Log:Leap a Tall Building..., Heat 2

2008/07/01 	 Cypher Kibin Nexus Sable Titan Variable 1

Stadium rock blares over the stadium loudspeakers as fans mill about and find their seats. Competing heroes are invited to wait in the tunnel between the lockers and the field.

Titan walks into the arena from the locker room, and looks up at the structures, "Three stories? That's it? If all I have to do is clear that, this'll be over fast."

Titan is just outside the tunnel, looking out.

Nexus parks himself in an out-of-the-way spot to watch the event. He doesn't seem to have a ticket, but nobody bugs him about it.

Howl sits in the stands, folding his arms over his chest as he watches.

Kibin jogs into the stadium, with a fresh cup of coffee in his claws. He takes a seat, looking out at the challenge area.

The music blaring over the loudspeakers starts fades away. "Ladies and Gentlemen..." the stadium announcer says, a deep voice booming over the loudspeakers. "Are you ready... for Best of the BEST!"

The crowd cheers.

Nexus cheers.

Among the other fans, the Jurassic Pack is back and in full paint and costumes.

Howl isn't much of a cheering guy but at least he looks interested.

The loudspeaker man announces, "Here's your host... Syndey Crosheeeeeere!"

The main stage hovers above the playing field. There's a loud thrumming sound that builds in intensity, and Sydney materializes from thin air in position on the stage. She waves to the crowd and shouts, "Hello, Colonial Bay!"

Titan furrows his brow at the apparent 'challenges'. "Great. Feh. Nothing's ever straightforward anymore."

Sydney says, "Are you ready? Let's bring out the heroes. Ladies and Gentlemen? Here are Colonial Bay's Mightiest!"

The production assistant cues the heroes to take the field.

...and reminds Titan to leave the field where it is.

Kibin tosses his empty coffee cup in a nearby trashcan, and goes out onto the field, waving to his fans.

The Pack has one big guy playing giant kettle drums, which are faintly audible over the roaring of the crowd.

Titan smirks at the assistant. "Don't remind me that I could take that building down by looking at it funny." He starts to jog out onto the field.

Sydney says, "So we've seen who's the fastest and who's the strongest. What else can we possibly through at our heroes? Today's challenge is called Leap a Tall Building in a Single Bound, but it's really a challenge to see how sharp our heroes are."

Sydney continues: "Before us, each hero has a structure to climb, with three levels. On each level, there's a challenge..."

"The first level has the Man of Mirrors. A stunt man has the key to a safe on the second level. But, we've got a holographic projector that duplicate his image. The heroes will have to decide which of the 8 images is the stunt man. Meanwhile, the stuntman is equipped with a Penalty Ray. It's a wide angle beam. If the hero is hit by the ray, they'll have to spend a moment 'recovering'."

Titan shakes his head, "Wonderful. There goes my normal tactic of letting people hit me." He chuckles.

Nexus calls out "Save that for the after-show party!"

Titan grins, "No...that's 'hitting on', I think."

"If the heroes tag the real stuntman, he hands over the key. The heroes are free to continue without the key, but the key makes the second challenge really easy. That's because on the second level, there's a safe. The key from the first level opens it easily; otherwise, the heroes might have to resort to brute strength to open it. Inside the safe is a remote control that unlocks the third level. Heroes have to get the remote to continue."

Nexus shrugs. "Depends on what you're into..."

Sydney says, "The final level is the chessboard. The heroes have to cross the checkered grid of floor tiles to reach the finish line. But as they move, the floor tiles shift into Penalty Tiles. If the hero steps onto a penalty tile. He or she has to go back to the beginning, and then wait for the grid to reset. The Penalty Tiles shift turn on and off, following a pattern. If the hero can figure out the pattern, then crossing the room should be a piece of cake."

As always, there's a referee on hand to answer questions.

Titan says, "Um...do we really need to get the remote? What if we get onto the third level without unlocking it?"

The ref says, "You must get the remote. There's no flying, leaping, or teleporting. Certainly no busting though the floors or ceilings. Sorry, Titan."

Titan says, "No leaping? Despite the name of the event? I have to take the stairs?"

Kibin hmmms... that throws his leaping ability out. Ah well, at least he's still pretty fast, and that might help.

"That's right, Titan," the ref says.

Jolt descends from the MagLev station.

Titan looks...baffled. "Wow. Whatever." He already looks resigned to the outcome.

Nexus calls out "Hey, who wants to see Titan rip that safe open with his bare hands!?!"

The crowd cheers. It seems as though they'd like to see it.

Jolt parks herself on the rim of the Coliseum with a pair of binoculars to watch the Best of the Best. Easier this way since its not likely she'll bump into any other spectators accidentally. She's close enough to any speakers that she'll be able to hear the announcers and/or the floor where the competition is provided there are some microphones down there

Howl snorts lightly, watching Titan's body language. "Oh c'mon. We all had to do it."

Titan says, "No. I'd just suggest that the stuntman not stay in my building after I get to the second floor. For safety."

Nexus gulps and disappears from his current spot, reappearing several meters further away from Titan's building.

Sydney says, "Heroes... On your marks!"

Kibin gets ready to burst through the door, ready to tag this stuntman.

Nexus disappears again and reappears near Jolt. "Hey... I don't think we've met. How come you aren't competing?

Cypher trots into view rather late, having had to convince the gatekeeper to the competitors section she is a meta and not just someone in a fancy costume.

Jolt hrms and looks over as she moves a bit away from Nexus, for safety "Ah... Its a team competition, I don't really have a team" she admits with a shrug "Plus, I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt by my participation"

Howl turns to a child of about twelve sitting near him and starts to explain the dynamic of the course and who he favors and why. The child is terrified.

Nexus looks up when he sees Cypher, and cheers. "Whoo-hoo! Someone arriving even later than me!

The production assistant in the tunnel points Cypher where to go, turning her fingers in a circle, gesturing for Cypher to hurry up. She begins muttering something into her headset.

Cypher thinks. o O (I can show the metas in the city what I can do by being here.)

Cypher nods and trots over to the place indicated at a comfortable normal human jog.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Team event? Not really. Though, yeah, I guess your ranking won't be too high if you're just at one event. Still, could be fun..."

Sydney says, "Ok, heroes, relax for a moment. We have a new competitor joining the field. Everyone give a warm welcome to..." Sydney puts her finger to her ear.

Titan gets ready to run into the building, setting himself.

"Cypher!"

Cypher looks around to see who called her name. She waves.

Kibin stays set, ready to go into the building at any moment. This probably isn't speed-based, but it might help shave a few seconds off.

Nexus blinks. . o O (That's Cypher? Cool... you go, girl!)

Howl points out Cypher to the uncomfortable child. "That, kid, is what we call a cheater. Power armor is cheating."

The crowd cheers for the newcomer, not a loudly as for some of the more familiar heroes, but it's still a warm welcome.

[To Nexus] Jolt claps and cheers on the other metas from her admittedly distant vantage point. Occasionally looking through the binoculars she brought "Yeah, well I mostly came to watch. Like I said, its no problem with me not participating"

The ref runs over the rules quickly with Cypher.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Your choice, natch. They call me Nexus, by the way..." He extends a friendly hand."

Cypher nods. . o O(I was here watching yesterday) "Thank you, I am aware of the rules. Don't let me hold the start up."

Sydney says, "On your marks... Get set... GO!"

[To Nexus] Jolt ponders a moment and shakes the hand nervously. She's wearing her gloves after all "Nice to meet you, everyone calls me Jolt. At least when I'm around enough to remember. I been taking things easy lately"

Kibin enters the door, sniffs for a bit, then runs at the direction of the human scent in the room and tags the image in that direction.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Lately? So you've been around for a while, I guess. I'm sorta new in town, myself. Nice to meet you, Jolt."

Kibin grins, easily discerning the real stuntman and tagging him. Guess he doesn't have to worry about that penalty beam then.

Cypher jogs to the entrance of the middle of the first room and looks around to see which ray gun is a 'real' mechanism. She instructs it not to fire at her."

[To Nexus] Jolt says, "Yeah, I'm around here usually... not always doing the hero thing. Took time to dust off the costume so I can spectate the event. Its a team thing... Maybe next time they run it it wont be""

Titan runs into the room, and runs up the stairs to the second floor, nearly ignoring the stuntman entirely. He says in passing, "Get out of the building. Now. Just in case the safe comes through the floor. I don't want you getting hurt. If I can't leap in a 'leaping contest', at least I can rip something open and let off frustration."

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Well... whatever you say." He's still not sure why she thinks it's a team event, but it doesn't really matter at this point... besides, he's distracted by the competition. "Hey, look at that... he's really gonna go for it. Cool!""

In Titan's building, the stuntman leaves the building quickly. The holographic projector shuts down automatically revealing man number five as being the Real McCoy.

In Cypher's building, the Men of Mirrors raise their guys and train them on Cypher. Click. The trigger is pulled by nothing happens.

The stuntman hands Kibin his key.

[To Nexus] Jolt shrugs "Besides it's too late now" she admits as she watches the competition going on in the Colliseum

Howl nods slowly, watching Cypher. "Technowitch. Steer clear of them, kid. They'll steal your heart and your bank account. And your identity. And your passwords. And your gadgets. And the deepest darkest secrets you hide in that folder named 'Howl's Work' or whatever it is you kids do these days."

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Yeah, kinda." He watches the activity, distracted. "So what do you do... I mean, when you're doing the hero thing?""

Kibin grabs the key in his claws, running up the stairs and stopping next to the safe. He opens the safe and grabs the remote, running up to the third and final level. All going good so far.

[To Nexus] Jolt hrms and thinks "Mostly help out others... You'd be surprised how helpful destroying electronic equipment can be at times. Even if it's screwed things up on more than one occasion"

Cypher looks for the holo-generator. On spotting it she works her technowitchery on it to change the seven mirror man duplicates into seven Cypher duplicates who point and fire their 'penalty rays' at the real stuntman.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "You'd be surprised how _un_surprised I'd be by that. Actually, I don't know if you follow HeroNet, but there's a" -- he cuts off as the holograms change and cracks up. "Oh, that's _beautiful_!"

Titan gets up to the safe, studying it for a moment. Afraid that he'd send the safe sideways out of the building, and into the crowd, instead he prepares to strike the top of it, winding up with a huge punch. He jumps a little bit just to clear the top of the safe, and attempts to drive his fist through the top of the safe as he comes back down.

"Now she's just showing off." Howl replies. "Totally not goal oriented." He leans forward. "That's so cool."

[To Nexus] Jolt giggles "Yeah it is... and HeroNet... I was looking around it the other day, never really used it all that much myself..."

The Men of Mirrors suddenly shift into a Crowd of Cyphers and they turn and fire their rays at the single stuntman.

"What the?!" The stuntman is so surprised he forgets to even try shooting back. He looks around for the referee.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Hm? Oh, right." He's still grinning at the hologram-subversion. "Well, we're facing one of those situations where the ability to screw up electronics might be just what we need." . o O (That, and whatever Cypher's doing up there!) "Wanna help?""

"Play on!" the referee say to the stuntman.

Titan lands...his fist striking the top of the safe, making a loud THOOM sound, rattling the structure of his building.

[To Nexus] Jolt says, "Well I guess so... Though you should know that my ability isnt exactly what you'd call selective."

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Well, can't hurt to try. The gadgets aren't what I'd call -- wow!" He stares in astonishment at Titan's explosive blow. "Geez. I knew he was strong, but that's... wow! You go, big guy!""

Titan's feet hit the ground...the safe ripped open by his fist, and it ends up partway through the floor. He smiles, breathing heavily, "Glad no one was beneath that."

Nexus cheers the big guy.

[To Nexus] Jolt hrms and thinks "Yeah well... remind me not to get on his bad side... anyways sure I can help I suppose" as she claps at the display of brute force

Cypher waves to the stuntman and heads upstairs to the second floor.

[To Jolt] Nexus says, "Cool. You have a number I could reach you at, or something?"

Titan grabs the remote...and runs up the stairs to the next floor, pressing the remote button as he moves.

Kibin moves out onto the board, trying to figure out the pattern while he's on it. He's fairly intelligent.. this shouldn't be too hard.

[To Nexus] Jolt says, "I usually hang around Main Street... Go around there and I'll probably find you"

Cypher gets up to the safe. Moving over to it she studies it closely analysing the mechanism. Then she places a hand on the front of the safe. o (Not needed but lets not give away all the secrets) and simply 'asks' the lock to open.

Nexus shakes his head in admiration as the safe opens itself. "Yeah, she's just showing off. Doing it well, though." He adds to Jolt. "OK, Main Street it is."

Cypher stands still as a statue for a few moments with her hand on the safe, as the handle slowly rotates on its own to open the door. She reaches into the safe and waves the remote over her head to the crowd.

Nexus cheers.

Titan takes the time to analyze the board as best he can as it changes, waiting for the moment.

Cypher moves up the stairs to the start of the chessboard using the remote to by the blockade.

Cypher stands at the edge of the chessboard and studies it.

Zzzt! Something short circuits and now the board is shifting half as quickly as before!

Cypher laughs and pantomimes looking at a watch,

Titan heads out onto the grid, starting to make his way across.

Kibin takes a deep breath, so far so good... if he understands the rules right, only one more switch to go before he's clear.

Cypher tries again to interface with the chessboard controller.

Titan continues moving forward, to the edge of the second 'area', and awaits the shift.

Kibin runs at the finish, reaching it. He wonders how he did compared to everyone else.

Cypher is interface with the chessboard controller now. She downloads a tic-tact-toe program, picking a flawed implementation so she can win the game when she plays it. The chessboard on it's next shift will turn to all non-safe squares and then put up a tic-tac-toe grid of safe squares which do not go fully across the width or depth, making playing a game a requirement to pass across.

Titan continues moving forward....now in the third area.

Cypher's board seems to malfunction -- it's now displaying a tic-tac-toe grid

Sydney stands with Kibin by the finish line. "Kibin -- another speedy performance; it's what we've come to expect of you. What do you think of today's challenge?"

Cypher studies the programming mentally devising a perfect game plan.

Kibin replies to Sydney, "Good, though not quite as tiring as the other two challenges."

Titan runs through the remaining section, to the finish, stopping at the far side of the grid.

Sydney says, "Well today you got a chance to prove that your brain is every bit as quick as the rest of you." She smiles.

"And now Titan is across!"

The chessboard goes first placing an X in the middle of the left column. Cypher points to a square and an O appears. The game is slow with the board only changing every six seconds but Cypher plays patiently and finally winss with a diagonal of O's. A line appears passing through the winning O's from one end of the chessboard to the other. Cypher walks across along that line and waves as she gets to the end.

Sable moves:moves onto the edge of the field, emerging inconspicuously from the tunnel to watch the competition, her lips curling into a soft smile. She wanders slowly behind the cameras, surveying the unfolding action.

Kibin watches Cypher on one of the stadium monitors, with her unique method of getting across the board. "Cool."

Sydney says, "Let's hear it for our heroes! Now, we'll take a look at the jumbotron -- was Kibin able to out think the heroes from last night's event?"

Titan can't see the other competitors from where he is...so assuming that he's done, he heads back down the stairs toward the first floor, not wanting to smash through the building any further than he already has.

Sydney reads off the scores as they appear on the big screen. "In third place of the combined results of this event, it's Sable!"

Kibin looks at the big jumbotron, waiting for his name on the board.

Sable stops short as her name is called over the loudspeaker. She fixes the jumbotron with a stern disbelieving gaze for a long moment.

Nexus giggles at the sight of Cypher's tic-tac-toe game, then watches the jumbotron out of idle curiosity.

Sydney continues, "In second place, it's.... Howl! And that means Kibin has won the event! With his stellar performances in the other events, Kibin will win the title of... Best of the Best!" She turns to the raptor. "Congratulations!"

Cypher applauds as the names are called out.

Nexus says, "woohoo!"

Kibin says to Sydney, "Thanks!" He doesn't know what else to say, just staring up at the crowds.

Cypher waves to Kibin and claps loudly.

Sable smiles and claps, joining the ovation for Kibin. She lifts her hands to acknowledge a genuinely worthy champion.

Titan claps and looks up at the jumbotron as he walks out of his building.

Sydney turns to the camera. "We'll officially crown our new champion next week, at the closing ceremonies!"

Nexus ports over to near Cypher. In a low voice, he adds "That was impressive. I'm thinking we could use your help on a project, if you're interested?"

Sable keeps clapping with the crowd as she approaches the podium, aiming herself toward Yusuko and Nexus.

Jolt remains seated up at the top and smiles, pondering if she should make an appearance at the closing ceremonies or just watch it from the TV

Cypher nods, "Hai. That was the reason I took part in the event. I'm not faster than a speeding bullet. I'm hardly as strong as a toy-train. But I hope I've shown I do have talents that could be useful in some situations."

[To Cypher] Nexus says, "Damn straight. We've been needing a half-decent cyberjockey on our side for ages...""

Sable inclines her head toward Kibin. "Congratulations, an extremely impressive result, you're a very worthy winner."

Kibin nods back at Sable, saying, "Thanks."

Sable smiles and shrugs. "No need to thank me, it's not like I *let* you win." She looks to Nexus. "Did you want to talk about the transmitter you found?"

Kibin asks the two, "Transmitter?"

Nexus nods. "Yeah. The bait we dropped in worked... we have a location. It's even in town."

Sable says, "Well that's good news. Do you mind if I ask what was transmitted. I'm curious to work out where the information collection is being done."

Jolt sneaks off while everyone is occupied

Sable glances to Jolt as she skulks away and then to Titan. "Can I just talk to all of the competitors for a moment?"

Nexus says, "Sure... what's up?"

Sable motions to everyone to approach the growing cluster. "Well I think we need to let everyone know what is going on here, the information being transmitted contains their details."

Nexus shrugs. "Yeah... that's why I posted all that stuff to HeroNet last weekend."

Sable's shoulders lift slightly. "That's true but it would seem that some people haven't checked it out. So I'm going to try word of mouth."

Nexus nods. "Cool."

Sable waits for everyone who wants to to come close.

Kibin ahs, remembering those transmitters now.

Variable watches the cluster of heroes curiously from the stands.

Sable gestures to Nexus. "It seems only fair to let the man who did the investigation to bring us up to date."

Nexus shrugs. "Sure, if you want." He waves Variable and Titan over to join them, if they wish.

Titan shrugs a bit and walks over to join the group.

Variable glides down from the stands to join the others. "What's up?"

Nexus says, "Like I posted, there were scanners throughout the stadium during all three events. Still there, I imagine. Scanning powers and stuff. We doctored the feed so it'd ping us next time they downloaded."

Nexus says, "It worked... we have a location."

Variable says, "Where?"

Nexus gives everyone the information.

Sable says, "So what we did here and how we did it has been recorded and down-loaded. Which means whoever has done it has data on our capabilities and in some cases weaknesses.""

Nexus nods. "For the first couple of events, anyway. We tried to scramble this set. Dunno if we succeeded, though."

Titan raises a brow. "This event has been used in the past by villains...though usually as a direct attack, in an attempt to bump off heroes. This is quite a bit more subtle."

Nexus says, "I'm guessing we probably did, since the Trojan worked."

Titan blinks at the mention of 'Trojan', looking confused for a long moment. He then realizes what was actually meant, and nods.

Nexus says, "There's also a meta working for them, we ran into him. White-skinned, metal manipulator."

Titan shrugs a bit, "Nothing we can't handle, I'm sure."

Nexus nods. "Yeah, that's what I figure. His main talent seemed to be running away."

Variable says, "Hm, not one I know."

Titan grins, "That's what thrown cars are for." He looks like he's kidding. Maybe.

Nexus says, "Icon seemed to recognize him... some guy named 'Chalk'. Apparently works with a partner named 'Cheese'. And, nah, he's better at running away than that... phases out, flies through the ground, all that stuff."

Titan says, "I think I've seen at least one of those two before. But I'm not sure."

Sable says, "Anyway, it is worth bearing in mind that they do have some intelligence on us and they seem to be reasonably thoughtful. So if their signal was perceptibly interfered with they would have to be reasonably dum not to anticipate that it was also traced."

Titan nods. "Well, I'm in the phone book. So, if any of you need my assistance, like when you go after these guys, let me know. For the moment, I think I need to head home."

Nexus nods. "Will do, big guy."

Sable says, "Anyway, we're going to coordinate a response and I just thought it would be good to bring everyone up to speed."

Sable looks to Titan. "I don't believe we've actually met before, by the way, I'm Sable."

Titan smiles to Sable, and offers his hand to her. "A pleasure to meet you, lovely lady. I am Talos. Though the press has taken to calling me 'Titan'."

Sable nods and shakes the offered hand. "A pleasure to meet you." She glances around the collected heroes. "I did have one other thought. Does anyone have any expertise that might allow us to locate and analyse the sensors providing the data."

Nexus smiles. "I'm thinking the one we wanna talk to is that Cypher woman... but she had to take off."

Variable shakes her head.

Kibin says to Sable, "Unless the sensors have a distinctive scent, no."

Sable nods slightly. "Well it's unlikely to be earth-shatteringly important, I'll look into it until I have a chance to catch up with her."

Nexus says, "Any other questions?"

Sable shakes her head. "I'm fine for now, thank you all for listening in."

Nexus nods

Sable says, "Now we can get back to forcing Kibin to buy us all drinks."

Nexus grins. "Shame the Captain isn't here. I'll have to pass on the drinks, though. Congratulations, Kib!"

Nexus concentrates for a moment and disappears.

Variable says, "Getting lonely here. How about we all go for a coffee and let them start clearing up?"

Kibin nods at Variable. "Probably best."

Sable nods firmly. "Sounds like a great idea. though I'm a little out of my league here, you two tore this competitions up."

Variable says, "I didn't do so well. Kibin was great though."

Variable says, "Anyway, see you at the coffee shop!"