Log:ACRO - Jacobs, Scene 1

ACRO - Jacobs 2017/04/21 	 Armament|Dr. Derrick Jacobs Rocky Timewarp Wolf Grimm Wasp|Dragonfly Eclair Technohammer|Roland Hammer Daemon

1

Mega Mall consists of three stories of shops with a gigantic International Food Court in the center, along with a wide variety of other services required by shoppers as they traverse through the large zigzagging corridors. Overhead, large bulletproof lexan skylights let in the natural light of daytime, while full spectrum bulbs are attached around the ceilings to provide light on those sunless days. The floor is made of a special plasti-rubber material that reduces customer fatigue with walking around the shopping mecca. At the end of each corridor, a Mall Directory has been provided to help customers navigate through the mall easily. Stairs, escalators and a glass bubble elevator transport people to the three different levels. Benches are scattered about for tired shoppers to rest on, and in the very center of the food court, is an artificial waterfall and pond. Even in this day and age, people still throw coins into the fountain. On the far end of the Food Court is an entertainment area with a raised stage.

The mall is fairly busy despite the Spring weather starting to kick in. The intermittent rain likely has something to do with that. There are even a couple of events going on at the mall today, in honor of 'Free Comic Day'. The first is a superhero costume contest by the fountain. The second is a book signing featuring Dr. Derrick Jacobs at the comic shop. The signage indicates that he's a former ACRO scientist, former SG scientist, and former armored mercenary named Armament. There's a large cardboard cutout of his armor, which stands...quite tall.

Armament(#1689TOnp)

Big. That's the way to describe this huge suit of power armor, approximately 8 feet tall. The suit is metallic looking...and mostly white and silver. The helmet is white, aside from the darkened visor. The armored torso is white with the abdomen a red color, with a large letter 'A' where a belt buckle would go. The arms and legs are silvery-metal, and the gauntlets and boots are red.

Under his right arm is a rather large weapon of some variety, with a rotating set of cylinders, and tube to the armor's large white backpack. Next to the energy pack on his back is what appears to be a rocket launcher.

Dr. Jacobs(#1591TOn)

A fairly well built man...especially when you consider he's a scientist. He seems to have a scowl fairly often. He has brown hair which is well kept, dress slacks, and a white shirt with a solid red tie. His shoes are black leather.

Grimm is suffering miserably through Allam's lecture on her devices and how her place isn't even rigged up for air play as she cradles her poor smart phone with a shattered screen. There's more broken than just the screen. Unsalvagable, Allam said. The pair of best friends make their way to the tech store. She only half glances at the costume contest. She considers it a moment, then goes, "Naaah."

Dragonfly is there at the superhero costume contest. She's flitting from contestent to contestent offering to pose with them for memorable selfies and friend pics. In many cases, especially with thos wearing costumes of old time heroes she shares a story of that hero's exploits with those nearby.

Tali is window shopping, trying to catch up on fashions. And feeling awkward. She's avoiding the comic book thing because her own comic book ceased when was lost in time and she doesn't want to answer questions about that. And she'd like to meet her old friends here, but that could be awkward too. Not least because they've got older, and she hasn't.

Eclair is taking part in the costume contest. Much to her chagrin. . o O (I am going to kill Gina. 'Come on, show off the costume I made for you! It'll be fun!' What, am I supposed to cosplay as myself or something!? This is humiliating!)

A guy, with a beard, dressed as Ten is quite happy to get a photo with Dragonfly. He grin, "Thanks. I appreciate it!"

Wolf has, over time, discovered that Events at the Mall mean "lots of people." And "lots of people" means lots of food. And "Free" Anything events, more often than not, translate into "free food" -- most often abandoned paper plates with perfectly good pizza cheese still stuck to them. . . just lying there on the ground! Yummy! And Free!

There's a bit of a line at the book store. The signage indicates that Dr. Jacobs, author of 'So You Can Be A Supervillain Too!' has now written a memoir. There's a graphic novelization of it available as well.

Security seems to be fairly present in the mall. Moreso than normal, due to the extra people for the contest. They do not seem to have taken note of Wolf's presence. Yet.

The media are here though, with two competing stations here with a reporter and cameraman each.

Roland(#1767TOn)

A fairly good looking man. He's well built, it seems...one would guess that he's pretty muscular. An odd thing for a scientist. He's bald, and has a dark brown goatee. He's currently wearing lace-up dress shoes, black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a navy blue sportcoat. There's a pair of sunglasses hanging from the breast pocket of his coat, and he seems to smile a lot. A jovial sort.

Tali sighs as she window shops. Back to not being able to afford things, now she no longer has an income. And will she ever be able to get more comic book work after just disappearing like that? . o O ( I may have to go public with my ID just to explain junk.)

Allam wouldn't be caught dead in a costume contest- despite the fact that if anything, he's wearing his costume right now. "Good answer. God- the indignity of it all..." He murmurs as they are about to head into New Technologies LTD.

Allam's mental interface ID's Armament's cut out and that does intrigue the Spidery-Detective.

He pauses to watch the man who once helmed that armor full time. "If I'm ever in a mall signing autographs... shoot me in the face." He says to Gabrielle, his face as serious as his tone is flat and firm. He'd do the same for her afterall.

One of the organizers, a young woman, gets up on the small stage that's been erected for the event. "Thank you all for coming to Free Comic Day. Be sure to stop by our sponsor, Universal Comics. They have some free comics in addition to some specials going on today. Now I'd like to introduce you to our judges for today...."

The organizer continues, "Artist and writer of Spawnblood, Tom Liefeld! Costume designer, Ginger Han! And finally, you may have known him as teh commander of Starguard Gamma...Random Factor!"

The three judges each wave to the crowd. Though when Random Factor's name is mentioned, there's some booing from some of the adults in the crowd.

Dragonfly goes to the man dressed as Fortitude. His costume is one of the better examples. After a brief whispered conversation she sits on his shoulder, replicating one of the iconic images that hit the public media back when Fortitude and Jackie were a teamj.

Tali glances up, and looks toward the crowd. THat's sounding interesting. Maybe she should chance it? She decides to do so, and joins the crowd. SHe's not likely to be noticed at the back, she figures. Unfortunately, she can't see anything from there either.

Eclair is standing in such a way that looks like she's trying to become invisible.

Wolf reasons that if most everyone will be looking at the cutout, the stage, and the judges, then the best places to hide will be in the opposite direction. And so he is hanging out near the benches alongside of the shop opposite the place where the event is being held, watching for anyone who might be done snacking to leave / drop / abandon and/or discard their partly-eaten goodies. ..

The announcer continues, "We'll take a few minutes and you can sign up at the table. Then we'll have everyone cross the stage so we can get a good look at your costumes."

What a loving thought, willing to do the same for her. "You've got it. Quick and painless. But messy," Grimm makes a mental note. "Oooo, look!"

Grimm plasters her hands against the glass of the tech store as she eyes a wireless color changing system for mood lighting. "It even has a black light option! You can control it with your phone! Or I could if my phone weren't dead." She sighs. Budgets are a thing.

At the mention of Starguard Gamma's commander, Grimm's ears perk and she looks over towards the event. "Starguard has a commander? I thought that was Perrault.." She murmurs in confusion. Random Factor was before her time.

Eclair has already signed up (under a fake name), and awaits her turn to walk across the stage like a death row prisoner.

Contestants filter toward the table to sign up, hoping to win the prizes available, most of which include things like posters and comics, but there are a couple of bigger ticket items.

Meanwhile, there's a line forming at the comic shop, where Dr. Jacobs is signing copies of his new book. The writer scowls a little bit as he sees someone in line waiting to get his signature.

Dragonfly looks over at Random Factor in surprise. That's a name, and face, she hasn'r heard or seen in a long time. One of the best SGG leaders ever. She disagreed with the para-military side of SGG but acknowledges they were probably to most effective team in the city in their hey-day.

Tali considers assembling a costume and signing up, but again - is being obvious a good idea? Probably not. Anyway, she's not fun-zoned.

Wolf eyes the organization and formation of the queue with some very practical-minded attention and interest. If those people are getting out books and posters to sign, that occupies their hands. Preoccupied hands. . . which can no longer be used to hold or carry or eat burgers or pizza or chicken wings!

Dragonfly frowns but keeps silent. She'll find out what is going on before she leaves though, if she can.

"The man does have some serious skills though. I wouldn't mind picking his brain some time. But I do not want to have to buy his book to do it. I've found it online and read it as I consulted his records in my database." Allam says casually to Gabrielle Grimm, turning towards the storefront as she gazes at the tech inside.

"A SpectR Evo 1 Bulb?"

He of course is recalling the specs now from memory as he looks at the device itself.

"Damn- you've got a good eye. I've got 2 of those in my apartment. I shopped around too- for a while before I finally found a set I liked. I ended up writing my own firmware for it though. I really hated the 'security' and laughably named 'Privacy' features that came with it. I can enable that on your if you end up getting one."

"Random Factor was the old Commander. A shapeshifter." Allam explains as he stands and straightens his jacket and turns to see the famed hero in person- something he has not done before.

Tali decides to heck with it. She slips into accelerated time and squeezes past people (or clambers over people) to go and read the comic books that are here - that should cheer her up a bit.

Roland gets up to the head of the line with Dr. Jacobs. He says, "Derrick, good to see you. Loved the last book. Looking foward to reading this one too."

"Yes, I definitely want all those features. Mood lighting on voice command, hehehe," Grimm has all sorts of devilish ideas for that. As if she really NEEDS tech to create her own mood lighting, given her power over illusions.

Considering Allam's comments on his database, she murmurs, "Hmm, think we should go check it out? I'm wondering why the commander is even here and not, y'know. Commanding. Or why they're getting booed."

Dr. Jacobs smirks, and mutters, "Hammer, you're an ." He signs the book, 'To a great hack of a scientist. May your someday actually have a finding worth publishing that I didn't have a hand in. -Dr. Jacobs'.

Something about this 'Random Factor' rubs Daemon the wrong way. He send's Grimm a message to her phone, forgetting for a split second that its broken. << Though- if you were a Shapeshifter... why would you look different on your first real big public outting in a long time? I mean- I guess I would. But that's just me. Maybe I'm being paranoid. >>

He decides to watch this a bit closer. "Yeah- we should check it out." Allam says simply before rephrasing. "If you were a shapeshifter, and you've been MIA for a while- how would you look at your first public appearance?"

The sign-ins are complete...and the announcer gets up on stage again, "Alright, let's get started! Are you ready?!" The crowd cheers and claps. "Alright...here's our first contestant: Frank as 'Fortitude'. You older folks will remember Fortitude frmo about a decade ago here in this very city!"

Frank walks across stage...and definitelyu doesn't have the physique that Fortitude has. But the costume itself is pretty accurate.

Dragonfly whispers, "You're up. Let's do this. You're got a great costume. Trust me, I know. Good luck, Frank."

Frank also has Dragonfly, nee Wasp, sitting on his right shoulder as she used to when they were a team.

Tali glances up, about at the end of each comic, try to get a look at the costumes. Conversation is lost on her at this speed.

Several photos are taken. The crowd cheers and claps, definitely impressed with teh addition of the real-life superhero to help the costume out.

Roland laughs, "Thanks, Derrick." He takes the signed book and walks away, heading to check out the contest. Dr. Jacobs glares at Roland's back for a moment and then goes back to signing books for people.

Roland(#1767TOn)

A fairly good looking man. He's well built, it seems...one would guess that he's pretty muscular. An odd thing for a scientist. He's bald, and has a dark brown goatee. He's currently wearing lace-up dress shoes, black slacks, a white dress shirt, and a navy blue sportcoat. There's a pair of sunglasses hanging from the breast pocket of his coat, and he seems to smile a lot. A jovial sort.

Frank smiles and says to Dragonfly, "Thanks. I appreciate it. This made my day."

"However I dang well please," Grimm answers with a smirk. "But that's me. If I was a public figure? Probably how people recognized me. Wait, are you saying he looks different?" She asks as she walks with him towards the activities, sliding her shattered phone into her pocket. May it rest in pieces.

The announcer says, "And now, a group. We have some of the current members of Starguard Gamma!" Three people walk up on stage. First is a young girl, perhaps 12, dressed as Star Girl. She looks embarrassed, but manages to get up on stage. Next is the guy in the Ten costume who seems to be hamming it up a little. Lastly, there is a woman dressed as Guardian. Her costume certainly looks...quite accurate.

Eclair(#2834PenCcmF?)

An attractive, petite woman, probably in her early 20s. She has electric blue hair, pulled back into long flowing pigtails, with electric blue eyes peering out of a thin dark blue domino mask. The body-hugging electric blue sleeveless blouse, with a short dark blue necktie, dark blue pleated miniskirt, electric blue thigh-high stockings, dark blue flat half-boots, and dark blue fingerless mid-bicep length gloves completes her look.

There's a lot of cheering for this trio as well, which seems to boost the young girl's confidence. The bearded man in the Ten outfit strikes a pose just before they leave the stage.

Allam nods, "Exactly. He doesn't look like my files show. Not... quite right."

He chuckles and shakes his head at the Bearded Ten. "Speaking of 'not right'." He continues weavin through the crowd, keeping his head down low. His height helps with that. Most cameras should see just the top of his head as he passes by peoples shoulders.

Some hero-types might be sensitive about their height, Daemon finds it to be an advantage.

The announcer says, "And here's Amy as Eclair!" She motions to Eclair to come up on stage.

Eclair walks stiffly across the stage and faces the crowd, blushing furiously, her hands gripping the hem of her skirt to keep it from fluttering too much.

Tali's mood is lifting as she catches up on her comics. . o O (Need to catch up on my real ros, too! I mean, who that I know is still active? Who's new?)

Eclair mentally files away what she noticed, takes a deep breath, and delivers the catchphrase Gina insisted she use. "It-it's not like I'm saving you because I like you or anything! Sh-shut up!"

There's some laughter in the crowd and some more photos are taken. Eclair can hear someone toward the front saying to a friend, 'She doesn't look like a pastry. I don't get it'. His friend says, 'It's like...European for electricity or something. I gotta look it up.'

"Probably an impersonator. But not necessarily malicious. Just, y'know. Publicity stunt?" Gabrielle suggests. She glances over towards the book signing and widens her eyes. "Now talk about justice...bet that vil is rich now that he's become a writer," she comments enviously.

The announcer continues, "And next, we have the man known only as...the Reaper!" There's guy who walks up onto the stage in a rather elaborate outfit modeled after the villain who attacked Colonial Bay a few years ago close to Halloween. There's foam and wire holding up chains around him.

Tali thinks. o O (Guess some people like pretending to be vils.)

Eclair stands off to the side with the other already-displayed contestants. She seems more composed now, her attention seemingly focused on the back of the crowd.

The back of the crowd is where Wolf is, of course. Not craning his head to try to see over the people in front of him either. But, rather, head low to the ground to watch out for any dropped snacks or set-aside paper plates. ..

"*** damn it. That's one hell of a costume." Daemons ays, finally close enough to see this 'Random Factor' is anyone but the real deal. So it seems, this will remain something he will never do.

He shrugs and turns to Grimm to see if she's noticed anything amiss. He could tell her there's a costume, and they could get back to shopping but ... where's the fun in that.

He waits to see if she discovers for herself. After all- she is a detective in training.

Grimm is busy scrutinizing the suit fora. Bit before she notices some of the simple stitching and poor hemming. Something like that wouldn't survive in a fight, and if you could shape shift, why would you choose a poorly tailored mimicked outfit? From a distance, though, it looks legit. "Ah, yeah, totally an actor," she realizes after Daemon does.

Wolf contemplates a "floor-treasure" of half-eaten twizzlers, but can't immediately figure out how to obtain them out from underneath the high-heeled boot that is currently pressing on them, mashing them and pinning them to the flooring. He sighs inwardly, then looks up, happening to notice the ?cyborg? in the crowd who has Dr. Jacobs under surveillance. He notices that Eclair is also watching the ?cyborg? and tilts his shaggy angular head sideways, wonderingly. ..

The Reaper leaves stage, followed by a couple who go up dressed as Princess Lorelei and Duke Vanatherion. The pair's costumes looks quite well done, with some small fake butterflies attached on thin wires to make it look like they're floating around the two of them.

Dr. Jacobs finishes signing for the time being, and he gets up to take a break and perhaps get that cup of coffee he needs. He heads out into the fountain area to watch the contest for a moment.

Wolf watches the ?cyborg? to see if this change causes the ?cyborg? to make any sort of move. ..

Tali finishes her comics, starts paling more attention to the costumes. She looks about for somewhere people aren't looking enough for her to slip back to normal time there unnoticed.

The next contestant is an overweight gentleman dressed as Spirit. He's just wearing a white skintight lycra bodysuit. Yeah, it takes guts, but then again, his face is completely covered.

The man that Eclair and Wolf are both watching moves to intercept Dr. Jacobs, moving through the crowd carefully.

Tali thinks. o O (Ugh. Nega-scenic.)

Eclair bites her lip. . o O (Damn. A cyborg stalking an ex-villain. This could be bad in so many ways."

Wolf threads his way carefully through the forest of legs, careful not to step on any toes. He prepares to interpose himself, should the ?cyborg? and the Dr. have a less-than-amiable encounter. ..

The 'cyborg' keeps moving toward Dr. Jacobs, approaching him from behind.

Eclair shouts, "Jacobs, look out!"

Tali looks up at the sudden shout, alert for trouble.

Dr. Jacobs turns at Eclair's shout, and then finally notices his stalker. He blinks a couple of times, "Hey now...it's been a long time. No need to start something." He starts to back away.

Dragonfly flies up off Frank's shoulder and looks for the source of the shout and the reason for it.

MEanwhile, Allam looks to Grimm and says, "Hey it looks like Jacobs is done signing autographs- lets go see if we can get him to talk shop... for just a second. I want to see what he thinks about the ISI 2400."

He begins to maneuver the pair towards Doctor Jacobs.

His head turns towards the shout, then back towards Jacobs as his clothing shifts into its nanosuit form.

Tali senses something is up, and suddenly Timewarp is standing just where Tali wasn't.

The man who was following Jacobs looks like he has a face that's partially metal. He stops when attention is drawn to him. He says to no one in particular, "Abort." Finally, he looks to Jacobs, "We'll be in touch, Doctor Derrick Jacobs. We have business."

Grimm follows along with Allam, eyeing him suspiciously. "Admit it. You just want to know how to become a super villain," she teases. Her head twists at the warning, a black, skin-tight field appearing around her.

Jacobs continues to back up, heading toward the one obvious actual superhero in attendance: Dragonfly. His stalker, on the other hand, turns and heads off, heading toward the mall exit...while still keeping an eye on Jacobs. He has that T-1000 kind of look on his face - expressionless.

Wolf follows along in his footsteps, partly curious what T-1000's smell like, and partly being pro-active in case Eclair wants the cyborg followed or etc.

Timewarp decides to stalk the stalker. Keeping at a discreet distance, or rather running back and forth so fast she's not like to be spotted.

Eclair continues to stand awkwardly off to the side of the stage, aware that people might be looking at her again.

Dragonfly drops down to hover in front of Dr Jacobs, "So what was that all about Dr Jacobs?" she asks. Then adds, "Do you want a fast exit out of here? Dragonfly express flight."

The announcer gets up on stage, "Thank you all for participating. The judges have tallied their scores, and they're about to give out the prizes!"

Dr. Jacobs looks to Dragonfly, "Wasp, right?" He shakes his head, "No...it's safer here, with people around. That guy was probably from ACRO."

Allam can't help himself. He needs answers and its a cyborg! Come on. Who doesn't want to know how it works.

He charges- leaping and bouncing around bystanders and off the ceiling to close in on the cyborg. As his nanosuit completes his gauntlets, Daemon tries to palm the back of the cyborg's head- using his nanotags to put a tracer beacon on it with plans to follow it.

Grimm glances over to Allam, or where Allam was. "Hey, is that a--dang it!" He's already gone, the slippery little spider. Her head whips around to spy on Daemon. "Oh boy..." she murmurs, moving through the crowd to keep up with Daemon.

Eclair, up on stage, facepalms.

Agent Phi gets touched on the back of the head, and he goes into defense mode.