_Darien

Wake up

Darien

Darien!



What? Darien opened his eyes. The world was blurry and yet spinning.  "Guh," he groaned as he rolled over onto his back.

"I thought we were lost," the familiar voice in his head said.

"Where? What happened?" He had no sooner asked that than his memory began coming back. But the chunks of recollection were jumbled and truncated. "Crap," he said.

"You have to get up. It's still not safe. The snake-men are still fighting."

Darien rolled onto his belly and pushed himself up slowly to all fours. On shaky legs and with a stomach not entirely sure which way was up, he stood upright. He stumbled back a half-step, nearly losing his balance. He surveyed the scene and just tried to understand what he had missed.

Devil Girl is letting loose with fire down the street at the lesser snake-men, and Manmirror seems to have Lumpy in hand for the moment.

Manmirror yells and whips sideways, attempting to bring Lumpy to the pavement and rest his weight on the snakeman.

OOC: again, the dice roller was kind, I'm assuming this is just another grapple used to put the opponent underneath Manmirror on the ground, Manmirror figures if he's going to weigh as much as a grand piano, he should use that.
23:52, Today: Manmirror rolled 96 using 1d100.  belly-to-belly suplex Lumpy.
Even with his reduced strength, that's a gold result.
Manmirror is sitting on Lumpy and hoping to shake off the results of the venom, if there's a way to spend some karma for that, let me know.

Manmirror crushes the snake-man, but the once human is incredibly tough, Manmirror can feel him waning ever so slightly.  It tries to break out again, using his now superior strength, but Manmirror has him pinned with his astounding weight.

(OOC: 11:23, Today: R. Race Rasmusen, for the NPC Lumpy, rolled 29 using 1d100 ((29)). to break out - Bronze, need silver for a full hold.)

Darien's muscles are slowly waking up, pins and needles all over, but he feels like a normal person again.

(OOC: Back to average str (6) now)
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:05, Wed 18 Oct 2017.

"Can we end this now?" Darien asked as he regained his strength and his sass.

Directing his attention at the snake-man Manmirror was sitting on top of, he unleashed a jumble of thoughts to overload the once-man's neurons.

22:23, Today: Darien Hooker rolled 75 using 1d100. Mental Blast: Feat of Psyche.
Silver Result

Manmirror just tries to maintain his hold on the big snake guy, and expresses his frustration with his inimitable style. "I can't believe you spit in my face! You know, just because I avoid its use doesn't mean I don't know how to use my knee."

The Snake-Man hisses deflating then goes limp in Manmirror's arms, Darien's fury finally overcoming him.

(OOC: 16:15, Today: R. Race Rasmusen, for the NPC Lumpy, rolled 27 using 1d100 ((27)) - White Result - down to 0 HP.)

The rest of the snake-men down the street fighting Devilgirl that haven't yet succumbed to her hellfire look around as if broken out of a spell and flee in every direction.

Manmirror wearily climbs to his feet, and bemoans "he spit on me."

Darien offered a hand to Manmirror but the older hero didn't need it. "Sorry man. At least you didn't go lights out like I did. I still want to know what those dude's deal was."

"We'd better keep an eye on him," he said, nodding to the newly unconscious snake-man. "Don't want him slithering away before he can be taken away."

Four black SUVs with a blue emergency light pulls up to the barricade in the distance where the cops are.

Detective Wong escorts a number of black-suited people to your position.

Darien recognizes two of them, a red-headed woman and a man who must be nearing retirement from the bank, the FBI agents who took doctor Cobra away.

Karen says  "Darien, you might think you're being a hero to run in to this nest of snakes without any superpowers like this fellow's" indicating Manmirror.  "But it's dangerous, you should really stay out of this." with concern on her face for the young man.  "I know it can be tough, but don't throw your life away."

The FBI man raises a sideways eyebrow at her indication of Darien's lack of superpowers then starts giving orders to the other suits there on securing the various Snake-People.  Then says to Karen "I think it's safe to bring in the paramedics for those who are just hurt."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:26, Tue 24 Oct 2017.

"You're exactly right, ma'am," Darien said with a smirk.

"Don't say it."
"Say what?"
"I don't have superpowers like him."
"Too on the nose?"
"Something like that."

"I'll be more careful next time," he said after a long pause.

"I can agree with that."

"And thanks for your help with the cobra squad here."

Manmirror spares a glance at the newcomers, but otherwise continues to stare at Lumpy. Petulantly, he explains, "wouldja believe this lizard guy spit in my face? No one ever spit in my face, before. I feel so violated."

Detective Wong looks at Manmirror incredulously "You ought to hear my stories, if that's the worst you get, you should reconsider this... superhero business."
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:42, Fri 27 Oct 2017.

The male FBI agent hands Manmirror a card, it just has a number on it.  He says "Call me if you find anything else.  We need to find out where all these snake-people are coming from.  We'll be lucky if this doesn't make international news."

Manmirror nods. "There was some sort of liquid, they fought over it. Other than that, I doubt I could tell you much. There was another guy, he's gone, now. He was probably better at the whole 'deduce the plan from the sand on the villain's shoe' thing."
Looking around, Manmirror sighs and stops being as reflective. His steps a little lighter, he nods to Darien. "I'm sorry the big one bit you, I shoulda been there. You need anything, you let me know, ok?"

The FBI agent says "Is there some way we can contact you, should something come up that might require your particular set of skills?"

You see Nina running up with camera man in tow, Devilgirl was returning to you, but sees her and decides to jet.

Darien simply walked up casually to the conversation between Detective Wong and Manmirror. He contemplated saying something in response to his last question but didn't know if it was his place to butt into the conversation or to imply that he had a quote-particular set of skills-unquote. So he simply stood by with his hands in his pockets and a slight smirk on his face.

Manmirror gives the FBI agent a pained look, then smiles and starts speaking with a faux-sophisticated accent (which he does badly) "I'm betwixt positions at the moment, sir, and the resultant financial state has severely impacted my access to modern conveniences."
Shrugging, he translates, "I got no cell, right now. When I get something, I'll call you on the number on your card and let you know."

The FBI agent says to Manmirror "Keep in touch, we ah... might... be able to put you on retainer as a consultant."

Reporter Nina Garza approaches Manmirror shoving a mic at his face smiling "Are you another of the new super-beings that's recently appeared?  What's can we call you?  What are your plans?  Do you have anything you want to say to the viewers?"

The FBI take the opportunity to split with the tied up snake-people while she's talking to Manmirror
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:55, Tue 07 Nov 2017.

Manmirror regards Nina Garza with a smile, and nods at her rapid-fire questions. He begins to answer thoughtfully, "I can't say anything about other new appearances, that's for sure. I can tell you that until recently I didn't know I COULD do these things, and once I found out there was no way I could just hide away and pretend things were out of my hands. You can call me Manmirror, and anytime... soon as I get a phone."
"I really don't have any specific plans, which I like to think of as flexibility, and not ambivalence. Now, I don't know who your viewers are, but if there's one thing I want to say to the kids out there, it would be 'stay in school', just as long as you possibly can."
"I didn't, kids, and if I weren't all shiny and metallic, I'ld just be another bum on the streetcorner your Mom would be tellin' you to stay away from."

Darien, not really wanting the spotlight but not wanting to pass up an opportunity, began making funny faces and hand gestures behind Manmirror. He stuck out his tongue and pulled at his eyelids. He put bunny ears behind the hero; this required that he jump a couple of times to reach the man's height. He waved and mouthed "Hi Mom!"

Nina says trying to ignore Darien "Thank you so much for your time Mr. Manmirror. You heard it here first on channel 9 news.  Stay in school kids!"

The camera man raises his eyebrows "Hey! I bet if you did a big brother type show with the other super-humans it'd be a hit!"

They then walk off the the barracade.  Emergency clean up crews start showing up to clean up the mess and get the road open.

(OOC: End scene - you can head to Schwarma king for a little to get to know each other better.)

Manmirror turns to Darien, and grins at him. "So? mouths the man of mirror, "you gonna be usin' the 'stay in school' line, too?"
Suddenly becoming more somber, Manmirror goes on, "it's actually pretty good advice, sometimes I wish I had taken it."
Looking around, and noting that no one else is in earshot, he says to Darien, "I think I'm going to go get some baklava at Schawarma King, beating on reptiles burns off a lot of calories. Besides maybe someone there can tell me why people are suddenly turning into snakes. I need to know more about what's going on. 'If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.' That's what I always say."

Darien shrugged. "I'm mostly home schooled anyway," he said truthfully. "How about if I told you why people were turning into snakes? See, Doctor Cobra was using his turn-people-into-snakes serum to build a gang of superpowered thugs that could do his bidding, like rob banks so that he could make more turn-people-into-snakes serum. Once the Doctor was removed from the picture by a few enterprising superheroes, a couple of minions decided to go freelance on their own, taking it recreationally and distributing the serum. I don't know if they had any long-term plans. The serum transformed their minds as well as their bodies."

He paused to make sure he caught it all.
"Close enough."

"Yeah, I'm hungry. Let's go."