ThisIsFine

HEROIC

Aight so Jack and Joel are going to throw down with a mid level crime boss and Kitsune and Grim are still in the wind

What if someone got wind of someone looking for said crime boss and he hired some quick reinforcements? Maybe some B-list supervillain crew. So instead of finding the guy they are looking for, Jack and Joel end up having to squabble with some wannabees while trying to keep the collateral damage to a minimum

This attracts the attention of Kitsune and Grim who come to help out

The boss guy gets away, but with the villains put away, they ransack his place and find some evidence to ponder over. By now the sun is probably coming up and they (most of them) need rest, so they go their separate ways. But with what looks like some real sinister shit going on in the city, they agree to look into their leads and meet back to next night to swap notes

Thoughts?

HEROIC

Joel Beck
Location: Forming a reluctant alliance outside a mattress store
Tags: Jack

Wraith exited the front of the mattress store. The rain had let up to a light drizzle now, but the night was still dark and moonless. A puddle splashed as he walked across the sidewalk towards Jack. They had worked, begrudgingly, together in the past. He didn't know much about the other man. The whole experience had reminded him why he preferred to work alone. But they were dealing with something new here, and perhaps he could use the backup.

"Human trafficking is one thing, but the organ trade is a whole other beast. As far as I know, none of the eastside gangs have dabbled in body parts in the past. Something's wrong here."

Wraith approached the bench where Jack sat and looked down at him. "I've got some new intel on a guy higher up on the food chain that these sacks of shit work for. If we find him, we find who they were planning to sell those shipments to."

He held his arms out in front of him and his suit disengaged from his form. Almost like a liquid, it pooled into his outstretched hands until it retook a solid shape, neatly folded. Joel had cleaned up from his last round of fights, but he still looked like he had gone one on one with a semi truck. A fresh bruise had formed on his cheek and his forehead sported a new gash, dressed with two strips of butterfly tape. Otherwise, he looked passable for normal. Joel stuffed the suit into a drawsting backpack he'd been wearing underneath and shouldered it.

"Come on. We gotta' catch a train to Englewood."

HEROIC

Joel Beck
Location: Doing the absolute least to prove his sanity in a mattress store
Tags: Jack

Wraith had found a discarded rag among the boxes and crates inside the warehouse. He was using it to wipe the blood off his suit when an all too familiar voice greeted him. Wraith turned to face the new arrival, his mask expressionless.

"Jack." He said curtly. "I thought you said you never wanted to see me again after last time." He tossed the soaked rag on the ground and turned away to find a new victim to shake down. His eyes landed on the silvery, floating form of one of his recently dispatched victims. It seemed this particular goon had hit his head a little too hard on his fall. Or, at least, that's what the pool of blood his face was laying in suggested.

"Oh fuck," The man said in a panicked voice, "Am I dead? You fucking killed me?!"

"You're a low level thug working for a crime lord, you weren't exactly shelf stable to begin with."

"I'll kill your ass!" The ghost flew at him, then through him. Wraith didn't seem impressed.

"No. But you are going to tell me what you know about your boss."

"Go to hell!"

"Interesting choice of words." Wraith pulled what looked like an old burner phone out of his pocket and went to the speed dial list. There was only one number. The line was picked up immediately. "Hey Reap. I got one for you. Said something about wanting to go to hell? Yeah he's still here."

"The reaper has a cell phone? Who the hell is his provider?"

In mere seconds, a void opened beside Wraith and a ghastly form stepped through. The ghost goon went paler and scrambled back before being frozen in place by the Reaper's hold.

"OHSHITOHFUCKOKAYOKAYOKAY! I'LL TELL YOU WHATEVER YOU WANT, JUST GET THIS THING AWAY FROM ME!"

The reaper turned his black, empty hood towards Wraith, who shrugged. He released the spirit and vanished once more. "Alright," Wraith crossed his arms, "Time to start talking."

"She's in a supply closet downstairs! We didn't touch her, I swear!"

"She?"

Meanwhile, to an outside viewer, Wraith had been talking to empty air the entire time. Was any of this even happening? Honestly, he'd stopped questioning it a long time ago.

HEROIC

Btw I decided to go with the evil scientists, so if y'all wanna find clues for them, feel free

HEROIC

Joel Beck
Location: Terrorizing an eastside gang in a mattress store
Tags: Open

Rain pattered the muddy ground. The cheers almost drowned out the pain. Joel lifted himself up out of the slurry and faced his opponent once more. He called himself Boneyard. Kinda hokey, but what did he know? The guy was pretty good, but a little too reliant on his infamous knockout blows. The problem was, Joel couldn't be knocked out.

They called him The Insomniac. He didn't care much for the name but he didn’t bother trying to fix it either. He came to these things for three reasons: keeping his ear to the ground, making money, and to make sure the suit never became a crutch.

Joel wore a pair of muddy gym shorts and equally dirty sneakers. They were surrounded by a hooping and hollering crowd of morally questionable individuals. He'd noticed at least two drug trades during this fight alone.

He ducked to dodge another hard swing from Boneyard. Joel took the opportunity to launch himself at the larger man, taking them both down to the ground. Joel recovered first and immediately began wailing on him. His knuckle wraps were stained with blood and dirt. Boneyard took the punishment for a few seconds before he threw Joel off.

The rules of the fights were simple: there were none. Pin your opponent for a full five seconds to win. There were no rounds, no breaks, no off limits.

Boneyard rounded on him, and Joel stayed down. He waited until the man was bending down to grab him to fly up and deliver a vicious uppercut to the jaw. Boneyard stumbled back, then fell over. He was out cold, face down in the mud. Joel had the decency to turn him over before waiting his five seconds. The prize money would pay rent and groceries for the next few weeks.

"What do you think, Reap? Is my brain too much mush to keep doing this? Should I quit while I'm ahead?"

"You still have plenty of time left to do some good in this world, if that's what you're asking."

"It wasn't, but thanks for the reassurance." Joel used his teeth to undo his knuckle wraps. Thunder rumbled outside, vibrating the thin metal walls of the old processing plant. "I never asked. What's it like? You know, on the other side?"

The Grimm Reaper seemed to ponder the question for a moment. "Peaceful."

Joel nodded solemnly. "That sounds nice."

"Hey Beck, if you're done talking to yourself, there's a guy here to see ya'." A greasy headed man had poked his head in the room to scrutinize the man sitting alone.

"Yeah yeah, gimme a minute," Joel stood as the man retreated. He glanced back at his friend. "You about to head out?"

The Reaper nodded. "Over a thousand souls have disembarked in just the last ten minutes. Someone needs to guide them."

Joel nodded understandingly and turned to leave.

The rundown plant was eery enough without the sleaze of Chicago's underworld lurking around. Joel suspected at least a few of them knew about his other job; his secret identity was notoriously poorly kept. His address was listed in the phone book. It was rarely a problem for him, though. Most of these goons weren't dumb enough to turn up on his own terf. If they knew Wraith, they knew his reputation. He never slept and he had no problem with putting any of them on a T-shirt.

"Heard you were one of those tights wearing types. What the hell you doin' here?" The man was missing a few teeth and had a nasty scar across his face.

"Tights don't pay bills."

"Yeah, whatever. Look, the eastside boys have been givin' us trouble. Figured it'd be a real shame if some freak showed up and clapped them all."

"I'm listening."

"Yeah." The man slipped him a piece of paper with an address on it. "Just don't come after my boys again, or I'll carve your goddamn face off."

"You could try." Joel tucked the paper away and headed out. He had his intel, now it was time to do some real work.

The storm had let up a little by the time Wraith arrived at the address. It was a mattress store; an interesting choice for a front, but the warehouse attached left plenty of room to move goods through.

Surprise entrances weren't Wraith's forte. He didn't care if they saw him coming. By the time they emptied a whole magazine on him with no results, they were too scared senseless to put up any kind of a real fight. Wraith didn't ruthlessly murder them all, which would be much to his informant's dismay. No, he only intentionally killed the really bad ones. These guys were just underlings; they still had a chance to turn their shit around. But, if they died from a brain hemorrhage because they made themselves an easy target, he wasn't going to sweat it.

He tore through the warehouse, leaving carnage in his wake. Stray teeth, broken bones, a limp body here or there. He could feel each and every round that pierced his skin, but knowing it wouldn't kill him took the sting away. Once he took the suit off again, it would be like it never happened.

Wraith scanned the room, looking over the damage for any sign of someone with some fight left. Maybe he did enjoy this a little too much. With the thugs scattered to the winds or down for the count, Wraith began going through the products to see what he was dealing with here.

The first suspicious crate he pried open was full of…what was this, medical equipment? Were the easties picking up on organ harvesting? That didn't fit their M.O.

Wraith frowned under his mask and turned to find a goon that was still conscious. A man laid on the floor with a bone protruding from his left leg. He wailed when Wraith grabbed him and drug him over.

"What is this shit?" He demanded. The man whimpered. Wraith shook him violently. "I don't have all night!"

"It's for a trade off! The boss made a deal with some new guys for it. They didn't say what it was for! I swear I don't know!"

Wraith grunted and released the sobbing man. "Do yourself a favor and research better careers in the hospital." He stalked away, leaving the destruction he'd wrought behind. There were some new players on the scene, huh? These low level thugs wouldn't know anything about them. The higher ups were smart enough to compartmentalize that info. It was time to track down their boss.

HEROIC

I'll work on a starter post today :)

HEROIC

Looks good!

HEROIC

@Blazion

I absolutely adore that, very creative! You can move it over!

Small Group Superheroes

She looks great, but unfortunately her abilities are a little too similar to my own guy, who is also a psychic detective. We also already have our four players ):

HEROIC

Sure! PM me your characters powers and anything else you want me to know about them prior to the start of the game. If everything checks out, you can write a berp in the public knowledge section including the things other characters would know about your hero prior to the first day.