Log:Shark Bait

2014/07/25 	 Hunter Tali Martin

1

It's a beautiful warm 80 degree summer day. Friday means time to ignore that you have homework until Sunday! It's about 4:30 in the afternoon, and Hunter made plans. And he planned plans, making a FriendBook post about kayaking at the beach around this appointed time if anyone wanted to meet up, including a Maps address for people to track down where he is on the beach.

Near the water's edge is a gathering of people of all ages, and two rows of rental kayaks. A person seems to be trying to organize and talk to people while people put their bags and purses in a pile nearby. Nearby the outer edge of attendees by the bag stash is Hunter, dressed in white t-shirt and tan swim trunks with a red bar down the side, listening to what's going on while also typing on his PDA.

Tali can't break with tradition! She appears behind him, wearing a long T-shirt over a swim-suit - she figures kayaking might get wet, and shouts "Boo!" She's doesn't cover his eyes though, not wanting to interfere with his typing.

Hunter obviously isn't THAT popular, since his friends list is pretty small and he's standing there alone. Plus he's only been on it for like 1 month. Where has this guy been? The stoneage?

Suddenly, Hunter jumps a bit, but manages to not fumble his phone. . o O (How does she keep sneaking up on me?? How does EVERYONE keep doing that? Heh...). He whips about and grins broadly. "Hey! I wasn't sure if anyone was coming! I know it was short notice for people. And Yushio hasn't been responding to my texts..." He sounds a little downhearted.

Tali says, "You didn't know? Something came up - some urgent business. She's had to leave the country.... She's probably even too busy to text! Being snoot can be really hard work, it seems. And of course I came, silly! She gives Hunter a quick hug, assuming he doesn't avoid it, on seeing how down he looks. "I'm you friend - and besides, this sounds crash!"

Hunter hugs Tali back. "No, I hadn't heard. I guess it must've been really urgent business. I...I kind of accidentally upset her, and was hoping to apologize. But I guess that's why she didn't respond to my texts or tell me," he sighs, feeling guilty for things done under his alter ego. But then he smiles. "I'm glad you're here, though. We're just about to get ready to head out. There's the option of one-person and two-person kayaks, depending on what you're interested in," he says as he motions to the kayaks up for grabs, letting her choose.

Tali says, "I don't know - have you done this before? Is it easier to share to start with?"

Hunter shrugs. "Not so much, but how hard can it be?" he says with a grin. "So long as you can swim, it doesn't seem like much of a hazard.

Tali says, "Yeah - well, let's try the two-person then!"

Hunter gives a thumbs up. "Let's grab one before they're all gone, then. Lemme just stash my junk," he says as he tosses his PDA into his open backback nearby, then strips off his t-shirt and jams it in afterwards, zipping up the bag.

The kayaking instructor explains the basics of paddling and how to get back on the kayak if you fall off. It's all very easy to follow, and minimal to learn.

Tali has taken off her T-shirt and stashed it somewhere but the time Hunter has done that. She pays attention to the instructions.

Hunter thinks. o O (Wow, that was fast. When did she...?)

Tali says nothing. She's amused by surprising people with her speed, without ever letting them catch her doing something *definitely* superhuman.

Hunter sniffles a bit and sneezes into the crook of his elbow. "Huh...excuse me." He starts paying attention to the brief lecture, and then they're all dismissed. "Alright, time to figure this out! Sounded pretty easy."

Tali says "Uh-huh! Say, you ok?" as she heads for the kayak and picks up a paddle.

Hunter sniffs once. "Oh, yeah. Sure. I was feeling a bit fatigued this morning, but no way was I gonna cancel. But I'm worried I'm coming down with something," he replies as he follows along, scooping up a paddle. He tosses his paddle into the kayak and leans down, placing his hands on the edge. He digs his feet in and starts pushing it towards the water to get them ready for launch.

Hunter pushes the kayak into the water until it can float without hitting the sand, about knee-deep for him. "Go ahead and climb in while I hold it steady for ya," he offers.

Tali says, "Ok!" and climbs into the kayak, which rocks more than a little as she does so.

It's a beautiful warm 80 degree summer day. Friday means time to ignore that you have homework until Sunday! It's about 4:30 in the afternoon, and Hunter made plans. And he planned plans, making a FriendBook post about kayaking at the beach around this appointed time if anyone wanted to meet up, including a Maps address for people to track down where he is on the beach.

Near the water's edge is a gathering of people of all ages, and two rows of rental kayaks. A person seems to be trying to organize and talk to people while people put their bags and purses in a pile nearby. Hunter is standing in the water up to his knees, steadying a two-person Kayak as Tali climbs in.

[To Hunter] Tali says, "Ok - you get in now..."

Martin arrives a bit later than most of the other people, having gone home to change. He's in a sleeveless shirt and what could be termed shorts on him, though they would probably provide housing for a third-world family. Perched on one shoulder he holds three wooden shipping pallets, most likely rescued from the back of some grocery or retail store, stacked one upon the other and in his free hand he holds a metal pail with canvas cloth sticking out of it.

He stacks up the pallets and pail in about the same general location where people are putting their purses and bags and then goes to select one of the kayaks.

Tali says, "Oh, there's Martin!"

Tali gives Martin a wave.

Since he doesn't generally wear shoes there's no reason for Martin to have any sort of beach footwear, even though it might actually be possible for him assuming he could find something in extra-humongous. With his stuff stowed he wades out into the surf, giving a nod and a grunt to the two of you.

Hunter is just wearing tan swim trunks with a red bar down the side. He looks up and over towards Martin and waves with one hand, using the other to keep ahold of the kayak. Without his shirt, the nerdy kid that has trouble with bullies proves to actually have remarkably well-toned muscles.

Hunter says, "Hey buddy! What's the haps? How's junk?"

Tali is in a green one-piece swimsuit, for her part.

Martin gives a shrug of overly broad shoulders. "Been a quiet week," he rumbles. "No real anx. Kinda nice."

Hunter tilts his head and leans out to look around the very impressively sized Martin. "So what'd you bring along?"

Tali nods too Martin. "Mild. Yeah, what are those junks?"

"Wood for a fire," Martin says, "Junk for a clambake afterward." He goes to select one of the two person kayaks. Unsurprisingly no one wants to partner up with Martin.

Martin will find he's big enough that the two-person kayak can't really fit a partner comfortably anyway.

Tali prepares herself to shift for balance as needed while Hunter gets in.

"Cool idea, man. Clambake sounds epic!" Hunter grins cheerfully. Other attendees have already launched their kayaks and started to row out. Hunter starts pushing his and Tali's kayak out a little further before he climbs in carefully and settles down in his seat in the back.

Martin climbs into his kayak. Despite his bulk he is able to do it extremely easily, the more feline portions of his predatory nature giving him an excellent sense of balance.

Hunter says to Tali, "Just start paddling and I'll match up to be in sync with you." He grins to Martin. "Ready, bud?"

Tali manoeuvres her paddle out of the kayak and starts paddling, a bit splashily.

Hunter sputters as he gets splashed. "A little..um..down strokes. Like you're --Gack! ...scooping..."

Tali says, "Sorry!"

Tali tries to adjust to get a smoother stroke.

Martin picks up his own paddle. In his hands it looks a bit toy-like. He dips the end into the water and in just a few moments the kayak is shooting rapidly forward.

Hunter just laughs lightheartedly. "No anx. We're good. But we're gonna have to go faster if we're gonna...okay, there's NO chance we're catching up to Martin. C'mon, full speed ahead!"

Tali paddles faster, seeing how fast Martin's going. She doesn't want to let Hunter down so she time warps slightly too, just to give a slight edge without being too obvious - she hopes.

Martin paddles at a relatively slow and easy pace so with a little work it should prove possible to catch him. That said, his prodigious strength combined with the extremely long stroke he is able to generate because of his large frame means that he moves along at a nice clip.

Hunter blinks, kind of surprised by Tali's paddling ability. Now he's the one having to try and keep up. At full speed, they eventually catch up with Martin out in the water, a good distance from shore. Hunter, however, isn't really all that winded from the effort. He's enjoying the exertion.

The view of the beach from out at sea is a bit more unique than seeing it while standing in the sand. The coastline can be viewed more broadly, from the boardwalk and amusement park pier, to fancy beach homes with interesting and unique architectures, to the far off areas of Windswept Point. You can see it all from out here. Some of the other kayakers are taking pictures with waterproof cameras.

Tali says, "I wish I'd thought to bring a camera!"

Tali has been winded more than once, but has covered it up by taking accelerated rest periods.

Martin has no camera either, though he seems unconcerned about it. "Different perspective out here," he says with a grunt.

Suddenly, one of the female kayakers yells in a panic, "Shark!" Not far away, a fin can be seen sticking up about five inches up from the water.

Hunter smirks. "S'okay, bull sharks are common out here! So long as you don't--" SPLASH! Someone panicking starts to get up and falls into the water. "...do that." The fin suddenly starts rising further and further, until it looks more massive than a great white's.

Hunter blinks. "We're gonna need a bigger kayak," he mutters under his breath.

Tali leaps into action as soon as she sees the person fall into the water - she gets up, runs over to the person overboard, pulls her out of the water - while standing on the water still, put her back into her boat, and then returns to sit down next to Hunter - before he can see she's gone.

Tali blinks. "Huh, how did she get back into the kayak?!"

Martin goes into action what could be termed 'almost immediately' if it wasn't for the fact that Tali was around. He reaches forward the full extension of his body and with his full strength and speed begins to drag his kayak through the water, moving to intercept the shark before it decides to see if maybe the kayak is like a pinata for meat.

Megalodon

A 20 foot long/tall creature with the head of a great white shark and the muscular, broad body that somewhat resembles a mix of man and shark, with bulky arms, legs, and an extended shark tail. His fingers and toes are webbed and end in massive claws. The only thing he's wearing is a black pair of wetsuit shorts that are torn and barely fit him.

As Martin paddles alongside the large shark fin, it breaches and nashes its teeth at his kayak.

Tali decides that this obviously meta "shark" is too serious a threat to worry about whether Hunter finds out about her SID. That said, if she changes into costume even more people will notice - so she doesn't, hoping that all attention will be on the shark. She runs up to the Shark, whacks it hard with the paddle - and runs back to the kayak, trying to do this so fast Hunter doesn't notice.

Tali thwacks the monster-shark and is back in the kayak almost before she left.

Martin approach is much more simple and direct. He's got no secret identity to protect or super powers to hide. Added into that he's got a pretty simple hardwired predatory response. Something big is trying to bite him, bite it back. He gives an earshattering roar and leaps at the megashark, not concerning himself with the fact that it's in the water.

Megalodon has a tougher hide than a normal shark. As Martin leaps on the shark, it's rough skin scratches at him.

Hunter stares in horror as Martin just loses it and goes after the massive man-shark. "Martin!! Wait!" He figures his friend is tough, but when he sees blood in the water, he panicks a bit. Wrestling between playing it cool and saving his friend, saving his friend (or attempting to), wins. "Shick! Um. Stay here, Tali. I'm about to do something really stupid. Tell my girlfriend I...wait, I don't have one. Nevermind." And with that said, he dives into the water armed with only a paddle, swimming below the surface. Hunter proves to be quite the swimmer as he circles around to try and approach the shark and Martin from behind. The paddle causes some drag, so he releases it and tries to elbow strike the shark man instead. The paddle floats up to the surface after he lets go.

Tali says, "Wait - what are you -??!"

Hunter's elbow strike lands pretty hard, but doesn't budge the massive beast. His blow scrapes along its sharp skin and adds more blood in the churning water. He lets out a stream of bubbles as he shouts underwater and clutches his elbow. Megalodon thrashs about wildly and tries to swipe or bite at the nearest creature, which happens to be Martin.

Megalodon's massive jaws snap around towards Martin, but he has to twist too much and stops short. Rows of teeth snap shut inches from Martin's face.

Martin uses +BODY to increase Body statistic.

Tali is horrified to see two people she knows in trouble because of her reluctance to reveal her secret identity - but that said her best attack didn't seem to hurt the shark. What to do - ah! She gets out of the kayak, runs to the fishing port, grabs an armful of fish from the wharf, runs back and dumps them in front of Megalodon's face - hopefully giving him something other than her friends to eat.

Seeing as how his claws weren't terribly effective Martin decides to see what a bop on the snout will do to the big fish.

Tali is relieved to find that the shark took the bait! But she still doesn't have any better ideas, so she runs back for another load of fish! Maybe she can sate its appetite and it will cease to be a problem....

Megalodon shakes his head as his snout gets punched. He snaps out and instead of striking Martin, his maw opens up and swallows all the fish in one gulp, save for a few stragglers than swim away and escape a horrible fate.

Hunter treads water, clutching his bleeding elbow. The skin along his forearm is torn up.

Megaladon goes sloshing back several meters from the massive clawed swipe from Martin. Hunter gets spun about underwater as the shark swishes past him. Some of Megalodon's skin splits where Martin's claws struck. This puts the man-shark away from the fish used to distract his bloodlust.

Tali mutters "Shick!" and goes to get another armful of fish to dump at the sharks's current location...

Martin actually waits since the shark man is too far away for him to reach at the moment.

Please enter an integer value for your EGO

Knocked out of the blood-stained waters by Martin and Hunter, Megalodon starts to regain his senses. He clutches his bleeding face, which has claw marks running down along the side. Its black eyes focus on Martin before he suddenly dives underwater.

Hunter is treading water ten meters away from Martin, his head finally breaching the surface as he takes a deep breath, clutching his arm to himself . o O (That was...dumb. Painful. Oww...). He's also fourteen meters away from were Tali last dropped off the fish.

Tali decides to rescue the foolhardy Hunter - what was he thinking of doing that without any superpowers! She rushes over to him and tries to pull him out of the water and head back to safety.

Tali is a blur to others, but Hunter can see her walking on the frozen see back toward the kayak, carrying him.

Hunter cringes, still clutching his arm, but blinks as Tali picks him up. "Uh, hi..er...what is...going on?" He blushes a little as he gets carried by his friend, but he doesn't think he can just walk on water on his own. "Why is everyone going so slow..?"

Tali says, "I'm warping time - don't tell anyone I can do this - what the shock were you thinking jumping into the water like that?"

"Um...I was thinking Me am smart, help Martin," Hunter responds, talking like Tarzan. "Translation: There was no thinking," he winces in pain, gritting his teeth.

Tali and Hunter reappear in the kayak.

With the sharkman vanished Martin begins to paddle back towards his kayak, moving at a cautious pace while he attempts to keep an eye out in case he should come rocketing out of the depths and try and treat Martin like a seal.

Hunter grunts a little as he clutches his bleeding arm. "What about Martin...is he okay...? He was bleeding too..."

Tali says, "Are you badly hurt? Should I fetch help?"

Martin pulls himself up into his kayak. "Doing ok," he grunts, the lacerations already starting to close. "Get them out of here." He tosses his head toward the other kayakers.

[To Martin] Tali says, "You saw, then? You won't tell anyone, will you?"

[To Hunter] Tali says, "Or you?"

The fight happened so fast that the kayakers are still bobbing in the water. They were so scared they started paddling away, but haven't made it far enough.

"Saw what?" Martin says. "Was kind of busy with the fish guy."

Tali thinks. o O (Oops. But he must have seen something or he wouldn't have told me to get the other people out of here.... well, I'll sort it out later. People are in trouble.)

Tali just vanishes, and an instant later Warpspeed is there, carrying the various endangered people to shore one at a time.

Martin begins to paddle after the other kayakers, working to position himself behind Tali and Hunter and between everyone else and the open ocean. He's pretty sure that Megaladon isn't going to try a repeat performance any time too soon, but why take chances?

Hunter glances up to where Tali is...or was. She's gone before he can answer, leaving him alone in the kayak. He can drop the hurt act a little now. Yes, it hurts, but he can handle it. He reaches for the paddle she left behind with his good arm and starts rowing his way slowly back, trailing behind the others. It's not fast, but his tenacious, switching sides with every other paddle to make progress.

Tali, of course, can see Hunter dropping the hurt act as she warps here and there.

Of course a disappearing Tali definitely is something Martin can see. He doesn't comment on it though as he paddles back toward shore.

It take ages, at least from Tali's point of view. But blip, blip, blip, from the outsider's point of view, one by one the kayakers appear on the beach.

Timewarp then appears in from of Martin. "You were arid out there, driving off the shark-thing!"

Martin gives a grunt. By now all the scrapes from Megladon's skin have healed over. "Figured I'd be more than he wanted to eat," he says. "Predators don't like attacking other big predators. Too much danger of getting hurt."

Hunter gradually powers his way slowly but surely to the shore with is left arm, nursing his right. It's quite the effort, and he's the last to make it to shore. For the last few meters, he sighs and leans back, laying down in the kayak as the waves carry the tiny vessel the rest of the way, eventually beaching it. "Ow..." he says, panting a little.

Timewarp says, "Well, I just wanted you to know, what I saw was a ro, not a predator. And I want to invite you to join the Blue Ros! It's a new meta-team that Aoi and I are getting together - 'cept Aoi's had to go away, so it's just a team of one now. But I really hope we can get a team of young metas together, you know, like New Blood used to be, and I hope you'll want to join!"

Martin gives a short chuff. "Not a ro," he says. "Don't got any real power. Not like you."

Timewarp says, "Uh-huh? Then what happened to all those wounds, and - well, how were you hurting that shark thing when he was hardly noticing when I hit him? Sounds like powers to me!"

Hunter groans from his kayak. "Shut up, Martin. You are -so- a ro."

Martin shakes his head and grimaces. "Can heal up if I get hurt. Yeah, that's a real power. Can be 'Bleeder Man' or something like that."

Timewarp says, "Anyway, there are ros who don't really have any powers at all. But that's not you. So what *can* you do? I bet healing's not all of it!"

Martin shakes his head once more. "Better sense of smell than I use to have. Stronger, but can't fly or anything," he says.

Timewarp says, "Me neither. All I can do is normal stuff. Just faster than other people. So how strong are you?"

Martin makes another chuffing noise at that. "Yeah. Way faster than other people," he says. "Not in that kind of category at all. Can lift maybe a truck. That's about it."

Hunter remains laying in the kayak nearby, listening quietly as he catches his breath. His eyes settle on some clouds drifting above, just glad to know his friends are alright. More than alright. They're awesome.

Timewarp giggles. "And you don't think that counts as a power! Wow! I was I could lift a fraction of that. Do you know how *tiring* it was for me hauling everyone to safety? I can barely limp round with a person, let alone a truck!"

Timewarp giggles. "And you don't think that counts as a power! Wow! I was I could lift a fraction of that. Do you know how *tiring* it was for me hauling everyone to safety? I can barely limp round with a person, let alone a truck!"

Timewarp thinks. o O (Shick. When people were talking about a pup rosenteam everyone seemed to think it was arid. But no one seems to want to join!)

Martin shakes his head. "Can't even see you move," he says. "Only a handful of ros that fast. You look at how much I can lift against the strong ros and I'm not even close."

Timewarp says, "So what? Different people have different strengths, right? I bet you can do some things that would awe-zone them too... People are different. So what if you can't shoot lightning from your nose?"

Martin chuffs once more. "Yeah. Can bleed all over them," he says. "That'll be real useful."

Timewarp shakes her head. "Why are you so negative-zoned?"

Hunter finally sits up with a grunt and a sigh, swinging his legs over the side of his kayak and standing up. He cradles his injured arm and starts to walk over to check on Martin. And someone he recogizes from a few missions for the city. With a similar speech pattern as someone else. And drawing skills. And water walking? Hmm. Interesting.

Martin grimaces. "Not negative-zoned," he says. "Just not a ros. Look at me." He gives a shake of his large head. "Yeah. Bit stronger, bit faster, but not like a real Ros. Can top out at maybe thirty miles an hour. Not a thousand. Jump maybe a hundred feet. Not miles. Can lift a truck. Not a tank. Just drew the short straw in the freak lottery is all."

Timewarp says, "You know what? So maybe you did. Life can shick on you. But what makes a ro is what you do with what you've got, do matter how shicky, yeah? And I saw you before, and you were right in there and saving people, and if you aren't the most meta ro that means your even more ro cos it's not easy for you." She steps closer, looks up and Martin, smiles gently. "Look, I get it, I do. It's shicky being different. I used to be all negative-zoned myself when I was the weird one. I'm not going to say I had problems like yours. But you know what? Turn out my weird shick was good in the end. Maybe yours can be too, if you let it."

Timewarp says, "Mild, enough preaching. You don't want to join the team, I won't make you. But I'm not gonna let you stay low-zoned. You don't deserve that."

Martin makes a sort of annoyed chuffing sound. "Think about it," he says, though it is with a tone that indicates that more than likely he's just trying to change the subject.

Hunter comes up alongside Martin and tries to elbow him with his good arm. "Whatever, man. You got more than some people," he snerks as he clutches his arm again, and leaves it at that. "He makes an awesome clambake," he says to Timewarp, then looks at Martin. "You -owe- me a clambake," he says decisively.

Timewarp grins. "Clambake sounds arid!"