ic World Tour: In a Detroit Minute (IC)

[Fox]

"How long have you been on Earth?" Indira asked, very very quietly, having moved over to stand by Sharl as others took over the introductions. She was smiling - she'd apparently had a lot of practice at it - and her body language was largely calm and cheerful, but her voice had a bit of a stressed edge to it. After all the hours and hours she'd had to endure being sternly instructed or lectured by her parents, their Lor officer, and whoever else.... "Please do not get us detained. I believe that it would cause us a great deal of trouble, and they would not have to take us very far to lock us away."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Listen, kid, I bet your fancy Freedom City school wouldn't like it much if we locked you in here for the night!" said Lou the guard. Turning to Kimber, he added, "Look, lady, I don't know what kind of chaperone you are, but your kids need to learn some respect for law enforcement. Get McMillan and get your asses out of here." On the plus side, thanks to Sharl's loose tongue, now the guards were much more focused on the stricken-looking electronic teenager than their own erstwhile inmate and his family.

"Sorry," Sharl mumbled, looking down at his feet. He'd been scared in the interrogation room, and glad that Miss A's program (and mini-projector) had held up despite the patdown. Luckily they hadn't actually taken his shades or anything else in his pockets, since they'd just have fuzzed out and ruined the whole game. And then he'd tried making a joke like the ones he'd seen on the Internet: Why hadn't anyone laughed? He imagined Miss Americana's disapproving face, or his mom's. "I'm from Earth," he whispered back at Indira before saying louder, "Sorry, again. I'm Sharl Tulink, and it's been a really long day. Just ignore me."

[Electra]

Kameyo McMillan didn't look very reassured by Eve's words. "I have to know he will be safe!" she insisted, wringing her hands while the girls looked on. "I have lost one son already..."

"Kameyo," Natsumi began softly, putting a hand over her daughter's, both reassurance and slight reproof in her tone. "You already agreed that this is the best thing for Koshiro. He must be trained. Headmaster Summers will see that he stays out of trouble." Kameyo didn't look entirely convinced, but with an effort, she relaxed her hands and dropped them to her sides.

"Will we be able to come visit?" asked one of the girls, it was impossible to tell which. "In Freedom City?" This also earned a shushing from Natsumi.

Koshiro watched the interplay between the guards and his erstwhile comrades with a faint smirk. The guards around here weren't too fond of smartasses. The smile faded when he looked over and saw his mom starting to get upset. She always did the hand thing when something was really bothering her. Sticking around any longer wasn't going to help. "So are we getting out of here or what?" he asked.

[Gizmo]

The enthusiastic adult in the dated business suit looked thrilled to meet more new people as the McMillans stepped over, but looked over her shoulderpads with a broad wince as Sharl's interaction with the guards escalated. "Oh, jams..." she muttered, brow furrowing as her voice slipped back into her normal register before she practically glided over. "Sir! I assure you Claremont is a tight ship! Shipshape, even! Positively nautical!" Adopting her imprecise accent again, Kimber seemed to have subtly gained a little height by the time she was addressing the guard face to face. "But there is no need for that kind of language! Do you speak to your mother that way? I should certainly hope not!" The disguised phantasm almost moved to start pushing the other students towards the door before catching herself, and instead gestured emphatically in that direction with on the hands clasped behind her back.

[Avenger Assembled]

Recovering from his embarrassment as best he could, Sharl offered, "You can visit. Family's always welcome at the school," he hazarded, hoping he wasn't getting himself into worse trouble. Unbidden, he thought of his own parents and sister, who'd let him come so far on this impossible journey to another reality. But he couldn't talk about that, not in front of people who might not be his friends after all this. "Even if you're from really far away. We picked Indira up in India," he added with a glance her way to make sure it's all right. "And Mrs. Storm is from Canada, and their families can come over any time they can. Family's very important."

[April]

Eve nodded in agreement to Sharl before turning her attention back the twins. "Being so far from home isn't easy, speaking from personal experience, regular visits to or from family definitely help with the adjustment to a boarding school atmosphere."

The telepathic gymnast looked thoughtful for a moment, green eyes flickering over the battered luggage, and fished a business card from her wallet. "Here," she said, offering the card to Koshiro's mother. On the front of the card was a phone number, in stark black ink and lightly embossed into the card stock. "Give this number a call when you want to visit, they'll set up your travel arrangements and cover your expenses."

[Fox]

Sharl got an awfully skeptical glance when he insisted he was from Earth, but not so skeptical that she looked completely unconvinced. The alien did, however, make a careful mental note to ask where an Earthling had learned fairly archaic Lor like that.

For now Indira gave him a quick nod when he mentioned where she was ostensibly from - it wasn't like anyone who saw her or heard her talk couldn't guess as much, after all - and while Eve was handing the family her card the Indian girl made her way over to the assembled boxes and luggage. She carefully assembled a stack of items that was awfully heavy but only barely over reasonable for a human...hopefully, anyway. It was so hard to judge.

she grimly reflected as she silently hefted the unusually hefty load with only feigned effort, and not much of even that.

[Electra]

Kameyo took the card from Eve and looked at it quickly before tucking it into her purse. "Thank you," she murmured to Eve. "We will certainly come and visit soon." The girls brightened up visibly at this news too, before they began goggling at Indira as she picked up all the heavy luggage at once.

"She must be a superhero," one whispered to the other. "With like, super arms. Do you think they're all superheroes?" They watched with great interest even as the traveling party began to filter towards the door.

Koshiro waited until people weren't looking at him so much before he went over to his family. He exchanged a few quiet words with them before kissing his mother on the forehead and giving his grandmother a brief bow. He looked briefly pained at the hugs from his sisters, but tolerated it, ruffling their hair quickly with his hands. Stepping away, he called to the departing group, "Hey, you guys are on an expense account, right? My people here need a cab home."

[KnightDisciple]

"Yeah, probably best not to linger."

Corbin frowned both at Sharl's twitchy behavior, and the guard's unnecessary threats to him. Still, the situation was (mostly) settled so long as Sharl didn't say much more. Kimber, oddly enough, actually did a pretty good job of defusing the situation. Probably because she didn't have an ounce of genuine menace in her.

He followed Indira's example, grabbing a couple of the largest pieces of luggage, before stopping at Koshiro's request. He glanced toward Eve and the others.

"I'll be right with you guys. Let me get the McMillans squared away."

He turned to face the family, a smile on his face.

"I'll make sure you guys get a cab, alright? All part of our friendly service."

He gave a slightly exaggerated wink as he turned and slowly walked out the door, trying not to let on how utterly light the luggage was to him.

[Avenger Assembled]

Feeling a little better about himself now that he hadn't messed up the meeting for everyone, Sharl joined the rest and headed outside into the Detroit night. While Eve called for another van to come pick them up, he turned to Koshiro and gave him another once-over. "Hey, uh, sorry about that earlier. I don't normally piss everyone off around me every minute of every day. I'm Sharl." He offered his hand to Koshiro, but before the angsty ex-con could turn away something surprising happened!

The big warehouse across the street suddenly rippled and warped right before their eyes as a massive portal big enough to drive a truck through seemed to scoop itself right out of the two-story high brick wall that had been the most interesting thing Koshiro could see from his cell: from that portal there emerged an unlikely quintet of villains. The first was a tall, solidly-built figure in a grey, rounded battle armor that looked like an old-fashioned diving suit; from his air of stern command, he seemed to be in charge. Flanking him at ground-level was a hulking figure easily half again and wide as Corbin, electricity dancing around his huge fists. Half-in and half-out of the 'threshold' of the portal was a weirdly-shaped figure in a green cloak that looked like a rusted-out version of Dr. Metropolis back in Freedom City; before him was an arrogant-looking man in blue and pink body armor with a long ponytail, and finally embracing that last man was a weird, green-skinned woman in black with what looked like weird, twisty shadows dancing around her fingers. She gave an evil laugh as she studied them all, her gaze fixing on Koshiro in particular.

From inside the facility, the teens distinctly heard the guards yelling, "It's the Champions! Go on lockdown!" Behind them, gates were locking down and sirens going off as the lightly-armed prison guards did their best to protect both themselves and their charges from the dangerous supercrooks out front. As they did so, the armored figure (of the group, only the giant and the rustropolis weren't flying) addressed the teens:

"Attention, Origami Thief! Oriental or not," and here the pony-tailed man visibly face-palmed, "we're all brothers under the skin, and we're not going to let you rot in jail with these do-gooders. Come join the winning side and you'll teach this city what happens when they lock up their best and baddest! I'm Protector, this is Blitzen, Rustbelt, Firehawk, and the Black Goat. We're the CHAMPIONS OF CRIME."

To the Claremont kids, he added, "Stand down, children, and we'll go easy on you. We're here to recruit, not pick fights with gradeschoolers." Despite his words, though, he hadn't taken his eyes entirely off them, as indeed had none of the others. These were experienced adult supervillains, every one.

[Avenger Assembled]

Blitzen drove one of his massive fists into the other, sparks crackling and flying as he did so as if lightning was in his very bones. "We can start by smashing this little prison-house to rubble for you," he offered, seemingly perfectly serious as he did so. Despite his brutish appearance, right down to little incisors sticking up past his jawline, there was something intelligent in the giant's voice. "And make sure these zips learn that when one of US goes away, you treat him with RESPECT!" He growled. "Freedom is the right of anyone who can reach out and take it for himself!"

[KnightDisciple]

Corbin blinked as the no-name criminals he'd never heard a single thing about showed up like they were the best thing for criminals since the Omegadrone. However, he couldn't just leap into action. He had something of a secret identity to keep, after all. Worse, there were civilians in the line of fire, though it looked like he could still hustle them inside. Which is exactly what he started to do. He turned to face Koshiro's family, expression stern as he all but bellowed, spreading his arms to work on herding them back inside (an action that incidentally put him between them and the "Champions of Crime".

"Alright McMillans! Inside, now! Let's go let's go! I'm sure these amateurs will have their hands full soon enough."

He gave a glance toward Koshiro. Hopefully the guy would make the right choice. He'd have to trust that he would. And that his comrades could carry the fight, at least for a time. Chumps of Crime or no, he always like to stack the odds in his favor. He thought at Eve with practiced ease.

-I'll get them inside then slip away to change and rejoin you guys. Give me a shout if things go south fast. Remember. We're Young Freedom. We can take these guys.-

With that, he continued to work on ushering the women of the McMillan family inside, his bulk continuing to guide and protect them all at once, while he also kept his eyes open for a good place to change.

[Avenger Assembled]

For his own part, Sharl decided to continue distracting the bad guys. He tried to put himself in the mindset of one of the Freedom City high school kids he'd spent so much time watching on TV and on the Internet. "You big jerks!" he exclaimed, counting on his nigh-invulnerability in this body to protect him from any retaliation. "Koshiro's not a crook!" I hope! Putting himself between Koshiro and the bad guys, as he'd done, had definite disadvantages. "You're just a bunch of wreckers ruining your own home city. If you care about Detroit so much, you'd be doing something besides trying to beat up on a bunch of-agh!"

Firehawk had concentrated on Sharl, reaching his hand out to squeeze into a fist. The electronic teenager gasped as he felt his body heat up, his signal suddenly sputtering and sparking, Sharl dissolving into visible static around the edges for a moment before he forced himself back into his signal, now looking scorched around the edges like someone suffering from a sunburn. Sharl was hurting, and bad: whatever that energy was had gone right into his projector.

But he couldn't worry about that. Before the bad guys could put two and two together, he exclaimed, "Yeah, I've got superpowers! Get out of here, guys! You crooks wanna have a fight? Fight with Citizen!" Hoping his friends would take the cue, he concentrated as a blue corona of light formed on his chest into the shape of his symbol: the universal wi-fi code, and then he took to the air to shake his fist at them. "Let's do this!"

[April]

-Honestly, I wish I had the foresight to bring my uniform with me. Or a ring that could make one.- Eve thought at Corbin with a hint of amusement.

That amusement vanished the moment Sharl came under attack. The telepath narrowed her eyes at the "Champions of Crime." Normally she would have given them a chance to surrender, or at least run, but their attack changed things.

"I fear you have made a grave error in judgment," Sage said, her voice cool. She placed a hand on the shoulder of Indira and Koshiro and they immediately vanished from sight.

[Fox]

Indira put the luggage down and blinked as the criminals made their entrance, both at the unfolding events and at the assorted reactions. She wasn't entirely sure what the...'Champions of Crime'?...were going for, but she was pretty sure they hadn't gotten the response they'd wanted. 'Rust Belt'

She blinked again as Eve pulled her into the vanishing act, but this at least removed the last little bit of doubt she'd had about getting involved. With Corbin escorting Koshiro's family away and herself hidden - however temporarily - from view she was free to drop the human disguise, clothes and hair melting back into her body and color leeching away even as her eyes - all three of them, as another opened in her forehead - filled in pitch black. Her fingers, too, melted away, pulling together and forming two large, studded clubs. "How many super-powered heroes do you think Detroit has?" she quietly asked in her mouthless, humming voice. "Somehow I think you are right - they are unlikely to know what they have started."

[Electra]

Koshiro wasted precious seconds at the beginning of the fight gaping in astonishment at the villains. He knew about the Champions of Crime, obviously. They made headlines pretty regularly in the city, even if they weren't exactly bigtime themselves. But he'd never actually seen a supervilain in the flesh, and now to see five of them all together, all of them focused right on him, with his family right there-

His family. Koshiro whipped around to see the big guy, Corbin, trying to muscle the McMillans away from the fight. He was doing a pretty good job, but that wouldn't matter if the Champions decided to take down one of the walls looking for them! The smartass guy, Sharl, took off bravely into the sky, with a little uniform on and everything, but he didn't seem to be doing too well. That made sense, they were all just kids. The Champions of Crime would probably make mincemeat of them if something didn't happen soon. Something did happen, but it wasn't what he'd expected. His own skin started going wavy as the short girl's eyes glowed, and the cute Indian girl suddenly turned into some kind of monster! He didn't know if it was an attack or what, but everything was way, way, way out of control.

He took a deep breath and pulled away from the girls, stepping forward. "Hey, yeah!" he called, fixing a smile on his face and hoping his heart wasn't going to burst out of his chest. "I know who you guys are. These jokers are trying to take me to reform school or some crap like that, but I know where I want to be. And I want to have some fun." He focused on the woman who'd been smiling at him, gave her his special attention. "Just let me get my people out of here so the do-gooders don't try and go after them when I'm gone, then I'm all yours." Even as he spoke his hands were busy, fiddling with a bit of paper he'd pulled from his pocket.

[Avenger Assembled]

There was dead silence as the heroes processed the sudden betrayal by their new acquaintance, and as the villains gloated over the new addition to their ranks. "Goddamnit," Citizen spat, turning around to shake his fist at Papercut. "I'm getting my ass kicked on your behalf here!"

"Smart move, switching to the top dog," said Protector with jovial menace as he extended an armored hand to Papercut. "Don't worry, we'll go easy on the kids. I just had to have Firehawk fry your friend there in order to make an example of-"

"Are you crazy!?!" spat Rustbelt, looking up at the others with something unreadable in his blank grey eyes, which close up were about the exact same color as an abandoned factory. "Don't let some punk off the streets play you! Kid, let me show you why you'd better change sides for real!" And with that, the street beneath their feet suddenly seemed to grow and swell like an expanding jelly, cement reaching up to harden beneath the feet of all the young heroes. "This is MY city, and don't you forget it!"

"No, don't you hurt him!" yelled Black Goat, flying down to grab Rustbelt's arm. "Do you know how long I've waited to have a pretty boy to play with!?! This town is full of old fogeys and cokeheads who have no idea how to please a lady!" Whatever the moral merits of Koshiro's putative defection, he'd certainly gotten the villains arguing with each other instead of blasting the kids!

[Gizmo]

Amidst the chaos of shouting and bickering one might almost have missed it as the groups chaperone wavered disconcertingly, like she was suddenly at the very edge of an observer's vision even when they were looking right at her. A few confused blinks later and a translucent blue figure in a tattered reaper cloak over a jumpsuit emblazoned with a 'G' was floating into the air in front of the Champions. "Hey!" Ghost Girl shouted indignantly as she soared toward the villains, "Cut it out! If this if supposed to be your city, how come you're running around threatening people instead of helping them, huh?" With that, the phantom passed right through Rustbelt, reappearing on the other side of the Champions.

[Avenger Assembled]

"A program, eh?" said Blitzen, showing uncommon and downright unsettling smarts for so big and brutish a man. "I'm going to have a lot of fun with you!" And with that, his giant fists sparking with electricity that could have hurt even Citizen's electromagnetic projection, the giant speedster charged right at the Tronik teenager and threw a massive punch! But Sharl was too fast even for the speedster, instead disappearing right through the giant's torso and popping out the other side as Blitzen slammed into the wall of the jail hard enough to leave a crater in the brick, the juvenile center rocking as if from a truck's impact.

Clutching his projector case carefully, glad it hadn't been tagged, the startled Citizen yelled, "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

[KnightDisciple]

It hadn't taken Corbin long to get the McMallin's to safety. The staff inside was in a small panic, but still had the presence of mind to get them secured in a safe® room. In the confusion, Corbin started running down a side hall. As soon as no one was in sight, there was a flash of blue fire and he was encased in the armor of Cobalt Templar. He took to flying at dizzying speeds, quickly getting himself outside. In moments, he had the "lay of the land". Mostly, he saw Blitzen trying to hurt Sharl. This would not stand.

'Doesn't matter if he's annoying on occasion. NO ONE HURTS MY TEAM.'

With a snarl on his face, Cobalt Templar sent himself flying at Blitzen. Mid-air, he turned his body so he was facing the enemy feet-first. His left leg folded in to help support the right, which stayed straight. An aura of flame developed on the fly, thickening until Templar's foot couldn't be seen for the fire. Instead, what looked almost like the point of an arrow formed just before he struck Blitzen somewhere around the chin. His voice roared out as he struck.

"Stay away from my team!"

[Avenger Assembled]

"C'mon, Champions, are we really going to let a bunch of parvenu children toss us around?" sniffed Firehawk disdainfully at the sight of his team meeting their first reverse at the solid hit landed on the giant Blitzen. "You know how long we've been around and all the so-called 'good guys' we've taken out?" he added in the direction of Young Freedom. "You're nothing but a bunch of Junior Leage Jolly Jumpers who got their powers out of a cereal box! Go home to your mummies and daddies," he said with a little wave of his hand, "and let the grownups play with their toys. Come on, boy," he added to Papercut, "show my meth-addled colleague here what you're made of! Take someone out!

[Avenger Assembled]

His body still smoldering from that bizarre power overload he'd taken from Firehawk, Citizen was about to go over there and punch the guy who'd hurt him in the face when he realized the flaw in his strategy. No, be smart. Be like Miss Americana. Who are these guys? He thought fast, trying to place them from both his own research and the helpful wi-fi connection someone had set up in the detention center behind them. "A giant speedster, a city controller, a power controller, a magus," he said out loud, looking from Blitzen, Rustbelt, Firehawk, and Black Goat in turn, "...and a man in a powersuit." His teeth in a snarl, Citizen took off the short distance across the street and shoved his fist through a startled Protector's torso. "You brought a powersuit to fight ME?Your technology sucks!" He felt the computers inside the suit and poured a surge of energy into them; he didn't bother to possess them, just overload them all! Despite all his tough talk, though, Protector's suit did continue to hold together, if it smoked noticeably at the edges.

[April]

Eve did what she could do to assist Citizen, approaching the leader of these 'Champions of Crime,' the loudmouth in the battlesuit in a manner that was quick and quiet, even if she wasn't altering the perception of the villains; they could see her but them they would immediately forget she was there.

She said not a word as she halted her psychic tampering and a triangular blade of energy formed in her hand, condensing as though it were mist. With a flick of the wrist she slashed the blade in a sweeping arc at Protector's head... and he moved.

"Merde."

[Fox]

Wraith wasn't idle as the others charged into battle; she cast her three eyes around the field of combat trying to focus less on her first real supervillain fight () and more on what her grandfather had taught her about fighting groups.

In a flash she was gone, moving with surprising speed for a ambulatory lump of metals: powerful, boneless legs propelled her low to the ground until she was close enough to swing the club-tipped tendrils that were once her arms at Firehawk's body.

[Electra]

Koshiro leapt out of the way just in time as Rustbelt tried to tag him with some nasty supertrap, his heart thudding against his ribs. "Fine!" he snapped at the villain. "You wanna see how I handle punks? Watch, this is cool." He opened the shoebox he'd had under his arm, and suddenly the air was full of the sound of flapping paper wings. Dozens, then hundreds of tiny birds flew out of the box, growing in size as they went, till they made a white cloud in the air. In one mass, they bore down on Cobalt Templar, pouring over him, spinning dizzily around him, till he was nearly obscured from view.

Inside the mass, though, Corbin would notice that the birds left a narrow but precise band of clear space at eye level for him to see through, and though they flew so close he was occasionally brushed by a paper wing, not a single one actually tried to hurt him.