Super Hero High: Prometheus Rising (IC, Open)

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Son of a something. Antonio has gone a seperate route and decided to start the ambush before everybody was in position, and is now K.I.A. Once we are all in position, we should start the attack as planned seeing as to how they are going to be used to the idea of fighting only one person on a roof, which could mean a surprise attack could still work if they are only expecting Antonio," Bramwell said in telepathic message as he, Makoto, and the rest of the flankers kept crawling along the stone wall. They had about thirty more yards to go.

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael half-laughed. "Please, inform me on how knowing Kildare would help me in that simulation. You may not have noticed this, but that wasn't Naas. That was some randomized run-down town. How am I supposed to recognize that? Because I know one town, doesn't mean I know them all. I'm not omniscient. And knowing one gang of superheroes doesn't mean I automatically gain knowledge of an AI superhuman."
"And, I'm guessing they have some kind of psychological profiles that become available to all teachers? Look up mine - I think you'll find it's handy to know that I'm not exactly afraid of dying, even if it would put a little black number in the dreaded death toll and make the school appear a little worse. Still, you two look like you could do with some bonding time, so I'll be off."
She grinned at them one last time and made her way to the door.

Rachael had gotten to the door when Burton, who had seemingly been lost in the shuffle during the juvenile spat between her and Daniel that shouldn't have happened, decided to inform Racheal just where her mouth had gotten her.

"Your psychological proclivities have been noted Miss Redwood, as have your anti-social tendencies. Since you clearly refuse to take the training halfway seriously or value yours or any other students or instructors lives, consider yourself scrubbed from this and every other mission. Maybe extended time attending to your studies and in the simulator will make you an effective mission planner in lieu of your lack of viability to conduct missions."

Rachael simply grinned. Okay, so it gave her less chance to 'accidentally' kill someone, but at least she could miss out on the whole white knight thing. "Okay. Tell me how you do, won't you? I'd like to see how much people die because no-one knew how the rogues would fight, and how many people get lost. Here's a tip, the old man likes throwing rocks."
She noticed another pod opening, and gave a condescending glare to the occupant, then left.

[Camicon]

I followed Bramwell's instructions. Moving at a light jog I reached the small alley in about three minutes. Directly across from me, I could see Caitlin, Cassie, and Tyler, crouched behind a partially collapsed building, that looked to have once been a convenience mart. I waved my hands a little, caught their attention, and gave a thumbs up to report my success. Since there was a large open space between my hiding place and theirs, I didn't move to join them. The chances of someone inside the pub spotting my were too high, and the benefit would be negligible. So I settled to the ground, leaning against the alley's wall, watching the pub attentively.

Which is why I saw Antonio step through some shadows, end up on the roof, dropping is weird little smoke-bomb things through the chimney. I made a mental not to give him hell for that later. Had I not expressly told everyone to wait ten minutes (I knew it hadn't been that long yet, as Bramwell had yet to relay the plans)? Had I not said to avoid using your powers against John Doe unless necessary? And there he goes, acting on his own, before everyone is ready, using his powers against a person that will emulate them and use them against the rest of us. What a fricking idiot. Even though I was looking right at him, I still lost track of events when a shadowy figure slipped up the fire escape and Antonio slumped to the ground, the back of his neck a bloody mess. I felt a flash of anger at him. Not only had he completely given us away (as much as one could, at least, after Bramwell's failed forays with mind reading) and probably given John Doe his powers, but he'd also gotten himself killed.

I got a message from Bramwell, saying that Antonio had gone off on his own. No shit, Sherlock. Idiot got himself killed too. I hoped that he'd remember to relay the attack plans to us. Actually, I hoped that they'd at least made some attack plans, though I wasn't expecting much to be honest. The way I saw things at this point, the most we could hope for was that Cassie and Caitlin, Tyler and myself would be able to eliminate John Doe's thugs and capture him, before anyone else got some bright idea's about getting themselves killed while simultaneously endangering the rest of us.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"We are at the stone wall. Tara, Caitlin, Cassie, and Tyler, you need to enter through the back-door. There should be back rooms in there. The door into the main hall of the pub should be two rooms to your right. If I may provide a suggestion, Caitlin could head left about ten yards, and be in position to enter the room from the exact opposite side of it as the rest of the attack. Since Antonio has taken the opportunity to spoil our ambush, we shall open fire in twenty seconds after the 'go' order. In thirty seconds, I expect the same from the flanking team. If I give an 'attack' order, we all are to start the ambush without hessitation. If I give an 'offensive' order, the stone wall team should attack that instant. If I give a 'blitz' order, the entry team needs to attack that instant. Does everybody understand?" Bramwell thought in a telepathic message.

[Corrian]

When they got the message from Bramwell, it literally almost instantly went right over Cassie's head, because with the mixture of being scared, her thoughts of her past, and so on, it didn't stay processed in her mind very well. Caitlin on the other hand remembered it pretty well, and repeated it in her head over and over again to make sure she got it right. "Got it!" She thought, figuring Bramwell would pick it up. "You guys get that?" She asked to Cassie and Tyler, to which Cassie blinked and said, "It went right over my head". She nodded, and said, "It's okay, I remember what he said", then gestured for them to follow her to where they were headed.

Every time there were gunshots fired off during their walk to their destination, Cassie seemed physically scared, and would let out a gasp. Which was a good way of showing that she really wasn't cut out for this, because the sounds of guns still made her panic way too often, even if they weren't real powerful guns. She told herself to be strong, to not be scared, and to fight on, but no matter how much she gave herself confidence, she couldn't remove that pounding panic in her chest. This could either prove useful, where she was cautious enough to not get herself shot, or prove to make things worse, if not only for herself.

Cassie was also examining her pistol, or more like pistols. The only reason she even knew how they functioned was from the lessons. Otherwise she'd be pretty clueless of how a gun worked. She tried to steady her shaking hands, but was having a hard time doing so, and she swallowed deeply. She got them ready to fire, and closed her eyes, trying to fight back the fear. Caitlin patted her on the shoulder, and said, "It will be alright soldier. Stay strong". She smiled faintly, but it was only short lived. If this was a real mission not in a simulation, she would probably have a heart attack from anxiety and nerve issues. When Tyler spoke to her, she nodded her head to him, confirming she heard what he said.

Caitlin and Cassie both noticed Tara, and Caitlin gave her a nod and a smile in approval, keeping as quiet as possible. Caitlin looked relatively calm, though there was still that fear biting at her to break out. She was better at keeping in contained then Cassie though, which was pretty obvious by the clear look of fear on her face when she glanced over at Tara. At this point it almost seemed like she was either just doing it to try to be stronger then she was, or just to prove herself to the others and not look like a pathetic loser like her old school made her feel like way too often. She wasn't about ready to back down. If it was real, she would probably of backed out by now.

Cassie was watching Antonio's position when he was doing everything, because she was trying to figure out entirely what he was up to. It seemed alright, except for the fact that even she recalled the fact he was supposed to wait a little longer and whatnot . Then as he presumably alerted everyone and got himself killed, she quickly snapped out of her gaze and let out a quiet gasp . Obviously for her witnessing people literally dieing while doing her powers was a disturbing site, even if it was a simulation. She shook her head and quietly cursed to herself, then went back to looking nervous about what was about to take place. Caitlin just shook her head, figuring it was all too likely that some of these people on this simulation wouldn't stand a chance in the real world.

Caitlin listened carefully to what Bramwell said, and thought an agreement to his plan. "That sounds good. Catching them off guard with the ability to go through walls always sounds like a good method, because nobody expects a short 16-year old girl to magically appear through a wall" She thought to him, adding a little joke in to lighten the mood slightly, even if for only a moment.

Once the 4 of them were all closer to each other, outside of the entrance back door and likely pressed against the walls. She looked over to Tara, and lowered her voice to a whisper as if to avoid alerting anyway. "Want to be leader again? You make a better leader then I do, but I decided to take up the leadership position to get us over here" She said to Tara. What she said was true. She had pretty much decided to lead everyone over to the back on her own, not waiting for any questions to be asked to her about her idea of taking up the leadership without really a word to the others. She figured it was best that way for the brief trip to the back, but now that they were together again, she would rather the leadership be passed back to Tara, for obvious reasons of her showing signs of being one of the best leaders out of everyone in the simulation.

Cassie leaned against the wall by the door, trying very hard to keep her breathing steady and quiet to avoid making too much noise. She agreed to Caitlin's suggestion of Tara being leader again with a nod. And she also made a mental agreement to Bramwell's plan, thinking it sounded like as good of a plan as they could make in such a short notice now that they were pretty much caught. Now she just hoped that with the fact she was shaking and was just over all nervous, she hoped that she could actually aim properly and hit people. Her aim was already not the greatest, but the shaking would just make it worse, and the fact she knew she'd be killing 'people', AI or not. They looked freakishly real and acted freakishly real after all, being a mixture of acting stupid, as well as acting smart, so to her it almost felt like taking a real persons life away.

[Mighty Asgard]

Tyler calmly waited for the order to attack, having his gun out and ready. He wasn't feeling particularly nervous about the attack since they pretty much outnumbered the enemy and the only real threat was Doe, and there should be no way for him to avoid going down after a shot or two. But he still wouldn't underestimate the danger of it, that was a good way to fail like Antonio had done earlier when he rushed in alone like some kind of Rambo wannabe and died. Hopefully his idiotic stunt wouldn't ruin the plan, but it was too late to call off the attack now so they just had to hope for the best.

"Ready when you are," he said to the others.

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael returned to her dorm, finally dropping the smile she tended to use with the teachers. With her face down, no-one could see the frown. For some reason, today she felt the worst she'd been for a while. Maybe it was the connection to her home making everything seem less like fiction. Maybe it was the slight humiliation of dying first in the simulation. Maybe it was the fact that as soon as she'd got planning for the mission, she'd been taken off the list.
Once she finally got to her room, she got the scissors out and extended them so the blade was easy to reach. These were the sharpest ones she had, and knives weren't allowed. The scissors still did the job, though.
Rachael pulled up her trouser leg, noting some of the cuts from the past fortnight already starting to heal, and started slashing.

[Firstaria]

Daniel had enough with her. It was seriously time to solve the problem with Rachel Redwood once for all.

He wanted to talk to Anderson, but he was afraid he would not take seriously enough the matter. So he decided to try plan B first: a good eye-to-eye talk about why she was really being such a problem even in villanious standards, why she took joy in failure and not learning...if she was ever going to take this school seriously, or it was time to a big choice for her.

Arriving at the villain dorm, in front of her door, he knocked twice and asked " Can I get in? Is urgent, so may I be excused if I would enter anyway unless there is a good reason. " Five bucks she was going to shout one.

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael looked up, startled, then growled. Great, Mario was stalking her. She dropped the scissors and kicked them under the bed; they had quite a bit of blood on them, enough that leaving them out would be suspicious. She rolled the trouser leg back over the cuts, whimpering as the fabric made contact with them. After brushing the blood on her hands onto her shirt, she walked over to the door, grimacing on each step.
"Yes. What do you want now?" she asked, standing in the doorway.

[Firstaria]

" Just talk a little, may I enter? " He said, but also noticing something was wrong. She seemed a little in pain, not the type of 'i was crying', but more physical. He learned to distinguish human reactions due to the war experience and the COM.SUB.IN. training, and she was like trying to not look in pain, but the signs were there.

" What were you doing before I knocked? " He asked, as a simple question of pure curiosity.

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael raised her eyebrows. "I have no idea why you'd care, but I was reading." She pointed at a book face-down on her dresser. If they knew, they'd keep an even closer watch on her, and she'd never get a chance to kill. The book was on she'd been reading a lot this past week, and she was lucky she'd left it out. She sat down on the bed, the bleeding leg furthest from the door, positioned in front of the scissors.
"So, are you just here to enquire about my habits, or is there actually something important for once?"

[Firstaria]

Daniel was sure something was wrong with her attitude. No, not her mental or psycological one, it was still the usual Rachel that kinda pissed him off...but the may she was trying to clearly hide something was there. What, he didn't know, but he was now decided to discover why.

One of the trick he learned to investigate on a person was to make it more and more uncomfortable in order to make him/her do a mistake. For him, time was clearly what he needed: being a teacher there was nothing wrong in staying in the room (unless some innuendo would happen, but he was ready to not get into such things, even if he wasn't an hero morals were easy to respect), but he needed time to make sure she would not find an excuse to pull him out.

So, he took the book and said " I'm getting to the point now, but first...I'm interested you are taking something seriously, even if just a book. It seems you've read a lot of pages: why this interest you so much? "

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael scowled and stood up to grab the book back. It wasn't anything valuable, just a tattered paperback with a decent fantasy story, but it was special because Ruby had given it to her. Rachael hated the thought of Mario getting his filthy fingers on that book and rubbing away any trace of Ruby.
In the process of snatching the book away, she slipped, her leg in just enough pain to make her lose her balance. But she'd got the book, and she landed on her knees almost hugging it.
Immediately, she got up and regained her position on the bed, clutching the book to her chest.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"Okay, once Tara announces that she is in position, I can give the word to get this ambush going. Since I will not read people's minds without a casus beli or permission, I need to wait for Tara's confirmation," Bramwell thought in a telepathic message. He was sincere about that, as he was not reading anybody's minds at the moment. As Bramwell used his telepathy to watch what was happening, Makoto used the sensory data shared by Bramwell to check the surroundings for objects she could throw or use for cover. What interested her was a car. She had the idea that she could try to roll the wheels to distract the thugs, even if she had not practiced it enough to make it go at highway speeds. Right now, she was just waiting for Tara.

[Kershya]

Antonio woke up with a terrible pain from the back of his neck. Shade would absorb it but he won't absorb everything bad, only the 'unneeded ones'. Getting off the pod, he rub the back of his neck.

"Um, sir." He said to a teacher. "I think my pod was broken. All I saw was a white room with funky colors." When he stop rubbing the back of his neck, his hand shows a disturbing amount of blood. He then yawned. He didn't notice notice, or more accurately, he didn't see the blood. The nearby shadows then absorb all of the blood on his hand. "Still, that was both physically and mentally exhausting. I'll go back to my dorm room and get some sleep." He then leave the room and head straight to his room. The back of his shirt is also drenched in blood, only to disappear as the shadows cleanse it. Any blood on the pod also have disappeared.

Shade appeared behind him and bought a bottle of cold lemon iced tea and two cups. They then entered the room. Antonio's roommate is out, apparently. While Antonio is distracted by the mental static he's having right now, Shade entered the bathroom, saying he needs to wash cups in case of dirt. He then put the cups away as he open the bottle and pull out the athame, its entire blade covered in Antonio's blood. He then cut his left palm with the blade as his black shadowy blood intermingled with Antonio's.

I begin the spell of the blood compact,
two sworn blood brothers mixing their blood,
may they be united against their enemies,
for this bond will never break,
even by space and time

When he finish, the blood on the blade has completely mix together, and his left palm had fully healed. He drip the mixed blood on the two cups, then kept the athame in his sleeve. He then pour the iced tea on the cups, making sure the blood's not noticeable. He exit the bath room with the two cups.

"What took you so long?" Antonio asked as he yawn.

"It took me a while to open the bottle. Want some?" Shade asked as Antonio nodded. They then drink the entire cup of ice tea at the same time. Antonio suddenly felt tired and lie down on the bed and start sleeping. Shade then dimmed the room to a dark grey, and lock the door to the room. Pulling from his sleeve is a paper with a magic circle on it. "Just a few more minutes. Hopefully no one would disturb the spell." Shade said as his eyes start to glow purple. He knows the threat pose by the teachers. Especially the magician, Ansuz. It would be likely for him to notice something like this.

[Camicon]

I shook my head when Caitlin suggested I lead our attack. "I'll be too busy cracking heads and drawing fire. Besides," I fingered the slightly bloodied hole in my shirt, "Getting shot hurts, and I'll need to focus on my movements if I want to stay in the fight. I can't split my attention like that." I pause a moment, tapping my chin in thought. "What about you, Cassie? You've got a decent head on your shoulders, and taking control could do you some good. It's a simulation, might as well experiment while we can."

I scowled when Bramwell used his telepathy to tell everyone that they'd only start their attack when I told them I was ready. Some crap about not reading people minds without just cause. "How the hell am I supposed to tell him I'm ready, when I don't have telepathy and he won't read my mind? Fricking clown." I whispered angrily. Just in case, I thought those words in my head, as vehemently as I could.

[Altruistic Paladins]

Bramwell and Makoto

"You just did respond to that. It was a reply to a telepathic message, so I heard that. It is no different than replying to an e-mail. You just happened to hit the metaphorical "send" icon in your rage. It is uncanny how many parallels telepathy has with various forms of mass communications. You did say 'I'm ready', so I assume we are ready?" Bramwell thought in another telepathic message to Tara. Bramwell and Makoto were anxious. They were checking the thugs' lines of sight. They knew they would be in the line of fire for ten seconds, and would be hoping the pistols are of a low enough caliber that the stone wall would shield them.

[Firstaria]

Rachael scowled and stood up to grab the book back. It wasn't anything valuable, just a tattered paperback with a decent fantasy story, but it was special because Ruby had given it to her. Rachael hated the thought of Mario getting his filthy fingers on that book and rubbing away any trace of Ruby.
In the process of snatching the book away, she slipped, her leg in just enough pain to make her lose her balance. But she'd got the book, and she landed on her knees almost hugging it.
Immediately, she got up and regained her position on the bed, clutching the book to her chest.

Daniel noticed the strange reaction, meaning probably that the book had importance for her...but what actually took his attention in the end was that the gesture make him do something he didn't do until now in the room: look down.

He noticed that Rachael had one of her feet in a quite strange position, like he moved it after the fall to avoid something, and also that the pavement near the bed was dirty with something... he got closer to it and knelt, not caring anymore about the girl, trying to get what that red thing was...

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael noticed Mercury looking down, and followed his gaze to the floor by the bed. Shit. There was still some blood there from a few minutes ago, and now he'd find out about her cutting and she'd get locked up for some psychological problem or other and never escape. It wasn't like she could exactly kick him out, and the scissors were under the bed; if she went to get them to threaten him with, he'd spot them before she had a chance to stab his throat and get even more blood on the floor.
Distraction might work, and so might be acting utterly clueless. She placed the book next to her and leaned over, as if trying to figure out what he'd seen. "What the hell are you even looking for?"

[Firstaria]

Daniel pulled up his head to look at the girl, although he already touched the substance, kinda familiar but right now he was totally not thinking about it.

" Nothing...by the way, did you get hurt returning here? You were walking ok before but you kinda hopped on one feet when you opened the door. "

He had to rise up, the position a little uncomfortable to chat.

[Nakarisaune]

Shit. He'd noticed that as well, even though she'd tried her best to hide it. Rachael shrugged. "No, I'm not hurt, and I still have no idea why you're here, care so much about what I've been doing, and are obsessed with whatever it is on the floor. So, care to explain, or would you rather leave?" She crossed her legs, hiding the cut one in the hope that it was such a normal movement he wouldn't notice and would hopefully leave.

[Firstaria]

Daniel was internally annoyed, since his excuses for staying inside were slowly going down. He didn't pay attention a the movement, and tried to put back the same resolve he had when entering, but noticed the momentum was lost in his mind too, with part of it too intrigued about what was going on here.

So, trying to set the right atmosphere for his talking again, he decided to started a little cryptic.

" Yes, I'm here to ask why. "

[Nakarisaune]

Rachael leaned back a bit, trying to figure out what he meant by 'why', before deciding to give an answer as cryptic as the question. If he was going to try and screw with her mind and confuse her into whatever he wanted, then she could try to do the same to him. "Why? Because no-one respects my privacy any more." Hopefully, that would get him away.

[Firstaria]

Daniel was surprised by the answer, it didn't make sense at all...which meant it makes sense for her. He decided again to put back point one in favor of the current problem, and decided to play along.

" Because your privacy? So, I'm intruding something you say? "

[Nakarisaune]

"Hmm, I would have thought it was rather obvious what you were intruding on. You do realize that sometimes, people enjoy being alone, without teachers hanging around trying to do some detective shit? Yeah, that's what you've intruded on." Rachael sighed. He was really not getting the point.