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OOC for this thread Featuring Predator Echohead Rewind

Kingston Freedom City, New Jersey Wednesday, February 14, 2024, 5:25 PM After the decision had been made to move to the ruins of Kingston to await the arrival of the Boran Dovox, also known as Sovereign, the heroes that had delt with the minor rampage of Explodo the Great moved to a location not far from the Doomforge. Paradigm and Star Khan flew to the new location, to ensure that Dovox's assault transport would detect them and not start searching for the Star Khan. Fleur provided transportation for the other heroes. Paradigm and Star Khan stood out in a ruined parking lot, a few burned out husks of cars scattered about and half destroyed buildings nearby. Neither seemed particularly nervous as Paradigm was scanning the sky. "I see the transport." She stated after a few moments. "It appears to be headed directly for us." Star Khan had been alternating between scanning the sky as well and looking over at Paradigm. When she indicated she had spotted the transport, he looked back to the sky before looking about the barren landscape around them for a moment. It was not long after that the transport came roaring into view, flying down low towards the ruins of Kingston. As it approached the area where Star Khan stood beside Paradigm, it veered to the right and started to circle the area. As it passed to the right, a large, circular object dropped out, rockets slowing its descent as it landed a short distance away. A large, nearly eight foot tall mech dropped down next to the circular object, which opened up to reveal dozens of armed aliens in armor that began to move out away from the drop pod. With them were three large reptilian aliens with red scales and tusks, and two normal sized aliens dressed in black body suits. The transport continued to circle around, another drop pod dropping down to the left of where Star Khan and Paradigm were standing, along with another mech. A group of similar forces deployed from the second pod as well. The transport then flew over to the area out in front of Paradigm and Star Khan, almost landing as five figures jumped out of the back and the transport lifted back up into the sky. Leading the group was another of the red skinned reptilian aliens, standing well over seven feet tall. He was dressed in ornate armor and held a large, glaive like weapon in one hand. Walking just behind him, on either side were two tall figures dressed in black, teal and white armor, which had a small white eight pointed starburst in the center of the chest plate. The armor had a black and teal hood, and a full armored face mask with black visor. Each carried a long pike, the tip of which crackled with energy. Fleur recognized the armor from Freedom League briefs about Khanate Justicars. Just behind them were two more of the large tusked aliens, each carrying large swords. Star Khan looked from side to side a moment before looking back at the group approaching from the front. "Hunters, hounds and traitors." He stated simply as he looked at the two armored figures. "Justicar Wryy, Justicar Har’al, you would do well to set down your weapons and surrender, I may be willing to forgive you." "Kinarr Khan! I am Prince Dovox, the Sovereign!" The large tusked alien in the front of the group called out loudly as he came to halt. "You are not worthy to lead the Stellar Khanate, so I am here to take your head, and your throne!" He added, pointing his glaive at the young Star Khan. He then turned to look at Paradigm. "Praetorian, you have no business here, step aside." He snarled. "Neither do the Terrans." He added, glancing about at the others. "That is where you are wrong Dovox." Paradigm stated simply. "The new Star Khan has extended an offer of peace to the Republic and Coalition, so his safety is of great concern to the Praetorians." "But additionally, I have a personal interest here. Kinarr also made a proposal of marriage to me in the council chambers. So, until such time as I either accept or decline, he is my prospective intended." Dovox simply snarled as he gripped his glaive with both hands. "Then you can die together, makes no difference to me."

April, 2024 A.E.G.I.S. had sent out a request to the Atom Family about a situation involving a situation with an unknown origin point that was affecting the city of Woodbury; County seat of Gloucester County, New Jersey. Wanting to move fast, A.E.G.I.S. had sent out requests to two individuals on their rolladex; the mental manipulator Echohead, and the dimensional refugee with her own suit if powered armor, Predator. The Atom Family had, in turn, decided to send out Rewind. The three represented a vary broad set of powers and skills, which meant forging into an unknown area and an unknown situation would be less dangerous. The three were currently in a specialize train car of A.E.G.I.S.' design, traveling as incognito as possible when moving from Freedom City to the south of New Jersey. Their handler was an older black woman named August Shrine, standing in front of three white sheets, each on a table. "...I apologize that A.E.G.I.S. has pulled you out so suddenly, but we're having a significant issue in Woodbury of unknown origin." She explains. "24 hours ago, Dennis Deacon of Woodbury, New Jersey disappeared on a routine walk. He reappeared 8 hours ago, highly dehydrated and malnourished. He was transferred to a local hospital, where 4 hours ago, he passed away." she recounted. "...That is when the trouble began. Once Dennis died, anyone who touched Dennis' corpse became Dennis. They turned into Dennis, and then died within 4 hours. Anyone those people touch turn into Dennis, and so on. Each Dennis copy is highly aggressive to those who aren't Dennis, but primarily out of confusion and seeking help." she indicates to the tarps and pulled them off, revealing 3 corpses in full containers. Each contained the body of a late 30s man, with bright orange hair and green eyes. They were each exact, perfect copies. "This is Dennis Deacon...well, some of them. Don't ask how we got these, you don't want to know. These are being incinerated soon." Shrine said, calm, composed, and absolutely not going anywhere near the cases. "We need the three of you to enter the town, determine what is going on with Dennis- if he's a metahuman, or has some other situation occurring- and stop it. I would rather not have the entire county become consumed." She looked intensely, extremely serious about this.

Monday 5th March, 2024 Freedom City Inside the Laboratory of Predator It was a day of no particular character. Temperature average, sunlight average, normal mix of mediocre impact news. The sun had risen, the clocks were ticking. It was mid morning. But Predators day was about to get real interesting. A knock on the door. the Camera's swivelled to scan the knocker. A man in his fifties, thick glasses, thick brown moustache, sweating (despite a tepid heat to the day), nervous, jittery. Wearing a courdrouy jacket and green turtleneck. Not colour coordinated, at all. But Predator reconised him. Dr Norris North! The head of WEST, the world exotic science taskforce, set up after various global calamaties to investigate and if necessary contain any science that might get out of hand. Dimensional, spatial, temporal distortions. Strange energies. Mutated viruses. They functioned under the auspices of the united nations, somewhat like the world health organisation, except with less funding. "Please! Let me in!" mumbled Doctor North into the speaker.

(GM Post) December 21st, 2023, Early Morning, ASTRO Labs Campus MYSTERIOUS STRING OF THEFTS ACROSS THE COAST! TARGETING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OUTLETS GUARDS COMPLAIN OF CONFUSION, LOSS OF MEMORY, FATIGUE BUILDINGS AND GATES DESTROYED, LOCKS PICKED, ELECTRONIC DEFENSES DEFEATED PERPETRATORS UNKNOWN, STILL AT LARGE The Sun was still down, this early in the morning, and the temperature was barely above freezing. Scientists and security guards were wrapped in warm coats, scarves, and hats as they loaded several crates into a series of unmarked vans. They were filled with a variety of different projects that ASTRO Labs top scientists had been working on; a Liquid metal suit of armor, a self-modifying laser that could produce a beam anywhere along the electromagnetic spectrum, a set of magnetic rocket boots. Each was going in it's own truck, loaded into metal crates with anti-shock padding. Currently overseeing the project was one of the Managers of Research and Development, Clark Fields, wielding a clipboard as he observed the loads being placed into the trucks. He looked haggard, worn, and very cold, pulling his jacket tightly around him and taking sips from a thermos. Due to concerns about the string of thefts at high-tech laboratory, each of these projects- deemed the most likely to be desired by the thieves- was being sent to a different secondary location by the heads of ASTRO Labs, so that even if something was stolen, only one object would be taken, and the damage to the structure itself would be minimal or non-existent. But the best chance of this going off without a hitch was to get the objects out before day came. This was also where the request had come in to the Superhero community; for any help in overseeing this transport and making sure that the projects got to their destination. The two heroes in question, who had answered the call? The refugee from another world, Predator! and the previously crippled, superpowered Shooting Star! "We'll be assigning you to the armor's guard. That's our big project right now; the X-0095 Ferrofluidic Impervium Armor. If that gets into the wrong person's hands then it would be a significant blow to our research. We'd really like there to not be any thefts at all, but we're being realistic about the capabilities of our presumed opposition." his voice was clipped and tried to betray no emotion, but there was a clear frustration and concern in it despite that. "We're moving them in the first place because we believe the lab will be the next target, and we're hoping these will either get to a better safe house or will divert attention away from the lab itself, at which point we're hoping you two can pick up the slack for us. We're not really rated for Supervillain attacks." He had the manner about him of a scientist who wasn't used to the normal flow of conversation, so he had a habit of rambling about whatever he was working on without care for whoever he was talking to. But he seemed to realize that after that paragraph and stopped, looking at the superheroes apologetically "I'm sorry, I just said a bunch of words at once, and didn't really give you a chance to talk. Is there anything you want to ask me about our plans here?" he blinked. "...Actually have you two even met before? If you haven't maybe I should let you introduce yourselves to each other before I keep bombarding you with information."

OOC Thread for the topic in question, featuring Shooting Star Predator Currently we will have a little introduction before we begin the adventure in earnest!

Riverside Freedom City, New Jersey Wednesday, February 14, 2024, 4:54 PM Seeing that it was Valentine's Day, Sampson’s Sodas had been pretty busy since the local middle school had gotten out. It would continue into the evening with high school students from the area and beyond. Once classes had finished for the day at Claremont, Michael Adon had hurried to start his shift at the store, now nearing the end of the first hour. Currently, all the seating at the raised tables along the front windows were full, as were most of the booths along the interior walls. But for the moment, there were no pending orders that needed to be filled, so Michael was able to catch his breath. This gave him a chance to go over and talk to one of the few individuals sitting on the barstool seating along the counter that ran towards the back of the store. Seated furthest from the door was one of his fellow Claremont students, Carmen Arrache, who arrived at the store just a short time ago. Carmen had finally decided to take Michael up on his offer of a discount at the soda shop and come out to see him during his shift. Elsewhere in Riverside…. Jean Dweomer was currently sitting on a bench at one of the small park areas that were scattered throughout Riverside. Dressed in civilian clothes, the Anthro-fox certainly attracted a few stares, but this was Freedom City, so they were often brief. The small playground in the park was currently empty, with any of the kids that would be interested likely home and having dinner. At least a few couples had walked through or by the park since Jean had sat down on the bench, seemingly on their way to one or more of the restaurants, art stores or other venues in the area.

Summer 2023 They were there for various reasons. Echohead and Predator had been contacted through their connections to the US government; Mirror Knight had been reached through a third-party contact. But they were all here in what was typically the main conference room of the Wharton State Forest's main ranger office, having been contacted by the New Jersey state police and asked to gather together with one of their top agents. There were light drinks and snacks and a fine view of thickly growing pine trees outside, a legacy of the nature heroine Fleur de Joie's recent visit to the park. But so far, nobody had come to join them yet.

Sunday, February 27th 2022, Midday afternoon Predator /Shift end in approximately 14 seconds…/ “Thank you, Cynthia.” Jean snarled as the tentacles tightened around her, trying to crush the armored shell protecting her from the alien environment of the dimensional transition. Servos strained as she fought to pull herself free of the creature. She didn’t even know what it was or what it wanted, and frankly she didn’t care. Honestly, she didn’t even know if it was actually sentient. It had been pulled into the space between worlds with her when she shifted. She’d been through this often enough that she’d been able to tune her sensors to the subtle signs of when a shift would hit her and estimate when it would drop her into a new world. Seconds ticked down as she fell through the nothingness between worlds, struggling against an abomination nearly four times her size. Freeing an arm finally, the fingers of her gauntlet retracted and a click-snap was lost to the colorful void. A foot and a half long blade extended from the back of the hand of the foreplate, just under the Duster plate and clicked into place. With a vicious slash, the edge bit into the tendrils ensnaring her other arm. Again and again she hacked until her other arm was freed. In an instant, a matching blade appeared and Predator began driving the mono-edged weapons deep into the rubbery flesh of what seemed to be the main ‘body’ of the creature. Purple ichor ran from the numerous wounds she dealt it. /4…3…/ The numbers echoed in her ears as she desperately tried to free herself. /2…1…/ Crap, wherever she was about to wind up, it seemed she was going to have an unwanted tag-a-long. /0…/ Inside her helmet, Jean shut her eyes against the disorientation of shifting. Nothing happened for a full two seconds. It was only an estimated timing after all, it wasn’t right all the time, to be honest it was never 100% correct. Another second passed and a tentacle slipped around one of her arms again. She pulled her other arm back to slash… A new reality slammed into the combatants. The force driving them apart as the duo fell through open midday air. Predator quickly recovered, it wasn’t her first shift after all. Noting the pull of gravity on her again she twisted as she fell, getting a view of where she was falling to. Below her a city stretched out beyond her current field of view. Inside her helmet, screens flickered and shifted as a wave of new data was being processed. /Locate gravity detected…calculating time to impact…7 seconds…6…/ Jean grunted, but her primary concern was the mass of tentacles and teeth mere meters away from her. It was slightly lower then her, most likely due to their relative orientation when they shifted. Somewhere in the corner of her HUD the local time and date synced and she made a split second decision. ‘Sunday…’ She thought briefly. /5…4…/ Predator twisted again, bring the hands of her gauntlets to bear on the creature. The blades click-snapped, collapsing and sliding back into the forearms of the suit as her palms opened to reveal the focusing lens of the twin blasters set within. Taking only a moment to note her surroundings and judge her attack. /3…/ Light erupted as the energy blasts struck the creature. The force actually slowing Predator’s decent even as they drove the creature down with more momentum. The angle of the attack drove the thing into a nearby building, sending it plowing into empty offices before it could land on the populated street or sidewalk. The sound of the impact alerted those below, causing a commotion as people either ran for cover or pulled out cell phones. /2…/ It didn’t matter to Predator though, as long as they stayed out of harm’s way. Using her maneuvering thrusters she slowed her fall and angled into the opening in the building’s exterior. Inside the ruined office Predator rolled with her landing and came up with her palm blasters ready, Cynthia’s countdown cutting off. The creature was not in sight though. Dust and papers fluttered in the air, settling around the destroyed furniture. She could hear the buzz of damaged lighting and the interior was dim, but not dark. It had only been a moment between her shots and her entering, it should be in sight. Slowly the smooth faceplate of the helmet scanned the room. Nothing registered on her sensors and she began to worry. /Negative signs of movement…/ Cynthia offered. “Gimme thermal vision.” Jean ordered. /Engaging.../ On her screens the color palette of her imaging switched to the colorful gradations of infrared thermal sight. It was hiding, waiting to strike. This had been how it has surprised her just before she shifted. It had come out of nowhere, latching on to her seconds before they both dropped out of that world and fell into the void between worlds as she had decided to call it. What it didn’t count on was that this time it was the prey, and a Predator was the one on the hunt for it.

Spring 2022 Jean had heard plenty about agents of the US government; even met a few during her settling into this dimension. This one was female, which was a trifle unusual. Her hair cut short and black, her eyes hidden behind sunglasses, her body wrapped in a suit and tie - well that wasn't so unusual. Once she'd shown her US government ID to the fox woman, demonstrating her bona fides as a member of the organization called the "United States Secret Service" 'Ashley Tran' said "Do you mind if I come in?" Well she's definitely a bipedal fox. Ashley remembered her meeting with the Copycat of Ani-Earth back when she was in high school and decided she wasn't going to cast judgement on this dimensional refugee. What the hell; being here had to be like a little slice of madness all the time. Well it's about to get even crazier.