A new day dawns in Bayview. It's a dingy sort of day, as the remnants of a fire in the Westlake Industrial Park are still spewing out smoke across the limited skyline. The still understrength Fire Department struggled through the night to contain a blaze that consumed an old warehouse.

Nonetheless, the city is starting to come awake with the new dawn. Schools, nearing the end of their year, are opening up. Buses have been running for hours above the streaking subway trains as people head to work for the day even while the night shifts return home. The sounds of traffic drift through the air, here and there pierced by the sounds of sirens and horns.

News websites are already publishing the news of the night, led by the Bayview Herald, and the Howlers Morning Show on KWLF the Wolf, 106.5 FM.

Headlines:

Fire in Westlake Destroys EcoBrick Warehouse
Crime Rate Up Another Three Per Cent
Mayor Hosts "New Light" Charity Dinner to Welcome New Heroes to Bayview
Gang Violence in The Bricks Escalates
Friend or Foe? Vigilante Justice On The Rise in Bayview

[OOC: Feel free to post in with your actions and activities for the morning. Assume that if you have been active at all in the city in a public way, you are invited to the Charity Dinner. The time is approximately 7am. Overcharge may well have helped the fire dept with the fire the previous night.]

It was odd for Overcharge, considering that he had basically become a living, glorified toaster, but he liked taking showers these days. At least, after he had discharged some electrical buildup. He learned quickly not to put it into things in his house, though - it tended to shoot the meter up and artificially inflate his electrical bill, something he had been working on getting down when he could.

He had just gotten up, and his sheets needed to go in the wash, but after he took a shower. He had just gone to bed, soot and all. This was exhausting.

His every instinct told him he needed to get a job, but honestly, nothing had appealed to him. Besides, with the loss of half the world, it needed every icon of hope it could get, and who was he going to help cleaning floors?

Supply lines the world over had been disrupted, and half of the food everywhere had been destroyed in the Snap, so everything had become more expensive for the past few years. He was one of the lucky ones. He had enough, for now.

"The Snap." There were a bunch of stories about where that name had come from, but it was what it was called. Just... "snap"... and half of his co-workers had just vanished into thin air.

He simply went through the motions of preparing his day. Another day. So many empty rooms. The streets were not what they used to be. Everything was... somehow quieter, although maybe that was Bayview, but Brooklyn had become a muted shadow of itself after the Snap.

He barely noticed as he cooked his food - eggs, scrambled. At least his powers didn't build up when he was out for the night. He didn't even use the stove - he was enjoying testing his powers. It distracted his mind from the bigger picture.

She groaned as she woke, her phone beeping incessantly, and covered her head with her pillow only to give up with an angry sigh.   Sitting, she flicked the screen to stop it.  A moment of silence.  Then she stood and stretched, her midriff showing beneath pink flannel PJs.

"Good morning sleepyhead."  The mirror didn't answer so she grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom pausing along the way to knock on her adopted brother's door.  "Wake wakey."  She really had no intention of opening the door and entering despite wanting to help him out as the room was more cesspit than living area - but she was trying to 'make friends' despite his obvious dislike.

A shower later she left the bathroom with Tom having only banged on the door a couple of times and headed back to her room where she propped up her phone and set it to streaming the news while she dressed.  It still felt eternally odd not to be dressing in a school uniform but when in Rome... except really, London was Rome in pretty much every sense... Bayview... well, Bayview was just entirely foreign and not for the first time she longed to be home with her parents....

She pursed her lips, shook her head as if to shake away the memories, and headed out downstairs to grab a slice of toast and some orange juice for breakfast, a small packed lunch prepared by her Aunt Jillian (who was already at work) and then made for the bus.  Another long day at school though there was one glimmer of excitement today!

She'd been given an invitation to the Charity Dinner.   Should she go?   It was a risk but... it was for charity after all.  Then again, what did she actually have to offer to charity?  Nothing.  But she guessed those joining the dinner would be paying for the pleasure so... maybe she did have a reason to go.   Airpods in, she kept to herself on the bus as it drove to the school.

Overcharge

As he sits down for breakfast, the morning news is starting to come on. These days TV News is often behind the curve on getting the word out, what with internet click-bait and online-only news sources that never stopped, but a great many people still tuned in for the visual every morning and night. In some houses, 24 hour news channels still played nearly nonstop.

A perky blond behind a modern art deco news desk graces the screen, a backdrop of Bayview City Hall projected behind her, "We will come back to the story of the EcoBrick Fire at the top of the hour with the latest from the ongoing investigation. Now, however, we turn to the story of the day. The New Light Charity Dinner, hosted by Mayor Hiram Sinclair at the Bayview Metropolitan Banquet Hall is said to be booked solid with the elite of the city."

The view changes to one of the outside of the venue, a four story building of stately brick with broad windows showing the hint of a large, fancy lobby. "Mayor Sinclair has stated that the Charity Dinner will break all previous records of fund-raising in the city, and with the backing of Bayview's most prominent families, it is no doubt true."

An image of Mayor Sinclair is imposed over the facade of the Metropolitan Banquet Hall. "A spokesman for the Mayor's Office has confirmed that invitations have been given to heroes that have recently adopted Bayview as their own, and that the Mayor is confident that this 'New Light' will help bring an end to many of Bayview's most pressing problems."

The image of the Mayor suddenly becomes a video from the still that displayed before. The camera pulls out to show the Mayor addressing a press conference in the Press Room at City Hall. He looks gravely at the gathered reporters and speaks, "This city has long been a great gem on the coast of California. Despite the difficulties that have come our way in the last few years, I have confidence that we, as a city, can come together, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and rise to this challenge just as we have all others. The New Light Dinner is just another step on the way, bringing our new heroes face to face with the people that are ready to stand behind them and take back what is ours. It's time to take Bayview into the future once again, despite the pain of the past!"

As the video and the background images fade into the station's logo, the anchor begins speaking again, "Truly inspiring words from Mayor Sinclair. After the break, we will come back for a fascinating story on the plight of our furred friends in these trying times, as we go to Drake Tellers on location at Bayview North Humane Society. Stay tuned!"

The screen fades into a commercial break.



Saoirse

As different as school was here in California, it was in many ways just as different for the students that grew up here. With all the population loss after the Snap, this was actually the first year that the public schools here in Bayview were even open full time. A slew of online courses and partial days took up most of the slack initially, as schools found themselves without the staff (and sometimes without the students) to open full time.

The upshot was that bus rides for collecting students and taking them home were even longer than "Before". Fully a third of the schools in Bayview were still closed, and those that remained still weren't crowded. Classes were relatively small, and some of the high schools still couldn't field a full team in all the traditional high school sports, even with many students playing on several teams.

Saoirse's bus ride in the morning was one of the longer ones, as Bus 6 travelled a zig-zagging course to pick up as many students as possible for Bayview Central High. It was easy to zone out and lose a little track of time, even with the horseplay common among highschoolers that were still a little high strung in this uncertain world. Many of the teenagers were like Saoirse, tuning out or absorbed in a book or smartphone, and so many were caught off guard, slipping off the seat or slamming into the seat in front of them as the bus suddenly lurched to a halt.

With a hiss of air brakes and a short screech of tires, the yellow bus comes to a nearly violent halt, just missing a collision as a black SUV tears through the intersection just ahead of the bus, followed closely by the sirens of two screaming police cars. Just as the SUV clears the intersection, a black-clothed figure leans out a rear window and throws something towards the pursuing police, who narrowly avoid an explosion, right there in the middle of the 3rd Avenue and Tolsen Boulevard intersection.

As yells and short screams echo inside the bus, accompanied by one or two cries of pain, the bus driver looks over his shoulder, "Everybody stay down!"

Idling flicking through through pages she was certainly surprised by the sudden stop though she manages to stop herself from slamming head first with the back of seat in front.  The ensuing chaos both inside and outside the bus does however draw pretty much everyone's attention giving her a chance to... stay down.   Should she do something?  She wasn't ready!

And yet the explosion presented a very real danger to everyone.   She had to act....  She'd been practicing to do this in one but she wasn't feeling confident enough and so she cleared her mind and focused on being home.   Dropping her backpack, she dived for the cupboard and the box in which she kept her 'costume' only to hesitate.   I can do this!  In an instant the clothing she was wearing was replaced with the outfit in the box and her backpack... that got a little heavier as her school clothes appeared inside it - miraculously folded.

Grinning she turned turned her mind back to the car chase and selected a nearby building to hop to.  She needed to stop any more bombs being thrown and perhaps even deal with the men in the car.   First though, stop the chase.  The plan... if she could see a spot in the car that she could safely teleport to, she could then send the car and its occupants somewhere a little safer.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:06, Sun 20 June 2021.

Prodigy was from Kansas not California so she got up and ate what she had as a little girl, she had bacon and eggs with biscuits and gravy. It's what she grew up on and what she liked.

Her roommate was still asleep. Prodigy had of course be asked to the charity ball and had an invitation. She didn't have a plus one to bring though. Being a somewhat famous television person made love hard.

She decided she needed to get some shopping done this morning before the charity dinner. So she headed to the grocery store nice and early. Nothing to serious just better to get it out of the way and hey a girl had to eat, she hadn't found a way to avoid that or other bodily functions. Maybe someday.

Albertson's wasn't to far from her friends apartment where she'd been bumming since mustering out of service. She headed over there and picked up what any midwestern girl would want. She loaded up her cart with chicken wings, a whole chicken, pork short ribs, bbq sauce, macaroni and cheese, potatoes, eggs, bacon, biscuits, milk, and of course tea.

She had her wings folded down like Tony Stark used nanotech to hide his armor these days. Her wristbands were on and she was dressed in casual jeans and a USAF shirt. She had a MAGA hat on.

Overcharge realized he must have left the TV on the prior night. Things were quiet here - he liked the noise. He decided not to turn the TV off yet.

He finished eating. He barely tasted it. This was not a pleasant life for him, but he'd do his best.

There weren't enough people left for him to say no.

He shook his head at the news, turned off the TV, and put on a light jacket. He had become strangely more sensitive to the cold. Probably because he didn't feel any fire short of nuclear reactor as anything but room temperature.

As long as the calls weren't coming in, he could go for a relaxing walk at least.

Mercy


Sending her mental eye ahead, Mercy quickly locates the car chase. Now there is only one police vehicle following, and the chase has moved several blocks in the time it took her to return home and don her costume.

Mentally surging ahead of the racing vehicles, she quickly chooses the rooftop of a shopping center on the next corner, and pops into physical existence on top of an Albertsons Grocery Store. As the sounds and smells and the heat radiating from the rooftop even this early in the morning invade her other senses, the speeding SUV bounces into the parking lot, apparently intent on cutting the corner of the intersection. The police car in pursuit squeals tires in an attempt to brake and make the turn but fails and spins to a halt facing the wrong way just past the parking lot entrance.

Dodging a few of the scattered cars, the SUV makes a bee-line diagonally across the lot, making for another exit onto Henderson Ave. It's about 100 yards away from Mercy, an easy hop.



Overcharge

Overcharge is walking along Henderson Avenue and almost to the intersection with Tolson Boulevard. To his right is a shopping center clustered around an Albertsons. As he nears the entrance to the parking lot from Henderson, the sound of screeching tires and a police siren catch his attention and he sees a black SUV bouncing its way through the parking lot towards Henderson, while a police car spins out on Tolson behind it.


Prodigy

Prodigy is just exiting the store with groceries in hand, and sees the black SUV make a sharp turn into the parking lot as the police car chasing it fails to make the turn and spins out to a stop on Tolson.

A couple of pedestrians dodge out of the way as the SUV swerves around a few parked cars, heading diagonally across the parking lot towards the other entrance/exit leading on to Henderson Ave.

Watching the SUV and seeing it narrowly miss the pedestrians actually angers the young woman (even in her costume she still looks young!) but the anger mixes with her resolve and despite knowing that it is a risk, she focuses her mind and teleports herself into into the moving vehicle using the view through the front window (non-tinted so you can see out of course!)  to help her visualise the interior.   She appears in a flash of yellow light and a bit of a jolt as her lack of momentum collides with the moving car - but it hopefully goes unnoticed.  In that moment though she surveys the interior of the car and it occupants and readies to move the car and all 'somewhere else' for fear of the driver injuring someone - or indeed the passenger throwing something else dangerous out the window!  Her concern though is that she has no way of 'slowing things down' so she chooses the bay for which the Bayview is known and mentally encompassing the car and its occupants, wills the lot into the bay just off the coast.

Prodigy watched for a moment as she saw the chase emerging. She thought for a moment about taking out the wheels but it was to heavy for her disruption missiles and a stunning missile would have no effect on it either as it was not organic.

That left her wings. She could slash the tires with them. That might cause loss of control of the vehicle though and could endanger more people. She didn't want anyone to die. So that might mean no edged attacks, but if she didn't act then that might lead to deaths as well that was a quandary. Do something and someone could die, do nothing and someone could die.

She scanned the path of the SUV to check for anyone that might be in the path of the vehicle that might need assistance. If she spots anyone in the path she'll activate her wings and attempt to get them out of the path safely.

Overcharge's views were generally to frown upon driving away from the police. These things had a nasty habit of turning into fires he'd have to extinguish later. Best to put this one out now.

10:27, Today: Overcharge rolled 85 using 1d100.  Aiming for 71+; Fire Control to kill their engine.
18:13, Today: Overcharge rolled 53 using 1d100.  Aiming for 41+; round two Fire Control.

The powers he had were weird - for them, it was as much about being used, and that was it. They didn't care about what. He expected the engine to switch off, but he did try to prepare himself for the rash actions of people who noticed that a man put a palm towards them, and then their engine suddenly stalled out.

He moved for cover. He hadn't been in a live-fire situation yet.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:13, Tue 22 June 2021.

Mercy

With a moment's concentration, Mercy pops into existence in the cargo area of the SUV with a flash of yellow light. She slams into the rear hatch and falls on top of several medium sized bags. Ahead of her in the SUV are a driver and three passengers. Both of the (apparently) masked men in the rear passenger seats turn at her sudden appearance, even as the vehicle swerves as the driver jerks the wheel in surprise at the sudden thumping noise from the rear of the vehicle. A loud screeching, grinding noise fills the air inside as the SUV sideswipes a parked pickup truck.

Of the two men in the back seat, one seems completely shocked for the moment, while the other almost calmly raises his silenced pistol and fires a shot at Mercy, almost as if he was expecting her. The barrel looms large as it points directly at her face. As he pulls the trigger, the sound of the shot, though lessened by the suppressor, is still loud in the confines of the SUV. The bullet clips the side of Mercy's head, and proceeds to shatter the rear window behind her.


As Mercy falls back, stunned but barely hurt by the shot which didn't even crack her skull, a trickle of blood running down the side of her face, the engine dies. The driver curses and wrestles with the wheel that is suddenly devoid of power steering.

Prodigy

At first it doesn't seem that anyone is in immediate danger from the vehicle, which is moving too fast for a parking lot but seems in control. However, in quick succession there is a flash of light in the rear of the vehicle that can be seen even through the darkened tint, and the SUV swerves into a parked truck, then away, almost directly at a small child, who, as children do, has just started skipping away from his mother towards their own parked car.

Since she was looking for just this issue, Prodigy leaps into action, surging into the air as her wings spring into existence from the middle of her back, her groceries laying forgotten on the ground in front of the store.


As she flies towards the boy, Prodigy's ears pick up that the sound of the engine has stopped, just after the sound of a muffled shot and breaking glass comes from the SUV itself.


Overcharge

Overcharge reaches out with his control over fire and manages to kill the internal combustion in the engine of the approaching SUV just after it swerves and scrapes along the side of a parked truck. Even as he moves to take position behind a sign, he notices a few things.

First, a small boy is skipping away from his mother towards another car, even as she calls out to him in fear and desperation. As the SUV has righted itself even as the engine dies, it's now headed straight for the child. The Driver can be seen through the windshield struggling with the wheel after losing the power steering that normally makes maneuvering such a big vehicle relatively easy.

Almost simultaneously, a muffled gunshot can be heard, followed by the sound of shattering glass.

Prodigy is wanting to save the boy and drops her groceries on the pavement. She winces a bit as eggs crack but it's not like she doesn't have enough money to buy another carton or replace the groceries.

She puts all her focus into getting to the boy. She is flying over him and puts her hand down grabbing his arm and lifting him into the air, "Hold On!" she tells the child as she flies him up and out of harms way. She'd return him to his mother soon as she could but for now she needed to get him to safety.

The boy first screamed not knowing what was going on but then as he lifted off the ground reached his other hand up and tried to hold tight to Prodigy as she was lifting him off the ground.

Given that Overchange had little information beyond the gunshot, he went for cover. He wasn't quite sure where the shot was coming from yet, but he'd figure it out soon enough.

Hopefully before he was shot.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:16, Mon 28 June 2021.