Future Washington DC: CVbU Location

Welcome to Washington D.C...here lies the United States Government, may it rest in peace. Successive terrible and catastrophic Presidencies in the the 2010s and 2020s caused a dramatic political shift in the United States. The power shift was gradual at first but it increased in rapidity and power over time. People began to turn their backs on the government in Washington. With faith in the government all but destroyed citizens turned to their local and State governments for hope and a brighter future. The Government in Washington as it is often called is virtually powerless, its laws and decrees often completely or partially ignored by the much more powerful state governments. Only one power remains in Washington but it is a great and terrible power to wield. The military remains under the control of DC and its power has doubled since 2016. With no realistic power in the rest of the country Washington has focused its other remaining power, the ability to collect taxes, to continue to increase the might and size of the US Military. An accord between the Government in Washington and States was reached in 2033 by which the States agreed to fund the government's military projects in exchange for providing military bases. Some States are paranoid and maintain their own military forces as well, particularly those on the southern border (with Texas maintaining the most powerful of these forces). Many believe the only reason Washington hasn't forcefully retaken its power is because no one with the spine to do it has yet been elected to the White House. The other alternative of course is to re-establish faith.

The city itself has seen a virtual revolution. The once high crime rate has been all but crushed by the highly militarized DC police. Economic reforms that pushed out many of the lobbyists and old institutions and reduced corporate taxes have brought in businesses by the dozen. The city is a beautiful combination of classic and modern with small futuristic sky scrapers and other new buildings existing alongside the monuments of old. New green spaces have been added as well and the city continues to thrive on its Tourist industry as well and has become a model of how to combine a developing future with the monuments of the past.

Defenses:

The ED units- Heavily armed war-machines that have taken over as America's front-line defense these also serve to keep the Capitol clean and safe. These machines stand almost twelve feet tall and carry the arsenal of a small army. Many suggest they were based off the old Maverick design of a much larger war machine but there is no concrete evidence to support this. Though many tourists are put off by these machines, citizens generally get along with them just fine and it's not unusual to see children playing around their feet.

The ED unit is armored with Synth-Vibranium, an alloy designed to mimic the durability of Vibranium without the cost or need to deal with Venezuela for the ore. As a Vibranium substitute the Synth-Vibranium falls well short, as a military armor design however, it has been wildly successful. Light weight, easy to produce and easy to replace, this armor is wildly popular with allies of the United States all over the world and is seeing increasing application. To back up its heavily armored yet light weight hull the ED unit is equipped with a pair of 30 MM Autocannons, a 50 caliber minigun, two 40mm grenade launchers, and a Series One Missile Launcher armed with miniature armor piercing anti-tank rounds as well as miniature anti-personnel weapons capable of spreading an explosive burst over a thirty foot radius.

The Wraith- The world's most advanced fighter jet, the Wraith is equipped with stealth technology that shatters the record for silence and stealth. Covered in a top secret material that not only deflects radar and other forms of sensory signals but is also capable of bending light for up to an hour at a time, the Wraith can all but disappear from enemy scopes. The world's most advanced fighter carries four high powered lasers in its fuselage and can be armed with long range anti-aircraft and air-to-ground missile systems.

Only one question now remains...will someone with the confidence and spine to do it step forward and return The Government in Washington to its rightful place as the unquestioned government of the United States, or will Washington continue to be home to the only elected military structure in the world?

Wow. Love your take on future DC. Brutal.

I blame PresidentSam for this xDD.

This is begging for a RoboCop alt.

@luke_grayson:

Thanks =). Given how badly the last several IC Presidents have gone I figured there should be some sort of response over time.

I was actually picturing this giant crater in the ground.

@maverick_6:

Oh I have a ruined DC picture. It took me 20 minutes to decide which direction to go. Ultimately I decided to go this route because I have two other completely ruined landscapes to do and didn't want a third.

(Haha! Of course Texas would have a good military, that just makes sense.)

Mycroft walked around, hands in his pockets, eyes looking around and with a small smile on his face. Almost sardonic actually. Mycroft was one of his more prominent names now, at least in America. People were apparently amused by it.

And on the inside of his head?

This world just doesn't seem to change. People don't realize just how awful everything is while they do nothing about it. And yet, happiness is fundamental in sanity. So is it wrong to try and keep sane? Perhaps I am not sane, and that is why I can know just how bad the world is and keep a amile on my face. A mask. Everyone wear's masks, whether they admit it or not. It's just that some masks are versions of themselves. Made from their own flesh. Ack! The world, should I give up on it for a time? See where it goes? No, that would only let it get worse. Much worse, perhaps I can do something. But what first?! There is so much left! Shhhh, calm yourself. Stress your mind to much and you won't be able to think properly. No matter, I'm a ways away from that right now.

@lunahawk: The streak of a cobalt blue outlined in a shadowed black fired across the sky, a few number of passing men and women turned their gaze upwards as the crack of a sound barrier being shattered came from the sky. Most didn't even care to look up from their screens anymore, as military practice in D.C. became a norm. Overcast's vibranium wings waved upwards, bringing him into the thick field of clouds over Washington. Moisture slowly began to envelop around The Screaming Eagle tracing his advance into the vapor. The cloud split ahead of him, before his pass through. His superhuman senses kept lock on what was ahead of him, a Wraith. A fair distance had been kept from him and the pinnacle of American aircraft, in case of any on board heat detection. Capable of picking him up.

Only days before he had set foot in D.C. adorned in a red victorian coat, going to his knees, and a large number of accessories on his head. Baseball cap, Aviators, Headphones, Scarf, and a tacky beard face warmer. As much as an eyesore as the pattern was, pointing fingers at the massive wingspan and solid blue skin was attention that could get him shot for Vibranium. Even though it was very unlikely to happen, no chances could be taken on the walkways of a military controlled district. He walked with no purpose of future, no plan, no sense of direction, only outings of fun wherever flight could take him.

His wings brought him behind the Wraith, just above the blast of it's jets. Overwatch brought himself ahead to the frame of the jet where his hands took grip on a wing of the jet, his fingers gripping around intent on staying firm. Wings folded into his back pressing against his black and silver costume. Wind tore over his figure grasped on the wing of a fighter and threw itself over his eyes covered in a protective film adjusted to open flight. A smile spread on his face as he pulled onto the jet, slamming the tips of his wings into the metal of the jet, just enough to put a grip in as he ran across.

Circumstance was never good with the military. With time served, it was clear to him and most of America's population that the term "Just following orders" is used far too much as an excuse from trigger happy soldiers looking to push their strength if they have an opportunity to do so. Out in Alexandria he was stopped by a soldier, looking like an enlist, right on the street. He rolled a deceptive lie for an explanation, the soldier refused, voices rose and pretty soon push came to shove and the end of a gun was swinging at the Phoenix's head. It took a feather firing from his set of wings to slice across his jugular, spurting blood and guaranteeing his death. A camera saw the whole thing from a smartphone, poking just around the corner of a corner on the desolate street. The video went to the police who set up a search, and the video leaked online.

He wore a GoPro on his shoulder, attached firmly on with a setup around his torso. The purpose in the sky was beside good natured hijacking, or terrorism, but rather on extending an already semi-viral network. A new purpose, with an idea of taking first person flights in real combat, real deaths. Everyone would want to see it. Views could escape the "Off-The-Trail" viewing sites that allowed gore and deaths, as compared to the booming sites that censored such things. Instead taking the same setup of the spam-bots, advertising content in comments on videos, and rather just posting a strain of videos, such as the one he was live-streaming now.

His wings shredded across the cockpit, intent on pulling a reaction and if not that. Taking down the jet.

@overcast_:

(I'll try to get you a reply later on today.)

@gale_xanders: Cool, Cool, Cool

@overcast_:

No Wraith ever flew through the sky without the a wingmate, even over DC. Meta Human training allowed the two pilots to respond with something other than fear and panic. The days of a military panicking at the sight of unknown metas were gone. At first the pilot didn't respond, not until the actual attack came. To maximize stealth the cockpit canopy was constructed of the same material as the skin of the fuselage. The lightly armored hull of the Wraith was already damage, it's stealth capabilities partially compromised. The reinforced canopy suffered damage as well and then the pilot responded. Rather than bank hard in one direction or another to dislodge his attacker he tipped the craft ever so slightly in the direction of Overcast.

The wingmate behind him dropped down from above and opened fire with all four of its hull mounted laser cannons. The tight beams of red light lanced out for Overcast's back, intent on vaporizing his back or at the very least dislodging him from the other craft. The two craft banked in the same direction, guiding themselves away from the city so if there was to be any amount of destruction it wouldn't impact the city down below.

An alert was sent out that a meta human was attacking a pair of Wraiths over the city and more such aircraft were scrambled. Anti-air defenses all over the city shifted into stand by mode and advanced sensors scanned the sky in an attempt to detect the threat and determine it's ability to harm the city.

@lunahawk: The reaction intended had been met, though with only minor experience in Wraith activity most of the stunt would be winging it, pun intended. On the prior research to Wraiths, Cobalt had been enlightened on their state-of-the-art stealth capability, and a laser. The sudden change of heat and hum of the quad beams firing was the first instinct of danger, and the first and probably not the last surprise in the flight.

Overcast's set of wings raised behind him, the tips only leaving the body of the stealth plane for a moment before replanting into it's metal. The moment gap between then being enough for the wind to gather in his vibranium appendages, sending him flailing across the frame of the jet. The beams had already pressed into his back before then, the cover of the feathers pushing the compressed light from his flesh.

It was only then that he had run out of ideas. Firstly considering firing a grenade from the handgun's attachment at the cockpit, only to be put to the test of whether it would make contact before the wind swooped it away. And secondly involving an intention of releasing a wing, which against four laser beams would probably require the two of them to shield a full body. It was on the third quick thought that the bladed ends retracted from the jet, the wind swooping the Blue Rocket into the air. As he was taken off his spine arched to the ejection port of the lasers, the wings swooped forwards, blasting the wind ahead as he dove backwards at increasing speed to the aerial companion of the pilot.

His body spun a 180 under the body of the jet, underneath at about thirty feet. With his wings unfurled and flapping upwards farther into the cloud layer, picking up speed with every rise and fall. Striking Mach 6 in about twenty seconds before making a harsh U-Turn in flight. Overcast darted through the moisture of the clouds, in less than a minute before putting a nosedive at the first Wraith. His serrated wings craned downwards as he swooped only a foot above the aircraft. The bladed sides of them coming down at the fuselage of the Wraith, intent on the cutting power of the vibranium multiplied with the speed being able to do serious damage, or at the very least determine what it was covered with.

@overcast_:

Sorry for the delay I'll be responding to this later tonight.

The two Wraiths were buffeted by his flight maneuvers and the second one only maintained control through sheer force of will and piloting skill. The two pilots searched frantically for him when he disappeared above the cloud layer while their sensors worked to adapt to the new type of target. The Wraith sensors were advanced but generally designed to fight other aircraft and thus it took them time to adjust to picking out smaller targets. As Overcast dove towards his first target again the pilot spotted him heading his way at incredible speeds, there was very little time to react but react he did. The pilot couldn't avoid the attack entirely so instead he dipped waited until Overcast was directly ontop of his fuselage and dipped the right wing to avoid the wing taking damage. It also had the effect of dipping one side of the sleek fuselage to prevent the entire top surface of the craft from taking damage.

Wraiths couldn't afford much armor and the wings did their damage, ripping through much of the upper surface of the craft. The aircraft rolled over and went into a spiral but the pilot remained calm, flipping switches designed to divert the flow of power and crucial elements such as hydraulics to reserve lines deeper within the Wraith. Unlike aircraft of the past the Wraith were designed to fight against a large array of threats and that included the ability to suffer damage and continue functioning. Had this been an F-16 the severed hydraulic cables would have immediately spelled its doom. Instead she was able to re-route to secondary cables. The pilot slowly brought his craft back under control and banked hard to the left, intending to guide his aircraft out of the city and towards the ocean, fairly certain now that he'd only be able to keep the Wraith airborne for a limited time.

His wingman slowed his speeds but remained within weapons range and unleashed a torrent of laser fire directly in Overcast's flight path just as he cleared the first Wraith. His sensors finally adjusted and missile ports opened on the belly of the craft. A pair of heat seeking missiles locked onto his heat signature and blasted away from the Wraith and towards the flying mutant. The weapons bays closed again and the Wraith pilot sent his information to the defense network below. Anti-air defenses used the information to begin tracking Overcast and launch systems prepared to ignite.

@gale_xanders: @lunahawk:(Stuff happened, sorry)

The dive had done it's duty. Piercing the top of the craft shredding through metal, sending the Wraith into a fall towards the city. With certainty that he had sealed the jet's fate his center of focus turned to the better of the two. Overcast's gaze set on the tri-lasers firing into his placement. With something as fast as light itself options were really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Only a single option came to mind at the moment of impending burning alive and to drop entirely. A drop from their height could would kill somebody at a physique of the Screaming Eagle, unless they caught themselves on the way down which would rely entirely on even being able to go on without interference. As risky as it was to trust open sky without any form of lift, no other ideas really popped at nearly 5000mph towards doom. Overcast's wings arched downwards, just feet from the beams. Blue Rocket pierced through the air downwards towards the city streets of D.C, flightless. The Ether Walker's attuned hearing pierced to the familiar sound of missiles. Damn, that's a good plane.

Phoenix turned his back to the ground, the wings extending across either side of him shimmering in the sun rays beaming over. The "feathers" of the wings began to vibrate violently in their places, moving accord with the arm of the wing beginning to swoop quickly. The winds picked up much more quickly than usual due to the fall. He had waited patiently for a good four seconds before turning himself up through the G-Force. Cobalt's hand grasped around the camera on his shoulder with a grip like iron as his wings swung ahead, releasing a titanic vortex of wind all around him, spreading at out 200ft+ away from himself. Assuming the rockets were moving as fast as it could be and assuming it was already in his range, the force of the casted winds may have been enough to direct the course away from himself, or better yet towards the city. An explosion like that would surely gain some sort of publicity across the headlines of all kinds of news, if they still printed local papers anymore, it could probably hit front page.

@overcast_:

The remaining Wraith was ordered out of the area, a clash between flying craft and a flying meta over the city itself could quickly result in a lot innocent lives lost. If the mutant determined to pose a ground threat to the city responses would be made, the Wraith was not designed to avoid collateral damage and keeping it in the area would result in a good deal of it. The craft banked off and made its way back to its original course.

Unfortunately the missiles it had fired did not, instead they were struck by a vortex of hundreds of mile an hour winds and sent wildly off course. One of the missiles slammed into the ground and exploded, doing little more than blowing a small hole in the road. The second one corkscrewed away and slammed into a moving car. The vehicle was lifted off its tires by the missiles explosion and erupted into a growing ball of fire that sent razor sharp, white hot shrapnel in every direction. Fortune prevented the area from being exceedingly crowded at the time but about a dozen people were left injured or dead as a result.

The war machines that patrolled the city turned their attention towards the explosion and then were directed towards Overcast. The machines were made to fight ground threats and though they tracked Overcast's progress as he pulled out of his dive they held their fire, their advanced cybernetic cores quickly deducing that successful strikes were exceedingly unlikely and determining not to waste ammo.

@lunahawk: It worked, it actually succeeded. The rockets redirected to the street and had caused quite the domestic disturbance for blocks around. Flames expelled from the roadway as a car was directly struck in the explosion of a missile, even at this height the boom of it's combustion could be heard. The Wraith had high tailed away across the D.C. skyline, fleeing from the dogfight. It was when a storm of lead sprayed to Cobalt as a moving target. The flight neared it's wind up quickly if one of the massive ammunition for the guardians of the street had struck into Phoenix.

With the rounds spewing up firepower like embers in a fire, it was visibly certain to avoid a massive hit from those things. Windforce was at all the wrong places in the rapid descent towards concrete. The flying metahuman pressed his spine straight in the fall, the wings giving enough of a tilt and covering against any influence from the scenario of getting torn to shreds mid-flight.

The wings curved themselves inwards a bit to a spearhead, his fall evolving to a piercing nosedive as his body once again curved itself for an adjusted flight above the lamp posts across the street. Overcast's speed increased to nearly 300mph and rising at the height of the glide, coming within 15ft of eating pavement. Without warning, as quick as it came the Blue Rocket's appendages flapped, throwing him around the approaching corner like he was on rails.

The intended idea of flying so low was of course an insane camera view, but to maybe cause a military misfire for the second time. The speed perhaps being too much for highly advanced military hardware to land a shot on, if the intention was righteous, taking out a pedestrian or a wall. Either way the flight fared the camera had caught enough live feed to amass a healthy stream come to watch live terrorism toll free.

@overcast_:

The ED units tracked the progress of Overcast as he moved closer and closer to ground level. Weapons safeties kicked off, gun barrels began to spin up and tracking systems predicted highly accurate firing paths...but as he flew above the city streets the units held their fire. Their advanced programming was designed to operate in two different modes. The first mode was 'warzone' mode which would allow them to fire at any threatening target regardless of their position in relation to non-threatening entities. Their 'Patrol' mode however prevented them from firing so long as he was close to potential civilian casualties.

The units continued to track him and walked forward as they passed. Telemetry data was passed from one unit to the next across the city as the entire defense grid began to track his progress through the streets. Hovering drones moved in over the city to better track his movements but for the time being, the system held its fire.

@lunahawk:

Overcast's eyes wrapped in a protective film rendered the surroundings at inhumane speed. Scanning across approaching obstacles and turns which the Fallen Angel quickly dived and twisted to avoid. What the senses also rendered was a lack of live ammunition spraying.

"Too fast." He thought to himself, with a grin.

The Screaming Eagle reached his hand up, powering off the camera and thus ending the streaming footage. A recording software continued to film the desktop.

His massive metallic wings turned to the sky, redirecting the flight path to the clouds. The air ahead split open, carrying him to the district'a skyline.

(Sorry for the wait and shortness of this)