Gothic City [CVnU Location]

Overview

Prior to the Stark Administration, Gothic was known as one of the most economically unequal cities in America, with the wealth disparity reaching crisis levels. Crime ran rampant throughout the streets, the haphazardly built roadways and dark architecture seemingly attracting a highly criminal atmosphere. The most predominant political issue of the time, President Stark elected to cut it off from the Union to focus on domestic issues.

After years of struggle, the later President Alexander Donn chose to bring it back into the Union. While at first successful, with the city evacuated, the notorious Strigidae Clan attempted to seize it. Instead, it was destroyed entirely as a result of a sinister orbital bombardment. While it was largely empty at the time, an immense loss of life and property ensued as the majority of the former-metropolis was completely obliterated.

Economy

The economy of Gothic city is simply crippled. The devastation caused by the orbital bombardment has rendered it completely devoid of any business. Currently; Gothic City is host to one of the world's largest infrastructural initiatives assisted by many corporations, notable examples include: [to be added].

Transportation

At one time Gothic City boasted a large and high tech system of rail transit, including the largest network of subways in America. Now? The city is devoid of all transport aside from military helicopters and heavy building vehicles that plow through the debris and have started to resurrect the city.

Teams

N/A

Villains

POW!: Armed with kinetic energy gauntlets and a protective suit this former Metahuman Affairs agent is a villain known for his bold robberies and the jaw dropping power of his energy blasts.

Honor Avenger: The Darwinist Dictator herself has escaped from Bedlam Asylum, leaving the city in chaos as supervillains rampaged free and civilians hid in terror of the Avenger's return.

Jason Ford: A red masked mercenary who is as deadly with his guns as he is fists.

Pre-Mortem: Former Strigidae associate and expert scavenger, wherever he goes, trouble goes.

Vigilantes and heroic law enforcement

Kurt Pendragon: Kurt is one of Gothic's oldest heroes and is currently the Commissioner of Police; having retaken the position.

William Eldrik: A man who has vowed to retake the mantle of Dark Vengeance, William seeks to punish criminals with violence and aggression. His name has become synonymous with fear and violence in the night.

Rossum: A former Gothic City citizen, currently away from the city. But nobody ever truly leaves.

Notable Figures

N/A

Recent Events

Gothic is Destroyed mist a hostile Strigidae takeover attempt.

The United States attempts to eradicate the terrorist presence within Gothic and return it to the Union once and for all.

Rules

• Power classes: In order to maintain the tone of the city, I want to keep the power level rules in place. Every character from mid-tier to low tier is allowed. If you would be able to beat someone like Midnighter then you are too powerful.
• Territory Control: Due to the new meta of politics I would like to propose a new system based on King Crusaders game play style for crime. In order for Gang/Families/Criminal Organizations to control an area, they would have to attempt to take over IC instead of automatically saying that they are dealing drugs or distributing guns in that area. Similarly, vigilantes can contest that neighborhood and attempt to liberate it IC. The more they control of the city, the more their gang grows in numbers and resources. The longer a criminal or a hero holds the area, the more they can say they have influenced it (ex: more/less corruption, muggings, drug deals, etc) This would give the heroes a chance to fight off the criminals more effectively and create IC conflict.
• Corporations: If a corporation wants to set up shop here. PM Hound of War/Pyrogram.
• If you want your events or your characters to be added into the OP please PM either of us.
• Thank you for Pyrogram and Lichter for helping create the thread.

Ok. Now the real work starts.

>citizen

TRIGGERED

Gothic City... I hate this place.

Well I guess that's one bridge burned lol.

One of these days I'm going to find a place that doesn't blow up around me.

Love it! And the new rules.

@gothic-city:

What about making deep tunnels for my secret lair? Would I be allowed to do that without trying to IC claim it? It is kinda unoccupied by people.

I intend on making a thread for it by the way. When I IC am ready for it.

@jason_ford:

You would have to claim it.

@hound_of_war:

Dangit.

How would go about that? Like just IC start building and stuff? Or do I actually have to start a thread or something.

To be clear, the tunnels would be completely new, and secret. Just in case that wasn't clear.

@jason_ford: You would have to drop a post IC in this thread and give people a chance to defend the sewers. I understand you want to keep it secret so once you own it you can say you built it in a different place. The sewers are a big place it wouldnt be a tough sell.

Let the games begin.

@hound_of_war:

Ok.

So it basically just would be them working on it correct? And be required to be open?

@jason_ford:

Yes. I would prefer if it was kept in thread. Once you win we will add it to the OP.

@hound_of_war:

Got it. I'll work on that once my character actually starts it (He needs some equipment and such first)

Thanks!

Gothic: Post Apocalypse!

@jason_ford: You think your the only one who's gonna have some secret tunnels?

@knightshadow:

I intend to.

@jason_ford:

Just to clarify. In order to build it, you have to do a take over before hand.

@jason_ford said:

Reminds me so much of this:

@hound_of_war:

...take over against who? The only thing I see being a problem for me is if someone finds out about it and attacks. It's essentially making an underground building.

@knightshadow:

You watched it? Fantastic!

I liked it, it was pretty good. Not quite as much detective work as I'd hoped for, but still pretry good. Though to be honest I think I actually made or had the idea for Jason Ford before I even watched it.

@jason_ford:

Against anyone who wants to stop you. Moving that much material to construct an underground base, people would be able to realitically know that you're doing something.

@knightshadow: @jason_ford:

The bullets from his gun seemed to hardly move to her. She looked for a moment. But then got caught up un her own mind. The bullets closed in and she felt the first began to essentiallt incinerate at her flesh, light peircing shadow, ripping her from her thoughts. She darted to the side as fats as she could with a somewhat confused face, that was rare for something like that to happen. But she collected herself faster than a microexpression could show up, "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a woman?" She said sarcasticall, "For you." From her hand dropped a shrapnel grenade pin already pulled. She ran aways a bit avoiding as the wall also began collapsing easily and off to the side smiling.

When the Blue Bloods got hit with the cables they responded how they were told to. Out came a bomb, one they immediatly attached to the cable as it drew them in. Oneof them kept going with it but had already taken out a Target Locking Acid set to eat away all metals, glass, plastics, and carbon armor it came across. The moment he'd hit the containment pod it'd spray everything. Including the things keeping him there. The other litterally ripped out of it by breaking his own bones to slip through. They'd heal. In the mean while he could easily continue his path to the sub.

The Archer already saw it coming however, firing an arrow towards it that would magnetize and connect to the cable proceeding to send enough electricity through it in one big blast to burst the lights of an entire block in New York city. He sent two extras after it that would expand into a quick hardening foam that turned to concrete hardness.

Shadow she nonchalantly allowed it to carry her in. But she had nothing on her worth grabbing. Because anything she needed she could just summon to her if it were in the shadows. Or she could simply leave. She just wanted to see what would happen.

Stone almost jumped back into The Brick and closed the door in time. The door was two-thirds of the way closed when the frag went off. The shrapnel ricocheted harmlessly off of his armored leg and the door, however the concussion sent him reeling back across Treacle's lap, with predictable results. For whatever reason, Fate had decided to not only strip Kyle Brimstone of all properties of magic, allowing not the least bit of supernatural, magical, or spiritual forces to interact with, sense him, nor affect him; but it also made him a magical circuit breaker anything supernatural or magical simply ceased to be or work. This included all of the spells that Treacle had cast, or was casting when Stone came into contact with him. It was sheer luck that Stone hadn't touched any of The Wizard's expensive and difficult to produce rings, or things would have been much worse. Things were "worse" enough already, fortunately they would be difficult to detect unless the enemy knew what to look for,...except that all the light from the luminocity spell had just blinked out, that didn't stop other associated bad things from happening.

For instance, the free standing wall that the Devil/Bat vigilante had caused to fall would have slid away over the Physical Shield Barrier spell that Treacle had erected. Instead, a large portion of the wall crashed down onto the front end of the vehicle. The reinforced frame held, but the armored trunk and fender crumpled. It would have taken no less than a bulldozer's frame to not be affected by such weight.

Stone instantly lurched himself off of his partner, knowing it was already too late, the damage was done.

"Alright, " He said casually, combat was no place to get uptight and freaked out. "I've had enough of this Kindergarten garbage. Dude we're trying to help just dropped a wall on us and didn't even give us a heads up." Stone had to kick the driver's door open a bit to get out and retrieve the SABR laser rifle from the back seat.

"Time to play grown up." Half of these scrubs seemed to be able to dodge bullets, but nothing was faster than light. He came around the back of The Brick, cradling the SABR, zeroed in on The Archer a good thousand yards away, and carefully zig-zagged the beam of ruby energy over the enemy's entire body, and enough all around to cut off the ability to dodge.

@jason_ford: I liked it, too. The only thing I didn't like was the Bat-mobile.

I mean, the car wasn't up to my standards compared to other Bat-mobiles.

What I especially like was Red Hood's ingenuity and wit. Especially when he knew Batman would fire his grapnel/tow line on the roof of his car, so he made it removable so he could buy himself some extra time.

@hound_of_war:

Fair enough.

Which made me realize I should actually make this possibly SEVERAL posts. Considering how I want it. Thanks again!

@knightshadow:

I did like how very clever and cunning he was. Him tricking the Joker also made it even better.

I may have to agree with you on the batmobile. The others are usually better.

@k_brimstone: Hey, this could be a good spot to get someones limb cut off. Or I could actually kill him. I'll have to think about it.

Reply later

@jason_ford: @k_brimstone:

Knightshadow was still focused on the battle deciding what to do next. Meanwhile, Quantum was busy calculating what to do with the three prisoners he had. The electricity from the archer's arrows was easily countered. The line detached it self from the ship, so the electricity went somewhere else along the line, other than the jet. Next, Nolan made sure all of the lights in the containment pods were at maximum brightness so Shadow wouldn't be able to teleport anything or herself. The bomb was easily diffused with an EMP round rendering it useless. The target locking acid was the trickiest problem. With seconds left, Nolan enacted a plan. Firing a separate tow line onto the canister, it pulled the canister off of the Blue Bloods hands, and then detaching the tow line from the jet. This made the canister fall, and releasing its contents onto the ground. The two Blue Bloods and Shadow would now be in the containment pods by now, being stripped of anything useful and being bounded in titanium restraints. Knightshadow and Quantum didn't bother with the last Blue Blood, since they had enough prisoners especially having the shadow lady contained. The sub would be followed by the drones in stealth-mode Knightshadow released from his Knight-Wing MK 2, so he didn't have to defeat it either. Now only having to focus on the archer, Knightshadow swerved his jet around to face him. He saw that Stone and Wizard's vehicle had been damaged by the collapse of the wall.

"Qunatum are they okay?"

"Yes, sir, but they seem to disregard your little rule of no killing."

Seeing the weapon the Stone was pulling out, Knightshadow wasn't going to let him kill another potential prisoner. Firing seven grapnel/tow lines at the archer hoping that they would reach him first before Stone shot of the first round.

@k_brimstone: @knightshadow:

Shadow just looked at the light frowning. "Hm." She said. The Blue Blood did something a little unexpected. He forced one of the acid cannisters INTO his own stomach, healing it over before it could be removed, and spraying his blue blood over the walls.

The Scarlet Archer was having worse luck. He saw it all happening, like slow motion. And knew all too well he wouldn't be able to dodge it all, even knowing where it would go. Then the cable came. He leaped to grab it with his free arm and it started pulling him away, but not before his other arm was cut off by the beam. He cried out squeezing the cable tighter in pain. The heat had sealed the wound, but that was an entire limb. Gone. And for an archer, or almost any person who used long range as their job. That was one of the worst limbs to be lost.

Dark wing knew what was happening, "We can get you out. Just wait." He said into the comms. He worried little for Shadow, she was insane, the Blue Blood couldn't even feel pain like a normal person, and Michael Cooper was brainwashed. So it was simply a matter of time.

@knightshadow:

<<</// Listen, Random, and listen well. My master is generous enough to make a deal with you. If you stop this nonsense, the my master will personally record himself torturing and interrogating all of the Blue Bloods and the Ghost Crew until one of them spills the beans, for your sadistic pleasure. So, get your head out of your ash, and get into the game, or you will, in approximately 3 minutes, wish that you never started all of this. Heck, you'll wish your were never programmed in the first place.///>>>

Rage. Pure, black as pitch, bright as fire rage was definitely something Lord Knightfall had gifted Random with. That and a technomantic power that all but the most bleeding edge Artificial Intelligences could even rival. He was the work of art of an immortal genius, and another computer had just stepped on his duck, in his own house.

///<<<I don't know how you found this place you squirrely little filler, but you're never leaving.>>>/// The AI's cyber "voice" cold as the pits of Hell. Random knew he had made a mistake out of anger and had broadcast too much signal, which was likely how he'd been traced, thereby letting the rotting bile bag's base be located. There were two steps to fixing that. Both steps were carried out in the space of a nanosecond.

Ultra sound tracking stations on The Warehouse's roof located, then tight beam microwave emitters sent out lethal amounts of radiation to destroy the circuity of any of Quantum's micro satellites, which would take place in less than a second.

The next step had been ready a minute and thirty-four seconds ago. The thousands of viruses that Random had pilfered, the thousand or so more he'd created himself would slam into Quantum's systems tenfold harder than they had from the small I/O node in The Brick. If it could be said that Random had been shooting at Quantum's Intrusion Countermeasures Wall with a machine gun before, now he had hit the wall with a nuke. This was where all of the Mad Machine's broadcasting equipment was, he didn't have to rely on any sort of relay medium at all. The quaint little Limey had forced his way into the system.

However, as much as Random liked a good slug fest, he wasn't one of the top three smartest computers in the world for nothing. There MIGHT be a chance the snot could actually defend enough to survive the attack, so he added something special. While Quantum was trying to fight off a nuclear holocaust, a quiet non descript little program would just saunter it's way following the line of code that had found and identified Random's computer, and thereby Stone's location. While slowly and innocuously winding it's way back to Quanum's mainframe it casually erased all the lines of code that had to do with the location information, wiping away all traces, then the program simply curled up into tiny bytes and became random zeroes and ones in the data flow. The digital nuclear fire would be crashing down along the pipeline in a storm of fury. If Quantum's servers survived, the firestorm had acted as one Hell of a distraction...if nothing else.

@knightshadow: @k_brimstone:

Ahhh, the satisfaction of heroes fighting heroes as I watch nonchalantly. A plan worked out and ready to be enacted.

Fight on my friends! Do my job for me!

@jason_ford:

lol Yeahhhh, I was trying hard to avoid this, but I could see it coming early on.

EDIT: Also, to be fair, Random's never pretended to be anyone's hero ;)

Somewhere hidden in broken Gothic City

"Imma' need a really good reason not to kill you, boy. It's prime time and for some reason I'm still here dealing with dumbass bitchboys instead of keeping up with Cobert. So I'm already antsy! And why aren't you talking already?"

Classique put in good time and dirty money to raise the next generation of white-collared criminals, so when the Dow Jones reported his favorite stocks were hemorrhaging at the end of this fiscal quarter, some clean necks were going to have to face the chopping block. He loved each and every soul he put on Wall Street, but there was no room for errors of such huge margins in Classique's multifaceted business, so he gathered all thirty-two personal employees he had planted in stocks and had twenty-four of them killed on arrival. "A spoiled crop", he called them, and then he proceeded to interrogate the remaining eigth face to face.

"Please don't do this! I have a family" they would all say.

And seasoned in callus, the don in Classique would reply, " No no no, I need a real juicy reason. Something I can care about! I had a family, way back when, and no one asked how the hell they felt when they where mowed down, so try again."

Proceeding answers varied anywhere from future plans they had to improve their work output, to how they were unmatched in the employee market, to who should really be blamed for the bad numbers. Classique wouldn't hesitate to skewer the snitches with his katanna, because they had been trained better than that. The last six who had been shown some remorse where then directed to be further interrogated by Classique's right-hand, Reine. She turned bitchboys into bitchmen and that was how business never saw any mistakes again until a new batch of faces would be brought in.

Classique would eventually retire to his hidden loft on the edge of the city at the "end" of his own workday, which never really ended, but did initiate a period of physical rest. Unmasked and replacing the guns and blades for a brush and palette, Eru would paint away at a new peace dedicated to the newly scorched ground of Gothic City. He came here to capture the beauty of "Crusader City" in his gallery of work, but now the beauty had simply been worn over by the same drugs that made her interesting in the first place. So why was he still here? To finish his art of course, but more important, as he looked over these tarnished landscapes, he saw only wasted goods to build a new kingdom upon. And just as he had the resources to turn bitchboys into bitchmen, Eru Banala was looking to turn the remains of Gothic City into his personal utopia.

@jason_ford: @k_brimstone:

“NOOO!” Knightshadow yelled in his jet as he saw the Blue Blood die in the pod, and the archer’s arm being removed from his body.

Soon, the archer was placed in the containment pod within the jet along with the shadow lady and the Blue Blood. All of his equipment and armor was stripped from his body leaving him like the rest in just basic clothing. Knightshadow activated the medical functions of the archer’s pod to help clean and repair the wound. None of them could escape from his jet, all of the lights were activated reducing the shadows to almost nothing around the pods, and they were all bound by titanium cuffs connected to the wall of the pod. They were all neutralized within the Knight-wing MK 1. Now, Knightshadow programmed his secondary jet, the Knight-wing MK 2, to pick up all of the Ghost Crew who were unconscious in the building, since that jet had more pods and could carry them all.

I will make all of this right one way or another.

Meanwhile, Quantum had to deal with a firestorm of viruses heading his way. Random was way more advanced than his initial calculations, and it was especially true in Random’s domain. Quantum amy be the best A.I. when it came to hacking files on the Internet or on Knightshadow’s main computer, but when in Random’s domain, his main computer, Quantum was outgunned, without a backup plan, and his microsatellites were now….not being destroyed. Lead. Plain and simple was the main component of all of Knightshadow’s equipment. Useful against x-rays and enough to prevent most of the radiation from reaching the satellites, allowing them to continue working.

Quantum had only sent a message to Random, to his main computer, sort of like an e-mail. But when Random attacked back, Quantum was able to fight it off by using all sorts of firewalls, legal and illegal, from all countries and high-end companies of the world. This all was downloaded in seconds. Maybe this would hold off the viruses, maybe not, but it would buy hm some time.

</I thought I was a goner. Wait a minute, what do you think you're doing?/>

Quantum was making sure everything was working properly and configuring a new plan of attack, when he noticed that a small line of code was making its way into his systems erasing the location of Random’s main computer from his computer.

</Oh, no, you don’t/>

Activating Protocol: Tracer, which would prevent that small line of code from erasing the location, and the placing the file of Random’s location on his backup servers, which would be nigh-impossible to hack. Realizing that he would be foolish to continue a fight that he could possibly not finish, Quantum enacted Protocol: Cyber-Suicide.

“Quantum, how is it going with Random?” Knightshadow asked wondering what was going on between the two of them suddenly.

“N-not v-very g-good, s-sir,” Quantum replied.

“What is going on with you?”

“I’m done for. Random’s main computer is too powerful for my servers to fend off. Don’t worry though he won’t be able to hack the main computer, but for me, well, I’m not so lucky.”

“No, there is a way out. You’ll find it. You always do.”

“Not this time. Heh. But even in death, I will rise again.”

“What do you mean?”

“Goodbyyeieeeeejbajabjkdhvau, f-friendjkiw.”

“Quantum!!!!!! NOOOOO!!!!!!”

After hearing no response, Knightshadow checked all of his systems, and saw that Quantum’s A.I. code was not in his system. Knightshadow landed his jet, head held down, mourning for his friend, his only true friend who he trusted above anyone else.

What did he mean, though? Why did he say: ‘But even in death, I will rise again.’

Knightshadow then realized what he meant. It was a code he and Quantum developed together. It meant that Quantum faked his cyber-death so Random would stop trying to destroy him, so Random would calm down and stop trying to hack Quantum.

Heh. You sly b------.

Knightshadow stepped out his jet, heading towards Stone. Knightshadow might have not been angry at Random, but he was passed at Stone. He disregarded what he said about no killing, and nearly killed a potential prisoner and informant.

“Thanks, to both of you, for your assistance in this matter.” Knightshadow said in a deep, dark, intimidating yet raspy and demonic voice thanks to his voice modifier.

Then, suddenly, Knightshadow launched his fist at Stone’s face with all of his enhanced speed, yet holding back most of his strength, so there would be almost no chance for him to dodge. While it wouldn’t dislocate his jaw, it wouldn’t tickle either, and possibly knock him to the ground.

After the ordeal, he would say:

“That’s for making that man lose HIS ENTIRE FLIPIN’ ARM!!!!”

@k_brimstone: @knightshadow:

Shadow watched them with interest and a small smile. She seemed to not be fearful in the slightest about what was to happen. Cooper was clearly in pain, and shock, about the loss of his arm. And was more focused on that than anything else. This had been a dreadful event.

By now the submarine would have gone deep underwater, and also importantly the trackers would have been found and disposed of by being attacked to passerby fishes to trick them, even shortly.

This meant war, and a war with a man like Red Mask was not an easy one to win. He was as cunning as he was good at making weapons, and resourceful enough to continue functioning even without the income he had been getting previously from all the drug trading, although he still had significant income from out of town dealings he made especially with El Cid to smuggle the blue blood and the target locking acid to clients. Darkwing already had a plan. Most underestimated Shadow, which was good. And most importantly they had underestimated his and Red Masks loyalty to their soldiers, a big mistake.

Maybe if the guy hadn't been so angry that his body was telegraphing it, and maybe if he hadn't said the little dark and dangerous little "Thank you for your assistance," thing in that tone of voice, Stone wouldn't have seen it coming. However, this Devi-Bat guy was practically screaming "I'm gonna jack you up,"

Still, against his better judgement, the soldier didn't try to cut him in half with the SABR. He wasn't the enemy after all, just a well meaning, if misguided man with too much money, and if was so intent on not seriously hurting bad guys, he wasn't going to try to seriously injure either of them.

"Don't kill hmmPHnggCK!!"

The punch came in so fast he honestly hardly saw it, if it wasn't for the full face helmet Stone was wearing it might well have knocked him senseless. As it was a bright flash of light strobed behind his eyes, and he wobbled three full steps backward, barely maintaining his feet, not even hearing what they guy shouted.

Jeez this guy could hit.

@hound_of_war: Could you throw @victoradams on the heroes side under the name Vengeance please?

It grated, but Malcolm let the Mana Bolt Spell fall away from his mind as Brimstone requested he not kill this fool. Instead just as the loud CRACK of the punch resounded, he swiftly cast Unseen Hand of the Master's Will. An invisible fist of mana energy, the magical forces of the universe, sought to lock Knightshadow in an unbreakable restraint of will that would hold him in place as if a child held its favorite doll. It was an effort not to squeeze tighter.

He did not like Kyle Brimstone, the man was insufferable, short sighted, unbelievably self-righteous, and undoubtedly, foolishly, thought himself smarter and shrewder than the vigilante they were now facing. However, Malcolm had sworn an oath to to an allegiance to the man. The Wizard was constantly at odds with his own decision to walk the path of redemption he was now on, and Brimstone knew it. The former soldier had agreed to protect Malcolm from the forces that sought to kill the Warlock anyway, had agreed to risk his own life in order to help Malcolm try to live his own way. Brimstone had earned Treacle's respect if not his friendship.

If nothing else, he'd earned the right for Malcolm to kill the man himself. This clown in a costume had no right to touch his partner.

(whether or not Treacle's telekinesis hold worked...which there's no reason it shouldn't, but if)

Stone shook his head a bit to clear the spots from his eyes.

"Good punch." He allowed. There were several things that occurred to him to say, none of which would do any good considering his past dealings with costumed vigilantes. What is it with these costumed guys, anyway? He certainly wasn't going to waste time comparing Johnson's with this guy.

"You're wasting time," Stone said evenly, his usual calm not broken in the least. "I don't know if you've come across Red Mask and his people before, but I can assure you of two things. If that shadow woman is even still in your plane, it's because she wants to be there. Second, Red Mask is moving right now to get his people back...you seem like a reasonably bright guy, if that's what you're hoping for, fine. You're gonna need to be there when it happens, not screwing around with us."

He blinked a series of commands into the HUD to signal Treacle to stop whatever he was doing.

"We came in to try to help you, we even started out trying to play by your rules which weren't working, your computer started jacking around with ours which ended up killing a good two thirds of my effective systems, and you even blew out a wall...without so much as a 'fire in the hole' or any other type of warning which damaged my vehicle. Then, you hit me in the face." Stone listed off, voice still quite calm.

"I think I'm being pretty reasonable about all this." He continued, "Again, if I were you, I'd go handle my business before Red Mask rains on you, and in the future we'll try to stay out of each other's way."

With that, Treacle easily converted the Telekinetic Manipulation spell to remove the fallen wall off of The Brick, and straighten out the fender well enough so that the vehicle was at least able to drive. The effort forming a sheet of sweat over his forehead.

@jason_ford: @m-treacle: @k_brimstone:

"Well your not so clean either buddy. As I recall you took an entire man's arm off, brought in a psychotic A.I. that would probably want to fight my A.I. even if Quantum didn't start the whole thing, and you fired off several lethal rounds from you armored vehicle," Knightshadow said as he was being held by a telekinesis spell. When Wizard turned over and did what seemed to be the same spell, the telekinetic hold on Knightshadow was gone.

Must have converted the spell somehow or something.

After taking a few deep breaths, Knightshodow calmed his himself. When he saw that the Wizard was getting increasingly tired from the strain of multiple spells, Knightshadow walked over to him, and attempted to injected a nutrient/herb-based chemical that would give his body a lot of nutrients for his body since it must have been worn out. He did this with the same speed as he had delivered that punch at Stone.

"Sorry, this will help you a lot, especially when you wake up from your sleep."

Then, Knightshadow attempted injected some chemicals with a second vial with the same speed as before. This would make Wizard go to sleep almost instantly. Knightshadow didthis not because he was still angry, but saw that this man's magic put a huge strain on him, and thought it would be best if he were to help in recover.

(OOC: Plz, make it so he doesn't prevent me from making this happen. 1. I'm just trying to help him. 2. I have a great idea for a post so plz don't make him doge it or something. I mean brimstone can get confused and angry and yell "What did you do to him?!" and stuuf thats fine. I just have a really good idea for my next post or two. So ya. I mean you don't have to do this if you don't want to. I just have a good idea.)

@knightshadow: (OOC: The punching speed being that fast is cool, but Treacle is on the other side of The Brick away from where Knightshadow and Stone, you'd need to be a speedster to move that fast. Also, you didn't mention anything about Treacle's TK spell.)

@k_brimstone: (OOC: Sorry for the confusion. I just though that since he converted the spell, it meant he was no longer holding me, but rather affecting the car now. Does that make sense? Anyway, my guy is not a speedster (as you obviously mentioned) he just walked over there and then performed said actions. Will modify my post. Just give me a minute.)

(OOC: Sorry I tried to comply as much as possible, but I just couldn't do all of it and it make sense with how Treacle would behave...did my best)

The vigilante did two things rapidly. One that Treacle had deemed almost impossible, the other he'd have thought merely unlikely. Then he tried a third that was a deadly mistake.

First, he moved even faster than when he'd hit Brimstone with some sort of autoinjector and had either the luck, or foresight to inject him in the hand. Attempting to inject Malcolm through his jacket would have done no good given it's magically armored properties. Rage flared inside of The Wizard, fanned by the renewed energy from the injection. The spell of telekinesis snapped from repairing The Brick, to slamming into Knightshadow in an instant, interrupting the vigilante's sewing machine like follow up with the second injector. A new grip of magical force lifted Knighshadow from his feet with the sounds of protesting metals, plastics, and ceramics, Flames were visible within eyes of man once called the Burning Mage and the Matchstick Man, as the fist of magic began to close.

"Treacle, stop." Stone called tightly. "Man, it's over. Let him go." Treacle was an asshole, and justifiably pissed, but things were starting to go too far.

Stone moved just out of arms's reach to The Wizard, making sure Treacle could see him. Malcolm saw the fool, it just didn't matter. He was beyond caring what these insects thought. This piece of slime had not only touched him, but had put chemicals into his body. Among all his other mistakes this night, this one would cost him his life.

"Treacle, STOP IT!" Kyle barked loudly, turning up the PA system. Dammit, he might kill this guy...scratch that, he was GOING to kill this guy, or at least try very hard. Stone snapped the SABR rifle up and painted the aiming laser onto Treacle's forehead.

"Man, don't make me do this. I hate your guts, but I don't want to drop you." His typical calm dropping a bit. Keeping cool under high stress was one thing. Having to murder a comrade, even a pain in the ass comrade? Quite another. He had one final idea.

"MALCOLM!" Brimstone blinked the comm system over to one way transmission into Malcolm's ear, and max volume. Between the two of them, using each other's first names was the ultimate warning of devastating danger. If that didn't work, nothing Kyle could do would, short of pulling the trigger.

Though still hot with anger, Malcolm's eyes cleared, and he released the spell. He walked stiffly between Brimstone and the vigilante, and to his side of The Brick.

"If you ever touch me again." He said as he entered the vehicle, "One of is going to die." He made sure that Brimstone understood that as well.

@k_brimstone: @knightshadow: @m-treacle: (OOC: No, no it's fine with me. Actually you made this better than I hoped.)

"It wasn't chemicals, it was a nutrient/herb supplement in liquid form," Knightshadow croaked, while rubbing his neck.

Man, this guy is powerful. And dangerous. The armor wall less effective against his magic. Then again, magic and physics are on whole different levels of the universe.

"I was trying to help you recover from the battle, if you guys really trusted me like I trusted you. I wouldn't have been dangling in the air like in those Star Wars movie's."

Before any of them could say anything, Knightshadow held up his hand, signaling he was not finished.

"I would like to explain what I mean by this. I took a risk of TRUSTING you, two, in this battle. I could have easily just handled this on my own, but I decided to let you, guys, join in. Yes, there was a few bumps along the road such as the A.I.'s, and the fact that I didn't warn you about the wall. I couldn't, because I was too focused on dodging the laser's from the sub."

Not sure if I'm lying to myself or them about letting them join in. It was more of a spur of the moment type thing.

"Next, the chemicals in my injector were a liquid form of sleeping drugs developed by me. Completely safe. If you don't believe of any of what I said, I don't care. I was only trying to look out for a teammate. If you want to rest, and wake up like you never cast those spells, Wizard, I will happily give you the sleeping drug," Knightshadow said his words full of honesty and conviction.

Lifting himself off the ground, Knightshadow made sure the nothing got broken.

Everything is fine. Neck hurts like heck, though.

"Also, I TRUST you guys enough, and the size of this situation might be too big for me. I plan on taking you guys to one of my bases that is just outside of the city. Just hop into my jet that I just landed, and I will take you guys there. We have some prisoners to interrogate, and you might want to contact your A.I. Random. I'm sure he can help a lot with the interrogation. Also, I can erpair your guys vehicle I'll have my second jet pick it up. Oh, and one last thing, Stone, Wizard, sorry for being such a jackash."

With that all out of the way, Knightshadow waited for their responses.

(OOC: Jason Ford: Just to let you know that all of the Ghost Crew who are still alive but unconscious and are not Blue Bloods, all of them are placed in containment pods in my Knight-Wing MK2, and are stripped of all of their useful equipment, and leaving them in their basic clothing.

@knightshadow: @m-treacle:

Stone absorbed all this and gave it a brief brain dump. He didn't have much time as anything involving Red Mask was time sensitive as Hell. Finally, he spoke to Treacle over the secure net:

"I don't have time to explain, but I have to go. If you don't that's fine, I get it, up to you, but I have to." Then he broke his end of the communication, leaving it open for Treacle to respond if he wanted to, as always.

"Let's get moving, we don't have time to debate. Red Mask's already in motion I promise. Leave The Brick, it'll protect itself, we're going to keep Random as far out of this as at all possible. Best thing, believe me. We'll worry about who's sorry to who when all this is done." Stone wasn't going to let his ego, a few FUBARs in relation to two combat units trying to mesh on the field for the first time, and wonderful personality conflicts jack up a possible ally against Red Mask. He shouldered his three long weapons and headed toward the jet.

"I'm coming," Treacle announced as he closed his door and strode toward Brimstone, then fixed the vigilante with his gaze, "I don't care what you were trying to do. Never touch me again."

"And then there's that..." Stone noted. "What do we call you by the way?"

@knightshadow: @m-treacle:

"You three are just so adorable." Lindsey called out, "Interrogation?" She chuckled, "For the Ghost Crew, utterly pointless, the ones who aren't loyal to Red Mask wouldn't tell anything for fear of him. The Archer is just about as loyal as they come. And me, well, I know just about every trick that could be used in combat by any normal human and beyond. That includes turning pain to mere experience." She laughed again watching them smiling happily.