collab between @shylarah, @Silver Carrot, @Blizz, @Rabidporcupine, @Scarifar, @Zoey Boey
Sept. 14th, 2029With the threat of the Fiendish Five dealt with, and Amuné patched up, Jareth contacted Alisa. He wanted to know how the orientation for new heroes had gone, outside of the attack. When he heard that the heroes there were planning to get pizza, he grinned.
“Alisa, please let the folks at orientation know that I’ll be bringing the pizza in from New Athens and set up in the cafeteria. ETA what, an hour? an hour and a half? Something like that. It’ll save them the cost of delivery and tip if I pick it up from the store directly.”With that settled, he and Amuné made their way back to Jareth’s car and headed to the nearest pizza joint. Even with the holiday, not everyone had the day off work. Amuné had ordered ahead -- three large cheeses, two large pepperoni, and one large sausage, for a total of six pizzas. They were ready by the time the two heroes arrived, so it was just a matter of grabbing them and heading back to Hero One.
It took longer than usual to drive across town, but they arrived at Hero One within the promised hour and a half. To their surprise, however, one of the new heroes was absolutely huge. There was no way she could get inside the cafeteria to join the party.
“Alright, change of plans. We’re eating outside.” Amuné shifted the weight of the three pizzas she carried and nodded toward the large front lawn.
“That’ll do for a location. C’mon.”The pair set the pizza boxes in a pile on the grass, with Amuné guarding them while Jareth went to fetch a folding table.
Eventually, after everything had calmed down a bit, Joseph returned to the beach, not really sure what to do at that point. He didn’t really want to leave yet, feeling like he’d rather stick around until he was sure everything was sorted, both with the pair of villains and with Eva’s shoulder. The injury might’ve been small, but he knew as well as anyone how badly small injuries could grow out of control if you weren’t careful, and he wasn’t super into the idea of going back to the shed he lived in just to spend the rest of the day worrying about the ‘what ifs’ of his teammate’s health.
However, it was as he was sort of doing that very thing that he smelled something, and looked back over to the grass to see a young woman standing around some very familiar flat boxes, a similarly young man running towards the building.
"Oh right, forgot about the pizza stuff for a bit there..." he said, sitting on the grass beside the pizzas and their current guardian.
"Guessing you’re another new recruit who was part of the parade crew, huh? Name’s Joseph, nice to meetcha!"Amuné took in the man’s appearance. He wore a lot of layers, even though it wasn’t all that cold, and his hair was a mess. Clean-shaven, though, and he didn’t smell at all.
Probably not homeless, despite the vibe he gives off, she decided. “Today was an unexpected first day on the job,” she replied.
“I’m Amuné, hero name Oracle.”Ting Feng had finished a lap around the island when she saw new people arrive. The ten meter hero carefully made her way over and knelt down like she usually did when communicating with people.
“Hello, everyone. Did you hear about the attack? Awfully strange. We didn’t get to finish our easter egg hunt.” She glanced around.
“I think I dropped one around here...anyway. My name is Ting Feng, also known as Crane.”Amuné looked up at the tall hero, and gave her a wave.
“I’m Amuné -- or Oracle, if I’m wearing my mask. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I did indeed hear about the trouble here, and it wasn’t the only one. Villains turned up at the parade, too -- it was a coordinated attack, with the primary target being Hero One.”Ting Feng frowned.
“How awful. All they did here was attack the innocent Assistant Director. They did not seem inclined to listen to reason, though, some heroes here were certainly more aggressive than others. Regardless! It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.” She waved again. Not one for handshakes.
”Are you having food?”“We are! We, uh, didn’t know more than a headcount, though, so we might have to get more if you want more than a whole pizza to yourself. Would you like cheese or pepperoni?” Amuné figured a whole pizza would be roughly equivalent to a single slice for Tina.
“They’re already cut, so be careful when you pick it up or it’ll come apart.”Ting Feng put her finger to her lips, thoughtfully.
”...That is okay! Thank you for offering. I don’t want to eat a whole pizza.”Madison had driven her motorbike from the East Side H.E.R.O garage to Hero One only to find everything wrapped up by the time she got there. Throughout all of this, she’d still been dressed in her civilian clothes. She was even still wearing her entry lanyard for the convention hall around her neck. Having just returned from inside the building to get caught up on the situation with Alisa as well as tell her own story, she returned outside to see that Amuné and Jareth had brought pizza. Her face finally lit up and she approached again, waving.
Jareth was just returning with the folding table when Madison exited the building, so he walked with her back to the small gathering where Amuné waited. It took them only a minute to unfold the table and set the pizzas on it.
“So Madison, how was the fight against Doc Holiday and the robots?” he asked.
Madison chuckled and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, realizing that her story would not be so impressive.
”Oh, I didn’t get to fight Doc Holiday. I was fighting the robots at the convention center until they shut down by themselves. Then I came straight here.”While the heroes chatted away, the grass beneath their feet began to stir quietly, just subtly enough that they might not notice…
Amuné blinked, pausing mid-motion. A vision of blank walls and people in white coats filled her sight. She tried to shake it off, but
something had triggered it. It wasn’t the white walls and set of researchers she was familiar with, either...
“Hello?” she asked, looking around, though not down.
“Is someone there? Someone new?””You could say that.” An awful voice spoke through the soil, like every molecule of it had grown vocal chords.
Fungal matter slithered out of the dirt and rocks like it was liquid, swirling and contorting into the shape of Mire.
”The annoying human with the glasses told me to come here.”Amuné was somewhat taken aback when the ground itself turned into a...person? A mushroom of some kind? ...No, definitely a person. But probably not a human, given how they spoke.
If not human, though...what are they? “I’m Amuné,” she said, offering a hand for Mire to shake.
Mire didn’t understand human social…
things. So they didn’t take the hand.
”Don’t touch me.”She stopped, and dropped her hand.
“They didn’t treat you kindly, did they?” she said softly, mostly to herself. A self-conscious smile followed.
“Sorry. I got a glimpse of...well, what I assume is something from your past.” Amuné shivered, gaze going distant for a moment.
”No, they didn’t. So don’t ask.” Mire clearly wasn’t a good individual to talk to for interesting conversation.
”Why am I here?”“I don’t know why you’re here. I wish I had more insight, but...” Amuné sighed, and shrugged.
“At least for now, though, would you like a slice of pizza? And I don’t think I caught your name, either.””Humans call me Mire.”“What do you call yourself?””I don’t call myself anything. I just am,” they said, impatiently.
”Do I look like something that cares about names?”“I wouldn’t know,” Amuné said mildly.
“I honestly have no idea what you are, aside from not human -- and that only because you indicated as much. Heroes come in all kinds.””That, Amuné, is a Leftover.”Austin walked up to the gathering outside of his usual hero getup. Unlike most heroes, he actually tried to maintain a somewhat unknown identity, keeping his life as Wiseman separate. He hadn’t left HERO One since the parade ended, and simply left his gear in the building for this reason… How he did it with that huge burn scar and the eyepatch was a mystery, but he never got cameras shoved in his face when he was off the job, so it worked.
”You are here, Mire, because ICOSA believes you are simply too interesting to set free again.””You look hideous,” they said, staring at the burnt half of Austin’s face.
”And you look flammable. Now that we have something in common, mind your manners around your new coworkers.”“A Leftover?” Amuné echoed in surprise.
“Wait, ‘too interesting to set free’? You mean they’re here like some sort of experiment?!” Now she was angry and upset.
“Oh, Mire, no wonder you don’t like us -- that’s terrible!”"See Mire?" Joseph chimed in, having found it far more interesting to simply sit back and watch the conversation unfold around him.
"Can’t go around treating all us humans like we’re big ol’ jerks who’ll never understand. Some of us are actually pretty nice!"He grinned, pointing to Wiseman with a half-eaten slice of pizza.
"’Course, Wiseman’s an exception, because bein’ a big ol’ Grumpelstiltskin is sort of his deal, ain’t that right Oz?"”I am the most intelligent person here, and I have no idea what that means, Joseph.”"Damn, and there I was thinking wordplay’d be a strong suit of yours…" Joseph chuckled back.
Megumi was currently nearby, keeping a slice of pizza nearby while she sat near the table. She had her G.E.M. figure on the corner, having opened certain panels on it to inspect it for faults. To her, it was important to maintain it at as close to 100% operational efficiency. As expected, she found few, if any faults, in her work and decided to close up the panels. For now, she would try to relax. She reached over and grabbed her pizza, then took a bite. A faint smile appeared on her face as she chewed; it was better than she had expected.
The girl with the robot got Jareth’s attention. At least, he was pretty sure it was a robot of some kind, and not just a toy.
“Hello there. I’m Jareth. I hope you don’t mind my asking, but...are you a tech-based hero?” He gestured to the robot she’d just closed up.
“I’m something of a tinkerer myself, so I’d love to see your work.”As Megumi took another bite of her pizza, a voice called out to her. She looked up to see a boy with freckles and curly hair asking about her G.E.M. figure. It was rather rare to find someone who took an interest in tech, even in Castleburg. At least, someone with an interest in the intricacies of it. “
Mmm,” Megumi nodded in affirmation. She gestured towards it with one hand, letting him take a look at it.
Jareth eagerly inspected the small figure, gently opening panels to look inside.
“Let’s see...various attachments in the arms...ooh, and are those lasers? Sweet! I’m not familiar with this type of charging connector but it looks like it’s multipurpose? That’s brilliant. Solves the problem of having to find the right kind of jack if you can just plug into anything.” After a couple minutes of looking, Jareth closed up the panels again and held it back out to the girl, who had not given him her name.
“You’ve put a lot of stuff in here. It’s elegant work, miss...?”“
Megumi,” she introduced herself, taking her figure back and carrying it with both hands. She was taking more of a liking to him already. It wasn’t often she could discuss tech topics with someone else. “
And your name is…?” Megumi asked, tilting her head a bit. There was a chance she could pick his brain a bit, and she was taking the opportunity.
“Jareth,” he replied.
“I have an interest in robotics and programming, and it’s always cool to see what other people make.” He grinned.
“Building stuff for fun is a great hobby. It’s even better when it’s useful, but not everything I want to make is. Like a dart board that adjusts for the trajectory of your throw, so you get a bullseye every time.”“
I remember seeing that video,” Megumi said, nodding in appreciation. The man knew how to make his videos entertaining to watch, at least. “
Though the idea itself is impractical, its ability to inspire others is praiseworthy.”
“Not everything has to be practical. Sometimes it’s fun just to challenge yourself to see if you can. Plus I got a laugh out of my best friend, so it was totally worth it.”Megumi nodded in agreement. Sometimes, one could invent things simply for the fun of it, and there was nothing wrong with that. Looking at Jareth quizzically, Megumi asked, “
What about you? What kind of powers do you have?”
“Oh, me?” Jareth smiled sheepishly.
“I’m actually a terrakinetic. Not at all related to my interests, but what can you do?”Ting Feng was sitting quietly nearby, a small smile on her face as she listened to everyone talk. This was social interaction!
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