Start Ups Paragon

[Heroic Sociopath]

Spoiler

@Flaze, @Bad Apple, @Lyrebird, @Godzillawolf, @Swordie, @GliscorMan

It was 6 AM, the dawn of a beautiful morning in Freedom City. The rays of light reflected off the waves as the sun rose behind The Statue of Peace. Children woke up, ready for school, and the honest, working folk got up to go to their jobs. Also the sleazy, criminal element. In a mansion on Jeffry Isle, a pair of men spoke, fine tuning a great machine. It was shaped like a small cone, topped with a glass sphere.

"So this should let us get back our Elixir?" The rotund man said, inside his Jeffry island mansion.

"Yep. Y'know, we don't get many mafia dons asking for us." The scientist said. "...Speaking of, how are you going to get the other half of the money? This thing wasn't cheap, y'know."

In Harveysburg, shots rang out.

"Alright, hand over the money." A man with paper white skin, his face stretched into an unnaturally wide grin said, pointing a submachine gun at the clerk. "Be a good little girl and you get to live a few seconds longer, alright?" Mr. Grin said.

 

[Lyrebird]

It was a bright morning as a young woman with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes sat in her office. "Another morning. Another day of work." She looked at her diary and sighed "I have to wonder why I'm a CEO." She smiled to herself. Elizabeth Price is the daughter of a businessman who built a business based on financial investments and risks where Elizabeth inherited.

"No calls for me as well." Betty as she liked to be called looked at her messages until her phone started to buzz. "Hmmm" Betty smiled as she read the text. It was from her friend Bradley who worked in the police force. Betty and Brad have been great friends since college and are very close to each other. The text was about how's the morning and what's she was doing. Betty replied with her being at work.

Betty started to get through some work as fast as she could because nothing was happening. "I wonder what is happening outside" she smiled "I could travel like super fast there to help out people but I should be working otherwise dad will kill me"

 

[Godzillawolf]

A motorcycle set parked next to a bench in Roman Park, its own merely laying in the bench next to it reading the paper, his dress like something you'd find in a cowboy film. He flipped through the pages, looking for the latest news he could find. "So far it seems that North Loreto is where much of the city's crime is concentrated..." he stated, looking through it. "But its also the most northward...New Convent to the south is a nice place, but opposite of Loreto...if I stayed in either place, then I'd be unable to make it to a crime happening elsewhere..." he admitted, giving a sigh. He reached over and turned on a radio he carried around and turned on the news to see if anything was happening at the time.

---

A rather sizable warehouse set in North Loreto, far from the sea. A man set in a bed of coals, the fire seeming to lap over his skin. Occasionally, he'd take a deep breath and inhale the flames into his lungs, at which point his eyes glowed bright red. He looked at a monitor not far from him where some Yakuza thugs were working on the finishing touches of his latest plan. News of the bank attack reached him, but he didn't particularly care. 'The mafia can do as it pleases, so long as it leaves me be,' he thought. 'For now.'

He rose up and looked down at the floor in front of him. He sent out a stream of flames from his hands which condensed into a dark red being that resembled a ninja in its appearance. The creature was merely a puppet under his control with no will of its own. He didn't control its every move (that would be impractical), but it could do nothing but what he'd already programmed it to accomplish. "Go, you know your orders." he commanded. The Yakuza members putting a dark colored suit on the construct so it would be less conspicuous before it headed out towards Harveysburg.

OOC: Just to note, this creation is basically one of his mass produced mooks, so tougher than an average human, but can be taken out with little fuss.

 

[GliscorMan]

Treme woke to the horrendous sound of his alarm clock. The only reason that he refrained from smashing it into pieces with his arm blades was that he needed to get up and get ready for his contract. Well, that and the fact that it was hotel property. Treme slipped some clothing on over his slick, furry body, and began to prep his sniper rifle.

The contract was simple. A medium-sized, but substantial amount of money had been offered to him, if he stopped a robbery. The catch? The culprit must not be killed, and Treme couldn't be spotted. The exact time and place of the robbery had been given to him. All he had to do was disrupt it.

Treme cracked open a window, and looked down into the streets. As promised, there were signs of a robbery at the bank. People were panicking, but the police had yet to show up. It looked something like a Mafia gig, but that wasn't his problem.

Slowly, Treme took aim at the bank's normally-bulletproof windows. They'd be no match for high-power, military-grade bullets at this range. Smashing out the windows would cause quite a bit of excitement inside. Just what he needed to interrupt things. The contract didn't specify whether or not Mr. Grin could be captured by the authorities. However, it probably wouldn't matter.

The platypus-man let out a slow breath, and squeezed the trigger.

 

[Swordie]

Cadence, who had just woken up on a park bench, stretched out. She was in her ordinary clothes thankfully - She hadn't passed out as a Paragon without noticing, which was always nice. What, unfortunately, was less nice, was her inability to recall... Well, anything from the night before, which was worrying, although Cadence merely assumed that she'd been out drinking her money away again. Time to go, she guessed - She couldn't stay here forever, even if she rather wanted to. Besides, she had to at least attempt to have a normal life - To distract herself from her 'Orpheus' alias, and the awful 'rescues' she'd attempted. Well, at least, if anyone asked, she could cut things up into little pieces.

So, step one in her 'normal life' routine - Go to the bank to get some of her rapidly dwindling funds to buy food - She assumed there was nothing at home because, well, because she'd been lying unconscious on a bench...

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

"Oh, fuck me." Mr. Grin said, as the windows exploded. Many of the people inside screamed in terror. Mr. Grin gunned a few of them down, and that quiteed thigns instantly. He grabbed the clerk, and turned towards his assailant.

"Aw, hell no. Is the furry convention in town already? I have nothing against you people, but when you dress up as animal...People...Things, it's just creepy." Mr. Grin said, the unnaturally large smile not fading from his face once. "And now you're getting in the way of my work. Listen, bud. Leave now and the dame doesn't die, capiche?" Mr. Grin said. The girl whimpered as the capo pressed a knife to her neck, just barely scratching it.

 

[Godzillawolf]

Norio jumped up hearing the a news report of gunfire at a bank in Harveysburg, possible robbery in progress.

"Time to get to work," said Norio, putting his hat on and jumping on Stormchaser, taking off towards that section of the city. He put a hand to the thunderbird emblem on his belt buckle, openning the wings slightly, causing it to spark with electricity. "Awaken Spirit of the Thunderbird," he stated, wind and lightning crackling about him and Stormchaser, transforming him into a grey and brown armored being with gold highlights on the chest, arms, shoulders, and mouthguard, a red bandana around his neck, his hat still on his head as blue glowing eyes peered out and he sped towards Harveysburg.

 

[Lyrebird]

Betty was still stuck at work until she turned on the TV. She was not really surprised about another robbery at a bank. Actually it just seemed normal but she relished the action to help society and help everyone without anyone getting killed. Betty couldn't get out of work even though her phone was going off the rails. The blonde figured that giving a call to her friend Brad who worked at the police force, could be helpful. Betty texted him about the situation. However the only reply she got back was that he was not on the case because there are other cases that got him stuck.

"Well I know there are people with powers." Betty muttered to herself. "Let's hope they don't kill anyone or anyone gets killed." There was a knock on the door of her office. It was Betty's secretary. "Miss Price. The shareholders from overseas are here." It was another meeting and Betty sighed as she walked in her office attire to the meeting room with her heels tapping on the wooden floor.

 

[Flaze]

Ringmaster smirked as he looked at the events going on at the bank from a top a nearby building. He scratched his chin curiously and scanned the situation right while nodding his had. "Looks like a good show is about to start," he pointed out simply as he stood up and created a small round creature that stood at the tip of his index finger. "Go be my eyes Bug," he stated as the small sized creature bounced off and vanished, only for it to reappear inside of the bank and hide itself among some of the desks. "If only I had popcorn." he sighed.

"Som bring your child to work day this turned out to be," Elle Rivers groaned as she laid down on the floor with the rest of the hostages. Her school had organized a day for students to visit their parents at work, unfortunately her dad had the idea of going to the bank before the two went to his firm and things just went downhill from there. She looked on as she saw some man get into the building while the man with the gun went onto say some stupid things she couldn't figure out. She however was able to tell the fact that these two were Paragons. "Figures I don't have my suit with me," she gritted her teeth slightly, she could use and invisibility seal but then how would she explain to her dad. "There must be something in my list that I can use."

 

[Swordie]

"Oh for God's sake!" Cadence practically shouted this, and turned her face up to the heavens. It just had to have been this bank didn't it? The only bank she'd opened an account with. The only place that she trusted to protect her meager savings. Hopefully, she could just sneak off, and not hurt anyone with her power...

With this thought in mind, she looked around for any accomplices to the robber - When she failed to spot any, she began sidling slowly away, hoping to heaven that she hadn't been spotted.

 

[Flaze]

Elle noticed another one of the hostages beginning to sneak back before turning towards the robber, it's true that he was busy at the moment. With that in mind she turned to her dad who was on the other side of the room and began to sneak back. A seal began to appear on her right palm, causing her body to vanish slowly as she moved back.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

"No objections? Good, I guess I'll be taking all your cash then, 'kay?" Mr. Grin said. He dragged the clerk back through the halls, to the vault.

"Start opening." He said. His gun trained on her, he took out a phone.

"Yeah, I'mma need my getaway here in a few." He heard sirens from outside.

"I'll meet you guys out back, okay?" He said.

 

[GliscorMan]

The bullet hit its mark, shattering the glass into a flurry of glittering shrapnel. Treme grinned, there was no way anyone would stay inside that building, especially the robber. The contract was as good as done.

But apparently it wasn't, because this "Mr. Grin" didn't show his face outside.

Treme grumbled, then scampered out the hotel, down the stairwells, and through a back exit into an alleyway. He then navigated his way to the back entrance of the bank, and into the lobby. He snuck in, and around the counter to the vault. As he did so, he slung his sniper rifle over his back. He could see many of the hostages were trying to crawl away, so it looked like most of them had things they were worrying about. Other than him. So, Treme completely ignored them. He wasn't too worried about being seen. The cameras wouldn't pick him up, because he stayed within a close distance to them. His aura-like electric sense would interfere with them enough. As for the people, who would believe a scared, over-excited hostage when they said that they had seen a platypus run into the vault?

Treme ran down the stairs to the vault, his bare, furry feet making very little noise against the cold, hard tile of the bank floor. When he hit the bottom, he heard some noises from around the corner. He fumbled for the light switch, and turned the lights off, plunging the area into darkness. Treme readied his arm blades, ready for a possible battle.

 

[Lyrebird]

"Another robbery. Does it affect your company?" a man in a suit with thick glasses and a receding hairline spoke out loud in the boardroom. "I doesn't but surely heroes these days are being too overpowered and that killing mentality isn't the way to make the city better." Elizabeth replied. There were several of businessmen and businesswomen in the boardroom for a meeting. "The problem is that the police doesn't have the man power to actually fight these guys off. We are in a era like Kingdom Come where force is used more than actually helping society." Elizabeth continued to explain.

"I mean I feel that society actually puts these heroes that use lethal force, up on a pedestal."

"Except two." A businesswoman piped up. Elizabeth looked at her very interested in her views. "Yeah there are two of them. One of them runs super fast, female and the other one is male with brown hair and he doesn't have anyone powers. I forgot their names though" the businesswoman explained. "Swiftlet and Blue Bird." A voice answered the businesswoman.

"Why those two?" Elizabeth asked. "I know they have not destroyed anything and if they did somehow they pay society back. Still I don't really trust these superheroes that much. The objective is to make society better and we can't do that if we have heroes and villains killing people without any conscious." She looked at a folder. "You do have to realize why people call them heroes if they kill. There is no code there. This isn't Nottingham Forest or Metropolis, where morals dictate what's happening. I mean how much damage can this robbery cause?" Elizabeth slammed her hand on the table.

"Property damage, people losing their money. Their livelihoods gone because of some petty criminals. People getting killed, injured losing their will to continue their lives. Guys gets injured and can't come back to work? What does that do? It ruins lives" Elizabeth angrily brought her point across. "I mean I can blame the government but not the police force. Anyway my point is just look at your folders. We at Themyscira have developed an idea. So just look at your folders when you get back." She pointed at one of the folders. "It has a code. We will send you the code and you'll see the idea."

"That's it. Thank you all for attending this meeting and I look forward to seeing you at the Themyscira Gala" Elizabeth smiled as the meeting finished up.

 

[Flaze]

Ella stood at the end of the room she scanning the rest of the room as she saw the man that had snuck in walking towards the criminal. She had to do something to get the rest of the hostages out, however judging by the looks of this guy he didn't seem like the type of hero that would care too much. She needed to free the hostages in a safe manner but she couldn't use too many invisibility or teleporting seals without it being noticed. "My invisibility spell is only gonna last for a few more minutes though."

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

Mr. Grin, still carrying the woman, entered the room with the vault. He started looking for the light, fumbling along the walls.

"Why's this not lit?" He asked. Meanwhile, sirens blared outside. Cars parked in front, and a tall, portly officer stepped out.

"Alright, we've got the place surrounded! Everyone out with your hands up." The man said.

"Shit! It's the fuzz! Um..." Mr. Grin didn't really know what to do, so he started firing his gun at the ceiling. Shooting things usually helped him. He ignored the bit of ceiling hitting his head.

"To the roof! Of course! But first..." He took out a lighter and lit it, then looked to his side and saw a furry man. He turned to the clerk.

"...It seems your bank is infested with furry people. You should get the checked on."

 

[Naoto]

Hearing the gun shots, a strange boy with a squirrel tail ran down to the bank at an incredable speed. Seeing the hostage situation unfold with his highly observant eyes, he heard apart the phrase the robber uttered. "to the roof!" With stunning ease, the boy leapt up to a low fire escape, and ran up to catch the robber off guard. Finally reaching the roof, he awaited the robber.

 

[Okami]

Diana watched as everything happened on the roof from below and she wondered if she should do something about it. She was sort of tired but she did like to help when civilians were involved. Diana sighed and put her palms out for a second searching for some sand. She was pretty proud of her powers to control sand... even if it did seem kinda lame when she thought about it. A pile of gravel formed around her and she nodded pleasurably. "This should pack a punch if I have to hit someone in it." Diana liked pure sand but she could never really fine that. It was easier to control. She used the gravel to jump upward's onto the roof of the building. She saw the boy and was sort of put of by the fact that he had a tail, she cringed. "Um wow... I wow." Diana's gravel dropped around her but then she picked it back up again. "You wouldn't be the one causing this would you" she asked to the squirrel boy. Diana didn't really think he did any thing he just seemed odd.

Sarah walked the streets and with a huff she stopped. She was tired of walking and really she was just tired in general. She coughed and then walked back down the road she went down. Sarah wasn't even sure were she was going any more.

 

[GliscorMan]

((Just a quick OOC bit to say that everyone should really read each person's post carefully. A lot's been happening that doesn't quite make sense, due to people not reading carefully.))

In the darkness of the bank vault, Treme could easily tell where the robber was. Electrolocation had its perks. Then, there were gunshots. Our robber wasn't just a terrorist, he was apparently very trigger happy.

He had to make his move, and fast. Treme ran out from the corner, towards the target. When he was less than a few feet away, Mr. Grin pulled out a lighter, bathing the room in an eerie candlelight. He turned to face Treme, and muttered something. Then, the platypus-man leapt at the robber, arm-blades dripping debilitating venom.

If he could nick the foe with one of the blades, it would be easier to handle him. Much easier.

 

[Heroic Sociopath]

((Just a quick OOC bit to say that everyone should really read each person's post carefully. A lot's been happening that doesn't quite make sense, due to people not reading carefully.))

OOC: By this he means me. The rest of you folks are cool.

Mr. Grin responded as eloquently as one really can when a platypus man attacks you.

"Fuck." He said. If it weren't for his inhuman reflexes, he wouldn't be able to do anything. But instead, he jumped back, locking his arm once again around the clerk's neck, putting her between him and the monster.

"I'll kill you, freak!" Mr. Grin said, his perpetual grin twisted into the closest he could get to a snarl as he opened fire on Treme, his submachine gun making sparks in the gloom. He turned to the clerk. "Gotta hand it to you though, furries do make good security systems."