Heroes of Madness

[Kalseng]

The Chosen. The Heroes.

Those are the names they've been given by the public. They travel in tight circles, keeping actual relationships only with the others. No serious relationships exist outside of our groups. And it's rightly so. Chosen for various reasons, given various powers, using them in various ways.

The Burdened. The Shunned.

His name for them. He was currently pulling his favorite movie cliche of all time. The bit in the movies where the superhero jumps from rooftop to rooftop late at night, testing out his limits and new powers. He ran quickly, his orange, metal-covered feet pounding hard against the stone rooftops. He was covered in a thin plating of orange armor with black accents running down his arms and chest. His chest was almost solidly plated with the strange metal, his arms and legs practically scaled in the same armor, with different strengths and weaknesses. His orange helmet spiked backwards in various spots, a black visor pulled down over his face, small orange meters and readouts flickering in front of his face.

The street he was running down, or rather, next to and above, was old and broken up in some places. The buildings that lined it were old tenements, made up of red brick and old wood. Gregor passed the old, black streetlights as he ran, each turned on and bathing the street in a soft glow.

He was running at a steady, easy pace. He didn't want to tire himself out just yet. The tenement buildings were ridiculously close together, but this didn't bother Gregor one bit. He neared the edge of the street, and underneath one of the plates on the bottom of his right arm, a chain began to protrude. It shot out under it, and Gregor grabbed the chain as it flew back, stopping at about five feet. At the very end, he had altered it into a grappling hook-like extension. He dragged it behind him, and jumped off the last building. The chain caught the thin ledge, and Gregor swung at an angle off the roof. His feet planted themselves flat on the side of the tenement building as he swung inward, and he ran across the wall, using the chain as a hinge.

He flew off towards the other side of the street with great force, and he swung the grappling hook loose of its prison before making another over-hand throw. It caught the ledge of the tenement building across the way, its windows dark and empty like the others. He retracted the chain and pushed off of the old brick, climbing quickly. He stood on top of the old roof, a TV antenna sticking up in front of him. Gregor sidestepped it and found his way over to the next building, an alley separating it from the next building. Gregor attached the chain again, only a foot long now, and dropped down slowly. When he hit the ground, he retracted the chain, which slowly slid up under his arm plates. He stood still a moment, and brought his energy into his core. Found his center.

A green ring of light appeared over his head, shoulder's width apart. It spun around and moved downwards, passing over the helmet steadily. It began to disappear, revealing unkempt black hair underneath the helmet. It moved farther down, eliminating the visor. His eyes were revealed to be a hazel color, filled with intelligence and strong will. His face was of average color, nothing extra-ordinary about it. The ring passed over his chest and upper arms, revealing a loose white shirt, along with a necklace around his neck of a silver sun. The ring moved down his pants and feet, revealing a pair of denim jeans and black walking shoes.

Gregor walked out into the street, his feet scuffing the ground gently. A hero. Silence. For a while, at least. What was soon to come would shake the Earth at its bare foundation. And only a few people would gravitate at the center.

Invite only RP. Do query me or PM me to join. I can dispatch details to you then.

 

[Cody]

"Start the countdown." The figure standing against the light spoke softly, but aggressively. The was a brief click, and the response came quickly, "yes, sir."

Down below, on the street, cars still occupied the streets, moving with the flow of traffic, despite the ungodly hour of night. No stores were open, no vendors were on the streets. The city was asleep.

The display showed nothing but deep green numbers. A large pair, displaying "10" and another, smaller set down in the corner reading "911" The same voice from before spoke, though it was far too soft to be made clear. The conversation, whatever it was, was quick, as the large set of numbers was only at "05"

It was, perhaps a man, perhaps machine. The figure was covered in thin, light, yet oddly solid plating of green and black. The plating was designed for perfect aerodynamics, curves in all the right places, matching the body beneath, and enhancing it for flight. The figure's helmet was the same shade of green, with black where a forehead might be on a grown man. The visor of the eyes was so tinted nothing could be seen beneath. Thin vents made up where a mouth and nose would perhaps be.

Nothing was propelling the figure, other than willpower, and some odd ability even he did not understand. The figure spiraled and picked up speed, and the visor's displays were quickly changing. The time was less than a second, counting down to the very last moment before it happened.

And as it did happen, a black trident appeared in the figure's hand, and the building it had been previously standing on erupted in shattering glass, metal, and stone. An alarm sounded, and a floor below where the explosion one, half a dozen men leaped out of a smashed window. The figures fell for about three stories, and then some sort of jetpacks from their feet erupted into flame, and the flew softly to the ground, only to be intercepted by a large group of police officers who had been tipped off. There was a shout of "that bastard!" as the thieves were all blocked off, and caught by, the police.

The figure continued to fly, past the dozens of high-rises not losing speed, not losing altitude. The figure shoved it's trident into the side of a building, and gripped the handle with both hands, abruptly stopping. The trident vanished with a series of oddly insect-like whirs, and the figure began to fall, at least a hundred stories to the ground. It repositioned itself into a dive, and free-fell for nearly sixty stories. It repositioned itself, with a twist and a flip, and spread out it's arms and legs. The speed decreased, and the figure fell, almost gracefully to the ground. In a dim flash of light, the plating disappeared, revealing a young man, perhaps 24. His face was unshaven, his eyes a wild green. He was wearing a navy hoodie, emblazoned with the crest of the university he had recently graduated from. He was wearing jeans that fit just right, not too tight, and not too baggy. He ran his hands through his messy hair, dark hair, and walked down the empty street, towards the park located in the direct center of the city.

 

[Chadwyck]

The city was dark. The only light that was enveloping him came from the moon above the city, and the street lights below. He sat at the ledge of a rooftop, ten stories above the ground, and he waited. All he needed was a sign, anything that showed someone was in trouble. He'd fallen into a rut, and it was a lonely one at that. No outside contact of any kind, no relationships, only fleeting memories of brief moments of thanks and applause. Heroes, they were called, but he didn't feel very heroic as he stalked the night.

He swung his legs over the side of the building and laid back, gazing up at the sky. His metal suit made a scraping sound as his back came in contact with the stone rooftop. The thin, form-fitting metal covered his entire body. It fit perfectly over every inch of his body, plates separated where they needed to be. He held up his hand in front of his face, and glared through the black-tinted visor. He sighed through vents in front of his mouth and nose as sparks danced along his fingertips.

He stood up, abruptly and fluidly, the moonlight glinted off of the electric blue plating of the armor. It was accented with black at various places starting at his ankles. The most noticeable accent was the black, jagged 'x' on his chest.

He was about to give up and call it a night, no sense trying to find excitement in a city that was sleeping. He turned to walk away, a faint, green ring of light appeared over his head momentarily, and then vanished. He had heard something, and it had given him pause, he waited a moment to be sure; then he heard it again. A cry for help. Without a moments hesitation he sprinted toward the ledge and leapt for the building at the other side of the street, toward the direction of the cry.

Luckily the street was not very wide, and he made the jump easily. A red circle positioned itself on the display of his visor to pin-point the approximate location of the person in need. He sprinted in the direction of the cry, picking up speed as he did so. If he didn't hurry, whoever it was may not be around much longer. Plus, it was in his nature to leap before he looked. He was quick on his feet, and with his wits. A black whip appeared in his right had. It was a curious thing, just as flexible as a whip ought to be, but it was made entirely out of metal. A very durable, powerful metal. The tip was spiked, and it looked like it could slice a stone in half.

The red circle grew larger, whoever was in trouble was in the next alleyway. Without thinking, he leapt, free falling for four stories, then he began dragging his hand along the wall; effectively slowing his fall, though not by much. He landed in the alley with a crash, and it kicked up a cloud of dust. Through the dust the visor display showed him a man holding a knife to a petite, brunette woman. How cliche, he thought, and boring.

"Wh-what the hell is that?" The man stumbled, the girl took the chance and ran past him and away from the alley, with a cry of "thank you!" as she did so.

"I was hoping that you would be something worth while," As soon as he finished his sentence, he flourished his whip, it wrapped around the man's neck, and he pulled the man toward him. He used the momentum from the man flying at him to his advantage. He threw a quick jab that connected to the mugger's face, and the conflicting momentums increased the strength of the punch dramatically. He heard the mugger's jaw crack, and as the mugger lay on the ground losing consciousness, he muttered, "I got a mugger in an alley off of fifth."

"We're on it." Came a reply. And that was the end of it.

The green circle reappeared over his head, and passed over his body. As it did so, the suit vanished, revealing a twenty-two-year-old man about six feet tall. He cracked his neck and ran his hand through his two-inch-long brown hair which had brownish-blond highlights. He looked around the alley with his hazel eyes before he raised the hood of his black and grey striped hoodie over his head. The hoodie was zipped down just enough to reveal an electric-blue 'Aquabats' tee shirt. He was wearing black jeans that had faded from being worn too often, and black and blue Converse All-stars. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and began walking down the street toward the center of town, humming an upbeat tune as he did so.

 

[Tangrow]

The darkness of the night not only provided quick evasion, but quiescence as well. This allowed many creatures to roam at night, and many beings as well. One such was down at the city park, surrounded by the many buildings and industrial smells. Covered from head to toe in an odd metallic substance, so such that one could not even see this thing's face, it was an odd sight at best, looking vaguely humanoid, yet with a few differences, including an odd floral structure spanning from the back to the waist, with energy conduits stretching from it to the center of this armor like being's chest, and from the waist to the knee, a folded layer of armor that seemed to stretch as this organism, if one could call it that, strode towards the towering tree, less magnificent closer up compared to the larger skyscraping apartments and buildings, that was gated by a small fence encircling the arbor.

The park was a fairly nice place itself, as nice as it could be, considering the setting. There were four main paths with some picnic tables and other such items that all led towards this towering oak, and it seemed to all be kept in good condition, although it was desolate at this time of night, yet a few streetlights were still hesitantly flickering, giving a dim glow to most of the park, yet enough so that it would be rather hard to make out somebody unless one was next to them. This, of course, was how this thing made it's way there during the nighttime hours so as not to be spotted or recognized as cars and other late night citizens passed the park.

Reaching the large tree, the creature stepped over the gate without a care, and thrust its plated hands on the tree's bark. After but a moment, the floral structure and its conduits began to glow a bright neon green, lighting up the area around him as this strand of contained energy spread to his hands and inside the tree, which glowed for slightly, then returned to it's dull brown. This wasn't of course, all that it had done. The tree looking a bit wilted and seemed to be starting to lose it's once lush color from the summer before, but after this occurrence, the tree seemed to be refreshed, the leaves seemed to perk up and regain their color as well, and some roses sprouted inside the tree's fenced area, curling around this being's armored feet.

After this change took place, the being removed his hands from the bark and, retracting some odd tentacle-like latches from its palms, it walked towards a park bench and decided to take a rest, sitting on the tabletop , attempting to savor the next few hours until the sun rose, and he would have to return to a place to hide from the masses.

"I never liked crowds much." The being said as a shining ring of yellow luminescence, resembling something of a halo, formed over its head, and slowly spiraled downwards until the armored being was no more, and instead sat a young man of around the age of twenty with brown and yellow hair just sweeping over his eyebrow and neatly cut in the back, under which lied two hazel eyes, staring blankly ahead at this time. He wore a white dress shirt with a black pinstripe vest over it, adorned with a flower where one would wear a tie, and had some black pants on, with, oddly enough no socks or shoes. On top of his were also some purple goggles that rested comfortably at its position, and seemed to have a mechanical device on the side. Looking towards the city, he noticed a small black cat with a white patch over his left eye trot up towards him and purr kindly, rubbing at his leg. Lifting the feline up, he placed it on his lap, where it comfortably curled up.

"Hey, Cassidy. Nice to see you again too. You really are my only friend. But, you know, I wouldn't have it any other way." And yet, amidst the quiet park and rushing cars and nightlife outside it, Ethan could not help but feel that something was a bit amiss.

 

[Kalseng]

Alex strode through the park, crushing flowers beneath his black boots. A pair of bluejeans were tucked into them, leading up to a pressed white shirt and a long, white lab coat. The man wore square, thin-rimmed black glasses and kept his black hair well cut and pulled back to keep it out of his eyes. The five he was looking for had gathered in the park, doing various things. A man stepped in front of him, the one he knew as Gregor. Alex tapped him on the shoulder, and stopped walking.

"Come with me," Alex commanded, shoving Gregor towards the fountain. The three others were gathered nearby, in the perfect place for Alex.

---

Gregor stumbled as the strange man stopped pushing him, and Gregor caught himself on the fountain's edge. As he turned back to face the man, his brow furrowed and his lips pursed angrily, the man threw his hand in the air and shouted out what sounded like a line of commands.

"Activate program Warp Tunnel dot tee arr enn," He said calmly. The air above the four heroes in the park rippled and shifted, a long, thick distortion tearing overhead. Gregor's attention snapped to it, and it split open, revealing a black area where nothing lived, directly over the fountain and park. Something white flicked past, followed by another, and another. They were long columns of letters and numbers, with slashes, dots, and various other symbols whizzing by overhead. Before he could react, or even process what was going on, he felt himself be pulled in.

His molecules spread and stretched, dragging him towards the center of the large distortion. Gregor was pulled towards the fountain, and his feet eventually left the ground. He kicked with his legs and flailed with his arms, grasping for a holding place. He found none, and moved more swiftly towards the distortion. Nothing else around him moved, except the other heroes, and he flew, chest first, into the black abyss. As soon as he hit the edge of the rift, everything went blank.

Gregor couldn't feel anything, move anything, or even think. All he could do was sense his emptiness, feel himself floating within nothingness. For a few terrifying moments, Gregor thought he was dead.

A dull pain his his feet, and he felt his body slam to a cold, metal ground. His eyes were out of focus, not able to make out anything but a severely white room. A voice broke the silence, talking to the room, presumably to more than just Gregor.

"Welcome, everyone," The voice began. It was calm and knowledgeable, along with powerful. "My name is Ryu. And I am effectively your God."

 

[Chadwyck]

Jeff didn't know why he decided to go to the park. It was located at the direct center of the city, so he figured it was the most logical place to stay on the look out for anything amiss. He had decided to call it a night, but that could change at any second, all it would take is some disaster and he would be expected to go take care of it. He would probably do so just for kicks, anyway.

He walked through the park with his hands in his pockets, still humming various tunes, with no particular destination in mind. Not too far ahead he would come upon the fountain, he figured it would be as good a spot as any to stop for a while. Now there's something you don't see everyday. He thought as he spied the man in the long, white lab coat.

The man raised his hand and Jeff just barely caught what he said. Something about activating a program. Well, this city does have all kinds. He chuckled to himself as he turned along a different path that would take him away from the fountain. Then the sky began to distort, and shift. Then he heard a tear. He found himself staring into darkness, a blackness where nothing existed. "What's that guy playing at?" Jeff couldn't help but say out loud.

Columns of white symbols began whizzing through the sky above him. He started to summon his armor, but before the ring of light could even appear above his head, he felt himself moving. He couldn't tell if it was all in his head or if it was really happening, but it felt like his entire being was stretching. Before long, his feet were off the ground and he was flying toward the distortion. Then he blacked out.

He felt himself floating, trapped in a soundless, empty void. Is this my Hell? He managed to form the thought, and it was the only one he could muster. He felt himself land, none-too-softly, on a metallic floor. He couldn't stand, his legs were limp, a tingling sensation flowed through all his muscles.

"Welcome, everyone," A voice broke in, everyone, so Jeff wasn't alone, "My name is Ryu. And I am effectively your God." Jeff's eyes began to refocus.

God? This guy isn't full of himself or anything. He thought as his mind began to clear.