Heroes of Tomorrow Redux [IC | DONE]

by **Gudmund** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 4:25 am

Forest State wrote:
Vigilantes weren’t that high on the priority for the Guardians. They were criminals, yes, but there were more harmful criminals to deal with. However, sometimes, vigilantes developed enough of a reputation that they had to be dealt with before they gained a bit too much support and it became impossible to deal with them, even when they acted truly dangerously by enacting justice outside of the law. Sometimes they targeted the right people but sometimes they didn’t, after all, and that was without even bringing up the fact that they put people in danger with their tactics most of the time. Those tactics didn’t have the same level of training behind them that the Guardians had, and well, they could at times cause just as much damage as criminals.

That was why the second team of Young Guardians being deployed into the city was responsible for searching a building that was believed to belong to the Sewer Rats vigilante group, which was located in Brooklyn and was a two story residential house that didn’t seem like it had anything special about it at first glance. But reports had shown their members hanging around that building and it was believed to have some relation to the group. It was why the Guardians were targeting it now, when the group wasn’t here.

“We’re not expecting a fight, but keep your guard up regardless in case the reports were wrong,” said Artemis Rivers, climbing out of the Guardians SUV along with the others. “We have to breach the entrance and then search the place before anyone comes back. We’re not looking for their members, we’re looking for evidence connecting real identities to their identities as the Sewer Rats. We find that, we’ll have a much easier time working to prosecute them for the illegal vigilantism.”

Charlie Burkhall | Repo Duty

Clambering out of the SUV, Charlie looked around, paying heed to Artemis Rivers' brief explanation. The name Sewer Rats was unknown to him before this, but he was aware that vigilantes were a common occurance. Grinning, he recalled how he was technically a vigilante himself before the Guardians picked him up. Unfortunately for him, the Sewer Rats were a small group, and their real identities plus whereabouts were mostly unknown. This meant Charlie couldn't flex his shapeshifting abilities and simply infiltrate their group. Snooping around one of their supposed hideouts could be dangerous, but donning his most powerful form would make sneaking around difficult, so he'd chosen something in-between that made him feel much more confident around the others.

He'd packed some useful extra gear, and that was it, he was ready to proceed. All he needed to find was evidence of their real identities and come out alive. This would be his first time fighting against another super, so Charlie was a bit nervous. Beating down normal punks was far too easy, even when they were armed with light firearms, but this time he might face his first super.

"Well, I've gotta start somewhere I guess," He murmured, looking over the plain, two story, residential house before asking Artemis a question, "So... should we encounter any of their members, will we attempt to capture them and forego the investigation? I'm guessing the Guardians could worm it out of him somehow, maybe even find out the others' true identities."

Forest State wrote:
“Don’t worry about using your powers in real life. You’re stuck here until the simulation is done, like it or not. As far as everyone in the real world is concerned, you’re sitting peacefully. As far as whether or not you’re supposed to make a plan, I’ll leave that to you to decide. But in case you need some more motivation to stop standing around in the starting area with wide eyes, let me do something to light a fire under your ass,” said the voice from earlier, in a particularly snarky tone. As soon as the voice said that, a wall of red descended from the sky, invisible but clearly dangerous from the way it crackled with electricity. It was behind the group of Young Guardians, but it was getting closer.

The point of the circle was obvious. It would either close in on them or they would make it to the center of the tower and find what they were supposed to find. If they were too slow, they would get caught by it easily. And if they didn’t take a path towards the middle, they would get caught too as the circle reduced the options to get to the castle. It seemed at this point like the main road was the best one. “You should get moving. One thing to note about the circle is that it’s going to get faster the longer this exercise goes on. You want to do well, make sure you get a head start.”

Spikes randomly shot out of the ground in a few places, made of the same black rocky material that the ground was made of. Just because this wasn’t real didn’t mean you wanted to get hit by one of those. Especially since if you did, your training session was over. “Oh, and don’t mind the obstacles. Those are just for fun,” the voice said, almost maniacally in a way. This likely wasn’t how the person managing this simulation was supposed to sound, but there would be time to ask about that later. For now, the most important thing was running and getting to the castle. “Good luck. And may the best side win.”

Jacob Philander | In The Matrix

Jacob was slightly regretting his choice on coming here, gulping as he took in the sight of an immense computer room. VR had become surprisingly immersive in 2024, and with a setup like this it really made him wonder. Were Jacob to say he wasn't afraid, his shaking hands and sweating face would make it blatantly obvious that he was lying through his teeth. He wasn't much for video games, he never had the time or resources to get his hands on any, but he was certain this simulation was just that. A very realistic, maniacal VR game; that would evidently test out everyone's abilities. Needless to say, when Jacob sat down and allowed the technician to strap him in, his eyes were clamped shut. By the time he opened them, Jacob found himself standing in a new world.

"The fuck is this hellscape," he groaned, watching as the world gradually rendered in more things, tentatively listening to the booming voice that told everyone there current goal. Slamming his hand on his chest, not having to worry about transforming in real life, he counted to ten, feeling himself slowly fade away and change into his monstrous appearance. While transformed, he was agonisingly slow, incapable of going faster than a light walk. However, his great strength allowed him to rapidly leap thirty to forty metres with ease, letting him dodge most of the ground obstacles while heading straight towards the castle roughly twelve-hundred metres away. His companions might be surprised at his new look, possibly even afraid, but he wanted to pass this test no matter what. Jacob had considered whether this was a teamwork focused test, but the big moving wall of red lighting was a big motivator.

Mid-leap, Jacob slapped himself for his stupidity, "How the fuck am I going to speak with the other team members now? Maybe one of them has telepathy?" He thought, trying not to mess up his landing as he plummeted back down. Whenever he believed a landing would hurt him, he briefly activated his smog form to nullify the damage. His sword was currently smoke, but could be recalled at anytime should any enemies appear. Hopefully his team would understand his decision, besides, its not like he could safely carry anyone to the location either.

by **Forest State** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 5:34 am

In The Matrix

The spikes had done their job when it came to lighting a proverbial fire under the participants of the exercise, but that didn’t seem like it was enough for the maniacal voice that was running the entire thing. That voice just laughed, before booming down from the sky once again. No, it wasn’t just booming down from the sky, it was like it was inside everyone’s heads on the same level as their inner voice. It probably wasn’t, in reality, but this wasn’t reality itself. This was another domain, and in this domain, the voice had authority over just about everything. And it planned on testing them in more ways than just this. “Don’t you just love the thrill of competition? The idea that you don’t know what will happen and that your expectations might be shattered? Because I fucking love it!” the voice said, nearly shouting as the volume seemed to go up along with the voice’s tone.

It sounded less like a calm and robotic voice now and more like someone that was hardly older than the recruits in the simulation, shrill and full of excitement. It was the same voice one would expect from a teenage girl who was talking about her favorite boy band. “I don’t quite think there’s enough risk here and without risk there’s no competition, so let’s turn the heat up, shall we? I want to watch you run for your lives before you’re crushed underfoot like… The ants… THAT YOU ARE! I’m turning up the senses so you can feel real pain from this, and unleashing the hounds! Oh, and I’ve told them not to kill you. You won’t get thrown out of the simulation just from them.. You’ll just get left on the ground for the energy field to do it slowly and painfully! Good luck! And remember… No pain, no gain! That’s the rules!”

The voice disappeared after the speech and the hellscape began to change as segments of the ground in front of the group of running trainees changed and shifted until they had taken the shape of hounds, with veins of magma running through them. The hound shaped rocks broke free of the rest of the ground, and they were no longer just rocks, but seemingly living despite their hard exterior. Each of them had glowing orange eyes which flicked as if there was a fire burning within each one of the rock beings. And they headed straight towards the recruits, the four hounds coming in from about 300 meters in front of them but moving quickly, each one going about thirty miles per hour, faster than a racehorse. Every once and awhile one of them would open their mouth, but it was less like a bark, and more like a roar. It was, to say the least, intimidating. And any damage they did would actually hurt, now that the settings had been changed.

“Fuckin’ hell,” Kodiak muttered under her breath as the change was made, dodging one of the spikes that had come out of the ground before dropping to the back of the group. It wasn’t like they were armed to deal with this and she wasn’t one of those people whose powers would help her in a straight up fight against a beast that was stronger than her. So she would take the cowardly way. She was a soldier, yes. But part of being a soldier was knowing when the tactical retreat was the right option and when the heroic stand was the best way. This wasn’t the time for the latter, if the hounds were going to tear through everyone, they’d have to get the others before her.

Super Strain

Jack’s swinging of the zombie was able to take down two of the ones that were headed towards the group just from the sheer force of impact, but diving for the super zombie near the back wasn’t such a good idea when there were still plenty of other normal ones in the area. “Watch your back,” said Ainsley, jumping down behind Jack and fending off an attack from the rear by hitting one of the zombies back with her shield, not killing it but keeping it off of the pair of them as the onslaught continued. “You have to think about taking out the others first or you’re going to get mobbed while you deal with the big one,” she added, growling as the zombie took a swing at her and clawed at the shield. And then the large one ahead of them gave a roar and started towards them slowly, standing at about seven feet tall and looking like it had the strength to match. “Or maybe not. Alasdair, Zekulu, we could use a helping hand.”

Repo Duty

Artemis had come ready with breaching charges, and as Serge climbed out of the SUV and followed after the others, it wasn’t hard to place them on the locked door and gesture for everyone to get back before pushing the button on the trigger, blowing the lock off the door with a small explosion and causing it to drift open. “We’re not expected to encounter one of their members, we wouldn’t have picked this time for the breaching if we thought there was a chance of it. This mission is the culmination of a few weeks of detective work, so we have a pretty good profile of who they possibly are. Only thing is, we don’t have something concrete linking these people to the Sewer Rats other than the fact that they appear to be the same. That’s what we’re looking for,” said Artemis, pushing into the building carefully and gesturing for the others to enter.

“But in the off-chance that we do run into anyone, your rules of engagement are not to attack unless attacked first. After all, it wouldn’t look very good if we ended up getting into a scrap with some people that turned out to be normal civilians, because we mistook them for the Sewer Rats. If you see them in uniform, of course, that’s a different story. You’re to use non lethal force in that scenario,” said Artemis. “Start looking around the place, but we don’t have all day, so keep up a good pace and don’t waste too much time on one thing. We wouldn’t want them to come back because the neighbors heard the noise.”

There were a few different areas that would be reasonable to check. There were seemingly two bedrooms on the upper floor and either one of those could have information that could help the case. The living room was something of a mess and disorganized, with the main table having piled up mail and other things like it, and there was also a laptop sitting around the far end of the room on a desk. The kitchen was at the other end of the house and seemed like it was much cleaner, but that was also one of the least likely places for them to find out something that would be useful for a case against the Sewer Rats. There were two bathrooms, one on the first floor and one on the second floor, closer to the bedrooms. There was one room upstairs that seemed like it was a gym, and one extra room downstairs which was being used for storage for boxes. The latter was another one with potential leads.

by **Endem** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 5:55 am

Elek Mohave
In The Matrix

" What the absolute f*ck"

Elek muttered to himself when he saw everything the voice was doing there, he's gonna deal with this madman when everything is done the voice was more cryptic and maniacal than before Elek actually started to wonder why they didn't drag him off the comp but then the Hellhounds started to emerge

"Some help would be nice!"

He shouted to fellow training mates as a hound was approaching fast, very fast Elek spotted some chunks of some metal on the ground so he started to pick it up and halfway towards the hound he had a formed spear he wanted to use to vault over the beast

40 meters

30 meters

20 meters

10 meters

5 meters

Elek started vaulting and landed on top of the hound from which he jumped off and started running again with feet now fairly injured because of it he won't be able to run as fast as before but maybe it was the adrenaline or something else but he tried to not slow down it was an impossible task but he still ran as fast as he could

by **Forest State** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:14 am

In The Matrix

To think that things would be as easy as jumping over one of the hounds and simply continuing on, even though they had already proven themselves to be faster than humans… The idea was stupid. Foolish, really. The fact that it was something that had been attempted was enough to make the operator of the entire exercise laugh, the voice once again showing up in the heads of everyone and not just Elek. “You think that you can just run from this? Well, I must thank you for that, Elek Mohave. I must thank you for volunteering to be the first ant… TO BE CRUSHED! Watching you squirm will be delightful, you know! Seeing the way that a human responds to being ripped apart, seeing the very moment that they realize they can’t get out of their situation…”

The voice of the operator trailed off, before returning as the hound did a quick spin and chased after Elek, leaping and pinning him since he had made the bad move to expose his back to the thing, biting at the back of his head and generally trying to get him to roll over to a position where it could do more damage. “The thrill of watching it unfold and not knowing exactly how it’s going to happen is getting me excited!” the operator exclaimed, as the dog continued its attacks. And while rolling over would potentially allow Elek to defend himself using his hands, it was also risky. Because one wrong move from that position and his most important vitals would be exposed to the razor sharp claws of the rock hounds.

It was a situation that Elek wouldn’t enjoy at all. But the operator definitely seemed to enjoy it, as bizarre as the entire situation was. This… This definitely wasn’t how the simulation was meant to go.

by **Lessoni** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:28 am

Jack Dredd

Jack cursed himself for not thinking about getting mobbed. Sure, they couldn't bite him, but they could still grab im and distract him long enough for the big guy to get him. And he didn't wanna test that things bite force.

But, as it started towards him... Well, if it wants to go toe to toe, who was he to stop it? Assuming a boxer's stance, he moved in and aimed a devastating kick that would obliterate any normal persons knee. Jack was looking to put this thing off it's feet so they could deal with the normal ones ans get out of there. Hopefully he wouldn't get grabbed before he pulled it off, but hey, Alasdair and Zekulu would be jumping in any moment, yeah?

by **Endem** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 6:48 am

Elek Mohave
In The Matrix

Elek tried to get the hound of him but the attempts made it only so he rolled onto his back, good thing he still had the metal spear from earlier and used it as a defense for some time they were in a tie were the hound tried to rip off anything he could from Elek while he managed to fend it off, one moment Elek spotted an opportunity he managed to throw off the hound and get into a standing position where the fight continued, Elek hoping someone would respond shouted

"Help me"

Then it went back to the fight but Elek managed to spot a pattern sometimes the hound would growl and bark, during this time it was the time to strike so next time when the hound barked Elek thrust into him his spear with his hand holding the spear in the back of it in order for his hand not to get burned

by **Forest State** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:14 am

In The Matrix

Trying to break through solid rock with a metal spear was the third mistake that Elek had made, with the second one being exposing his front to a hound that was clearly much stronger than him in every area. “You have bravery to take this route… But as hard to predict as you may be, you lack smarts,” the voice of the operator said, sounding like it was coming from directly inside Elek’s head, speaking to him personally rather than speaking to the entire group this time. The hound simply took the metal spear in its mouth and threw it to the side, leaving Elek defenseless, and then went against the orders to leave the recruits for the energy field and tore into the exposed target that was underneath. For a brief moment before being thrown out of the simulation by ‘death,’ Elek would feel as if his face was being torn off. Because that was what was happening within the sim.

However, the laws of the simulation didn’t apply to the waking world, and after feeling a rush of air, Elek would be back in the chair with the VR helmet on the 32nd floor of the Guardians Building, completely unharmed by the encounter. Even if just a moment ago, it had felt real thanks to the sensitivity being turned up. He would find himself facing a girl with blue hair, who had a somewhat devious expression on her face as she looked over the recruits and Elek specifically.

“Your performance leaves much to be desired,” she said, her voice matching up to that of the operator from the simulation. “But in a way… It was entertaining.”

by **Endem** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:23 am

Elek Mohave
In The Matrix

"You are f*cking mad!"

Elek shouted when leaving his chair and heading straight towards the girl

"What even was that it couldn't be done with my powers at least!"

He shouted the blue-haired girl into the face and gone back to his chair and leaving a sigh out, he was now the biggest loser of all of them and there was essentially no way for him to be on good terms with them as others would just look at him if he was just a weight for the teams.

by **Durmatagno** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:24 am

Sage Shields

Sage laughed loudly and deeply as the simulation continued to get more dangerous and unpredictable. This was simple, this was straightforward. You either win, or you lose. Either you were going to make it to the end, or you were going to hurt. Much of life was confusing and complex to Sage, she had never been ready for the complexities and nuances of the world. This? This she knew. She knew how to fight, how to survive, and it was exhilarating to be doing it in such a raw, unfiltered way. Sage was already fully covered in her armor by the time the hounds got within leaping distance, though something told her the armor would only give her a split second, maybe two, of time to deal with these things. So, she generated a large, thick staff of crystal in both hands. Just as tough as the same javelins Sage could use to get through body armor, but it wasn't here to try and kill these things. As one of the hounds leaped at her, the thick crystal found itself between it's teeth, and a hand on it's throat, redirecting it's momentum up, over, and away from Sage, sending it careening through the air at....not the building Sage had intended. Instead it was on a straight collision course with the...Sage thought his name was Nev. She didn't have time to worry about hitting him, as she was having to fix the cracks that had formed in the staff from the dog. She never stopped moving, but she had had to slow down in order to deal with the hound that went after her. It wouldn't be down for long, so she had to keep moving quickly, and be ready for the next one to try and hit her. She wasn't moving to far forward, she was a big, noisy target. Those hounds weren't going to stop coming after her, so she was going to take advantage of that. She had a good feel for the spikes, none of the had even come close to hitting her, but now she was going to cut it closer. She could hear the second hound, or maybe the first recovering, coming for her. She waited, and at the last moment, rolled to one side as a spike shot out of the ground, straight into where she had been standing, and the hound was now leaping.

by **Faal Lot Himdah** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:54 am

Kana Kaleikaumaka, Gyges
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

First the random spikes, and now random rock hounds. Kana sighed as one spike barely missed her, but her attention was on the approaching hounds. She didn't remain still, instead she rolled forward slightly, to face the charging rock hounds. As she did so, her mana started to extrude from her back, and form into 20 different purple arms. Now, all she need was one to get into range. And fortunately one was in range.

"Oi, mutt. Get off him." Kana shouted as ten of those arms went flying towards the rock hound at their max speed. They were not all targeting the same location of the hound, some where targeting its sides, while others targeted its chest area, and two went for its head. As they flew, Kana remained ready to make use of her defensive arms if one of the remaining hounds decided to go for her.

Admina Kyrene, Amazon
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

After avoiding the spikes with relative ease, Admina's attention turned to the now charging hounds. She choose to ignore the voice speaking to them, and focused on the approaching enemy. One of the hounds had pinned Elek down, leaving three. And out of those three, Admina faced one. She could try to run, as it looked like she could outrun them for a short time. But they'd probably catch up. Besides, she couldn't abandon the others, not to mention this would be an interesting fight, and the voice made it a competition. As such, there was only one choice to her. Stand and fight.

"Come on. Lets do this."

Lora, Dichotomy
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

First came the spikes, which gave Lora a fright. And now the rock hounds, and their roar. While others may not have been as visibly intimidated, Lora was obviously close to freaking out. She remained to the back of the group, and despite still being frightened, she managed to fire out some balls of light at each of the rock hounds. Lora may have been scared, but she had to fight... and hope that she could remain in control of herself.

Alasdair Francis Damon, Blackfire
New York City, New York, USA
June 16th, 2024

"A little patience would be appreciated." Alasdair said as he was facing one of the groups of living zombies with an outstretched arm. Than with a snap of his fingers, a magic circle appeared underneath the group of zombies, and the Black Flames of Nada ignited and consumed the group. He then quickly did the same to the other groups approaching from the group's flanks. "Needed to secure our flanks. The Black Fires of Nada will burn away at the strength and energy of our undead opponents. If you wish to finish them off, go ahead, but they will fall eventually to the Black Fire."

With that he turned to see the Super Zombie, and held his arms to his side as he summoned the Balance of Vuphu. He then pointed them towards the approaching super zombie, and opened fire. He would occasionally take a shot at a normal zombie if it got to close to him, but his main focus at the moment was the super zombie.

by **The Verdantderm Lands** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:36 am

Klara Jönsson
In the Matrix

Klara saw the 'rock-hounds' closing the gap between where they started and the Young Guardians in the Matrix. Somehow, the 'enemy' had chosen not to send the hounds specifically at her, maybe because Klara had shown some initiative in trying to organize the rest of the team?

She saw Kana deploying her magical 'arms', grabbing a rock-hound in an effort to save Elek. As Kana did this, a rock-hound veered it's trajectory toward the girl, but it would have to get by Klara first.

Klara anchored herself and shot a force beam that connected with the rock-hound with the force of a metric ton traveling at the speed of a barely subsonic bullet, or like a mid-sized car traveling at eigthy kilometers per hour. It hit the construct, punching a fist sized hole though one side and out the other. Where the thing fell, a pool of lava emptied out of it and onto the ground. It tried to rise back up, so Klara pounded it with force blasts until it stopped moving.

Kana looked over at her. Klara smiled, winked and said, "I know, you'd have been fine, but I was bored."

'Hammare', still vigilant for surprises from the 'enemy' glanced about to see how the rest of the young guardians were doing.

by **Lunas Legion** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 12:19 pm

Nike and Aella Mezerova

It was always a strangely surreal experience for Nike to be in a vehicle of any kind that she wasn't in charge of. Hearing the roar of an engine she wasn't directing, seeing movement and direction she couldn't change on a whim... It was unnerving. It made her hands clench into fists and scratch lightly at her legs beneath her long red dress which felt odd on her. She wasn't used to wearing one, but the boss had decided to go for formal, so formal it was.

She watched the Hong Kong skyline pass in silence, occasionally glancing around their other members. Raphaella, although she'd insisted quite loudly and persistently that they were all to call her Raph, sat on the opposite side of the helicopter in a faded T-shirt and jeans, a sword in a scabbard on a belt sitting in her lap, seemingly too uncomfortable to keep strapped around her waist, while Aella, her daughter, sat next to her in a black skirt and white top, her eyes shut and her heels tapping against the floor of the helicopter in a constant, almost hypnotic rhythm.

There was a light bump as the helicopter touched down and they stood up, Nike and Aella first, Raph following and bucking her sword-belt on, resting her hand on the hilt as she headed off the helicopter first in silence, stopping beside Bryanne and watching the skyline like a hawk looking for prey before Nike and Aella emerged, the former's steps near-silent, the latter's heels clicking in a perfectly-timed metronome, strangely graceful beside her as they brought up the rear, following Bryanne.

They were all here for their own reasons; money, mostly. Luxury and freedom with no one to be beholden to but themselves. Oh, the pay for this was good, but Nike couldn't help but note the itching on her shoulder, the instinct that there was far, far more to this than was originally visible. $5 million for a single item? She wanted to see the security on this thing before she said anything. Oh, recklessness had gotten her far, but it'd been tempered down and honed over the years. No, she'd look at this carefully.

Someone had to, after all. Paranoia in this line of work was just another term for preparation.

by **Theyra** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 1:38 pm

USA
New York City
Zekulu Alemu Nazwari

Zenulu did not speak, he was in his zone. Everything was slowed down, almost to crawl with barely any sound. Only his breath could be heard as he aimed his crossbow at the zombies that were near the super zombie. Taking them out would make getting the Super Zombie easier. Fewer targets to deal with his figured and took his shot at one zombie head. It nailed it right in the head, it collapsed. Zenulu quickly took aim at the others and fire in quick succession. two, three, four, counting in his head the number of shots he had taken and once he had fired the shots. He scanned for any more zombies coming out of the alleyways and was on overwatch.

by **Shark isle** » Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:32 pm

Harold looked around the area, debating where He was going to search first. It was quite a surprise when he was chosen to go on this mission with Artemis. In fact, he was expecting to not be called out on a mission at all, at least not on his first week. As he looked around the area, he thought to himself," Good thing these fellers aren't home. I am not exactly ready for a fight against a metahuman, especially a whole group of them at the same time." Harold then pulled out his revolvers and checked if they were loaded. He then let out a grunt of satisfaction when he saw they were. He then took one more look around the area before deciding to check out the downstairs room. He then said to the group," Alright Fellers, I am heading downstairs. Odds are these varmints might be keepin something important down there. I would if I was in their shoes". He then proceeded to approach the downstairs room, his revolvers drawn. He then quickly opens the door and lets out a groan of annoyance when he sees all the boxes in the room. He then proceeded to start searching the boxes for any important documents.

by **Gudmund** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 1:54 am

Forest State wrote:
Trying to break through solid rock with a metal spear was the third mistake that Elek had made, with the second one being exposing his front to a hound that was clearly much stronger than him in every area. “You have bravery to take this route… But as hard to predict as you may be, you lack smarts,” the voice of the operator said, sounding like it was coming from directly inside Elek’s head, speaking to him personally rather than speaking to the entire group this time. The hound simply took the metal spear in its mouth and threw it to the side, leaving Elek defenseless, and then went against the orders to leave the recruits for the energy field and tore into the exposed target that was underneath. For a brief moment before being thrown out of the simulation by ‘death,’ Elek would feel as if his face was being torn off. Because that was what was happening within the sim.

However, the laws of the simulation didn’t apply to the waking world, and after feeling a rush of air, Elek would be back in the chair with the VR helmet on the 32nd floor of the Guardians Building, completely unharmed by the encounter. Even if just a moment ago, it had felt real thanks to the sensitivity being turned up. He would find himself facing a girl with blue hair, who had a somewhat devious expression on her face as she looked over the recruits and Elek specifically.

“Your performance leaves much to be desired,” she said, her voice matching up to that of the operator from the simulation. “But in a way… It was entertaining.”

Jacob Philander |Section C Residence, In The Matrix

By now, Jacob was about 70 metres from where everyone first appeared, and in the few glances he'd took back, it appeared as if someone had been taken down. Killed, mauled to death by a stone dog. If he had just stayed behind for a few minutes, could he have prevented that? Was splitting up and instantly leaving for the castle actually a terrible idea? Jacob was certain the operator was insane, or atleast a really good actor, but he'll make sure to avoid getting hit if what the voice said was true. His current technique was nothing special, he was simply leaping dozens of metres into the air, and shifting into his his lighter smog form to glide far distances. It wasn't very accurate for sure, neither was it useful anywhere except outside, but it fixed the issue with his slow walking speed.

"Okay, it's all just a simulation. Were this to happen in the real world, saving my own ass would be the priority, maybe the castle has something that resolves all this anyway?" He worriedly thought, probably just making up poor excuses from running ahead of the team, "They're heroes too, surely they can handle themselves? As I look now they'd probably attack me as well."

It was obvious Jacob felt guilty, and was already worried over what his team might say to him after the sim ends. If they managed to recognise him that is, he did transform almost immediately. Well, it wasn't all bad, Jacob seemed to be avoiding most of the obstacles. The worst thing that could happen now is if flying monsters. They could simply swoop him before he could jump, forcing him to stay in his smog form to stay safe, which unfortunately didn't let him jump. Chuckling in his mind, Jacob questioned whether he'd just jinxed himself.

by **Forest State** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:08 am

In The Matrix

“Life isn’t fair, Elek… Perhaps, if you don’t want to end up repeating this mistake, don’t expose your back to a faster enemy and then put yourself in a vulnerable position before help can come. It’s just common sense, really,” the blue haired girl said calmly, cocking her head to the side in amusement as she looked at the recently defeated competitor. It seemed that Elek was someone that approached things with his guts and not with his head, but he wasn’t one of those people who had good enough gut instincts to rely on that. It’d simply get him killed in a real battle where there were real stakes, but the blue haired girl couldn’t tell if he had learned that or not from the simulation. “Everything that happened, you can trace back to your own mistakes.”

She paused to turn around as more figures entered the 32nd floor through the elevator, a team of Guardians security officers who were wearing tactical dark blues and wearing dark masks, which covered their faces and matched the color of their ballistics vests. In other words, they were fully equipped as if they were handling some kind of crisis situation. Behind them, there was one man in civilian clothes, who stayed a decent distance away from them but was part of the group regardless. The men in the security uniforms began to fan out in a formation like they were readying for something, while the man in the civilian clothes talked to the technicians about something.

Back inside the simulation, the operator was somewhat surprised when Sage was able to use the timing of the spikes to destroy one of the hounds that was chasing after the group, lava splashing out as the stone body of the thing exploded into a number of pieces. “An interesting move,” said the voice of the operator, in Sage’s head. “I have to say, the odds of you pulling that off successfully were very low. I’ll have my eyes on you, Sage Shields.”

Klara had taken down one of the dogs and one of them was somewhere else after being thrown but there was still one in the field and that was the one that had locked onto Admina, leaping towards her and taking the high approach as she braced for it, arcing high with its jump and aiming to come down on top of her despite hr larger size. Sure, she could attack upwards, but that could potentially injure her more than it injured the hound, which had the advantage of being made out of solid rock rather than flesh and bones. Simply getting punched wouldn’t do much, even if the person doing the punching was stronger than normal.

There was a clear chance for everyone else to continue towards the castle now that the main obstacles were out of the way, and those who grew closer would be able to see more of the details of the building, that there was a stairway leading up the hill that would take them into the place where they were supposedly supposed to find some kind of object in the simply. In the middle of it there was indeed a flag, it was just a matter of who would hurry up and find it before the circle arrived.

Super Strain

The knee of the super zombie buckled for a moment because of the kick from Jack, but that wasn’t enough to take down the seven foot tall monster in front of him, which just kept on coming and took a wide arcing swing at Jack that forced Ainsley to withdraw backwards to avoid getting caught in it… If Jack was hit by that blow, even his strength wouldn’t keep him from getting drawn into the hand of the beast, which had quite sharp claws and a lot of muscle. It wasn’t aiming to do damage with this blow, but to draw Jack into the air where he could do less damage and where another attack would be able to be staged.

But at the same time, most of the zombies that were in support, all but a couple of them, burned because of the black fire. The pistol shots that would follow after from Alasdair would make impact and while they didn’t do enough on their own to take the enemy down, they did damage it and cause the swing at Jack to go somewhat more off course than it would normally be, as some of the shots impacted against the torso and the arm that was swinging. Zekulu’s shots, though, had a definite impact that could be seen immediately as they took out the rest of the regular zombies, letting the group focusing on the one that they had come here for.

Shanghai Hustle
Collab with Lunas Legion and Vanquaria

The door shut and the two Young Guardians found themselves away from the rest of the group and alone with a pair of MAB agents, both of them holding Type 56 rifles that were much more menacing than the pistols that had been carried by their counterparts from the MSS, which didn't seem so hellbent on intimidating them. At least one of the agents was familiar with English, it seemed, and they were given an introduction as they were told to sit down at the table that was set up in the middle of the room along with two plastic chairs. "This is just a routine check to see if everything is in order," said the English speaking agent. "Can you please start by producing all of the proper documents for your stay?"

Sun would be lying if he said he didn't find the presence of the heavily armed men unnerving. It would be a natural psychological response for the vast majority of people. As he sat himself down on one of the plastic chairs, he glanced at Gabriella to see if she too was unnerved by the heavy treatment. Is this regular procedure or is it just because it's us? he questioned silently, looking again at the small-arms the agents were wielding. He wasn't exactly rapt with what the agent was telling them but he did listen attentively. Nodding in response, the Korean withdrew the relevant documents for the agent and wordlessly placed them on the table.

The agent took some of the documents in hand, and looked over them for a moment before moving to a laptop that was set up at the far end of the room on a second table and checking them against what seemed like some kind of database, before turning back to Sun and Gabriella. "Your nationality is South Korean? When is the last time you have been to Korea? Have you undergone military service there?"

Gabriella had done her research; she'd not exactly been expecting something this, well, heavy, but she had most certainly been expecting something along those lines. She took a seat in silence, smoothing her skirt as she sat down and keeping up a seemingly calm and unfazed exterior as she reached down into her bag to withdraw her own documents, shuffling through it for a few long moments before pulling them out and setting them down on the table in front of her.

"Yes, I am South Korean and I was home just over a month ago," Sun replied, his voice monotone and face expressionless,"And yes, I did 21 months in the Army, service beginning in 2020 and ending in 2022."

The agent placed the documents back down on the table and looked to Sun after picking up Gabriella's documents and starting to do the same check on the computer. "And both of you... Your opinions on the Communist Party of China?" the agent asked, in what was somewhat a loaded question. But one they would have to answer anyway, and answer properly.

"To be frank?" Gabriella shrugged. "It's your country. I don't live here, I don't have relatives here. I don't care either way since it doesn't affect me. Not my country, not my politics to hold a view on. I'm a bit selfish like that."

Folding his arms, Sun raised an eyebrow, slightly bewildered by the ridiculous question the agent had just asked them. Nonetheless, he answered truthfully, "I've never been interested in politics and I don't see myself changing that in the foreseeable future. You can say I'm disillusioned with the way the Western democracy works and you won't be wrong," Leaning back in the chair, Sun furrowed his brows then said, "My opinion of the Party, you ask? It's pretty simple; just let them be."

There was a long pause before the agent nodded wordlessly and gestured for the two Young Guardians to pick up their things. The meeting was done for the most part, they hadn't fond something that would raise any red flags, even if that had been their intent. They were taken directly out of the building rather than brought back to the others who hadn't gotten out of the interrogations yet, perhaps because of being higher priority targets, and they were brought into the area of airport tarmac where the Klausen convoy was waiting for them.

"Hey, you're with me," said the woman standing outside of the convoy and dressed in all black tactical clothes. She flashed a badge quickly before gesturing to the SUV behind her. "Aubrey Boudier, DRMA. We're headed out, as soon as your colleagues are released by the MSS, or sooner, if they hold us up for too much longer."

by **Lessoni** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 7:28 am

Jack Dredd

Jack finally realized he'd need more than fists on this one. Nearly getting grabbed by a blow that would've put him in a real bad position, Jack instead managed to dodge far enough that it didn't grab him, but he could still feel the thing's hand on his back as he ducked under it.

Drawing back, Jack drew his sword. Specially reinforced, he could put his full weight behind it. Instead of rushing forward, he waited for the thing to attack again. He definitely couldn't get too close, but he could counter its blows. If he was lucky, he'd be able to hack off a foot with enough hits, though this thing was a lot stronger than he expected.

by **Union Princes** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 11:16 am

Shark isle wrote:Harold looked around the area, debating where He was going to search first. It was quite a surprise when he was chosen to go on this mission with Artemis. In fact, he was expecting to not be called out on a mission at all, at least not on his first week. As he looked around the area, he thought to himself," Good thing these fellers aren't home. I am not exactly ready for a fight against a metahuman, especially a whole group of them at the same time." Harold then pulled out his revolvers and checked if they were loaded. He then let out a grunt of satisfaction when he saw they were. He then took one more look around the area before deciding to check out the downstairs room. He then said to the group," Alright Fellers, I am heading downstairs. Odds are these varmints might be keepin something important down there. I would if I was in their shoes". He then proceeded to approach the downstairs room, his revolvers drawn. He then quickly opens the door and lets out a groan of annoyance when he sees all the boxes in the room. He then proceeded to start searching the boxes for any important documents.

Szarlota Raczkowska

"Alright, I'll check the upstairs bedrooms in the meantime." Szarlota alerted Harold as a reply. "Try not to leave any fingerprints behind." She then carefully made her way up the stairs, trying not to make too many creaks and groans on the steps. The hallway was empty for now and Szarlota quickly tiptoed her way to the bedroom doors. There was two of them and either could hold the evidence that they were looking for, however, the Polish girl had her power to count upon.

She quietly opened the bedroom doors and opened one of them all the way, then she spawned her "dummy" to enter through to test for an ambush. Szarlota then entered the other bedroom to begin examining. Since her "dummy" can only last for a few seconds, the Pole would have to spawn another "dummy" and switch places with it so she could examine both bedrooms at the same time. While her "dummy" was scouting the area of the second bedroom, Szarlota's first instinct was to search the desks of its contents in the first bedroom ,and thankfully, she had her gloves on to ensure that her prints wouldnn't leave a mark.

by **The Batavia** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 12:39 pm

by **The Cross and Davids Star** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 1:40 pm

Nev Hurn

In The Matrix

When the simulation started and Nev got hooked in, he observed his surroundings. To him, the place looked like Frankenstien’s Castle thrown into hell, and as the spikes started to shoot up from the ground, Nev knew it was time to get moving, breaking into a run to outpace the ring closing in. Even when the hellhounds attacked, Nev kept running, keeping his distance from them so that they would move to other targets, or so he believed.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nev could see something rapidly approaching, and as he brought his attention to it, he realized that a hellhound was flying at him, and not in the running sense. Nev acted impulsively, stopping dead in his tracks to let the hellhound pass by him, then using the momentum of its flight, grabbed on to the tail of the beast, keeping his feet planted as he swung the hellhound in a circle before letting it go flying away from him and toward the encroaching ring.

“Bye bye doggy!” Nev shouted as he took off again towards the castle, aiming to catch up with Sage. Along the way he spotted Kana, who he knew couldn’t outrun the hounds in her wheelchair. Running up behind her, Nev lifted her above his head, wheelchair and all, though her weight hardly hindered him.

“We run together now, you too slow!” Nev said, quickly catching with Sage as the hound he threw would surely be coming back for him to settle the score.

by **Faal Lot Himdah** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 2:57 pm

Admina Kyrene, Amazon
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

So it lept, exactly as Admina expected. As soon as it started to descend, Admina took a step slightly out of the way and turned her body, while keeping one arm up to block, holding it so her hand covered her ear. She moved just enough so that the rock hound would slide across the arm, and thus it would count as a block for her power to come into effect. In fact, as she felt the warm stone of the rock hound, she felt the kinetic energy being absorbed and run through her body.

In the next moment, she redirected the energy into her leg. Then with a quick step forward, she raised her leg straight up and then brought it right down through the rock hound. Now, normally she would just be able to walk away with this victory, but Admina made a serious miscalculation. She didn't think about the inner contents of the rock hounds. She didn't think about it until she felt her leg go straight into the lava innards of the rock hound.

She screamed for a quick moment before the pain rendered her unconscious. So, even though she did show the rock hound not to mess with her, it came at a cost.

Kana Kaleikaumaka, Gyges
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

Most everyone had started to run now, and so, Kana did the same. Well, if you call rolling as fast as she could running. She watched as others were getting further and further away, as she worked harder and harder. Kana's extra arms had disappeared for now, and while she could have used them to quickly move the wheel's of her wheelchair, it would just be a waste of magic. Yes, she could have asked for help as well, but this was Kana we are talking about. However, someone would make the decision to ask for help for her. They didn't ask however, and just picked her up, wheelchair and all.

"What the-" Kana said and looked down at the person carrying her. His name was Nev from what she could remember, but she hadn't had time to get to really interact with the surprisingly strong little man. "Oi, who the fuck said you could pick me up?! You listening to me. What the fuck gives you the right to pick me up?!"

Lora, Dichotomy
Plugged In to the Matrix
June 16th, 2024

Lora had joined the others as they started running towards the castle, as she couldn't very much help deal with the remaining rock hound. But as she ran, she heard the woman who was taking the last of the hounds on scream in pain. Instantly, Lora turned and after a moment of hesitation, she rushed to the downed woman. When she reached the unconscious woman, who she only knew the name of, and pointed her hands to the now burnt stub that remained of her leg. Since it was burned, bleeding wasn't a worry, but Lora could at least try to heal the burn and ease the pain.

"Need some help over here!" Lora shouted as her hands glew and light started to shine on the burn, trying to ease the pain at least.

Alasdair Francis Damon, Blackfire
New York City, New York, USA
June 16th, 2024

With the flanks all secured and the zombies all down on the ground, the Black Flames started to fade. At this time, Alasdair's full attention turned to the Super Zombie. He continued to fire both weapons that made the Balace of Vuphu at the Super Zombie. He eventually ceased firing, and the Balance of Vuphu disappeared. It was then he began speaking while making some hand gestures.

"Secundum sigillum Penodris invocabo; Petentibus Lanceam." Alasdair finished as the magic circle of the Seven Seals of Penodris appeared above Alasdair and the Penetrating Lance appeared, before launching forward, aiming for the chest of the Super Zombie.

by **Lessoni** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 3:25 pm

Jack Dredd

Jack breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Alasdair's chanting. He could do some major damage.

On seeing the projectile form in the air, Jack ran over Alasdair's powers in his head. Magic pistols, telepathy, and... he couldn't remember the specific name of the spell, but he knew that spear did a hell of a lot of damage. Seeing it, Jack decided to test his luck.

Waiting for it to impact with the super, Jack rushed forward while it was still distracted from the hit and aimed a blow at full strength at the knee he had kicked earlier. Hopefully, this shot would put it on the ground.

by **Durmatagno** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 4:23 pm

Sage Shields

Sage got splashed with a little of the lava, but she quickly got it off and replaced the damaged crystal. She looked back at the three hounds still active, and made the decision that if the people left couldn't handle them, they probably couldn't handle whatever else was coming. With a path clear, and the spikes seemingly no threat to Sage, she moved forward, leaving those still occupied to either deal with the hounds, or get eaten by the ever looming wall of pain. The comment about her move being unexpected confused her though, it was only natural to use one's environment to their advantage, especially hen some of their usual abilities were being restricted. Whether on purpose or accident Sage didn't know, or frankly, care. All that mattered was her survival, and that everyone learn their strengths and weaknesses in such a.....creative, and entertaining training section. Sage hadn't even broken a sweat yet, the hound had been close, but she'd been in The Pit, and through worse than this just to survive and make it here. She took a deep breath, and laughed loudly, clearly enjoying herself.

by **Theyra** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:47 pm

Zekulu Alemu Nazwari

With all the zombies down, Zekulu gave his full focus towards the Super Zombie. Moving to get a better angle so his bolts do not get in the way of Alasdair's attack. He thought about switching ammo but, decided against it. He can do enough damage with his current bolts and went to aim at the Super Zombie's joints hoping to immobilize the thing's limbs. He saw Jack going after one of the thing's knee so Zekulu took aim at the Super Zombie's other knee. It took him a second for him to aim and waited for a moment for the shot to be clear before he launched a precise volley at the Super Zombie's knee. Maybe with his and Jack's attack could cripple this thing in place so Alasdair's lance can finish this thing off so they could complete the mission.

by **The Verdantderm Lands** » Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:56 pm

Heroes of Tomorrow Redux [IC | DONE]

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