The Golden Age (IC Superhero Roleplay)

[The Crimson Crow]

Location: Alley

The supers were all gone by this point. The cops staked the crime scene, taping a perimeter. As the cops bickered about the situation of the crime, the detective partners showed up. Stepping out of the automobile, a third man was with them. The two detectives escorted the man inside the perimeter. One cop nudged, looking cautiously at the guest. "Is that who I think it is, boss?" The detectives simultaneously nodded. "Dr. Crimson will be taking a third eye view of this scene." Conner nodded as a simple hello.
Observing the scene, Conner paced anxiously around. This was it. The golden ticket. That resource might of not been such a false tip after all. There must of been half of dozen of them here. Conner studied the blood patterns. Squatting down by one of the men, he reached for the handgun with a gloved hand. "Hey you can't touc-" The cop was interrupted by one of the detectives. "Shut the hell up." The cop displayed no sign of objection. Conner observed the gun, twirling it. He checked the chamber. "It was fired." Conner looked straight ahead, previewing the line of fire. "Definitely the work of a super. Not only able to avoid the bullet but to reverse it. Hmm." Conner stirred inside. These kind of abilities are hard to challenge.

Conner swabbed every blood sample he could find, moving to his next point of interest. There were dents in the ground. It couldn't be a rough landing. The impact wasn't big enough. It was frail and almost had a pattern. Conner didn't have enough to conclude with so he moved to the next spot.

This one was particularly interesting. A dead man with vomit. Conner observed down the man's throat. Cuts. Several of them. They were thin. Conner looked around him. It was some kind of tool but it had to of been controlled remotely. Conner felt the ground before looking back into the throat of the man. He whistled to one of the detectives, calling him over. "Light a match." The detective obeyed, striking a single flame and gently lowering into the mans mouth. Conner saw what he needed too. The cuts all matched lengths, severity, and size. It had to be some kind of rectangular device. Material to make cuts like that would be almost plastic... perhaps cardboard?

Conner rose to his feet. "We're done here." Conner began to make his exit only to be stopped by one of the detectives whispering in his ear, "Want this public? And the cops?" Conner paused. "Keep it covered." Conner replied, glancing to the few cops at the scene. "Make it look like accidents."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 Months later. Location: Town hall press conference.

"Dr. Crimson." A lady called. "The public is ready for you." Conner Crimson was seated in a luxurious leather chair, in obvious thought. He nodded to the woman, standing up calmly. He began to make his way to outside the town hall where the podium was set up. He paused before becoming insight, allowing the mayor to say his introduction.

"People of Geld. A year ago a great man suffered a tragedy no man should endure. But after constant support and recuperation this man not just back to himself. He is more. He has created a new sense of motivation and is back to better out city and better our world more than ever. I have no doubt that this gift of God will bring us priceless solutions for all our problems. I have the honor to introduce the return of the man of the century. The founder of Crimson tech, ladies and gentleman, Dr. Conner Crimson!" The mayor sprouted a white smile, Conner moving insight of the public. As the people applause, the mayor gave a firm handshake to Conner, placing a hand on his shoulder. "It's good to have you back." Conner forced a smiled, moving his way to the podium. As the echos of claps came to a halt, Conner adjusted his glasses.

"A year ago I lost a child. I also lost the love of my life. But I have also came to a realization. They are irreplaceable but I do have another child. Another love. That love is greatness of the world. That I will continue to work restlessly to better the future. The future I know my daughter would of wanted. And that child. Oh that child. That child the city of Geld." Conner observed the vast crowd, tapping his fingers rhythmically on the podium. "Crimson Tech has begin a new contingency. Technology is becoming advanced and I can assure you that the products we have planned will not just change the Geld. It will change the world. And that is our ultimate goal. To be better than what we were the day before. To be a beacon for the children. To be innovative, fearless, and bold like none before. To just grow a definite path." Applause rose once again and the reporters began to spring the hands up like weeds.

"Dr. Crimson. What are you matters of opinion on supers?" Conner exhaled, remaining collected. "You may think i'm biased. But I see the destruction they can cause. However. With proper guidance and maintenance supers will not be a feared rule of Geld or anywhere. Instead they can be what we all want them to be."

"And how do you plan to do that" The reporter rebutted. Conner smiled, leaning into the podium. "Baby steps."

More reporters thrust voices to Conner, questions flying around him like a swarm of gnats. "People, please." Conner exclaimed, shushing the crowd. "In honor of good faith I am hosting a ball downtown this evening. The following message is addressed to the broadcast. I invite all innovative and bright minds to come. Crimson Tech's new policy now deals with the coordination of supers. We are currently seeking a recruiting handful of the best. If you want to stand for something better and be an idol of justice. An idol of peace. Come. Perhaps you do not know how to control your powers. Or perhaps you do even know the potential of your power. We can work together to augment a system. We want to make you the hero you can be. I hope to see you there." With that Conner concluded, leaving the stage and being escorted away from the crowd.

"Wow. Gotta give to that guy, he sure does not give up. People like him are why I feel safe out in the streets. And I do admire his valiant efforts of bettering the city but you also gotta keep in mind that there are villains out there just as there are heroes. And if there is one way to create a target for yourself that would be it. But if you know anything about Dr. Crimson is that he does not cower to anyone." A broadcaster commented on the returning speech of Dr. Crimson.

////////​

Conner stepped in the basement. There were software on the desks, blanketed with various metals and devices and engineering parts. Conner worked his away around the tables, grabbing a pencil. He looked straight up, focusing his attention on multiple printouts, pinned on a board. He traced his pencil over the pictures one by one. A picture of Sonorous. A picture of Aeros. A picture of Silver Witch. A picture of... the pencil stopped tracing. This one. Conner circled the face..

Tarot.​

 

[Cush Almighty]

Interactions: None
Actions: Walking streets of Geld, Sitting on bus stop bench.

A young boy walks the streets of Geld holding a brown duffle bag. He's wearing a deep blue zipped jacket with a white shirt underneath, Jeans of the same color and blue converse. The look on his face made others look twice as if he was about to attack them. This is Earl Maxson, Also know as "Sonorous." He's been having a hard month. It all started 3 months ago when Earl was helping end the Geld riots. When he came home that night he found his parent waiting. They couldn't sleep without knowing if he was alright or not. When he came home he had bruise's on his face, Cut above the eye, Bloody lip and red knuckles.

Naturally, His parent's were worried. They took him to the hospital as soon as possible. When it was his turn to be checked it was early morning. The Doctor was able to stitch Earl's cut closed. The problem started when the Doctor took a look at his body and found a number of wounds he had that were already healed or in the process. Earl asked the Doctor to remain silent but he refused and reported to his parents. Once they arrived home they started questioning him on his other wounds. His folks weren't morons so they knew Earl had been up to something. He remained aloof and tried his best to avoid questions.

Over the months his parents started to watch him more carefully. His mother even had his father unscrew the doorknob from his door. This is when his mother found he wasn't even home late at night most of the time. One night in the beginning of October things boiled over. While Earl was out seeing a picture with a girl he met at The Capital, His parents were rummaging through his belongings. That's when they found his costume and pieced everything together. When he return home they wasted no time interrogating him. His parents tried to convince him to give it all up, Especially his Mother before he gets himself killed. They told him to just leave it to professional and the people who knew how to be heroes. This just set Earl off and ended with him being given an ultimatum, Either quit his late night activities or find a new place to live. To their dismay, Earl grabbed his clothes, Cash and duffle bag and left the apartment that morning. It may not

It had been almost an entire month since Earl left home. The first few night were spent at a friend's house. Things were alright there, Crowded but a place out of cold. He lasted 2 days before mouthing off to his friend's Father. He would come home drunk and just start trouble, Probably just for the sack of it. Unsurprisingly Earl was kicked out that night before he could the asshole on the ground. Earl decided to vent his anger out on whatever scum he found up to no good on the streets that night as Sonorous. As the month went on, Earl bounced from place to place even sleeping at The Capital a few times where he kept his saxophone. He couldn't carry such a thing around Geld like that, He might find it gone one day. At least at The Capital his instrument is safe.

Earl takes a seat on a nearby bus stop bench and ponders his next decision. First things first, He needed to get a place of his own and another job wouldn't help. He could try to get a job at Mr. Kelly's butcher shop. How hard could it be chopping up animals? Earl leaned back and looked up at the blue sky and watched the clouds move over Geld. Without looking he dug around in his jacket's pocket and pulled out a pack of Wrigley's juicy fruit gum. He pulled a stick of it out and undid the paper around it. He then placed it into his mouth and began to chew. "I hope things work out for me." He whispered to himself. "Would suck if I ended up back home." If that was to happen then he would get to be a hero anymore. Maybe if Earl wasn't so headstrong he could of talk them into understanding but he learned it all from them. Nothing stops a Maxson, Obstinate by nature. Someone has to give and it wasn't going to be him.

 

[AshenAngel]

"Fair enough, friend... That's all I can ask for."

Leone couldn't help but think of snow when he looked back at what had happened in the past few months. Such unique things, snowflakes. Always fated to die within seconds. Talking with Adalberto was almost easy, shockingly so. That guy had gotten farther than many a few people in the seemingly short time that they'd talked.

"Friend." The Russian quietly scoffed as he knelt down and picked a newspaper out of a small shoebox in his closet. Setting Sun and Mafia Boss Found Dead. He wouldn't be able to forget that guy. He quietly looked over the paper for a long moment before putting it back in the box and putting it back in the bottom of his closet.

He carefully stood up and made his way to the door. Picking up his briefcase, he quietly looked over his apartment before heading out for work. He was still putting time in down at the docks, but he tried to take the bus whenever he could. Less risk of getting shot that way. As he approached the bench, he took note of the young colored man sitting there. His better than average hearing picked up on the teen's whispered words, and his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. He recognized this guy.

His mind was brought back to that alley from before the riot. это он. There was a chance of being recognized by the guy, but there wasn't much that he could do about it. "You looking for work?" He asked, his Russian accent kept to a minimum in hopes of avoiding recognition. Now it was just a waiting game as he took a seat on the bench and listened for a response.

 

[Cush Almighty]

Interactions: @AshenAngel

A man had walked up to Earl and sat down next to him. Earl kept his former posture and adverted his from the sky to the man next to him. The man he was looking at was white and sitting next to him. He looked familiar to Earl and the events of that night flashed into his mind. He never managed to get a good look at the guy bust was sure it was him. His partner had something about himself that drew your eye on him, Catching all the light and leaving him in the dark. When the man asked if Earl was looking for work it caused Earl to sit up. "It depends on the kind of work?" He responded still chewing his gum. How convenient this all was, He had just been thinking of how to score a job and then out of the blue, This guy pops up after 3 months with a possible offer.

 

[LuckycoolHawk9]

Nathan took a deep breath. Today, he was going to meet Veronica at the diner, but this time it would be a happier occasion. It wouldn't be to ask about his brother, that mess was resolved, or as resolved as the affair was going to get. He was going to invite her and whoever she wanted to bring to a party at his parent's house. " Come on, Nate, we got to meet up with her and I hate being late," Scott called to his younger brother.

Nathan smiled and nodded, as the two brothers walked to the diner, an invitation in hand, hoping that she said yes. It would make the party slightly more tolerable. He hated these gathering and it wasn't a secret. He deplored the talk about rogue supers, how the people needed to be controlled, almost as if he wasn't one of them. It insulted him behind all belief. He arrived at the diner and went to go and find Veronica. Hopefully it would be easy, he had made an appointment just in case.

@Banana-senpai @Mysty @Zarko Straadi

 

[Zarko Straadi]

Emilie:
Night of Monday, July 1, 1948
Vander and April waited silently in the darkness. Upon coming home, April had gone in to check on Emilie, and found her bed made up with pillows to look like she was in it. With each passing minute, worry began to compete with anger. He kept trying to remind himself that Emilie had never been a troublemaker or a prankster, never the one itching to go out at night with the wrong sort of friends. Her friends were all good girls like her; a few phone calls had confirmed that all of them were home with their parents, and none of them reported Emilie present, or even having heard from her. Not even any juicy rumors about a boy, or nervousness in any of their voices indicating an effort to cover for her. Vander checked the glow-in-the-dark pips on his watch face. As much as he wanted to believe she was just out for a walk or down at the soda fountain drowning her sorrows in too much sundae, she should have been home by now. Five more minutes, and he was calling the cops...and Veronica Fox.

He checked his watch again. Just as he was about to go for the phone, a shadowy figure sneaked up to Emilie's bedroom window and slid it open. As worry dissipated, anger returned in full force. The window slid up slowly, and the figure ducked under it. Vander waited until she was halfway through, in a suitably awkward position for getting caught red-handed, before he flipped on the light switch. Instead of Emilie--some costumed freak! In a swift reflex motion, he stepped forward, seized the intruder by the throat, and readied a fist to pull the masked face into.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH--"

"Dad!" At the sound of his daughter's voice, Vander immediately let go and backed away, allowing her to stumble into the room.

"Emilie! What the devil do you think you're doing?!"

"I..." With a trembling hand, she pulled up her mask, revealing a red welt on her chin that would become a proper bruise by morning. Vander started taking in the particulars of her costume. The Joker in the deck, or something along those lines. He'd seen her in the process of making it from time to time, but hadn't asked her about what hero it was for.

"You never took those cards back," he said in a low voice. "You lied to us."

"I, I did, but the shop wasn't there anymore! Not empty and abandoned, gone! And none of the other shopkeepers around had ever heard of it or saw it! I...I don't know how it could be there and then not be there! And I was scared you'd want to burn the cards, but I don't know what'll happen if we do...I...I guess I thought of it...like getting a draft notice...like it was something I was meant to do..."

"And you kept that from us all this time. Made that costume right under our noses, then you sneak out the first chance you get. Emilie, we trusted you." The past tense of that verb shot like an arrow through her heart.

"I didn't plan to, honest! But after you left...I started thinking that...that if supervillains come after my family, it'll be because of me...my fault...and I have to be able to stop them...have to get good at it...but I'm not good at it, not any better than the villains, but I saved somebody, helped save somebody, but I'm not good enough, I'm not good enough!" she said, then broke into tears. When her eyes flicked up to meet his briefly during her speech, Vander saw something there, and in the way she was shaking, that chilled him to the bone. He stepped toward her, put a hand on her shoulder, then, careful to avoid her bruise, he used a finger of his other hand to turn her chin up and look into her eyes. He knew that look. He'd seen it more times than he could count, and sometimes in the mirror.

"What happened?"

Emilie started into her story while April looked on with worry in her eyes. There was something about them, something they now shared that she didn't understand...something that had come back with her husband from the War.

"...then I heard this high-pitched scream, and, and I knew I had to do something. There were these three big men, and they were beating up one guy who was on the ground and they were kicking him and calling him a fairy..."

"...then he was on top of me and he...he grabbed me...in...certain places and he...asked if I was a, a virgin...he was going to..." Emilie fell silent, eyes wide, skin deathly pale. She had never seen her father look so much like he wanted to kill.

"This man. Where is he?"

"He's...he's dead."

"You?" Emilie nodded, eyes brimming with tears. "How?"

"I...made a card go down his throat...then he was choking and I couldn't make it come back out..."

"You beat me to him," Vander said softly. "But goddammit Emilie! Whatever gave you the idea you were supposed to go out and fight people like that?! Now you're gonna see that man's eyes for the rest of your life! When you kill a man...it never leaves you. His death is part of you now. You've seen the elephant, and it's something you were never supposed to see. Watching the boys grow, I've tried to...to make myself ready, if we ever have to fight the Russians, to see that look in their eyes, and try to raise them to be strong. But it wasn't supposed to be you, not you, never you. I was supposed to save you from this!"

"Daddy, it's not your fault!"

Vander shook his head. "The buck stops here."

"But if that magic shop hadn't appeared to me, if I hadn't gone in, if those guys hadn't gone out looking to hurt people, if...if I'd been able to pull that card back out...I'm just as bad as the villains!"

Vander took her firmly by the shoulders. "Make no mistake Emilie, you've got things to feel guilty for, but that isn't one of them. If it was so easy for that man to try what he did, then he's done it to other girls who didn't have the power to stop him, and would have gone right on doing it to other girls if he'd lived, because you couldn't testify against him in court without telling the world you're...whatever you call yourself."

"Tarot," Emilie mumbled.

"So what are we going to do?" April said. "If the police find the card in that man's throat..."

"As long as she doesn't go out there again, there'll never be a pattern they can track back to Emilie. When they get a look at his rap sheet, or run down either of the witnesses, it'll be a clear case of self-defense. They've got bigger fish to fry. Let's talk about this tomorrow." Vander turned back to Emilie.

"Don't think you're off the hook. But what that kid said about you being no better than the villains is a load of bull. Villains go out looking to hurt people. You went out looking to help. And if anybody ever attacks you, you've got a right to defend yourself by whatever means necessary. Even roses have thorns. But I don't care what some old hag in some crazy magic shop thinks, a life of violence isn't for you! It's not...you deserve so much better!"

...

Night of Tuesday, July 2, 1948

Sirens wailed in the distance, filling the silence around the family dinner table. Emilie's brothers looked at her with new expressions on their faces, wonder mixed with worry.

"OK, you're right, we don't know what would happen if we burned the cards," Vander acknowledged reluctantly. "So how does it work? Can you control every card, everywhere in the world?"

"...No. Only cards that are close enough. I might get better with practice, but right now, I can kinda barely feel some cards in the neighbors' houses."

"So there's a range limit? What if we put the cards in a metal box, took them out and buried them somewhere in the countryside?"

"I...I don't know. I don't know if I need the Deck close by to have my power, or if it's just what gave me the power. I...guess we could try it...but what if I'm supposed to...I mean, if I have power to help people, shouldn't I help people?"

"She's kinda got a point, Dad. Our little sis...is a superhero!" Jacob said.

"Don't go encouraging her! She could have been shot dead last night! If that crazy witch had made her bulletproof and able to shoot lightning out of her fingertips, maybe--but cards? What kind of--" Vander said, cut off by the sound of a different type of siren: the low-starting howl of Civil Defense alarms. He got up from the table and turned on the radio.

--has reached as far as the Crown Heights district. Police and supers are responding, but citizens are urged to return to their homes, stay inside and lock their doors until order has been restored. Citizens are to make no attempt to confront the rioters. They are armed and dangerous, and there are reports that some of them have powers.

Outside, the approaching rumble of engines, at least one truck and several motorcycles. Whoops and hollers.

"They aren't just in Crown Heights. They're here!" April said.


To Be Continued....

 

[AshenAngel]

The way the guy looked at him said it all. The Russian supposed caution wasn't the best way to address the situation. But, discretion was a necessary item. "Nothing like the circumstances we met under." Leone replied evenly, watching for the bus. "It's just moving crates down at the docks. It's honest work, first come first serve." He explained, glancing back to the young man.

He kept a hand resting tentatively on his suitcase. He felt like he was being watched. This spot was a bit too public for whoever was watching to try and pull something for now. The bus would be here soon. Then he'd come up with a solid plan to either ditch or confront whoever was watching him. His posture didn't show any kind of unease, just his standard moderately relaxed position.