Log:Social in the Workout Romm

2013/03/29 	 Anthony Quinn|Anthony Ghost Ten Ten Anna Lia 1

(This log extract has been significantly edited to be Ghost's Pointr of View)

Sukeban is stretching and otherwise warming up.

Ghost comes into the Workout Room and waves to Sukeban, "Hello. Good to see you again. We haven't had a chance to really talk so far."

Sukeban waves, "Yo, Ghost. Yeah, uh, so, hi."

Sukeban starts working on stretching her wrists while seated in the traditional kneeling position.

Ghost smiles as she walks over to a closer position, although not so close she interferes in Sukeban's warm up routine. "You've been active in the city for some time. As a hero I mean. Were you on another team before joining the Princesses' Guard?"

Sukeban shakes her head, scattering embers, "Nah, I was never much of a joiner. I just helped out when there was trouble. If the Oujo wasn't givin' us a paycheck, I'd have stayed a lone wolf."

Ghost grins, "Probably me too. Although the role as a hero is new to me. So being part of a team really helps with examples of what to do and what not to do. I continue to be impressed, and slightly amazed, at the range and extent of the abilities shown."

Sukeban grins, "Yeah. I don't really have any tricks, I just do what I do. The rest if ya seem to be more flexible."

Ten has a look in the door. . o O (In use - again.)

Sukeban is seated in the traditional japanese kneeling position (seiza), stretching her wrists as she chats with Ghost.

Ghost laughs quietly, "That may or may not be entirely true, Sukeban, but what I've seen you do is impressive enough. Your stand on the bridge was like something from a holo-vid production."

Sukeban blushes a little, "Eh... It was just a bunch of chocolate rabbits, nothin' dangerous, like the guy controllin' them."

Ten says, "Chocolate rabbits?!"

Sukeban nods, "Oh, hey Ten. Yeah, it was one of the weirder things I've ever seen." She starts stretching her neck.

Ghost nods. Having heard Ten arrive she's not surpised by the voice behind her. "Yes. Attacking the Undermoon Embassy. No - I didn't believe it myself. I thought they were animal form robots until Sukeban started melting them by the hundreds."

Ten says, "O...kay."

Ghost looks to Sukeban, "I still don't understand how that invisible guy was controlling them. It wasn't magic, not according to Scrapper and Lia anyway. There was no radio control. So how? Beats me."

Sukeban shakes her head, "I just want to know why chocolate rabbits. I mean, chocolate tigers or somethin' would've made more sense."

Ghost adds, "... and I don't like being at a loss. Because if I don't understand it I won't know how to counter it."

Ghost thinks for a moment, then says, "Maybe... maybe they were chocolate rabbits because that's what he could buy. I saw lots of them for sale in shops and the Mall this last week of so."

The giant robot has to duck a bit to get through the door. Straightening up it stands nearly twelve feet in height. At first glance it bears almost no resemblance to any of Quinn's other suits, being much more bulky and massive and lacking the clean lines of the combat suit. It also lacks the glowing ring in the center and the radiating lines that feed energy to the various systems. All in all it looks much more like the Ironmonger suit from the first Iron Man movie, simple in design yet with a certain degree of refinement that shows that it wasn't simply built in a cave or garage.

As he enters there is no real way to tell that it is Quinn at first but then the faceplate of the helmet pops forward with the hiss of compressed gas and retracts revealing Quinn's face. "Sorry," he says. "I thought the workout room was suppose to be open."

Ten looks up at the robot, then is rather relieved to see Quinn's face. "Oh, hey."

Sukeban looks over at Q, "Yo."

Ghost turns, her right hand lifting to point at the giant battlesuit until Quinn pops the visor. "You ought to knock first. I almost shot you. And since I was hoping to see you and ask a favour, shooting you isn't a good idea."

Ten says, "I guess I should too. I just assume if I get shot it won't hurt, though."

Quinn smiles to Ghost. "Much appreciated," he says, "especially since this suit isn't particularly armored." He raps on the chest with oversized knuckles. "Just a bit of metal plating for general protection."

Ghost says, "Oh. I recognised your footsteps when you entered, Ten. No danger of being shot by me."

Ten says, "What's with the big suit?"

Ghost smiles, "There's another reason why shooting you would be a poor idea. I don't have any reloads for my weapon other than the spare clips I was carrying. That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Ten said you might be able to help with that, like you helped her by creating her staff."

Sukeban stands up and begins throwing herself into rolls and breakfalls.

Lia enters the the workout room, however, she's notably different than she was the last time she was seen. Her hair is longer and neater, her ears are pointed now liken to that of an elf, and she's a good few inches shorter. Lia offers a nervous wave to the others, as if uncertain of something. "Hey there."

"Just an idea I had," Quinn says to Ten. "While I was doing some cleanup on the Atlas statue it occurred to me that it might be useful to have a company designed to help with the cleanup from such things, so I'm trying to work on a more economical version of my armor that is suited for it." He gives a nod to Ghost. "I can take a look at them, sure," he says. "My guess is it shouldn't be too difficult for me to come up with something."

Anna's walking in with Lia, wearing her harness full of armaments but in general she seems to not really be using them. Waving, she says, "Hey there." then looks over towards Lia saying, "...What? It's not that bad. Relax." then walks up to the mat that Sukeban is on and drops her armaments off to the side, then starts warming up.

Ten says, "Hey," to the newcomers.

Sukeban waves as she comes out a roll and throws herself into another, her fire infused hair making it a bit more dramatic than the mundane exercise it is.

Ghost says, "That would be really helpful, Quinn. I'd be suprised if you can reproduce the enchanted needles. But the other loads are just technology."

Anna contines stretching, before she does a few handsprings back and moves into a flip, landing fairly well. Turning, she looks at Sukeban and says, "How about a friendly match? You seem like you'd be decent at that sort of thing, if your agility is any indicator."

Quinn quirks an eyebrow. "Enchanted needles?" he says, "Yeah. That might be a bit difficult. With a little luck maybe the Wayland Foundation will attract someone with a bit of technomagical knowledge who can help with that, but that's kind of out of my bailiwick." He pauses to think for a moment. "On the other hand I might be able to come up with some form of workaround. A purely technological solution."

"Enchanted needles?" Lia asks, looking to Ghost, "I /might/ be able to help there as long as I have something to enchant, it's just transmutational magic, and I'm going to need to learn a lot about that kind of magic..."

Sukeban grins at Anna, "Sure, if ya want to take on thje Foul Queen of Osaka, I'll be happy to oblidge."

Ghost nods to Quinn, "That could work just as well. When would be convenient for me to drop round to your Tower to see what can be done?"

Anthony smiles. "Any time, really," he says. "As long as I'm in I can shelve whatever it is I'm working on and take a look at what can be done. We're not up and running at a hundred percent yet but I've got all the tools I should need."

Ghost smiles as Lia offers to help. "The needles are enchanted to penetrate armor. Actually they are the simplest form of payload, assuming the enchantment can be replicated. Unlike the other loads the enchanted needles are simply needles. Nothing else."

Lia nods, "Can I have one of them so that I'm sure my enchantment is the correct enchantment?"

Ghost nods. Pulling out her case of spare clips she teases out a small needle from one of the clips, a needle about half an inch long and about a twentieth of an inch in diameter. To those with the right senses the needle radiates magic. "Here you are." she says, holding the needle out to Lia.

Sukeban paces off 5 meters, "Ya wanna do this with power and gear, or just skill?"

Ghost looks over at Quinn, "While I have the case out, would you like a sample of the other payloads to study?"

Ten steps over to the side of the room to watch.

"Doesn't matter." Anna says, "I'd rather not hamper your abilities though."

Sukeban looks at the others, "If ya say so. The rest of ya might want to move back. A lot."

Ghost quickly steps across to a position mostly behind Ten. "I feel safer here." she comments.

Ten grins. "That's what I'm here for."

Ghost activates her navy force armor as well.

Lia takes the needle, and examines it, nodding to Ghost. Lia pockets the needle, and steps back herself.

Quinn gives a nod to Ghost. "Yeah," he says, but give me a second to get out of this armor. I didn't think to design it with any pockets." The enormous suit crouches down and then the chest and upper thighs opens to reveal Anthony sitting inside. He pulls his arms out from the arms of the suit and steps down the short distance to the ground, now wearing a skintight black suit through which the Q-Drive in his chest can be seen. "Might as well give me one of the needles as well," he says. "Even if I can't enchant them I can handle the physical manufacturing."

Victory steps inside, and takes a look around. "Huh. I didn't realize the room was in use. I should have checked."

Ten says, "Oh, hey, Wade!"

Lia offers a wave to Victory.

Victory smiles to Ten. "Hey there. New costume, huh?"

Ghost nods to Quinn, and extracts a needle from each of the clips in the case. "Enchanted needle. Just a solid needle. I think you call the material Glassteel. This is a standard penetrator, also Glassteel but with a thruster drive built in to increase impact velocity. This one is a flechette needle. And this is a drug tipped needle. And lastly the scrambler. Emits a neural pulse on impact that plays havoc with brain function." She hands him the needles."

Ten smiles to Victory. "Yeah, to go with the new name, Ten, or Perfect Ten in full. You like?"

Victory smiles and nods, "I do. Though I liked your prior code name well enough, too."

Ten grins. "Not everyone seemed comfortable using it. 'Ten' is nice and innocuous though."

The Q-drive in the center of Anthony's chest is circular, as might be expected, with an outer ring composed of segments of light that shine through the fabric of the skinsuit he's wearing. The inner circle, however, is less constant. While the fabric obscures it the light from it appears to twist and pulse of its own accord. Anthony accepts the needles from Ghost and nods, slipping them into a nearly invisible pocket on the back of one arm.

"Hopefully this costume will stand up to the wear and tear Ten puts it through better than her previous one," Quinn says with a smile.

Ten says, "It's holding up so far. I'm more impressed by how it cleans. I was wondering if a white costume was a mistake...."

Quinn nods to Ten. "It has to do with a nano-structure that is mimicked from lotus flowers," he says. "The structure actually resists dirt and water."

Victory becomes quiet, and watches the two women sparring.

Ten nods to Quinn, "Works well."

Ghost continues talking to Quinn while watching the sparring match, "Quinn, if you can produce that cut-down suit cheaply enough you ought to go talk to people at the docks. I was a cargo-rat on board a space liner for several years. That suit is a lot like the power-loaders we used to move cargo ship-side. Dock-side we used summoned Earth elementals. But here on this planet, you might have a market both ship-side and dock-side."

Ten comments to Wade, "The gym seems to be doing good business. I'm gooing to have to start booking time here ahead of tume."

Quinn nods to Ghost. "I hadn't really thought about it that way," he says. "Not sure about the economics of a suit in the more controlled conditions of a dock but I'll take a look at it. The advantages of one of these over normal construction equipment after a disaster is that they can be deployed much, much faster and they can handle a lot of situations where it might be problematic bringing in heavy equipment. At least that's the theory."

Victory nods in return to Ten, "Yeah, I think I might have to as well. But then again, I guess I don't really need all the cool specialized stuff in this room."

[To Victory] Ten says, "Speaking of cool specialised stuff - have you seen the staff Quinn made for me?"

Ghost turns to Victory and smiles, "Sorry to interrupt, but we haven't been introduced. I'm Ghost."

Ten takes hold of the segmented staff coiled about waist and it snaps into actual staff form.

Victory smiles to Ghost, "Nice to meet you. My name's Wade, but I go by 'Victory'." He offers his hand to Ghost to shake.

Victory looks at Ten's staff and smiles. "No...I hadn't seen that. Quite cool."

Quinn nods to Ghost. As she is from 'out of town' he supplies a little more information. "Victory here is a second," he looks to Wade for confirmation on this, "generation hero."

Ten says, "You don't know the half of it...."

"I don't think I've formally met anywhere here but Anna." Lia notes, looking to the group in the room. "My name is Lia. Lia Moonarson."

Ten causes the staff to expand instantly till it contacts the far wall then has it yank her across the room. She somehow lands by the far wall gracefully.

Quinn nods to Lia and extends a hand. "Pleased to meet you, Lia," he says. "Anthony Quinn."

Ten returns in a few seconds by the same method, hurtling to within inches of the wall at high speed.

Ghost reaches out and shakes Victory's hand. "Delighted to meet you."

Victory nods in agreement with Quinn. "That's correct. My father was 'Patriot'." He nods to Lia as well, "Nice to meet you."

Sukeban grins and rockets forward on a jet a flame, landing beside Anna. "Sorry about this, I'm kind of mean." She grabs for Anna's wrist...

[To Lia] Ten says, "And I'm Ten."

Lia shakes Quinn's hand, "Nice to meet you too." Lia looks to the group, "All of you, that is."

Anna twists away though, and moves to kick at Sukeban's head and says, "Want to play rough, huh? Fine by me."

Sukeban staggers from the hit, but doesn't seem too hurt.

Ghost asks Victory, "So what does being a second generation mean? Does that make you more capable than first generation heres? And what about third or more generation heroes. Are they even tougher still?"

Victory grins to Ghost. "Um...no. My father was a supersoldier. As I'm his son, I'm in the next generation. So, it's just a referral to the familial connection."

Ghost nods. "Ah. Right."

Ten says, "You know Patriot Street? That's named after his father."

Sukeban slide steps past Anna, trying to slide her hand up under Anna's chin and throw her to the ground!

Ten says, "Ooh, smooth move."

Ghost says, "I don't know it. But I'll make a point of finding it." Then she asks Ten and Victory and Quinn, as a group, "So who are the toughest heroes in the city?"

Ten says, "Hm, toughest in waht sense? Most powerful? Most resistant to damage?"

Quinn shrugs his shoulders slightly at Ghost's question. "No real idea," he says. "Probably Cobalt or Titan or some such. I think it kind of depends on circumstances a lot as well."

Anna's thrown down to the ground, but she's definitely not out of the game. Looking up at Ghost from the floor she says, "Dunno. Bard's pretty tough though, or so I hear. Plus, he's a great masseur." then stands up and readies herself once more.

Ghost nods to Ten, "That was a loosely posed question. Let me ask that another way, who are the more capable heroes in your opinion. The ones you'd want to have on the ground when things got nasty?"

Victory rubs his chin a bit at Ghost's question. "Hmm. The toughest I've seen? Probably...Wasp, Spirit, and Cobalt."

Ten says, "Probably a fair list... to be honest, I'm not sure I can really answer. I still feel I don't know a lot of the heroes well enough to say."

Ghost points out with a grin, "Apart from the heroes I've met personally I don't know any of them."

Ten says, "Trouble is, heroes have such a diverse range of abilities it's hard to compare them. And they don't even do that charity competition thing they used to."

Victory nods to Ten, "Best of the Best? I heard there might be one this year, but it's just a rumor at this point."

Ten says, "Oh, really? Be good to have that back!"

"How many years has it been since they last had it?" Quinn asks.

Lia just kind of stands in the background for the moment, not really adding anything and simply watching.

Ghost says, "Best of the Best? What's that?"

Ten says, "Can't remember. I think there was some trouble like it was sponsored by a supervillain or something and so they cancelled it."

Victory looks to Ghost, "'Best of the Best' was a yearly competition here in the city for various metas. They'd compete to determine who was the well...best. One year was a team competition, from what I remember. The competition is pretty much the only place I ever saw Frost Angel. She didn't seem to want to be around the city otherwise, from what I remember."

Victory answers Quinn's question. "Two or three years at least, I think. It's been a while. As Ten said, it's been the focal point of various supervillain plots or whatnot."

Ten looks it up on her PDA. "2058."

Ghost gets out her bright new shiny PDA and starts searching for 'Best of the Best' and '2063'. She is busy for a couple of minutes. Then she looks up perplexed, "Something just trod on my search-worm!"

Ten says, "Hm?"

Victory raises a brow. "That's longer ago than I thought."

Ghost says, "I was searching for any recent references, and possible connections to the Best of the Best name. And something, or someone, just erased my search-worm before it could return any results."

"Search worm?" Lia asks, looking to Ghost, "What on earth is that?"

Ghost says, "A self replicating search bot used to search all available databases for a specific subject or set of subject keywords."

Quinn quirks an eyebrow once more. "Why would someone want to do that? What good would it do to make it difficult for people to look up data on the previous Best of the Bests? It's not like people are going to suddenly forget that they occurred."

Ghost shakes her head. "No, Quinn, I can get anything I want on the previous ones. I was searching for any references to the Best of the Best keyword for the current year we're in."

"...In english...?" Lia asks, clearly puzzled by the termonology.

[To Anthony] Ten says, "You tell us - you're the tech genius."

Ghost nods towards Victory, "Victory said he's heard a rumor there might be one this year."

Anthony shrugs his shoulders to Ten. "That means I can tell you how someone is doing something," he says, "not why." He pauses a moment to think. "Maybe someone is trying to prevent a new one from being formed. That's the only reason I can see to suppress search results like that for the current year."

Ten grins. "Looks like if there is no one wants anyone to find out. Might make ticket sales hard."

Victory shrugs a bit. "Perhaps it's a sponsoring corp who is trying to keep the rumors under wraps?"

Anthony says, "Doesn't seem like a good way to do it. Seems like it would just create more rumors."

Ghost says, "Or... there is a plan to hold one and someone who knows is trying to keep the news quiet until they tie up the contracts."

Ten says, "Plausible. How hard is it technically to, um, eat data worms?"

Ghost smiles, "Mine? Not easy at all. I'm surprised anyone has the capability to do it."

Ten says, "Hm."

Anthony shrugs his shoulders once more. "Tricky but not impossible, but the bigger thing is that its illegal as all get out because you have to kill processes on machines you don't own."

Ghost has her attention drawn to the ongoing match. She does laugh quietly, "So I'm going to complain? I don't have permission to run the search-worm in the first place, Quinn."

Quinn smiles to Ghost. "But that's the thing," he says. "Little Johnny gets caught making a data worm in his mom's basement and it's a slap on the wrist and a 'who cares?' kind of thing. Little Johnny finds out the Quinn Industries is killing processes on foreign machines and all of a sudden it's a huge deal. It's hard to understand why someone in a position to sponsor Best of the Best would do something like that."

Victory nods. "Except we have no idea who shut down Ghost's process, right?"

"...Computers in this world work much differently than the ones back home..." Lia notes, muttering.

Ghost says, "Let me throw a theory at you, Quinn. This is how things work in the nebula. So maybe things are different here. Say someone picks up the rumor that this competition is going to be revived. They close down access to the data and use the time before any official announcement to tie up such things as the merchandising, pre-book large numbers of hotel rooms for resale at inflated prices, etc.."

Sukeban lets Anna go from a martial hold, "Good match." She wanders back over to the others.

Victory smiles as Sukeban walks back over. "Nicely done."

Sukeban grins, "Thanks. So how would ya deal with my fiery sheath?"

Quinn shrugs his shoulders slightly to Victory. "No, but we haven't tried looking yet," he says. "You never want to make decisions in business based on the idea that no one will find out. Always best to assume that everyone will know what you've done." He listens to Ghost for a minute and nods. "That...I don't know." He thinks for a minute and shakes his head. "Is it impossible someone is thinking that way? No. Maybe someone is, but they would be pretty mistaken. If I have the rights to the Best of the Best name I'm not going to wait for people to come to me to purchase merchandising rights. I'm going to solicit bids, and this worm won't stop that at all. If it has any effect all it would do is be a nuisance and go from being a minor crime to a much more major one."

Ghost adds her congratulations to Sukeban, "You were winning but both of you are skillful and able to take a lot of punishment."

Ten nods. "Good to watch."

Sukeban nods, "She's probably better than me at straight-up fightin'."

Lia hmms at Sukeban, "Good match, and, by staying away from it preferably."

Victory nods to Sukeban, considering. "I'd probably focus on using my shield to strike, rather than my fists or feet."

Sukeban nods, "Yeah, that would work. My sheath isn't all that hot."

Ten says, "Maybe I wouldn't need to worry about it at all, then."

Ten says, "Oh, I've been meaning to ask, Q - how robust is this staff? I haven't broken it yet, but...."

Ghost grins at Victory's comment. "In my case, I'd settle for being two miles away with a guass rifle. I wouldn't hit anything. I'm not a good shot. But two miles is a decent distance to get a running start when I flee."

Victory chuckles. "I don't have a ranged attack of any sort. Yet. Still debating about what to do about that."

"Pretty tough," Quinn says to Ten. "I mean it's not indestructible or anything. If I were to grab it with my armor and bend it I could probably break it, but then I can lift around 100 tons."

Ten says, "Maybe Q can set you up with something." She fires off the last segment of her staff which strikes the far wall then is snapped back into place by tractor beams. "He solved my problem."

Ten says, "Ok, I'll bear that in mind. Not as tough as me."

Lia hmms, "I heard that I can test my abilities here, how exactly do I go about doing so? Just sparring with others?"

Quinn nods to Victory. "Come on by the Tower some time," he says, "and I'll see what I can fix you up with."

Victory smiles to Anthony, "Thanks. I might take you up on that." He then looks over to Lia, "There are automated opponents you can take on, as well."

[To Victory] Ten says, "Of course, with your theme you should be shooting people with little flags on pointy sticks, or something."

Victory chuckles. "Mmm...no. I've been thinking about either a blaster pistol or a taser of some sort. Alternatively, a way to use the shield projector in a more offensive capability."

Ten nods. "Sounds good - if you can do that."

Ghost nods to everyone, "I'm going to head out to the embassy. Got a lesson booked with one of the spellcraft tutors." She grins, "He usually teaches young Fae. So he's very patient with my efforts."