Blue Mask sat on a chair lightly, balanced on the balls of his feet.  He had to be old-- at least fifty or sixty-- but he appeared to be alert and energetic behind the fabled blue mask that gave him his name.  (No one knew who he really was, to this day.  He'd been believed to be dead, though, until he'd started discretely contacting people...)  He had a couple of duffel bags next to him, and had opened one of them.

"All right, kids," he said.  "I've been talking to each of you separately; now we're all together.  Things are going down tonight, and someone needs to be ready to act.  As you might have heard, the Power Company, who'd normally be protecting this area, are caught up in that crazy Hellgate business in Australia; the police can't handle this one.  Tonight, two different batches of thieves are going to be selling the Pschent of Montu and the Pectoral of Maahes to a buyer-- Diana Matarella.  The problem is that these are tremendously powerful artifacts, containing the power of ancient Egyptian war-gods, and if Diana gets her hands on both of them, she could probably take out half the city.  And she probably would, too."

A well-dressed young man nodded, and said, quietly, "Yes, she probably would."  He was slim, a bit short, but graceful.  He'd brought a gym bag as well.

"...So this is the kind of thing I've been recruiting all of you for," Blue Mask continued.  "I'd hoped to have more time to train you, have you work on team tactics, but this has all come to a head very quickly, and we've got about half an hour before the thieves arrive to the meet-up in that warehouse next to us.  We need to work out a plan, and move out in half  an hour.  You should probably talk to each other about who you are, and what you can do... and in case you're hesitating to do that, you all have the same thing in common.  You're all the children of crime-lords, supervillains, whatever.  And you're all here because you want to fix some of the harm your parents have done."

The young man who'd spoken didn't talk first, but he began to reach into his bag for something.

The two young women who were there were both extremely distinctive, unmistakable figures.  One was a brown-haired, small, slender teen with glasses; she had been using a tablet while Blue Mask talked, possibly taking notes.  She looked around at the others alertly, but it wasn't clear how she'd contribute-- she was in some kind of wheelchair that encased her lower limbs entirely, with odd, octagonal structures where the wheels ought to be.  She was dressed practically in some kind of grey, long-sleeved shirt.

The other was tall, with long, pale-blonde (almost white) hair and skin, and large red eyes.  She'd dressed in a short black dress with pink highlights, and was grinning.  There was no missing the large, black, bat-like wings on her back, however...

Lovebird raised her hand.

"What do these artifacts do? You kind of skipped over that part."

"Channel the power of Egyptian war-gods," Blue Mask answered.  "Stories are vague, but they bring great power, the ability to conquer, and a lot of destruction when they come together.  We need to keep them separate, and stop anyone from wearing them.  And bring them back here-- I've got some gear to keep them safe until we can return them.  Anything else?"

"Any idea what gods?" Duckling asked. "I know more about Horus and Thoth than I ever wanted to."

"Well, Montu and Maahes," said Blue Mask, a bit dryly.  "Anything else...?"

"Montu has a falcon's head," Duckling said. "For the record." Her body language clearly said "If I have to know this shit, so do the rest of you."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Wed 12 Feb 2020.

"Anyway, back to where you said to introduce ourselves," Lovebird said. "I'm Lovebird and I've got these nice colourful wings and I also use a bow and other weapons."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:22, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

"Ugly Duckling.  I've got these white wings, and my fists," Duckling said, holding up her right fist, which was wrapped in boxing tape and had a crude splint on the pinkie.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:21, Thu 13 Feb 2020.

"Uh, I guess I'm Arachne?" said the girl in the odd wheelchair.  "I'm very good with computers and technology, and I'm fairly mobile in this thing.  I'm not really much of a fighter, but I'm good at getting information, and hacking into security cameras, and I've got some drones, too..."

"Hi!" said the bat-winged girl.  "I'm Camille!  And I've got wings, too!  Isn't that awesome?  I've also got bats.  And some, um, kind of magic powers?  Lots of those have bats, too."

"Call me Reynard," said the young man.  "I don't have powers, nor do I possess advanced technology.  But I'm agile and strong, and very skilled-- a trained martial artist, an athlete, a spy, whatever we need...

"...so what do we need?  What's our plan?"

"With so many of us that can fly, we should be able to observe the deal and disrupt them when they go to make the exchange," Lovebird said.

"What should I do?" asked Reynard.  "I can't fly... if one of you brings me there, though, I can hide quite well.  Too well, I think..."

"Lookout?" Duckling suggested. "You can hoot like an owl if you see them coming."

"That hardly seems satisfactory," said Reynard.  "I want to be part of this, not waiting on the sidelines."

"I can keep watch more easily, anyway," said Arachne.  "I'm better at that then at being in the middle of a fight."

"Well, we're probably going to need to fight them anyway. I could swoop down and let you off when the fighting starts," lovebird said.

Reynard nodded.

"Better," he said.  "I think you'll find that I'll prove my worth in battle... and in what I know about the Matarella family."

"Anything you can share now?" Duckling said. "I'm a little vague on what exactly you do."

"Oh yes, please tell us," Lovebird said.

Reynard shrugged.

"I'm a martial artist," he said.  "I'm agile, a skilled combatant, stealthy, and I have some knowledge of the Maratella family's activities.  In this particular case, this is one member of the family going behind everyone else's backs, probably in an attempt to seize power."

"So, can we just all hide in the rafters and wait for them?" Duckling asked.

"I"d be fine with that," said Reynard.

"Are we good to go then?" Lovebird asked.

"I'm assuming that you want me to check cameras and all that?" asked Arachne.  "I can get up into the rafters, too.  Probably more easily than Reynard."

"I can carry him if we have to--I'm hella strong," Duckling said.

"...If we must," said Reynard.  "At least our foes won't be in the air."

"We can provide a good distraction for the rest of you," Lovebird said.

"So I think that I can probably help with that, too," said Camille.  "I mean, I can fly, send bats around, stuff like that.  That should be good for distractions."

"That does sound like it'd be," Lovebird said.

"So the fox and I go in swinging, the lovebird shoots, the bat distracts, and the spider is backup?" Duckling said.

"It seems that it will do," said Reynard.

"Good," said Blue Mask.  "Now, get ready.  We can't let them use this power.  We need to retrieve those objects..."

"Right," Lovebird said.

"On it," Duckling said.

The group returned to the warehouse they'd first met in.

"Are you here, Mr. Bluehead?" Lovebird called out.

The Blue Mask emerged.

"I am," he said.  "...that didn't go quite the way that I was expecting, but I will say that you did well adapting to the circumstances."

"Thank you," Lovebird said.

"No problem," Duckling said.

"...and, of course, the notion of safely sealing away the artifacts is now... well, I suppose that doesn't matter any more," said Blue Mask.  "I had no idea how dangerous they would turn out to be.  But you did well, regardless..."

"Yeah!  And now the city knows that there's a new hero team!" bounced Camille, grinning with a number of fangs in her smile.

"We're going to need a lot of things from here, like a base," Lovebird said.

"Preferably not another warehouse," Duckling added.

"Well, I have a lab," said Arachne.  "It's a bit crowded, though."

"I'd be okay with a warehouse," Lovebird said.

"...I might be able to arrange something," said Reynard.  "I'd need about twenty-four to forty-eight hours, though."

"That's fine. I have time," Lovebird said.

"All right," said Reynard.  "We need each other's contact information so that I can let you know when we're done, then."

"Is that okay? I mean, secret identity and all that," Lovebird said.

"I think we're going to need a certain amount of mutual trust, no matter what," said Arachne.

"I'm fine with that!" said Camille.  Then again, Camille couldn't really have a secret identity, could she?

"My phone isn't secure, since I got it from Fortuna," Duckling says. "Give me your numbers and I'll pick up a burner."

"Okay, I'll give out my number," Lovebird said.

The other three gave out theirs, as well.

"...All right," said Blue Mask.  "I'll meet you there as well.  We have a lot to plan."

"Okay, I suppose there'll be a lot to talk about," Lovebird said.

"Clearly," said Arachne.  "All right, you crazy winged people.  Try not to get in trouble before we get a base, all right?"

""Okay, see you later," Lovebird said.

"Later," Duckling said, although truthfully she wasn't sure where she'd be squatting until they had a headquarters.  Well, there seemed to be plenty of warehouses available.

The others scattered...