Zeitgeist Blue

Salvo Salvo rose and found herself in a featureless white room. One minute she was around the some of her colleagues in the FLA, Eira tagging along, then the next here. When she tried her sensors, she found the walls obstructing them, but when she move forward the door opened. So she began to stride through the corridor, her sensory suite working overtime to feed her intel on her current whereabouts. Salvo had flown for several hours from Emerald City to Freedom City to catch the teleporter to The Freedom Hall for. The Emerald City teleporter was down for maintenance for who knew how long. It was annoying but it let Nicole have an excuse to visit Claremont for a bit. That gave Eira the excuse to follow her into the FLA but of her companions who she was with just a minute ago she did not know where any of them where, or even if they had been transported here along with her. Then she entered the central room and laid eyes on the party decorations around her, ending at the Freedom League banner. "This is a sick joke. I know it." It was not a scene Salvo was expecting. Whoever had teleported them without their consent probably wanted to mock them. She'd play along, of course, until she could slap the smirk off whoever did this to her. Hell, she'd burn down the whole room if she could. It'd be quicker to escape that way, too but she knew she was just indulging her thoughts. There were less destructive ways of finding answers. There were similar doors to the one she had exited around her and she walked towards the nearest one. She still needed to find her companions. She wasn't worried about them. Who she was worried about was Eira, who had insisted on tagging along and, the idiot that she was, had agreed. She wasn't even cut out for a mentor deal! Now as the only adult hero who actually knew the teenage android, the responsibility of Eira's safety was on her. The Katastroffs, Sharl, and Miss Americana wouldn't let her hear the end of it if something happened to her charge. As if she cared what any of them thought. Salvo snaps an arm up as the next hero walks in but, upon seeing her companion, lowers her readied weapons. "Have you seen the others? What about Angelic?"

GM Your assailant only manages to land one blow on the broad of your back before you hear the thud of the baton on the floor. The man sways on the spot, arms around his stomach as he fights to keep his dinner inside. It is a battle he loses and he spills his dinner all over the van, bits of half-digested rice and meat splashing into your shoes. Your lower half is muddied and puke-encrusted but at least you aren't like your assailer who rolls backwards out of the van in a heap. He continues to vomit and retch on the mud, hands scrabbling weakly to find purchase where there is none. He is no threat to you anymore. However, a much reduced force of your entourage into this forest comes rushing into the scene, your ratty-faced companion included. They are panicked, not just from the car that had steered itself into their number seemingly without a driver, and they give you a wide berth when they see your figure glowing faintly in the dark. Instead, they pile into the two other remaining vehicles, the car at the end of the convoy and the van where you had found yourself just a few minutes ago. The vehicles kick up mud as they backup and turn. If you do nothing they will be soon out of your sight, no doubt to return to Xie Fan subdued and with tales of the dark forest. Then again, the purple lightning around the bend intensifies, as if angrier. You recall Sun Da moving towards there and you did not see him return with the others. In either case, soon you will be left with nothing more but crashed vehicles and the unconscious forms inside.

Vomit Direction, On Dalir on a 1 or 2 1d9 = 1 Unfortunately. Combat time is ended. Dalir can pick up his rings without interruption.

Tongman Willpower Saving Throw: 1d20+0 = 2 He's out, Captain, and tumbles out of the van in a heap. Feel free to add that in your IC. *** 12 - Dalir the Dashing - 1HP - Entangled (-2 Attack, -2 Defense, -4 Dexterity), Bruised 1 8 - Tongman - Helpless (Nauseate), Unharmed

Sequence of Events Dalir the Dashing Move Action: Get into the van and open the box. Move Action: Begin putting on one Cryptid Ring Device. Please indicate which Device you're putting on. Still one more Move action to completely get the Device on. 49er Full Action: Charge: 1d20+3+2 = 21 Dalir the Dashing Roll Toughness Saving Throw vs DC 19. *** Dalir is up next on Initiative. 12 - Dalir the Dashing - 1HP - Entangled (-2 Attack, -2 Defense, -4 Dexterity), Unharmed 8 - 49er - Unharmed, Charge (-2 Defense) Anddd. write your IC as the guy starts thwacking Dalir across the back with the club.

This sounds interesting and if Prime!Terrifica is joining then it'd be nice to see the difference between Casey and Nicole's views on her. Personally, I'd be disinclined for a beat-up. This seems best about asking questions regarding benevolent dictatorships and, depending on how it goes, may push Salvo further towards anti-authoritarianism or reverse her ideas.

Naomi sent a text and Nicole read it, and soon Salvo's shoulders were not quite so tense, her hands not curled into fists anymore. Having once been confined to a wheelchair, she knew what it was like for people not able to understand her or to treat her in unintentionally insulting manners. She'd harden her heart to those but finding herself the giving end of an insult made her frown in embarrassment. When Naomi would check her texts in a minute, she'd find a message waiting for her. [I didn't know or mean to. It's no excuse but still... I'm sorry for grabbing your hand. And ty. I'd like to meet up in our civvie IDs sometime. That ok?] *** More ideas were thrown on how to acquire an Ultio suit and on how to store the hardware they would find. So far, Santa Muerta had a point. The bookstore would endanger the customers and those civilians around it, same as meeting repeatedly in the Paks' noodleshop would. The ECU buildings posed slightly less of a problem but would still see them closely tied to the campus. They needed something, if not habitable, then permanent but also out of the way with any civilians. A more immediate problem was the acquisition of the Ultio suit. It seemed the heroes here did not have the stomach for corporate theft. There was jamming a used suit and scanning it. But then there was simply... asking and Salvo had to admit it the solution was an elegant one if they found someone willing. So many options, any of them doable really. Salvo looked to Justice. "It's your op, Justice. Your tech. You should decide." *** Kanunu had a point about the relationship of Mars and the government, which is a relationship that could be extended to all mega-corporations really. She reassessed her thoughts of who else she couldn't trust. At the rate she was going, in a few weeks she'd be down to one hand with those she could trust even a little bit. Then Emerald Spider spoke up with another suggestion. "Absolutely not." Salvo shook her head vehemently. "No corporations. And besides, this topic is immature considering we haven't even begun to work together. We should shelve it until we prove we can handle something as a team."

Salvo: 14 posts + 10 GM posts = 24 posts = 2PP Backtrack (6) Broken Mirror (7) Calling All Heroes (1) GM: 5 posts = 10 GM posts (to Salvo) The Basement Shudders (2) The Jadetown Shuffle (2)

49er Initiative Roll: 1d20+1 = 8 12 - Dalir the Dashing - 1HP - Entangled (-2 Attack, -2 Defence, -4 Dexterity) 8 - 49er - Unharmed IC post within several hours.

GM The ground is muddy when your feet land and you begin running, as if it had rained an hour or two ago. It isn't surprising considering Emerald City is cradled within a rainforest but it does require you to exert more effort and considerably dirties your outfit with splashes of wet dirt. You hear your captor's shouts behind you as you rush your way down the dirt path. While the darkness makes it hard to see, you let the headlights stabbing through the canopy and trees guide you. It isn't long before you find the white van where the rat-faced guy had mentioned where your rings were held. Smashed against a tree, just like your own, much of the occupants inside are too beaten by the shock of the crash to notice your approach. However, the van's side door slides open and out emerges a figure. Large and imposing, a sheathed dao hanging from his belt, Sun Da's features is hidden in shadows and what you can see seem to be mostly bruises and cuts. He grunts as he sees you, realizing your planned escape, and gives a curt command in Chinese to your pursuer. Then he draws his dao and strides past the both of you. "Make sure he does not walk again." And soon the night wraps around him and he is gone. Your pursuer draws his baton and stalks forward, looking at you with steely determination now that he is given proper command. He raises it and with a yell charges! The van's door remains open and inside it you can see an unconscious man's fingers wrap around a small stainless steel box. Your rings perhaps? Behind your pursuer and coming from the front of the convoy, you notice men running your way. They seem panicked and with no coordination, you realize the guns are silent, soon a number of them are bowled over by a car steering itself into their retreat. Fog lamps light up the car and you see it has no driver. What do you do?

Doktor'd! Salvo WIP Added To Physical Description 15EP to Mind's Eye Headquarters - Bronze Veteran Reward Additional Descriptors to each power as source and/or effect descriptors Changed Picture: Double-click picture, Alignment: Right Bellios Device All Source Descriptors: Magitech Sensory Suite Array: Datalink moved to Communication Systems Array Retooling Weapons Suite Array: Weapons Suite Array 20 (40PP Array; Feats: Alternate Powers 4) [44DP] BE: Damage 10 (Kinetic Beam; Extras: Linked [Dazzle], Range [Perception]; Flaws: Limited [5 times a day], Action (Full); Feats: Affects Insubstantial 2, Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Penetrating 5, Variable [Energy/Divine Magic]) {20} + Dazzle 10 (Visual and Auditory; Extras: Explosion, Linked [Damage], Range [Perception]; Flaws: Limited [5 times a day], Action(Full)) {20} = {40/40} (Additional Descriptors: Energy, Divine Magic, Straight From the Soul) AP: Stun 6 (Energy Vent; Extras: Area [Targeted, Burst] [5 Feet per Power Rank], Selective Attack; Flaws: Additional Save [Reflex]; Feats: Accurate 3, Attack Focus [Ranged]) {23} + Trip 6 (Extras: Area [Targeted, Burst] [5 Feet per Power Rank], Selective Attack; Flaws: Additional Save [Reflex]; Feats: Accurate 4, Attack Focus [Ranged]) {17} = {40/40} (Additional Descriptors: Electricity) AP: Damage 10 (Flamethrowers; Extras: Area [General, Cone], Vampiric; Feats: Affects Insubstantial 2, Incurable, Penetration 5, Progression 2 [50 Feet per Power Rank]) {40/40} (Additional Descriptors: Infernal Magic) AP: Damage 15 (Fusion Autocannons; Extras: Autofire, Range [Ranged]; Flaws: Distracting; Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Split Attack, Variable Descriptor [Ballistic/Energy]) {34/40} (Additional Descriptors: Ballistic, Energy) AP: Damage 10 (Missile Batteries; Extras: Area [Targeted, Shapeable], Range [Ranged]; Feats: Accurate 2, Attack Focus [Ranged], Homing, Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Indirect, Progression 3 [10 boxes per rank]) {40/40} (Additional Descriptors: Ballistic)

Salvo Her arms crossed, Salvo's hands slowly curled into fists. It was vexing, really, that Naomi had little idea about information security. The details she had divulged were uncomfortably close to everything one needed to find a trail that ended with one Nicole Whitfield-Hall taking her major in Para-Sciences at Emerald City University. The necromancer's subtitle party trick, one reason why she insisted on communicating through text, and Kanunu butting in where he had no business both did little to help matters. Nicole sighed inside her head. Perhaps she should still consider herself lucky that she had found Naomi. Claremont was so open, even encouraging, about what made the student-body special. Among the students themselves sneaking out of campus was an open secret while sneaking out to do superheroics made one a mini-celebrity. But they were not in Claremont anymore. It was something she had learned the hard way. Like Waverider, she turned away from the Claremont alumna. *** Another newcomer, this one slightly familiar though she could not quite place him. Again the necromancer flaunting her magic. "Third option." Salvo raised three fingers. "Steal one fresh from the factory." No one of them would know it, but she was grinning in her mind's eye. It was illegal, sure, but she had meant what she had said. You don't play by the corporations' rules or games, so you learn to toe the line, and eventually cross it. She'd done it to survive for as long as she had and if presented with the opportunity to mess with those who held tightly onto power, then she'd gladly do so again. They had their plan. "Then we need to go to your old place. Figure out how he took your tech and bring what we found somewhere secure." Salvo shrugged. "Okay, so we use the witch's Mictlan bookstore in University Hill or decide on the venue before each meeting. A park. A sewer. One of the Albian river islands. It'll be safer and keep people guessing." "It's no skin off my back," Salvo replied when the topic turned to creating a team. "Keep in touch. Share leads. Work together. Being in a team doesn't need to be more complex than that. If we can get a sponsor then fine, I'm willing to try it out." She paused. She was fine with a sponsor besides one exception. "But no corporations."

Automatic fail on the guy's notice check as the partition adds a -5 modifier to his roll. He doesn't Notice you doing anything. Unfortunately, you find no keys that work on your cuffs. Just some random keys on a keychain. You can just... unlock the door to leave.

GM Your guard follows your eyes into the distant darkness. And though neither of you can see anything, your tale fills his mind and you can almost see his imagination run wild. "Just-- just shut up you," he says, his accent turning heavy with nervousness. More gunshots ring out. You hear the patter of feet as figures from the vehicles behind yours in the convoy rush to join their comrades in the fight. They are shadowy, lit only by the headlights of the their vehicles. Your guard trails them too, watching as they pull out their own firearms, before vanishing around the bend, hidden by trees and the dark. Something like light crackled briefly over there, visible even from where you sat. Nervously, he licks his lips. Then with the finality of a decision made, he sheaths his knife and climbs out of the car. He turns to you. "Don't do anything! I will back up only." The door shuts on you as he moves towards the front seat, struggles with the driver's unconscious body, and starts backing up the car. With the front seats and middle portion separated by the partition, you have as much privacy as you can have.

Opposed Sense Motive Roll: 15

Even with handcuffs that put the Entangled condition on Dalir, he still managed to avoid any unfortunate surfaces to crash his head into. Reflex Save and Toughness Save passed.

Roll me a Reflex Save vs DC 15. Then a Toughness Save vs DC17, DC 16 if the Reflex Save passes. Then roll Initiative too. And what will Dalir do?

GM You can see the moment when his expression shifts as you spin your lie. One second he is humoring you, a smirk on his lips, then the next he is frowning, cogs turning in his head as he processes the merits of your supposed concerned clients. He sits up straighter and fishes a phone from the inside pocket of his jacket and begins to dial it, the burning cigarette held between his fingers all but forgotten. The man on your right, the one who was going to gag you, tries to speak up but is stopped from doing so by the glare the skinny man throws at him. "You make a point, Joker." The skinny man puts the cellphone against his ears while it continues to ring. Then, still frowning, he looks at you. "This was sloppy. Too open, so much to lose, and for what? So that we can drug a magician, give him and his rings a ride, and leave them in the middle of the forest?" He snorts as the missed call dial rings from the phone. He pushes the number again. The ringing begins anew and while he looks down on his phone he points two fingers behind you. "You can take your rings from the next van by the way, so's no one will think we robbed you blind or whatever. Nice rings. Yaknow bought my girl one a few months--" You hear a crash ahead and the van skids violently out of the road, throwing the four of you from your seats. "S&*%!" The skinny man screams, his phone flys from his grip and into the face of one of your captors. He falls limp, out cold. Then the van smashes into a tree. Wheels spinning in the air, you take stock of your situation. The skinny man is alright, save for a bruise against his cheek, and so is your captor with the gag. However, the man on your otherside is out of it, groaning in pain from the phone tackling his face. The driver of the van is in similar positions, bleeding from small cuts and bruises, moving only incrementally in the way people with no fight left in them. The skinny man swivels his head back and forth, seeing the same things you do. "Did a deer hit you idiots or what!?" He begins to unleash a storm of Chinese but is soon cut short when a body goes flying and slams against the van's window, rattling the vehicle some more. The skinny man and his remaining subordinate stare as the body slowly slides down the side of the van. Then they turn and stare at each other before the skinny man grabs his pistol and clambers out the van. "Stay with Dalir. Don't let him out of your sight!" Then he is gone into the night. The other man at the front kicks the doorway and follows him. Soon, you hear gunshots coming from the front of the convoy.

That's a big dice roll. No contesting that. Guy believes you, hook, line and sinker.

Salvo Salvo turned to see the robot hero moving towards her. "Of course, Protectron." Salvo nodded at the greeting. "I'm still getting used to Emerald City myself but I can show you what I know. Crime's rarely of the meta-variety in here, so no stopping the Popsicle Captain from robbing banks. You still get plenty of muggings and murders, the usual for any city, but I usually give an anonymous tip to the police and let them handle those." Salvo had to admit it took some effort to read Protectron. It had no facial expression to speak of, something she herself must be guilty of as Salvo but then she had the normal body language, the inflections of voice, that marked a human, whereas the Protectron had not. "What had you appear in Emerald City all of a sudden?" She asked. "You've been in Freedom City for nine years now." Then the conversation of the room drifted into superhero matters, Marstech and their Ultio Suits, and what the assembled heroes should do about it. The Emerald Spider and Justice suggested coordination, the latter walking up to speak and recommend ways they could keep in touch. Salvo listened, arms crossed, at the suggestions. "If we're to communicate with a system then I'd prefer not to share essential information like our leads in it. You have established that Mars had stolen your tech and until we really understand how then we should assume what you do is compromised." Salvo waved a hand around them, at the noodle shop they had all assembled under. "Looks to me like we have our place." She looked down again at Justice and shrugged. "If you want to start now then get me an Ultio Suit. I have the skills. I have the experience in battlesuits and electronic surveillance. In a week's time we meet here again and I can tell you all that I've found." *** Salvo watched as Waverider processed the information, finally settling on signing out a polite greeting. The words from Santa Muerte's spell formed under her HUD and Salvo grew more alarmed as they continued. She wrapped an armored hand around Waverider's own, cutting off the sentence before the other woman could say anything else. The spell made things harder to keep secrets from the other superheroes she did not trust her identity with. Curse the witch for making things hard to keep a conversation private. Luckily, nothing too damning was said. "Yes, you could say that. She did something." Salvo let go of Waverider's hand. "Maybe some other time? It's good to see a familiar face from... before."

GM "Great. We've got a magician and a comedian," the skinny man says, pulling back his cigarette and puffing on it hard, obviously exasperated. That's when you notice the taillights of the car in front of yours and the headlights shining on the rearview mirror from the van behind. You must be in the convoy you had seen when last you were conscious. Just how many of these guys were there? So the four of you stay like that, him dragging on his cigarette and the two at your sides sitting silently. Finally, one of them moves towards you, pulling out a length of white cloth. "Want us to gag him?" The skinny man raises a hand, shaking it from side to side. "Nah nah nah nah, let him speak." Then he looks at you again, leaning forward. "So, Joker, what'd you wanna talk about? I'm all ears."

Salvo Salvo crossed her arms as she listened to the various points bandied around the room. They were, in general, in agreement with each other though she doubted that the reasons for why they agreed would be similar. Justice was obviously distressed as it was her technology stolen and used without her permission, something Salvo could sympathize with. Then there the discussion and turned to the law and on those points she found herself disagreeing. She herself was no lawyer, and people like Max Mars could easily enough dictate regulation. It needn't even be illegal. He merely needed to flex his corporation's legal muscles and the government would bend over backwards, if they hadn't already done so. Kanunu had the right idea and she took that and ran with it. "You don't play the corporations' games using their rules, because you will lose." Salvo spoke up before looking up at Justice, still standing on the counter. "And as much I understand how vexing it is to have your work stolen from you, nothing Mars has done yet can be brought to court." She paused, looking around the restaurant to stare daggers at the civilian patrons too busy taking pictures and eating noodles to scram. She would need to dance around the issue then, nothing incriminating. "If you want something more than dumb luck, Kanunu, then there are people out there who could monitor the situation, very very thoroughly. If you want to know how Mars appropriated your tech, Justice, then that too can be done. You only need the right people or the right skills. Is this what you have in mind? Us organizing?" *** Silently, Naomi's phone vibrated again as Salvo spoke. If Salvo seemed disappointed that she was not recognized, then she did not show it. She had memorized her schoolmates, as creepy as that sounded. In her time at Claremont, she had put to mind the names and faces of pretty much anyone who had attended or worked there. It was a small school. She had a good memory, and a childish desire to know everything within that small world of hers. <Claremont Batch 2019. Nicole Whitfield-Hall. During your senior year, I was right behind you on the line when the Diana Falk Cafeteria caught on fire. ? Ringing any bells?>

Salvo Perhaps Salvo had been too quick to judge. The necromancer had made no indication that she recognized Salvo as a fellow practitioner. Nothing on her feeds had sensed the active use of magic from Ximena so unless the necromancer had a mastery of magic far greater and more subtle than any Salvo knew, something she very much doubted, then perhaps the necromancer really meant what she had said and was merely keeping the city's natural order of life and death in place. Or everyone was actually duped at this very moment. It would not be the first time someone she had trusted or admired turned out sour. So then she would reserve judgement, be watchful, until such a time that she could be sure. Nicole's eyebrows raised as Waverider introduced herself. The costume was unfamiliar but she looked closer, past the mask and to the details of the face and the body. Height, weight, the shape of her jaws, the color of her skin. She was handed pieces of the larger picture and like a jigsaw puzzle arranged them to fit her image of one Naomi Suleiman. Nicole grinned warmly in her mind's eye. She had come her wanting to find the like-minded to share in her heroics. What she had found was a fragment from Claremont, that school of powers and wonder where civilian identities and hero codenames regularly swapped between friends and schoolmates. Everyone knew they were special in some way, everyone knew to keep the secrets from the outside world lest they be used against them. She moved forward, ready to greet her fellow alumni in a manner easier for the hearing-impaired woman. As she walked, another newcomer came and this one Salvo recognized from her years in Freedom City. There was little mistaking the robot Protectron. Before it had arrived it was Spider or her who both held the mantle of veterancy among the heroes. Yet she recalled Protectron was active thrice as many years as she had been in the business. This was good, now perhaps by sheer dint of numbers and each individual's reputation this shop would be protected from whoever would want to target them. *** "You are thinking too small, my dear." Nicole groaned then turned to face her father, who was watching the same screens as her, a smug smile on his face and a glass of red wine in one hand. She motioned for him to expound. "These Paks, they are nothing," he continued as if he had not so rudely interrupted her thoughts. "Killing them would serve nothing more than to draw the ire of you and your colleagues and we all know you can be a bothersome lot. No my dear, if it is targets I am looking for then I shall go after your families, your friends, your partners, children. Anything and anyone that might so tether you in this world, and all before you return for supper." "And why are you telling me this?" He paused, lightly swirling the wine glass by the stem, then slowly met her eyes. His smile faded and his eyes became hard. "Because my daughter should know that she could not hide everyone she loves, especially not our former housekeeper's family, indefinitely. Not from the people she has chosen to stand against. And if you are unable to then neither would any of these champions of law and justice. Keep them in the dark about who you truly face and matters will only worsen for all of you." She shook her head and whirled back to the displays, her teeth gritting on each other. "Thanks for the... advice, dad. I'll keep it in mind." "Of course. I expect nothing less." *** Salvo reached where Naomi and Kanunu were conversing in ASL. She had no clue what they were saying but she reached out and placed a hand on Naomi's shoulder. At the same moment, if Naomi had brought her phone then she would feel it vibrate with a new message. If she would take it out, she would see a text message waiting for her. <Hey, Wave! It's me Salvo! ? Didn't actually think I'd see a familiar face around here. You wearing a new costume? Did it yourself? Love the skirt. Very retro.>

Salvo "Call me Salvo." She shook the hand offered. "And it's nice to meet you too." Her eyes were drawn down to the stone on Justice's belt. Data arrived in her feed, confirming that it was indeed magic. A fellow practitioner then. It was always nice to meet someone who was aware reality was more than science and physical laws. But before Salvo could say anything the door opened once and a second time in quick succession. Two more people had entered, one in costume and a big man without but who seemed to know Justice. Things were getting crowded in the noodle shop. Justice excused herself and Salvo let her go with a nod, watching as the host welcomed the newcomers. Nicole heard a small ping right before the hole in reality was slashed open. Curious, she turned Bellios to look at the pinprick in the fabric of space and so she was greeted by the bloody gash rent into it a second later. A woman stepped out from that gash and though the insides of the gash showed nothing but darkness, her sensors had picked up what lay beyond. The gash closed and Nicole watched the woman stroll forward and the energies from that dimension followed her, as if she had bathed in them and bleached her bones and soul black and foul. Reams of the magic transformed into data appeared before her eyes, and she read things not meant for this mortal coil. The cloak infused by the remains of spirits, the mask drawing its power from the viridian stone infused with dead whispers that spoke to her from the edges of her vision. Only her armor's, Bellios', wards protected her from the intensity of the reeking magic, like a seawall against the tide. "I-- I think I'm gonna be sick," she bent down and conjured a wastebasket moments before retching her metaphysical lunch into it. She lifted her head, wiping the leftover puke with a sleeve, and muttered a curse. "Necromancer." *** While Nicole grappled with the witch's appearance in her mind, Salvo was as still as a corpse, save for the slow turn of her head following Ximena's intently. Her reflection almost shined with how unnaturally defined it was in the helmet's visor, as if the armor itself was etching the necromancer into its memory. Perhaps she noticed the predatory stare, perhaps not as most likely all of the noodle shop and those outside it now had Ximena in their attention. There was a masquerade to uphold yet she had made a scene of her entrance. Luckily for both of them such open use of magic could easily be excused as powers, a gimmick. Practitioners who flaunted their mystical training so openly were misguided fools at best, dangerous madmen at worst. And Salvo knows just where the newcomer falls. Another newcomer, though Salvo did not pay her much mind, then Justice opened the meeting by stepping onto the counter. Salvo kept one eye on the necromancer as Justice began talking. She knew about the events Justice had mentioned. Perhaps in a city as congested by metahumans and all sorts of beings, things like the Upstarts, Devlin, or the Ultio Suits would have been drowned out in her local social media feed, but those same stories made headline news in Emerald City and so of course she knew about them. She knew that Justice at least had a few fights under her belt. She knew that the big guy must be Kanunu and that they and Emerald Spider apprehended the Upstarts and saved them from a Mafiya hit. It wasn't enough to win her blind trust and undying loyalty just yet but she could acknowledge they all did good. Unlike the other two and the necromancer. They were big questions marks and a red 'X'. "Is the bad news about how now civilians think they can throw caution to the wind just 'cause they've got fancy suits?" Salvo uses the pause to speak up and nods in agreement. "I've seen the news on the Marstech launch and the girl's lucky she didn't get killed on her first day."

Nicole Nicole had to admit that someone calling an assembly of all heroes into one place was mighty suspicious. It was a place to gather and paint targets on everyone's backs, including the Paks, the elderly Korean couple who had been bought the joint during the late 1990's after the financial crisis had left Mr. Pak's comfortable salaryman life in South Korea in tatters. Good for them to have found a new life in Emerald City. Financial stability, a large diaspora, friends and family. But it was about to get even more colorful, Nicole noted as Emerald Spider and another hero continued loitering in the small noodle shop. She sighed as she shut the book she had been pretending to read on the street corner a block away from the noodle shop and stood up, quickly striding into a nearby alley. She wrapped the coat tighter around her. She was used to colder in the East Coast but the weather had taken a turn for the worse in the last hour. It was irresponsible really, to expose civilians so brazenly, but perhaps it might just work to keep the villains at bay. She had heard rumors of Comrade Frost settling down with a coven of tame vampires. It would be nice to have no other than her Freedom League Auxiliary leader stationed in this city with her. Besides the possibility of Frost, she knew several Emerald City heroes, either as one-off acquaintances or through the news. Nicole doubled back to an appropriately shadowy and deserted part of the alleyway. The lights began to flicker, sending the whole area into darkness in brief moments. Maybe Justice had the right idea. Maybe what the people in this city needed weren't heroes scurrying around like mice, from one shadow to the next, to be caught one by one with no help, alone. Maybe it was time to gather around. At the very least it would make the nights less lonely. It was times like these she missed Claremont. "So what do you say?" Nicole reached out and patted Bellios on the elbow. "Ready to pose for the cameras?" *** Salvo With a roar of flame, Salvo descended from the night sky and landed heavily in front of the noodle shop's entrance, startling a group of highschool kids on a Friday night out. She waved at them then pushed the glass door open and stepped inside, followed by the excited murmurs of the kids who had just noticed the gathered heroes inside and were now themselves gathered around the storefront, too shy to enter on their own. The door shut and with it, the kids' murmuring was shut out, though Nicole smiled in her control room. It had taken her literal forever to finagle that level of fine control on Bellios. "Hey Spider, long time no see." She called out, giving a wave to the hero balancing on a chair. "How're the webs?" She glanced around at the plastic chairs that would no doubt break if she sat on them and decided that standing was the better option. Then Justice would see herself reflected on Salvo's visor, somehow a small glint of recognition appearing in that one-way mirror. "And you must Justice." The armored hero extend a hand, towering over Justice. "I saw your call on Hero House. You wanted to meet?"