Log:ACRO - Stage 5, Scene 4

ACRO - Stage 5 2015/04/09 	 Bluejay Amy Councilman Kent Gibson Natasha Lightning Ghost Dog Showdown Quiet

4

Councilman Kent Gibson(#2652TOn)

A young up-and-coming councilman, intending to run for mayor in the coming election cycle. He's sharply dressed in a suit with neatly styled hair.

Councilman Kent Gibson has a small entourage as he heads toward a construction site close to the edge of Harrisburg. He has a couple of assistants as well as a few media folks with him. "We need to clean up Harrisburg, but we'll do it incrementally. My goal is to elevate those living there by raising up the surrounding areas and letting the prosperity spill into Harrisburg proper."

A seemingly endless grid of primary roads, with some services, and quiet roads of middle-income houses and lawns: this is Newtown, or the Western Sprawl, as it is often known. Founded in the 2020s, in the backlash to the alien mania following first contact, it is an assertion of all that is human, mundane and boring, juxtaposed with the Alien District and those two periods were in history.

Newtown is not all uniform; styles of house show the expansion of city like the rings of a tree, and the neighboring districts too have their influence: the poverty of Harrisburg has seeped into the north as wealth has crept into the south and the students have invaded the northeast. Only the Alien District has failed to leave its mark.

Bluejay is newly arrived in Colonial Bay. She's not even fully unpacked as yet. But she's received the modified suit and can't resist trying it out. Not that she'll be doing any flying in an urban area. Too many buildings to smash into. So she adjusts the anti-gravity to a fraction of normal weight and is bouncing along in thirty meter leaps, exploring the city and having fun.

Bluejay meandering path that's her to Newtown.

Lightning has been paying penance for roughing up Paragon's sweetheart. After a lengthy lecture over coffee and cookies, he agreed to make up for what he did. So he's been zipping in and out of Harrisburg all day, checking on the urban gardens Paragon has planted throughout, getting plant food, watering cans, etc. He's on his way out when his rapid senses catch the procession and he comes to a dead stop nearby to listen.

Amy is taking Natasha for a walk. Well, fly. She's finally figured out how to stop her running off - shoot some of her light motes somewhere and Natasha comes back - she seems to like "swallowing" them, for some reason. Still, coming this general direction was the dragon's idea.

One of the media folks says, "Councilman, why not just help the people of Harrisburg directly? Surely the money for this project would be better served within the district proper?" The councilman has been on record calling Harrisburg a 'blight on the city', after all. Gibson replies, "Money spent in Harrisburg goes into a bottomless pit. The people of the district don't want to help themselves. We need to help them...help themselves."

The sprawl of cookie-cutter residences are the primary locations for, well, residents. Lien emerges from her inconspiucous abode that looks much like hundreds other inconspicuous abodes. Perhaps the procession of unknown councilman and more recognizable media drew her out. Perhaps she came out to mow her grass to keep it in line with every other neighbor. Either way, the short parade does grab her attention. A trip to the (expectedly) empty mailbox allows her to more casually observe and drop eaves.

Natasha flies over to look at the funny gathering of people, so Amy heads that way too.

Having been out for a bit on checkng the scenery, Kyle Strong happens to stop when he sees the procession. The young man wasn't that well known media-wise, but he wasn't here for interviews or the like. He was here simply to look around and get some ideas. Mostly on a better place than the CBSU area since he wanted to get off campus already. And well, seeing a bit of a media circus is a bit odd in this area. It's kinda not that wealthy of a spot, after all.

A man dressed in a white leather outfit phases through a nearby building...firearm in hand. He's looking in the direction of the councilman.

Lightning zips over to the councilman. "You may want to move along, quick. There's a man with a gun." He points to Ghost Dog.

Bluejay spots the man in the white leather outfir and shouts out a warning. Unfortunately in her hurry she shouts in her native Japanese rather than English, "Look out. Gun!"

Kyle Strong, meanwhile, does the smart thing. He yells instead, "WATCH OUT! GUN!" And he's got a set of lungs on him as he moves for the nearest cover he can find just in case.

Amy(#2344PenACcF?)

Standing only 5'1" tall, this young woman is seldom without a smile on her cherubic face, and her the twinkle in eyes is echoed in the the dancing light motes which always surround her, shifting colours with her mood. She wears her chestnut hair swept back behind her ears, but she is always pushing it back again as it falls forward.

She's wearing a T-shirt with the caption "Feeling lucky, punk?" tucked into her jeans; both are tight over her distinctly feminine curves. On her feet are well-worn sneakers.

Bluejay(#2730PenACcF?)

When in her battlesuit Bluejay is a mostly midnight blue anime styled cybermech combat suit with fully enclosed visored helm. The visor is illuminated from within by a constantly changing head-up display and when Bluejay is engaged in combat a bluish-green force field surrounds her. Most of the suit's external armor is colored a deep midnight blue with slightly lighter blue highlights. On the chest of the suit is an emblem, a dark blue rose in a white diamond.

Lightning(#2472POeACcF?)

A dashing young man wearing a tri-color spandex outfit with a black visor with blue shaded lenses. Down the center of the suit is a dusty blue. The side pannels are black, edged with white and white with lightning bolt designs that point in and down into the blue parts of the suit. White bracers with blue edging guard his forearms. His gloves are white and blue, with black fingers. There's a circular emblem on his chest with a lightning bolt going through it that's white, blue glows when his powers are active like it's made out of el-tape and powered by his abilities.

Lightning arcs around him occasionally or climbs up his arms in a Jacob's Ladder. His white hair is swept gallantly to the right. He has a charming smile and a runner's build.

Kyle Strong(#657PeACcF?)

This man's appearance is that of what might as well be a college student. He wears a black t-shirt with a light, hooded windbreaker over it in dark blue. The shirt shows off that he at least has a fit body with a decent sized build almost like a runner or a swimmer. His face is what most would consider handsome with no scars or blemishes. The eyes looking out are a dark green-blue color which is occasionally obscured by a lock of his red hair. Styled into a neat mess, his hair hangs neatly along the sides to hide his ears and down to the start of his neck.

For pants, he wears a set of cargo pants with a light blue coloring to them that matches the windbreaker. Lastly, his feet are covered by strapped boots in a black color. His only pieces of any sort of accessories is a watch, a pair of black with white striped gloves sticking out of his back pocket, and a necklace with some sort of bird in flight design as a pendant from a thin silver chain.

Lien(#2549POenACcF?)

This young woman is trim and athletic, and might be considered pretty were it not for several factors. The two most obvious are the ripples of keloid scar tissue that cover most of her left check, most of her throat, and continue across her left shoulder. The next is her severe hairstyle, or lack thereof. Her blonde hair is cropped in a sort of high and tight pixie: short on top, then shaved to skin from the temples down where more scarring hasn't already prevented growth.

Her clothing is simple, functional, and anti-chic. Combat-style boots, camouflaged fatigue pants, and a combination of plain tank and long-sleeved button-up. Over this is a a worn gray flight jacket when the weather demands it.

Natasha(#2696TOnp)

Natasha is a tiny baby dragon, 9 inches long not counting the tail, and just over twice that counting it. Her wings are separate limbs from her four legs, and her wingspan is about two foot, though folded the wings are a similar length to her torso.

Natasha's body is covered in tiny scales, mostly of a metallic dark orange colour, though with highlights of brighter oranges and gold, especially on her crested head. The membranes of her wings are an orangish yellow.

Natasha is generally alert and curious, moving her head in sudden jerky movements to follow whatever has her interest.

Natasha dives about chasing all the new light motes!

Ghost Dog moves a little to the right to get a clean shot at the councilman, and then opens fire with a quick three shot burst at the man.

Bluejay sees the gun lifting and activates the deflectors on the suit armaments panel. She's unfamilar with the suit still so lets the auto-targetting system handle the aiming.

The gun's burst erupts from the muzzle, only to be met by Bluejay's deflectors, averting bloodshed.

Bluejay sighs in relief as the deflectors create gravity traps in the flight path of the bullets and bring them to a halt. Three spent projectiles fall to the ground.

Lien was mildly interested before. Following yells of weapons and ensuing weapons fire, she's now very interested. Like many other bystanders, she runs back inside her home. Unlike most others, she heads for the closet and hardcases of light powersuit and weaponry.

Kyle Strong moves as soon as the first shots are fired, ducking and covering his head as he takes off into an alleyway between two buildings. Once in there, he quickly pulls out his gauntlet from his pocket before putting it on as a green and gold field covers him quickly. Showdown makes his hat and poncho before slipping both on as he glances back the way he came. o O (... go house shopping, find some politician being shot at by supervillain... can I just blame Porter for this?)

Lightning watches the bullets move in slow motion towards the councilman. Seeing that they're handled and someone's guarding him, he zips towards Ghostdog and throws a jab at him before zipping back to give himself some running room.

Ghost Dog twists and the attack misses cleanly over his shoulder. He snorts at the attempt. "I should have figured there would be no less than three heroes nearby. You can't go anywhere without running into a half dozen."

Lightning's jab misses and Lightning is back where he started. "Wow. He's good."

Amy spots the bad guy. Bad guys shouldn't play with guns, so she tries to fix that, chucking all the bad luck she can summon at the gun. It usually breaks them.

Ghost Dog's gun is hit by Amy's power and breaks into pieces, coming apart.

Amy says, "No playing with guns!"

Showdown finishes changing before crouching and leaping upwards as a green pulse comes from where he was. The distinctive clinking sound is heard as he goes to the nearest high point he can reach quickly before he holds out a hand. Working quickly, he seeks to put a barrier between the crowd and the gunman. Both to block his escape and to keep the crowd safe as he 'walks' on the air into view. The barrier takes the form of a large wall made of glowing yellow. "Hey now, what's all the ruckus out here? I was havin' a nice nap, too!"

Lightning tries to focus and predict the moves of the skilled Ghost Dog. He zigs left, zags right, and tries to punch him as his fist charges.

Ghost Dog is apparently quite good at predicting where Lightning is striking from. He spins and ducks, avoiding the next strike.

Ghost Dog does a quick calculation, seeing all of these heroes come out of the woodwork in a matter of seconds.

Lightning skids back to his starting position. "Okay, -really- good. Wow."

...at which point he looks like he becomes hazy and he sinks into the ground. On the way, he points at the councilman. "Another time."

Bluejay switches on the neutrino scan and looks down making sure the villain is actually fleeing and not just moving to get another chance at the councilman.

Amy says, "He ran away quickly! He didn't even say what his plan was first!"

Bluejay watches until she's sure the gunman is leaving. "He is leaving area." she says in accentuated English. Then she leaps several body lengths into the air and punches the air with a fist, "Hai!" she shouts in delight, delighted by her first action as a hero.

"Vils, huh? Always so inconsiderate. What happened to the good old days of monologuing?" Lightning quips.

One of the media folks finally gets her composure, "Councilman, can you think of any reason why someone might want to kill you?"

Lowering his barrier, then himself from the air, Showdown walks over towards the councilman's group. "Everyone safe? No injured?" He calls out making sure he is heard. The gem on his hand gives off a quick glow and a small trace of gold along his body when he touches down. Looking towards the media and the 'councilman', Showdown's attention is obviously on the man.

Kent runs a hand through his hair, trying to control his reactions. "Umm...I can't think of any reason." He thinks about it for a moment, "Unless it's something tied to organized crime. I've been pushing to try to deal with the Triads in Chinatown as well as the mafia holdings in the city. Or...I suppose it could be some hothead who lives in Harrisburg."

The reporter smirks, "That sounds like...several possible reasons."

Natasha flies back and lands on Amy's shoulder now there aren't so many motes to chase.

Lightning turns into a blur and suddenly dashes and stops by Ken. "That would definitely make you unpopular. Is organized crime running rampant in--" Lightning disappears into another streak of electricity and returns with a newspaper in hand. "--Colonial Bay?" Yeah, he needed a reminder again of what city he was in this minute.

Councilman Gibson nods. "Quite. They try to keep a low profile, but corruption is running rampant in the city."

Bluejay runs a quick self-test diagnostic on the battlesuit and then retracts the visor, revealing a young face with Japanese features framed by the rest of the helm.

Lightning purses his lips in thought. "Even in a city like this? It's got the highest hero per capita in the country," he sounds surprised.

The female reporter looks to Lightning, "Most heroes are busy fighting supervillains, as opposed to organized crime."

"You know, somehow I don't believe it. You just had an assassin run away because four of us showed up." Showdown says, making sure he is heard. "And not all of us go after just supervillains. I'd prefer organized crime to supervillains any day. Do you realize how dangerous supervillains can be? I ended up with second and third degree burns from one a couple months back over most of my body." He says towards the reporters.

Lightning glances at the female reporter. "What about all the vigilantes that focus almost exclusively on organized crime? There's quite a few of them in this city, too."

With Showdown and Lightning talking to the media, Bluejay makes her way over to where Amy is stood. "Hello." she says to Amy.

Amy says, "Hi!"

The councilman is clearly dismissive. "Of course there are some who fight such criminals. But for every one of them, there are at least three who fight more stereotypical supervillains. Like all of the heroes attached to Starguard Gamma."

Nastasha sniffs the air in Bluejay's direction.

Bluejay asks Amy, "Do you know what happened here? I mean, why it happened? Oh, I'm..." she pauses, not having thought of a name yet. "I'm Bluejay." she says after a moment.

Amy says, "I'm Amy, or you can call me Lady Luck, and this is Natasha! And no, I don't. I hate it when the villains run and don't even tell you what they wanted!"

There are several media cameras rolling at this point, getting shots of the heroes...and a couple of reporters are giving live reports of what happened. The councilman has managed to get his composure back, though he looks a little less confident than prior to the attack.

Bluejay says, "Villains running away is good, isn't it?" She smiles at Natasha, "Your dragon is beautiful, Amy." she says in delight at seeing the small creature.

Lightning scratches his head as he listens. "Whelp. Organized crime is always tricky if you let it go unchecked. San Francisco has issues with the Yakuza to some degree, too." He straightens up and looks back towards Harrisburg and remembers his duties. With a mental groan. "Time to jet. Got things to do. A hero's job never ends." Electricity starts to arc around him and suddenly he's gone with a blurry trail left in his wake.

Natasha spreads her wings and shows off, almost as if she understands.

Amy says, "Uh-huh!"

"And how would you propose we deal with going after organized crime, councilman? Not everyone's a detective. In my case, for example, I am lucky to stumble on robberies, let alone assassinations." Showdown says.

Bluejay grins as the little dragon shows off. "You understand, don't you, little jewel." she says to Natasha in her accentuated English.

Natasha snorts at the question.

Kent says to Showdown, "There are certainly some of you who are. But there are other things that can be done. Neighborhood watches. Public appearances. I'm trying to hit the mafia in their pocketbook, but I'm not the District Attorney. But the current DA, Richard Chamberlain is willing to help me as much as he can."

Amy says, "She's really clever!"

Amy gives Natasha's head a little scratch with one finger.

Bluejay nods. "I will see you again I hope as you are hero. And you too, little dragon." Bluejay's visor slide back down over her face and she takes off vertically upwards, climbing at a controlled rate until there's just a dot in the sky. Then the dot moves off in the direction of the ocean and a few moments later a long rumbling sound is heard as Bluejay goes supersonic.