimsy anti-gravity fields.

“MOVE! NOW! GET OUT OF THERE! I can’t hold it!”

Quickly, the people inside struggled with seatbelts and doors, managing to get out and dive clear. The person in the passenger seat fell under the car though. Struggling to escape the car after opening the door upside-down.

“GNN! GET OUT!!” Dennis struggled under the strain.

Finally, the young boy managed to dive clear. The Aquilifer dropped the car on it’s roof which crumpled under the weight of the rest of the SUV.

Dennis lay on the street gulping in air.

“Can’t say I care about the gas consumption… But would it kill you to have a smaller car..?”

* * * * *

Now

“But what you need to understand, Dennis, is that it IS a learning curve. And that’s not a finish, it’s a start.”

“You held up a couple of tons for a few seconds. That’s more than impressive for a normal man. But we shouldn’t be grading you on that scale. The things this Golden Rod can do… The things you will be able to do WITH the Golden Rod. With time, those two tons will be like child’s play.”

“You’ll be able to move 4 times that much.” The old man smiled.

“Now do it again.”

“I still don’t get it. The Rod does that… why are you making me lift weights? Hit the bag?”

“Because the bond with the Rod does it. Not the Rod. The Rod AND you. And the more prepared you are, the more you’ll be able to do. Now do it again.”

Dennis squatted with some paltry weights across the bar. The sum of the weight not as important as the understanding that one day it would be much more.

The old man sat back in his chair with his legs crossed watching CNN. So many new faces, new players. The game had changed beyond Alan years ago. He’d struggled to prepare Sean for it, too many years had passed. But it was all important now. Know the players, know the game. Icon was huge in the media, Alan couldn’t have missed his exploits if he’d tried, but some of the others… the news said a mercenary, some recent newcomers, an armoured powerhouse working for the organization called S.T.R.I.K.E which was recently pushed into the light (and were trying hard to return to the shadows, from what Alan could gather), and another.

The footage replayed in front of Alan for what could have been a dozen times or a hundred over the past 24 hours. A mysterious man in black walking to the wormhole and punching it out of existence. Alan furrowed his brow. That one in particular, something wasn’t right. Call it prejudice, call it instinct, something about that one… he knew he’d eventually somehow be a problem. Maybe it was because he was from another time. Good guys just didn’t wear black.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

What are your needs for it?

Because we might have something suitable that already exists.

Create-A-Hero: A Superhero RPG (Closed)

New computer and had to factory reset my phone...

Stuff coming in the next few days.