Heridfel

"I do whatever I need to do," he says. "I'm not a villain for its own sake." Though Icarus remains motionless, he's spending the time to look over the other villain in the room. His radar lets him look dead on at Ember Paw while still facing the self-proclaimed "dark muse". There's no need to insult him any further. Still, if he truly is a demon, rather than an unfortunately aspected metahuman, he'll bear further watching. Icarus has fought demons before, and he's no fan of them.

You can get to the armory without incident, if you'd like to make your next post from there. That's also where Dryad's absence will be first noticed by the others.

White Knight glances back to the only super-villain who still has his hands empty. He gestures with a nod, "Pick them up." He does so without complaint, checking them to see whether they have safeties, and if so, whether they are set. He takes one in each hand and sticks the third one awkwardly in his jumpsuit. It looks like it is in there precariously. White Knight juggles a small ball of flame as he waits, then waves the rest of his men on, including Dr. Archeville. "Pleasure to meet you fine gents. We won't be seeing you for a while though," he says. "After all, that armory ain't far off. Once our buddy here has his gear, we won't stay long."

As Nightrival said, we were working on a street-level superhero team. It's not surprising that we'd be scoping out possible recruits. We never did decide on a name... maybe we are the new Force Ops? They've got a history that we could use.

It doesn't seem unlikely. If Dr. Archeville were to make a similar system, it would have multiple redundant control panels throughout the facility in secure locations in case one of them was compromised.

Icarus looks confused. The muscular man looks like he could bench-press both of them at once, but the rapid-fire theorizing has left him in an awkward place. He looks down at himself. He is wearing his battle armor, cobalt blue in color and apparently around an inch thick. It looks more like plate armor than mail, and he's clearly comfortable enough with his real physique to avoid sculpting fake muscles into it. It vaguely reminds the two villains of Daedalus' armor, but there are really only so many designs you can have of a set of armor without looking ridiculous. The helm keeps his face from being seen, and black glass fills the space where a Greek helm would leave air. Finally, he speaks. It's probably underwhelming to Belphagor, at least at first. "No, I just thought Icarus was a good name," he says. "It's my name." The last part would seem trite, but it comes out in ancient Greek.

The easiest answer for me is that Dryad has slipped away from the rest of you in the confusion. That way, I'm only handling one major super-powered NPC. You're not in the armory yet. This is just a hallway that the guards had been attempting to hold. It's leading toward the armory, which explains why they'd be trying to stop you now.

The gnome doesn't leap at Nightrival, which might be a clue that it can't understand his words. Kevin realizes what Slathliss said before he awoke. "Nightrival, we should get out of here before he finds out he has no money," Kevin says hurriedly. He doesn't have to worry about being understood, being without a pearl to translate his words into whatever language this city uses. Slathliss has already disappeared, and when Sen realizes this, he heads out of the inn to go look for him. Kevin's already backing away through the door himself.

Icarus shakes his head. "Newbies," he thinks to himself. "I didn't come to spar today," he says to the both of them. "I just needed a place I could wear my armor and relax." Looking them over, he suspects that he'd be able to hold the one easily, but the second one might take some effort. Unfortunately, that's also the more belligerent one. He hopes that his words would be respected. "I'm Icarus," he says as an afterthought. He sounds like that should be enough - not arrogance, so much as knowing that he's been around the city for a while. What he fails to remember is that he hasn't gone by that name for very long.

There are some dealerships that will rent to people under the age of 25 (albeit at higher rates). Another way is to get on a corporate rental card. If you work for a corporation that has a deal with the car rental agency, you can rent a car because the dealership knows that the corporation will cover them if you get into a wreck.

Icarus isn't here to fight. I figured you guys wouldn't mind a small audience, since the thread wasn't closed for onlookers.

Icarus steps out from behind some of the rubble leftover from some battle in the past. The cesium's been safely stored away, and right now, he needs a place where he can let his figurative hair down. The rig doesn't usually have too many people there, and that's fine by him. Surprisingly, though, when he arrives, he can hear voices in conversation.

See my PM back to you for the answer. Short form is that he has Power Reserve 3 outside the suit and an additional Power Reserve 9 within the suit.

Icarus is power stunting for what will hopefully be the last time in this particular fight. This moves him from fatigued to exhausted. The power stunt is as follows: Power Reserve 9 (inside device) becomes AP: Spatial Control 9 (Extra: Accurate; Flaw: Long Range Only) Icarus teleports to the Pyramids, figuring that a desert would be the best place to make a stand against a water hero if the hero can teleport somehow. Kavos, I was figuring we could end this fight here. Icarus still has other things to steal, and one of them is a glass tank from the aquarium. If that isn't a place that Shui could put up a great fight, I don't know what is.

Icarus' body remains motionless, but his mind is racing at a mile a minute. When Shui has time to compose himself and speak, it's clear that the young man has some sort of primal connection with water, far beyond his apparent years. Icarus knows better than to underestimate the boy based on his age. He slowly shakes his head after Shui finishes his rapid-fire questions. "You won't be getting those answers today," he thinks to himself. He concentrates on another place. It needs to be far away, so the water boy can't just fly there, and it's got to be dry, so that if he does somehow follow, he'll be weakened. The air around Icarus shimmers for a moment, then it compresses. Icarus begins to shrink in on a point, and Shui can feel himself being pulled. Before he can react, Icarus is gone, and the cesium along with him. Nearly half the world away, Icarus reappears. He collapses to his knees, gasping for air. "I'm getting out of shape. It should have been easier than that. Then again, this is farther than I've ever gone before," he says to himself. He slowly gets up as he stares at the great Pyramid of Giza. He checks the cesium container - still in one piece, despite having to go through the ringer. "But now, I gotta get back..." he says glumly.

Doc, when you added a DC block for my powers, you left things a little confusing. It took me a bit to figure out that "All points of Power Reserve funneled in" only meant the points outside of his device. It's actually much higher when using his suit. Can you rephrase that, please? Also, it looks like the typo for "Power Control" vs. Power Reserve is still there, which could be the cause for confusion.

We don't delete posts here, but I will move this to the Archives if you're not interested in playing him.

Grimalkin takes a deep breath and nods to Nightrival. She leaves her back totally exposed as she claws away at the weakened wall section, trusting Nightrival to protect her. "What are you hoping to find back here?" she yells out. "If it's electrical wires, I don't want to see if my claws protect me from shocks." All of these deathtraps are taking a toll on her. You can only run on adrenaline for so long before it starts giving out on you, leaving you drained and shaky. She's slowing down, but thinks of how Nightrival isn't stopping, giving her the will to keep going.

I received permission from Heritage to NPC Grimalkin as needed to conclude any current threads. If you need that from me here, just let me know, and I'll review the thread so that I have everything fresh in my mind for posting purposes.

We don't need to roll initiative yet unless Nightrival intends to make a threatening movement, where that's defined as something other than backing away from the gnome. This gnome's the sort what gets a lair.

Kevin holds up his hand at Nightrival and says, "Wait a minute..." but he doesn't say it quickly enough. Nightrival pokes the gnome gently with his foot. Its snore ends abruptly, and bloodshot eyes open to look straight into Nightrival's. It hisses, then says something brief in a language that Nightrival can't understand. Slathliss blanches, then says quickly, "I don't think he'll be of any help. Step back carefully and don't make any threatening movements." Considering the thief's rather laissez-faire attitude towards nearly everything, his reaction seems severe. Kevin's eyes close for a moment as he aligns Nightrival's chi. If there's going to be a fight, then he'd rather not have to heal Nightrival. Better to be proactive, he reasons.

The guards already have weapons drawn, but they hesitate as they see that they're outnumbered, outgunned, and depending on the mercy of supervillains to keep their fellow guards safe. One of the guards looks at Dr. Archeville as he speaks. Herr Doktor's the only one of the group not wearing a prison uniform, and it seems to have the guards puzzled. "Drop the weapons," one of the super-strength villains says. If Dr. Archeville had to guess, he's probably one of the weaker villains in White Knight's little group, which would explain why he's most unnerved by the villains. White Knight quickly picks up on it. "I'd listen to him if I were you," White Knight says. Slowly and grudgingly, the guards do what he says. The one guard pauses for a moment, then looks straight at Dr. Archeville. "You! You're that German scientist. You're working for them?" he asks in disbelief. White Knight smiles at him, then laughs out loud. "Who do you think got us out?" he chuckles. The guards finally put their weapons on the ground and step back, but they're looking at Dr. Archeville with undisguised loathing.

Despite his efforts, Icarus can't shake the young hero. He pulls to a stop in mid-air, hovering silently as he looks back at Shui. Icarus' helm fully covers his face. The effect is disarming, to say the least, as the metahuman's face can't be read. He keeps holding onto the cesium container as he tries to think of some way to escape. As long as he isn't being attacked, he still has time.

First approval away!

Hey man, We're all sorry to see you go. When you get Grimalkin's story published, come back and let us all know. Herid Fel