Log:Harrisburg Dreams, Scene 1

Harrisburg Dreams 2009/10/27 	 Ferryl Halo Imaginary Girl Lady Luck Lightray Spirit 1

Monday, 12:59 PM.

Harrisburg, in front of the newly renovated elementary school...

A large crowd has gathered in front of the newly renovated Harrisburg Elementary School, in front of high tech walls and security cameras, a stark contrast to the rubble, broken-down homes, and shattered tenements around it. Several large vehicles, a crane, two bulldozers, and three dump trucks, stand off to one side, high tech and levitating a little bit off the ground, their high-tech hover-construction platforms baring the logo of Danzinger Construction. A large crowd of people bearing signs reading "Danzinger for Mayor-Save Harrisburg cluster towards a large platform near the high-tech security gate, with a looming robot security guard that reads "School Property. Do not touch." The platform contains a podium and a small group of businessmen and teachers, while Martin Danzinger, the architect of Colonial Bay's Harrisburg Renovation, sits quietly in his seat while people call his name. He gently pats his wife Lisa's hand and smiles.

A limousine settles off to one side, a high tech wheelchair within, their autistic son Jason's eyes locked on his parents with a tight, weeping smile. He can't be more than twenty two, but he can't have a life in the real world.

Behind the Security Gate, a large CGI billboard stands, floating data across it that reads Harrisburg Elementary School! Home of the Rhinos!

At the back, a small group of protestors shouts and rails, carrying signs that read "Danzinger! Thief!" and "Cangelosi Family Go Home!" Some of them carry signs that read "Schoffnaus for Mayor!" Several groups of homeless people have moved towards the edges of the rally, begging for money and food, but Danzinger appears to have set up a kitchen line with a digital recorder and tickets, along with a stamping person on the buffet line to make sure everyone gets fed...

Dorian wanders through the gathering crowd, here to witness the event. At least in part due to his status of 'trusted' when it comes to the Harrisburg Watch. But it's also due to his deal with Nicky Winters. He does his best to try to help Harrisburg...she stays in jail. He's in civilian clothes, but well recognized enough that a few locals shake his hand as he moves through the crowd.

Lady Luck arrives in her 2021 Ford van, white (and rust-coloured) with the Lucky Finds logo on ths side. Yes, somehow she's got it running again. She actually read Lorelei post on Heronet - she never used to bother which such things. Now, where to park? Normally she seldom has problems with such things, but it seems she's having to look round a little today....

Lady Luck parks her beat up old Ford in an abandoned lot with a beautiful view of the people and the rally. The van rattles to a stop and makes a choking gurgle as the engine wheezes a bit, the van parked next to an abandoned tenement. From a corner room, in the half light of the mid october afternoon, an odd trail of cigarette smoke wafts out from an open, shattered window, even though there doesn't seem to be anyone inside...

As Dorian moves through the crowd, he sees the protestors moving forward and raising their voices. They seem to be carrying a crate of rotting fruit between them, and some of them are wearing sweatshirts that read "Bring in the army!"

Off to one side, from this angle, a small group of college kids are carrying signs that read "Anarchy now!" and "Harrisburg! Free and Independant State!"

Here for the entertainment value, Ferryl is lounging atop a roof. She watches the proceedings with a smirk, her hand resting on an empty spot, fidgeting occasionally. The whole 'lack of weapon' state is troubling her sense of being relatively safe from the many perils of the city.

Dorian walks over to where the protestors are carrying the rotten fruit. He moves to intercept them, and puts his hand up. "Folks. I'd advise against throwing anything. It will only get the police involved. And you don't want that. You really don't."

The protestors look up.

"Danzinger's gonna destroy this city!" One says.

"You're a creep!" Another says, as they put the box of fruit away. "Vote Schoffnaus! He'll bring order to this heap of rabble! Look at these people! They're practically fighting for bread!"

Joseph walks towards the crowd from the general direction of the maglev, just another spectator dressed in khakis and button down shirt. He watches the crowd as he approaches, his eyes flicking to the protesters then to the soup kitchen line several times. He moves slowly in the direction of the podium.

The largest and fattest of the protestors glowers at Dorian for a moment. "Screw off, Shoeshine boy!" He scowls. "Put it away. There'll be another chance to nail 'im. And you, you pretty boy in your nice clothes and your toad face, Better vote Schoffnaus!"

Lady Luck reaches the window at last and, sticking a leg and her head through, looks for the source of the smoke.

Martin Danzinger steps up to the podium along with his wife, raising his hands as his supporters give a loud shout. “Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you all for coming! We’ve tried to do a little bit for the people of Harrisburg this afternoon, as we re-open it’s new, advanced elementary school.” He pauses, and looks around, gesturing to the makeshift buffet for the homeless and the downtrodden. The line stretches off into the distance. . “We’ve brought several teachers here to cut the ribbon, as I didn’t think it would be appropriate to do it myself. Harrisburg is a part of Colonial Bay. It’s where I was raised. I grew up here.” He smiles to the crowd, and people cheer…

Lady Luck, on the other hand, climbs right into the cold black eye of a six and half foot long Barret M3-65A, the latest in classified military ordinance from the people who have brought you the world's best sniper rifles for 100 years. There doesn't appear to be anyone behind the barrel, but cigarette smoke floats ominously in the position where someone's head might be resting...

Dorian turns away from the protestors, turning toward Danzinger and his speech, but not before letting the one who threatened him see that his eyes glow solid white for a moment.

Joseph listens to Mr Danzinger's address, but his attention is truly divided between the crowd he is in and the waiting limousine holding Danzinger's wheelchairbound son.

Dorian turns away from the protestors, turning toward Danzinger and his speech, but not before letting the one who threatened him see that his eyes glow solid white for a moment.

Martin Danzinger looks around. "We're going to turn this city around! We're going to make Harrisburg a comfortable place to live again! We're going to bring this city back from what those aliens did, and we're going to make it an oasis of modern technology and the finest place to live in America! I'm Martin Danzinger, and I'm running for Mayor."

WHOOOOMP!

There is a horrid crash as Lady Luck sails across the area of the podium, straight over her van, and plows right into the curved dish of the hoverdozer, making a loud, horrible clanging sound as blood leaks from her stomach, a bullet the size of a rat flattened against her chest.

Halo rockets down from the sky above. In her haste to abruptly stop she sends a dustcloud billowing out like a bomb. Halo then rises to hover 4 feet of the ground and takes a little time to absord the scene, realizing that she is late.

Ferryl power-leaps, landing and adhering to the wall near the shooter's window. She figures the safest place to be when a high-powered rifle is concerned is as close as possible, out of sight.

Dorian reverts to his natural form in a flash of light, and takes off toward the window, making sure to get into the shooter's line of sight, getting about 12 meters closer to it before his body lets out a tremendously bright burst of light, blinding most of the crowd, but hopefully the shooter too.

On the ground, people howl and hit the dirt, the flash blasts outward over the homeless food line, the construction vehicles, and there is a lot of screaming and shouting from the protestors on both sides. No one can see. Panic begins ensuing.

Ferryl silently curses the bright boy, failing to turn away in time when he blinds everyone.

Joseph sees Lady Luck go cartwheeling through the air to her clang against the blade of the hoverdozer, then blinks as at the flash of light from Spirit. He mutters something pithy under his breath as in a flash of sunlight Joseph transforms into Lightray. The winged figure leaps into the sky and heads over to Lady Luck's crumpled form sunlight gathering into his hands as he flies. He lands next to her and places his hands over her prostrate form in a classic laying on of hands manner.

Whhnk-Chnnnnk. There is a long, deep sound from the window, and the invisible man in the room takes aim at Spirit, the second rat-size bullet launching down the long barrel as the blast roars through the air, bullet preceding it....

The bullet catches Spirit hard in the head, and tumbles him head over heels into the shocked, panicking crowd, who he thumps among as the sniper rifle fires a second time.

Martin Danzinger clambers to the podium, half blind. "Ladies and gentlemen! Stay down and stay calm!"

His bodyguard begins pulling him back down, shouting "What are you DOING?"

"These people need a MAYOR! Not a WIMP!" He thunders back.

The crowd does what Danzinger orders, staying down as the strange scene plays out, superheroes battling against a single hidden man with a powerful rifle...

Ferryl waits for the white to fade away more before she does anything, not enjoying the prospect of trying what she has in mind without being able to see.

From the limousine, Jason Danzinger starts to cry, reaching out desperately for his fallen parents on the podium, letting out a shocked sob as the bullets fly and the chaos mounts. "Mohm..." He whimpers under his breath. "Dad..."

Unable to see, Halo instead acitvates a halo aura

Lightray glances down at Lady Luck as sunlight rises around him. He gathers sunlight into his hands then pours into her unconscious form. the light suffuses her body witha warm glow. He then stands and witha grim expression flies in the direction that Lady Luck came from using buildings and cars for cover and to block line of sight.

Whnnk-chnnk. The barrel tilts airward as the sniper takes aim at Halo and fires, taking the easy shot at her blinded form while Lightray tries to close the distance. o O (Holy !@#$!!) He thinks. (I could KILL five superheroes! Me, Norman Ross!)

Halo chin jerks, hearingthe blast and dives...

WHMMMP! The loud crack of the bullet echoes as it slams through Halo and passes out the other side, hurling her body towards the hoverdump truck as she smashes into the side, leaving a large Halo-size dent in the side.

There is a thunderous crunch as the hopper of the Hoverdump truck is brutally impacted.

The dump truck leaks, rich with halo's blood as people recover from the blindness, awakening to a scene of carnage and horror. Their heroes are being cut down, cut down before them in sheer lead by an unknown assailant...

Once Ferryl's vision clears, she looks toward the window, seeing the rifle is still going, and creeps toward it, making a grab for the barrel.

Ferryl thinks. o O (Bad sniper. You aren't supposed to shoot things that aren't on the list.)

The gun is yanked free of the sniper's hands, and even though no one can see him, they now see Ferryl yanking the gun free of whoever was firing it. A cheer goes up from the crowd as the gun is liberated!

Ferryl yanks the gun out the window, holding it by the barrel and the stock to prevent threatening posture with it. "You just know the day is going to get interesting. I sincerely hope you have a way of escaping. You just shot three people and they're all a lot scarier than I am without a weapon."

Ferryl glances over the weapon. "Nice gun. Heh. You didn't do something stupid like leave evidence of yourself on it, did you?"

Lightray continues to try to put obstacles between the sniper and himself then apparently changes his mind as he ses Ferryl yank the rifle away. He heads directly for where Halo dropped. His face grows abstracted as he concentrates and the gemstone on his chest glows brighter as he streaks faster than normal towards the fallen heroine.

Lightray lands next to Halo and reachs his hands out towards her.

Ferryl heads into the sniper's place of being, trying to get a bead on him and hit him with the clubby thing that is the sniper rifle.

Up in the air! It's a bird?! It's a plane?! No...! It's Imaginary Girl! ...and down she flies into the area, having spotting what looks like a crowd down below while on patrol.

"Aha! There you are!" Ferryl grins, ready for another swing. "Boy I wouldn't wanna be you right now. Or ever. So who was the target? Was there a target?"

There is a dull WHOCK as Ferryl swings the butt of the six and a half foot bulky gun, and a loud grunt comes from nowhere as dust flies around the room, a heavy smashing sound echoing from within the broken tenement as things break and shatter. Ferryl is now standing on a rather plain looking fold out table, which was being used to support the weight of the rifle...

From out of nowhere, there is the sound of something moving to the other side of the door frame, and then the footsteps stop, hurling a gas grenade from the doorway to Ferryl's location.

Ferryl gags. "Oh that's awful."

Martin Danzinger shouts as his bodyguards keep him down. His wife is screaming for Jason, and Jason is howling for his mother from the inside of the limousine. Eerily, the large CGI announcement beacon in front of the newly renovated Harrisburg Elementary School is starting to flicker and glimmer...

Ferryl darts back out the window, headed to the nearest cop on hand. "Seal that building up. Invisible sniper, armed with gas grenades. Here's his gun. Hurry!"

The policeman grabs his radio. "Everyone, surround that building!" He shouts as the cops begin moving forward. "Standard formation! Get me a SWAT Unit, Now! Now! NOW!"

Imaginary Girl comes down out of the sky quickly, having been on patrol when she heard gunfire. Coming on the scene, she pauses for a moment and sees what's going on. Eyes narrowing as her face clearly shows that she's angry, she follows the movements of the cops towards the building in question... and dives down to Ferryl and the lead cop. "Where?!", she says, all but spitting the word out after landing so hard that the sidewalk's concrete cracks and buckles under her feet, forming a 'dent' where she now stands.

Ferryl points to the building she emerged from the window of, where gas can be seen emitting from the window. "In there. He's not far from there, but he's out of visibility. YOu can hear him moving."

Ferryl mentions, to whatever cops haven't mobilized. "Sniper's not exactly a super-pro. I don't know who his target or targets were but they probably weren't super hero types."

Imaginary Girl doesn't even hesitate after being given that information. She darts back up into the sky, making a bee-line for the window in question. Fists balled up, one cocked back by her side as if ready to throw in a punch, and the other stretched out ahead of her as she flies, she's clearly NOT happy - and not wearing any 'kid gloves', right now. When she's close to the window, she 'screeches' to a halt in mid-air and... says nothing as she peers into the building.

The CGI screen appears to be flickering to life, producing the head of a golden-helmeted man with purple goggles and the faint tracings of some sort of purple cape. The eyes glow with an odd metallic light as the announcement system booms to life. "MARTIN DANZINGER!!!!!" The voice thunders. "I am the DEVASTATOR! As Colonial Bay has devastated Harrisburg, so too do I declare Harrisburg a free and independant state! This is your final warning! Your heroes cannot save you! They lie about you in puddles of blood!" The screen crackles to life and shifts, showing a thick, powerfully built armored suit, the head in the shape of a death's head, the hands pulsing with thick, golden light. "This is the Annihilator! He brings death to all who oppose the will of the people of Harrisburg! We are not to be bound by your laws anymore! You have failed us! Now we will keep what is ours! Leave Harrisburg, Martin Danzinger! Or we will declare war on your city!!!! This blight of Colonial Bay's failed governance will be eliminated! The DEVASTATOR is the future!"

Danzinger stares at the giant head, floating ethereally. "Holy crap..." He blinks. "The Devastator...he's real..."

Ferryl then moves for cover, in the event of more happy-go-lucky snipers playing around.

There is a strange humming crackle as the CGI projection is momentarily disrupted by Lightray's blast, and the Devastator's voice speaks again. "Fool! You cannot harm me! I am not even here to attack! Behold the price of your foolishness! This is the reward for all who dare to oppose the Devastator! Harrisburg belongs to it's people! Not to YOU!" There is a crackling shudder, and a strange hissing whine, and the tenement explodes, erupting into white hot radioactive fire! Several other tenements also explode, bursting into atomic light. Police are hurled about like tenpins as they approach the building, knocked off their feet, a couple of the officers are suddenly knocked down. "Next time I will kill even more people, Martin Danzinger! Take your supporters and flee! I, The Devastator have spoken!" The smoking ruins of several houses light across the area, amid the damaged homes and ravaged tenements. Many people are badly injured from the backblasts. The wailing of children echoes throughout the area, and Jason Danzinger joins them, calling for his mother as Lisa Danzinger struggles up...

Spirit continues laying on the ground, not budging, despite the explosions rocking the area.

Lady Luck too just lies there, though by chance she's untouched by the debris of the explosions.

Imaginary Girl, starting already to fly into the building itself, gets hurled back through the air by the explosion and is forced to take a few seconds to right herself. She turns to the viewscreen, she shakes a fist at it. "You're MINE, Devastator! You hear me! I'll put you with Wumbles!", she calls out loudly.

Ferryl mutters. "You shall not take over Harrisburg, for I shall blow it up to teach you all that I rule it."

Lightray carefully puts Halo down on the ground. He shouts up to Imaginary Girl, "See if anyone is in the rubble!" He then goes out into the crowd to provide what help he can. His expression is calm and composed as he aids those that he can.

Ferryl heads toward the fallen building, having a look around for the body of the former sniper. "Bad day," she reiterates.

Imaginary Girl looks down at Lightray, then at the fallen building... buildings. "Which one?!", she asks, her gaze darting from one smoking tenement to another. She finally just shuts up and /listens/ for cries for help... and a moment later darts towards the nearest stricken building and into it through a window that streams smoke out into the air.

Spirit slowly starts to come to, as one of the people in the crowd kneels and starts to shake him..trying to wake him up.

Lightray goes back over to Lady Luck after a short while and pours more sunlight into her form. He does this after he failed to save the life of a young man struck by some debris. He makes certain Lady Luck is comfortable as he continues on his way. A glacial calm seems to have come over him.

Ferryl hms. "that's kind of distressing. Think he had a choice in what he was doing?"

Spirit slowly gets to his feet, nodding to the person who helped wake him up, "Thanks." He tilts his head, trying to figure out what the heck happened...after all, it was just a sniper previously.

Lady Luck comes to eventually, with a look of growing horror on her face as she looks about at the scene. "What happened?!"

Ferryl replies, "Sniper. Wasn't me."

Spirit shakes his head in disbelief. "What happened to the buildings?" He's still trying to build up a little energy reserve...so he doesn't take off yet. The young woman who helped wake him up relates the story about the Devastator, and what happened.

Spirit shakes his head. "It doesn't make any sense..." He takes off, trying to get a better view, from the air. To see which buildings were taken out, primarily. And to see if he can spot anyone needing rescuing.

Lightray comes back from the crowd to near where LAdy Luck lies. "The Devastator happened. He apparently lives up to his name. And has no regard for life." His tone is quietly grim.

Imaginary Girl manages to rescue a few families, some not complete or soon to not be complete, from the wreckage - it seems she focused more on children or families with children than merely on adults, for every load of victims she takes down to safety includes at least one child. She's in constant motion, dropping people off and flying back off to find more. Her costume's very quickly dirty, cover with grime of all sorts, including ash and blood.

Spirit grabs some debris, trying to pull it off of one of the members of the crowd who was trapped. He grunts at the effort, and the person slips out from under it slowly.

Lightray moves back out into the wounded, offering what succor he can. He pours out sunight liberally into people. He directs people who are stabilized to the sidelines so rescue personnel can help them.

Lady Luck, once she's realised what's happened, doens't wait either, but runs to rescue anyone she can. It's the sort of thing where being lucky can be a great help.

Martin Danzinger helps direct the rescue effort while Lisa runs to the Limousine to help her son. "I don't care how much it costs me! Help these people!"

Jason is sobbing and crying. "Gooone..." He sobs. "People gone...buildings gone...where'd they go...?"

The police set up a temporary first aid station while the sounds of ambulances wail in the distance.

A paramedic is standing over Halo, gently checking her wound while they bring over a stretcher. "Hey..." One of them says. "You're gonna be okay. Can you give me your arm for an IV drip?"

Lightray wanders back over towards Halo. He kneels beside her again and pours sunlight into her. A glowing warmth suffuses her body. "That should help, Halo..." he says softly before he moves on.

Spirit continues shaking his head in disbelief as he continues to move debris by grabbing it with tendrils of light. "I don't GET it. It doesn't make sense! There's GOT to be another reason."

Halo slowly opens her eyes. she breaths deeply, realizing where she is but very disoriented. she actually laughs one solitairy courtesy laugh and says to the other heroes,

Ferryl does not take any special measures to assist with cleanup or recovery of living bodies. "Of course there's another reason. Power trip. The sniper was on a suicide mission, is my theory."

Halo says, "thank you, Lightray.” Halo gives lightray a brief hug of appreciation and then stands up and looks 'round her.

Lady Luck runs from building to building (or what's left of them), finding people in need of rescue.

Lightray smiles slightly down at Halo. "You are welcome." He glances over at where Spirit is. "Spirit could use you help, I am certain." He then turns and goes back to treating the wounded.

Lady Luck pulls people from the rubble with ease. For some reason, the right lever always seems to be there...

Imaginary Girl is eventually reduced to lifting the largest pieces of rubble clear and carrying them away from the area, setting them down where she's gotten the cops to tell her she should put the stuff. She's making room in this way for rescue personnel to get deeper into what's left of the buildings in question to look for survivors and non-living victims.

Halo sees that moving the carnge to save lives precludes her awe at the destruction and decides she'll need all her strength to move the huge weight of rubble and carange. She focuses and a aura-halo suffuses her body, giving the impresion of unnatural strength.

Lady Luck keeps searching, uncustomarily grim, not concerning herself with questions of how this happened until everyone has been rescued.

with every rescued innocent life Halo seems to be getting madder and madder. Her halo-aruas change in color to reflect, even accentuate her increasingly hostility that she feels toward someone that would harm innocent people.

In an uncharacteristic display of anger, Spirit aims at a piece of debris that no one is near, and fires a laser into it, scorching a hole part way into it. He then continues back with his work, moving more debris. It's slow going, since he can't lift that much, even with his powers. But he does what he can.

Imaginary Girl brings a broken body to the EMTs, that of a small girl. In tears, the heroine urges them to save her... and then has to turn away and fly off to try and find others when the EMTs inform her the girl's beyond saving. Flitting down to the rubble that's left of a building, she lands and makes as if to lift a large hunk of debris, then just stops and stands there, shaking her head.

Lightray finally must stop to rest as the last of the reserves of his power falter. He stands, quietly, as the gemstone on his chest barely flickers. His features are drawn and a greyness underscores his golden skin. When the light of his gemstone grows stronger, he goes back to aiding the injured. But not all of them make it.

It takes hours, but eventually everyone who can be saved has been saved. The fire department arrives to put out the fires. The sun begins sinking low on the horizon. The ominous specter of the Devastator haunts the proceedings, as Martin Danzinger approaches the heroes. The Limousine begins pulling off, taking Lisa and her son home. "Hi..." Martin says to the assembled heroes. "I'd like to thank you for saving everyone you did today. I'm Martin Danzinger. I'll walk home if I have to. This is my neighborhood."

Ferryl departs the location, finding the matter a little puzzling and really not the sort of thing she wants to be near.

"Shut up!", Imaginary Girl all but screams at the man. "You're WHY all these kids got hurt! Why all these kids died! SHUT UP!" She puts her face right into his, screaming at him. Her face is still grimey from her rescue efforts, with clear paths from tears on her cheeks. Poking, roughly, at his chest with one finger, she goes on. "Whatever YOU did to make that Devastator guy do this, YOU did it! This is YOUR fault just like it's HIS fault!"

The first time Halo uncovers someone who appears lifeless, she sweats bullets in exertions trying to bring them back to life. When she realizes she is wasting her own precious energies and time that can save others, she starts to cry unstoppably.

Spirit shakes his head, "IG. It's not his fault. You'd blame him for trying to renovate the neighborhood? Keep your anger focused on the person who's really at fault."

Lightray looks at Mr Danziger for a moment, then over at Imaginary Girl. He says tiredly, "Imaginary Girl, madmen need no excuse. The Devastator is insane. I am the one who challenged his 'authority' after all. Why not blame me?" He then looks at Mr Danziger. "Do you mind if I accompany you, Mr Danziger? I would like you make it home safely."

Lady Luck looks at Imaginary Girl is complete confusion.

Martin Danzinger looks at Imaginary Girl like she's swallowed a lemon. "Relax." He says. "This is hard for everyone." He holds out his hand to Spirit. "Sir, I'd really like to shake your hand. You people did all you could."

Halo senses teh tension among the heroes and decides it'd be better to calm the mood.

a calmness numbs everyones emotions, easing the heartach tehy all feel.

It's like the wind goes out of Imaginary Girl's sails as she's just, suddenly, 'calmer'. "Yeah... I guess y'all are right... ", she says, softly, and just sits down right where she is, staring at her dirty hands.

Halo's auras surround all in her radius.

Lady Luck says, "I messed up so badly.... I don't know what went wrong..."

Spirit shrugs a bit, looking to Lady Luck, "You and me both. I'm getting rusty."

Halo says, "Do you really believe it's your fault? Look at what happened to me. My first though when i woke up was 'I'm no better than a sidekick.' But is just the kind of defeatist talk the Devastator would like to see in us."

Lady Luck says, "Yeah, but I didn't even break the gun! Sometimes I wonder if I really got all my power back...."

"I shoulda been here", Imaginary Girl says, mostly to herself. "I'm supposed to keep stuff like this from happening." She remains seated right there on the street, shifting just enough to bend her knees up and hug her arms around them.

Lightray takes a breath and stands a bit straighter. "Now is not the time to second guess oneself, my lady. Luck is fickle is it not?" He looks back to Mr Danziger. "I hope your loved ones are fine, Mr Danzinger?"

Halo starts to giggle like only a teenager might do when overloaded. "you realize..." laughs some more...

Martin Danzinger shakes Lightray's hand. "Lisa's a tough woman." He says as he turns to Lady Luck. "Thanks." His voice is a bit of a gutteral growl now, he's been shouting and in charge for hours. "Thank you for saving me. I'm sure that first shot was meant for my head."

Halo says, "We actually won in one way. The mayor is still alive. So is his wife."

Lady Luck says, "He's not the mayor yet!"

Lady Luck, it seems, actually follows the news now.

Spirit shakes his head. "It's not a 'win' if people died. Not really." He changes back to his civilian form, looking pretty clean. He looks to Martin, "Your family is alight?"

"Well, I'm not Mayor yet..." Martin reaches out to shake Halo's hand. "But with the help of fine people like you, this city is in great shape. And I soon will be."

"He wrote a big 'D' in the city with the buildings he blew up", Imaginary Girl says, softly. "He put his name on the city."

Halo doesn't shake Martins hand, she seems stunned by Spirits comment. She again gets angry. Her emotions seem confused.

Martin reaches into his pocket for a PDA and calls. "Lisa...is everyone okay? You're all right? Is Jason all right? Good...good..."

Lady Luck nods to Spirit. "Yeah, this was *really* bad. I didn't know there was going to be anything this big...."

Halo jumps hard, and rockets up into the air where she can survey teh 'D' shaped destruction clearly.

Dorian nods. "I'm not used to villains destroying what they view as their own, unless they're blowing up evidence, like a base or something. I never would have guessed this."

Lady Luck says, "It's not just me then! I thought maybe I was being dumb...."

Imaginary Girl looks up and over at Lightray. "Is this guy worse than Wumbles? Wumbles was pretty bad", she says. "If this guy's worse, I might hafta thump him", she adds, half-heartedly smacking a loose fist into the palm of her other hand as she says the word 'thump'.

Martin looks at the group. "Yeah. I thought this guy was just another crazy. Apparently he's more than a little crazy." He says as he claps Imaginary Girl on the back. "No hard feelings?"

Halo lands by the small group, "so where do we go from here?"

Imaginary Girl looks up at the mayoral-wannabe. "I still think if you did something to tick him off it's kinda your fault, too... but... nah... I'm not mad anymore", she says, simply.

Martin says "Well, I go home and release a statement about how evil this guy is and about how Colonial Bay can't knuckle under to some fruitcake in a golden helmet. You guys should probably find this Devastator and have him arrested. Plus, I'm a normal, I wasn't expecting to be blown up today, and my son needs me."

Halo says, "And actually that not a bad question to entertain, in a nice sort of way. Maby we can discover clearer motive and ...yeah."

Dorian looks to Lightray, "It's possible he's not sane. True. But...there's usually a method. At least in my past experience. There's a pattern. And something feels wrong to me. I can't place a finger on it, yet." He nods to Martin, "Of course. Best get home."

Lady Luck looks about. "I guess we need clues. But I'm not so good at finding clues, well, that's not really true, I can find clues but mostly I don't know what they mean."

Halo says, "this whole area is one big clue. We need s demolitions expert, forencics, crime scene investigaotrs, anti-terrorism task forces..."

Dorian nods. "I'll see what I can find out about the radioactive devices used. I might be able to pinpoint what the energy source was."

Lady Luck says, "It's radioactive?!"

Halo says, "I know a guy in the FBI, I bet he already Knows what happned here. There might be information floating about in the streets aobut large munitions shipmensts...you get the idea."

Lightray looks over at Spirit. "Can you read energy signatures, Spirit?"

Dorian nods. "Small atomic device of some variety was used. Minimal radiation left, though." He nods to Lightray. "I can see into the EM spectrum. And and tell it apart. Radio waves, communications. Light, sound, radiation."

Halo says, "I better go make some calls and start 'visiting' a few people I know who have underworld connections."

Lightray nods. "So if you sensed this particualr pattern again, could you verify it is the same one?"

Halo opens her cell phone, dials and begins to talk. She gives a wave to the others and flies up in the air.

Dorian nods. "Sure. Well, I'd have to guess. But it's not often you see something like that. It wouldn't be hard to identify something similar."

Dorian waves to Halo, "Keep safe."

Imaginary Girl's sitting right in the middle of the street, in the middle of a mini-disaster area. Okay, to nix the 'mini' part of that - a buncha buildings got blown up to make the shape of the letter D in the city, easily visible from high in the air. She looks... half-awake or just plain lethargic. Then... suddenly, her head snaps up and she looks angry again - Halo's gone out of range of her calming/numbing aura! She doesn't so much get to her feet as she just floats up and hovers in a standing position, hands on her hips as she and her costume just... fade into pristine cleanliness. "You /better/ let us all know if you see anything like that, you hear me?", she sorta 'spits' at the not-yet-mayor guy.

Dorian heads over toward where the epicenter of one of the explosions was. "Give me a second to check it out more closely." His eyes glow a bit as he scans the area, trying to figure out what kind of radiation they're dealing with...and by extension, what set off the explosion.

"I'll be sure to call for help at the first sign of trouble." Martin says as he walks over to a police car. "Officers, if I could have a little help please..."

Lightray looks at Imaginary Girl, then nods to Mr Danziger. "Be safe, Mr Danziger." He then turn his attention back to Imaginary Girl. "Are you feeling alright, my dear? Your mood keeps shifting."

Lady Luck sticks with Dorian and looks for clues. Whatever they might be. Bits of what cause the explosion, maybe.

"Huh? Whatcha mean?", Imaginary Girl asks of Lightray, looking a little confused, too, on top of being generally in a /bad/ mood. She hadn't even got a clue that something wierd just happened to her!

Dorian grimaces as he kneels down. "A fusion reaction, I'm going to guess. Based on my prior experience. For it to be that small, it was either a meta, or seriously high tech."

Some emergency rescue personnel call out to Imaginary Girl - they've found a small pocket of survivors in the basement of one of the buildings, but a large chunk of debris is blocking their access. Off goes Imaginary Girl to do the heavy lifting, again! She looks /very/ happy to be hearing about more /survivors/ at this point in the aftermath.