RPG: Parst City Super Hero Role Playing Game

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Tod pressed hard on her bullet wound and wound the bandage tightly around her shoulder. Sam winced, but did not dare close her eyes in fear that he would disappear. She stared at the ghost, and her heart raced because she was sure she had seen him before, somewhere. In a dream perhaps. She had so many strange, disturbing dreams. She wondered why he had chosen to hide from Tod and not from her. The man's face seemed to soften a bit and as he revealed to her the answer. Sam smiled. It was true from her experience thus far with Tod that he might kill first and ask questions later. Still. She was able to throw objects around like nothing. She stared at him and reminded him of that. The man smiled widely. Sam blushed, remembering that she believed he was a ghost. A whole lot of good a fridge would do if she threw it at him.

Sam stood up and mumbled a thank you to Tod, who stood up as well, watching her move across the room. She walked toward the blind man, who did not move. She stood almost face to face with him, and then she stopped. He stared right past her with his milky, almost transparent eyes. She put her hands up as if to press against an invisible wall. She leaned closer and waited to feel his breath on her hair. He was probably holding it, seeing as he could read her mind. With her gift, she pushed at him, and he stumbled back one step. Sam dropped her hands quickly. She was able to move him; that was real enough for her.

"What do you want?" she asked inside her head. At that moment, Tod took her arm and turned her around. His eyes searched hers, and she was very much hoping that whoever this stranger was, he would explain himself soon, because Sam was finding it very hard to even consider lying to her new friend.

[FortisUmbra]

William was glad that Samantha had not reviled him yet to Raijin, but now that he was no longer a ghost in her eyes it meant that she was much more of a threat. And now she wanted to know why he was here? He didn’t really know the answer to that himself.

“My name is William Livingston.” William said “I am not going to lie to you about that. Tod on the other hand… well let’s just say that he is not being entirely truthful.” This got her curious but William had to talk fast before Raijin did something. But suddenly William got a better idea. “You want to know why I am here? Fine then we will talk alone.” William closed his eyes and within seconds Raijin fell to the ground completely unconscious.

Sam jumped back startled by her friend fainting. “What did you do?” she asked rather forcefully.

“I gave us the chance to talk without him interfering.” William said as he sat back down on the couch.

“Well then talk. Why are you here?” she replied as she sat down next to him.

“I don’t really know to tell you the truth. I saw him kill a man. Well man is a strong word. He was more of a…a… well I don’t really know what he was but I know he was not human. Well anyway this… thing killed a woman on the street and I was there and I saw…”

“Wait you saw? I thought you said you were blind?”

“Oh well I can see through the eyes of others, and since there was a large crowd there I got to see quite a bit. But anyway. I saw him kill this woman and to be completely honest I probably could have, or should have, done something to stop it, but I… well I just didn’t. I wanted to meet the man who had been brave enough to kill the thing and get justice. I didn’t expect that he would bring you with him.”

“If you want to meet him then why are you hiding from him?”

“I told you I’m a chicken. I was having second thoughts after getting here I changed my mind and got up to go when you two showed up.”

“Wait a second how did you get here in the first place?”

“The rats. They know how to get just about anywhere in the city and their vision isn’t half bad.”

“What did you mean when you said Tod wasn’t being entirely truthful?”

“Oh that. His name is not Tod.”

“It isn’t? Then what is it?”

“Raijin.” William was weary; he had never used his power so much in one day. “So you’re a defense attorney for the mayor? Any interesting cases?”

“That’s really creepy. The way you already know what I’m thinking.”

“Well you have been dwelling on it quite a bit.”

“Yes but now is not the time for that. You need to wake him up.” She said motioning towards Raijin.”

William considered this for a moment. If he woke him up and he was angry then it would only take a second to put him to sleep again but was a second fast enogh? William decided that he should wake him up. Glancing over his dream, which William found to be a little inappropriate, he told Raijin that it was time to wake up. He started stirring. “If he kills either one of us I blame you.” William muttered to Sam.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

"I can handle this, trust me." Samantha knelt down and helped Raijin up from the floor. She drew on her skills of dealing with clients who were conflicting with each other. She even had gas-mutants with dangerous powers try to destroy each other in her office. But so far, her power was the most dominant when it came to keeping the peace. Raijin rose from the floor and as she suspected, blamed her entirely for the attack.

"Wait." she said simply as a stream of white electricity charged across one of his hands. She set up a barrier of gravity in front of herself and pushed at him, letting him know she was aware of his attack. Her heart raced. She had expected him to try to move fast, as he did when he managed to get to the top of that building at such speed earlier. But not electricity. Samantha tried to imagine how she would be able to deflect electricity because she had never had to move anything that was not solid. This would be a real test to see if her control over the movement of things would help her here. She needed something for the electricity to hit. She did not like the idea of dying today.

"Listen to me." The negative gravity field was forceful enough between them that when Raijin took a step forward, he actually hit the barrier. He leaned against it, watching Sam. She continued. " I didn't attack you. Someone else is in the room." Raijin's eyes fluttered to the area around them and back to Sam.

"I see nothing." he said quietly.

"He's hiding." Samantha said, and looked over Raijin's shoulder to see the man standing right behind him. "I think... he wants to help you with something. Some creature you killed today. He knows about it, and wants to stop them too." Samantha was still unsure about what it all meant, but she hoped this statement would trigger something in Raijin. "And I know now.. that your name is Raijin." To this he became a bit more defensive, and behind him, the man bowed his head and reached out to Raijin. Samantha felt her mind being released as if her heart had broken; the loss was somewhat emotional. She brought her hand to her head and felt tears stream down her cheeks. And then looked over at the other two. Raijin had a look of confusion on his face, and the man still had his head bowed and hand extended.

[FortisUmbra]

William was tired of playing games. The girl was in trouble and he knew it. He could put Raijin to sleep again but that would solve very little, and anyway he still had to tell Raijin about the things last thoughts.

William took one step forward reaching out to Raijin and as William’s hand fell on his shoulder he spun around. He was about to let lose the lightning when William waked at his hand with his stick and the lightning flew off in the other direction blowing up a fire extinguisher.

Raijin’s anger at being tricked pulsated in William’s mind. “Who are you?” he said.

“My name is William Livingston. I have come because I know something about the creature you killed today.”

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Samantha had taken cover when the lightning shot off and blew up the fire extinguisher. She peered out from her hiding place and saw that the damage had left a black smokey mark on the wall. She was shaken, but excited too. She had seen some amazing gifts, but this one was definately the most explosive.

"Wow! Thank you for NOT pointing that at me!" she said, and came out. She walked up to the two men, dusting off her arms when she realised that some dust and fragments from the wall had gotten on her. "This, killing by a mutant, it's very rare. The mayor came to see me today, and he mentioned something about a murder involving mutants. Now... I don't believe in coincidences. I bet this is the same one. I mean, there have been murders since the peace time was established after the earth quakes, but I've never heard of one being done openly by any gas -mutants. Seems to me in my experience as a defense lawyer, they always send humans to do their dirty work. I mean, if someone was going around, say, electricuting people, it would only be a matter of time before they linked it to the mutants who could do that. Not that I know of any others who can do what you do." she motioned to Raijin. "Now me..." she put one hand on her hip and the other out like a tea pot. "I know of at least twelve others who can do what I do." she reached out with her extended arm and twisted her hand, lifting a chair without touching it. She brought it over and set it down gently in front of her. Throwing one leg over it she straddled the chair and rested her arms on the back of it, facing the two men.

"So." she said, as she watched Raijin and William continue to eye each other off. "I think we all have ways to be dangerous. But it is our duty to use our gifts for good whenever we can. If a gas mutant is using THEIR gift to kill people, they must be stopped. I want to help." she directed her look at William. "So, you got inside one of their heads. What's their evil plan?" Sam waved her hands around dramatically, and then folded her arms again on the chair and rested her chin, ready to listen. For a moment, she was reminded of the disappointing ending to the classic movie Independence day, where the president of the united states was attacked telepathically by the aliens. Once his men executed the alien rat a tat tat style, the president was all like, "I saw what they plan to do!" She was a little jealous that William could be inside people's minds. Now THAT would be a great gift for a lawyer to have.

[FortisUmbra]

“Well William this is the moment you have been waiting for.” William thought to himself then aloud he said “I don’t think you quite understand. I have absolutely no idea what their plan is.” He could tell this was a little anti climactic and felt the disappointment of the other two. “I don’t know everything about a person when I read their minds. In fact I know very little about him. As I said before he was not human. Or even a gas mutant for that matter. There is no difference between the minds of a mutant or a non-mutant, but this thing had a mind more complicated than anything I have ever encountered. What I do know was his last thought, because I hear the last thoughts of everyone who dies in the city.”

“Wait,” Raijin said “so you don’t know anything of any use to us at all?”

“That’s not true. For starters I have proved that he is not a gas mutant and second I know that whatever he is he is not alone.” This shocked them immensely but William knew that Raijin had thought it might be true. “The murder that you avenged was not the main crime just a diversion. I don’t know what the other crime was but I do know that another one of whatever he was committed it. The way he thought of him it was clear they were the same and that they were not alone.”

After this statement they sat in silence for a moment thinking.

“Do you know how many?” Sam asked.

“No”

“Well it’s obvious what we need to do isn’t it?” Raijin stated. Seeing that neither of them was going to reply, William only because he didn’t like the idea Raijin had come up with, Raijin said, “We need to get another one and have you interrogate him.” Raijin motioned towards William as he said the last part.”

“How do you expect to find one?” William asked.

Sam’s face lit up and William’s last hope of getting out of Raijin’s plan was wiped out as he saw what she remembered. “You can use the rats!” she said excitedly.

William sighed “fine, but this is going to take a while” William turned around and started tapping around until he found the couch again. He sat down and concentrated looking for rats and not just any rats but very special rats who knew what he was looking for. He sat…and he sat…and he sat…

[salemboy]

[Finally, I control my character.]

"So, not a gas-mutant," Raijin thought to himself. That wasn't much of a surprise. That thing had been way to weird, even for a gas-mutant. He had remembered seeing its pale, blood-drenched face looking up from the woman. It had been a horrid scene. If those things had done something else, it probably meant more people had died. And that means there was a body found...

"While you play with rats," Raijin said, moving towards the door. "I'm going to search for them the old fashioned way- looking." With that, he left the Warehouse. There was somebody he needed to see.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Sam pushed at warehouse door from across the room and it shut with a slam. She double paced across the room, moving her body too fast to see. She was in front of Raijin in a second. "If I need to contact you..." she said, standing very close to him. "What should we do?"

[salemboy]

Picking Sam up, Raijin set her aside and kept walking. "If we're both successful in our endeavors,we'll meet up," he said, walking down the street between warehouses. Then, deciding he needed to speed up, he stopped. Channeling his electricity through his feet, held it in for a few seconds. Then he let out the electricity, bolting himself upwards towards a power line. Grabbing on with one hand, he immediately felt the effects of the line. It began draining the electricity out of him.

In a way that he could never explain, he somehow allowed for his body to travel with the electricity. It was as if his body was also electricity, and it could flow in the same manner. So, Raijin allowed for his body to be taken by the wire, and within seconds was absorbed completely into it.

Raijin always compared it to being in a tunnel. A tunnel where somehow, he managed to move around, from one way to another, but never left or right or up or down. He would just move along the tunnel. At regular intervals, there would be a great window of light, giving him a view of whatever area an electrical appliance was in. He went along the tunnel, looking into living rooms, streets, showers, seeing many, many people pass by him. He continued along the multi-windowed tunnel, looking for one certain exit.

Seeing it, he reached out to it. Not with his hand, which was at the time nonexistant, but with his electricity. And as he did so, he began feeling his body extend and re-appear outside of the television he was exiting through. First his hand, then his entire arm. His head, body and other arm, and then finally, his legs and feet. In a matter of half of a second he had reappeared in front of a police officer on the couch, who had suddenly jumped up and spilled his coffee all over himself at the sight of Raijin.

"Jeeez!" the officer explained. "Tod, why do you always do that?!"

Raijin ignored the question. It was always that same question. "Jorge, I need to ask you for your help."

[FortisUmbra]

William was still looking for the right rats after Raijin left, and after a few minutes had found four. He still needed another one to verify that it was the right place. William could feel Sam getting antsy. He had started sometime after noon and it was almost nine. Then suddenly he found the fifth rat the one to complete the group. They all scurried up to him making a semicircle around his feet looking up at him. Sam was startled by the sudden appearance of the rats and watched as they seemed to converse with William.

“Pick up the man hole.” William said to Sam. Sam obeyed and watched as he claimed down and the rats followed.

William hared Sam splash down behind him and the rats started to lead them down the sewer.

They had been walking for a long time. The rats in front leading the way, followed closely by William taping in front of himself with his walking stick, and then finally Sam was walking a little bit farther behind the group. They walked for a long time taking odd turns and following the rats through the maze of the sewer system. The suddenly William stopped next to a latter.

“one of them is up there.” William told Sam. “Go get him. Don’t kill him, but do immobilize him. Be careful he’s going to be different than anything you have ever fought before.” William could feel that she was nervous and waited for her to do something.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

"Are you kidding?" Sam looked up, horrified. She was still dressed in her jogging clothes, and did not at all feel up for a fight. But william couldn't go either. She wished Raijin had given her a cell number to call. She cursed to herself, and climbed.

Moving the manhole cover off once she reached the top, allowed it to float so as not to scrape and make any noise, and carried bounced herself up with one push. She landed on the floor of a shop somewhere in the market sector. She could tell by the contents. This was an old area, still determined to sell crushed herbs and spices and fresh plants and other such items. All of these were mostly preserved and packaged now. The city did not allow for any kind of growth; all fresh produce was delivered from overseas or the country.

Sam scanned the area. The shop was dark and dusty, and there were barrels of spices and powders everwhere. There was room to the right, the back area, and to her left, the shop entrance. Someone was at the front counter, serving a customer. Sam peered around the wall and decided they were not who she was looking for. Sam felt a presense too close behind her and she stood bolt upright, freezing where she stood. Whoever it was , was breathing rattly, and was a good foot taller than her. Sam turned around and was looking into a black robe. She looked up into the face and what she saw made her utter one word.

"Help." she put her hands up to move the creature, and it started to fly back from her push, but not before it grabbed her hands and brought her with it, crashing them both against the far wall, spilling shelf after shelf of jars into a shower glass down on them.

[FortisUmbra]

William had thought that all he would need to do was distract the thing, which is why he had sent Sam up to fight it, but that didn’t seem to be enough. Sighing he felt Sam’s terror and thought it would be best to help her.

He searched around and found that the cashier was hiding behind the counter as the fight took place and with a few suggestions he stood up obediently and charged at the creature while William began to climb the latter into the shop.

The attack had surprised the creature and the cashier got it in a head lock. “Tie it up.” William said to Sam. William could tell that no one was left in the store but the creature, Sam, the cashier, and William. William commanded the cashier to leave the store and to lock up on the way out.

Sam informed him that the creature was tied up. William breathed. He had never tried to force information from anything. Whenever he had done it the person was unaware. Would it be harder when they were resisting?

William felt the things mind right in front of him and he started tapping around in front of his feet walking forward with his hand out stretched. As he looked at the things mind he realized something he had never noticed. The mind, which he had always seen as a light, seemed to be concentrated in one point. He placed his hand on that point and found it to be the things forehead. William closed his eyes and felt the thing twitching under his hand.

He found that the thing was resisting and it was much, much harder. It was like hitting at a wall with a bat, but William was making progress. He could feel sweat pouring down the side of his head felt the thing shaking violently under his hand. Then it screamed.

The scream was terrible. It was shrill and unearthly like nothing William had ever heard before. William to almost screamed for he felt the things pain as William passed into its mind. William smiled, relived that he had made it this far, but there was still much work to do.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Samantha was hurt badly, but William couldn't see that. Still, she felt compelled to help where she could, so she used her power to keep the creature from struggling too much while William searched his mind. In the back of her own mind, she worried about how this creature could be alone - and now long it would be before more would come. Her wrists were already bruising, but she decided it was just the force of the blow that gave it that strength.

William was sweating and trembling. Sam wanted to share his burden, she felt so terrible for him. But she did what she could do, and maintained her hold on the creature. Both she and William were draining fast. Then, Samantha noticed a smile on William's face. She took that as a sign of progress, but promised herself not to speak again until either her spoke, or they were interupted.

[FortisUmbra]

William was pacing himself. He found the mind very interesting and wished he could be typing up notes on his brail typewriter but he didn’t have time. The mind was like a complex web in which many other minds resided. He felt that he was on the edge of a great plane and he wanted desperately to reach the middle. It was as if he were on one string of the web and every time he wanted to go to another it was like there was another wall which he had to go through. He deduced that these were other minds and that for some reason they were all connected. What William was now trying to do was to disconnect the things mind from all the other in order to make it more understandable.

What William found even more strange was that in the things mind there seemed to be remnants of some other mind. They were deteriorating and he could make very little out of most of them but every now and then he came across a memory or an emotion. He found a high school prom, a wedding, and two little boys jumping on a bed with big grins. As William found these he got the idea that there was another person in the body.

With an enormous effort and after about ten thirty minutes of hacking William finally broke the other mind from the immense network of minds. After that he found the things mind to be feeble and it started muttering incoherently. Now that the mind was so weak William decided to try and break the fading memories from the rest of the mind. After working for about a minute William felt a snap somewhere in his brain and he fell to the ground.

William blinked and looked around. He blinked again. And again. He sat up quickly realizing that he could see. But then he noticed where he was. It was dark and there was nothing, nothing but a man standing before him looking at him menacingly. “Who are you?” William said his voice quiet but amplifying and echoing off nonexistent walls.

“you mean to tell me that you don’t know who I am?” the man said smearing. “I am the man you had attacked, the man who you torched, and the man you banished to the back of his own subconscious. I am the man that you will deal with until you give me back control of my body!”

“Wait you are the creature?”

He nodded

“Then who is controlling your body? Who is in your mind with you?”

“That was my old self. The self you gave control to. But now I will take it back.” He rushed at William and started to beat. William had never fought before but he knew that he had to keep this thing locked up here so he punched back.

[Ms. Elsewhere]

Sam screamed when William fell over, but she did not release her hold on the creature. From what she felt, his struggle had weakened. He was muttering now, and Sam could make out a few words.

"Don't ... d.. d.. don't hurt me...." he sputtered.

"Who are you?" Samantha demanded. She threw a look over at William, who was lying very still. When she looked back, the creature had raised his head. He was a man, but his face was contorted and his skin was fleshy and bloody. Samantha felt her stomach turn. He opened his mouth, his voice was so laboured.

"It's.... not my fault." he said, almost pleadingly.

"What's not your fault? What have you done?" Samantha felt herself switching into lawyer mode, asking questions that weren't too leading.

"All the hurting.... " he said, and a tear escaped his eye, falling down onto his scaly skin. He screamed and threw his head back.

"No!!! " Samantha yelled, but he pulled out of the hold she had on him, and fell to the floor, his hands still tied behind his back. She stumbled, trying to establish herself again. The man rolled to one side and got up, and tried to run.

"Stop." she said, with her hands out, and knocked the man to the floor. He knocked his head. She walked over to him, cautiously, her hands up, ready to attack if necessary. She forced him to turn over. He called out from the pain of lying on his bound hands.

"Answers. Now! Who are you? What have you done? And who did this to you?" Samantha searched her mind for some way to threaten him. Behind her, William stirred. She felt frantic. She pushed down on the man, causing him more pain. He cried out, and then, he started to laugh.

"You ....can't hurt me anymore." he said, almost hysterical. He looked up into her face, his eyes wild and distant. Then he refocused, and a look of recognision crossed his face.

"Samantha Yin...." he hissed. "So much like your father. Except for the balls part. He would have killed me by now."

Samatha was thrown by this comment. "My father? Hey! What are you talking about?!" Then the man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he started to convulse. His disgusting face contorted even more, and white puss spat from his mouth. William was moving too, and Samantha released the man, who immediately flew into violent fits on the floor, gurgling and sputtering. Samantha turned around to see William in nearly the same condition. She ran to him, desperate to wake him. She must be in this things mind, and whatever was harming the man, was trying to kill William too.

Collapsing to the floor next to William, she layed her hands on him and tried to support him. In her rush, she did not think to use her power to control his movements. She reached under his arms and pulled him close to her, supporting his head in a kind of head lock. "Wake up William! Wake up!" she said into his ears. "Come back to me, now!"