This is where the heroes will play. Paragon City is the setting.

Desks are scattered around the teleporter Mittens is repeatedly measuring.  She frequently re-checks the measurements and returns to clicking on the nearby laptop.  "Was that 3 2/3 desks from the floor or from the platform?" she mutters to herself, brows furrowed, lips skewed to one side,  "How the heck am I supposed to make that diagonal?!"

Timothius sneaks up behind Mittens and glomps her. "Gotchya!" he exclaims as he hugs. "Take a break. Your brain'll figure it out if you relax some." Timothius loves how Mittens has beaten super-powerful villains and such, but she is so easily distracted she can be snuck up on even by him.

Mittens is totally taken by surprise!  o.O  She does that freeze-up spasm people do when startled, but fortunately doesn't knock the laptop off it's stand.

"Relax you say?" she answers calmly, trying to hide how startled she was, "What'd you have in mind?  Watch cartoons?  Go out for pizza?"

The word alone is enough to make her mouth water.  "Lunch time already?!" she thinks to herself, "I haven't eaten since breakfast!"

Timothius grins. "Sounds good. But I had going on patrol in mind. Maybe a few missions just the two of us." Compaired to base building, Timothius knows Mittens would probably consider missions much more relaxing.

"Sounds fun!" she answers enthusiastically, "BRB"

With that she begins the mysterious magic of changing to scrapper mode.  Poof!  New costume, badges, inventory, etc.



"Talos here we come!"  She super speeds to the portal marked "T"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:02, Sun 27 July 2008.

  It’s a known fact that Paragon city, let alone Atlas Park has a Police force, along with Longbow, etc etc.

  Quite often they aid Heroic types by telling them where problems are occurring, or soon will occur.  And while some might wonder why the police don’t act on their own tips for lower risk problems, the Police force does its job.  Just ask any villain trying to rob a bank, ever.  They wonder if they ever take days off.

  Of course, there are some downsides to this arrangement.

  One such example when certain heroes were given information with the expectation they go off and save innocent people before they could die.  An attack is imminent, the ones who will be caught in the situation are about the only ones who don’t know about it...

  It has been six hours since the shall-remain-nameless hero was told of the situation.
  “Okay, I’ve gone to Wentworths, finally found colors I like for my costume, found the noteworthy parts of the landscape, and prevented two purse snatchings.  I guess I should deal with this now.”
  And with that, they entered the building intent on busting the skulls of some Skulls, and bask in the thanks of rescued party goers who probably would have kept running back and forth in a panic without him to guide them...

  “**** OMG Buged!”  Whatever the heck that means, it could be heard by a man on the other side of town with a recently acquired fire axe, trying to convince a vendor to actually sell him one of the newspapers they keep advertising.

  “I think I just came from there?”
  “Hey, What’s up? You want the scoop? I’m your guy.”
  “...I’ll just leave the money on the pile.”

  Once again,  Joe Darkthorne was reminded that there were stranger things than taking up an ‘In Case Of Emergency Break Glass’ sign up on its offer, and putting its contents to use.  And gaining access to spacetime portals because you shattered the fourth wall’s kneecaps.

Timothius dons his scrapper gear also and follows Mittens to Talos Island, super speed style. He taps at his police radio and overhears about some Skulls starting some trouble again. "Oh good... Skulls!" he says cheerfully, preferring to fight them instead of, say, Circle of Thorns. He selects the mission. "Mission set, Mittens. Which one's closer?"

"Like you have to ask..." Mittens answers as she re-checks the details of her lead, "Yup.  Yours."

Within seconds, she's barging through the office door that leads to the Skulls cave hide-out!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:20, Sun 27 July 2008.

Timothius arrives with Mittens at the location of the Skulls' "hideout" which, of course, is no longer hidden. The same area, of course, would be reported to Joe via his newspaper should he check. More Skulls to bust!

  Joe had been looking for the comics and pizza coupons, but that’s the section with the previously mentioned hint hint in it.

  Joe considered his options.  He could just move on with his life, plus free fire axe.  It wasn’t as if there was any dramatic reason he’d keep risking his life.

  “Why did I bother any... Oh come on.”  Joe was given a convenient view of some of the local Atlas Park Skulls through new and inconvenient bullet holes in his newspaper.

  About eighty seconds later, they were hacked to oblivion with a fire axe arrested.  “Oh, right.  I did it because they suck and I hate them.”  And with that, Joe put the wonders of public transportation to use.

  There have been better, more well thought out reasons for fighting crime.  But at least the only whining about his parents you’ll hear from Joe is how certain relatives are idiots.

The good looking magnificent Dre was walking around atlas just checking out all the hot super hero's around the area searching for entertainment as he was bored this very day which is very unusual for him. Being a low class hero theres not much to do in the city except walk around and be useless for awhile but oh well he was dretastic and he could pull of anything. As he walked he wished that some unknown hero to him would walk up and invite him into a group so he could kick some bad guy butt that was his favorite thing to do especially those purse nappers... "Dang them purse nappers, always causing trouble for my lil old ladies... hmmph" Dre thought to himself. He continued to walk the path just twiddling his thumbs and humming a tune he had in is head all day

Timothius has entered the hideout with Mittens and pulls out his sword. He smiles at Mittens and winks before charging in and starting to cause some serious punishment on the Skulls. Poor guys never had a chance. But the number seems pretty high and these Skulls are tougher than normal. Probably because the Skulls heard Mittens was coming and the people in town know Mittens has a reputation for being Unyielding...

Not too far away from Dretastic was a soon-to-be hero named Maverick who most would simply overlook as some goth kid thanks to his "leave me alone" expression and black clothing. And by kid, I mean this boy is only 8 years old. He watches yet another spandex-wearing hero walking the streets and kicking the butt of purse-nappers. Maverick looks over his recently acquired hero license and looks back towards the hero. Well he'll never blend with a muscle-bound spandexer like Dre... but then there were few, if any, that Maverick feels he would blend in with anyways. So he goes to Dre and says, "Greetings. Word is there is a Skulls hideout nearby." Maverick doesn't have a police radio yet, but he tends to gather information in many ways. "Interested?" he asks the great, dashing Dretastic.

Amid a whirlwind of parries, slashes, and gunfire, Mittens uses the PPHUD (Paragon Police heads up display) to search for people to invite to the team.

"You wunna just duo or shall we invite more?" she asks her brother, "Not much available out there."

Without waiting for a reply, she sends Joe, Dre, Maverick, and a few others a direct message: "Interested in a Talos Island team?"

(ooc: LOL!  Joe... Dre...  L O L ! )

‘I’ve skipped straight past the first sign of madness into the later stages surprisingly swiftly’ Sudden development of voices in ones head, suggesting they team up probably wasn’t a good sign.

  ...Oh, right.  The wonders of modern phone technology where there was no such thing as unlisted numbers.  A fact that was also made more clear due to other obvious details.

  “I needed to be on a team to commit acts of sensible violence?”  He asked.  The similar use of communications technology was skipped through the wonders of being five feet away from who he was talking to, hence why he could figure who was doing the asking.

  “The door was open.  You’d think they would lock them, but then again I guess wooden doors probably wouldn’t hold up to much.”  Yes, Joe had entered a populated mission without actually joining a team yet.

  But that made more sense than an office building door leading to a cave.

Dre looks down onto the little emo looking boy, he  gets a smirks on his face and runs his fingers through his sexy super hero blue and green haircut that he just got the other day to match his very sexy blue and green spandex that his grandmother made for him so he could one day find him a wifey that he promised to her before she passed away. "Hello there" Dre says as he reaches his hand down to the small boy.

"Skulls... egg they are pathetic scum of the universe..." Dre looks at the small boy and then raises his mighty fist to the sky "BY THE POWER OF PARGON, I HAVE THE POWER!!!" Dre says this as he pulls his hero license from the middle of his spandex pants "to whoops some evil doers butt" he looks down to the small boy to make sure he was still there and paying close to his witty antics.

Dre suddenly begins to get a telepathic message from a hero name mittens calling for help on a talos island?.... dre gets a puzzling look... "Is it just me or do I hear voices in my head?... I'm confused".

Dre stands there for a minute looking at maverick then pulls out his boom box and starts to play I'm to sexy song and dances around like a idiot in front of everybody in the surrounding area waiting to get a response from him.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:12, Tue 05 Aug 2008.

Maverick was certainly... impacted by Dretastic as he just kinda looks up at him with an helpless expression that shows he's trying not to laugh. At the sight of Dre's hero license, Maverick silently wonders what kind of name Dretastic is. But to the comment of voices in his head, Maverick ohs and replies, "Not just you... I heard the request also. C'mon... I'll show you the way to Talos."

With that, Maverick heads towards the train station, making sure Dretastic follows him. On the way, he uses the tell system right back to Mittens. "On my way. Bringing a guy named Dretastic with me. May take a while... I'm in Atlas Park."

He also wonders what kind of name Mittens is for a Superhero, but figures he'll probably see weirder if the past minute was any indication.

Timothius shrugs to Mittens' question. "You know me. In this duo, since we can pull such weight it barely matters how badly the other heroes perform, I don't mind. But thanks for asking... find anyone?" after all... Timothius knows Mittens well and figured she was already on the lookout before he even answered.

The skulls are numerous. Not overwhelming, but at this rate, Timothius and Mittens would take a long time to achieve the goal. So it's probably just as well more heroes were coming. To the one already there, Timothius said "Welcome to the team, fellow hero!" with a broad smile and a casual salute.

  “Thanks.  Was there anyone you wanted dealt with through violence more than otherow.  I saw that.  Hiding the shotgun behind your back won’t help.”  Clearly, circumstances had answered his interrupted question for him.

  The thought had occurred to Joe that all it would take would be one yoinked Skulls mask to look just like them.  But he doubted that would work out so well due to A) spooky voodoorwhatever mask thing.  B) The fact that probably only heroes would fall for it knowing his luck.

  “Was it just convincing them to stop being jerks with the exact same methods they use, or was there a more specific goal like preventing freaked out innocents from running into cave walls in their aimless panic?”

Dre follows the young boy moving and bopping his head as he moves to a tune is his head. He looks at his surroundings as the two of them travel to the station making sure to check out all the other n00b super hero's customs out as he passes by them, giving cat calls to all the good looking super-chicks and grabbing as many cell phone numbers as he can. Smiling and laughing he pulls out his cell phone and looks at his list of numbers he got today.

"Soooooooooooooooooo Mavvy" How much further to the station-wation my feet are killing me and I'm kind of bored"

Dre stops in his tracks as a super-fine-feline walks past him he watches her pass and and gives her a shrill whistle. "YOOOOOOOO hey there girl!" The Super-Chick gives Dre a disgusted look and keeps walking past. Dre doesn't mind as he watches the females nice booty move side to side as she walks away. Once the super-chick is out of sight Dre looks down to Mavrick to see if he was still alive and kicking, as he waits for Mavrick to respond he pulls a map of atlas park out of his pants trying to read it upside down dre finally got the bright idea of flipping the map right side up as he trys to find their location on the map
This message was last edited by the player at 15:36, Tue 05 Aug 2008.

Mittens greets the heroes as they arrive with her typical happy wave.  ^.^/

Once again through the magic of her standard issue PHUD, she offers to Joe that he become her sidekick for the duration of the team (so that through the miracle of science he'll be able to not miss point-blank range Skulls that would have otherwise been far too evasive for him to hit.)  Why the hero licensing department doesn't bother teaching new heroes how to use this amazing nano-tech device is in the same category of face-palm facts of life as the fact that the user's manual doesn't cover how to use it well either.  One might think that Arachnos is somehow responsible for this clearly insidious evil, except that new villains suffer from the same handicap.  At least the mysteries of the universe don't favor evil over good.

She then requests what seems obvious to her.  "Timothius, SK Mav when he shows up.  Someone SK Dretastic when he shows up."

The latter request directed to two heroes who are in the team but haven't arrived on the scene yet.  Finding that 8th member always seems to elude Mittens, but why the PHUD can't handle a 9th is an even deeper mystery.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:17, Thu 07 Aug 2008.

  How does one tell someone is the sidekick to someone?

  Joe didn’t have a cape at all, so there wasn’t the ‘they have a shorter cape’ situation.
  He also had pants while the one he was working with lacked them most of the time.
  Bright colors compared to dark colors?  No, red shirt and blue jeans were still darker than white and gold.
  The Batman and Robin comparison for Hero and Sidekick easy identification had failed...  Wait, wasn’t there another thing?

  Joe pulled a small black eyemask out of his pocket. “...Nah.”  On second thought, who cares?  It was time to go all Jack Torrance on the Skulls.  Only he wouldn’t get lost and freeze to death in a hedge maze.

Maverick points to the train station. Seeing Dre get distracted by some pretty girl, and what Dre says, Maverick turns red with embarrassment, knowing that girl is probably thinking Dre is Maverick's dad. He manages to calm himself down some, though, and remembers Dre is just a guy with a sense of humor. At least, so it seems.

Only minutes later, Maverick and Dre arrive in Talos island and in the mission. Though by the time they get there, the mission gets complete just as they enter the door. Thankfully, both Maverick and Dre were SKed before they arrived, so they get the XP from the completed mission. Maverick blinks... well on the bright side, now they are with their new party. Right?

Timothius, Joe, Mittens and a couple others named KomBat Girl and Supercalifragilistic complete the mission, the path now paved with Skulls that have X's for eyes and birds flying in circles around their heads. Some of them are slunched over in ways that just plain look funny.

Timothius exits the mission with the others to find Maverick and Dretastic. "Ah. Looks like you guys made it just in time! Well it just so happens I found a lead while we were fighting... care to help us take down the main HQ for this branch of the Skulls?"

Dretastic sits (Well... stands) there for a moment, not responding. Suddenly, the letters A, F and K appear over his head. The guy eventually vanishes.

Mittens updates the team's PHUD's with the location and other details of the next mission and heads off in that direction at break-neck speeds, ignoring every purse snatcher and gangster along the way out of habit.

"Meet y'all there," she announces cheerfully in the team's com link.  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Sat 20 Sept 2008.

  “As usual, critical existence failure isn’t even comment worthy in this town.”  Alas poor Dre.  He didn’t know him at all.

  Joe looked to the other recent arrival who was still around,  “Hey there.  I’m assuming you’ve been at this longer than I have, unless you just started less than thirty minutes ago.”

  So, was it still having confidence in people despite their age when 'you're more experience than me' was shorter than an Inspector Gadget episode's worth of time?

Maverick huhs at the disappearing Dretastic. "Right... this way." he says as he leads the way to where Mittens indicated. He can't help but feel important and lightly complimented that a grown up gave him the opportunity to teach said grown up something.

  Joe followed along after Maverick, figuring there wasn’t much point to rushing off to the conveniently map indicated area ahead of others as they’d all enter around the same time anyway.

  “It occurs to me, when was the last time you saw anyone actually, well, finish stealing a purse?”

When Mittens arrives at the mission entrance, she pulls a laptop out of nowhere and begins browsing the internet while checking emails, IM chatting, posting on rp forums.  Oooh so thaat's how you make paper figs for DnD!  Muuch better than fighting glass beads with an ewok fig!  (Though admittedly, not quite as humorous.)  LMAO!  Gotta show this one to Tim!  XD

(OOC: http://notalwaysright.com/than...-apocalypsemart/1191 )

Timothius shows up soon after Mittens and sits with her until the others show up.

Maverick ponders Joe's statement for a moment. "I always thought that was because heroes stopped them. It *is* the City of Heroes, after all..." He arrives and enters the building to see... two cat people. He isn't sure what people would consider weirder: A pair of twin cat people who happen to be adults fighting crime with their super powers? Or a child fighting crime with his super powers?

  Joe might possibly consider the more 'normal' option stranger.  As what seems an easier fit for crime fighting?  Magically inclined feline person smiting enemies with magic, or some guy that just picked up the nearest sharp object?

  "We must need more practice then, cause we all walked right by them quite a lot."  He commented as they arrived near Tim and Mittens.
  "Would I be wrong in assuming that we won't be dealing with problems through violence this time around?  Cause I can live with being wrong sometimes if the results keep me alive."

"Lets find out!" Mittens answers Joe with a chuckle.  She steps out where the villains can see her and without any threatening gestures cheerfully announces, "You're all under arrest on multiple charges.  Come along quietly."  ^.^

"DIE!" they answer with a barrage of gunfire.

Mittens laughs, charges in sword drawn, and applies the expected violence.

"I just knew you'd say that!"  XD
This message was last edited by the player at 15:42, Wed 08 Oct 2008.

Timothius gives Mittens a sideways glance. "It's not funny, Mittens.." he starts, "Don't go laughing that way... you sound like a villain."

That said, Timothius draws his sword and with precision timing, pulls the exact same move as Mittens at the exact same time! He follows up with answering Joe, "If it makes you feel better, I could always keep score of how often you are right as opposed to how often you are wrong..."

The child charges in alongside the two scrappers and starts tearing into the enemy with incredibly fast punches as though he was pumped up on too many Jackie Chan elevator-fighting scenes. He makes no comment to Joe's commentary, though he was clearly annoyed earlier about ignoring the criminals on the way here. Some criminals are more important to take down, after all, and Maverick knows this. Not that he cares to explain his actions to anyone. Not yet anyway.

  It wasn't like Joe had stopped to help those people either, was it?  "Villains sound like they enjoy their work?...  Wait, a lot of them do.  And you can skip keeping track of whichever, as they tend to blur together anyways."

  If it made Tim feel any better, he refrained from gleeful giggling as he forcefully returned a Skulls knife to its rightful owners, and reminded them that his axe was bigger than theirs...  Though come to think of it, people with bigger axe's hadn't done much better either.

It doesn't take too long to find the big room in this warehouse-turned-hideout where the boss is.  Mittens pauses briefly to contemplate the colored candy she'd collected off her fallen foes.

"One side makes you smaller," she muses to herself, "the other makes you tall... no wait... wrong instructions.  Red for strength, yellow for accuracy...  You guys ready to take the big guy?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:06, Sun 19 Oct 2008.

Timothius notices his health bar is still at max. "Sure. The only question now is whether we just charge in now or pick off the minions before we charge in." he smiles at Mittens. "My only concern is the kid here... yeah, he's proving quite the... powerful little guy. But..."

Maverick says nothing, but he decides the best way to prove himself is to charge in. Judging from how well the team did till now, he figures the boss might be challenging, but certainly not what he would call dangerous. He takes the power-ups to damage and accuracy, then tears into the guy with his best attack first and starts doing what he can to disable the guy.

  Remember those advertisments on the arcade machines?  The ones that said ‘Winners Don’t Use Drugs!’?

  Well it seems that today, Joe is a winner.

  “Yes, be concerned for the person who is maiming enemies with their bare hands as opposed to relying on a weapon or lighting people on fire.  They might cut their hands on skull fragments.”  Joe might also be partaking of the casual wear look, but he still did the majority of his ouching with a sharp object.

   Speaking of which, Joe was also opting for the direct approach on the in charge type jerkface.  “Seriously, stop shooting me while I’m trying to maim your boss. I’ll get you in a bit...  When did I start considering being shot a mild annoyance?”

With so many foes, why choose?  Mittens leaps into the fray and spins her sword in a 360 arc, slashing every foe around her!  ^.^

"Whee!" she shouts, "Now this is my kinda team!  Just charge right in!"  :D

"Shouldn't you be monologuing by now?" she asks the boss villain.

The boss, in response, says, "Oh! Right! Almost forgot!" *Ahem* "Welcome to your doom, Mittens Christian!" as he blocks one of Joe's attacks.

The minions, of course, are offended by Joe's taunts and yet don't focus on him any more than they would have without said taunts. Gotta love it... because Joe didn't use a taunt "power", he can say anything he wants. Just as long as it isn't the infamous "ha HA!"

Maverick blushes lightly, but tries to act like he wasn't... oh heck with it. He smiles as he tears into the enemies even more, inspired by Joe's confidence. And when he hears Joe mock the enemy, he stifles a laugh.

Timothius gulps as he watches Maverick kick butt and then charges in with Mittens. "Careful!" he pleas with his allies in a concerned tone. "Don't get too in over your heads!"

  "Don't worry, I'm quite capable of fleeing like a sissy if the alternative is a lot more painful."  Yes, that will really inspire confidence won't it?

  The solution of 'stab until finished' was taking too long.  It had been a whole minute, after all.  The answer to this?  Stab with more haste.

"HA!" Mittens answers Timothius, "We're too short for anything to not be over our heads!"  XD

She lays the flat side of her sword on top of her head then thrusts it into the chest of the boss.

"See?  He's at least a foot taller!" :P

The boss falls to his knees with an "uuuhhh..." and then plops to his face. The others in the room don't seem effected by this as they continue fighting.

Maverick is about dead when Joe's antics catch up with him and grab most of the attention Maverick had. He takes a healing inspiration and soon, the masses are taken care of. Mission accomplished.

Timothius skews his face but then smiles and says, "Yay!" ^_^ before exiting the place with Mittens and the two new friends. He glances at Mittens a few times. "So... should we invite them to the SG?" he whispers to Mittens.

  "I have always wondered how the average height seems to be seven feet tall in this city."  That’s right Joe, focus on the normally visible oddities of the city.

  As opposed to the floating speech bubbles that make whispering a Non-Option...  Oh man, the implications of how much airspace must be taken with Joe's self narratives is staggering.

"Good work, heroes!" Mittens commends the team, "Those villains will not plague the citizens of this city again any time soon!  Our resolve and teamwork was too much for them!  Speaking of teamwork, my brother and I have been entrusted with leading the Paragon City chapter of the Hero Voice Guild, an organization for promoting heroism in everyone everywhere!  If you're interested in joining such a group, let us know!"  ^.^

Maverick gives Mittens a sideways glance. "What is it that sets the Hero Voice Guild apart from other super groups?"

To Joe's comment, Maverick is unsure what brought such a thought about. So in revenge, he decides to make another comment that doesn't make much sense to say, "Personally, I always wondered how powerful blasts of fire can go right through a wall without the wall being damaged." Or for that matter, if Hellions have X-ray vision since they tend to shoot through those same walls and hit the target they can't see. But Maverick decides not to mention that part.

Timothius looks over at Joe, "...it is? Wasn't sure. I keep seeing so many different sizes..." he then looks at Maverick and says, "Err.. well... not much. Though we try to make sure the members are good role models so that when fighting crime we don't become immoral in the process." he looks at Mittens. "Maybe you could put it better?"

  Joe answers Maverick's important question first "They had to improved the building code standard to hold up to that sort of thing."  Maybe.  It made more sense than 'magic is why exercise makes you run faster, and why power armor hits things hard' anyways.

  Second question, Tim's.  "Yeah, but a lot of the buildings and furniture seem scaled to that size."  Off in the Rouge isles, a wandering Wolf Spider wonders why all the rest hanging out in Fort Cerebus are seven feet tall.  And a wandering Cop in the Hollows wonders why his co-workers by the entrance are all so tall.

  Back to the Supergroup situation "So, you try to stab people with swords in the most moral and humane way possible, offer pointers on the 'correct' way to light people on fire, and put the clockworks and zombies you scatter across the pavement back together?  I'm impressed, and lacking anything better to do at the moment.  So sure."

  So, is it better or worse that Joe wasn't sarcastic there?
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Sun 25 Jan 2009.

"We discourage profanity," Mittens answers Maverick and Timothius, "That's usually all anyone has to hear about us to form an opinion.  'Oh wow!  If they won't even allow cussing, then it goes without saying all the other dirty things they don't allow!  Not even the most famous supergroups in the city are that strict!'

"We believe that the more powerful you are, the greater your responsibility to be upright and virtuous; above and beyond just being merely 'lawful.'  We should hold ourselves to a higher standard than just what the law forbids.  This principle holds true for both super-powered people and those who are powerful in other ways like elected officials."

She turns to face Joe.

"A criminal may use a gun to take what doesn't belong to him by force.  A victim may use a gun to protect himself against the villain.  A hero is one who uses a gun to protect others.  Thanks to the city's medical reclamation system, the worst that happens to the criminal is that he feels some brief pain before waking up in a prison hospital.  Apparently, the system works even for robots and zombies...  So yeah.  What you said is pretty accurate."  ^.^

She sends and official invitation to both Joe and Maverick.

Maverick gives Mittens a look of suspicion. "What kind of dirt do you allow in your super group?" he accepts the invitation even as he asks this. "People can have the filthiest mouths you ever heard without the need of cuss words." he points out.

Timothius looks over at Mittens again before looking back to Maverick and saying, "We don't have a very large set of rules. And as you just heard from Mittens' testimony, most people at least have the common sense to know what's wrong the moment profanity is listed as 'not allowed'. This shows that no matter how much people tell themselves they are basically good, they know the reality. Just like places labeled 'adult' are labeled such to protect children, but who will protect the adults from this stuff they are so embarrassed of? And why be embarrassed to share it with children unless you have something darker to hide? These are things most people don't consciously think about, but the fact is that people usually know right from wrong and choose to do wrong quite often."

Timothius glances back to Mittens as if asking her with his eyes if he answered well.

  "Well," Joe commented as he accepted the invitation.  "At least that means you don't leave innocent people in a cave or warehouse after they've been surrounded by violent crazies all day."

  Joe had lost track how often those Skulls had reset back into existence before he went literally Axe crazy on all involved.  It was probbaly for the best Atlas Park wasn't PvP enabled.

Mittens smiles and nods while thumbing at Timothius.

"Yeah if I found a member bringing that smut into our base, they'd be kicked from the SG faster than you can say 'combat boots!' even if it's technically legal, it's far from heroic."

Before Maverick has the chance to answer what Mittens said, Timothius quickly points out, "Kicked out of the super group doesn't mean rejected as a person, though. While being unheroic means you won't be a part of the Hero Voice Guild, it doesn't mean that we of the Hero Voice Guild are too aloof to help someone become heroic. Rather, we encourage members of our group to help guide otherwise unheroic people to become heroic. So even if you were kicked out, there is always a chance to become a member. Redemption is one of the core beliefs of the Hero Voice Guild."

Again, glancing at his older sister for confirmation, hoping he didn't just overstep, but he'd be surprised if he had.

Maverick takes a mental note of what Joe said and pays attention to the explanations given. He glances at Joe. "What the heck? Why would any hero do that?" he mutters quietly before he hears Mittens and Timothius talk more. He pauses a moment before saying, "Count me in then."

  Joe says "Something about Exp farming." In regards to Maverick's first question, through the wonders of reading speech bubbles.  He could have believed them possibly missing him a couple times, but when they started deliberately teleporting away from him on his way to the exit, it got old, and time for AXE.

  He comments in regards to Mittens response, even though Tim has added some details, "Well, I'll be sure to leave my nonexistent adult magazines at home then."  That would probably be more impressive if there wasn't so much of it free on the interwebs.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:02, Fri 08 May 2009.

Mittens rubs behind her head.

"Heh.  Yeah.  We all in need of redemption from something.  Some just need a lot more 'tough love' than others.  Speaking of whom, let's go defeat some more bad-guys!  Oh... and please enter SG mode."

She explains how that's done then checks her police scanner.

"Let's see...  I've got a bank mish.  Timo?"

*fast forwards a bit*

A long day of crime fighting comes to an end and a tired but satisfied Maverick shows up in the super group base for the first time.

Maverick looks around, confused at first and somewhat bewildered. He had never been in a super group base before. Even as stealthy as he is, game mechanics just won't let him enter a base until he's a member of the group or at least the team that has said base.

  Joe also hasn't dealt with the whole Fancypants base or teaming up thing before.  Comes with being a disgruntled Ex-Kidnapping mission NPC.  He still wasn't sure where he had picked up the Chinese Broadsword during all that brutality Justice.

  "Oh, no wonder these places are so popular." He says, eyeing the teleporters.  "Not having to deal with the ridiculously spaztic Subway and boat system."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:06, Sun 03 Jan 2010.

Mittens grins proudly at the positive remark.

"Me and Timo designed it ourselves.  You like?  Obviously a work in progress, but it's got all the necessities.  Over here you'll find the shared enhancement storage.  And here's the vault for your personal salvage storage.  The vault's combo is still 1337.  I'll get you keys to your own boxes."

She zips inside the vault and comes out with two brass keys that have numbers etched into them.  She offers one to Maverick, and one to Joe.

"Here ya go!"

Maverick eyes Mittens. "The passcode is "Leet" in Leet speak?" before accepting the key. "Thanks..." he immediately starts putting some of the stuff he salvaged into the vault.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:23, Wed 06 Jan 2010.

  Joe shrugs "When Twelve teleporters, storage facility, medical drone and Hospital retrieval beacon are just considered just the basics, it makes one wonder what a fancy base is like."  They look over to Maverick and say "Easy to remember, and there is also the fact that you can't get into these places unless someone let's you in anyways."

  Which must be why people try to rob banks so often, considering the contents of a Base Safe is the same as a Bank Safe.

"Heh... Well the fancy bases tend to have conference rooms, dance floors, trophy rooms, libraries, restaurants, inspiration dispensers, raid teleporters... all kinds of stuff.  Timo and I plan to have a chapel and a theater eventually, but it'll be a lot of monster and villain mashing before we can have all that."

She puts her arm around her bro and grins proudly.

"Oh!  We also plan to have personal quarters for members!  Rent free!  Right now we just use sleeping bags..."

Shelly steps over to Mittens. "Oh hi, Mittens! New recruits?" she grins widely, the princess looking up at the new arrivals.

Maverick looks down at the otter... bear... thing. "...hello there." Yup. Paragon City is a very DIFFERENT place.

  Signs of Joe's partial jadedness with Paragon City.  The detail that stands out most about Shelly is that they are shorter than Maverick.

  "Hi, yes we're recently recruited violent justice dispenser.  Though it can be hard to tell with the methods of punching and my sword having... gone... wherever it goes."  The Narration Department said partial jadedness for a reason.

  "Anyways, I'm Joe.  Nice to meet you."

"Hi, Shelly!" Mittens answers with a cheerful smile, "Yup yup!  Thisere's Maverick, scrapper.  And thisere's Joe, tanker.  They approve of our brand of brutal yet obscenity-free justice dispensing, so they joined up!"  :)

Then to the newcomers.

"Oh!  Almost forgot!  Invention table!"

She demonstrates the usage of said table by making them some appropriately leveled accuracy inventions and handing them over.

"Tada!  Yours free of charge!"

Shelly nods and waves to the newbies. "Nice to meetchya both. Listen up; there's a meeting going on here in a couple hours. Probably important you be there as rare as we have meetings..."

Maverick smiles when Mitts hands him the enhancement. "...thanks." he says quietly before hearing Shelly's statement. To which, he simply nods to her.

  Joe's Archetype has faced some identity confusion since the last patch.  Is this more or less crazy an explanation than an FFXI Moggle in Paragon City?  Though Joe's build is amusingly more durable than their tankish ways in most cases.

  "My Punching appreciates this long put off perk.  Remind me to offload my ranged set recipes before I leave."  Shut up Facts, you can so leave behind recipes if you want to.  "And do you know offhand what the meeting is about, considering they don't turn up so much Shelly?"

"You're welcome," Mittens answers with a fancy bow.  She looks to Shelly with a smile, trying not to let it show she had no idea there was a meeting today.

Shelly gives Joe an adorable helpless, nervous grin. "Eh...heh.. no?" she shrugs her shoulders. "It was kinda out of nowhere... well Mittens knows where the meeting hall is. So if you don't wanna go there now, make sure you stick with her. Or me, if you like."

Maverick eyes Shelly as she seems to be out of the loop. But things like this happen. So he just stands near Mittens, occasionally eying her tail or Shelly's as tails are eye-catching things.

  Joe nodded, unaware Mitten's was as clueless as they were regarding current events of the organization they had pitched to them a short while ago.  They don't stare at the tails out of both more familiarity with the physical accessory adorned sorts, and the fact as someone over eighteen years old they were more likely to get 'stop staring at my butt' remarks.

  Not that they weren't nic-This line of narrative has been aborted because it might irk women with sharp objects or ranged attack capabilities, even if meant as a compliment.

  "Well then, any suggestions on how to spend the few hours until then?  Is there anyone else it would be a good idea for us to meet in here?"

Mittens feels a little better about not knowing there was a meeting.  Last minute plans, while so common to Timothius and Mittens as to be expected, are STILL last minute plans.

"I take it then it's not you or your dad calling for the meeting then," Mittens comments to Shelly, "Well if not you two, then who?"
To Joe she asides:"If you click on... I mean... there's a supergroup interfase thingy in your super-heads-up-display that will list members currently fighting crime and where.  Also lists those not currently fighting crime and last time they did.  Along with other handy tidbits.  Anyhow, according to the list it's showing, you've already met everyone who's currently in the supergroup superbase.  As for killing a few hours goes...  Could get you aquainted with the superteleporter supersystem, show you how you earn the 'teleport to supergroup superbase superpower,' help y'all earn ye olde jet packs if you haven't already, show you how to get more influence through Wentsworth's...  lots to do.  Or we could just lounge around and play Monopoly or something."

Mittens is so used to the effects of ye olde "hypno-tail" by now that she barely takes notice...  except for when other people's tails hypnotize her.

"Oh.  And while you're mucking around with that supergroup interfase thingy...  Please activate supergroup mode, everyon."

((I.E. no have default spell checker.  One of the drawbacks of new computerishness is now I'm swinging the English trapeze without a net.))
This message was last edited by the player at 17:45, Mon 01 Mar 2010.

Maverick says, "Jetpack? That sounds pretty important... let's do that." he manages to cover up his immense excitement, but his eyes still become saucers.

Fast forwarding a bit, Maverick goes with Mittens and Joe to get himself a jetpack. When the mission is done, Maverick familiarizes himself with base functions as Mittens advised. Eventually, the meeting comes up.

Angel comes up to the front to prepare to address the SG members who showed up. "If you all are ready, I'll begin."

After getting confirmation, Angel continues, "As you all know, I try to pay attention to the more political side of our affairs. Just so you all know up front, I'm here to convey bad news. It seems there is an organization out there who has saw it fit to start framing our supergroup. While the frame-ups have been poor and small, they have become increasingly clever. So far, I've helped keep our good name. But if this goes uninvestigated, I won't be able to anymore. I can't ask you all to stop what you're doing just to focus on this... that would go against our nature anyway. But I *am* asking for volunteers to help me investigate and the rest of you to keep an ear open when on your missions. Maybe question your prisoners whenever you thwart a villainous plot. Personally, I need a team of 2 or more volunteers to accompany me in the investigation."

Maverick fades into the background as he swears to himself he'll catch whoever it is while Angel and her team will be a front by comparison.

  "I suspect that like Mittens frequently does, my crime solving methods are more along the 'stab things' lines.  I do have a habit of reading the mission text listening to what people are saying, even when they are trying to kill me.  So if you think that'd be any help I may as well."  They wonders of nothing better to do.  A more frequent cause of crime, and crime fighting, than tragic pasts...  Joe's past is more irritation causing than tragic anyways.

  "Do you have a list of what the frame-ups were somewhere?  And do the ones getting somewhat competent have any obvious without backstory or word pun digging similarities?"

Angel.  Right.  The leader type member of the SG that Mittens has a hard time remembering they exist for whatever reason.  Maybe it's their habit of dealing with beaurocracy more often than blowing up villains.

"I'm not big on the investigating of things," Mittens agrees with Joe, "More on the burninating them once the investigation is done.  Maybe Lucky could join the investigation end of things.  He tends to stumble onto clues more often than not.  That or we could outsource.  Plenty of heroes out there willing to help out fellow heroes."

A few other heroes mention their own concerns and objections. Angel hears them all out and then figures a response. "Alright. Well whoever feels they are more suited to investigation, please raise your hand." Joe may be Joe here, but he has many alts on CoH and CoV alike! So whichever alt he thinks might be slightly more inclined to investigation? Or... "Now one or two of you, who do not think you are decent at investigation, please go with whoever investigates. We all have powers here, sure, but having someone at your side who's focus is crime fighting is very nice to have when facing enemies of our super group. I will continue to do what I can. Perhaps some of you can come with me. I like your suggestion, Mittens. I'll be taking Lucky."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:40, Wed 18 Aug 2010.

  Let's take a quick scene transition look at some of Joe's Heroic alts...


  "Right, I'll go with you then I guess.  If I go with you, then will you tell me what rumors are being spread around or am I going to have to work blind"  Of course, Joe's got a toggle that deals with blindness anyway.

Mits checks her friends list for Lucky's status.

"Think Lucky's busy helping Positron again," she says, "I'll send him a tell to hook up with you when he's done.  Erm... Us.  I'll tag along for lack of..."

>.>  <.<

"Because it's the heroic thing to do!  Let's take Maverick along too!"

In spite of being among the most wealthy individuals in the entire city by now, (literally a billionaire last I logged him), Lucky is perpetually swarmed by flies and saturated with sewage smell.  He offers a teleport and wakie to Running Gun.

"Sorry 'bout that...." he says, "Forgot to warn you about how ramped up their perception is."

He notices Mits' tell and answers, "Almost done.  But I'll want to make a quick run to WW if that's OK."

Angel answers Joe, "Sure. I'll tell you the rumors if you come." she then answers Mittens. "....who's Maverick? New member? I don't see anyone new if so..."

Maverick disappeared 2 rounds ago when narration said he faded into the background to go spy solo.

  Running Gun is silent after Lucky teleports them.  Not because they are in need of a Rez, but because it seems RG has put a spare Full Body Suit onto a display mannequin.  There is a note taped to them that if investigated will turn up a Clue text reading 'BrB, Existential crisis'.

---

  "Yay for me then."  Unless hearing all the rumors listed is mind wrenchingly beyond his Psi protection boring, but he'd stick it out if so.  "Well Maverick is...  Somewhere.  I'd think his footstep sound effects are buggy but that would suggest it wasn't on purpose."

  He couldn't fault Mittens, she was basically citing his reason for joining her SG after all.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:20, Mon 30 Aug 2010.

"New member, yes," Mittens answers Angel, "Angel this is Mav..."

*Sweatdrop*

"Maverick?  You using invis?  And what in the world are you talking about, 'footstep sound effects?'  Are you the kind of crazy that pretends life is a game?  I'm the kind of crazy that pretends life is a comic book.  Or a movie.  'Cause they have soundtracks.  Dun dun dun duuuun!"

Lucky sweatdrops at the mannequin.

"'BrB, Existential crisis,'" Lucky quotes to Mittens, "Looks like RG is um... away."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:42, Wed 22 Dec 2010.

Fun fact! Just "sneak" alone turns off your footstep sound effects, but the stalker version turns off that AND makes you invis. Or something. ANYway...

Shelly trots up to the bunch. "Maverick's a little boy about 8 years old. Caucasian, brown hair, wears dark clothing. Seems kinda mature. Maybe he's exploring the base. I'll go look for him. You all have fun, OK? I'll try to catch up later."

Angel nods. "Sure. Well, looks like Maverick is going to miss out this time. Here's hoping things'll go smoothly." Unlike Mittens, while Angel does enjoy the suffering of her enemies, she still prefers relaxed situations over dangerous situations. Danger requires effort.

Angel leads the way even though Mittens technically outranks her. But then again, as all the top members of HVG agreed, rank only dictates important decision making when really, everyone is a servant in this group.

As promised, Angel begins filling Joe in. "Alright. So, one rumor I heard was that the Hero Voice Guild is using its heroics to gain popularity and that this is just a race to see if we can become one of the best known supergroups in Paragon City." Translation, one of the best in the server.

  Joe gets told to turn on Supergroup mode and to click yes on his Team Join prompts, and yet Mittens still wonders at his outlook regarding sound effects glitches?  Eh, whatever.  "That's... Not exactly as bad as I thought the rumors would be.  Though if it were true that 'no publicity is bad publicity' saying factors into this thing making the Group more well known than it was before."

Angel says, "I did say *one* rumor, right? And that there was more than one rumor? If you expect me to tell you the rumors plural, you'll have to listen to the list."

Mittens player did the best he could to maintain immersion or whatever it is you call it by describing the MMO interface as a fancy standard issue HUD given to heroes along with their hero liscence, but if we want to throw any illusions of RP out the window in favor of simply poking fun of game mechanics that's fine too.

"Nice quick description there, Shelly," Mits answers, "I swear people appear and disappear in this city so fast it's enough to make even my head spin.  I'll not answer the rumors with a sound-bite among friends and simply say I agree with Joe that if that's the worst of the list, we're doing pretty good."

  Joe's origin story is he's a hostage NPC that broke himself loose after a team reset the mish one too many times.  Awareness of certain MMO truths comes packaged in with that.  As well as fortunately knowing the /stuck command. MAN that was awkward when he clipped through the bathroom stall door.

  "No, you didn't say one rumor.  I just thought you were starting with the important ones.  Though I'm more than willing to listen to the rest of the problems."  He turns to Mittens and says "Altitis is a very serious problem in this city Mittens, happens to everyone at some point."

In response to Joe, Angel says, "Listen closely now." pulls out a micro cassette recorder, hits rewind, then hits play.


This quote is from msg #97

She fast-forwards it again, hits record and stuffs the player back in her jacket. "Yes, I did say one rumor." she looks at Mittens. "But yes, IF that was the worst we had to worry about... but it isn't." She looks back at Joe. "There's people saying we have direct ties with criminal organizations. Others say we work for Crey Industries. The list goes on. Still, willing to tell all the rumors I know about."

(OOC style: Have any idea how gratifying it is to do that in real life when someone tells you that you didn't say something that you JUST said? Very. One of the reasons I even own a micro cassette player IRL.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:10, Sun 09 Jan 2011.

"Word to the wise," Mittens says with a bit of a jaded look to Joe, "Don't try to correct Angel.  She's one of those 'always right' kinds of people.  Or ignore the advice.  Altitis?  Glad I don't have that problem.  My problem is more of an 'Adventuritis' where I start to suffer if things get boring.  So... shall we get started on beating up on bad-guys for justice already?"

She activates her police radio with hologram interface.

"Oooh!  This looks promising.  The freaks have a hostage."

Yes.  She's forgotten the plot already.  Or she's chosen to forget.  Who knows what goes on between her ears.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:36, Mon 07 Mar 2011.

  Joe blink blinks, then says to Mittens, "Well, good thing agreeing she didn't say one rumor means I'm not correcting her then...  Except this would mean I'm correcting her now, crap."  Refer to the OOC thread revelations for a reminder.

  "Crey pretty much is a criminal organization, but worth specifying.  The full list of rumors you feel are worth mention would be appreciated Angel."

  Joe eyes mittens when she pulls up a police mish "While we were trying to work on personal problems, ignoring someone who needs rescuing would be kind of mean.  I've got a certain soft spot for Hostages who have been kept waiting an inordinately long time for selfish reasons."

  Every time you reset a hostage mish, Joe cries.

"Like you said, Joe, worth specifying. Many people don't believe Crey is criminal. And those who do can't prove it in court." she then glances at Mittens. "I have to be right, or else my job in the supergroup would only be flinging balls of energy instead of keeping on top of things like what we are looking into." And in an attempt to slightly lighten the mood, she pulls out her "always right" card with a smile.

Seeing Mitts dial up some completely unrelated mission, checks where it is, starts to head in the direction of where they should go and asks, "How does this mission relate to our investigation specifically?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:03, Mon 07 Mar 2011.

"Um.... bad guys need punished and good-guys defended?" Mits answers Angel's question vaguely, "My lack of action meter maxed out, so I looked for some.  Maybe these baddies know something.  I'll go interrogate 'em or something.  I'll prolly be more useful to you that way anyhow.  I can't even understand the conversation.  Um... Excelsior!"

She runs off to save the day.

"That hostage won't be kept waiting long with me on the job, Joe!"

---

Meanwhile, at the lair of the Freakshow kidnappers.

"Oh crey!" one says, "A hero is on the way to rescue the hostage!"

"Yeah?" another says, unimpressed, "Which one?"

An TV of villainy news is consulted.

"That's right, none other than Mittens!" the TV reports.

"Mittens?!  Really?!  I'll never live it down if I get defeated by a hero with a name like that!  What's his/her notoriety?"

"She's a tough one according to our Hero Corps insider.  Her most recent notoriety level is 'Invincible!'"

"Slag!  Invincible?!  We're going to need re-enforcements!"

"Don't panic!  Dumpster just got out of the zig, and he's right across the street!  Him and his gang can take on a whole team of supers!"

"I hate that guy..."

"We've no choice!  Besides.  If he loses to her, he'll be the one with the bad rep."

"Good point."

  Joe has found that unless he can get a wonderfully timed Build up + Headplitter, fights with Crey Protectors end up rather sad to watch as both Joe and most variety of Protector with active Click power cant. hurt. eachother.  Ever.

  Joe tries not to think too hard about what point he found himself thinking 'if I fight them while we stand in molten in lava, it will be easier.'

  "I have no idea, though I think it has nothing to do with anything we were talking about."  He refrains from comment about the Mitten's self admitted ADD.  "Though if we don't help her out, she's probably going to get hospitalized at best."

Angel sighs. Mittens just made up Angel's mind to never team up with Mittens unless Angel doesn't have an important task. And now she is put on the spot. If Angel rage-quits, that will make her look bad. And since she's the face of the group at this point, if she looks bad, the whole group does.

Angel thanks God that Mittens is not the face of the group. "We will help her. And we will make sure she doesn't get kidnapped by these people again." and Angel will take out her annoyance on the kidnappers.

She then proceeds to the mission. On her way, she gets on the cellphone and dials Maximus. "Hey, Max. Do you feel like assembling a team to look into Crey's involvement with our supergroup? It'd be a big help and save me some time."

If the kidnapped lady DOES have info pertaining to Angel's mission, great. Still doesn't change Angel's mind about teaming with Mittens.

Mittens charges at the first group of foes and is soon below half her hit points!  But by then hasten+parry has kicked in so she's near untouchable!

"Missed me, missed me, neener neener neeener!" she taunts the gang of thugs who can't seem to get a hit in.

"I'd be happy to help," Max answers Angel, "I'll get on that right away.  Keep in touch."

  Joe Sam Eagle faces, and shoves a green inspiration in Mitten's pockets... Or at he least tries to, but they appear to be full.

  "I'll be incredibly impressed if they somehow never get kidnapped again Angel."  Wanda Sims, making Lois Lane look safety conscious.  Not very good at the whole 'reclusive' part of 'reclusive mathematical genius'.

Angel chuckles from Joe's comment. "Yeah, I'd be impressed to. S'why I made it a point to say we'll make sure she doesn't get kidnapped by these people again."

Bonking the mission is easy as usual. The boss makes some comment about "You'll not stop me, Mittens Christian!" and proceeds to get his butt kicked with no comment. Which, of course, is followed by the "reclusive" mathematician saying "I used to not believe in capes, but you guys have changed that!"

"You're welcome!" Mittens answers, striking a heroic pose, "You can help us by helping us clear our name!  We need leads on who's going on a slander campeign against our super group....  I think?  What was it we were investigating again?"

  Joe considers eyeing Mittens, but eh close enough.  "I think you got it right the first time Mittens.  Though until this is all cleared up, no more random unrelated radio tasks."  Of course, he also doesn't expect any leads to be gained from Mitten's Leeroying off to do a Radio mission.  You never advance any plots doing the Radio/Paper missions.  More likely you'll outlevel the storyline you were in and be unable to complete it as all of a sudden the contact has 'nothing more for you to do'.

  Joe might be in for a shock possibly in this case.

In a sort of poetic justice, the rescued hostage pulled a Mittens and ran off before they could so much as answer a simple question for Mittens. But then, that always happens.

Nah... the storyteller isn't going that route or NPCs will start repeating themselves and only have multiple choice at best for conversations.

"....I do math. Not rumors. Though I could give you any numbers or statistics I come across that have anything to do with your super group and even stuff that doesn't have to do with you, but happened in the course of your group earning a bad name."

Angel says, "Good enough, thanks. And yes. What Joe said, Mittens." Angel then gives contact information to the mathematician. Then parts ways.

"Then no more standing around not doing anything," Mittens answers, "Idleness is my kryptonite."

She looks at her watch.

"Ok so while you guys figure out what to do next I'll be dropping off my loot at the consignment house."

She begins to glow as the WW teleport power charges up.

  Joe just Staaaares at mittens.  "It's been less time than it takes to move between mobs since we 'finished' here."  saying 'less than thirty seconds' would probably make it sound like an eternity to Mittens.  "...Before you vanish, where did you get the watch? I cant find any."

  It's the little things you miss in character design screens.

  "Right, what was the most statistically likely group or individual to be responsible for or linked to our problems according to Wanda then Angel?