[October 2nd. 11 PM] [Night has fallen over lower Manhattan, but, since this is New York we're talking about, things have not yet gone dark. People are still milling around on the streets in most neighborhoods, cabbies are still cutting off other cabbies, and in general the city is lit to a degree not found in most places at this time of night.] {Horus finds herself flying over Chinatown as part of her semi-regular patrol. Things have been pretty hectic for her the past few weeks, as she's seen more superhuman combat in that period than she did in her first couple of months in costume.] [Tonight, though, everything has been fairly quiet. Well, aside from the cabbies, but that's almost white noise to a real New Yorker.] [Session Start] * Horus flies relatively slowly over the tall buildings of Manhattan (though really, Chinatown isn't THAT tall), keeping a keen eye and ear out for any trouble. She's in full costume: masked with her body covered in brilliant gold and silver feathers. That, along with the wings (also made out of pure light) would make her impossible to miss. Assuming anyone looks up, anyway. [Horus flies over a couple of rooftop parties in Chinatown, and can hear people call out to her as she passes over. The Horus brand is pretty popular in this town, apparently.] * Horus grins a little, but she keeps flying. Waving would be... well, they probably wouldn't know she waved anyway. Too much light everywhere. [Suddenly, Horus gets a strange feeling. The original Horus described things to her... after a while, people in this line of work get almost a sixth sense about danger and intrigue. Is someone about to attack her? Is someone in danger?] [Or is it just her cel phone vibrating to indicate she has a text message?] * Horus hovers in the air, glances around nervously, and then realizes that it actually is her phone. She flies to the nearest rooftop and touches down, folding her wings as she pulls out her cell. * Horus flips it open and checks the text message! Go living in the 21st century. [Horus sees that it's a blast text from Sister Admin. ] [Horus is, from where she's just landed, a few minutes from the seaport.] * Horus closes her phone, tucks it away, and spreads her wings. She takes off, flying much faster than before. [Horus streaks through the sky like a person with a mystical Egyptian falcon mask flying quickly over lower Manhattan. The wind whips over her face, but only because she allows it; the cool night air brings her even greater focus.] * Horus looks down, because that's where everything is, really. Axes, axes... [Within a few minutes, she's over the piers at the South Street Seaport, and quickly spots the commotion... a group of people being herded to the end of the pier by three men in black suits, each holding a throwing axe.] * Horus narrows her eyes and dives in. As she does so, she pushes her right hand in front of her. Right where she indicates - on the center axe man - sunlight explodes outward: tremendously bright and easily blinding. Too bad all three of them are stuck in the middle of it. [The three axe guys reel back, blinded. So do a few of the hostages; one shouts that he's been permanantly disabled and intends to sue.] [Suddenly, a large metal ring flies out and hooks onto Horus' foot; before she can react, it shrinks down to the size of an anklet. As Horus starts to circle the pier to find the source, she find herself jerked back out of her flight once she gets around 100m away from the pier.] * Horus grimaces as she's jerked back, which is none too pleasant. "What in the fuck," she mutters to herself before forming what looks like must be a lightsaber out of... well, light. She swings it at the anklet. [It has no effect. Suddenly, a voice calls out from below. "Don't bother, pretty bird. You're stuck here with me now." Horus can see the source of a voice is a man climbing out of the water. He's wearing a dark jumpsuit and an animal mask with two curved horns, and is holding another metal ring.] [Horus quickly recognizes the man as a fairly infamous assassin-for-hire... the sadistic ChakRam, who utilizes a variety of specialized sharpened metal rings to dispatch his targets.] * Horus spins in the air to spot where he is. "'Salright, ChakRam. Don't need to move to kick your ass." So saying, she spins the lightsaber she just created in one hand and hurls it at the assassin below. [ChakRam nimbly sidesteps the attack. "So you know of me and my work, then? I'm flattered. I might be persueded to make your death a quick one... probably not, though." He idly twirls a chakram around his wrist, and then flicks it up at you.] * Horus sees the attack coming this time and flits to one side, avoiding it, as she's surrounded by an aura of flames. "Yeah? How much're they payin' ya?" [Meanwhile, the goons are stumbling about blindly in a tight bunch. "She's up there?" "Where?" "Yeah, where?" "By the shiny thing!" "Everything's a shiny thing!" "Just throw!" They all throw... and hit each other. "Dude, not cool." "Totally." "This sucks." *THUMPTHUMPTHUMP*] [ChakRam stops as he's about to respond, and shakes his head. "Not enough... although I bet I'll be able to sell those pretty feathers of yours for a nice price after I'm done plucking you."] * Horus ignores the goons, because they're pretty good at baby sitting themselves, and focuses on the assassin below. "Sorry. 'm attached to these, y'know?" A bow of pure light forms in her hands, and she notches an arrow - also of pure light - and fires downward. This time, her aim is true. [ChakRam really should spend less time making creepy threats and more time dodging the arrow of burny that smacks into his chest. "Yes, well, detatchment is something of a specialty of mine." He chucks another chakram at you!] * Horus calls, "You mean a joke!" as she dodges again. She fires another arrow at ChakRam, and when it gets close, it bursts into sunlight - much like what happened with his goons. [ChakRam manages to cover his eyes at the last moment, and growls. "A joke? A JOKE?! I once killed a man from two hundred paces with a coaster!" He chucks another chakram at you; meanwhile, the one he threw last round seems to be curving back in your direction...] * Horus laughs, but that doesn't last long, as the chakram he threw cuts right through her fire and into her leg. She tumbles through the air, spots the other chakram, and manages to avoid in time. "Fuck this," she mutters to herself, and dives towards ChakRam, swooping over him and blasting him with another ray of light as she goes. [ChakRam takes another hit, and is smouldering pretty nicely right now. He pulls out a glowing chakram, spins it around his wrist for a few seconds, then throws it at you.] * Horus practically does a barrel roll to avoid that one and spins to face him, wings outstretched. Apparently she's done with words, as she doesn't say anything. She just pulses with a brilliant silver light, and ChakRam explodes into the same cold light. [ChakRam obviously wasn't expecting that, and gets buffeted by the wave of energy. By the time it fades, he's down on one knee. "You are not... the amateur... I was led to expect. I'll not make this mistake twice." And then he disappears in a puff of smoke.] [As he does, the ring around your ankle enlarges and falls off, and that blue glowing chakram he threw last turn curves back at you.] * Horus frowns at ChakRam's disappearing act, and she's so preoccupied that she completely doesn't see the glowing blue death on its way. She takes it right in her back with a scream of surprise and is knocked out of the air. * Horus at least manages to regain control of herself for those last few feet and floats to the ground instead of landing messily. [Several of the civies rush to check if Horus is okay as she lands; the litigious one from before tries to give her a business card, but two others pick him up and toss him into the river.] Thanks... ow. Can he swim? ["Probably." "Of course sharks can swim." "Hey, don't insult sharks!" "Point taken." "Thanks for saving us from those guys with the axes that seem to have melted! Does that happen a lot?"] [And, indeed, the axe guys have melted, leaving steaming piles of goop, suits, and axes.] * Horus would pinch the bridge of her nose, but the mask is in the way. "Yeah, no prob. Nah, people don't usually get attacked with axes. So y'don't need to worry about... melted?" * Horus turns to look, sees that they *have* melted, and blinks. She walks closer to check out what they melted into. [Goop, mostly. Thick, burbling, steaming goop.] ... Ew. * Horus nudges some axe guy clothes with one foot to see if she can get any clues. ["Man, that's the nastiest thing I've ever seen. And I'm the plumber on call at Penn Station."] * Horus says, distantly, "That's a shitty job." She turns to look at the small crowd of hostages. "Any of y'guys a chemist or somethin'? Know somethin' about what the fuck these guys melted into?" [You see goop. And a whole buncha axes hidden inside the suits. Also, because you're so perceptive, you notice a woman in a dark red jump suit, holding a big ol' rifle, slowing coming down from the sky.] [Even not coated in superheated plasma, she's instantly recognizable as Solaris. The crowd seems suitably impressed as she lands on the pier. "Are you okay, Horus?"] * Horus 's eyes go a bit wide upon seeing Solaris, but she covers quickly. "Yeah, I'm cool. ChakRam was just stirring up shit with these axe guys... everyone's okay now 'cept the dude who got chucked in the river." [Said guy climbs back onto the pier. "I'm okay!" he shouts, right before he's attacked by a flock of seagulls.] [The crowd cheers for the seagulls.] [Solaris watches this with bemusement. "I love this city. You good to fly? I need to talk to you."] * Horus nods. "Sure." [Solaris nods, and lifts off. You follow, much to the disappointment of the crowd, who have been snapping pictures. A minute or so later, you land on a nearby roof. "ChakRam, you said?"] * Horus nods. "Yeah, was definitely him. Didn't manage to take him out, though. Disappeared in a cloud of smoke." She closes her eyes and concentrates, the gem in her mask flashing, and the feathers mostly disappear - what's left is a masked woman with a golden sheen. She smiles sheepishly. "Sorry, this is a little lower profile." Any idea who could've put a hit on me? ["You did well to even defeat him. ChakRam's dangerous... and expensive." She nods. "We have a pretty good idea."] Awesome. Who? ["Earlier today, Eternal Warrior captured a villain with an encoded list on him. Just after Sister Admin sent out the message about the seaport, we finished decoding it... it was a list of heroes. Your name was on it."] * Horus nods, processing what Solaris said. "Who else was on it? I can go find some of them." [Solaris shakes her head. "Not awesome, unfortunately. That list was the same list we'd been putting together for heroes to approach and recruit. Somehow, the villain behind the recent spike in attacks got a hold of that list."] Right. [She grins. "Fortunately, it looks like you can handle yourself pretty well."] * Horus laughs. "Yeah, well. After that thing with Set..." She shakes her head. "Seriously, do you need any help finding the others?" ["No, we've got it covered, I think. Sister Admin keeps track of people's patrol patters, so we should be able to track everyone down. Besides, I'd prefer if you kept a bit of a lower profile until the meeting."] ( patrol PATTERNS ) * Horus stretches her arms behind her back, then winces a little at the cut that's still most definitely there. "Gotcha. An' this meeting's the one you're recruiting us for?" ["That's right. You interested in joining a special sub-team of the Rampart designed to hunt down the villains involved in the organization beind this whole mess?"] * Horus grins. "*Am* I? What're the hours, and do you have dental?" ["Grueling, and yes."] Then hell yes. My dayjob has shit for benefits. [Solaris chuckles. "Ah yes, the dayjob. Bane of superheroes everywhere." She reaches into a pouch on her belt, and hands you a small device; it has a big red button on one side and a flat surface on the other. "Nanomedpak. It'll help with the healing." ( +] ) * Horus takes it. "Awesome, thanks." She checks it over to see how it works and then places the correct end against the skin on her back. She presses the button. ["October 6th, 10 PM. Go up to any Metrocard machine and touch the upper-left corner of the screen three times. That'll bring you to us."] [Horus feels a slight pinprick; soon after, the bleeding of her wounds slows, and her back stops hurting as much.] * Horus nods. As she hands the nanomedpak back, she asks, "How'll you be sure you won't get kids who're just goofin' off?" [Solaris smirks. "We do our research." She pauses, and the smirk fades. "Though there isn't exactly a lot to pick from..."] [She shakes her head. "We're confident in our choices, and our adversary must think pretty highly of them too, to send agents the calibur of ChakRam."] Yeah. * Horus thinks for a moment, a bit glumly, then follows up with, "Who else are you asking?" ["You'd probably only know one of them... not too many name heroes left to choose from."] Right. Wouldja mind sharing who that is, at least? * Horus grins. "If you're formin' a team, I'd like ta know what I'm gettin' into." ["... that's a discussion best left until we make sure everyone survives to get to the meeting."] * Horus blinks, taken aback by Solaris' evasiveness, then just says, "All right. " [Solaris smiles weakly. "Sorry for the cloak-and-dagger answer, but we're all a bit paranoid since that list got out."] It's cool. I'll lay low until the 6th. ["I appreciate your understanding. Any other questions before I go?"] ... Yeah. Any idea what those axe guys were made of? ["Clones. Fairly cheaply made. Rich frat-boy type decided to go into villainy, but didn't want to get his hands dirty, so he bought some black-market cloning gear and churned out an army of himself. They call themselves the Axe Effect."] * Horus groans. That's... that's so... I try to go non lethal, but I'm gonna kill him myself. ["Exactly. Not much of a threat, but annoying in numbers. We've been trying to track the original down for a year without much luck." She snickers. "You should hear what Eternal Warrior keeps threatening to do when he finds the guy. One of those clones knocked a beer out of his hand a few months back, and he's still angry."] * Horus chuckles. "I bet." No more questions that can't be answered later. Thanks for the healing. [Solaris nods. "Stay safe. And if you can get word to your predecessor, give him my regards." With that, she flies off.] * Horus sighs as Solaris goes. "Yeah," she murmurs to herself. "I'll do that." The gem in her mask flares, and once again, she's cloaked in feathers. Horus spreads her wings and takes off, heading home. [Intro End]