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Miller Park, The Fen’s Freedom City

23rd February 2015, 10:00 am


The small rather grotty park on the edge of the fen’s had a rather dubious distinction for the kind of people that inhabited the park through the night. BUt the local inhabitants had had enough and were trying to improve the reputation of the area and it started by cleaning up the area.


Several of the cities largest companies had donated money towards the project and several organizations had donated their time including several school, Claremont being one of them.

 

As part of you Social Responsibility class you’ve all been bused in to spend the morning cleaning up trash, not the most exciting of events but at least it get’s you out of the classroom.

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Endeavor smiled, looking at the growing pile of trash bags her and the team had been racking up. She personally was helping move junk using her EMWand to load it into the recycling truck. She wasn't strong, but the Electromagnetic Force was up to the task to aid her. Dressed in the cleansuit offered her, she wore it over her nearly skin-tight supersuit, keeping her helmet undeployed, opting for the hardhats handed out to those handling the heavy moving, with a pair of work gloves for her hands. Sakurako was clever enough to have her EMWand running discretely, so it wasn't obvious who was providing the powered assist.

 

She broke out the cooler loaded with water bottles as she sat at a bench near the piles that were being taken care of for removal.

 

"Okay... that's the NW quadrant of the park cleared. Not bad so far. We're gonna have to get some time for the removal teams to catch up. How's things on your guys' end?" She asked once everyone comes over to grab some water. The NW quad of the park was Sakurako's beat, she was planning on moving to another quadrant for her second shift on the cleanup team. Having to hide her genius did help keep things under wraps. Although it slowed things down.

Edited by The Osprey
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Casey was truly in her element; she'd been helping clean up parks since the time she could walk, though it was her first time doing it in a city this big. She couldn't believe how much trash people threw around! Luckily with her prodigious strength and stamina, she could do this all day. Wearing hiking boots, jeans and a down vest over a sweater, the blonde bruiser was dressed for the cold, though in reality she'd be just as comfortable in a pair of swim shorts and a T-shirt.

 

She pushed up her glasses with a knuckle as she joined Sakurako by the water. "Well, I think I know why they call it 'Miller Park'". She held up yet another empty MGD bottle before dropping it in a nearby trash can. She looked around at all the students cleaning up and sighed. "I could clean this whole park in two minutes if no one else was here." Then her eyes went wide as an idea struck her. "Hey, we should totally do that! Sneak out after dark, hit a different park every night...garbage-picking ninjas!"

Edited by Heritage
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Honestly? Vonnie would have preferred being in the classroom to this. His idea of social responsibility involved pulling people out of burning buildings and/or punching thugs unconscious, not picking up after those too lazy to pick up after themselves. He wasn’t their father, or even their guardian. Also…he was a New Yorker. Trash on the street or in the park was a fact of life, just like how visiting ATMs in certain neighborhoods after midnight was a piss poor idea. That said, Vonnie Murray was many things, but lazy wasn’t one of them. Usually. So he worked. Even if he thought it was pointless and the time of three legitimate superheroes could be better spent.

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Sakurako shushed Casey. "Shush, you! I use a lot of the recyclables for my projects. You don't understand how some of my projects require me finding a proper spring or nut... Oh hey look!" Sakurako said, grinning as she picks up a spring. "Yep, the right type of metal too. Perfect for my electromagnetism project!"

 

Hey, people weren't using this stuff... one person's litter was another's treasure. She slipped the small spring into a pocket as she looked over her EMWand out of the way from prying eyes. "Hopefully by putting a effort here people will finally get the message that we're trying to turn the Fens around and get this place blooming again."

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Casey rolled her eyes. "Well duh, of course you seperate the recyclables! We could set aside all the stuff you might be able to repurpose." She reached into the cooler for a water, then looked over to where their classmate toiled alone.

 

"Hey Vonnie, you want a water?!" She held the bottle aloft and wiggled it from side to side. She took a deep breath and sighed as she turned back to Sakurako. "A lot of loners at this school."

Edited by Heritage
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Faster than anyone but Casey herself could have reacted, a wire wrapped around the bottle and yoinked in from her hand. Vonnie flashed her an impish grin. Just because he wasn’t a team guy didn’t mean he wasn’t a people person. He was wearing his grapples, even now. “Thanks, Case.†He attacked the remaining trash, flicking things here and there into his bag. He was perhaps a bit faster about it than a normal human should be, but whatever. He did go to Claremont, after all. He was a hard worker. Maybe a little too hard.

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One of younger teacher at Claremont Ms Gwen Alphona, who some rumoured was psychic, had been assigned to keep an eye on the group and make sure didn’t cause any trouble.

 

“I hope you all enjoying yourself today. There a fountain in just up there that has some of the heavier items, I told them you’d be happy to help clear it up. However you clean things up just don’t be too obvious.â€

 

The wind whipped through the park causing little piles of trash to swirl around, to chagrin to those that had carefully gathered it together. Half seen out of corners of peoples eye the trash formed little man like shapes in the air.

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"What? What is that?" Sakurako said, standing up from her position, looking at the forming trash people. Walking over to where the odd occurrence was happening, she looked more curious and amazed than anything. Something like this was fascinating, or just a rather curious confluence of weather and trash playing with the eye. The cleanup would come afterward, but for now, she was sort of amused. "Guys... any one of you doing this?" She asked, turning to her class mates before turning back to the cloud. She crossed her arms, taking off her hard hat.

 

"If this is gonna be a first contact scenario with Trash People... I really... really should have wore better clothes." She said, crossing her arms.

 

Perhaps wisely, she doesn't take a hostile or threatening stance towards the cloud, just in case these things weren't just constructed by one individual but entities taking form. She did pay attention in class when the instructor talked about how to deal with trans-dimensional or extra-terrestrial entities. She uncrossed her arms, waiting to see what happens next, stopping her approach to not violate whatever it was' personal space.

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Casey yipped slightly as Vonnie snatched the water out of her hand, then wrinkled her nose in mock-annoyance as she shook her fist at the boy. "Why I oughta..." When Saku noted the odd movement of the trash, the taller blonde joined her. "Uh, no, that's definitely not me; what would you even call that power, 'trash animation'? Trash-o-kinesis?" She began to reflexively scan the area, including the various windows and rooftops she could easily make out with her amazing eyes.

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Vonnie returned Casey’s fist shaking in equal measure. “Bring on anytime, blondie!†His wide grin took any sting there might have been in the words right out of them. He filled up his current bag, tied it off, and joined the two ladies. “Nope. Has to be Garbage Control. Or Garba-mancy. Could always be magic, ya know. And I wish I was that talented.†His “this is a job for Samaritan†sense was starting to tingle. “I don’t like it.†But it was still weak, but growing stronger. “I’ve got a feeling this might be a long day.†Unlike Casey, he had no need to scan to see what was happening. His spatial awareness kept him in the loop without him really trying to do so.

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The trash carried to float on the wind the humanoid form seeming to float apart, looking like nothing more that an optical illusion. But then it seemed to appear again shortly a distance away apparently slowly drifting further into the park.

 

It could be nothing, just an illusion, but in a place like Freedom City that seemed very unlikely.

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  • 2 weeks later...

She saw the anomalous movement... "This is too weird... we should keep aware of what's going on. I'd say this was too weird, but then again Weird is status-quo here in town." She said, looking at the weirdness involved with the trash cloud with a quirked eyebrow. "Also the trash might be reacting to some sort of dimensional disruption. Think of it... if something was coming in from a lower or higher dimension, how would that manifest here?"

 

She adjusts her clean-suit, closing up the helmet to her super-suit underneath, and pulling the hood on the cleansuit over it... making it look like she had a clear facemask... "Then again it could be a straight up ghost. Or a manifestation of someone spying on us psychically."

 

"Or it might just be false-pattern recognition."

 

She quirked her eyebrow. "Seems like a lot to say when I mean 'we might be seeing things' eh?"

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Casey looked first at the weird leaf formation, then to her friends, her features clouded with confusion. "Do you think we should maybe...follow it?" She set aside her trash gathering gear and began to follow the odd little cloud, still trying to see if anyone nearby seemed to be controlling it, her eyes darting around the park and surrounding area.

 

Then something occurred to her; maybe this was some kind of trap, like using a laser pointer on a cat? She really didn't want to use her powers in public, but at least she still had her shoulder bag with her costume safely tucked away inside if push came to shove. Miracle Girl could be on the scene in the blink of an eye.

Edited by Heritage
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Vonnie didn’t like it. His “this is a job for Samaritan†sense was beginning to tingle harder. It could be nothing. And if he was on patrol by himself, and not out with a class from Superhero High, he’d have let it go. But he wasn’t. There were three superheroes here, and heaven only knew how many people with powers nearby. It was just too much of a coincidence. He put his trash collection gear aside and began trailing Casey.

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The little trash men, or woman it was impossible to tell, kept swirling in and out of vision as the formed and broke apart. As they got further into the park the little trash man got a little bigger as the amounts of trash got bigger.

 

Ironically the trail led them to where they had been asked to help out a fountain at the center of the park and it was obvious why they had been asked to come here, the place had become the dumping ground for trash including several large kitchen appliances.

 

And apparently this was the perfect location for the little trash creature they had been following the trash all around them was beginning to form into the same shape as before, but this time they were going to be much, much bigger after all there was so much trash around.

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  • 3 weeks later...

"This... isn't good." Sakurako said to the others. "It's increasing it's size and mass with everything we've collected..."

She sighed. They'd been working all day and now whatever this is was trying to become some sort of trash Gojira... wasn't there a Gojira movie where he fought a pollution monster?

"I'm starting to wonder if communication with it won't be possible... but it is obvious it's putting itself together. I don't know if we should try to dismantle the thing as it's growing or try to contact it first. Or for that matter if we should call in some adults to handle this..."

Sakurako couldn't help but hover off the ground to keep up with the trash creature, if this was a potential first contact with a sentient creature she wanted to be there to make the contact... but if it was hostile... she was going to ensure she was up to the task as long as her friends were behind her. To be honest she was a little scared.

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  • 2 weeks later...

This did not look good; Casey's eyes darted around to look for innocent bystanders, both to keep them out of harm's way and to protect her identity. If this thing kept getting bigger it was probably getting stronger, which raised the grim specter of collateral damage; it just wasn't acceptable to have stoves and refrigerators flying around the neighborhood.

"If this turns into a fight, we have to keep it contained; be aware of possible civilians and flying debris."

 

The powerful teen's arms were at her sides, fists slowly clenching and unclenching.

Edited by Heritage
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Oh, this was fantastic. Vonnie’s “this was a job for Samaritan” sense was now screaming at him. “Case, Rako, if you want to get changed now’s a good time. I’ll keep an eye on this…whatever.” It wasn’t that Vonnie was unafraid. It was that he was a teenage boy next to two teenage girls. Ah, teenage machismo. So, he stepped forward, pulling his domino style bandana mask out of his pocket and tying it on his head. He waved at the trash creature. “Hello. I’m Samaritan. How are you today? Can I help you find something, maybe?”

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