Soon you arrive downtown, by the Martin building. Grendel was waiting for you, leaning against the wall.

"What's up, dude?" said Nonstop.  "Ready to knock around town a little?"

"You know it," Grendel said.

"Let's do this!" said Jake.  He went for the rooftops-- Grendel could keep up with his jumps well enough, and they were a better vantage point than the streets.

Grendell followed, landing heavy on occasion, but it seems that buildings downtown were built with superheroes in mind.

(OOC: Three perception rolls.)

22:17, Today: Nonstop rolled 28,15,26 using d20+10,d20+10,d20+10 ((18,5,16)).
With soooo many super-senses.

You spot a bolt of energy come screaming out at you in time you can easily get out of the way before there's an explosion in the nearby Robert Smith Park.

Nonstop whirled to look for the source.

It came from to the side of you and above you. There was a person with large wings, holding their hand out towards you.

"Jesus, that was something," Grendel said.

"Yeah, bad aim is what that was," said Nonstop.  "I'm gonna see if I can get up there and pull them down to our level."

He got ready to jump--

Init 13

(OOC: Bad roll for villain - Go)

Had to use Luck to get a 26; Damage 10 plus Str 10 Grab.

The attacker was able to avoid your attack, but you managed to grapple hold of them.

"Get off me, you damn Blood Knight!"

"Here I come!" Grendel shouted as he came jumping in and punching the figure, which glanced off, but clearly did some damage.

"Blood Knight?  Did I hit you too hard?" said Nonstop.  "I'm Nonstop, and you're the one blowing things up!"

...but he didn't try and strike again.  He could, easily, but he needed answers.

"Than don't interfere while we wipe them out!" the winger person said.

(OOC: Blood Knights are a local meta-gang)

"Oh, like I'm going to ignore a gang fight where you're blowing up the local park," said Nonstop, now applying pressure in the hold.

The woman let out a cry as she couldn't get out of your hold.

"Gonna need some help down here," you can hear Grendel shout.

"...fine," said Nonstop.  He let go of the woman and went to help his teammate.

The woman ignored you and swooped down to the park and attacked the Blood Knights there.

You can see Grendel being attacked by a swarm of several small figures.

Nonstop sprinted over and unleashed a sonic blast!

Damage 10 Cone

You blasted a few of them off and Grendel was able to grab hold of them and toss them off of him.

"He's up," one of the Blood Knights said, shooting some lightening at you, barely missing.

"Getting sick of you guys," said Nonstop, and he unleashed another sonic blast.  They knew he could do that now, but eh, he was going to have to reveal more of his powers sooner or later.

You sent your attacker flying, soon followed by the rest of the small ones that were attacking Grendel.

"Man, they sure are pains in the ass," he said.

"You'd think they'd learn," said Nonstop, checking around for any more enemies.  And he tried to remember what he knew about these Blood Knight jerks, anyway...

(OOC: The Blood Knights are a meta-gang. Mostly low powered ones. The other group must be the 88 Kings, named after a meta-riot that happened in downtown San Pedro in 1988 and rivals of the Blood Kings)

There were some others fighting, but they were fighting each other and not currently paying attention to you and Grendel.

"So we can't really let this go on," said Nonstop.  "Rude of them to be fighting like this.  Ready for some more action?"

Grendel cracked his knuckles and then his neck.

"I bet I can take out more than you."

"You're on," said Nonstop, and he went in, leading with sonic blasts to soften his enemies up.

(OOC: Some rolls please.)

22:39, Today: Nonstop rolled 25,23,25,13,11

You managed to take down three of them, while it seems Grendel was keeping pace.

"You're going down!" one of the thugs shouted as he charged into punch you, and missed wildly.

"Possibly, but not at your hands," said Nonstop, lashing out with a kick that would have done an ostrich proud.

More attacks: 17:44, Today: Nonstop rolled 25,26,22

You knocked that thug away and soon were taking down more. The fight was over.

"Ha! I got five," Grendel said.

(OOC: You win with six.)

"Six," said Nonstop.  "But it was close."

He looked around for the flying woman.  Was she one of the factions here?  What was all this about?

After some searching, you find the woman unconscious against a tree.

Was she wearing the colors of a faction?  Jake wished, right now, that he was more up on the gangs of the city.

The woman was wearing the colours of the 88 Kings. You can hear the sounds of approaching police cars, sirens wailing.

"I guess that's that," said Nonstop.  "We ought to let the cops know how this went down."

"They'll be here in a couple seconds," Grendel said as the police cars pulled up. "See?"

Nonstop waited for the police.

Soon the cops are there.

"Okay, report what's going on," a detective that came up to you said.

"Gang fight," said Nonstop, and he quickly went over the details.

The cops went about arresting the gang members.

"Well, this has been a fun night," Grendel said.

"Yep," said Nonstop.  "Of course, I finally meet a girl, and she's flying around blowing things up.  Kind of an awkward meet-cute, there."

Grendel laughed and gave you a slap one the back.

"Poor guy."

"Ah, well," said Nonstop.  "I do wonder why she yelled at me, though.  Did she think I was a member of her gang?"

"Maybe she thought you were a member of the other gang? Who knows," Grendel said.

"Yeah, that's weird," said Jake.  "Well, let's see what else is going on."

The rest of the patrol was pretty calm.

"Okay," said Jake.  "I guess we're calling it a night?"

"Sure, ya wanna grab a drink or something first?" Grendel asked.

"Might as well," said Nonstop.  "Got a place in mind?"

"There's an all-night cafe not far from here," Grendel said.

"Sure, let's do it!" said Nonstop.

"This way," Grendel said, taking off in a massive leap.

Nonstop jumped after him.

Grendel leads you into a small greasy spoon diner that's pretty much empty at this hour.

"Hey, ladies, I'm back" Grendel said as he took a seat at the counter.

The middle age waitress at the counter chuckled and came over.

"What'll you two have?"

"Coffee," said Nonstop.  "Black."

It was all about the smell, really.

"I'll take some orange juice," Grendel said.

The waitress nodded and quickly came back.

"Thanks," said Nonstop, and he blew on the coffee before drinking it.

"So how are you holding up, man?" he asked Grendel.  His teammate's life was kinda rough, if you thought about it.

"Eh, it's not too bad," Grendel said. "You know, for having to be 'out' like this."

"Yeah, that's rough," said Nonstop, sympathetically.  "You might be able to trade on it, though-- be a public figure, become popular, get merchandising, that kind of thing."

"Eh, that's probably for the good-looking ones," Grendel said.

"Nah, nah," said Nonstop.  "You're big and distinctive!  You'll sell a million of 'em.  Just make sure you get a lawyer working on the contracts."

Grendel laughed.

"We'll see, we'll see."

"Hey, at least you can get some t-shirts," said Nonstop.  "And you should.  If you launch the official ones, you can get some of the money everyone else will make off your merch."

"Wait. People are making merch of me without permission?" Grendel asked.

"I'm not actually sure if they are yet," said Nonstop.  "But they will, y'know.  Sooner or later."

He went to check his phone to see if they already were...

There was someone selling stuffed Grendels on Etsy.

"Okay, not too bad yet," said Nonstop.  "But you should seriously look into an agent or something.  I know... another hero who did a lot with that."

"Oh? Who?" Grendel asked.

"...someone I usually don't talk about," said Nonstop.  "Uh, I'm thinking of John Stanley.  The Jungle King."

"Ah, okay," Grendel said. "I dunno, I don't want to go too crazy."

"You don't have to," said Nonstop.  "Just, y'know, think about it.  You look like you look.  You might be able to turn that into an asset."

"Sure," Grendel said, paying for the drinks. "Probably should rap it up, I have a math test coming up."

"All right," said Nonstop.  "See you later, man."

And he headed home, but he took the scenic route.  Just because.

In an parking lot, a fire had suddenly broken out in a way that no fire could, engulfing cars in a sudden fireball!

"Someone had better get the fire department down here," Mingmei said into her phone as she ported to get a good look at what was happening.

What was happening was a laughing young man who appeared to be wielding a chain made of fire, striking it against the ground and cars to start fires all around him.

"You guys might want to signal that reporter. I got some nutcase I need to take down," Mingmei said as she teleported down to behind the guy.

Init

(OOC: Initiative - Red Fox rolled 16 using 1d20+10)

Go

Mingmei went in for a staff smash.

(OOC: Attack Roll - Red Fox rolled 16 using 1d20+15. Reroll - Red Fox rolled 30 using 1d20+15)

The figure rolled with the blow, and then laughed, tossing a gout of flame at Red!

25 Attack, Toughness Save 23

Mingmei managed to dodge the flame by the barest of margins, than planted her feet and swung as hard as she could.

(OOC: All-out Power Attack - Red Fox rolled 35 using 1d20+15. That is a crit as well.)

The flaming figure fell over backwards into a car, and lay still.

Was the figure still on fire? Was there a safe place she could grab him? Is the car now on fire?

Luckily, neither the car nor the figure were on fire now.

"What's the status on everything?" Mingmei asked her support team.

Treyvon had a solid place for her to go for the tournament; Leann had a costume finished.

"What about the fire department and the reporter?" Mingmei asked.

The sirens approaching answered the first question.  Apparently not much news about the second one.

Mingmei stuck around to make sure the firebug didn't cause any problems.

The situation appeared to be under control.

Was there any sign of that reporter?

...yep, there was Fred, now recording the fire department dealing with burning cars.

Mingmei teleported over to him.

"Hi!"

"Woah!" said Fred, jumping.

"Oh, it's you," he said, catching his breath.  "Sorry, you startled me.  So what's going on?"

"Oh. just some crazy pyro with fire powers and thought you might like the chance to get the scoop on it," Mingmei said.

"I am so there for that!" said Fred.  "There's been a bunch of these, too... do you know anything that you can tell me about them?"

"Not too much. I was just patrolling and found this guy setting cars on fire," Mingmei said.

"Is this one the first firebug you've met?" Fred asked.  "There have been others recently."

"Yeah, he was," Mingmei said. "That's pretty weird. I wonder why there's so many of them?"

"I don't know," said Fred.  "It's a real thing, though.  Also a bunch of people popping up with powers out of nowhere at a crazy rate."

"I have an investigation going that I'll let you know about when it's done," Mingmei said. "Look forward to that."

"I, and all my readers, will," said Fred.  "Keep us posted!"

"Anything else I can help you with?" Mingmei asked.

Fred started to say something and then apparently thought better of it.

"You're already amazing," he said.  "Keep that up."

"I'm going to head off, do you need a ride back home?" Mingmei asked.

"Well, sure!" said Fred.  "Thanks!"

Mingmei grabbed hold of him and began making a bunch of jumps back to Fred's apartment.