Post by Bergy on Feb 20, 2015 6:46:21 GMT
Guardian
Male
Reach City
Street Level
Hero
Background
“Have you decided to join up yet?” The Surgeon asked me the question as he sliced through another of the big, grey monsters, his slim form dancing back and forth. Even with the bodies of a few pedestrians unlucky enough to be on the street nearby, the Surgeon was focused on my answer.
“I'm not sure,” I was only a few feet away from him, arcs of lightning leaving my fingertips and stopping the hulking figures in their tracks. “I've heard some pretty-shit!” I narrowly ducked a massive fist.
Usually I didn't go for skinnier guys, especially not ones any older than 30, but there was something alluring, exciting even, about him. But this wasn't the moment to think about hitting the showers with an older crime fighter, it was time for firing back hard into the gut of the giant thing that swung at me.
“What was that kid?”
“Well, before I got so RUDELY interrupted, I was just saying that I've heard some pretty sketchy things about the hounds.”
The last of the grey monsters fell to a tornado of steel, as the Surgeon's white and silver form spun furiously.
“All the greats had a bad rep in their day, Sparky. Just think of Malcolm X, he wasn't exactly popular with the authority. Tbe Hounds are the only ones doing anything worthwhile to stop the assholes in this city. If you want to make a difference, then you have to say to hell with your reputation.”
Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping after blasting through a few monsters back to back with a well known hero, maybe it was the look in his dark brown eyes, or maybe it was just that “The Hounds” sounded way cooler than “Squad G” to a 17 year old. Whatever the reason, I made my decision then and there that the Hounds were the guys to go with.
Personality.
It was a couple weeks between when I said yes and when I took my first steps into a Hound base. They weren't as open as Aegis was, there wasn't any place you could walk by on the street, or run to in a crisis if you hadn't been initiated.
And the Surgeon hadn't taken me more than 5 feet into the back of the liquor store before the topic of my initiation came up, and before I had a chance to get my bearings, I was outside a warehouse on the docks.
“So...” I started nervously, looking around at the masks that surrounded me. A few elected for simple ski masks. Some, like the Surgeon and Brick, went with something more ornate. I wore what I always did back then, a hooded sweatshirt and a clay mask. It looked a lot like the ones ninjas wore in manga. “What exactly are we doing here?”
“Well sparky,” the Surgeon said slowly, “there's a certain expectation here in the hounds. You see, you aren't really a part of the pack yet, you have to earn that.”
“Alright,” I said, a little excited, “I'll earn it then, and when I do you have to stop calling me sparky. What do I need to do?”
“You need to get your first kill,” I think it was the first time I had heard Brick speak. He was big, strong, looked like his name suggested.
His response made my stomach sink. “Whoa whoa, I have to kill somebody tonight?”
“If you want in the Hounds, then yeah,” the Surgeon explained. “Look around you kid, everyone here has killed, each of us more than once. It's how we actually keep the crime off the streets. Nothing's more effective in stopping a criminal than stopping its heart.” My face may have been hidden, but he could still read me like an open book. “The first one is always the hardest. But it's the only real way to make an impact around here. Besides, it's not like whoever we kill doesn't have it coming.”
I swallowed hard. “Ok, then what did whoever's in there do?”
“Remember those grey assholes we were fighting the other day? They were summoned up by some witches, and they're holed up inside.”
I hesitated to respond, so the Surgeon continued. “If you're having second thoughts Sparky, think of the bodies in the street. There's gonna be a lot more if we don't take care of this.”
“Alright... let's do it.”
Brick was the first one through the door. And I mean literally through the door, he smashed through it headfirst. The Surgeon and the other Hounds followed close behind. By the time I was inside, Brick had a middle-aged woman pinned.
That's what I expected, someone older and experienced. Somebody who was capable of doing damage. But when I stepped over to the Surgeon, he was holding a blade to another woman's neck.
Woman is actually a poor way to describe her. She could have been my age really. She was already bleeding a bit from her torso.
“LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE!” Brick shoved the woman's head down face first.
“Can it lady.” He looked over at me and the Surgeon. “So, which one is the kid doing first?”
The girl was crying. “I'm sorry,” she whimpered. “I didn't mean to... I was just practicing. I didn't want to hurt anyone. Please don't-” The surgeon smacked her with the flat side of his sword.
“Don't let them in get in your head Sparky,” he commanded.
“But, look at them. It's just a mom and her kid.” The surgeon's brow narrowed as I spoke. “Couldn't we just turn them over to Aegis or something?”
“Look kid, either you kill them or we will. But if you back out now, you're never making it into the Hounds.”
For the first time, he wasn't getting in my head. I could feel the electricity crackling in my skin.
“I'm not killing them, and neither are you. We'll let Aegis or the cops handle this. We're not killing a crying teenager.” My voice was solid, stern. Final.
The Surgeon was taken back, but only for a moment. “Get out Sparky. This obviously isn't for you.” He nodded to Brick. “We're taking care of this.”
The Surgeon raised his sword, Brick raised a fist...
Electricity, Rank 2, Ranged
And I fired a hard bolt of lighting at both of them. Brick took it in the chest and went flying. The Surgeon's blade absorbed his. He only went back a few feet, but it was enough for me to stand between him and the girl.
The other Hounds were rushing me from the other side of the room, but were cut off halfway. Two giant, red demons appeared in front of them. Their horns curved back like a ram's, their legs ended in large hooves, and their skin looked like molten rock. They were well over 15 feet tall each.
The older witch had moved into position between the other hounds and her daughter. Brick had moved around to stand by the Surgeon. The two of them were facing off with me.
“You handle them,” the witch instructed. “I'll take the others.” Green energy was forming in her hands as she spoke.
“Do me a favor, because I don't want to regret saving you,” I said. “Don't kill them.”
She nodded at me, and I turned my attention back to the Surgeon and Brick.
They ran forward at me, and I fired at them again. Brick braced, but the bolt of lightning still sent him backwards. But the Surgeon was too quick for it. He pirouetted out of the way. Anything I fired directly at him wasn't going to do it. I needed to slow him down.
Power Manipulation, Rank 1, Area Effect
I aimed a hand at the ground, and electricity shot from my fingertips. The charge carried through the floor, spreading across the area. The Surgeon had to dance backwards, sideways, any direction he could go that the lightning wasn't.
I shot arcs out across either side of him, forcing him into a narrow funnel between the coursing electricity. His gaze shot up at me, a look of alarm in his eyes. He realized my plan a second too late. As the charge in the floor kept him in place, the electricity built up in my hands. There bolts were too powerful for him to fully redirect, and I sent him flying back against the warehouse wall.
He was down, but I had been too focused on him. Brick was back in the action, and I only saw his fist coming a second before it hit.
Reflection, Rank 2
I can't say it didn't hurt. I don't think that powerful of a fist had ever made contact with my cheek before. But there's an advantage to having lightning constantly coursing through your skin. The electricity discharged through my face, knocking away Brick's fist.
He held onto his hand, the flesh was harshly burnt. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled. “I oughta take your head off!”
I wasn't going to give him a chance. The lightning arced through the air, and Brick buzzed with it for a few seconds before passing out.
I turned back around. The older witch had forced the other hounds into a corner, and there were now four of the demons. She was firing the green energy into the cornered group.
And there he was. The Surgeon could really take a beating. He was closing in on the witch, his sword readied. I shouted to her, but she couldn't hear me over the cacophony of magic and screams of Hounds. I had to handle it.
Magnetism, Rank 1
I could still feel the ionic charge of my earlier attacks in the Surgeon. I fired into the wall on the other side of the warehouse.
The Surgeon slowed, stopped, and as he looked back at me with disgust, he began flying towards where I had charged the wall. He slammed into it, and the charge popped. He was finally out of the fight.
The witch had finished with her group, and was headed back in my direction. We had been on the same side in the fight, but I was still nervous about her approach. Most people who summon demons aren't the nicest type. And one who had just taken down six hounds, among which were one who could melt steel and another who could shake apart buildings, was especially intimidating.
But she wasn't concerned with me. Instead, she rushed to her daughter's side. The girl was still sobbing, and she winced with pain as her mother waved some blue magic over her wound.
The older witch looked up at me. “It was an accident,” she said. “The Egrauts in the street a couple weeks ago.” She continued tending to her daughter. “She got in over her head, didn't mean to hurt anyone.” She paused, focusing as she finished up.
“You should leave town,” I said. “They'll come back after you,” I gestured at the fallen Hounds.
“I know.” She helped her daughter to her feet, then took out a small notepad and a pencil. “Here, go to this address in Little Lovecraft in a few weeks. Ask for Jared at the front desk. And say exactly this.”
She handed me a piece of paper. It had an address, and the phrase “Do you have any wolfsbane?”
She continued. “What are you going to do?”
“I'm really not sure. I've got other offers in town, but it may not be safe for me.”
“Who are the other offers from?”
“Aegis invited me to join Squad G. And then there's some old dude, never gave me his real name. Just wanted me to call him 'The Old Man.'”
She raised an eyebrow at the monicker. “You don't say.” She put her arm around her daughter and headed for the door. “You'd be in good hands with him. I know I may not be the best person to tell you this, but going with him is a good choice. You'll be safe from the Hounds, and you can do some real good then. I know he's putting a team together for just that. And he probably won't ask you to kill any teenagers.” She started walking out with her daughter. “Tell him the witch says hello.”
She paused a moment just before the door to ask me another question. “What do you call yourself kid?”
“Well, until now I was going with 'Sparky.' But, I'm trying to change that...”
“I have a suggestion. Guardian. Try it out.” She left with her daughter.
Guardian. I like it.
I looked at the 'heroes' lying around me, and thought about my options. Oh hell, why not? I can't do much worse taking a chance with some old guy I've only met once. Right?
Male
Reach City
Street Level
Hero
Background
“Have you decided to join up yet?” The Surgeon asked me the question as he sliced through another of the big, grey monsters, his slim form dancing back and forth. Even with the bodies of a few pedestrians unlucky enough to be on the street nearby, the Surgeon was focused on my answer.
“I'm not sure,” I was only a few feet away from him, arcs of lightning leaving my fingertips and stopping the hulking figures in their tracks. “I've heard some pretty-shit!” I narrowly ducked a massive fist.
Usually I didn't go for skinnier guys, especially not ones any older than 30, but there was something alluring, exciting even, about him. But this wasn't the moment to think about hitting the showers with an older crime fighter, it was time for firing back hard into the gut of the giant thing that swung at me.
“What was that kid?”
“Well, before I got so RUDELY interrupted, I was just saying that I've heard some pretty sketchy things about the hounds.”
The last of the grey monsters fell to a tornado of steel, as the Surgeon's white and silver form spun furiously.
“All the greats had a bad rep in their day, Sparky. Just think of Malcolm X, he wasn't exactly popular with the authority. Tbe Hounds are the only ones doing anything worthwhile to stop the assholes in this city. If you want to make a difference, then you have to say to hell with your reputation.”
Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping after blasting through a few monsters back to back with a well known hero, maybe it was the look in his dark brown eyes, or maybe it was just that “The Hounds” sounded way cooler than “Squad G” to a 17 year old. Whatever the reason, I made my decision then and there that the Hounds were the guys to go with.
Personality.
It was a couple weeks between when I said yes and when I took my first steps into a Hound base. They weren't as open as Aegis was, there wasn't any place you could walk by on the street, or run to in a crisis if you hadn't been initiated.
And the Surgeon hadn't taken me more than 5 feet into the back of the liquor store before the topic of my initiation came up, and before I had a chance to get my bearings, I was outside a warehouse on the docks.
“So...” I started nervously, looking around at the masks that surrounded me. A few elected for simple ski masks. Some, like the Surgeon and Brick, went with something more ornate. I wore what I always did back then, a hooded sweatshirt and a clay mask. It looked a lot like the ones ninjas wore in manga. “What exactly are we doing here?”
“Well sparky,” the Surgeon said slowly, “there's a certain expectation here in the hounds. You see, you aren't really a part of the pack yet, you have to earn that.”
“Alright,” I said, a little excited, “I'll earn it then, and when I do you have to stop calling me sparky. What do I need to do?”
“You need to get your first kill,” I think it was the first time I had heard Brick speak. He was big, strong, looked like his name suggested.
His response made my stomach sink. “Whoa whoa, I have to kill somebody tonight?”
“If you want in the Hounds, then yeah,” the Surgeon explained. “Look around you kid, everyone here has killed, each of us more than once. It's how we actually keep the crime off the streets. Nothing's more effective in stopping a criminal than stopping its heart.” My face may have been hidden, but he could still read me like an open book. “The first one is always the hardest. But it's the only real way to make an impact around here. Besides, it's not like whoever we kill doesn't have it coming.”
I swallowed hard. “Ok, then what did whoever's in there do?”
“Remember those grey assholes we were fighting the other day? They were summoned up by some witches, and they're holed up inside.”
I hesitated to respond, so the Surgeon continued. “If you're having second thoughts Sparky, think of the bodies in the street. There's gonna be a lot more if we don't take care of this.”
“Alright... let's do it.”
Brick was the first one through the door. And I mean literally through the door, he smashed through it headfirst. The Surgeon and the other Hounds followed close behind. By the time I was inside, Brick had a middle-aged woman pinned.
That's what I expected, someone older and experienced. Somebody who was capable of doing damage. But when I stepped over to the Surgeon, he was holding a blade to another woman's neck.
Woman is actually a poor way to describe her. She could have been my age really. She was already bleeding a bit from her torso.
“LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE!” Brick shoved the woman's head down face first.
“Can it lady.” He looked over at me and the Surgeon. “So, which one is the kid doing first?”
The girl was crying. “I'm sorry,” she whimpered. “I didn't mean to... I was just practicing. I didn't want to hurt anyone. Please don't-” The surgeon smacked her with the flat side of his sword.
“Don't let them in get in your head Sparky,” he commanded.
“But, look at them. It's just a mom and her kid.” The surgeon's brow narrowed as I spoke. “Couldn't we just turn them over to Aegis or something?”
“Look kid, either you kill them or we will. But if you back out now, you're never making it into the Hounds.”
For the first time, he wasn't getting in my head. I could feel the electricity crackling in my skin.
“I'm not killing them, and neither are you. We'll let Aegis or the cops handle this. We're not killing a crying teenager.” My voice was solid, stern. Final.
The Surgeon was taken back, but only for a moment. “Get out Sparky. This obviously isn't for you.” He nodded to Brick. “We're taking care of this.”
The Surgeon raised his sword, Brick raised a fist...
Electricity, Rank 2, Ranged
And I fired a hard bolt of lighting at both of them. Brick took it in the chest and went flying. The Surgeon's blade absorbed his. He only went back a few feet, but it was enough for me to stand between him and the girl.
The other Hounds were rushing me from the other side of the room, but were cut off halfway. Two giant, red demons appeared in front of them. Their horns curved back like a ram's, their legs ended in large hooves, and their skin looked like molten rock. They were well over 15 feet tall each.
The older witch had moved into position between the other hounds and her daughter. Brick had moved around to stand by the Surgeon. The two of them were facing off with me.
“You handle them,” the witch instructed. “I'll take the others.” Green energy was forming in her hands as she spoke.
“Do me a favor, because I don't want to regret saving you,” I said. “Don't kill them.”
She nodded at me, and I turned my attention back to the Surgeon and Brick.
They ran forward at me, and I fired at them again. Brick braced, but the bolt of lightning still sent him backwards. But the Surgeon was too quick for it. He pirouetted out of the way. Anything I fired directly at him wasn't going to do it. I needed to slow him down.
Power Manipulation, Rank 1, Area Effect
I aimed a hand at the ground, and electricity shot from my fingertips. The charge carried through the floor, spreading across the area. The Surgeon had to dance backwards, sideways, any direction he could go that the lightning wasn't.
I shot arcs out across either side of him, forcing him into a narrow funnel between the coursing electricity. His gaze shot up at me, a look of alarm in his eyes. He realized my plan a second too late. As the charge in the floor kept him in place, the electricity built up in my hands. There bolts were too powerful for him to fully redirect, and I sent him flying back against the warehouse wall.
He was down, but I had been too focused on him. Brick was back in the action, and I only saw his fist coming a second before it hit.
Reflection, Rank 2
I can't say it didn't hurt. I don't think that powerful of a fist had ever made contact with my cheek before. But there's an advantage to having lightning constantly coursing through your skin. The electricity discharged through my face, knocking away Brick's fist.
He held onto his hand, the flesh was harshly burnt. “You son of a bitch!” he yelled. “I oughta take your head off!”
I wasn't going to give him a chance. The lightning arced through the air, and Brick buzzed with it for a few seconds before passing out.
I turned back around. The older witch had forced the other hounds into a corner, and there were now four of the demons. She was firing the green energy into the cornered group.
And there he was. The Surgeon could really take a beating. He was closing in on the witch, his sword readied. I shouted to her, but she couldn't hear me over the cacophony of magic and screams of Hounds. I had to handle it.
Magnetism, Rank 1
I could still feel the ionic charge of my earlier attacks in the Surgeon. I fired into the wall on the other side of the warehouse.
The Surgeon slowed, stopped, and as he looked back at me with disgust, he began flying towards where I had charged the wall. He slammed into it, and the charge popped. He was finally out of the fight.
The witch had finished with her group, and was headed back in my direction. We had been on the same side in the fight, but I was still nervous about her approach. Most people who summon demons aren't the nicest type. And one who had just taken down six hounds, among which were one who could melt steel and another who could shake apart buildings, was especially intimidating.
But she wasn't concerned with me. Instead, she rushed to her daughter's side. The girl was still sobbing, and she winced with pain as her mother waved some blue magic over her wound.
The older witch looked up at me. “It was an accident,” she said. “The Egrauts in the street a couple weeks ago.” She continued tending to her daughter. “She got in over her head, didn't mean to hurt anyone.” She paused, focusing as she finished up.
“You should leave town,” I said. “They'll come back after you,” I gestured at the fallen Hounds.
“I know.” She helped her daughter to her feet, then took out a small notepad and a pencil. “Here, go to this address in Little Lovecraft in a few weeks. Ask for Jared at the front desk. And say exactly this.”
She handed me a piece of paper. It had an address, and the phrase “Do you have any wolfsbane?”
She continued. “What are you going to do?”
“I'm really not sure. I've got other offers in town, but it may not be safe for me.”
“Who are the other offers from?”
“Aegis invited me to join Squad G. And then there's some old dude, never gave me his real name. Just wanted me to call him 'The Old Man.'”
She raised an eyebrow at the monicker. “You don't say.” She put her arm around her daughter and headed for the door. “You'd be in good hands with him. I know I may not be the best person to tell you this, but going with him is a good choice. You'll be safe from the Hounds, and you can do some real good then. I know he's putting a team together for just that. And he probably won't ask you to kill any teenagers.” She started walking out with her daughter. “Tell him the witch says hello.”
She paused a moment just before the door to ask me another question. “What do you call yourself kid?”
“Well, until now I was going with 'Sparky.' But, I'm trying to change that...”
“I have a suggestion. Guardian. Try it out.” She left with her daughter.
Guardian. I like it.
I looked at the 'heroes' lying around me, and thought about my options. Oh hell, why not? I can't do much worse taking a chance with some old guy I've only met once. Right?
