ic The Study Group

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker tries a few more punches. Just normal punches. It is harder than it seems. It has become almost reflexive to change his molecular structure when he punches, and not doing that? It takes more effort than he would like to admit.

 

Once he has started to get the hang of it, he stops for a break himself and moves over by Consuelo.

 

"You could always target something other than them?" he offers, taking a drink from his water bottle before continuing. "Like their weapons or armor, the ground they're standing on or something like that?" 

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Oh, yeah, totally. I've disintegrated a lot of guns! Uh, actually maybe a few too many . . . Uh, hey, uh, Tiger Lady, what do you think is, like, the most important thing to keep in mind when you're, you know, super-heroing?" Consuelo's not really known for asking questions in class, but here she goes asking this open-ender. . . .

[The Sailor]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:01 PM, Poncho said:

"And Mizuki, that's some incredible fisticuffs, you'll have to show me how you manage that!" he spoke cheerfully.

 

"Dad showed me a few things from his training. He figured it'd keep me safe on the mean streets wherever we were based. Little bit of SERE and CQC... nothing major. Enough to get out of someone's grip and make a run for it. Just now... now gotta dive into the fireworks."

 

She sighed for a moment. "As for that greenish blue glow... bit of my 'inheritance' from the late Torpedo Lass... puts some force behind my punches... it seems to speed up my punches sometimes if I focus right. But it seems to happen randomly..."

Edited January 28 by The Sailor

[Thunder King]

Mali turned to Consuelo. The kid definitely was off-putting, but based on what Mali was told, it wasn't her fault. So she did her level best to ignore it.

"Personally, I always try to ensure the safety of any civilians before I engage. That's not always possible. I'll readily admit, I am not the best at talking criminals down with words. I tend to, you know, use other methods. But yeah, I do agree that disarming them is better than harming them directly, when possible."

[Poncho]

"Randomly huh...that stinks to not be fully in control of things." Michael said to Mizuki, shaking his head. "I sort of have the same issue. I've actually only really got powers for about an hour a day right now. So when that runs out, I'm uh...of limited use." He shrugged a little. When he turned his attention back to the instructor, he had a darker look on his face

 

"What about bad guys with dangerous auras and the like." He asked Tiger. "There's plenty of thise around; atomic or radiation auras or even just ones that are constantly on fire. How do you manage keeping those sorts of dangers away from people?"

[Thunder King]

Crimson Tiger shrugged. "That's a little harder on me, but I'm not without options."

 

She reached behind her and pulled out a small device that immediately folded out into a circle, a chakram. She spotted a target off in a corner for just such an occasion, and whipped the chakram toward the target, sticking it in dead center.

 

"I've got a few things I can do. Plus I do have some contacts in the hero community, both former Claremont students and otherwise."

 

Like the castle on a skyscraper full of super powered women, or the super wealthy energy absorbing super strong guy, or any number of other people she'd met over the years that she could call in for emergencies.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Yeah, the safety of civilians. . . . Yeah, dangerous auras . . . . " Consuelo gets a far away look in her eyes. "Okay. I'm doing this!"

 

Apparently, "doing this" begins with Consuelo plucking her chewing gum out of her mouth. (Bright green, of course.) She sticks the wad on the side of the heavy bag and adopts a lotus position, floating about two feet in the air.

 

She closes her eyes and steadies her breathing. Black distortions form around the wad of chewing gum, and, within a moment, it disappears. Unlike what usually happens when Consuelo disintegrates something, this time that black distortions linger and continue to swirl around long after the gum is gone. Her breathing becomes heavy, and a drip of sweat trickles down on her brow. But still she hovers there, eyes closed, concentrating on something. And the dark shadows continue to swirl and warp where the gum used to be. 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

"Should I... stay back here?" Parker asks Consuelo, peeking out from behind the bag as she puts the chewing gum on it. 

 

Honestly, he is a bit worried, after that last hit. Sure, she did it on purpose, and she seems to be focusing and concentrating, so... he sticks there. He can trust her to try, at least.

 

The gum is gone in a moment. She has control, she is doing it, but... the shadows, the distortion, it sticks around.

 

She got it, right? She's got control of it... right?

 

"Consuelo? You got this." 

 

Show that he trusts her.

 

At the same time, small crackling black energy begins to rise from Parker as he begins to power up himself. He wasn't ready her last hit. He is getting ready now.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Consuelo continues to concentrate, eyes closed, sweat dripping off her brow. Shadows still swirl around the spot where the gum used to be stuck on the side of the heavy bag.

 

Her jaw clenches, and a low growl begins in her throat. It gets louder with each breath until she's moaning like, well, like a woman in labor. Opening her mouth and her eyes at the same time, she lets out a roar, staring unflinchingly at the swirl of shadow.

 

It's not much, but the faint image of a wad of gum starts to suggest itself on the heavy bag. It gains opacity until there can be no doubt: Consuelo's chewing gum is back. It's even still bright green.

 

Unclenching and straightening from her position, she reaches out, plucks it from the side of the bag, pops it in her mouth, and gives it a chew.

 

"Hmm. Tastes fine." She gives it a few more chews, just to be sure. "See, Lawrence? I told you I needed to learn your trick!"

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence had walked over to where Mizuki had damaged her punching bag and held up a hand to surrounded it with a temporal distortion, repairing it just as he had restored the one Consuelo had disintegrated. Giving Mizuki a smile, he then went back toward the bag he had been using, but stopped to watch as Consuelo experimented with a controlled use of her power, targeting just the gum on the side of the bag.

As the green-haired girl managed to destroy just the gum, but otherwise leave the punching bag undamaged. "Good show Consuelo." The blond teen stated, but then he went silent as he realized she was still deep in concentration.

 

He watched as the shadows swirled around where the gum had been and she let out a yell, and the gum reformed out of the shadow. Lawrence was smiling when she commented about learning his trick. "Excellent work Consuelo." He said with a small laugh.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Like the Human shadow (or close to Human) she was, Carmen would take a step back to watch, keeping an eye on things. As an upperclassman, she felt like it was better to watch and observe than get in the limelight here. This was all a learning experience for the young werecat heroine, and she wanted to learn as much as she could, even if from appearances she seemed to give off an aura that she was rather bored, well, until she saw the chakrams, a throwing weapon of some sort that she had only seen once in a badly dubbed action movie from Hong Kong, or at least she thought such was the case. Carmen was getting ideas for something for her to carry to use in a fight if it came to it again. Something more than just fists and claws.

[Poncho]

"I want to try something cool too!" Michael said, watching Consuelo execute a very careful act of both disintegration and re...un...restoration.

 

"...What can I do." he pondered to himself before focusing on the bag. "Oh! Okay, what about this." he says, focusing really hard.

 

After a few seconds of thinking about it really hard and trying to do it, a hair thin beam of golden light shoots out of his right eye and hits the bag. It doesn't look at all impressive; he definitely could do more damage with a punch, but it certainly is something at least. But it sputters out after a few seconds and he lets out a deep breath, breathing slowly and sweating.

 

"...Alright...that was pretty tiring, actually."

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Right. Everyone has moved on to using powers after all. Not that it isn't impressive, but it does leave him wondering.

 

"How did you do that?" Parker asks Consuelo, staring at the piece of gum as she puts it back in her mouth. "I thought your power was all about destroying stuff." 

 

Reach out, then? Try to do more? Is that what he should, too? He's not sure if this is the right place for that. Too many people that could be caught up in it all at once.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Affecting breezy nonchalance, but clearly somewhat wiped out from her stunt, Consuelo holds up one finger and replies to Parker. "Right you are, Spaceman! My powers are all about destroying stuff. I simply un-destroyed my delicious spearmint gum."

 

She stops and considers a bit. "All the little tiny, uh, bits of the gum were still, like, out there . . . somewhere. . . . I could like feel them, just barely, if I really held on. So I focused on that feeling of holding on and pushed and pushed, until I called all the tiny pieces of gum back. Then I had my gum again." She blows a little bubble, the kind you can blow with gum not really intended for bubble blowing.

 

"Yup. That's about it."

 

"Holy Smokes, Michael! You've got laser eyes! That's, uh, nice.  . . . I wonder how Baz will feel about it? Just to be safe, try to not sprout any antennas!"

Edited February 5 by Huckleberry

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Parker can't stop himself from laughing. "So you destroyed the destruction? That makes absolutely no sense, but if it works, it works." 

 

Feeling the thing she destroyed still there, even after it was destroyed? Is Consuelo connected to what she destroys? His mind starts to wander, considering the possibilities... he even would have missed Michael's eye beams if Consuelo hadn't reacted to them.

 

"Baz'll probably want to try and see who can do it better."