(I got a 1. Apparently I'm shit at lying, or rather Nimbus is really good at detecting lies.)

"I must have missed that, but I've heard they've got some seriously heavy hitters. Something about two regenerators, a Master, and a Trump. Sounds like hell to deal with. Everyone else in your group made it out all right? I notice you're missing two members."

 

@Zephyr: "Nah, we're fine. The King of Spades joined in the call for reinforcements. Man, I'm telling you, that guy is scare-y." He shudders in mock horror and flashes you another grin. "Now why don't you tell us what you're really here for, and don't you try lying to me. You know damn well you suck at it."

It sounds strange to have what you know is a threat spoken in such a jovial manner, and by a boy at least three years younger than you, but his silent companion's glare makes up for it with more to spare.

"Because I know you're not doing your courier work any more, and since you're out here you're still doing the cape thing. So tell me, man. What're you up to?"

Nimbus retains his smile throughout this, but his words hold an edge of steel. Something tells you that your response is going to dictate how the rest of this conversation goes.

 

I sigh, running fingers through stark-white hair. "I had to join up with a group eventually. You know that. Your higher-ups wanted me, a bunch of villain groups wanted me, I couldn't maintain that neutrality any longer, as nice as it had been. It was a fucking mess. So yeah. I found a group. You’d call them… Well, you wouldn’t call them anything yet. Still finding our direction, I guess."

"Doesn't matter to your bosses, though, does it." I bark a short laugh. "I'm a big, bad villain no matter what. What a fucking joke."

A brief moment of silence later, I laugh again. "Speaking of which, aren't I arrest on sight or some shit?"

 

"Whelp, that kind of fuckery is why we can't have nice things I guess, luckily he wasn't found close to us, but well, things could get ugly. Any chance you were able to make out any details to figure out who they are, because well, not going to lie, 2 capes that can fly doesn't really narrow it down all that much. Any chance you could make out any more details on them Fissure?"

 

@Zephyr:

"Hey man, don't shoot the messenger. Someone in the Spades decided you were a villain and they got the higher ups to agree to it. Had nothing to do with us." Nimbus pauses and looks at you with an expression that is difficult to decipher.

"If I were in charge none of this shit would have happened. Hell, Copycat spent the best part of a day throwing shit around the common room back at the Tower. She's been hell bent on finding out who made the decision and beating the shit out of them with her bare hands."

The Martian breaks his steady glare for a moment to nod his agreement, then immediately resumes it.

Nimbus looks away, staring out over the city streets. "You know you'd be welcome to join us when this shit is sorted, right? You don't need to let some petty bureaucrat or whatever decide who you want to be." You can hear the emotion in his voice as he speaks, his hands wringing themselves out of frustration or anger or helplessness. "Hammerspace has backed me up on this. If we can find out who decided to call you a villain she says she'll take this up. As high as it can go."

He takes a deep breath to steady himself. "You don't have to be a villain. We can fix this."

(Remember the compel. This should be affecting how you play this scene.)

 

I half-smile at Nimbus. "Thanks for the offer. It means a lot to me, but I can't. I've paid for my independence. Bought and paid for, and there's going to come a time when something goes wrong and if I'd joined up someone would be yelling at me that I'm not allowed to or its against a direct order or something. You know me. I wouldn't last a week before whoever I pissed off got something against me and I'd be out again."

I shake my head once, and wander over to the edge to look down at the arrest previously in-progress.

"Hell. Nothing was meant to go like this. If it was just you guys, I'd jump at it in a heartbeat, you know that. But this? It isn't the end of the world, I guess. 'If your story doesn't have a happy ending, it isn't over yet', eh? It'll work out eventually."

I look over at my shoulder at them, hovering behind me. "Besi-" I pause, suddenly parsing Nimbus's earlier words. "Copycat's going to kill me for this, isn't she? I should talk to her."

 

(Capes is 0, therefore 4U1+0 => 0)

"Not a clue, honestly. There's two people, the one on the disc and the other floating. I'm keeping an eye out, if I feel anything aggressive happening I'm just going to seal them with the building they're near. After Dai is safe I can let them out. He's friends with a bunch of capes, though. I'd rather not sour his relations if at all possible."

 

4u1+x, dude.

---------- Post automerged at 04:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:41 AM ----------

@Zephyr: Nimbus chuckles lightly then settles into a disappointed expression. It makes him look like someone kicked his puppy. "Man, Zeph. It doesn't have to be like this. Once we find out who made this stupid mistake we can stop it happening again.

"Look, you know the Suits aren't as united as they look from the outside. You're seeing that right now. This kind of shit happens, but it's not the end of the world. Hell, we even have some ex-villains working for us now. If you'll just come with us Hammerspace will be able to get this shit cleared and we can go back to being proper friends again."

He takes a breath, steadying his nerves.

"Please, man. Just consider it. If you don't do anything to get rid of this villain label it's just going to fuck you over in the long run. You've got your independence now, but man, that's useless if you spend the rest of your life in the Birdcage.

"I don't want to see that happen to you, man. So please, give it some thought."

 

"Yeah, that's pretty much what I was expecting to get, fuckit, you guys don't need me to finish mapping out the place so I'll go and check shit out. Shit shouldn't be too hard to sort out with these guys, and well, if things start to go then I'll be able to handle things.

Also, whilst I'm gone, any chance you could take a closer look at the security systems for vulnerable points? Sure they're got tinker fuckery but well, I'm no expert but no matter how weird the tech is, you prooooobably can't make an advanced network like they've got using just metals, and well, considering Tinker stuff is kinda renown for being finicky, shouldn't be too hard for you to be able to find a weak spot. Hell, you could probably find ways to take out the normal shit as well."

Wisp turns into his Air Form and heads in the general direction of where Zephyr is supposed to be, taking his time to be as stealthy as possible so he doesn't get noticed too early. Whilst he does so, he tries to see if he can identify the capes from a distance so he actually knows who he's talking to, and if he's lucky he might know something about them.

(Rolling stealth, and maybe capes as well, either to figure out who they are, or if it's obvious from their costume, I'll roll to see if I know anything about them either from my own information or from Zephyr.)

 

(Rapport 4U1+0=1)

"All right all right, the puppy eyes are too cruel." I laugh.

"I'll think about it. Right now though, I'm just keeping my head down until the people who can't take a hint back off. Switching groups again would just stir it all back up. In the future, when things are more stable? We'll see."

 

@Zephyr: (Nimbus rolled a 1, which gives him a fragile aspect that you can use. You can tag it during this scene or invoke it in a later one, but once you've used it, it's gone. Your choice on what it is. Also, take a fate point for good roleplay.)

Nimbus nods slowly, but he still seems disappointed. You get the feeling that he'd been planning this meeting for a while and that it hadn't gone as well as he'd hoped. "Alright, I guess we'll see you around then. Don't be a stranger, man. Copycat would kill me if you just up and disappeared on us."

Nimbus glances at device on his left arm, possibly a watch, probably some weird Tinkertech device then nods to himself. He motions to the Martian and goes to turn.

It is in that moment that the Martian tenses. You can see the muscles in his neck bunch up and realise that up until this point, despite the constant glare, he had been relaxed.

(The Martian rolled a 6 for Alertness, which counters Wisp's stealth roll. Since it was an Alertness check he does break through Wisp's block, meaning Wisp can now be targeted, but he doesn't get any information about who it is he's spotted.)

"We are being watched," he says with a rumble that wouldn't have sounded out of place coming from the engine of a car. His eyes rove about the area, searching for what had set off his instincts. He focuses on his quarry a couple of times as he moves about, but never long enough to pin him in place. "Come out and face us, coward."

He raises his right hand and ice as clear as glass forms into the shape of a fountain from it, the threat clear.

Nimbus looks around the area as well, his eyes sharp and clear, but he fails to spot anything out of the ordinary. He takes a quick glance at the Martian, a curious look on his face, but remains silent in favour of unhitching a rifle sized gun that looks like something out of a science fiction film from his back. He shoulders it with what looks like practised ease and starts to scan around.

"Friend of yours, Zeph?" He says with all trace of joviality gone.

 

(And for future reference...)

"Probably?" I say, the question clear in my voice. "Can't hurt to be too careful, though."

I raise my voice. "I'm with green face on this, come out or we come find you," simultaneously loosening my sword.

 

Wisp pops into existence next to Zephyr and waves casually. "In my defence, it was less 'being a coward' and more 'it sure would suck to miss that roof and look like an idiot', don't worry guys, it's cool, I'm awesome so everything turned fine."

Wisp turns towards Zephyr. "Also, what took you so long, we only sent you to get takeout because YOU said that you would get there fastest, and yet for SOME reason I'm not eating cheap asian food. I'm not saying I'm angry or anything, but well, there's a lot of disappointment being felt right now. Don't worry though, I'll probably forgive you one day. Maybe."

Wisp then turns towards the other capes "Sooooooooo, you guys must be the reason why I'm not eating dinner right now, it's kay, I don't blame you, I think we can all agree that it's 100% Zephyr's fault for this, because well, he obviously chose to waste time talking to randoms instead of getting dinner, since well, if he REALLY wanted to focus on what was actually important, he would have just teleported away. Dick move Zehpyr, dick move."

"So, since I'm here and dinner is apparently ruined, how about you introduce me to your friends Zephyr so I don't have to start making up names for them. Unless you want me to come up with shitty names for them, just a warning though, kiiiiinda hungry still so they wont be my best work, but since I'm a nice guy I'll try."

(Rolled a 1 for Contacs, apparently I zoned the fuck out when Zephyr talked about himself, in my defence though it was pretty boring so that's also his fault.)

 

"Mother fu-" I stop with sword half drawn, partway to attempting to cut my teammate in half. Opening my mouth to ask just about anything, I am immediately overwhelmed by a torrent of information.

After 30 seconds of solid noise, I turn back to the two heroes, jerking a thumb back over my shoulder. "The thing that can't stop talking is Wisp."

"Wisp, this is Nimbus and Martian. Who's who should be fairly obvious if you're not an idiot. I'm sorry about dinner. Getting caught up with old friends took priority."

 

As everyone leaves the hideout, I settle back and take a break, "watching" the situation off on the roof. Not much I can analyse and identify more than I already have. Time to relax a bit. Doubt I can get anything more than I already have.

"Jack, if you need any more input to analyse the casino, let me know. I'll... Monitor the situation that Thomas and Dai are in."

 

The Martian's expression doesn't change as Wisp introduces himself, the monstrous cape not giving up on his hostility easily.

"You are acquainted with this person?" He asks Zephyr, briefly turning his attention away from Wisp. His focus turns back to Wisp and what features you can see through his blank mask are turned into a frown. "Stop talking. It does you no favours."

"Ow my head," says Nimbus as he stares at Wisp. "Zeph, does he ever stop talking? Please tell me he stops talking. I will pay you to make him stop talking."

The Tinker cape reaches around the edges of his mask to rub at his temples, taking a moment to visibly relax as Wisp quietens.

"Okay, look pal. Wisp was it? I don't know who you are or how you know Zeph here, but trying to sneak up on us like that is a bad idea. Times are a little tense, you know. Plus, did your mother never tell you that snooping is rude?"

 

"See, I'm such a nice guy that I'll forgive you for your hurtful words, it's not like I'm going to start bitching about how your powers work, and well, trust me when I say that if I hadn't taken my time, things would have been kiiiiiinda awkward."

"Actually, you know what? How bout I show you why I did shit that way just to save time."

Wisp fades out, but as he does so, he makes as large a vacuum effect as possible, annd doing the same with the explosion when he reappears near Zephyr, who luckily had an idea of what Wisp was about to do so he wasn't thrown off balance too much.

"So what's a bigger dick more, taking your time to come over to say hi, or making explosions eveyfuckingwhere. Seriously, try to tell me with a straight face that me exploding all over the roof like that out of nowhere WOULDN'T have ended in a fight. But like I said before, I forgive you for the hurtful words that you've said to me for no reason, because well, you guys didn't know how my powers worked and made assumptions. Now that they've been cleared up, shits all good."

 

@Wisp: Nimbus stares at you as you talk rapidly and insistently, his eyes glazing over the longer you keep talking. He perks up when you demonstrate your power though, steadying himself against the floating rock that is the Martian.

For his part the green skinned cape simply floats in place, his costume fluttering around him as the dual vacuum/explosion effect of your power. His mask hides most of his features but what does show through displays only stoic alertness. He doesn't appear to be relaxing at all despite your attempts to calm the situation.

"Okay, whatever you say, dude. Explosions and stuff. Gotcha," says Nimbus. "Anyway, look. I'm going to be honest here. This shit looks shady as hell. It wasn't too bad when it was just Zeph here hanging around, but now there's two of you and you seem to be working together."

@Zephyr: Nimbus takes a moment to take a breath, appearing to decide what his next course of action is.

"So, Zeph. I'm going to ask you one more time. What's happening here? You've dodged the question a couple of times now and I've let it go because we're friends, but this is looking less and less cool the longer I stand here. So, pal. Please tell me you're not doing anything shady here."

(Nimbus rolled a 6 for his social attack. Zephyr: Defend with Rapport or Empathy, depending on whether you want to go for a poker face or the emotional approach to this.)

 

Wisp just sighs. "It's really that hard to figure out? Two guys who are both wind based teleporters, both of which have their hair turn white from their powers are look kinda similar. Where one of them is older, better looking, and constantly having to take care of the younger ones fuckups? How do you think we know each other?"

"Also, kind of a dick move to be assuming that a friend is doing shady shit based on what exactly? His inability to get chinese food properly?"

 

(Defense roll 4U1+1+2 from invoked aspect Fooled Me Once=0. Really rolz, a -3?)

"Wisp, just shut up. All you've done so far is make everything worse. Nimbus, Martian, just because I'm involved with twits like this one doesn't mean everything I'm doing is instantly suspicious. I'm still your friend."

I pause briefly, shoving my hands into my pockets somewhat uncomfortably. "I'll probably see you guys when I come to see Copycat. So long." And with that he disappears from sight, reappearing several blocks over, out of sight and, hopefully, hearing.

"AAAAARRRRRGHHHHH! Mother fucking asshole had to come along and ruin a lovely conversation.... frickin-... god.... fuck." He trails off into colorful swearing and death threats under his breath, which is accompanied by a 'thud,' indicating a head impacting a wall, and then a long sigh.