Author Topic: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story  (Read 4141 times)

Shenku

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The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« on: May 30, 2013, 07:05:31 PM »

DJMoose

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #1 on: May 31, 2013, 07:44:48 AM »
Serkana The Wise
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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2013, 04:27:14 PM »
Leaving another club, abandoning her pretense of tipsiness, Danika van Helsing saw the eye-searingly colored car fly past.  Thinking to herself, "No vampires here, better go help" as she recognized the offense against fashion that was the Bad Luck Gang.  She slipped into the shadows, and leapt to a rooftop, before bounding along in pursuit, her "gifts" enabling her to fade from sight, and utterly transcend human notions of stamina.  From seemingly nowhere she drew her blade, a finely crafted broadsword, bearing the mark of the Lord whose warriors it was forged for, inlaid with mystic sigils by that same dark Lord to aid his Chosen One. 

JWBullfrog

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #3 on: June 02, 2013, 02:05:02 AM »
From his vantage point in a nearby alley, the Knight watched the garish vehicle race by. It was the Bad Luck Gang again, and they were always trouble.
 
"I should go after them," he thought. He squared his shoulders to settle his cape and adjusted the cowl around his eyes. He checked his belt pouches to make sure he had his most important tools with him. His knees flexed slightly preparing to leap into the skies. But then he looked up. The skies were clear and cloudless and the moon, while not quite full, was reflecting enough of the sun's light to throw shadows.
 
His shoulders slumped. "Who am I kidding?" he thought. "On a night like this I'm all but powerless."
 
He was painfully aware of his own limitations. His powers had a very narrow range of operation and, unless a sudden squall blew up, he'd be no more use in a fight than any other middle aged, slightly overweight man. Still he was a hero, he had to try. He tied his cape around his waist and jogged off down the road in the van's wake.
 
The Dark (and stormy) Knight was on the case.
 
 
As long as somebody keeps making up stories for it, the City isn't gone.

Brightfires

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Aces and Eights
« Reply #4 on: June 04, 2013, 12:45:51 AM »
« Last Edit: August 09, 2013, 12:38:09 AM by Brightfires »
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Shenku

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #5 on: June 04, 2013, 04:33:30 PM »
   Doctor Almost nearly lost his balance and fell as he slammed hard  onto the ledge of a rooftop to stop and catch his breath. Crimson Maiden was hovering silently beside him with her wispy red glow. They had chased the thugs for only a few blocks before the thugs had pulled their garish looking car into the Rivers Casino parking lot, but the Doctor was already getting winded. Leaping through the air on pillars of water was very physically demanding.

   "What do you think?" Doctor asked.

   "I think we need to get that necklace back before they realize what it is." Maiden said bitterly.

   "What, is it magical or something?" Doctor asked.

   "In a way, depending on how you define 'Magic'..." She said in her usual mischievousness. "Suffice to say, even a minor trinket such as that should not be in the wrong hands."

   "Then let's get it back already..." Doctor Almost said as he squared up his shot towards the thugs, then leaped hard into the air with a powerful stream of water hurling him clear into the Casino parking lot. As he approached, he reached out with his powers, and pulled ever more water out of the air, summoning a small rain storm down on the thugs to disorient them from aiming their weapons as he closed in and began hurling balls of Heavy Water at them, knocking over two thugs, and just missing Dingo.

   A moment later, the Crimson Maiden joined him, and using her magical powers ripped away the thugs' weapons, and flung them away, then pulled Dingo into the air by the metal in his belt buckle. That was the strange thing about her powers. For herself, she could do all kinds of things with magic, but for anything else, she could only affect it if it contained metal. As she lifted the man into the air towards her, the man screamed and kicked violently. She waved her hands outwards, and a red portal opened, summoning two large steal pipes, that she then used her metal levitation ability to twist and tie around the man like ropes. Then she pulled him real close, and with a look that almost terrified the Doctor, spoke in a low, barely audible voice in the sudden downpour.

   "Where is my mother's necklace?" She said simply.

   Doctor Almost wasn't sure, but it seemed the man's pants were now more wet than they could have been from the rain alone.

   Shrieking in pain, the Doctor lost control of his pillar of water, careened off of it, and slammed hard into a nearby Cadillac when one of the thugs threw a stone that hit him square in the face. A moment later, another stone flung out at Maiden, and she pulled Dingo in front of her to block the slow moving projectile. Another thug seemed to have slipped behind Maiden and had regained his weapon, and was raising it level towards the Doctor as he pushed himself sluggishly to his feet. He was just about to blast the man with a jet stream of water, when a shadowy form flashed into view so fast Doc could not make out who it was, and knocked the Bad Luck Gang member hard into a Chevy truck, leaving a large dent in the door as the thug collapsed unconscious.

JWBullfrog

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #6 on: June 04, 2013, 05:29:18 PM »
It, somehow, became a dark and stormy night.
 
Well, not entirely dark since it was a casino parking lot, and not entirely stormy since the rain seemed to be limited to rows F3 to G5, but it was night and there was rain falling and that was just enough.
 
"FINALLY!"  Thought the man in the black and grey cowl as his powers activated. His exhaustion bled away and he could feel his feet lifting off of the ground. He wouldn't have top speed but he could probably move faster than a speeding motor scooter. Given the sitation he saw before him, that would have to do.
 
He flexed his back slightly and aimed himself at a gang member who had drawn a gun and was aiming for another hero that was fighting to get back to his feet. The Knight covered his head with his hands (he wasn't quite invulnerable right then) and put every ounce of speed he could muster into becoming a battering ram.
He hit the gang member squarely in the midsection throwing the ganger backward into the side of a parked truck. A Ford perhaps. It wasn't important. The gang member slid bonelessly to the ground and the Knight made a mental note to check on him in a moment.
 
Right now, stopping before he hit a truck was far more important.
 
 
As long as somebody keeps making up stories for it, the City isn't gone.

DJMoose

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2013, 07:47:02 PM »
Discretion.

Situational Awareness.

These are traits that set one apart from the common vigilante or heroic wannabe.

So in the instant it took Yvonne to draw a bead with her pistol on the Bad Luck Gang's truck, it took only an instant for her to realize that another motorist's vehicle was heading in her direction.  It was going to pass right between herself and the truck, thwarting her chances of safely disabling her target.  With few other options, she leapt.  She pounced off of the oncoming car and leapt to the back of the garish truck, making the driver bump into the curb.  She holstered her pistol and hung on for dear life as the erratic driver continued his rampage.  She heard several objects flying behind her, and ventured a guess that she was not the only individual after this particular truck.

Thankfully the Bad Luck Gangers made a quick turn into the Rivers Casino parking lot, bringing the chase to a halt. Yvonne jumped around the driver's side of the vehicle just as the gang members were exiting.  She quickly dropped the driver with two quick jabs and a roundhouse kick the face.  As she lowered the unconscious man to the ground it suddenly began to rain. 
Two other heroes, a man manipulating water and a woman flying under her own power suddenly appeared.  They both quickly disarmed the thugs and seemed to have things under control.  That was, until the man was hit in the face with a rock.  The woman was intent on her captured prey and did not see the man go down, nor the thug behind her with a pistol.  Yvonne drew her pistol and was about to yell a warning when a third individual careened into the thug, the thug flying back into a parked truck.

Seeing the presence of not one, but four heroes, the last Bad Luck Gang thug turned tail and ran towards the Casino.  Noticing his, Yvonne calmly raised her long-barreled pistol.  She held it steady in both hands and fired twice, both rounds taking the thug in the leg and knocking him off his feet.

No immediate threats sighted, Yvonne strode over to where the water manipulator was struggling to his feet.  She offered him her gloved hand and pulled him up onto his feet.

"Maybe you should wear a helmet," remarked Yvonne with a smirk.  She fixed her gaze on the thug held in place by the flying woman.

"Now that is an interesting interrogation method..."
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Brightfires

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Meanwhile...
« Reply #8 on: June 04, 2013, 10:06:42 PM »
« Last Edit: August 09, 2013, 12:22:11 AM by Brightfires »
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Meanwhile, part 2
« Reply #9 on: June 05, 2013, 09:18:30 PM »
« Last Edit: August 09, 2013, 12:45:43 AM by Brightfires »
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CheerGunbunny

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2013, 01:12:20 AM »
Danika slipped along unnoticed.  She came upon a man with a remote detonator in his hand.  Disdaining the Bad Luck Gang as beneath soiling her blade, she left it in the scabbard and simply clobbered him with the sheathed broadsword.  Her acute senses picked out the improvised claymore mines, set to sweep the zone where the other heroes had cornered the robbers.  "Someone set a marginally clever trap" she mused. 

CheerGunbunny

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #11 on: July 08, 2013, 06:03:01 PM »
"Evening folks" said the alluring redhead as she stepped out from the shadows, waving one hand behind her, "they have some explosives set, they planned to take everyone pursuing out in the blast.  I figured we might want some answers, I knocked out the triggerman.  Since the actual thieves would be in the blast, they're expendable, and probably without a clue.  But the cleanup guy seems likely to be more informed.  Oh, I'm Danika van Helsing.....cal me Dani" with a smile.

Shenku

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #12 on: July 23, 2013, 05:14:21 AM »
Doctor Almost rubbed at his sore head as he joined the growing group of new comers. It had been a few weeks since he had bumped into another set of Tights aside from Crimson Maiden, and he was not sure he recognized them.

"Thanks for the assist." He said with a smile as he offered a thankful hand to the nearest hero who had just saved him from one of the thugs. "The name's Almost. Doctor Almost." He said in a horrible fake British accent. "And you are..."

*   *   *

Angelica Ofilia Donnelly watched the spectacle draw to a close on her cell's TV, and glowered as the group of heroes finished apprehending the pitiful brutes of the Bad Luck Gang who were now utterly powerless under the multitude of abilities these heroes possessed as a group. The news chopper had a pretty good view of the casino's parking lot, and Angelica found herself smirking when she saw one of the heroes returning what appeared to be a large ruby gem encrusted pendant to one of the other heroes.

Angelica recognized the pendant immediately. It was hers. And the woman who had it now must be the same woman who had taken it from her, Madam Crimson, though this hero's appearance now greatly differed from what she recalled from her skirmish five years before. The news cut away from the scene and returned to the anchor man and woman who were blabbering about something to do with "new heroes saving the day" or some such, but Angelica tuned it out. She knew where her amulet was, and more over, she knew she could get it back. She did not need the blasted thing, it was merely a trinket compared to her other artifacts that Madam Crimson had not taken upon Angelica's capture several years before, but it was a pretty trinket, and she liked the thing rather endearingly.

"Guard!" Angelica said loudly at the enchanted duraglass wall separating her from freedom. She had tried every spell and incantation she could think of to try and escape over the years, but none had been able to work. The enchantments nullified her magic almost entirely, and she could do little more than write useless runes in the air.

"What is it, Dark?" Officer Leroy asked from the other side. It had long since become standard procedure a long time before her imprisonment to keep all class five supers under constant guard even despite the impenetrable cells, mostly because of the escape of one Johnny Nuclear about twenty years ago that resulted in the destruction of half of Lake County when several capes had tried and failed to capture him. Since then, constant guards were standard practice.

"I want to speak with my lawyer." Angelica said simply.

"Sure thing, Miss Dark, I'll be sure to have him down here first thing in the morning... Now, it's late, do you mind going to sleep now, or do I have to read you a bed time story?" He added sarcastically.

"That depends..." She said pressing a thoughtful finger to her lips. "Is it a story of true love?" She put as much sensuality into her words as she could stomach. Leroy visibly blushed, but made his face hard.

"Don't make me come in there." He insisted pulling his billy club free. If he came in, he could beat her senseless and the enchantments would leave her mostly defenseless, but she could still use her physical attributes to her advantage...

"Oh, does the big bad police guard man want to give wittle 'ol me a spanking?" She continued taunting the guard.

"That's it." Leroy glowered as he leaned towards the radio at his shoulder and spoke into it. "Open up C-17, our guest needs a little discipline."

"Jeeze, Leroy, that's the third time this week..." A voice piped in over the static. It sounded like Officer Stanely. "You need some back up?"

"Nah, I got this." Leroy said with an evil smirk. "I'll let you know when I'm finished."

"Roger that. Try not to break her too bad this time, will you? Doc's been working overtime enough as it is without her in intensive care all the time."

"She can heal just fine with her magic voodoo crap." Leroy said. A moment passed, and the duraglass wall slid open, and Leroy stepped inside. "Come here Miss Dark, I ain't gonna hurt ya too bad."

Angelica smirked and deftly drew a series of symbols in the air that flashed and fizzled, then she put a hand on her hip and smiled knowingly at Leroy.

"Your magic can't do nothin' in here, lady, ain't you given up yet?" Leroy said dismissively as he gestured with his billy club.

"Really? Then what's that behind you?" She asked, pointing.

"I ain't fallin' for that, Dark... What, ya think I'm stupid?" He smirked, but he obviously seemed more angry.

"Oh, okay then. I thought I would just warn you about the dracolich I summoned behind you... But I see you don't mind being eaten, so never mind..." She causally began picking at her finger nails and blowing on them.

"Dracolich...?" Leroy paled visible and began to turn. As soon as he did, Angelica grabbed the TV off the table and slammed it over the guard's head with a loud glass shattering crash. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Idiot..." Angelica smirked as she grabbed the guard and flipped him over to remove his radio. Then stepping into the hall, and freeing herself from her cell's enchantments, she cast a spell to alter her voice and frowned as she spoke. "All done, she's settled down now, go ahead and close 'er up." She said in Leroy's voice. A second later Stanely said something that she did not pay attention to, and the duraglass wall slid back into place.

She dropped the radio then began casting a teleport spell. She was not one hundred percent sure where she was going, so there was a chance she might end up partially in a wall, but it was better than staying put, and she could heal herself relatively easily, so long as her head was not stuck in something solid... She pointed herself somewhere near where she had seen the heroes on the TV and finished casting and escaped from Cook County Jail.

When she appeared in the middle of the group of heroes a moment later, she suddenly wished she had chosen somewhere else...

"Madam Crimson, we meet again..." She said simply ignoring the questions coming from everyone else around them, and only focusing on the woman who held her pendant.

"Who?" One man asked.

"I think you have me confused with someone else..." Madam said slowly.

"No, I'm sure it's you." Angelica said simply. "What, you don't recognize your old nemesis?"

"Who are you?" Another hero asked.

"Looks like she's wearing prison orange..." Another added.

Angelica frowned, realizing in her haste to escape, she had forgotten to change her clothes.

"Perhaps this will refresh your memory?" She waved her hand, and her orange jump suit was quickly replaced with a long flowing black robe and high collar, with an intricate metal ornament on her back, and her hair was restored to twin ornate buns.

"That chick from Final Fantasy 8?" One hero asked. "That sorcorer chick? What's her name?"

Angelica groaned, lashed out with a spell silencing the other heroes and binding their bodies to where the stood. "No further interruptions!" She said angrily. "Now... I have waited a long time for this, Madam Crimson... Do you really not remember me?"

"My name is Crimson Maiden..." The woman said with a frown. "And I see that you are very powerful with magic, but I don't have the faintest clue who you are..."

"I see... Well, then perhaps you are related to the woman I seek... Regardless, I am the deliverer of darkness. The assistant to the devil. Right hand to the Dark God, and His angel of Death. You will tremble before me, and know that my name is Darkheart Angel!" She finished with a flourish of simple lightning spells that punctuated her speech.

She frowned when she heard one man burst out laughing, and she glanced with confusion at him. She had cast her spell on him, the same as the others, but he was still able to speak? His body at least still seemed bound, but it was troubling. Perhaps she was getting rusty from years of not using her magic...

"Darkheart Angel? Really? That's what you call yourself? Bwa ha ha ha!" The man continued in his fit of laughter.

"Will you be silent!" Angelica cast her silence spell on the man again, but it still seemed to have no effect. "What sorcery is this...?"

"Almost, shut up, she's the real deal! You want her to kill you where you stand? Shut up!"

"Sorry, it's just so ridiculous!" He continued giggling uncontrollably.

Hitting her last nerve, Angelica created a pocket vortex around the man's head that created a bubble around him and sucked out all the oxygen. The man promptly stopped laughing and began rasping and coughing trying in vain to breath. "Now then, for my pendant..." Angelica gestured simply, and her pendant, which was still in "Crimson Maiden's" hand snapped out of her grasp and flew into Angelica's hand.

"That was my mother's!" She objected, trying to cast a spell to retrieve it, to which Angelica effortlessly countered it.

"Ah, so I see." Angelica smirked. "That makes you Madam Crimson's daughter... I'll have you know, that this is my pendant actually, she merely took it from me when she arrested me five years ago. Anyways, I'll be seeing you around." she added as she walked closer and ran a hand over the soft features of the woman's face. "Now, to catch up on five years of mayhem, chaos, murder, and senseless destruction, so if you will excuse me..." She countered another pitiful spell of Crimson's as she began casting her teleportation spell, and smiled devilishly as she teleported away.

*   *   *

Doctor Almost gasped as what ever was preventing him from breathing in air suddenly vanished, and he inhaled a large much needed breath.

"What..." He coughed between heavy breaths. "Who the hell was that?"

JWBullfrog

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2013, 02:10:26 PM »
 
"That," said the Knight, "could be a problem."
 
He stepped out from next to the truck he had been leaning on (partially invulnerable was the same as mostly vulnerable) and held a smartphone in front of him. A few quick hand motions and a few flickers of light hinted that he was accessing some information.
 
"Based on what we just saw, and assuming she was telling the truth, Vilwiki.com here suggests that she was, Darkheart Angel," he looked up at the group of heroes around him, "...among other names. The list of aliases is kind of insane. Anyhow, she's at least a class five magical talent...maybe higher, a list of known or suspected crimes longer than her alias list, a costume gallery almost as long... including one or two in very bad taste. Oddly enough her stated goals of 'murder, death, and destruction' are universally agreed on. Oh, and..." he paused as he looked at Crimson Maiden, "she really, really hated your mother."
 
"You got all that from a cellphone app?" asked the young woman calling herself Ace.
 
The knight looked over at her and grinned, "the Internet is not just for porn you know."
As long as somebody keeps making up stories for it, the City isn't gone.

Brightfires

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #14 on: July 24, 2013, 05:18:22 PM »
« Last Edit: July 24, 2013, 07:44:49 PM by Brightfires »
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CheerGunbunny

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #15 on: August 01, 2013, 01:58:40 PM »
*scowling*
"That was unexpected...also slightly embarassing....I've got some protections against magic, but they're sadly a matter of conscious thought. Magic coercions, restraints, and such do burn out fairly quickly on me, but still...."

"I might be able to get some information on her current whereabouts from some....supernatural world contacts I have. No way to know how prompt a response I'll get..."   An odd, faintly dreamy, hopeful look flits across her face.

"How about we meet up tomorrow, catch some dinner, and see where we're at?  Everyone use whatever they can to get all the info we can on this Darkheart Angel?"

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #16 on: August 08, 2013, 10:36:08 PM »
« Last Edit: August 09, 2013, 12:34:07 AM by Brightfires »
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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #17 on: August 09, 2013, 05:25:28 PM »
Slipping broadsword and sheath onto back..they seem to fade from sight....hard to see unless specifically looking for the weapon.

"Great! I love turkey tetrazzini!" with a quick smile, Danika slipped into the shadows, melding smoothly...a faint rasping sound, and she was up the building, leaping and bounding along rooftops once more, headed back to campus.

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Re: The Underdogs: An Interactive Story
« Reply #18 on: August 19, 2013, 05:41:56 PM »
A few minutes introspection, calculated the latest time to go to sleep and still perform adequately in lab the next day...

"He could have given me a reference guide....Dusty grimoire A has information on X, Y, Z, whereas moldy grimoire B is all about Demons from Dis, and......GAH!"

Pulling out cell phone....

"Yeah, Tomas, it's Dani.  Something wonky going on, maybe has a link to Albany, so I'm calling you.   I don't care if you're busy, I've run into something....again, see me not caring.  Look, you willing to wager your life if I ask *HIM* he wont' say I can kill you for not helping? I know, I agree, I'm not worthy.....but it's my place to question, nor is it YOURS.  Now, answers, or sunshine? You choose. "