It's a warm summer morning and the typical city bustle is in full swing.  Outside the police station is a food cart selling treats to passers-by and the occasional hungry officer.  On the landing of the steps leading up to the police station is an energetic looking young lady who's passing out fliers to anyone willing to take one.



The eager young lady happens to be rather clearly a mutant:  tail and cat ears.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:41, Thu 24 June 2010.

Emerald had overheard there was a blatant mutant catgirl giving out fliers about forming a super team. She went to see this for herself. Now. Most people can pass Mittens off as a lady with a very impressive mechanical tail and some makeup. But Emerald? Yeah, she gets a lot of weird looks as she doesn't look remotely human like Mittens does. Emerald takes a flier and says, "How do I sign up?"

  Joe looks like you'd expect for a 19 year old white guy.  Short brown hair and blue eyes make up standard issue details along with the common Jeans+Questionably Witty T-Shirt+Sneakers fashion sense.

  They take a flier in passing out of pedestrian reflex like many grab any flier shoved their way intending on ditching it three seconds later.  A glance at the words on it however, bring to mind some important words of wisdom his Father had once told Joe.
 
  Okay, so less wisdom and more his Father's usual degree of sense.  Joe gave the options careful thought.

  A) Fight armed criminals who want to kill him or space aliens who want to kill him or Blank who want to kill him.  And...
  B) More Math classes, ones he has to pay for no less...

  Said careful thought possibly traveled back in time in how little time was spent upon it, as Joe turned around and said "What she said."  At least this way, there would also be free snacks.  It would probably help him feel better when he meets the inevitable 'I can fly and I'm invulnerable' sort of people compared to his 'I'm as agile as a Ninja in a Platform game and being shot only makes me cry'.

OOC Style: Imagine N  http://www.addictinggames.com/ngame.html  , if you didn't splatter and instead ragdolled in mere agony.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:51, Thu 24 June 2010.

Liberty is there at the sign-up area and looks around. She waves to some cops she knows. "Hi, Officer Chegen!" and seems to be very familiar with them. They too seem familiar with her. Then again, anyone who is local probably recognizes Liberty from either the newspaper or even television news as a brave girl that seems to just be there to save lives. Having super powers helps.

Mittens grins and holds out one of the fliers at arms length.  She then flips it over to the back side to reveal an application.  Standard fare sign-up form for something potentially dangerous.

"Tada!" she chimes with an eager tail-wag, "If you're already a deputy with the police, it's much simpler!  Just step inside the police station, and they'll update your deputy's license to indicate you're a member!  First meeting will be tonight!  Right here at the station!  Free doughnuts and coffee!"

Emerald says, "I'm no deputy, but thanks. Do the free doughnuts and coffee apply to us non-deputy types?" she then turns her attention to Joe to size him up from toe to head and a curious expression.

"Hey there, short stuff," Officer Chegen answers Liberty with his customary nick-name for her, "Hey... you like making yourself useful.  That one there's recruiting mutants, and that one there says she's going to join up but she's not a deputy.  Be a doll and help her with that, would ya?  Frank's buried under a mountain of paperwork since that weapon discharge incident, so deputizing a mutant wouldn't be a welcome addition to his workload."

He continues on his way to his scheduled patrol.

Liberty goes to help Emerald and Joe out and gets things rolling for them. Soon, the apps are filled out satisfactorily, otherwise RP won't happen. Lib smiles at the two who have already shown interest and then goes to Mittens with a curious look. "Hi there. My name's Liberty. So who are you and when did you start this whole thing?"

  Joe actually takes the time to read the form completely.  But fortunately for the sanity of Mittens's player they won't have to write said theoretical form up because Joe signs anyway thanks to his previously mentioned lack of options.

  Emerald's staring reveals Joe has worn his Sleuth Diplomacy T-Shirt today (Problem Sleuth? So last year).

  "I'm Joe.  And I started this whole thing about..."  He takes a moment to check his watch, "Four minutes ago."
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:14, Tue 29 June 2010.

(Important detail: Being a member of the supergroup includes being a card-carrying deputy.  That way I don't have to worry about having to make sense of 'why do vigilantes get away with property damage?'  You're all now proud owners of a 'deputie's liscence' that looks a lot like a driver's liscence with a line in there that says: 'Supergroup affiliation: Citizen Patrol.'  Being a deputy means you have all the authority of a police officer minus the hassles of having to go to academy, swear an oath, punch a time card, or fill out paperwork on your coffee break.  Downside is you don't earn a dime for risking your life for the public good.)

"Mittens is the name," the cat girl answers, "Adventure's my game!  I've been working at this for several months now, but only now have the doors been opened to receive official membership!  Getting City Hall to approve of an idea, any idea, takes a lot of effort.  So how 'bout you join up, Liberty?  You're perfect for the group!  And you'll be more effective helping the police this way!"

She offers a sheet to Liberty.

Liberty nods. "Was getting to that.." she takes a form and fills it out before turning it in. "Though I already had the license." she tosses the app to a nearby cop and looks back at Mittens.

Emerald watches Lib sign up then looks at Mitts. "So I guess we'll see you later on?"

  Joe laments that he will need to get a real job on top of risking bullet to face in the name of Justice probably.  But will put that problem off until later.

  "Tonight in general, or is there a specific time I should show up so as to avoid people constantly asking me what I'm there for if I hang out inside a police station?"

"Seven P.M. tonight in room 23SQUIRREL?!"* Mittens interrupts herself, staring with great intensity at the street.

"...my danger sense is tingling!  I had a hunch something big was going to happen here today!  Quick...  Tell me what sorts of powers you all have!  Mine is I can tell when and where something exciting is about to happen!"

She begins strolling resolutely toward the street like she's expecting Godzilla to show up and she can't wait to be the first to kick him in the toe.

*(( Gag from the movie UP!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBWrMQVsuak ))
This message was last edited by the player at 21:15, Tue 29 June 2010.

Emerald says, "I can talk to people. And know a good piece of equipment when I see it." OK, she put it that way on purpose to make her powers sound very low key.

Liberty says, "I'm tough. But what's that got to do with excitement? Is there going to be an especially heart-pounding roller coaster ride?"

  Joe comments "Uh, I've got glorified track and field qualifications?" as he follows after.  "If something explodes, are we covered for a lack of greater responsibility yet?"

  Joe really needed to work on thinking of things in a more Heroic manner if he was going to last any length of time in the Superhero business.  His player will also need to remind themselves that just because something looks like a paragraph in a word processor doesn't mean it won't end up as a single line of text on a message board.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:53, Thu 01 July 2010.

"I think we're about to find out..." Mittens answers generically.

There's a deep metallic groan like you always hear in those movies about big things about to be destroyed.  Suddenly, a geyser of water explodes in the center of the street, sending a couple of cars flying in as many directions!  Dozens of car alarms go off all at once and screaming people scatter!  Several moving cars swerve and several crash!

"Yikes!" Mittens shouts, instinctively cringing, "Alright, team!  We've people to rescue!  Liberty!  You get that car on it's side!  Joe!  You get the one on it's roof!  Emerald and I are on the third one balanced on it's front bumper!  GO CITIZEN PATROL!"

She of course rushes off to fill her own orders.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:53, Thu 01 July 2010.

Emerald follows Mittens in a daze. The event scared her, sure, but "...how is that car not falling?" nevertheless, she runs to see if there is still someone in said car. If there is, she says, "Mitts, let's get this car wheels-down!"

Liberty decides to charge at the car that's on it's side and throws all her weight at the hood to try and topple the car right-side up again. This rocks the car and makes it tilt slightly, but it just goes back. "Was worth a shot." she mumbles before climbing the car to get to the door.

  Does what any responsible citizen would do in such a crisis.  He dials 911 on his cell phone.  Hey, even if they get told to rescue them himself, ambulances are a good thing right?

  He does head for the requested car while that's being taken care of at least though.  "Right, do you have one of those little safety hammer/seatbelt cutters in your glove box or something?"  Joe asks as he tries a door, and has it swing open and smack him in the head.

  Gull wing doors.  Out of fashion for a reason it seems.

  That embarrassment gone by, Joe tries to help the passengers out as reasonably safe as possible.  He'd prefer if they could get out themselves but we can't have everything.

OOC Style: http://www.priceofhistoys.com/...wing-vw-beetle-2.jpg  Any car can have them apparently.

There is indeed a person in the car assigned to Mittens and Emerald, but they're not visible to the pair.  However, judging from the lack of broken windshield and windows rolled up, and closed doors, split-second logic would tell you they're probably in there somewhere.

"Sounds extremely dangerous!" Mittens answers Emerald, "I like!"

Mits rushes to the underside of the car, jumps up and grabs hold of the back bumper, then puts her feet on the undercarriage hoping her weight will be enough to tip it backward.  It is.  The car begins to slowly swing in her direction, threatening to crush her underneath should it fall!

Meanwhile, a voice from inside Liberty's call is screaming something in Spanish.  <spanish>"Oh god my baby!  Someone help my baby!"</spanish>

Liberty might notice the strong smell of gasoline as it gushes out of the gas tank by the gallon, pooling toward open flames and sparks from various sources!

Joe's got a busy signal when he dialed 911.  It's because they're overwhelmed with calls about the emergency, but he may not deduce this from the pedestrians staring at the carnage with phones to their faces.

His car has four passengers in it.  Apparently a family of four who all had the sense to wear seat belts.  They're dangling from them at the moment when the relatively obvious happens:  the structural integrity of the flimsy gull-door accommodating roof frame buckles and the whole car goes SQUISH from under it's own weight!  Adults and children screaming together tells Joe that they're still alive in there, but getting them out with the car up-side-down on it's collapsed roof will be a problem.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:26, Sat 03 July 2010.

Emerald can hear the spanish cries, but doesn't figure Liberty will worry overmuch about what her charge is yelling beyond "help" or "save us" since that's what anyone would be yelling. It's not likely anyone in a car wreck is going to be yelling about how the team they were rooting for just scored a point. Emerald says, "Good, now jump off already before you get crushed!" She would wait for the car to finish falling before getting to the whole jimmying of the car locks.

Liberty notices the pooling gasoline and frowns. "That's what YOU think!" and yanks her shirt off to put it in the way of the gasoline as a mini dam. That bought her time since the shirt will be soaking the gas and keeping it from going towards the sparks and flames. But it won't stop the flames and such from coming towards the gas. Still doubles the time she had. Maybe more. Either way, the young girl gets to grabbing the door and winds up yanking the handle off. "....fudgenutter." she then cocks her fist and punches the window in. It takes a hit or two, but she manages before reaching in and opening the door from inside and then using her body to hold the door open. She reaches an arm down to the lady. "Lady! My arm! Grab it!"

  Fortunately for Joe's lack of tact, he is preoccupied by his respective car when Liberty proclaimed it shirtless O'Clock.  "Remember, this window was broken anyways." Joe says as he reaches through the rear window of his respective car, and reminding himself not to lean on said car as he grabs around for the Jack.  "Got it... oh, road flares... there we go." Second times the charm.

  Joe was so thankful for mostly standardized car equipment.  Wonderful for those times where the strength to lift a car wasn't exactly available or common.  "I wish these things worked faster" he muttered as he slowly tilted the car upwards.  "When I'm done with the jack, you're probably still going to have to crawl out because these things don't go very high."

  Joe is the sort of Superhero who would stop an out of control subway car by pulling the freaking emergency break.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Wed 21 July 2010.

Mittens figures on being all fancy with her dismount and attempts a backflip!  She succeeds!  The car falls back onto four wheels, just barely missing taking her nose off with the bumper.  Even Mits is a bit rattled by that close call!

"Well that was fun!" she says, moving to pull the door open.  It takes a good deal of effort given the frame is a bit warped from the collision.

"And that... doesn't look fun at all.  Ouch!"

Inside the car, the unbuckled driver has been crumpled into a heap at the seat well below the steering wheel.  Inertia can be a real pain sometimes.  The driver's face is a mass of blood.  He's not breathing.

Meanwhile, the suspense music is still playing for Liberty.  The lady is heaped up against the passenger side door.  She reaches for Liberty's offered hand, and grabs hold.  But when Liberty pulls, she screams in pain and lets go!

<spanish>"I'm stuck!"</spanish> she shouts, <spanish>"Please!  Just save my baby!  I'll break free on my own!"</spanish>

There's no way she's breaking free on her own.  But should Liberty do as asked, she'll find the baby much easier to help.  At least... as easy as getting a baby out of one of those back-facing baby seats with seatbelt in the way in sideways car.

Joe's car jacks up nicely and seems steady enough.  The daddy in the car would rather his family go first, but he's kindof in the way of them getting out, so he exits first.  The mommy stays inside helping kids with unbuckling seatbelts and helping them exit.  Amid the sirens of the approaching emergency vehicles, Joe notices something strange about the water geyser.  It has arms.  Watery arms with armbands.  It cocks a fist back and takes a swing at Mittens!  She totally doesn't see it coming.

(( Was conflicted on whether or not Mits would pull off the stunt she was trying... Rolled a 19 on a d20 for Mit's acrobatics! ))
This message was last edited by the player at 23:13, Sat 10 July 2010.

Emerald yells over to Liberty, "The lady's stuck, but you can save the baby quicker!" Having unlocked the car enough for Mittens to get in there, she takes one look at the crumpled mass and says, "If we move him, he's dead. Wave the ambulances over here first." she then peaks to make sure the one guy is the only one in the car. Rather suddenly, she jumps at Mittens to tackle her away, "WATCH OUT! GIANT WATER ELEMENTAL PUNCHING YOU!"

(Like Mitts, decided to roll for kicks. Perception. Rolled a 20.)
This message was last edited by the player at 16:28, Thu 08 July 2010.

Liberty hears Emerald and goes for the baby. Once she finds the kid, Liberty says, "Be right back, lady!" before running to wave down the ambulances. She overhears Emerald yell about a giant fist punching at Mittens and looks up. "Why?" she asks. "Just. Why?" she then yells out, "Try destroying the bracelets!"

She is getting impatient for the ambulances, so she runs to one, opens the door, puts the baby in the passenger's lap, and slams the door closed before running back towards the car the mom was trapped in. The fire is dangerously close to the mom. "This is going to be so uncool. Isn't it." she looks for what has the mom stuck so she can attempt to rip it off. Otherwise, she plans to hug the mother protectively and see about shielding her as much as possible from the explosion she's about to have to endure.

  Joe is so very glad that Emerald is fielding the 'dive into harms way' needs... Oh, right, Joe probably could have done that in time...  He's moderately glad the possibly more crunchable fox is trying to get Mitten's out of the way.

  "Uh, hey, Water person.  Half of you is probably sloshing around the sewers right now.  Consider the implications."  It's no dramatic dive for other's saftey or attack on a mostly insubstantial problem, but hey, messing with villains heads is supposed to be part of the Super Hero gig right?
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Wed 21 July 2010.

Out of reflex, Mittens ducks!  The bad news is, the water fist is about the size of an oven and it still clips her, slamming her into the side of the car.  The good news is, thanks to the early warning and the duck, Mittens is only bruised and briefly inconvenienced rather than shattered and out cold.  The car took the brunt of the attack and gets shoved sideways a few feet with a loud tire screech!

"Thanks, Emerald!" Mittens pants, "Something tells me the paramedics aren't going to help this guy so long as there's a water monster..."

The water elemental turns and attacks Joe.

"Shhhut upluplup!" it demands in a whooshing watery voice, swinging at him with enough force to push a car sideways several feet!

Meanwhile, the suspense music runs out for Liberty.  Hello, Gasoline.  Gasoline: meet Sparks and Flame.

K A B O O M ! ! ! 

The car she's in explodes in a huge fireball with Hollywood level violence!  If Liberty hadn't full body-and-face covered the lady inside, she'd be a dead crispy critter.  As it stands, her legs and right arm are cooked worse than a 4th of July hamburger that got forgotten on the grill, and the inside of the car is still a hellish inferno!  Even Liberty's toughness isn't enough, and it hurts.  A lot.

"Good work with the aggro pull, Joe!" Mittens commends, rushing over toward Liberty's flaming car.

She's hoping Joe gets the MMO code and the water monster doesn't.

"Emerald!  CPR the guy!  Liberty!  Help is on the way!  Brace yourself!  Joe!  Over here!"

She then taunts the Water Monster.

"Hey Septic Man!  Yeah you, Pisswater!  That all you got?!  Punches?!  Bet you can't make a water cannon too big for me to dodge!"

She crouches, preparing for another attack, hoping it'll sploosh the car behind her enough to douse the flames.

Emerald yips! The explosion startled her and she looks in its direction. "I don't hear any more Spanish!" she says in panic. Seeing Mitts run off makes Emerald wonder if Mitts either gave up on the crumpled mass on the floor or if she, like Emerald, simply doesn't know CPR.

Emerald yells, "I don't know CPR!" she ewes, looking at the crumpled mass. "I don't think he even has a mouth, even if I did know how!" she winces, looking at the guy, not really knowing what to do. Then she gets a bright idea. With the car on all 4 of its wheels, maybe it can still run. Or at LEAST maybe it can just roll via gravity. Emerald gets in the seat, puts the car into gear and tries to get it AWAY from the giant water monster. She waves her hands out the window at the ambulances as she moves the car farther from the violence.

Liberty says, "Hurry please! She'll die!" she yells. She isn't even thinking about the fact the backside of her clothes have either been blown off or melted. But she is thinking about how the heat really burns and that she can't sweat fast enough. She hears Mittens taunting someone. Great. Figures. This wasn't an accident. That's what she figured might be the case, but for some reason, this had "genuine accident" written all over it, such as a bursting pipe under the ground. She cries some. "HELP! I CAN'T BREATHE!" all this fire and heat is eating her oxygen in the immediate area. The mom is already unconscious. She gasps, trying to take in as much as she can.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:21, Mon 12 July 2010.

  Fortunately even amid all this chaos, the passengers in Joe's respective crashed car seem competent enough at survival now that they have room to work.

  This is fortunate because Joe's competence is brought into question as he's smashed significantly farther than several feet. 'The pain is made worse by the sudden realization that I could have dodged that if I remembered I have-'  Joe's train of thought is distracted as his body skips off the sidewalk and he kicks off a mailbox, cutting his momentum far more than physics tends to as he lands face first on the street.

  "Super Po^wers... yeah." College is starting to look... no, still not looking like the better option.  Liberty's yells do get his addled attention, as he starts crawling towards the inferno his flight path arced over and shambles to his feet.  "Right, day saving. This can entirely possibly get worse." the last said just in case as he advances to wobbly walking speed towards the burning car...

  'Just remind yourself that you're not the one trapped in a burning car. And Joe's day is looking up already. You bastard.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:46, Wed 21 July 2010.

"Aaaaaughibbrgubugbugrguburgle!" the Water Monster shouts in frustration as it fires an enormous blast of water at Mittens!

The good news is the wave of water was big enough to help Liberty.  The bad news is there's no way for Mittens to jump out of it's way.  So she instead drops prone just before the big SPLOOSH!  She gets pushed back and slammed against the underside of the sideways burning car just before the force of the wave is so strong it flips the car onto it's roof, shattering windows!  The flames diminish as a large amount of the gasoline is washed away, but they continue to burn on the now sky-facing underside of the car.

"OwowowHothothothot!" Mittens complains, scrambling off the steaming wreckage before breaking into a full sprint away from the Water Monster, "Nenernernerneeener!  Can't catch me!"

The inside of Liberty's car is no longer on fire, but there's broken glass everywhere.  Now that the full weight of the car isn't pressing against the door to pin the lady's arm against the passenger seat, there's a good chance Liberty will be able to pull the lady's arm free (and probably rip a lot of skin off in the process) or kick the crumpled door open (assuming she thinks to lift the door handle first.)

Emerald's car isn't going anywhere unfortunately.  The front side was totally trashed.  That's where the engine is.  And even if by some miracle the engine was able to start, the wheel wells were crumpled against the tires.  And even if that weren't a problem, there's a guy crumpled against both the gas and the brake pedals.  The only way this car is moving in a controlled manner is by tow cable.  Emerald does see something promising through the mirrors, though.  Apparently two paramedics have the balls to be running toward her with a stretcher!

"Youloo betterletter runlun, biglig mouthlouth!" the Water Monster retorts to Mittens as she runs.

Bad news is, Water Monster has lost interest in running Mittens and may take interest in the paramedics approaching Emerald.  Good news for Mittens, at least?  More good/bad news is two other paramedics are heading for Liberty's car with a stretcher.  Several police officers arrive and start shooting at the Water Monster from a presumably safe distance, but their bullets apparently do no harm to it at all.  Who will the Water Monster attack next?

Emerald hops out of her car and points emphatically at the driver side seat she just hopped out of. "He's in here! Quick!" she yells to the paramedics. Then, seeing the water monster look her way, Emerald says, "Hey now, why so upset?! Why hurting people?! What'd they do to you? Maybe I can help!" she side-steps away from the car, hoping she caught the thing's attention. And hoping she didn't. Either way, she still is going to lure the thing away from the car if possible. "Don't mind the others! They are just insulting you because they're scared! Like me! What's got you so upset as to attack this place?!"

Liberty coughs and gasps and coughs and hiccups and gasps. She doesn't even say anything for 10 seconds while she re-gathers her wits. Then out of reflex, pulls the handle on the door that's next to the lady and pushes on the door with all her might, opening it. Her wet, molten or disintegrated clothes just kind of collapse off of her as she exits the vehicle. If this were SMT, nobody would make a big deal of it. Then again, everyone's a bit preoccupied with staying alive at the moment to make a deal of it anyway, so Lib's lucking out there. For now.

Liberty carefully drags the lady out and notices Joe coming. "Help!..." she yells to him weakly, coughing right after. "...think... she can make it..." she pants, while looking pretty beat. Running out of air isn't fun. Nor is being inside a car when it blows up, but never mind that. Her now-bare skin looks a little reddish like someone scorched her with hot water, but otherwise looks like she'll be just fine. Though there are burn marks and wet ash in various parts of her now-shiny, wet body and hair due to other burned things landing on her and then getting wet.

  Joe was insulting them because the first thing they tried to do once they got there was punch a sixteen year old girl in the back of the head.  Granted, Joe is kinda freaked out a bit as well.

  Joe is also blushing noticeably and really hopes Liberty's so far indicated personality means they won't suddenly drop everything to punch him in the face for seeing her like this.  Either way, he offers his sweatjacket to her and says "Right, use this. Help the paramedics get her to the ambulance unless you have a better idea". I'll be working with a stupid one."

  Joe isn't quite crazy enough to try something like flying jumpkicking at the water bastich's bands. This would involve getting between it and police bullets.  He is however crazy enough to grab one of the less hot pieces of car scrap metal and head for a street lamp farther away than any of the girls, climbing to the top of it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:46, Wed 21 July 2010.

Being shot at is a bit more annoying than being offered help by a cute little fox lady.  The Water Monster sends another tidal wave at the police officers.  But thanks to the relatively safe distance^TM they were shooting from, and the fact they were on somewhat high ground, the wave does nothing more than mildly inconvenience them.  At least it inconveniences them enough that they stop shooting for the moment.

"Nolo onelun canlan helplelp melee!" the Water Monster rages in reply to Emerald!

The paramedics begin aiding both the crumpled guy in Emerald's car and the roasted lady from Liberty's car.  They shoot a few shocked looks at Liberty's being able to stand after all that, logic telling them that if her clothes were burned off, she should be a whole lot more hurt than she looks.

"Now calm down, champ," one of the paramedics says, approaching Liberty with a concerned look, "We're here to help.  This is an oxygen mask.  It'll help you breath."

He reaches to put said oxygen mask on Liberty while the other two put one on the roasted lady.

There's plenty of car scraps for Joe to choose from.  Anywhere from hubcaps to gull doors to bumpers.  There's also plenty of street lamps to choose from.  Judging from the behavior of the Water Monster, it doesn't have 360 degree vision and doesn't notice Joe's ascent.

Meanwhile, Mittens is somewhat disappointed that her diversion failed, but then she notices an important detail that may be why her diversion failed.

"Hey guys!" she shouts, "I just noticed the water thing hasn't moved from that hole in the ground this whole time!  Maybe it can't budge from that spot!"

She then rushes for the fire fighers.  She wonders if fighting fire with fire is a great idea, then maybe fighting water with water is too.  Or lack of water.  She might be able to talk them into...

"You again!" one of the fire fighters says when he catches sight of her, "You're behind all this aren't you!"

Liberty's hearing is a little limited due to explosion earlier. When offered the jacket by Joe, she takes it with a "huh?" look on her face before looking at herself. She's red already, but the look in her widened eyes and shivering lower lip that look like she's gonna cry tells of the blush that would otherwise have been seen. She wraps the Jacket around her waste to wear it like a skirt. Liberty then reaches to grab the oxygen mask as if this was candy she had waited all day to eat. Then takes a deep breath. She huddles over it, shoulders shrugged and her self slightly hunched over while bent at the knees. She finally manages to calm herself some, flopping against the paramedic. "Ohthatfeltgood!" she sputters. Then eyes the others. "They're in danger... need to help..."

Emerald yells out to the elemental. "Don't be too sure of that! What happened?!" she does her best to try NOT getting distracted. But she is circling around the monster so it's facing away from the cars and such that the paramedics are dealing with.

  Joe comes to the realization his stupid plan requires specific timing and reactions for it to happen, so at least while it's a failed idea it means Joe's that much less likely to electrocute himself.  Possibly.  "Nobody is going to want to help you if you keep trying to kill people regardless of what you look like.  So please stop trying to kill and/or hospitalize people."

  Even if the guy rant complains he had no control over his actions during the traffic accident causing stuff, again, attempts to punch people trying to save others in the head.

  Although Joe gets the feeling he may be tempted to flying dropkick a firefighter upside the head momentarily.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:47, Wed 21 July 2010.

A mini devil Mittens with burning eyes poofs over her left shoulder.  "You should be sarcastic with this jerk," she tempts, "Tell him, 'Oh sure!  I masterminded the whole thing!  That's why I warned you something bad was going to happen!  And nearly got myself killed trying to help people!  It's all part of my evil scheme!'"

A cute white angel kitty appears of her shoulder and headshakes.  "Remember rule number one, Mittens," mini Timothius warns, "People are morons.  He'll think you're not being sarcastic, knock you out, then tell the police you confessed."

"He has a point," Devil Mittens admits, "Never mind what I said.  Steal his truck and ram it into the water monster!"

"That sounds dangerous!  Don't do it Mittens!"

"That's the point!  It'll be fun!"

Mittens cocks her head a little, smiling at the fireman like a curious hamster while this debate races through her conscious. ( http://marga.mobile9.com/downl...taro-ha_1adahn31.gif )

"No I warned you because that's what good-guys do!" she explains cheerfully to the fireman, "I've got a few ideas on how to beat this monster.  One is to just spray it with as much water as possible to maybe wash it away.  Another is to open as many fire hydrants as possible in the area to drop the water pressure that I think it's feeding off of.  Third is to ram it with the truck.  Fourth is to cram a hose connected to the pump truck up it's rear end and suck it dry.  Hope that helps!  Have a nice day!"

She turns to rush back toward the action.

"Mutants..." the fireman grumbles before barking orders at his men, "Alright guys here's the plan!  Teams A, B, and C get hoses on those hydrants there and start spraying that thing with narrow streams!  Team D get me a hose connected to the pump truck!"

Meanwhile Liberty's paramedic gives her an admiring smile.  "Wow!" he says, "Now that's the spirit, Champ!  But much as I hate to break it to ya, you're probably going to have to sit the rest of this one out, OK?  You'll do more harm than good in the state you're in, and I'd likely lose my job if I let an injured kid rush into danger.  Besides...  You'd probably want to be wearing more than just a jacket."

He offers an emergency blanket to cover her with.

"We're going to need the Jaws over here!" the paramedics at Emerald shout at the support crew.

"Itlit's everonelun's faultlault!" Water Monster retorts to both Emerald and Joe, "Everleveryone willill paylay!"

It turns to attack Joe.  Depending on just how far away Joe is is whether the monster swings an extend-o-punch at Joe or pukes a stream of sewer water at him.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Mon 19 July 2010.

Liberty does not see the devil Mittens or angel Timothius on Mittens' shoulders. She does, however, pay attention to the paramedic. "...yessir." she says, blushing and remembering she's naked, save for Joe's jacket. She pulls the blanket around herself and continues, "Thanks. I just... there's people in danger... oh! Is that Spanish-speaking lady going to be OK?" she may not know Spanish, but let's face it; at this point any American recognizes it as Spanish upon hearing it spoken.

Seeing Joe distract the thing, hearing it not wanting to be sedated, Emerald says, "Great. One of those." while she goes to make sure she is close enough to the monster and far enough from the medics to keep its attention away from them. Her li'l ears pick up on what the firemen planned with Mittens and, well, lets them work things out.

Emerald doesn't see the devil or angel either.

  Joe didn't see the argument between Mitten's metaphysical outlooks.  He wasn't looking in that direction right now after all.  Not that he could see such things, that would be crazy.  As the watery jerk swung what passed for it's arm Joe's way, Joe considered the second greatest regret of his life.

  'I really should have smacked my dad upside the head when he suggested the Superhero thing.'

  As Joe and his perch were smashed by liquid rage, his actual greatest regret up to now was put into action.  That regret being that he was crazy enough to ram the scrap metal through the street lamp's light, introducing the both of them to the city power supply rather violently.

  How effective this is on their enemy Joe will have to find out later if he survives, considering he has just dropped off the lamp post unconscious and hits the ground with a dull thud.

  Of course, he landed on his keys.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:47, Wed 21 July 2010.

The Water Monster's fist meets with open electric socket and it frizaps violently like when clayface punched through a pair of TVs!  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERmAiXrsR1I 2:50 )

When the monster collapses, it loses it's shape and just washes back into the storm drains, but the geyser keeps gushing.  Of course, paramedics promptly rush to aid Joe.  The camera pans out and the scene fades to black.

After the commercial break, we find our heroes patched up, sitting around, and conversing near Joe's hospital bed.  Of course, he's just now waking up.  And through the miracle of narrative timing, the TV just happens to be about to play a news report on his and the others' heroics.

"Hey there, Champ!" Mittens says to Joe with a smile, TV remote in hand, "Welcome back to the land of the living.  Checkitout!  You're on TV!"

She turns up the volume.

"Never thought I'd be filing a weapon discharge report that included a water monster that looked like something from a video game," the interviewed police officer says with footage of the monster being shot at playing in a corner of the screen, "Not that guns were any use against it other than to annoy it."

"But one of the team of mutants was able to stop the monster by tricking it into attacking a street light," the reporter says as the scene flips to footage of Joe saving the day with his self sacrificing maneuver.

"'Glorified track and field,' is what he told me," interviewed Mittens says with a big smile, "Then moments later the chaos started."

The news report continues on.  Any footage that would have included nudity has fortunately been blurred out.

Liberty is there as well. Dressed in a tubetop and miniskirt. And has her hair in a ponytail to keep it up and off her skin. She smells of some kind of lotion the doctors gave her to help her skin heal faster and cope better with the 1st degree burns she got from car splodey. "That was amazing. You totally owned that monster in the face!"

All Emerald needed after peoplerrrr after chaos, was a shower and getting dressed before visiting Joe. "You all did terrific. Though you two shined, Joe and Liberty." Because, you know, Emerald and Mittens didn't really get all that hurt or put in danger anywhere near as much as those two.

  Joe is glad his watch and cell phone were of the cheap variety considering their likely state now.  "It was only a good idea because it worked.  I don't think anyone would be as enthusiastic about it if it didn't...  Could I have some pants please?"

  My, such priorities Joe has.  "Though, how are the people who got hurt doing?" Better.

OOC Style: Also wend on an edit binge changing the color of Joe's speech text to aqua in my older posts I forgot to do so in.

"No worries," Mittens smiles, "The family you saved and the baby Liberty saved were hardly even scratched.  Spanish speaking lady managed to survive and is in ICU now.  Crumpled guy didn't make it.  Buuut I happen to know a miracle healer.  Who managed to revive him when he arrived here in a body bag.  So nobody died!

"As for your bright idea, pardon the pun, I think it wouldn't be lost on the rest of us how awesome you are for trying even if it failed.  Pants on the other hand...  um..."

She just shrugs.  She walks over to the bag full of his stuff, jiggles it some so he can hear the slooshing sound.  No the hospital didn't bother to put his clothes in a dryer.

Liberty nods. "What she said. Imagine if one of us electrocuted ourselves in an attempt to stop the monster and it didn't work. Would you think any less of us?" she then looks at the sloshy pants. "....ewe..." even sticking her tongue out between her teeth and wrinkling her nose.

Emerald looks at the pants. Then looks back at Joe. "Right. Well. What do you need pants for? You're in the hospital, Joe. You're not going to be standing in public or carrying things that you need pockets for any time soon now, are you?"

  Joe says "My opinion would probably go easier on you than it does myself in that kind of situation.  I have a preference for having pants over being pantsless, I'm funny that way.'" Well, at least his clothes technically survived.

  Yes, nobody died.  Except possibly the water guy.

A strange looking bird with and upside-down beak flies into the window.

Did I hear someone mentioning they need a pair of pants? it wonders, looking at the people in the room.

It opens it's beak, waggles it's tongue, blinks a few times with it's sharp-teeth lined eyelids.

Oh...  It's a guy asking for pants.  Never mind.  I'm not queer.

It flies away.  Mittens makes no indication of having noticed.  She takes out her phone and presses a speed dial button.

"Well lemme getcha something even better..." she says before answering the person she dialed, "Hey hey hey!  It's faaat Mittens!  Joe's awake and asking for pants.  Suppose you could grab a pair on your way over?  Coolthanks!  Seeya sooon."

She hands up then smiles at Joe proudly.

"A white mage... erm... A healer... AND a pair of pants!"

She then dances around exclaiming, "Healer pants dance!  Healer pants dance!"
( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nn9dd6FfE8

orrrr....  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eoTjzLWlcQ  )
This message was last edited by the player at 17:18, Sat 24 July 2010.

Liberty looks down at her short skirt. Since, you know, we already covered what she's wearing and why. Then looks at Joe. "I'm not allowed 'cause of a car exploding in my face. You're not allowed because of using yourself as a lightning rod for a water monster. Honestly, I think we both agree lack of pants is the least of our problems." she then looks at Mittens. "...who did you call?"

Emerald looks dumbfounded at the sight of the bird. So distracted, she fails to notice Mittens was calling someone for pants. OK, so she didn't fail noticing that. "What's with the pants?" she blurts out like she's heard that word 4 times over.. OK, so she has.

Timothius comes in, holding a pair of pants. Unfortunately, Mittens was way to quick with her phone call. The pair of pants is sized for Timothius (Who is a young boy). And has a hole in the butt for his tail. "Sooo... Mitts? You didn't even gimme a chance to ask: Who is Joe and will this pair of pants do?"

Finding Mittens was easy enough. He just asked the hospital staff which room she was in THIS time.

( Timothius clarified he's 12 years old in this world. )

"Oops," Mittens says, "Sorry'boutthat.  I'mjustsoexcited!  Thishere'smysupergroup!  Emerald, Liberty, and Joe!"

She actually shifts from her own excitement and has a moment of considering other people's well being.  Must be her bro's influence.

"Emerald's fine as far as I know, but Liberty's got a serious ouch from being inside an exploding car, and Joe was electrocuted, drown, and dropped onto pavement from over 20 feet.  Guys... this is my brother Timothius.  He's the miracle healer I was talking about."

She displays him with a big grin like she's showing off a new car!

"We'll getcha rightly sized pants soon enough, Joe."

  Joe's glad he's had lots of practice keeping a straight face when confronted with senseless lunacy because of his Father.  Clearly this situation is getting out of hand if Joe is feeling gratitude for his dad.

  "It's the thought that counts, Or so people keep telling me. I'd get up for saying hi but that'd be why the pants."

  Joe would ask if anything had happened to Mittens, but he gets the feeling her personality is not from recent blunt trauma.

Emerald thinks about this. A teenager is leading a team of two adults and a child. Or at least, seems to be insinuating as much. Emerald doesn't know what to make of Mittens, but is grateful the girl is high-spirited. "I am doing fine, yes. Didn't get hit at all." she confirms to Mittens.

When Joe mentions the need for pants yet again, Emerald is tempted to pull the sheets away to peek and see if he doesn't even have a hospital gown on. But she's not feeling that mean since, you know, the guy just got zotted to rescue a city block. Emmy asks in a teasing tone, "Didn't they give you a hospital gown?"

"Super hero group..." Liberty says ponderously. "Don't we need a super-group uniform before we can really call ourselves a super group? Don't we need to know each other better and work better as a team before we can call ourselves a super *team*? I think we got a ways to go."

Liberty looks at Joe. "You fully healed yet? The doctors say you can get up at all?"

Timothius goes to Joe's side and offers his hand. "A handshake is enough. Nobody has to stand up over little ol' me." of course, this is also a ploy to wind up healing Joe without being seen as an aggressor. Ariel would know about that...

Oh dear.  The white kitten is trying to heal me.  Such aggression!

"No he's completely naked under those sheets," Mittens says cheerfully, totally ruining any chance at being understood as saying that sarcastically

"And you got a point, Liberty.  Plenty of room for improvement!  But I'd say we've proven ourselves heroes.  And super powered at that!  So being a group of supers, we qualify as a supergroup.  That and the city's government says you qualify just by signing up this mornin.  As for Joe's recovery, I'm sure after his handshake he'll feel right as rain.  Then it'll be your turn!"

  Joe's visible above the sheets self does indeed have a hospital gown on, but he prefers clothing that has pockets.  Because pockets are good.  "Well I just woke up so nobody's talked to me except you, but I don't feel too bad."  He makes with the handshakage when Timothius offers his hand.  "Nice to meet you."  Joe feels sympathy for Timothius's likely patience dealing with his sister's long term 'offbeat but nothing actually bad' personality.  Along with feeling better than just okay all of a sudden.

  "I'm sure it's likely obvious that if I'm asking for pants already, then I wouldn't be a fan of the underpants on the outside look if costumes got involved." Joe commented, as Gomez Addam's long lost twin brother in casual wear entered the room carrying a bag "I would hope I raised you to know that underpants have an obviously meaningful name." This said as the recent arrival tossed Joe the bag, which he of course made the catch of.  "How is it I picked up common sense from you again?"  "With great difficulty."  "Difficulty caused by you or me." "Yes."

  Joe facepalms, as the man said "Hi, I'm David.  I will be Joe's embarrassing parent for the occasion.  I brought you your underpants with the holes in them Joe."  "...these only have the usual leg and fly holes..." Joe said after taking a moment to sift through the bag. "Well yes, those are holes aren't they?"

  Joe will not throw his father through a window.  They are in a hospital and they would just bring him right back inside.

Diren as watching the news in a store when he saw the mutant footage.  Woah,  he thought, that looks fun.  He walks to the hospital and gets directions to the room that the mutants are in from the nurse at the front desk.  Once he reaches the room and is just a few feet away he stops and thinks Alright, dont act stupid, dont act stupid, dont act stupid... He walks the rest of the way to the doorway and steps in. "Hi, I'm Diren." He says,  "Uh.. I hope im not interrupting anything... but i heard you had a.. um.. Mutant crime fighting group thing and i was wondering if i could join." He smiles optomisticaly and awaits a response while thinking stupidstupidstupid!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:45, Sat 31 July 2010.

  Joe's hospital room has, lets see...  Seven people in it now including himself, quite the crowd.  "Unless the standards for application have risen while I was out, I think you just qualified for membership."  He doesn't think Diren is stupid, but this may change in time depending on how bitter towards all of reality Joe is feeling at a given moment.

  "Just don't get your ass kicked like my son and you should fit right in." Fortunately for Diren, Joe's bitter quota is being taken up by someone else at the moment.

  OOC Style: It's mentioned the weekend can be slow for us posting wise, but figure I may as well toss a little something up.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:13, Mon 02 Aug 2010.

Emerald tries not to laugh as Joe's dad mentions the holes and such. She waves to David. "Hi, David. I'm Emerald. This is Liberty, Joe, Mittens and Timothius..." Diren enters and Emerald turns to notice. When he says his piece, Emerald says, "Sure. Mittens can direct you to the more official document, but it's at the police station." She chooses to ignore what David said about getting beat up since Father/Son relations are none of her business.

When she is introduced to David, Liberty nods to the man. She doesn't have a chance to give an opinion other than giving David a "zwuh?" look before Diren enters. Liberty looks at Diren and says, "Hi, Diren. What's your power?" she immediately squeaks as Timothius takes her hand and she feels a ton better, her skin turning less red before everyone's very eyes. "...woah." she says, looking herself over. "Cool."

She gets angry when David mentions Joe getting his butt kicked, but tempers herself and calmly (but with a ticked expression) says, "Correction, sir. Joe beat the monster. And he did so by sacrificing himself. That monster did not chose to put Joe in the hospital. Joe did. And to save the people around this area. Probably you as well in the process. If your thanks to him for being heroic is to mock him, then I'll use my hero cred to tell the media what kind of father you are. Then see how easy buying groceries is anymore."

(The player LOVES David. Liberty? Not so much. But that last stab at Joe was a bit much for Liberty to handle. XD )

Timothius smiles and lets go of Liberty before looking to Diren. "Nice to meet you, Diren." he says cheerfully. He smiles proudly when Liberty seems amazed by his power. He then meeps at Liberty's harsh words to David and just kinda... slinks over to his sister.

"My power?  I don't know what it's called so i'll show you."  He takes out 3 of the metal balls from his pouch and tosses them in the air.  They hover in front of him and begin to spin around, changing shape randomly.  then they  stop and turn into a shield, then a sword, then a gun, and various other things.  "I can pretty much control all metals.  I cant lift that much yet, though."

[i should have put this here before: The gun doesn't work, its just a good bluff.  Also, the things i made were in miniature, about 6 inches. Not actual size.  Sorry i didn't make that clear.]
This message was last edited by the player at 17:21, Mon 02 Aug 2010.

Mittens giggles at the antics of David and Joe.  She wonders for a moment what having a dad like that would be like, then appreciates being the only lunatic in her family.  She figures being crazy isn't as fun if it becomes the norm.

"Holy underwear, Batman!" she snickers, "Nice to meetcha, sir!"

She gives a grin and a wave.  Diren showing up offering to join the team is very much a welcome diversion, so Mittens continues the grin-wave in Diren's direction as he gives his demo.

"Metal!" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqF49e_3PMU ) she enthusiastically labels in approval, "Now that's handy!  Also handy is that I kept a spare application in my pocket!"

Mittens presents Diren with said paper.  Which is soaked.

"Welcome aboard, Diren!  I'll be your offbeat team leader for the occasion.  Since we're sharing superpowers, mine is I can sense adventure before it happens.  My bro here is a miracle healer.  Emerald is a sweet talker, Liberty tough, and Joe agile.  But we at the Citizen Patrol focus more on heart than power.  It's the hero part of superhero that's the true super part."

Oops.  Totally forgot to introduce yourself there, Mittens.  When Liberty tears into David and Timothius hides behind her, she just smiles and feigns surprise, idly hugging her baby bro.

"Oh my," she says, wondering if she should interject.

Yeah.  She should.

"I would rather we not threaten to use hero cred as a weapon against the families of our members, Liberty.  That's not heroic.  Even if I was fully convinced that Mr. David here intended to insult Joe rather than tease, I would still grant the benefit of the doubt and say something like, 'Ya know, if Joe were a part of my family I'd be very proud of his courage and selflessness.  I'd avoid teasing him lest he misunderstand and think I disapprove of such virtues.'

"But Mr. David was just teasing, wasn't he?"

Mittens gives David an expectant smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:21, Tue 03 Aug 2010.

  Joe finds himself increasingly surrounded by people with real powers.  Nevermind that Joe can knee drop someone from a high-rise safely, he's thinking along basic and vastly creative magnet power usage lines such as 'he can beat someone with four tire irons at once'.  We may have lied about Joe's creativity there.

  "Circular saw blades don't weigh that much... But I think we're trying to do traditional heroics or something so sharp bits halfway through someone's neck is probably out." As would be knee dropping someone from a height of 16 floors Joe.

  David seems to pay attention to the verbal abuse more than the magnetic floorshow, possibly due to greater personal familiarity with such things.  He gives Liberty a very serious looks and says "So, for giving my son a hard time your threat is to starve Joe by preventing his family from buying the food he eats."  The serious expression doesn't last very long as David starts laughing, "Really, if we were even halfway serious about a fraction of our verbal abuse to eachother, Joe would have tried to kick my face in long ago."

  "Tried?"  "My Escrima is stronger than yours." "What happened to Silat?" "It gets old if I claim the same martial art every time."

OOC Style: Disclaimer, like the Player is not an expert in Mutant biophysics, the player is also not an expert in actual martial arts.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:34, Tue 03 Aug 2010.

Liberty eyes David. Then lets out a sigh of relief. "So you DO care about him. It's nice to be proven wrong in this case. But for the record, the threat was to starve you. He's old enough to have a job and feed himself. Not to mention if you *were* what I thought, I'd just have him live with me while you learned what you had by losing it. A lot of dads out there take their kids for granted until the kid's gone. Also for the record, I'd rather starve than have a dad who doesn't love me. Better a morsel in peace than a feast in strife... still, Mittens is right. The threat was a bit extreme and unheroic. I apologize for that. I get really *really* mad when people mock heroes. Especially right in front of them while they are recovering in a hospital. You may as well go to some guy's funeral and hold up a picket sign saying "he's going to Hell and deserves it" right in front of the grieving families. Even you have to admit that what you said was pretty low, tease or no tease. You basically called him a failure for being heroic. Not that you're sorry for it."

Emerald groans a little from Mittens' punn on metal. She watches the dad and Mitts both give Liberty a quick lechture on heroics and listens to Liberty's response. "Well the girl apologized. She's still kind of using extremes and stuff." Emerald makes a mental note not to tease Liberty. Then says, "Liberty and Mittens bring up a good point, though. As heroes, we'll wind up with a reputation. It's very important we are careful with our words and actions from here on out. We're used to people saying "so what" to most anything we might say. We're not used to fame, praise and the power trip that comes with such a thing. One heroic act and all the sudden, we have thousands, even millions of eyes watching us. One wrong act and those same eyes will immediately forget any good that was done and crucify us. Even if only one of us does something wrong, as a group, the rest of us will suffer."

Liberty says, "People are stupid that way."

Emerald says, "Life isn't fair." she then looks over at Diren. "And just so you know, your power is called Metal Manipulation. Although there is a chance you may have some Magnetism power, from what I just saw, Metal Manipulation is more likely the case."

She glances at Mittens, remembering the cat calling her a sweet talker. Emerald smiles brightly, glad it isn't really her power. That's more a skill and one she's proud of. But she doesn't say anything on that topic.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:17, Wed 04 Aug 2010.

Timothius looks up at Mittens and asks, "....is everyone getting along now?" He considers the idea of heading out right now, but doesn't want to be rude. He seems to enjoy the little display of power Diren gives, but is still feeling like he's walking on eggshells here thanks to the Liberty/David drama.

"You would be correct in guessing we'll be aiming for more traditional heroics as opposed to the popular-in-film-but-notsomuch-in-reality antihero who likes to torture and murder the badguys," Mittens replies to Joe, "We'll leave those shenanigans to the professionals such as the CIA or the military."

She gives a smile to Liberty.

"Quoting the Bible I see," she says, "There's much wisdom in that book.  Such as 'To everything there is a time and a season.'  There will probably come a time to unleash the full fury of your wrath on those who mock heroes, and I look forward with much anticipation to the verbal devastation you wreak upon the deserving nimrods when that time comes."

Mittens then nods in agreement with Emerald.

"Yup!  You hit the nail right on the head there, Emerald!  Unfair though it may be, we'll be held to a very high moral standard.  Which will be addressed in our fist official meeting today.  And since everyone present is now in good health and getting along well enough, I see no reason to delay getting said meeting started.  But first a change of venue.  Let's go to our superhero headquarters!  Those present and anyone they care to invite are welcome!"

Once all the needed rigmarole of getting the no longer injured released from the hospital is over with, Mittens leads the way to the "superhero base."  Namely room 23 of the Police station.  (( http://www.citrusheights.net/d...6briefing_room_2.jpg ))  It's a typical police briefing room lined with desks and folding chairs sandwiched between a drop ceiling with dim florescent lights and a linoleum floor.  The walls are covered in dry-erase boards which detail various bits about the day-to-day business of the police force.  At the front of the room is a table set with a coffee maker with fresh brewed coffee and all the typical coffee fixings, paper cups, pitcher of water, napkins, and a variety box of doughnuts.

Already seated and enjoying some of the refreshments are 3 news reporters and an elderly balding police officer shooting the breeze.  They quiet down and look attentively at the team's arrival.

"Everyone please make yourselves comfortable," Mittens offers to her teammates, this time giving Diren a not-wet usable application, "I hope you enjoy the filtered water and fancy coffee made with said filtered water.  Really punches it up to not have a chlorine taste in my humble opinion.  First thing's first introductions.  Everyone, this is detective Frank Bagrowski.  Frank, these are my new team members, Emerald, Joe, Diren, Timothius, and Liberty.  Frank is our police liaison."

She addresses the reporters.

"And you three presumably are the news reps?" 

"That we are," one of them offers with a smile and handshake, "I'm Tabetha Walters from Channel 4."

The others introduce themselves, each from a different news media.

"Nice to meetcha," Mittens answers, "Thanks for coming.  Please hold your questions till after the meeting."

She then takes the "podium," such as it is, and once everyone's seated addresses the group.

"OK!  Welcome to the Citizen Patrol's first official meeting!  Unless you count the many meetings me and my bro have had setting this whole thing up.  Inanycase, today's meeting will be a get-to-know-you event.  Starting with myself and the Citizen Patrol.

"The Citizen Patrol is a non-profit organization (still working on that tax exempt status) who's purpose is to assist the city's existing emergency forces, namely the police, fire protection, paramedics, etc as best we can with our unique abilities.  Membership is open to persons of all backgrounds, be they guy or gal, young or seasoned, human or otherwise.  Willingness to give of yourself to help others is all that is needed to join.

"That said, we do have a secondary goal of providing a place where 'Mutants,' or, 'biologically different persons' if you want to go with the P.C. term, can safely aid their community with their abilities without having to worry about working outside the law while doing so.

"This is the complete charter as outlined by our City's government, and it gives aaall the boring details about organization, oversight, funding, accountability, legal mumbo-jumbo, blablablablabla.  Feel free to look it over and pass it around.  The important thing I want you all to take to heart is our code of ethics."

She takes out a 3-ring notebook titled "Official Charter of the Citizen Patrol" and several photocopied "Citizen Patrol Code of Ethics" pages and hands them to the nearest member.

"Now!  An introduction of myself!  My birth name is Gale Christian, but I like to go by my superhero name Mittens 'cause I'm eccentric that way.  Oops!  Just gave away my secret identity!  Oh noes!  Anyhoo.  I'm a highly motivated 16 year old high school graduate who's out to make the world a better place for everyone, and have fun while doing so!  My mutant power is that I can sense adventure from a mile and a day away.  More or less.  For example.  Just the other day while walking out of this police station I looked at the street and felt a disturbance in the force.  I had a feeling like something exciting would be happening there in the next day or two.  Didn't know exactly what, but I just knew something was going to happen!  So I warned the various emergency services.  Most didn't take me seriously, buuut I think now they'll take more notice when I tell 'em stuff like that.

"OK!  Now!  I would like for each of us to share about themselves and their talents and abilities!  It's OK if you don't feel comfortable telling us everything about yourself, but please do share as much as possible about what you can handle.  As today proved, I think we would have worked faaar better as a team if we knew exactly what each was capable of."

(( Assume Mittens points at your char in turn to prevent people from talking over each other. ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:17, Sun 08 Aug 2010.

Timothius says, "I'm Timothy Christian. You can call me Tim if you like. My sis calls me Timothius because I was born in Athens, Greece. So it's kind of a nick-name like Mittens is for her. I can heal people with a touch. Two of the people here have already experienced this power of mine. I can also fly using my wings."

(OOC: I would like to point out I wrote up a power list for each character here so you can simply click on their names and see their powers. My characters include Timothius, Liberty and Emerald.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:58, Sun 08 Aug 2010.

Liberty says, "My name's Liberty Stryker. I prefer being called Liberty. I can take a beating. If any of you saw the news, I was inside an exploding car and all it did was make me very happy to have an oxygen mask. Well... that and embarrassed because my clothes got incinerated off my body. I got first degree burs all over my body, sure, but as you all know, that heals quickly enough."

Emerald says, "My name is Emerald Haynsworth. I don't mind being called Emmy but it gets confusing when a girl named Amy is around, so probably best to stick with Emerald. My looks aren't for show. I can do what a fox can do. I can also speak any language there is. I have other abilities and skills, but as you'll find I am just as secretive as I am forthcoming. So while I'll tell you I can do other things, I am not ready to tell you what."

  Joe wonders whether or not robots would fall under 'biologically different persons' or not.  "I'm Joe Darkthorne-"

  "Related to David Darkthorne who-" One of the thus far unnamed news reps starts, "I am going to ignore any questions or comments about my father.  Especially if you're mixing up Addams family episodes with my life."  To be fair, that show had some good ideas according to David.

  "I move like a Wire-Fu extra, and I can survive getting shot even if it's just as painful as it would be for most people." Hah! My semi invulnerability will allow me to stop you!... Juuust as soon as I stop crying on the floor.

OOC Style: I'll actually work on a cast click for Joe later tomorrow.  Though while it seems Diren put one up, they need to edit it to his current powers as opposed to his Appsheet requested powers.
  While technically I could do that myself, it would feel rude to do so straight off without giving him a chance.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:06, Mon 09 Aug 2010.

"I'm Diren.  I can control metal.  Thats all you need to know."  He is playing with the metal, changing it with a combination of his hands and his powers(makes it go faster when he is physically touching the metal) into several shapes.  Sword, dog, cat, random animals, before turning it back into it's normal ball shape.

On the one hand, Mittens is lightly annoyed with how many opt for the secret background bit but on the other she kinda opened that can of worms by saying everyone's welcome to hold back info.

"Ye olde emberassing family member," Mittens comments with a chuckle, "Heh.  How liberating for me to be the embarrassing family member.  Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.  OK!  Nice intros, everybody!  Hopefully as we get to know each other better, we'll be able to work together better.

"Next up: Group Vision!  Our vision for the Citizen's Patrol is that we become more than just a club for Mutants who want to apply their powers toward helping their fellow man.  Eventually, we'll have a building of our own complete with a gym, caffeteria, dorms, library, TVs, computer network, and so on.  A place where members can show up at, hang out, crash, eat, play, get caught up on news, etc.  Like a firehouse.  A home away from home.

"And perhaps the idea will catch on like lending libraries firehouses did.  Perhaps other groups like ours will pop up in other places, and the world will be a better place to live in for everyone.

"Any questions on the group visiion before I go over the plan?  Members only please."

Timothius is Mittens' bro. He's already talked with her about all this stuff, so he doesn't have any questions. Neither can he think of anything to add just yet. He smiles, though, unable to contain his enthusiasm for the virtual clubhouse he's about to attain. His attention is drawn to Diren's metal play as he oogles at the demo. The others aren't showing off, so Diren's display is currently pretty attention grabbing. He may be a cat with wings and insta-heal powers, but Timothius is still just as able to oogle over other people's powers.

(OOC: Reminded of a very awesome painting I saw once that was a tribute to the firemen of 9-11. It showed Superman from behind, fists on hips, looking up at a wall that stood about twice his height and had a mural of firemen painted on it, mid-rescue of people. A speech bubble was over Superman's head with the simple word "Wow." as he stood in awe. It spoke volumes because it really demonstrated what really wows us deep inside. True heroism. Those firemen don't have super powers, but they have super hearts. And while you and I will continue to be wowed by magic tricks and amazing feats of technology, those things you can get used to. But heroism stands as a continual inspiration of awe.)

Liberty says, "Does everyone have a say in how this future place is built, what will be in it, and that sort of stuff? And what about command structure or seniority? Will I someday serve as some kind of example as I slowly gain veteran status?"

Liberty glances at Diren's display a few times, but seems much more distracted by Joe. She'll make sure Joe is cool with her at some point, but is embarrassed to bring it up at the moment.

Once Liberty's question is answered, Emerald would then ask, "How are we getting the funding? Or is that the "plan" you were about to explain?"

Emerald loves the concept and all, and sure the police don't mind sitting around eating doughnuts while giving a thumbs up, but that doesn't mean some random millionaire is going to magically fund the group. Emmy's relatively wealthy, but even she doesn't have THAT kind of money.

  Joe wondered if Dirin had any social skills outside of showing off magnet powers.  But then, one could ask if Joe had any social skills outside of bitterness and sarcasm.  "Damnit Diren, how are we going to know what kind of pizza to order for you if all you're going to tell us is that?"  See?  "As for myself, I've grown up in town and have taken a preference for it not becoming a smoking crater.  I haven't done obvious charity bits like others here have, just the near anonymous stuff like those charity walks.  My social responsibility before now has been closer to the 'don't willingly break laws' variety, so this is kind of a stretch by comparison."

  Less secretive background for Joe, more 'not talking about Dad' and 'My life lacks dramatic secrets like fleeing from secret labs or a life of thievery'... Wait, is this version of Emerald packing a breaking and entering resume?

  Joe also has very little problem with Liberty so far.  Unless one counts that lurking worry her or someone else will belt out the 'you pedo' comments for seeing her during a clothing misshap.  "I'm still trying to figure out what this place will be doing in the immediate future beyond emergency stuff.  So I guess I might have an answer for future plans when I know what the current ones we will actually be using are better."

OOC Style: It's been almost a week without a fix from Diren, so I edited the unapproved raw Application sheet powers out of the Diren cast click like we said we would. I added in the approved powers we went over.
  With Sodium Diren's hand aiding the molding of clay soft metals obviously works, but Diren's power itself does not get any stronger with physical contact.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:34, Sun 15 Aug 2010.

"Uh, what's a pizza?  I'm assuming it's some sort of food."  He isn't joking.  He puts his metal away and looks towards them, waiting on an answer befoire he continues to speak.

Mittens is stunned anime style. ( http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q...egishock.jpg&t=1 )

"Doesn't know what pizza is..." she thinks out loud in a 'woooow' kinda absent minded tone, "Well obviously, this must be rectified.  Unfortunately, no one can be properly told what pizza is.  You have to experience it for yourself.  It's more than just what you can smell, taste and feel.  More than simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.  It's a door to freedom of the mind...

"But I digress.  You already have veteran status, Liberty!  You're the first among us to get exploded!  Of course members will have a say in details!  Timothius and I have provided the skeleton, it will be up to everyone to flesh things out, and I very much look forward to your input!

"Funding so far is provided by the City, and it's very very nominal at the moment.  Yes it is part of the plan to get outside funding, but within strict ethical guidelines.  Don't want anybody accusing the Citizen Patrol of being anybody's lap-dog.

"As for the plan: it's more a cyclical perpetual simultaneous sorta plan than a step-by-step linear thing.  Summarized as follows: Preparedness, Prevention, Response.

"Preparedness involves training, fund raising, and tool acquisition.  Prevention involves community service, public service announcements, and uh... heh... my special talent.  Suppose that could be counted under all three.  Anyhow response of course is the kinda stuff we did earlier today.

"So yeah.  Lots o stuff beyond just Emergency stuff.  While we're mainly aimed at keeping the City from becoming a smoking crater, I would like to aspire to more than just smoking crater prevention."

Rodney had his application in hand, after all, it was weird enough having his power... at least he could talk to people here about it.  "Room twen'y-t'ree," he said with some finality and an accent that he had inherited from his father.  "A'righ' Rod... be nice, get dis ove' wit'.  Dey can' be too bad righ'?"

He knocked on the door with the hand that held the papers and planned to wait at least until given some kind of signal to enter.  It looked like they were in some kind of meeting.

In the interest of moving plot along Mittens breaks post order to wave Rodney in.  She notices the application and smiles.  "Welcome aboard," she says when the guy enters, "Name's Gale Christian aka Mittens, this here's my bro Timothy, and these are the new members of the Citizen Patrol: Emerald, Joe, Liberty, and Diren.  Please help yourself to a drink and a doughnut and make yourself comfortable." 

She motions toward the available seats.

"Oh.  And here's a copy of our code of ethics.  We were just going over the importance of showing Diren the wonders of pizza.  And how we plan to be awesome in other ways too."

Rodney opened the door quietly as he could, then felt it would only be polite for him to introduce himself so others weren't feeling so awkward, "Rodney Senica... guess da bes' tin' ta call mah pow'ah 's Wyrm.  I kin be like any worm I eat.  Not so great in most cases, but... deah it is."

He got himself a glass of water and a doughnut, "Pizza eh?  Dis cov'ah'ed by group fundin' or I gotta dump mah change?"

There was a knock on the door. As they heard voices inside and the door was not locked they decided it wouldn’t do any harm letting themselves in. Two policemen entered, both with one hand on the shoulders of a rather large lady. She towered above the two policemen with at least half her head. There were some plasters and bruises on her body and a bandage on her wrist.  Her long red hair hangs over her shoulders making her eye patch clearly visible.

The officer to her left says Miss Mittens, we were told to escort this woman to you. If I were you I would send her right back to a holding sell though… he looks at Sarah somewhat annoyed and than pulls a letter from his pocket.

yeah, yeah… I’m the biggest scumbag ya ever had the pleasure of escorting…now get the damned cuffs off me. the woman added to the comment of her captor. She didn’t seem all too happy being here and her facial expression seemed to match that of the police officer holding the letter.

Liberty turned to notice Rodney. She smiles at the friendliness of the guy, giving Rodney a wave, and then looks from Mittens to Joe as the catgirl answered the self-sacrificing not-cat guy. She looks back at Mittens, "Somehow, I doubt anyone will be lining up to get exploded."

Timothius says, "That's because you don't know my sister." this in reference to Mittens.

Liberty pauses. "...so anyway." she looks at Joe. "I think the current plan is buying pizza, if you really, really wanna talk current." she answers Joe. She then looks at Mittens. "But I don't have any money at the moment..."

Liberty was MUCH too distracted with never-had-pizza Diren to notice yet another knock, thinking either Diren is tapping his desk or someone is doing something out of boredom, or maybe the police are nailing a picture frame in the other room. But when the police enter with a *prisoner*, saying the tall lady was to be delivered to Mittens specifically, Liberty is confused. Why would the police be told to... "Excuse me, officer, but why were you instructed, against your judgement, to deliver a prisoner to us?"

She refrained from saying "better judgement" since she doesn't know the whole story yet. Liberty knows all too well that innocent people get locked up.

(OOC: Just thought of a fun nickname for Sarah if she starts calling Mittens "Midget" or such. Between being tall and having an eye patch, Mittens could call her "Sky Pirate" XD But then, Emerald's the shortest of the bunch of us so far.)

Emerald amazes at Diren's lack of pizza upbringing. "Are you American?" she asks Diren quietly, as if American and Pizza are two inseperable words. There is, however, a lot to cover and the exciteable teenage catgirl not-a-ninja-honest is doing her best to say it all. Emerald will be curious if Mittens has sufficiently answered Joe, but feels disinclined to comment on it. Especially since new people come in.

Emerald watches Rodney come in and waves to him. Emerald glances at Liberty. "It's OK, Liberty. I'm sure people won't mind pitching in." she then looks back at Rodney. "Thanks for offering to pitch in so fast! I'll be putting some money down for pizza also."

And then the very tall lady comes in. Emerald ponders and heads over to the cops. She has a bad feeling about the situation, but it is what it is. The 3' tall fox looks way up at the lady who is over twice as tall. "It's OK, officers. I'm sure she was sent to us for good enough reasons. Please un-cuff her." she requests, but says as though she was the one in charge around here. Not that she wants to be, but she is showing initiative for a reason. And would rather herself in charge than a teenager whose brother brags about her being the kind to stand in line to be blown to bits.

Timothius is mostly watching. He wonders if Diren has parents who were intolerant of pizza grease or something. "Didn't your parents order pizza on your birthdays? Or was it strictly cake?" he asks.

When Rodney arrives, Timothius waves with a smile. Then things get interesting when Sarah arrives. He decides, as usual, to take back-seat and watch. Except for the injuries. When Timothius sees those, he hops out of his seat and walks at a quickened pace over to Sarah, apparently not afraid of her for the moment. "You're hurt..." he says in a concerned tone. Timothius reaches out to place a hand on a bare spot on her arm, close to her bandaged wrist. If she doesn't move away, Sarah will start losing her bruises and the wrist will begin feeling better.

The police officer Answers Liberty with a smile while still holding the letter. My better judgement gets overruled by the higher ups at times lady. This kid can consider herself very lucky. He signals the other officer to release the cuffs from her wrists as he walks over towards Mittens to hand over the letter.

The Other officer chuckled at the remark of his colleague. If you were in charge I bet things would look allot different. than he turns his head to Liberty. don’t worry too much about it, I bet you’ll all get along just fine… and if not you can always send her back. She’s here on a trial period. All of witch will be explained to you in the letter, or she might enlighten you herself he waits for a reaction from Sarah, but she was too busy with the small crowd that had gathered around her to take any notice to the comment.

Sarah hadn’t really paid much attention to her debriefing before they sent her here and she was starting to regret that. so the foxy lady must be Mittens? she asked, remembering that that name was mentioned while she was informed who she will be working under. Sarah was somewhat amazed at the appearance of Emerald and Timothius. And who is your furry friend? she Points at Timothius. It’s just some bruises and sprains, nothing I wont recover from. But thanks anyway kid. She lets the officer remove the cuffs and draws her attention to Emerald once more. Your awfully small to be a leader… she states somewhat mockingly. Ya must have some amazing mind control powers or what?

  "Ten bucks towards Pizza for the mostly silent one is the least I could do.  Provided I get some of it.  I also have the feeling smoking crater prevention will take up way more time than most of us would like."  First hour, and people already blown up and electrocuted.  Though at least Liberty can say 'at least I didn't do it on purpose', unlike Joe.

  Joe gives a casual wave to Rodney when they wander in,  "I think donuts and coffee is as far as free snacks go.  Real food seems out of reach for the moment unless we get it ourselves.  But then I don't think they have a cafeteria in police stations anyway."

  Considering the even more recent most recent events and comments, Joe says "So, are we talking 'Set Landmines in lawn to catch neighbor's Dog going on it' bad or has my sense of scale been twisted beyond recognition?" Purely hypothetical event a purely hypothetical family member attempted.  Hypothetically.  "Though that short fuzzy girl is Emerald.  The not quite as short fuzzy girl is Mittens."

  Joe refrains from saying something like 'not that we have nametags', because it might give people ideas.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:08, Mon 23 Aug 2010.

Diren akwardly puts his hand on the back of his neck.  "I... Uh... I... Don't...  Um... Well...   I don't exactly...  Have parents..." He sighs and looks down, leaving it at that.  He assumes they will be stunned and doesn't want to say anything else yet.

"Fi'e dollahs.  I ate at home.  I'm on'ee takin one slice, an I aint payin fo da orphans all o'ah d worl ta have some pizza, jus pitchin in fo dis one kid." He didn't need to hear a tearful tale of another hero's diminishing familial returns... no... he pulled a five dollar bill from his wallet and set it on a table.

"Wit da fiasco on da news, you got anotha job plan soon?"

"Welcome aboard, Rodney!" Mittens chimes cheerfully as she takes out her cell phone and speed dials the pizza place, "Thanks for offerin' t' help wit' d' pizza fund!  And that goes for everyone who offered!  Joe's right insofar as free snacks came outta my pocket and nom-noms aren't covered by the city's budget."

She turns her attention to the cell phone and waves in the officers with Sarah.

"Hello!  Is that you, Dre?  Sup!  Mittens the famous superhero here!  You didn't hear the news?  Doh!  I guess you wouldn't have, then.  Me and a few others totally fought a real life water elemental right outside the police station!  Yeah!  Exactly like in WoW!  It was awesome!  I'm sure you can look it up on youtube when your shift's over."

She gives a vigorous nod to Emerald while lip-sincing "Thank you" to the fox.  Still on phone, she takes and reads the offered letter from the officers while still ordering.

"So Dre.  Can you ask your manager a big favor for me?  We want two large variety pizzas.  I mean like 2 slices cheese, 2 slices peperoni, 2 slices sausage....  We got a guy here who's never tasted pizza before!  I'd like a buffet he could choose from.  Yeah!  Exactly that!  Sweet!  Thanks!"

Mittens covers the phone and asks the reporters and officers if they want any who decline.  She winks at Liberty when Timothius boasts of her suicidal tenancies.

"Yeah.  Two large should be plenty.  We're kinda full on doughnuts, heh.  Oh!  The police station!  Room 23.  TTYL, LOL Rawr!"

She hangs up the cell and looks over at Diren.  "Consider us your family then!  I'd wager we're quirky enough to be very family-like."

Mittens grins at Sarah while waving the letter.  "Looks like you're the perfect addition to the team!  We could use a tough gal such as yourself to protect us from the inevitable nimrods who want to cave in our skulls for being different.  And while I agree with your compliment to Emerald the foxy, look who's talking, hot stuff!  Love your hair!  Orange flavored eye candy!  Yum!"

Then without missing a beat she answers Rodney's question.  "You bet wegotaplan!  Namely, assigning duties!  Who here's good with numbers?  Already got in mind what I'll have Emerald doing, she seems a natural."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:22, Mon 23 Aug 2010.

Down the hall from room 23 and around the corner stood Haalima, pacing back and forth nervously as she muttered to herself.

"Come on, nothing to be nervous about. It's not exactly what you want to do with yourself, but it could be a step in the right direction for getting your name out there, right?" She stopped pacing and poked her head around the corner to stare down the hall. Her ears flicked, sending a few braided sections of her mane flipping around as well. The bells she had tied at the ends of the braids jingled merrily. "Besides, those people on the TV didn't look that much different from you, now did they?"

Haalima took a deep breath and stood up to her full height, lifting her head up high. Her ears nearly brushed the neon lights that stuck down from the ceiling. Then, with a look of resolve on her face, she walked toward room 23. Her hooves clunked on the hall floor as the bells and coins on her outfit jangled with each determined step.

She slowed down once she reached the door and poked her head in, looking around. "Excuse me? Is this the Citizen Patrol meeting?"

Emerald immediately addresses Diren, "I don't have parents either, kiddo." she doesn't mention to Mittens how uneasy it is to just up and adopt strangers you just met since, well, that varies from one orphan to the next.

Emerald responds to Sarah. "My name's Emerald. And while I'm not the leader, leadership has little to do with size, pardon the punn. Just look at Napoleon. Anyways, the white kitty here is Timothius..." she makes with introductions only for another head to peak in. ".........goodness, we're popular. You know what? Name tags. Unless everyone wants to repeat their names every time someone comes to this meeting. I didn't know we were expecting so many..."

Emerald heads over to the even-taller-than-Sarah horse (Bella Sarah anyone?) and offers her hand up to Haalima. "You're in the right place. M'name's Emerald. C'mon in."

Timothius ohs at Sarah, though that didn't stop him from healing her. And since she didn't pull away... well she's healed. He notices Haalima and then looks at Mittens with a "DID we expect this many?" look on his face. Emerald took care of intro, so Timothius goes back to being a little on the shy side. He gives Diren a sad look only for Emerald to nonchalantly admit the same thing. He's looking confused and worried.

Liberty is trying to peer around Mittens to see the slip of paper. "What'd you do, miss?" she asks of Sarah. "Why did you get cuffed?" she is then distracted with the horsetiger person and says, "Look around, ma'am. Unless you know some other reason a fox, two cats and a bunch of police would be hanging out with a little girl, a convict and a Jamaican."

Diren almost laughs at Liberty's comment, but stifles it to a slight snicker.  Otherwise he has nothing to add.

Reaver walks back into the police station, having been there earlier in the day to get his paperwork filled out. Though this had been a while after the water creature had made his appearance and the original group had moved off to the hospital. He walks through the door into room 23 without knocking and stops when he sees a very tall humaniod lady standing in front of him. He looks around the room: "Foxes, children, strange horse creatures. Well this'll be interesting if nothing else," he thinks to himself before stepping to the side to be seen.
He is wearing his normal dark blue jeans with black button down shirt. The sleeves have been rolled up and scars can be seen on the front of his arms and burns on his hands. He has dark hair cut short in a crew cut which seem to accentuate the scars on his face. He doesn't say anything, but merely nods to the officer who was the same one who had gone over the paperwork earlier with him.

Sarah wanted to reply that she didn’t imply Emerald wouldn’t be a good leader, since she didn’t know her. But it seamed that Sarah wasn’t the only surprise to come trough these doors today. "the name’s Sarah, and I didn’t mean to offend ya, Just had different expectations". She thought she’d better keep it short since the fox’s attention had already shifted and she herself was more interested in the reaction of the captain. Though she didn’t show it she was actually a little nervous about what the captains reply would be, since she’s be the one who could throw Sarah back into a cage. She turned her head backwards to see what had caught Emerald’s attention when she saw the 7 foot lady towering over her. Her first thought was: WOW, now she’ll probably be able to whack a nice punch. She wanted to make a snappy comment but Liberty had beaten her to it. When hearing Liberty’s comment Sarah bursts out in laughter.

Sarah’s attention shifted to Mittens the moment she started waving the letter. She stopped laughing once she remembered that the kid waving the letter was going to have the final verdict on Sarah’s near future. As she heard the reply Sarah Smirks. She wasn’t used to being praised but she rather liked it. She folds her arms and proudly replies: "I’m glad you like the résumé. You just point me at their direction and I will make sure they will be eating trough a straw for weeks. The approval of the captain had put her at ease somewhat. Mittens seemed young and reckless, much to Sarah’s liking. When Sarah heard she would be helping a mutant team of crime fighters she expected it to be more formal and structured. She wouldn’t even been surprised if she would have ended up in some weird brainwashing experiment to make mutant soldiers, but she wasn’t expecting this.

The police officer that had delivered the letter shook his head in disapproval at Sarah’s comment. well, our work here is done. If you don’t mind, we have other things to attend to. He said to Mittens, implying that it was due time for him and his colleague to leave. His colleague on the other hand had already poured himself a cup of coffee and rather enjoyed the gathering that was going on. As he heard his partners comment he knew he’d better leave. I guess were off. Have a nice day everyone, and enjoy the pizza. He uttered with a smile and than made his way to the exit.
Before either of the officers could exit they were greeted by a familiar face. One just nods back being somewhat distracted by the large Tiger/horse like lady who looked like she could easily rip the two men apart. He tried not to stare which easily showed how uncomfortable he was being surrounded by so many super powered beings. Excuse me he says trying to manoeuvre trough the small crowd blocking the exit. The other officer seems unaffected by most of the strangeness around him and stops to greet his comrade. hey Michael, How have you been? he asks before taking a sip of his coffee. He is pretty glad to see Michael here since it gives him a good excuse to stay for a bit longer.

Sarah decided she could better wait with formally introducing herself until it had calmed down… or when the nametags have been printed, whichever comes first. The Sight of the officer trying to get trough to the exit made her laugh somewhat. She guessed he would probably wet his pants if the tiger lady would do as much as purr into his direction. She raises her hand as a greeting towards Michael who had just come while she makes her way towards one of the unoccupied chairs.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:39, Wed 25 Aug 2010.

  At Diren's, then Emerald's revelation Joe realizes he has once more, lost the 'My Life Sucks More Than Yours' game.  Fortunately for the shreds of what pass for his tact his train of thought is sidelined from commenting about that when Haalima shows up.  Joe has been casually accepting the animal people so far, but maybe the escalation into 'two animals person' territory has made it more noteworthy?

  Or if could be that Haalima is half dressed with her chest at eye level.

  "I'm Joe, and I will deal with the minor inconvenience of introducing myself over the minor inconvenience of a nametag.  I'm also going to leave the ancient horrors of math to someone else."  He of course has to go through with this as Michael enters the room a bit after having said so. "Hi, I'm Joe, these are people."  He never said he'd introduce the rest of them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:48, Wed 25 Aug 2010.

"I'm Rodney though Wyrm works too.  To most classmates I've always been Rod," he didn't have a real sob story or spectacular background to share... he just had one event that moved outside a normal life and of course when you find out you're really odd... you experiment a bit to see how bad it really is.

He had a few experimental weeks, but his power turned out to be pretty cut and dry... you are what you eat... at least as far as wriggling invertebrates and Rodney are concerned.

It was tough to walk in his 'hero' shape... not to mention disturbing to most in the public, so he didn't.

Michael gave a,"'lo, William" to the officer who greeted him before moving over to get himself a cup of coffee. He didn't seem all to interested in introducing himself and instead turned to see what he could learn of his new teammates.

"I told you before Mike, it's Bill. No need to be so formal," Bill, the officer said to him. Michael gave him an annoyed look to which Bill relied,"Yeah, yeah. Michael. I don't know why you are so PO'd about shortening your name, but whatever."

Michael looked slightly more pleased, though that was hardly true. He just looked less annoyed. His face seemed to be in a permanent scowl and his eyes, which hard dark rings around them, gave his face almost an unhealthy look. Though that could have been from lack of eating. He picked up a doughnut and took a bite and looked around. He motioned to Bill about the girl, Sarah. Bill seemed to understand and said,"Yeah she's the one I was telling you about earlier. Watch yourself, she's a spitfire."

Michael merely nodded.

Diren just sits there, slowly molding some of his metal into no particular shape by concentrating his powers near his fingers.

Mittens puts on a wide-eyed grin and nods in reply to the 7' horse-tiger lady's question then offers that she take a seat with a hand gesture.  She raises an eyebrow at Emerald's "I'm and orphan too" revelation, but makes no comment, again grateful to the foxy lady for handling the welcoming of newcomers.  She head-shakes to answer her bro's question.  She's so overwhelmed she only grins and head-wobbles in agreement with Liberty's comment rather than burst out laughing.

Mittens then welcomes Michael into the room with a hand-wave.  In reply to Sarah's thanks, she gives a smile and a nod inviting her to sit with another hand gesture.

"I'm glad you apparently like our résumé," she answers the one-eyed red head, "I was going to say that the condition for you joining us is that you do so willingly, but it looks like we've already established that by your offer."

She then answers Liberty's earlier question while wiggling the letter.

"The letter is very to-the-point.  It says 'We cuffed her 'cause she kicks butt!'  More or less.  I'm looking forward to hearing more details from the horse's mouth when time allows."

Mittens decides against saying "No offense" to Haalima.  She prooobably won't ever feel comfortable calling somebody Wyrm, so she'll be going with Rod.  She invites the charming guy with the dreads to take a seat with the others with a hand gesture.

The application form doesn't have anything beyond gender and age to go by, and for some reason Mittens hadn't imagined a "tall dark and scarred" when she read Michael Reaver's.  But upon hearing the man's name, and seeing the fact that the guy carries himself like he belongs here, she figures he must be the same guy as on the application.  She then offers that he take a seat with a hand gesture.

"OK!" she answers, "WOW!  Lot's of new names and faces!  Good idea with the name tag suggestion, Emerald.  If you would be so kind as to put that plan into motion..."

She opens a binder, pulls out several sheets of name-tags and a Sharpie, and offers them to Emerald.  She also takes out a digital camera and offers it to her bro.

"And if you'd be so kind as to give the newcomers copies of the earlier handouts.  For those who just arrived, we had already covered basic introductions earlier, so we'll have to get back to that later on.  Timothius, if you'd be so kind as to do up a quick photo roster with my netbook.  I've got a template on the desktop you can pull up."

She then addresses the group with her customary enthusiasm.

"Alright!  While they're working on that I'll pick up where I left off!  But first a quick recap.  The Citizen Patrol is an NPO held to the highest of ethical standars, open to anyone who's willing to put in the effort, who's purpose is to assist the city's existing emergency forces, while at the same time providing a sort of second home to mutants such as myself.  Proof is in the pudding.  Just check out in the news what me, Joe, Emerald, and Liberty pulled off today.  The legal mumbo-jumbo binder is being passed around, but please pay special attention to the code of ethics.

"The plan can be summarized with the three words: Preparedness, Prevention, Response.  Today, we'll be putting into action a Response to the emergency of Diren having never tasted the food-of-the-gods that is pizza.  Some have already pitched in for 2 large variety pizzas.  If anyone else would like to join in the pizza party, please contribute to Emerald when she hands you your name tag.  Participation in name tags and pizza are optional, but encouraged.

"Whew!  Now to the next part.  Volunteering for staff!  I've got lots of staff positions available for anyone who wants to take on the responsibility, 'cause right now, me and my little bro are wearing most of the hats.  The categories are: Planning, Programming, Personnel, Public Relations, and Committees.

"Starting with Planning, I've got: Provide input to long range goals, Formulate annual objectives, Prepare performance reports on achievement of goals and objectives, and Monitor achievement of goals and objectives.

"Next up is Programming..."

(( OOC: I'll stop there and spare you the gory details.  If you're interested in having your character take on any such staff position, here's where I'm getting all this mumbo-jumbo from: http://managementhelp.org/boards/brdvsstf.htm  "Joint" and "Staff" are available to PCs.  Anywhere it says "board" Mittens has covered and does not even mention as an option.  Next scene will be the pizza party, so figure about 15-20 minutes of well organized and professional "we're the real deal" presentation from the energetic teenage cat-girl.  <.<  ))
This message was last edited by the player at 02:35, Thu 26 Aug 2010.

Timothius helps out as asked, taking pictures of those who let him. Should anyone hide their face or such, Timothius would take their picture anyway. Timothius takes some sadistic pleasure in knowing what Mittens could do with camera-shy pictures.

Emerald hands out the name tags. Yes, it's optional. But interesting things will happen if you turn down the name tags. Such as Liberty getting your name wrong and Timothius coming up with nicknames.

But that's neither here nor there. Emerald eventually has a seat, listens, and seems to follow Mittens fine. She double-checks the code of ethics.

Liberty seems happy that her semi-sarcastic comment was well-received. However, as Mittens gives her presentation, her eyes glaze over right at the moment Mittens says 'NPO' and Liberty just looks at the papers. "Awww geeeeeez. I didn't sign up for homework. I got enough of that from school. Besides, I don't understand half of this. Or even half of what you're saying."

The code of ethics was taken from the International Red Cross:
http://www.ifrc.org/publicat/conduct/code.asp
with the language changed from "International" to something more local sounding.

"Please don't use my picture...  I'll explain later when there's no media around.  Please just no photos.". Diren slowly molds his metal into a paper thin shiney wall big enough to effectively block the picture taking process while still being light enough for him to move it.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:17, Thu 26 Aug 2010.

Haalima had to admit that there were a lot more people here than she had expected. It made her feel slightly awkward since she was the largest one in the room. Not that that was much of a change from any other time in her life. But no one seemed to care much, so she posed for a picture for Timothius (in stark contrast of Diren, who she noticed hid from the camera). Then she looks over the list of jobs after carefully sticking her name tag on her shirt.

"There's not much here that I'd probably be good at but... I think I could handle planning meeting agendas and taking minutes," she says to Mittens, who is obviously the one in charge. What with the giving out orders and such that she's doing.

Michael nodded to Bill as he went and took a seat, still sipping his coffee. Bill took this time to take his leave, as he was no longer needed here.

Michael allowed Timothius to take his photo, though he didn't smile. When Emerald came around for name tags, he said,"Michael," so she could write it down, then placed the tag on his shirt. He also give a few bucks towards the pizza fund. Mittens was still going on about different positions that people could hold and all that. At a time when she took a pause, Michael says softly,"I'll work on combat strategies." He didn't know if that was a position, but figured it would be. Otherwise, he kept quiet, just taking in what was going on around him.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:33, Thu 26 Aug 2010.

She takes a seat near the kid playing with some metal. I’ll tell ya all about it in a bit, lemme get comphy first. she replies to Mittens comment about Sara’s reasons for joining. Once she sits she puts her feet on the edge of the table and starts Balancing the chair on two of its legs. She stares at the shapes Diren makes as she pulls her wallet to chip in for the pizza. She hadn’t expected they were serious about the nametags, but whatever. As long as it was a clip-on she doesn’t mind. Sarah gives Emerald a couple of dollars as she receives a copy of the handouts and the nametag. She puts them both on the table.

Wile Mittens explains the details she has the attention of Sarah for about 20 seconds. She gave up trying to make sense of it once she heard about long range goals and annual achievements. Instead she puts her chair back on all fours and bows over the papers. It makes about as much sense to her as what the captain was saying. She decides it’s hopeless and starts drawing small pictures over the papers. After quickly getting bored of drawing she writes: “Just sign me up anywhere ya think I’ll be useful.” On a part of the paper she hadn’t scribbled on.

She poses for the picture Timothius takes with a devilish grin and a look on her face like “the bad guy” usually has when blowing up a warehouse with their favourite superhero in it. Once that is over with she returns to balancing her chair again like she did before, this time pulling a bag of tobacco from one of the pockets on her coat. She roles a cigy while looking around at the people she will be working with. Since she filled out the papers she didn’t feel the need to jump in at the conversation.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:33, Thu 26 Aug 2010.

Michael is in the seat next to Sarah and sees her rolling a cigarette. He takes out his Zippo lighter and flips it open while starting the flame at the same time. He holds it towards her and asks,"Light?"

The moment Haalima volunteers for minutes, Mittens takes out a small binder complete with blank paper, pencil, pen, and instructions on how to take minutes ( http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Minutes ) and hurries it over to the tall woman without missing a beat.  For Michael Reaver she grabs a manila envelope labeled "Self Defense Consultant" and offers it with a Samurai Jack "Wacha!" before returning to her presentation.

Inside the envelope Michael will find a page titled "places we may be allowed to train for free" with a long list of martial arts dojos with contact info.  Several on the list are X'd out.  A stapled stack of papers labeled "Use of force continuum" which is probably quite familiar to him.  Another paper titled "Special Restrictions on the Citizen Patrol" with a list topped with "No Firearms Permitted (yet)" along with a date, time, and location of an upcoming City Council hearing on the use of firearms by the Citizen Patrol.

When the lighter is lit, Detective Bagrowski clears his throat and shakes his head.  "You know better, Reaver," the old guy says in his raspy voice, "If even the cops can't smoke in here, neither can the guests."  Frank's got a cynical sense of humor.  He uses the term "guests" to mean any convict, news reporter, lawyer...  any unwelcome person at the police station.  Takes on a more morbid meaning when he uses the term at the morgue.

(( OOC: Once Joe and Rodney have a chance to post I'll have the pizza delivery person show up. ;)  It should probably be mentioned that the metal that Diren is playing with is Sodium.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium  It's soft enough to be cut with a knife.  His power isn't strong enough to be playing around with steel like it's clay.  Even gold would take a lot more effort to sculpt. ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:27, Thu 26 Aug 2010.

Michael snaps the lighter shut and gives Sarah a look that says sorry. To Officer Frank he nods and says,"Sir." He has finished his coffee so he gets up to get another cup. He makes it same as before, no cream, no sugar. While he is up he fishes in his pocket and pulls out a string of stainless steel mantra beads, which he rapped around his right wrist. When he sat back down he was slowly moving his finders around the beads with his left. On his left hand a wedding band was easily visible.

Sarah was just about to light her cigarette when the Zippo closes. She’s somewhat disappointed at the fact that she’s not allowed to smoke inside, but had kind of guessed it. She raises her shoulders a bit and gives a look back at Michael explaining that it’s not his fault. Than she gives a rather annoyed look Detective Bagrowski. so I guess I’ll have to find a balcony. she utters. She leaves her seat to find a balcony or emergency fire escape.

  Like various others, Joe's normally geared for paranoid perception checks attention span took a serious hit as Mittens continued her bureaucratic exposition.  Though their current situation had his attention pick up a bit at one mention "If I'm forced to deal with something, I guess I'll work on the 'Write News Stories' end of things."  It worked for Superman.  But then Superman got paid for it.

  Joe ignores the nametag situation but manages not to blink for the photo taking.  He considers Diren's reaction and says "You know, you should invest in a paper bag or proper mask then considering the news coverage this sort of thing gets tends to involved video cameras."

  He wonders how well 'Run off from group to smoke' works for good behavior within the first five minutes of 'We're ditching you with these guys, stay with them or else'.  But then, Joe figures they can't stalk Escort Sarah everywhere, it'd be a hassle for all involved.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:24, Fri 27 Aug 2010.

"I'm mo a forensic guy, buh I kin run accoun's on dis group I tink.  I'm a li'l wary wit schoo an all."  Then he thought to himself, 'Maybe I can get tuition discounts or work experience transfers...'

He rarely thought it was a good opportunity to use his power.  It was awkward at best.  It might just be that he stayed back and did more of the paperwork side of the job here.

"Kaching!" Mittens exclaims merrily as she hands Rodney a binder full of the financial info.  The binder also has a CD in it with the spreadsheets saved in multiple formats, "You can get started by tracking all the cash donated and spent on the pizza party, Rod!"

To Joe she give manila envelope titled "Public Relations" with various instructions inside on such.

"And thank you, everyone who volunteered for staff!"

About then the pizza delivery guy shows up with the pizzas and a 2-liter of soda.

"Sweetness!  Pizza has arrived!  Emerald, if you would be so kind as to pay the guy?"

The narrator simply asserts that there's plenty for everybody unless players want to RP otherwise.  >.>  Mittens is famished, but...

"Everyone please let Diren have first dibs!  He's never had any pizza before!  The formal part of the meeting is officially over with!  I'm open for questions!"

The news reporters fan out and begin asking questions of the people present.  (( OOC: Details about the reporters left intentionally vague.  Each player is free to NPC a reporter asking them questions in their post.  Or you can NPC the reporters overlooking your character if you like. ))

Mittens then begins passing out about 10 or so Citizen Patrol "Business" Cards to each person present.  The card has a wide variety of contact info.  Phone, Fax, Mail, e-Mail, Facebook, Myspace, website, and so forth.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:21, Fri 27 Aug 2010.

Emerald considers a position to volunteer for. She thinks of her various qualifications and isn't entirely sure. However, as the ponderous fox is thinking on these things, she is distracted by a reporter interviewing her.

"What exactly was your involvement in the recent water-monster incident?" the reporter asks.

Emerald huhs?! Then ohs... "I just... ran to the car Mittens ran to. Gave her the suggestion of getting the car back on its wheels before I pretty much tried diplomacy with the water monster. The thing proved to be able to talk and all.... but also proved it couldn't be reasoned with."

The reporter would wag her tail if she had one. But the reporter isn't an anthropomorphic (like 4 of the people in this room), much less a mutant. "So you distracted it?"

Emerald nods. "Yes. But only so much. The monster seemed to be almost obsessed with anyone but me. Probably because I was nice to it. Though it did attack me..."

The interviewer gets a relatively accurate account of the events from Emerald, though it's from Emmy's perspective. Which actually doesn't play up or play down anyone, but sticks purely to facts. Well, OK, so she brags about how awesome Joe and Liberty were due to their heroic, self-sacrificing acts.

As people start to volunteer for positions, the whole staff volunteering bit becomes more apparent to Liberty. She considers Michael's offer and suspects a real macho man. But only suspects. Seeing Sarah leave Mike's side, Liberty goes to have a seat next to Michael while eating her pizza. By now, she has a nametag on complete with name written on it.

The 12-year-old girl looks over and up at him, tilting herself enough to read his name-tag before relaxing in her chair again. "Combat strategies? You some kind of military man?" she asks. Between his offer and the fact he said "sir" to the cop, Liberty feels military emitting from Michael.

However, she is interrupted as a reporter comes up and interviews her. "We didn't get the chance to ask you, young lady, but how exactly did you save that lady in the exploding car?"

Liberty blushes. "I... went inside the car through the window, hugged the lady and shielded her with my body as best I could... but I couldn't shield all of her...."

The reporter asks, "When you left the car, you were naked, but uninjured. The lady you shielded is reported to have 3rd degree burns except on her torso and head areas. Are you completely immune to fire?"

Liberty is blushing deeper. Did the guy HAVE to mention she was naked? "Resistant... not immune... that explosion hurt a lot..."

Timothius actually giggles a little from Sarah posing the way she did. He didn't take the picture of Diren's sheet of metal since Diren asked and seemed so camera shy. When Joe comments, Timothius is further convinced that Diren has more reason than just camera shyness for not wanting his picture taken. Such as possibly his mutation makes it so cameras make him weak or sick. Who knows with this stuff. He figures if his sister wants Diren's picture that bad, she can find out what Diren's problem is and THEN decide to take the picture.

Timothius is ambushed by a reporter and gets nervous. The reporter says, "Hello, Timothius. You weren't there at the water-monster incident, but your sister was. And you could easily have been. What can you tell us about your powers and what it's like being a mutant?"

Timothius ums... "It actually is very different being a mutant. Flying is one of the most fun things of all, though it was a little scary and challenging at first." he accentuates this fact as he looks over at his wings, wiggling them. Then looks back at the reporter. "If I had been there, though, I would have mostly stayed out of the action. If I stay healthy, I can help people when they get hurt. I can't heal myself, though, so if I get hurt, everyone else is out of luck."

The reporter asks, "So you stay out of the action only because you need to stay safe in order to help the injured. What if you could heal yourself? Would you jump into the action then? Or what if someone is dying, but there is a water monster right there near them?"

Timothius says, "I don't like danger any more than the next person. If I could heal myself, I'd still stay back. But if someone was dying, I'd have no choice but to charge in and heal them before it's too late."

One reporter walks over to Diren, who was getting his first slice of pizza ever.  "So, you're one of the newer members, right?  Would you tell us about your past?"

"You? No. Them?" He points at the other group members. "Yes.  I don't trust the media." He then takes a bite of the pizza. "Wow, this stuff is awesome!" He eats the rest of his slice and takes a second. "Much better than... Uh.. Nevermind..."

"Much better than what?" Asked the reporter.

"Nothing..." Which definately means 'Something'.

"Alright, moving on.  So, you and that other girl are orphans.  Where did you grow up?"

Other than a slight twitch, he gets no response.

"Hey, kid, you gotta give me something to put in the paper."

"How does 'Mutant Bludgeons Reporter To Death With A Ball of Metal' sound for an article?  I could make that happen."

The reporter finally gets the hint. "Uh... No thanks... I do editorials, not obituaries..." He says as he walks off to look for more cooperative interviewees.

Sarah hadn’t been able to escape the room before the reporters were set lose. Much to her annoyance one had picked her for an interview. “Can I ask you a question miss?” The reporter said, what was meant as a friendly hello. “As long as ya stop asking stupid questions. I mean really, asking if ya can ask a question is already a question isn’t it?” Sarah had her mind set on a smoke and tried to get rid of the reporter.

We saw you being brought in with cuffs on. Is this group going to recruit more convicts? the reporter bluntly asked. Sarah really wanted to punch this guy now, and it was clearly visible on her face. The reporter didn’t take much notice to it. If anything, he became more motivated than before. Once he noticed he was getting on her nerves he thought this might be an opportunity. He could see the headlines flashing before his eyes: “Mutant starts fight after being recruited” and in a police station no less.  Well I wouldn’t know now would I… I just joined as ya could have seen. She replied even more agitated. She wasn’t going to start a fight in a police station. Even Sarah wasn’t reckless enough to do that, though the thought had crossed her mind.

The reporter scribbled something on his notepad as he scraped his throat, staying rather cool. Right… you do know there will be lives depending on your actions? Some of these kids have already risked their lives helping out their fellow man. What are you going to contribute to the team? “AH, now I gotcha” Sarah thought. A devilish smile appeared on her face yet again as she put her hand on the reporters shoulder. Do ya really wanna know? If you wish I could give you a small demonstration. Before the reporter could react she had already thrown her arm over the man’s shoulder and shouted: Hey ya all… ya want a demonstration of my power? Raising her voice for all to hear.

She was still smiling, and from afar it seemed like they were starting to get along. The people standing closer to the two could actually hear Sarah’s teeth grind as she smiled. The reporter was just now realising that his plan had not been one of the brightest ones in his career. He didn’t mind getting a punch in the face for a good story, but mutant powers had slipped his mind.

  Joe's volunteering was definitely a bad plan.  They did not expect 'public relations' to go along with his expectation of 'write down things that happened'...  Okay technically that is relating information to the public, but whatever.

  He is distracted by his own respective moments of Reportering "What would you say made you go through with electrocuting yourself to stop the monster?  "The fact I'd survive?  "So you've electrocuted yourself before then?" "Not that I know of.  I don't think Liberty has been in an explosion before either.  Look, just blame Science class if you want to spin self electrocution to stop rampaging water monsters as a bad thing and cartoons if you want to spin it as a good thing."

  At Diren's threatening of the reporter staff, Joe considers commenting.  At Sarah's implied threats but actually all buddy buddy or something with her respective interviewer, Joe also considered commenting, as well as his own double standards.  "Diren, no killing reporters on the first day. I think we need to have been at this a week before that sort of thing.  Sarah, just because the guy will survive being turned into a vintage 1970's lawnmower doesn't mean you should.  Do one of those new electric mowers that are useless but more environmentally friendly, better press."

  Joe has no idea what Sarah's power is.  He's just being a dick. Or was that being awesome?  It will vary wildly depending on opinion most likely.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:27, Sun 29 Aug 2010.

Haalima watches as some of the reporters go to the others and start asking them questions. Her tail twitches as she looks at some of the journalists and she smiles sweetly... Which doesn't seem to do anything to endear one of them to her. Finally she just walks over to one of them, towering over them.

"Hi! My name is Haalima," she says as she holds out a hand to the reporter. He looks nervous as he stares up at her, like he's expecting her to eat him. She got that look often.

"H-h-hello," he stammers as he takes her hand and gives it a pathetic shake. "You weren't i-i-involved with the water monster incident, were you?"

She shakes her head. "No, I'm afraid I'm new. But I did hear about it, which is why I came to join the Citizen Patrol."

"Oh." He seems to be warming up to her a little since she hasn't seemed very threatening yet. Personality wise. "So, what are your powers?"

Haalima laughs softly before motioning toward herself. "What you see is what you get. I was born this way. Got some claws," she shows off the pointy ends of her four fingers, "And I probably could kick someone pretty hard. But other than that, I'm a dancer."

Michael was starting to get more and more annoyed. He disliked reporters somewhere on the edge of hate and despised. When the reporter came over and started bothering Liberty he stood up and seemed to tower over the man, though he was only a few inches taller. His face, already sullen, changed into a glare that had the man stop dead mid-sentence. "Go," is all Michael said before the man walked, very quickly, away to bother someone else.

He looked around and saw Sarah and Diren having similar problems. Diren's reported had moved off but Sarah looked like she was going to hurt the man. He gave Liberty a "One moment," look before moving over to Sarah and her reported. "Your point is made," he told her, obviously wanting her to let go of him before any harm came to him. Not that he cared about the reporters safety, but rather the repercussions to this group if she did hurt him.

"According to this afternoon's news, you're 16 years old," a reporter says to Mittens, "How do you intend to balance school with running this team of yours?"

"Mi Domf," she answers, mouth full of pizza.  She swallows before thumbing at herself with big smile, "High school graduate!"

She does a little jig while sing-songing, "No more pencils no more books!  No more teacher's angry looks!"

"Do you expect your age to be a road-block?  Considering that you'll be leading adults?"

"No more than my being a girl.  Or a cat."

She grabs her tail and wags it at the reporter who seems to be distracted with how the other reporters are being responded to.

"Your team mates are threatening to harm people...  What do you plan to do about that."

Mittens shrugs and points at the police officer in the room.

"If yon night of the realm see-eth no evil..." she stops herself, rubs her chin with a lower-lip puckered frown, "On second thought..."

She reaches into her backpack, pulls out a megaphone, and sets it to it's lowest setting.  Still quite loud in a small room, but at least not ear-splitting.

"Attention!  Attention!  Attention!" she bellows with that signature megaphone voice modulation, "Rudeness in progress!  I repeat!  Rudeness in progress!"

She giggles and wiggles her fingers at those who look her way, setting the megaphone aside.

"Myself included for interrupting, of course.  But I felt it important enough to interject a very important public service announcement:  The moral of today's episode is 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'  The golden rule!  To be more specific, everyone here is an ambassador!  Each reporter, by the rude or embarrassing questions they ask, makes their respective employers look bad.  Each person asked, by the way they answer, could make the Citizen Patrol look good or bad.  Detective Bagrowski here, by not raising a finger when threats of bodily harm are made, conveys that the police force doesn't consider such activity illegal.  Or even worthy of a warning."

She pauses, looking directly at Frank.

"It's not," Frank answers in his burnt-out tone, "I'm a homicide detective.  My job is to catch the person after they've made the mess.  If I had a nickel for every time someone made a threat, I'd be a rich man.  If I went to the trouble of telling them the obvious, 'Hey, killing is illegal,' I'd have lost my voice."

"Good point!  So!  Please bear in mind, both interviewers, and interviewees, that while being rude may not be illegal, it's not good for your own reputation or the reputation of the people who you represent.  While I invited the reporters here as a gesture of openness, the same golden rule applies to both guest and host: 'Be polite to others if you want them to be polite to you!' So... apologies all around on everyone's behalf!  Hugs!  Friendship!  Happy first time tasting pizza day, Diren!  Yay!  Well carry on, then!  Carry on!"

Mittens then looks to Sarah and grins.  "Though I do want to see your superpower in action, Sarah!  Care to demonstrate it on me?  Or if it'll work on an object, demonstrate on an object?"

(( OOC: I've been kicking myself that a lot of new player's first impression if this forum is a boring committee meeting.  I assure you, action is on the way! ))
This message was last edited by the player at 16:56, Mon 30 Aug 2010.

Rodney had actually been sitting pretty quietly drinking his soda and talking about his civilian aspirations, "I hope ta use dis as a decen referral an finish up ah forensic degree.  Mah powah iddn't so supah dat I tink I kin get by wit'out fam'ly an frien's -odah dan dose heeah-," he added the last bit rather suddenly.

The reporter shifted slightly, "Is it true you put one of your high school classmates in a mental institution?"

"Well... yah an' no.  Is true dat if I dinn't exis' dat partic'lar classmate wouldnn'a have like'y been in high school when he was checked inta crazyville.  Da kid was a bully dough wit a hist'ry oh behaviahs dat like'y woulda put him in a bag or a cell anyhow.  Now he just got Scoleciphobia an is doin pretty goode foh da mosse par."

"School-what?"

"Scoleciphobia, ir'ra'ional feah oh worms.  Mah powah make me real squishy, stretchy, an flexible.  Too much da firss, it took meh some day worth uh trying ta learn how ta move 'round propahly..."

"So you're not a hero?"

"Hahahah, no.  I got a mutation... only sligh'ly more useful dan sim'ly bein covahd wit fur..." he gave a no-offense glance to Haalima.  "It almos like a reac'tion ta eatin worms... so ya migh say I got a mutan allahgy, dat it iddn't even meh at all."

"Kin- Can you show us a little?"

Rodney shrugged, "Gotta worm an a nickle?  Donn tink I gonna eat worms fur not'in," he was slightly amused that the interviewer had dropped into speaking with his accent for even a moment.

"How do you plan to help if you have to eat a worm to... power up all of the time?"

"Datssa easy one.  When I found dat eaten em is da source... I star'red raisin em ah home.  I keep uh few breeds on meh foh 'mergencies... Buh... I suggess dat ya not get too in'tres'ed in da tings dat scare mos' folk.  Get a coffee."

“Yeah, maybe your right. Turning him into a lawnmower would be a little cruel.” She was rather pleased with Joe’s comment. She figured turning people into things was allot more threatening than being able to glue someone’s mouth shut. “What about a ferret? Would it be ok if I changed him into that? I bet he’d make a nice pet.” She said with a big smile. There was less teeth grinding since she started to enjoy herself again.

The reported started to break a sweat. “She can’t do that…right?” He asked looking at Joe. He wasn’t all too pleased with the thought of being changed into anything.

Than Sarah noticed Michael coming her way with a rather serious look on his face. She knew the joke would soon be over. As he stated that her point was made she replied: “ahh, killjoy.” on a playful tone. She figured Michael was right. The reporter looked frightened enough not to bother her anymore, and if she continued there was a rather large chance she’d be locked up again. With this in mind she released her grip on the reporter, who made a sigh of relief as she let him go.

At that time Mittens had started speaking trough the megaphone. Sarah did listen for a change, since the announcement had her name written all over it. Being tactless was one of her many flaws. Sarah knew that she was at fault, usually reacting before thinking about the circumstances or repercussions.

At the end of the speech Sarah had a bit of a guilty look in her eye. While scratching the back of her head she replied to the catlike captain’s comment: “So I guess turning people into the team mascot isn’t going to be appreciated… Not that I could, but it would be funny as hell.” she almost started laughing again but held it in. The reporter’s reaction to the treat was still fresh in her mind. “I’m sorry for the mess short stuff.“ she than continued. “He was getting on my nerves, and I was annoyed enough as it is. I’d like to know a little more about your group, but reporters and I just don’t mix well.” for a moment her words sounded sincere.

”Actually most things don’t mix well with me, but I will try to keep myself from ripping peoples limbs off.” She than said kiddingly while taking a glare at the reporter she had threatened. He was getting a little speech of his own by one of his colleagues. “Not making any promises though.” she quickly added with a grin. “As for my “super power”, it aint that super. I can kinda keep stuff from moving. It’s useful, just not as spectacular as moulding iron into cute little shapes.” She hinted towards Diren’s powers. ”Now if you don’t mind I’m gonna take a breather. I think neither the reporters nor me are going to survive another interview before I've had a smoke.” She hoped the captain would let her go before any other reporter gets the smart idea to pick her for an interview.

OOC: sorry >.< maybe I went a little overboard with the reporter stuff.  By definition Sarah is a bit of a time bomb.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:02, Mon 30 Aug 2010.

((OOC: In the interest of allowing Sarah the opportunity to RP her character "off panel" as discussed in OOC, Mittens posts out of post order... ))

Mittens gasps!  "My apologies!" she answers Sarah, "Nic fit's are no fun!  Please!  By all means!  Smoke your cigarettes in the place the police allow!"

"I'll show her where," Detective Bagrowski offers, heading for the door.

"I could use a smoke myself, detective. I can show her the way," Michael said to the Detective Frank as he walked to the door. He opened it and held it for Sarah to go through and would follow out after her.

---> to Central Park Pct. Police Dept. 86th St & Transverse Rd
This message was last edited by the player at 18:15, Tue 31 Aug 2010.

  It's a good thing Joe has enough reflexive control of his gimmick that he doesn't leap straight up and through a section of cheap ceiling tiles at Mitten's sudden employment of Ohgodmegapohnefourfeetaway.

  That could have been embarrassing, but more importantly they might have made him clean up the mess.

  "Sarcasm is the right of all bitter beings.  Or even well adjusted ones.  Fortunately I can handle a little sarcasm so I should survive that kind of equal standard.  I'm sure if you miss anything important said while on a smoke break Mittens has a stack of pamphlets and fliers to fill you in when you get back."   This last bit in regards to Sarah and Michael.

 OOC Style: The only problem I have with Sarah is that her posts are better than mine How Dare She!? Okay yeah that's not exactly a problem actually.
  Also, I deny all these crazy allegations I forgot that ceiling tiles are called ceiling tiles. Who started this terrible rumor? Totally not true at all.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:19, Tue 31 Aug 2010.

“Thanks, ya aint half bad short stuff.” Sarah said with a smile as she petted Mittens on the head. She was glad she could finally get to smoke and didn’t hesitate one instant to follow Detective Bagrowski up on his offer to show her out. She looked towards Michael who was holding the door. She stopped for a moment to pull out the bag of tobacco from her pocked and offered it to Michael. “Guess I’ll be having company.”

Before she exits Sarah turn’s her head towards the group for a second. “Ow, I almost forgot.  Do me a favour and make sure the metal-morphing power kid don’t eat all the pizza, I’d like to have a slice when I come back.” Than she raised her hand as a goodbye gesture while she exited trough the door.

OOC: Lol at Joe’s OOC comment. I’m not that good. >.< But thanks for the complement ^^

Emerald earpirks as Haalima mentions dancing. She finds herself amused by the antics of the reporters and the mutants who are being interviewed. She makes her way over to Haalima. "I heard dance." she inserts, the highly contrasting 3' tall fox says to the over-sized horse-tiger lady. "You have dancing as a mutant power?" she asks, trying to clarify what she was hearing from a distance. Emerald has sharp hearing, so she heard it all. But Haalima pretty much gave that as an answer to what powers she has without saying that the list wasn't her powers. I mean.. she listed dancing right there with kicking hard and claws.

Liberty watches Michael leave and smiles a little, admiring the tough guy who scared off the thoroughly embarrassing reporter. But seeing Michael and Sarah go for a smoke, the reporters bide their time, figuring those two were the tougher nuts and they will get away with much more once the two are outside.

Liberty is again forced to keep quiet about her thoughts on Joe since reporters are present. She stays put and finishes her pizza. She woulda gotten out of her seat and gone to talk to Diren, but Mittens addressed that with a megaphone. XD Besides... with David Darkthorne still fresh in Liberty's mind, she feels less inclined to give her opinion on such matters.

She's gone and upset herself again, the little girl clenching her fists and grimacing.

Timothius decides not to join the smokers as he doesn't smoke and he figures he'd be intruding. He spots Liberty being upset, though, and heads for her.

(This counts for Tim's post since I couldn't think of much else for him to do or say)

Haalima had to step back some to look down at Emerald. Goodness, the fox was so tiny that it was making her feel even bigger than usual. "Dancing powers?" She laughed. "No. You're pretty much looking at my mutant powers right now. I've been studying dance since I was little though. Er," she thought for a moment, one of her ears flicking in frustration, "Since I was smaller than this, anyway."

She cleared her throat, looking embarrassed. "I'm pretty good at dancing, though. I think I am anyway. Do you like dancing too?" Her tail swished a few times, the fringe dragging on the floor.

Frank didn't mind at all that Michael cut in for showing the young lady to the parking lot, so he stayed behind in the briefing room.  Mittens was rather surprised with the head-patting from the tall lady, but then tells herself, Well duh!  That's what you do with your little bro!  Because he's shorter!  Totally natural!

"Sure thing, tall stuff!" Mittens answers Sarah.  What?  Turn-around's fair play!

As for Rodney, his accent continues to tickle her ears and make her brain do backflips of glee!

"Sounds like a good plan there, Rod!" Mittens chimes with an approving grin, thumbs-up, and wink.

Seeing that things are naturally shifting toward group chat, she encourages the shift with a not-so-subtle hint to the news reporters.

"Alrighty!" Mittens says, hand-waving the reporters to the door like she's some kind of traffic cop, "Next part of the meeting is where we do some family bonding without awkwardness of reporters listening in.  So...  all further questions are to be directed to myself as you head for the door!  Thank you!"

Reluctant-to-leave reporters are persuaded when she reaches threateningly for the megaphone.  Mittens then looks to Detective Bagrowski.

"Would you be so kind as to let the other two know the reporters have been given the boot, please?" she asks.

"Sure," he answers.

"Thanks so much!"

As soon as the door closes, Mittens leans against it and lets out a sigh of relief.

"Whew!  Glad that's over!  We were talking about dance?  In that case... Music!"

She plugs her cell phone into a portable stereo and starts playing some music from Initial D at a reasonable volume.  Enough to dance by, but not enough to impede quiet-ish conversation between Timothius and Liberty.  Mittens then races over to Rodney.

"Forensics?!" she asks, "Too cool for words!  So you've already started?!  Do tell!  How far have you gotten?"

She cocks her head a little with a far-away look in her eyes.

"I'm sensing a disturbance in the force..." she thinks out loud, "It's faint, but...  Hmm...  Some small adventure is on its way soon-ish."

(( I'm planning to mix things up a bit in a few posts... ;) ))
This message was last edited by the player at 02:16, Wed 01 Sept 2010.

Rodney shrugged being awkward at having such a focus of attention lately, "Mos don tink it all dat coo.  I got anoddah yeah if mah grade keep up... so wit all dis... prob'ly a lil moeh dan dat.  I know all da basics an got lots oh bug an soil info in mah head, dose be da mos common tings in a job.  Got some experience imagin woun's an weapons tah develop patt'erns an den'ify da murdah weapons, I'm usu'ly pretty accurate at cause of death if I can make a lab work up."

He pulled his dreadlocks back a bit and looked to the others, pretty sure that Mittens had some kind of mutated ADHD.  He wasn't the type to argue... with his mutated food allergy.

Detective Bagrowski returns to the room and gives a nod to Mittens.  He then walks over to the window, opens it and the screen, letting in the fresh warm evening air.  He then heads for the coffee pot.

In the conference room, near the window just opened by Detective Bagrowski, the mantra beads that had been seen on Michael's arm earlier appeared in mid air and fell onto the floor. Then all of a sudden Michael and Sarah appeared, with Sarah being held in Michael's arms. To Sarah and Michael it seemed like a bit of time has gone by, but it had been instantaneous. Michael let go of Sarah's legs so she could stand, but he looked a bit dazed. After a moment his eyes refocus and he moved over to pick up his mantra beads and strung them back around his arm. He looks at Sarah to see if she is alright before looking to see everyone's reaction.

" wha, intense ride." She exclaimed after appearing out of thin air. She was still holding onto Michael’s shoulder as he put her down. Though a little disoriented she seemed to be fine. Sarah didn’t let loose until she noticed Michael reaching down for his Mantra beads. "Heh, that was exiting. Thanks for the lift, you’re a real sweetheart." She said to Michael, still with a smile. Than she looked at the group. Sarah mood seemed to be allot better since last time they saw her.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:43, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

  Joe has taken it upon himself to perform the sacred and honored duty of pizza protection.  Said protection involved eating one of the spare slices while still leaving enough for eyepatch lady.  "You sure about the timing there this time Mittens?  Last time soonish meant explosions thirty seconds later.  Though considering the timing of other to come events, Five dollars says it has something to do with Diren's most likely tragic backstory he's going to fill us in on now that the reporters are gone."

  That said, Michael and Sarah made with their impressive in method if not visual results entrance.  No headlock though, so did this mean Sarah could teleport without needing to give someone a headlock, she's thanking Mike for the ride.  "Welcome back.  I'd make some comment about 'we have stairs' but I'd probably have come in through the window too."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:01, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Emerald waves to Sarah and Michael. "Nice!" she says. "I hope to see more of that... oh fudge, you gotta be kidding me. Really? Another problem? We just got together and JUST fought a giant water monster. Today no less." her mood sank. Yin and Yang and all that... Sarah's mood improves? Well karma demands someone else's mood must decline. She looks over at a nearby cop. "So how long before the police station provides us with grenades and electric tasers?" she asks, halfway trying to cheer herself up.

She snaps out of her distraction and looks back at Haalima. "Err... yes! Yes. I love dancing. Mostly singing, but yes. I love dancing." she smiles at Haalima, cheering up enough to smile brightly.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:39, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Liberty says, "You know... we never did find out who that water monster was or why he was so upset..." she looks at Mittens. "Is your power directional? Can you tell where we can go to hurry up the process so we can be on our next hospital visit sooner? I'd rather get the boo-boos out of the way, ya know.."

Diren takes a really deep breath.  "Well, Scientists apparently killed my parents and took me in as a ‘specimen’.  Subject 247, to be exact.  The scientists took me to the lab and raised me.  I was never hungry, but it wasn't a fun childhood.  They were always running tests on me.  I was told that it was only temporary, and that one day I would be given back to my parents.  I held on to this notion for a long time, until about a year ago." He takes another breath.  "That was when I found their secret.  I was a Mutant, not a human.  I also overheard them say that they killed my parents.  A month later, the scientists gave up.  They just couldn't figure out what my power was.  As the experiment was deemed a failure, I was to be eliminated." Another breath.  "They decided on the old fashion Death by Firing Squad, as many of the scientists had grown fond of me.  Apparently sticking many needles into someone daily is a bonding experience." Must... Breath...  "I was brought to a room and one of the scientists told me what was about to happen.  The scientist told me to cover my eyes, and it would be over soon.  They lined up to fire and I started crying, I had not known of death before this.  First time for everything, eh?" Breath again.  "They counted to ten and I heard a boom.  I then heard the scientists yelling.  I opened my eyes and there was a bullet in the air about two feet from my head.  I stared at it cross-eyed for a full minute.  I then sent it flying back at the scientists.  It missed, but the scientists ran for their lives, since they didn’t know the extent of my powers." Breath.  "I walked outside.  I had been outside before, but never in the forest.  I ran away from the lab as fast as I could, and made it to a town that was only about a mile away.  I was tired, as I never had to run so far before.  Then I wound up here.  Named myself Diren 'cause I liked the sound of it.”  He intentionally leaves out the De-Skys to protect them.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:14, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Haalima was glad to hear that Emerald also liked to dance, nervous to hear that Mittens was sensing "adventure" in the near future, and sad to hear Diren's past. She was also incredibly impressed at Sarah and Michael's sudden reappearance, but her compassion for Diren took over anything else. She walked a few steps closer to him and reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, but stopped when she realized she wasn't sure how he'd feel about being touched by anyone (much less her).

"I'm really sorry to hear that you had to go through all of that," she said softly.

"I'm sure most would think forensics cool if they thought about how they'd feel about a villain getting off the hook for lack of evidence," Mittens answers Rod, glancing at the Detective, expecting some sort of reaction from the jaded cop.  He just lazily sips on his coffee without comment.  Mits shrugs and continues, "Not to mention all those popular forensic TV shows...  WHOOSH!"

She stares wide-eyed at the unexpected sudden arrival of Michael and Sarah!

"Neat!"

Mittens glances at Joe and thumbs at the new arrivals.

"Does this count as timely adventure?"

She returns to the stereo to turn the music down for Diren's backstory and listens intently, utterly flabbergasted by the so-called logic of these scientists.  So apparently, firing squad is the most humane way to dispose of lab animals?  Right.  Still, Diren's extremely well adjusted for someone who went through all that.  AHA!  He must have left out the part where he was adopted!  But why?

"What Haalima said," Mittens says with a quick glance at the name tag to be sure she got the name right, "Glad you're here with us rather than the alternative.  So... you have a home now, right?  With people who take care of you?  'Cause if not... we've gotta find a place for you to stay."

About then the sound of a distant person on a megaphone can be heard through the open window.  It's far enough to be quiet compared to the conversation in the room.

"Is it right that our tax dollars are funding a club for mutants?!" the voice asks.

"Hell no!" a distant crowd answers.

"Is it right that they get special privileges and legal immunity for destroying city property?!"

"Hell no!"

Mittens raises an eyebrow and closes the window.

"Protesters you will have with you always," she says, "Wasn't expecting them today, though."

Sarah moved towards the table to grab a slice of pizza as she heard Emerald's comment. Water monster eh...dunno if grenades will help but tasers would probably be perfect for the job.

Once at the table she gives Joe a pat on the back Thanks for guarding a slice for me. she says with a smile as she bent over to grab a slice of the pizza. She Hadn't expected anyone to listen to her request but was glad someone did. If I get the option for an exciting new experience or just taking the stairs, I will pick the exciting experience any time. Than she sat down and started munching away as Diren told his story.

She wanted to add to Mittens comment but still had her mouth full. Mya clou... She stopped to swallow the large piece of pizza she was chewing on. ya could crash at my place for a bit. It aint much but i still have a spare bench to sleep on. she said while wiping the tomato souse from her cheeks. just don't touch the booze without asking first.

Noticing the protestors outside she says: Those grenades you were talking about would come in mighty handy at this point M. she was only half kidding about the comment. The crowds cheers made a big dent in her good mood and her facial expression changed into an annoyed look. if that’s the thanks ya get for saving a city, it might be better to let it burn. she said on a cynical tone wile pointing at the window with her thumb.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:17, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Liberty clenches her fists. A year ago?! Those men are going to get away with murder, kidnapping, stealing most of Diren's life, and then attempted murder?! She avoids hugging Diren only because she knows she's so tense, she may crush the guy. Tears run down the sides of her cheeks as she listens, trying not to explode with rage. She takes her shoes and socks off, runs for the window and opens it. She then jumps out the window, landing on her bare feet outside. In an amazingly loud voice, Liberty yells at the protesters.

"You folks hate people for being born so much?! Then come here and let it all out. Come here and punch me in the face. It'd be a lot more merciful than your childish scorn, you big pile of unjustified haters! Come on! Right here! You hate us so much?! Well I'm offering all of you to go ahead and hit me! Beat me up! I'll take any so-called deserved hatred and punishment you all intended for the people in that office who just risked their lives to save your city! What's the matter? To afraid to hit a little girl?! Where were any of YOU when that water monster was terrorizing people?! COME ON!"

Freedom of speech. Such a wonderful thing. Soon as anyone throws a punch, they're in trouble. But until then? You are free to dare people to hit you. With the media nearby. In front of a police station. And the advantage of being a little girl so it really looks bad for the protesters.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:34, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Timothius went to hug Diren, but gets distracted when he sees Liberty run off and jump out the window. "oh dear..." he comments quietly, looking at Mittens with a trapped look. He's pretty upset too, but he's more concerned for the well-being of Diren and now Liberty.

Emerald is pretty unsure what to do, but does look over at the cop. "The people do have a right and all, but maybe what Mittens was sensing? Yeah, this has that written all over it."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:39, Fri 03 Sept 2010.

Michael had gone over to get more coffee and nodded to Joe by the table. He didn't know what to say to Diren but he knew it was awful. And you think your life is bad?" he thinks to himself.

When he hears the protesters he grimaces. The only thing worse than reporters were people who were against mutants. He begins thinking to himself when he sees Liberty open the window and then proceed to jump out said window. He rushes over to see if she was alright since they were on the second floor, but she seems to be fine. He sees a light pole in front of the window and has an idea. Rather than porting down to the street, he takes a few steps back and makes a running jump off the windowsill and grabs onto the light pole. In fireman fashion he makes it to the ground and walks up to stand next to Liberty. He isn't about to let her take on a mob of people by herself, no matter how much pain she can take.

  As Diren's story progressed and the horrors committed by Scientists stacked up, the dark humor section of his mind can't help but think of a basement somewhere with four scientists (five on weekends) desperately trying to do the mad scientist thing with no budget.  Because it was either that, or there were ninja commando scientists committing combination murder/kidnapping/science/firing squad duty.  With a creepy degree of competence in all fields except the Science part.

  "That's terrible."  Good save there Joe.  And then everything went all protest ranting shenanigans with little girls ditching their shoes and diving out windows...  Joe tries not to think too hard about why his sneakers have yet to be obliterated by his own mutant antics.  "Right, think someone should follow heokay then."  And there went Michael like a Real Ghostbuster after Liberty.

  While this would be a seemingly perfect time for Joe to demonstrate his own perks to the crowd, instead he walks over to the window and just leans out of it some.  "Uh, I'm sorry about the lamp post bulb.  We don't get paid for this unless you count a box of donuts a day, so I'm not sure how long it will be before I can pay for it if I had toh sweet tap dancing sumo Santa, what is wrong with you?"

  Now, this sudden shift from calm banter to irritation could easily be assumed to be directed at the protest mob in general, or Liberty's 'hurt me more!' speech.  These assumptions would be wrong.

  "Nothing is wrong with me.  What's wrong with you?" Oh look, It's Joe's father David off near the back of the mob with a protest sign.
  "Do you even know what your sign says?"
  "Of course I do, it's got foot tall letters.  But I was in a hurry, this was half off, they didn't have any accurate signs at Protests R Us™, I'm lazy, and this was half off."

  Joe is not answering because he is slowly banging his head against the window sill.


This message was last edited by the GM at 03:49, Sun 05 Sept 2010.

Diren stands up and looks apatheticly out the window at the protesters.  He considers forming his metal into some sort of deadly weapon, walking down the stairs, and slaughtering all of the anit-mutant bastards.  He also considers guilt tripping them with his story.  In the end, he decides they are lucky that he is lazy, and just looks out, trying to think of all the possible outcomes of this scenario.

Sarah didn’t take much notice to Liberty at first. She initially thought that the girl was going to shout something out of the window when she opened it. Liberty looked like she could use something to vent the anger out. There was still some pizza and that was more interesting than the crowd. When Sarah didn’t hear much shouting aside from the crowd’s cheers, she took her eye off the pizza and noticed the girl was getting ready to jump. Liberty had already taken off her socks when Sarah said: “She isn’t going t...” she couldn’t finish her sentence before the girl jumped. Surprised and confused at what was going on she franticly looked around at the rest. “She didn’t just…” Once again she didn’t finish her sentence as she saw Michael jump after Liberty. With a dumbfound look on Sarah’s face she stood up from her chair and made her way to the window. Than she heard Liberty shouting at the crowd. This day seemed to be full of surprises. “Damn” she thought “that girl is scarier than she looks”

Noticing Joe’s little conversation she asks him: “anyone you know out there?” she looked around and notices the person with the awkward sign. She chuckles and said: “Family I’m guessing.” She now understood why he was banging his head against the window sill. “So…I’m kinda new to this but shouldn’t we go help?” Sarah was not sure who would be needing it, the crowd or the kid. But she figured she’ll be helping out Liberty since the crowd was getting on her nerves.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:41, Sun 05 Sept 2010.

Haalima wasn't sure what to think. Protesters, dark pasts, people jumping out of windows. What had she gotten herself in to? She was a dancer and wasn't really feeling equipped to handle even protesters. But she'd signed on the dotted line and was committed to the team now.

Plus she didn't have any better ideas to gain enough fame to realize her dreams. So far nothing else had worked. So she'd better stick to this, at least for a little while. Maybe she'd find she really liked it.

"Is it right for the double standaAAAH!?" the megaphone man gasps as a little girl falls out the window!  He stands and stares in shock as Liberty picks herself up and begins her rant.

"What's with the masochistic bare-foot blonde?" he mutters.

He raises his megaphone to reply but is interrupted by Joe's strange talk about lightbulbs, doughnuts, and... Sumo Santa?!  The speaker and the crowd look around for a large Japanese wrestler wearing red and white tap shoes but instead Joe is answered by a guy toting an even crazier slogan than the crowd's "Alright, Mutants...  OUT OF THE GENE POOL!" or "The medical term for Mutant is CANCER!"

In a daze, the guy raises the megaphone to his mouth again but is interrupted by himself and the entire crowd just bursting out laughing!  It takes a while for the speaker to regain his composure.

"I rest my case!" he chuckles, "These are the kind of people the city's government is funding?!  They throw barefoot masochist youngsters out windows or into burning cars.  And well...  Tap Dancing Sumo Santa Gay Mutant Doughnut Lightbulbs!?  Need I say more?!"

Mittens' player is far more conflicted about what she'd do next than she is.  She's impulsive and decisive.  She snatches her own megaphone and marches up to the window while dialing the megaphone up to it's maximum setting.

"Putting megaphone on 'loud' setting," she says, "May want to plug your ears.  Please excuse me, I have protesters to shoo away."

She waits for those who want to plug their ears to do so and for Sarah to make room at the window for her to lean out.  (( If Sarah chooses not to make way, ignore this next bit of the post because Mits wouldn't force her way past the big gal to shout out an occupied window... Edit: Thank you, Sarah's player for letting me know OOC that Sarah made way. ^.^ ))

"You're protesting the wrong building," Mittens' amplified voice informs the crowd calmly, "The police force does not set the city's fiscal policy.  The City Council building is at 250 Wide Way, and I'll be happy to debate anyone who should want to attend a meeting there.  Also, the Citizen Patrol's web blog is open to anyone who wants to comment.

"The barefoot girl is tough, not a masochist.  She was not thrown out the window, she jumped without permission.  She was not thrown into a burning car, she chose to save a baby's life and the baby's mother.

"I have no comment on Sumo Santas.

"Liberty, Mr. Reaver, and Mr. Darkthorne, please come back inside so we can finish up this meeting.  Now...  To make sure that this doesn't turn into a drawn-out rant war, I shall be quoting from our nation's founding documents until the people I named are inside."

She takes a booklet out of her pocket and begins reading aloud, adding emphasis to key words.

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."

And on she goes, making it difficult for anyone to hear anyone else's rants should they choose to rant.  Megaphone man tries to answer, but thanks to Mittens' tactic, it sounds something like:

"TWhea'tr et op rsoetceusrtei ntgh etshei sr ibguhitlsd,i nGgo vbeercnamuesnet st hairse  iisn swthietruet eydo uarm omnege tMienng,  idse!riving their just powers...."

Or maybe it would sound more like:

"That We'reto protestingsecure thisthese buildingrights, becauseGovernments thisare
isinstituted whereamong yourMen, meetingderiving is!their just powers from the consent of the governed."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:23, Mon 06 Sept 2010.

Rodney had taken his time to walk casually out the door on the ground floor and he looked at the crowd, "Realah?  Yah donn gotta job, oh taxes, oh fam'ly, oh P.S.P. ta play?  Yah gonna come down ehah an yell at us?"  The look was one of severe disappointment at all of them.

"Gecha asses outta 'ere 'for I hitcha wit a harassment suit, disturbin da peace, an bein so ugly dat it makes all dem folk need to be behin'ja so dey donn see ya face.  If yah momma still love yah den good on er... donn make er cry by keepin up bein stupid.  Yah got betta tings ta do denn stan inna sun all day.  I got bettah tings too, so, I'm gonna go back in an close da winna cause I donn care 'bout da bigots onna streets.  Dis patrol iddn juss fer mutan's it fer folk tryin ta do good an know dat some time... dat gets a bit messy."

He only stared a few moments to let it sink in before he turned away from the lot thinking to himself, 'Racial prejudice... really?'

Liberty hears Mittens ask her to come inside. ASK. And decides to obey. Liberty looks over and up at Michael. "...thanks for standing by me." she says, having to actually speak louder than normal just to hear herself, much less have Mike hear her. Liberty faces the crowd, points up at Mittens, points at herself and points at the door. She can't compete with two megaphones, so she used charades. She turns to walk inside like some City of Heroes npc that just lost interest in aggro. She has other thoughts, like telling the crowd that if they don't wanna pay taxes, they should just not pay it. But figures it best to leave Mittens to her devices. She does grumble the whole way up, though. "Did anyone give Diren a hug?" she would ask the nearest mutant on her way up, be it Mike or Rodney. "'cause of not, I'm gonna..." after all... she has calmed down enough she feels she won't crush the poor guy.

Emerald seriously ponders going around and pick-pocketing the crowd if they continue for much longer. But for now, she just stays put and lets Mittens handle things. Not to mention the cop who didn't even do anything. "I should point out, while I can't do much more than the next agile midget, we will probably wind up with others who aren't as stable as this group and will kill people for saying such things. What do you recommend for prevention of such in the future, officer?" she asks of the cop who didn't answer her earlier assessment.

Timothius is watching his sister do her "I'm more annoying than you" thing and figures things will escalate. So he just goes to give Diren a hug since that's what he planned to do anyway. "Hey, Diren? You don't have to be alone or viewed as a project anymore. The people here can and will care about you, your well-being, your feelings and even your opinions. Maybe not everyone, but I at least know two for sure."

She plugged her ears and took a few steps back as Mittens wanted to speak to the protesters. As she clearly heard what Mittens had to say she thought to herself ‘The kid is pretty smart to avoid a conflict like this. Those humans would not stand a chance if the situation would escalate into an al out brawl’ She decided to go back to a chair and await the next surprise.

As she sat down so start balancing her chair again she noticed the fox talking to the officer again. She put her feet on the table as she laughed a little at Emeralds comment. She craned her head to look at the foxy lady. “The police usually steps in when the problems are gone M. You don’t mind me calling you M do ya? I like keeping things short… no pun intended.” She scratches the back of her head with an awkward look on her face. Didn’t formulate that very well but ya get the point right?

Emerald laughs from Sarah's comments. "M's fine, Sarah. Nice pun and thanks..." she giggles.

Since he's overdue to reply to Emerald, Officer Bagrowski swallows his mouth full of doughnut and coffee and answers while thumbing at Sarah, "What she said.  It's better that way.  Unless you'd rather the police arresting folks for what they might do.  If so I got a book for ya to read.  Called 1984."

He takes a lazy sip from his mug.

"What I recommend?  If you think someone's gunna return words with violence, don't let 'em in your group and don't provoke 'em."
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:54, Tue 07 Sept 2010.

Michael hears Mittens and concentrates on blocking out all noise. It doesn't work to well, but it make enough of a difference. He follows Liberty back inside and gives her a polite nod in response to her thanks. He didn't feel like porting again so walking was just fine. No sense in forcing the protesters to see powers in work. To Liberty's other question he just shrugs, as he has no idea.

  Joe is a touch distracted when Mitten's gives her warning about very loud things, and has just enough time to register "Wait, whaohgodmybrainlandedonkeys."  The last part of that of course in a losing competition with more point blank megaphone.

  It's probably safe to say Joe's brain didn't land his keys, unless he keeps his brain in his back pocket as he falls back from the windowsill.  "I don't think my Dad's going to be coming inside any time soon.  So Mitten's is probably going to be at this a while." Joe comments as he stands back up and goes in an away direction from the Megaphone kitty.

  "I'm impressed Bagrowski has managed to keep the whole common sense thing this long.  Mine's already looking for an emergency exit."

  David's sign meanwhile, still totally works despite loud noises.

Emerald finds a mug to use as a prop to copy the cop's lazy demeanor and answers the cop in an equally jaded fashion. "Been there, done that. Already read that book. I didn't say anything about arresting people or even reacting. No need to get all Godwin's law on me. I was asking prevention. Since an ounce of it's worth a pound of cure and all that? And nice as your solution sounds, what about Sarah here? She has been quite mature, but the cops didn't think she would be and even *they* offered her to us like a tasty treat under the nose. If even cops won't do what you were just now suggesting, you expect us to be better than cops at their job? Oh, nevermind. There are no solutions. Only preparation is pulling out body bags so that when people die, we can at least sweep the stink under the rug and pretend we didn't see it coming."

She hops out of whatever chair she was sitting in to replicate the cop. "Guess I know where I'm needed. Prevention. Hey Sarah... wanna be a part of that? Keeping scumbags from entering our team? I think you could be a big help and I'll tell you why when you and I can be alone.."

Sarah was relieved that Emerald could laugh about her clumsy pick of words. She nodded with a smile and said: “Thanks, than M it is” She leans a little more to the back as she puts her hands behind her head. The comment from the officer did make some sense. She had never read the book 1984, but if the police got to arrest people for what they might do she would probably never have left the cell. Sarah quivers at the thought.

As Emerald starts doing her Imitation of the officer Sarah laughs and almost loses her balance. She decides putting the chair back on all fours would be safer for the moment as Emerald continues her imitation. ‘She’s rather good’ Sarah thinks. When Emerald tells her that part of the Prevention job is to keep scumbags out, Sarah considered she could be useful there. Kicking people out of pubs was one of her specialties, so this couldn’t be much harder. "Alright, sign me up at the Prevention job". she says. “And just give me a heads up when ya wanna talk. The captain shouted something about finishing up the meeting, so I think there will be time for that soon.”
This message was last edited by the player at 15:47, Wed 08 Sept 2010.

"Thanks Tim.  All i really need is a place to live.  I've been hiding in the woods since i escaped.  Oh and just to let you know, the red dots all over my body are from the needles." Note that he was wearing a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants.(I dont think this changes anything at all)  He rolls up one sleeve and the part of the arm that is revealed has red dots ever half inch, forming boxes starting shortly before his wrist and going all the way around the arm.  "It's been like a year, but they still haven't gone away."

((OOC: Diren would probably find that his discomfort and polka-dots are rapidly vanishing thanks to the healing Timothius hug.  Maybe.  Up to you. ))

That Willwhenever youany shutForm upof forGovernment onebecomes second?!destructive Iof havethese
ends, ait rightis tothe beRight heard!of Youthe annoyingPeople Catsto musicalalter reject!or to abolish it.

Megaphone man face-palms and eventually gives up.  Where's the fun in saying "I can't understand a word of what Dreads over there said" if no one can make out what YOU said?!  The crowd dissolves, doing nothing more violent than to flip Mittens, David Darkthrone, and various other people the bird.  Finally, Mits shuts up.

"Whew!" she gasps, "Glad that's over!  Sorry about the keys, Joe.  Timo can patch you up if you like."

She was able to finish up the Megaphone War just in time to hear Emerald jeer at the police officer and giggles a little.  Detective Bagrowski looks very annoyed with Emerald.  Mittens notices this and listens to Emerald's suggestion and Sarah's acceptance.

"Yes!  Prevention is a major part of what the Citizen Patrol is all about!  Thank you for volunteering to focus on that, you two!  So let's get started now!  Part of fire prevention is find sources of friction and to reduce said friction before it becomes a problem.  Metaphor!  I don't know the conversation that led up to Emerald's Bagrowski impersonation, but apparently he didn't take it as the sincerest form of flattery.  My apologies if my giggle offended you, sir."

She gives a slight bow to the officer.

"I'm not going to apologize on Emerald's or Detective Bagrowski's behalf like I did with the reporters.  They may have been my guests, but they're not part of the team like you two are.  I expect team members to make their own apologies with each other."

Bagrowski sips his coffee, apparently back to his typical un-annoyed, jaded expression.

Mits turns her attention to Diren.

"You don't have a place?!  That won't do!  Who here wants to...  Holdonasec."

She autodials on her cell.

"Hi, mom!  Can we have a guest stay the night?  He's got no place to stay.  Um... human looking mutant teen guy with metal bending powers who was rai..."

She stops herself.

"...with a very tragic history.  Yeah I thought so.  I'll ask the others."

She makes sure Rodney and the others are back before asking, "Who here's willing to offer a place for Diren to stay?  Lemme rephrase that or I'll get too many volunteers... Who here can't WAIT to have Diren stay at their place?"

She raises her hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:20, Thu 09 Sept 2010.

Emerald isn't going to apologize if the officer doesn't. He's a cop for starters and Emerald isn't too fond of cops. But he also basically accused Emerald of being thought police for suggesting someone in uniform saying "please leave" or coming up with preventative measures. His jadedness she doesn't mind, but being accused of crimes she isn't guilty of does make her mad. Though she can still hide that by being silly. Lucky for Emerald.

"As much as I would love to care for Diren, my place is not exactly... it just wouldn't work well for him." Nevermind she doesn't exactly trust Diren, but she doesn't have to admit that or even remotely look like that's the case.

Liberty is excited about Diren staying at her place. So she raises her hand with a little smile crossing her face. She doesn't know what caused the Emmy/Bagrowski conversation either, so keeps her nose out of it. She has more respect for cops than Emerald does, but then, Emerald has her reasons and Liberty still believes in the police.

Timothius raises his hand too, slowly letting go of Diren.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:55, Thu 09 Sept 2010.

Michael is a bit surprised by Mittens calling her mother and has to remind himself that she and a few others are still kids. He had no problem giving Diren a place to stay, but if someone wanted him moving in with them instead, he wasn't going to stop them.

He's not sure what to think about the "conversation" between Emerald and Bagrawski, but doesn't much care. No one is being hurt, no need to get involved. He sits back in a chair and waits to whats next. He wonders how much longer this meeting is going to be.

Sarah didn’t mind having Diren stay with her for a wile, but she wasn’t jumping at the idea either. For her it would mean another mouth to feed. So when Mittens rephrased her question Sarah lowered her hand. Diren would be better off with people around his own age, and if the parents of these kids were half as compassionate as them she figured he’d be in good hands. “well... I guess there are enough volunteers, but if ya ever feel like crashing at my place the couch is still free.” she said to Diren with a grin.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:22, Thu 09 Sept 2010.

  "Another problem solved with nonsensical rambling. I love this city." David said.  And with that, he tossed his sign into a trash barrel and went home.

  Back in the tiny room full of Mutants and world weary cops, Joe doesn't raise his hand full of enthusiasm for adoption.  He'll blame not wanting to expose Diren to his father more than necessary if asked.  David is supportive of Mutant children, but to the jaded 'who cares?' point where they might ask Diren to use his brain to open beer bottles when he's misplaced the bottle opener.

  "Only what passes for my dignity was injured.   It's good to see Diren has options then... Not so good to see he's got a bad case of connect the dots.  I'd say 'at least they didn't stab your brain' but you never know what's under a haircut."  Joe is an expert at sensitivity.

Haalima raises one clawed finger, speaking softly. "I have an apartment. It's not much, just one bedroom, but I have a very comfortable couch." She would feel very strange having someone staying at her place, but she did have the room for it. Not a lot, but she was willing to share.

Cell watches from afar sitting on a wall, looking at all of the local commotion that was happening around the police station. He looks at disgust at the crowd and there signs of hatred toward his "kind". He spits and cusses to himself under his breath in disgust of all of them. "Its a pity the human race, is this pathetic." hes mumbles under his breath as he watches. He looks down at a crumbled flyer it had been obviously defaced from a hater.

Intrigued by the flyer  he looks back to the police station and stares at the building for a long time.

He pulls out his IPOD and starts flipping though his play-list for something heavy and dark his mood was not the best after seeing everything that had just happened he rested his feet on his skateboard and started to jam. He waits for the crowd to die down before he makes his entrance into the police station.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:46, Mon 13 Sept 2010.

Inside the police station there's a reception desk where a police woman is seated.

"How can I help..." she begins in that bored, tired, jaded cop tone before looking up from her paperwork at Cell.  Suddenly her whole tone and demeanor change.  ( http://www.lyndasandoval.com/i...ugly-cop-picture.jpg )

"Awwww!  Well aren't you adorable!  Are you lost?  Do you need help finding your way back to your mom and dad?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:06, Mon 13 Sept 2010.

Cell says nothing and pulls the crumbled piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it the the lady cop. He looks around the reception area looking for evidence of any type of important meetings and such. He glanced over and saw a officer stuffing a jelly filler donut into his mouth, Cell watched the jelly ooze out of the bottom of the donut and fall on the officers uniform.

Cell facepalms and looks back to the lady cop not saying a word. Cell then leans his skateboard against the desk waiting for her to point him in the right direction.

The officer takes the page from the boy and glances at the messy doughnut cop and cringes.

"Williams..." she says in that authority voice, "You're dripping on your uniform."

He of course starts some emergency clean-up.  She un-crumples the paper and her heart sinks.

Awww...  Another kid joining that suicide squad?! she asks herself.

"You sure you want to join that group, sweetie?" she says, "It's not exactly fun and games."

She sighs and slouches, then takes out an less messed-up application and hands it to the boy.

"It's upstairs.  I'll show you the way.  You will have to get your parents' consent to join, of course."

She leads the way to the room where everyone is and opens the door for Cell.

(( OOC: Making an exception to my "no back-and-forth posting" guideline so I can get Cell to the room where everyone is. ))

Cell pushes aside the lady cop in steps into the room where everyone is sitting and talking. He closes his eyes and concentrates, Cells body begins to flicker with energy it then slowly begins to split in two separate parts as they slowly begin to peel apart from the other. In moments there were two Cells looking at the group

The original  Cell then bows to the group in respect

As the original Cell rises back into position "Hi there" both Cells say shyly simultaneously

It doesn't escape Mittens' attention that neither Bagrowski nor Emerald made any apologies.  She's a hard person to ignore, but there's a lot going on, so could be a while before she can get back to that topic.  She wonders why the grid on Diren's skin and if there's anything that can be done about that.  She's a little disappointed none of the guys besides Timothius offered him a place to stay, but is pleasantly surprised that only one of the girls declined.

"There ya go, Diren!" Mittens chimes, "Lotsa choices.  If you can't decide, the I'll choose for you.  And I'll choose me and Timothius' place."

When the blonde boy steps in, divides in two, and gives his strange mix of outgoing and shy greeting, Mittens can't help but giggle.

"Twins!" she squeals and wiggles as a jeer of someone she kinda knows who has a strange twin fetish, "That was neat!  My name's Mittens, and this is the Citizen Patrol.  We were just about to finish up our first meeting.  Welcome!  So what's your name or names?"

Back to the earlier matter...  She snatches Bagrowski by the sleeve and begins whispering in his ear making him blush a bit.  She then moves on to Emerald to lean down and whisper in her ear.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:40, Tue 14 Sept 2010.

Sarah’s attention turns to the door the moment it opens. ‘Right…another kid joining this group o’ misfits.’ She thinks as she sees the blond kid enter. Than he starts to flicker and it seemed as if there were two of him growing out of each other.  “Bwah?”… Sarah exclaims with a surprised look on her face as Cell pealed himself from himself. “Interesting, but disturbing.” She rubs her eye to check if it wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Mittens seemed to respond to him so there really were two of him saying hello. She thinks of a practical use for a skill like duplicating while Mittens handles the greeting.

once that is done Sarah tries to get eye contact with either of the shy boys, while having a kind of smug smile on her face. “Such skills must be useful when double dating huh?” She had just volunteered for the Prevention job, so it was due time to start the interrogations. “The name’s Sarah. If you’re here for the party than there might still be some pizza left, I don’t think anyone will mind if you take a slice.” She points at what’s left of the pizza. “So, what brings ya here?” She doesn’t notice any of the sneaky whispering since she was completely focused on the new arrival.

  'Oh, someone else with a real power then.' Joe, making a standing jump of 18ish feet high and surviving falls worse than that is a real power.  If not one that let's you beat Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks's Co-Op mode by yourself.  "Hello new people. Person... Whichever works in this situation.  I'm Joe, and you can refer to the nametags in the case of those who have them."

  Joe noticed, but did not really care about the 'no apologies' thing.  As well as remains clueless to what it is Mittens is whispering to those two.  "You'll probably fit right in, we have a wide gap between bitterly jaded and brightly optimistic still open." Guess which of those two Joe tends to fall under.

Michael looks up as someone new walks in and suddenly splits into two people. He looks a bit surprised, but not much. "another kid,"he thinks.  The group seemed to be almost split now, between adults and ... not adults. Though some of the adults seemed to act more like children themselves.

He notices the scolding by Mittens and the following blush of Bagrowski. He attempts to hear what was being said, but doesn't make anything intelligible out.

"So where do you fall Joe? The bitter optimist?" Michael said, somewhat as a shock to himself. He couldn't believe he was already joking around with these people. Something about them made him feel, not quite at home, but more normal. It was a good feeling that he hoped lasted for a long while.

Emerald looks to see the shy boy(s?) enter and wonders if splitting into two was his way of breaking the barrier and/or hoping he can blend with the others in the room. She smiles endearingly at the kid(s?) and says, "Hello there! What she said" she thumbs at Mittens. Emerald decides not to introduce herself yet. Bad enough he walked into a room and already has two names to worry about. And speaking of Mortal Kombat, Joe, "Commere!" she says to Cell, beckoning to him.

Emerald whispers back to Mittens.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:25, Wed 15 Sept 2010.

Timothius had just given Diren some breathing room when he sees Cell. Now he's going from wanting to hug Diren for sympathy to wanting to hug Cell for cute. And the boy is older than Tim. He smiles and waves, sticking with Diren for now as he knows Cell will have plenty of welcoming. Besides... Cell just got invited over to Mitts and Emmy.

(ooc: A reminder, as Timothius touches Diren, the pain at least would disappear. For good. Until he gets injured again anyway.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:29, Wed 15 Sept 2010.

Liberty figures the earlier comments mean Diren is staying at Mittens' place. She seems lightly disappointed, but doesn't fuss or whine.

Upon Cell entering, Liberty looks at Cell and immediately blushes. That is one cute blond. And since Liberty is close in age to the guy, she's thinking cute in more ways than pinching cheeks. Liberty notices nobody actually went TO Cell yet and gets out of her seat to aggro him. She offers her hand, having already gotten over the blushing and looking like her more normal self, though puts on a friendly smile. "Welcome."

Haalima stared down at the blond boy who became two blond boys and blinked. One of her ears flicked in surprise at the spectacle. She wasn't quite sure what to say about that. It was probably the most impressive thing she had seen. Well, along with Liberty jumping out the window and Mittens taking on an entire group of protesters with nothing but a microphone.

The two “Cells” were a bit overwhelmed by all of the introductions and greetings from this lovely group of individuals. Him being a shy little boy it was a bit hard to handle but he was going to try. One of his major goals that his grandfather made for him was to be more out going and not so shy. He first turns his attention to the cat-like creature that could herself Mittens.

“Hiya Mittens, you can call me Cell” the real Cell said as the other one stood there motionless staring blankly into space. The real cell then raised up a piece the crumbled flyer that he had been carrying since he first entered the police station. “This is why I am here”

He then looked to the one who called herself Sarah,

His face turn a little pink and then looks to ground. “I have never had a date before in my life” he then raises his eyes back to her. “No thanks on the pizza though I just ate, and besides I have to watch my girlish figure” Cell said with a chuckle.

Cell winks at Joe, “ I likes my powers a lot” he says with a smile

As the girl about his age offers her hand to him he blushes and takes her. He then raises her hand and kisses it he looks into her eyes. “Hi there” His face turns completly red and  he drops her hand and walks over to where mittens  and the fox looking girl were standing. He then closes his eyes and concentrates, the other Cell flickered and began to form into one form. Standing at the side of Mittens he looks back at the rest of the group and smiles.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:04, Wed 15 Sept 2010.

Diren watches this with a raised eyebrow.  He doesn't really know much about 'being normal' but he doubts that that fits as it.  He lowers his eyebrow and waits for this Cell person to finish talking to Mittins before he will introduce himself.  He finally realized that his body has stopped stinging for the first time ever.  So this is what normal feels like... he thinks, feeling incredible.  "Thanks Timothius..." is all he can say.

After Mittens whispers some more at Emerald, she groans at Sarah's pun, but approves of her offering of food to the newcomer.  She nods to indicate her agreeing with Sarah.  Mittens giggles at the exchange between Joe and Michael, wondering also the answer to the question asked of the former.  She watches with the slightest hint of annoyance the obvious signs of a puppy crush between Liberty and... Cell?  Right.  The kid likes to go by a nick name.  Much like a certain cat girl does.  Mittens glances over at Diren and interprets what he said to mean something different than "thanks for the heals."

"It's decided then!" she says, clapping her hands together, "Diren will be spending the night with Timothius!"

Mittens offers a fresh application sheet to Cell with a smile.

"Welcome aboard, Cell!  Emerald and Sarah will be handling new applicants from now on, so they'll have the final say in approving you joining the team.  Haalima here should be able to get you caught up on what you've missed 'cause she's the official minutes taker.  You can get to know the rest as time goes on...

"Which brings me to the last part of the meeting I wanted to cover: 'Getting to know you.'  I would like each and every one of you to write down on this sheet here when would be a good time and place for me to get together with you and chat one-on-one.  Will also need a phone number if you didn't put that on your Citizen Patrol application.

"Well folks!  That's it for the very first Citizen Patrol meeting!  Thank you very much for your patience and you willingness to help out!  Together, we're going to make a difference for this city in a very big way!  We already have!  If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!  If you haven't had your picture taken yet, please get with Timothius for that so we can finish up the roster.  I'll be mailing one to each of you to help everyone recognize each other."

Mittens then rubs her chin, snaps her fingers, and resumes with the whispering to Emerald.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:14, Thu 16 Sept 2010.

  "I'd have to say Bitter Optimism is giving me slightly too much credit, unless thinking 'well, we probably won't die' counts." Joe says to Michael as the array of Cell related banter goes on.  Even his poor tact refrains from commenting about Two For One Deals Liberty could have in mind.

  "Unless faces will be wildly different each time we're together, I'm pretty sure I can remember who everyone here is without a picture reference."  At least, for the people who have their name on the left side of the screen (and occasional picture reference) when they post.

  Joe fills out the sorta kinda retroactive sheet information, and figures to hang around at least a few minutes longer in case something else explodes... Wait, wouldn't that be a reason to leave right now?

Sarah Chuckles at Cell’s reply, seeing Liberty move in. “well, that may change sooner than you think.” She had heard Mittens groan but couldn’t help making another comment. Sarah usually talked faster than she could think. She turned her head to Mittens for a bit.

 ‘The duplicating date trick might actually come in handy’ Sarah thought as she saw Mittens being slightly annoyed about Liberty’s quick advance. She decided to keep that comment to herself for a change. ‘Wouldn’t want to put James Blond junior into an awkward situation on his first day.’ Well, not more than she did already anyway. “Its safe to say the kid don’t seem like a bad person. And he’s already made some friends, so he’s got my vote.” she cranes her head to Emerald. “What do you think M, is he Patrol material? You’ve been in this group longer than me so I’m letting you have the final vote.”

The exchange of words between Michael and Joe didn’t go unnoticed. Sarah wishes she had the mutant ability of telepathy, or super speed. There was just too much going on to comment on everything. Than she noticed she was actually having fun. Since she stepped trough the door it had been one surprise after another. The group seemed allot less stuck-up as she had expected when first hearing the name ‘Citizen Patrol’. All that was missing was a camera crew and a catchy tune and she would have sworn she had walked onto a set of some sit-com.

"I don’t have a mail address, mind if I put down one of my friends mail?" She asks as she receives the sheet. "I see him almost every day so I think he wont mind keeping me updated."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:15, Thu 16 Sept 2010.

Michael is surprised to see that Cell seems to be a romantic, very few people can pull that kind of introduction off. He is such a sap (even if he gives off the emo vib) and smiles at the mutual blushing between the two. Though, smiling for Michael is just the upturning of the corner of his mouth.

He fills out the paperwork, giving cell (lol) number, email, snail mail address, etc. Once it's all filled out he pulls out his phone to check the time and realizes he needs to get going soon. "Crap, I have work soon. Here's a question Mittens, If we have a job and need to come and fight some big bad, will the Citizen Patrol cover us not getting fired? Like for volunteer firefighter?"

Emerald looks Cell over from top to bottom and answers Sarah, "Don't see why not." doesn't mean she won't do a complete background check on everyone in the room.

Emerald then looks towards Diren. "Heard your story but still don't see why you can't have your picture taken. If it's just fear, I can understand. There's no reasoning with emotions. But if it's because you're afraid of being caught, well, you're already walking around town and there are cameras everywhere. Traffic lights have 'em. So it's not like your face hasn't already been recorded a dozen times a day. And if you have been out for a year, the mean scientists have had a loooong time to catch you. Yet they haven't. So it isn't because of photos."

She then listens to Mittens and kind of rolls her eyes. Then whispers back.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:23, Fri 17 Sept 2010.

At the kiss to the hand, Liberty looks stunned, blushing again and backing her head up a little while shrugging her shoulders in a girly cringe. Her left hand comes up to her cheek as she wears a bashful smile, then watches Cell go to Mittens. The girl shakes it off, trying to keep her composure, but really can't shake the fact Cell is both cute and nice. She thinks the same of Tim, but is trying to figure herself out. This is the second boy she got it bad for in a single day. What a crazy day, though... having jumped into an exploding car and all. Maybe it's just that. Karma is paying her back by having cute boys show up.

Liberty didn't notice Mitts being annoyed, but she noticed Sarah and Michael being amused. She likes this group. Liberty decides to head over to Michael. He makes her feel safe somehow. Considering she can survive an exploding car, we're obviously talking about morale security rather than physical safety. Maybe it's just because Michael came to be at her side when she was standing up to a crowd of protesters.

Timothius wags his camera in the air as Mittens mentions getting with him for photos. He watches Emerald make her point to Diren about photos and idly wonders if Diren's going to freak out. He wisely puts the camera in his pocket. "But like she said, Diren... if it's fear, we all understand. Just take your time. Nobody's forcing anybody, OK?" he offers in a calming tone.

Haalima filled out the contact sheet for Mittens, including her apartment address and her phone number. Then she made a quick copy of what notes she had managed to take of the meeting and handed them off to Cell. "You didn't miss much. Mainly contact info sharing and the mission of the team."

"Actually, i've avoided cameras and such.  I lived in the woods until a short time ago.  So... No pictures please.  And i guess the matter of where i'm living is taken care of...  So that leaves saying hi to the new guy.  hi Cell, i'm Diren." He says, slightly nervously and think-out-loudish..

  Joe wonders how many people are able to claim 'I was raised in an evil secret lab' and 'I raised myself in the woods' at the same time.  One or the other happens frequently enough these days, but both at once is probably less common.

  "Well, hopefully if they were too stupid to learn anything from you for years then they are too stupid to recognize what you look like a few years later.  Or have real jobs now."  Said the unemployed nineteen year old.

Cell takes the application and quickly fills out his information and set it on the table that he was standing next to. He quickly looks for something to drink he was quite parched from everything that had just happened. Cell had just shocked himself, he had never really been able to be a romantic guy with any girl before this and It just surprised himself.

“Well I'm glad I didn't miss go much, this trip was actually a fluke. I didn't even think that I would even  be able to get on such a team like this” Cell says to Haalima

Cell then turns to Diren

“Hey man, nice to meet ya” he extends his hand to him give him a handshake

Cell then turns his head to look for Liberty, as he see's her standing next someone he smiles to himself and gives her a little stare hoping she would not catch him staring at her. Cell soon feels his face become hot. “wow” Cell thinks to himself.

Cell then turns his attention back to mittens and waits for more thoughts and comments

Mittens nod-nods in reply to Emerald's whisper and eye-rolls when Sarah mentions Cell might be getting himself a date.  She decides against a teasing question like, 'Why? Are you planning on dating him?' because few things annoy her more than when someone asks her a question like that.  In reply to Sarah's question, she smiles and gives a thumbs-up.

"Oh!" she says when Michael asks his question, "Right!  Good question!  Yes!  I've got that covered!"

She digs through her papers and hands him an official looking letter.  She'd then offer the same letter to anyone else who looks like they might want a copy.

"This explains that the City Council agreed to put us on the same footing as volunteer fire fighters in that regard.  And if that's not enough... Just show 'em a few newspaper articles praising the Citizen Patrol.  I doubt anyone would be willing to risk bad press for firing one of us for saving people's lives."

She gives a thumbs-up to Diren.

"What Timothius said.  No pictures.  But you'll want to wear a disguise from now on, then, Diren.  Way too many paparazzi are going to be stalking us now that we're famous.  I can arrange something with the police to keep you hidden for your trip to me and Timothius' place.  After that... We'll figure something out."

She accepts Cell's application, glances it over, then hands him both the one-on-one meet sheet and his application.

"Looks good.  Just get your parents to sign this and we're golden.  I can pick it up when I see ya next.  Then you'll be official."

She then addresses the group.

"Meeting officially adjourned.  Help yourselves to any leftover snacks.  Any questions, comments, etc. feel free.  I've got one last little gift for you all before you go."

She opens a box full of cell phones and begins passing them out along with instructions.

"Your very own official emergency cell phones!  Please keep these with you with the ringer on as often as possible.  Please only calls to each other or to other emergency services in case of emergency.  We don't have the funds yet to cover personal call minutes.  Still working on that.  They do have handy-dandy locator map thingies in them, though.  So you'll never be lost so long as you have reception."

((OOC: Feel free to pose out at your leisure.  No need to rush it.  I'll be opening a new thread soon. ))

Michael gives a questioning look as Liberty comes over by him, and says,"What's up short stuff?"

He takes the paper and cell phone from Mittens. "Are all the phone programmed in already?" he asks. He looks through to see if they are all there. If the numbers are there with no names, he sends a text to all of them saying who it was from.

He has to get to work, but figures hanging out for a bit longer couldn't hurt.

As Michael guessed, the numbers are programmed in, but with only the names "Phone 1," "Phone 2," "Phone 3," etc., attached to them.

Sarah thanks Mittens for the cell phone and than finishes up filling in the info on the sheet. Once done she stretches herself. “Survived the first Citizens Patrol meeting. Not bad.” she said to herself with a joyful grin. "Diren, ya want the last salami slice? Otherwise I’m taking it." She waited for his reaction before turning to Emerald. She figured that since the meeting had ended they could have a little talk about the Prevention job.

Liberty takes the cell and immediately begins dialing "Cellphone 1". "Well I'm going to test my cellphone right away. Recommend everyone do the same. I'm dialing Cell 1. Whoever that is." she's also doing this so she can replace "Cellphone 1, 2, 3, etc" with actual names of people.

Emerald hrms and decides to follow Liberty's example, going to rename Cell 1, depending on who answers. Though if it's her cellphone, of course, she would be in for a surprise. Either way, she does decide to go to Bagrowski, take Mittens advice as well as her own. "According to Mittens, there was some kind of misunderstanding between us. I apologize for the misunderstanding, though I really don't know what specifically I said to annoy you. Felt I was just defending myself."

Timothius is also taking part in Liberty's idea and watches so he can change his numbers accordingly without dialing anyone.

When Libery dials Cell 1, Mittens' phone rings.  She smiles and holds up the phone for Liberty so she can see who it was who called then notices Michael's text.

"Good idea," she comments both to Liberty and Michael, "Everyone please text the other phones with your name so they can add you to their directory."

Bagrowski looks surprised by Emerald's apology, and looks a bit impressed too.

"Um... Back at ya, apparently," he answers, rubbing his chin, "What bothers me is being stuck with people's impossible expectations.  The police either suck because they 'didn't do enough' or because they did 'too much.'  If any officer had so much as asked them politely to tone it down we'd be labeled tyrants in the newspaper and suspended by the Chief under pressure from the Mayor.  There's a reason we're understaffed.  Most folks aren't crazy enough to put up with working conditions like that."

He takes another sip from his coffee.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:41, Thu 23 Sept 2010.

Haalima switched the names around on an incoming calls and texts, then sent a text to the other numbers so they could do the same. She hadn't thought that they would be giving out phones. That was a pretty smart idea though. Especially considering the strange crew of members they had, not all of which had phones of their own.

  Number Five is Joe's cell phone result.  Number Five is not alive.  Narrative reference quota our of the way, Joe gets on the whole spam back replies to incoming text message spam thing.

  "Meeting did go better than I expected. Only one easily distracted angry mob showed up."  Joe considers checking for camera phone functionality aimed at Diren, but expects Diren would probably just twist the innards of his phone into naughty words (not that they could be read through the case, but it's the hypothetical thought that counts).

  "See you all next disaster. Or meeting. Whichever turns up first."  With that, Joe heads out via the traditional exit methods.

Diren looks at his phone confused.  "Um...   How do you use this?  I've never had one.". He would look embarassed if he knew what that was.  You guys should really teach him social customs, he's a bit ignorant.

Cell looks to mittens and nods to her, he then takes his new cell phone and begins to text out to everyone making sure that everyone had his number all figured out. He looks over the group and just smiles. He loved to be a part of something special and it was nice to be for once.

The Citizen Patrol leader is of course happy to teach Diren how to use his new cell phone.  Eventually, the room is cleaned up and everyone returns to their homes.

(( End of Scene 1 ))

Emerald listens to the cop. "Well I was honestly not even asking you to do anything besides advise. Nobody was doing anything illegal. Tell ya what... I might be crazy enough if you guys are interested in hiring a super small, fluff ball." she can't help but think of the irony of BEING a cop. That and if she's honest with herself, she can't fully really understand people without being in their shoes.

Once the cellphones are taken care of, Tim just follows Mittens wherever. Liberty heads home. Emerald sticks around a bit to chit-chat with Bagrowski.

(Wrote this up before thread was closed and didn't want it to go to waste, so here it is)