"We all have to start where we are," Kevin told them.  "Being able to take care of yourselves in dangerous or at least stressful situations without resorting to super-powers is going to be something we all need to be able to do."

"So, yes, one thing I'd like you both to work on is gaining competence in ranged combat, especially you, Lois, because you have a flat-out lethal power," Kevin continued.  "Guns give you other options.  Especially guns modified to shoot non-lethal rounds like rubber bullets or knockout darts."

"The short answer on D'Spayre is that yes, you can expect to encounter him, most likely at a time and place of his choosing.  He's powerful and right at the moment we don't exactly have a reliably effective weapon against him.  Though we are working on it," Kevin informed them.  "That said, one of D'spayre's alter egos was a drug dealer calling himself Belial.  His drug of choice was DMZ, Demonz on the street.  It gives its users high strength, near-immunity to pain and low impulse control.  And sometimes it gives them superpowers for a time.  The principal component of DMZ was genetic material from certain people, usually Super.  The donors of this material did not survive the process.  You're both Supers, so Belial would have come for you eventually, and you'd likely have been alone against him.  At least this way you're with a team of other who can watch your backs."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:35, Mon 29 Apr 2019.

"Anyway, we've talked a little about the Shooting Range," he told them. "What say we go check it out?"

OOC: Assuming the others agree then =======> Shooting Range.

Although hearing about D’sprayre was grim, she was glad to have the benefit of a warning.

“Right now?  I... guess that’s ok.  Are you coming Dee Dee?”

Lois sounded a little dubious as to the non lethality of guns.  But she followed along anyway.

>> shooting range

"Yeah, I'll come along. I brought up the whole shooting thing, I might as well see it through."

She smiled.

"Besides, it's either learn to use a gun, or I go skunk..."

--> To the Shooting Range!

----> From Hangar meeting

Striding into the room, Bloodrager looked left and right, checking for possible monsters or people. Going from table to table, the big man bent over and checked underneath each of them for possible items hidden, before stopping at the pool table and reaching into the pockets withdrawing balls that he laid out randomly on top of the soft, green surface. The white cue ball he just tossed back into a side pocket; it was the others that he wanted to work with.

All right. He crouched next to the table, sidling from side to side, looking at the balls from different angles. He still couldn't read the numbers at all.

>> from Hangar meeting

Lois entered the room sometime later and went about turning on the TV, just to see if the casino had made the news... and what was being said about it.  She kept the volume low enough so that it didn't drown out conversations.

She also kept an eye on Bloodrager's 'pool' activities.  Lois really didn't know him and thought about remedying that.  She just wasn't sure what to talk about.  For now she just sat down and bled away the tension of their previous mission.

Sword of Cup looked up, hearing the TV softly. He hadn't noticed Lois come in. Oh well. "Hello," the red-skinned man said politely, and stood upright leaning on the edge of the pool table with both hands, peering at the TV to see what Lois might be scrying.

"Hi... I was just watching the news, to see what they were saying about the Casino fight.  Your codename is Bloodrager, right?  I'm Lois... but out in the field you can call me Mortis."

She talked to Bloodrager over her shoulder, keeping half an eye on the news at the same time.  When Lois watched the news, she tended to look for the omissions or the 'spin'.

There was a short blurb that appeared on the TV.
This is Laurie Shank for Channel 3 New York News, The Shamrock casino completely destroyed. Gang war was cut short when a group of yet unidentified powered persons interfere in a Molotov attack, Most of the crowd claimed the group was helping a few said they were in collaboration and helped destroy the Casino.
more on this at 11:00 pm

"This unit is designated Sword of Cup. Codename Bloodrager, ja," the big, red man agreed, paying attention to both Lois and the television.

Lois found the news report fairly standard... and neutral in its judgement of the situation.  The only thing of interest was the casino being 'destroyed'.  It had been damaged, but not wiped off the map when the Taskforce had withdrawn.  Had the Maggia or someone else done that to cover up their secrets (and/or claim the insurance money)?  Lois muted the TV afterwards and turned her seat around so she could chat with Bloodrager.

"Can I call you Sword for short?  From what I've heard and seen of you... you heal people with physical blows.  How does that work when you are fighting bad guys?  Can you turn the ability off and on, as needed?"

He nodded. "'Sword' fine is. William Naslund often calling me that private times. Is not confusing here; no other Blood Red Swordsman unit present."

He seemed to have to think a bit to answer the next part of her question. His ring flickered, brightening considerably before he spoke. "No. Sword of Cup cannot turn graces off. Only Heart of Heart able that doing can. Is not healthy done often. This unit's sword grace is... backwards. Inverting. Other units, sword grace is measure of can done harm others to. Sword of Cup unit heals with violence instead of harmed, but recovering mana from suffering inflicted others by he upon."

The ring dimmed again, and the big man visibly winced, rolling his eyes. ""Sorry, Lois. Heart of Heart did not seem understand your question good. He forgot answering part about bad guys. I mostly rage against teammates in party, healing them when needed. Or innocent bystanders. Against undead or demons, my blade can injure, but am useless trying hurting normal, living folk."

Following Bloodrager's logic was tricky, but Lois felt like she understood the gist of it.

"As someone who can hurt people, I envy your healing gift.  Instead I have to limit my abilities.  I don't suppose you could help a dying person?"

While she finished with a wry sounding question, part of her was serious.  If Lois dealt a killing blow, having someone like Bloodrager could undo her sin.

"So... are you happy here?  I don't know where you come from, but you seem... misplaced."

He looked puzzled, glancing left and right as if thinking the 'dying person' was here in the room with them but he couldn't spot them. "Can try. Some things I no healing good. Only first level, so not managing spells cure poison or cure disease yet."

He pondered her second question. "Happier than was with other units, ja. But... happy overall? Not sure. I wish knew more about past, about home and family. Before I was Sword of Cup."

"With William's resources and contacts, maybe he could set you up with a mind doctor?"

Lois could have said more about how she'd feel having partial amnesia, but it didn't seem helpful to add.  So she stuck to just offering suggestions.

"Have you considered taking on a civilian identity?"

"I second the civilian identity suggestion," Spider-Man says as he gave a wave before approaching the two. "Hey you two, what's going on here?" He asked, happening to enter right as he heard the last sentence from Mortis.

"Oh, Hi Spiderman.  We were just talking about power stuff.  Should I leave you boys alone?"

She had the distinct feeling that maybe some of her suggestions to Bloodrager hadn't gone down well.  But if Lois gave him some space, perhaps that would be for the best.

Deedee darted into the room, a tawny bundle of fuzz of a cat, who skidded to a stop and morphed back into the blond girl. She stayed lying on the floor, licking the back of her hand and smoothing her hair down.

"Secret identities? That would be fun if it worked, wouldn't it?"

She gave a slow blink, very cat-like, before rolling onto her back and stretching in a rather eye-popping (and back popping) way.

Kevin arrived outside of the Rec Room just in time to hear Darwin's last comment.  "Fun, maybe, but part of it's about keeping loved ones safe and the other part's about just staying sane.  Would you really, truly want to be a person who got followed into the bathroom by people desperate for you to sign an autograph to them?"

"If they didn't work, then I wouldn't be running around in tights right now," Spider-Man says simply. "You think I wear this costume full time? I don't even have pockets in this thing." He then answered back to Mortis, "I think it's more up to him than me, I just got here."

The big, red-skinned man was confused. Civilian? He was a barbarian, cleric, Russian... not a soldier or knight. And what did the others mean by identity in this case? He wasn't at all certain that he was understanding.

"Am confusing, Lois. Explained what meaning 'identity' is?" he finally said, looking bewildered.

Deedee rolled to a sitting position and simply nodded.

"I'm just saying. I could identify any one of you right now no matter what you were wearing. I may not know full names or the like, but it's no secret who you are."

She half shrugged, then laced her fingers together and stretched her arms out until her shoulders cracked.

"Well, duh," Kevin replied to Darwin.  "You turn into a bloodhound, give us a sniff and if you sniff somebody in civvies that smells like us, you know who that is."

Looking to Bloodrager Kevin said, "Okay, you say that you're the Russian.  What is the Russian's name?  I'm Kevin."

He pointed at Darwin.  "That's Deedee."

"And she's Lois," Kevin said, indicating Mortis.

"I dunno who he is, 'cause he's being anal about the whole secret identity thing and I haven't bothered to track him down and find out for myself," Kevin stated as he indicated Spider Man.

"So, what is your name.  Not your class like Cleric Barbarian, or your job, which I guess is Blood Red Swordsman, but your name.  What's your name?" he asked Bloodrager.

Bedrooms --------->

Alison appeared in the doorway, waving 'hello' to the assemblage, but saying nothing as there was a conversation in progress.

Her hair was done up in a scarf. She wore a pair of denim cutoffs, and an aqua colored tanktop with the caption 'Parental Advisory: Explicit Content'.

In reply to Darkstar (msg # 42):

"Name? Name?" The big man sounded confused the first time, then very sad as he repeated it and continued. "Not know. This unit is designated Sword of Cup. What was human designation? Not knowing. Other units called me 'Russkie' when was their servant before, but know that not my own designation was."