Death-Duel with the Destroyers! Issue #1: Apocalypse NOW!

[Jedaii]

9:11 a.m. downtown SF

 

Suddenly, the dark storm clouds begin to part and sunlight shines through illuminating the darkened streets of San Francisco! At the same time, the immense shadow-giant fades away into nothingness - and the buildings that appeared devastated now looked completely untouched as if nothing had happened! The hum of electricity emerged as street lights and digital billboards activated once more and the crowds of frightened pedestrians began to slowly trickle back out onto the sidewalks looking around carefully for danger! Pools of rainwater flowed into the gutters as people exited their vehicles and began cheering at the sunshine - but also at Star-Girl and Kelpie who took on the nightmarish monster!

Emergency personnel in the area began assisting the injured but scores of people began to crowd around the heroes, even as Jinn and Golden Dragon were just arriving! People pulled out phones and began taking pics and recording the heroes while at the same time cheering them for saving their city! 

[eltorin]

Invulnerable

As the giant shadow-being starts to fade away, Invulnerable also starts to feel his mind being let go of the massive grip it was seemingly in.

"This..this was just an illusion..? It sure as hell was convincing!" He wipes away the sweat drops from his forehead. "I guess it was more straining that I felt..the caster must be truly powerful", he thinks as he surveys the untouched buildings and the cheering crowd. "I need to make sure we're safe and this will not repeat just yet, even though I still feel a little winded". While it would be nice to join the emergency personnel to help finding any more of the injured, the crowd is also not something to dismiss, so Invulnerable walks up to the arriving heroes, nodding at them in a friendly manner, then turning to the people gathered there: "Is everyone alright? Please, everyone who is not severely injured, take shelter in the nearest buildings, the perpetrator may still be around, we all need to remain cautious."

 

Edited March 21, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[AlexTGreat]

Lee looks around the area confused and perplexed, "You are losing it Lee."

He keeps investigating the area for awhile, but if nothing he returns home.

 

 

[Rudolf]

Jinn skids to a halt, having been running through and across traffic to get here. It’s flickering out now, but there is a small trail of flame indicating that she was previously farther east. Not in front of the reporters, but off to the side, she asks everyone:
 

“So, do any of you know exactly what that was? Or who?” 
 

She looked over the other folks, people like her who had run toward, not away from danger. She had seen the flying guy on the news, but didn’t know any of the others, not really. 

“Um, hi, I’m Jinn”

She looked around, was the ground even wet anymore? Were there signs of damage? Or was the whole thing just…imagined? 

[eltorin]

Invulnerable

As the crowd is dispersing, Invulnerable turns toward the new arrival.

"I've never felt anything like that..when I gazed upon that..being..my mind just drew a blank, I was completely numb, my thoughts frozen. It's..unnerving. As for what it was, I can only imagine it was a powerful illusion, given all the destruction was 'gone', when the illusion faded. It was either a prank gone really bad, or a precursor of something even worse."

Invulnerable is already feeling better, despite the possibilities, feeling more in control of his own mind.

"I'm Invulnerable, by the way, it's nice to meet you, even among these circumstances".  

 

 

[Civit]

"It was an illusion, or projection of some sort. And based on everything I saw it was above somewhere, at least the source if not control."

Almost embarrassedly, "I'm Stsr Girl. Not THAT Star Girl, I chose the name before I knew, was never much of a comic reader."

[Rudolf]

“Nice to meet you both. I’ve seen you on the news, Invulnerable: someone who can fly makes for an exciting video clip, it seems.

 

So, if you’re right, Star Girl, does that mean a drone? A satellite? A super-villain who can also fly? In any case, I don’t suppose you could look around, since you can fly and all…”

[Llyarden]

Kelpie landed back on dry land as gently as he could - which, admittedly, wasn't very gently, looking between the other heroes - and indeed the assembled crowds - with bewilderment plain in his eyes.

"So that...that wasn't real?"

After a few moments of considering, his head tilted to one side slightly, he spoke up again. "Who...who would be so cruel as to do something like that?"

He resisted the urge to answer his own question with 'humans.' Humans were capable of cruelty, but they were capable of kindness too - the response to the storm, phantasmal though it may have been, had made that clear.

And besides, some little part of him was human too.

[eltorin]

Invulnerable

Invulnerable is nodding at Jinn's words, exactly his thoughts, it wouldn't

hurt to check up above.

"I agree, Jinn. Allow me to take a quick look up there, will be right back!"

Then with a quick nod again, Invulnerable takes off, using his superspeed. If Jinn and Star Girl are watching, they can see him taking wide circles in the air at high speed, looking for any signs of suspicious drone activity or even a satellite at low orbit. Seeing nothing of that sort, he lands again near Jinn.

"No luck, I saw no sign of any drones or such, not even a supervillain lurking up there. Anything it was, it seems to be gone. What I did notice, however, was the clouds..that shadow and it's workings were an illusion alright, but not those clouds" - Invulnerable points up to the remnants of said clouds. "Whoever did this, those are - or rather, were - actual rain clouds, this was a real storm. So what we did, wasn't for naught, after all, also, it may tell us that there is more than one perpetrator here. We may be up against an coordinated effort. Especially as how fast those clouds are dissolving - I couldn't find anyone but I don't think it's natural and somebody may actually be doing this right now!"

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Jedaii]

9:16 a.m. downtown SF

 

There's a sudden flash of light and everyone's hair stands on end as San Francisco's ultimate hero appears - CHAMPION!

 

 

"Hey guys! Everything good?" Champion looks around at the heroes pointing at them in salutation, "Kelpie ... Jinn ... Indy. How's it going? Man! I just finished up with a rogue meteor shower that could've done some real nastiness on the coastal region." Champion flexed a bit as if he just finished a tough work-out. The entire region knew what a show-off he was, constantly doing TV interviews and pushing some new product or service he was offering. Actually his latest energy drink, Starblast®, was doing very well, and he had a new music video set to release later this month. The Bay Area's longtime superhero never missed an opportunity to fly his flag. "Star-Girl! Hey! I haven't seen you since that thing down at Stanford! You know - I've been meaning to tell you: I never meant the things I posted on Tweeter about us being a --- whatever I posted. You know how people take things out of context. So anyway -" Champion looked around and started waving at the elated crowds " - gotta meet the people, you know? Heh! What can I say: they love me." Then he shot the heroes a 'peace' sign and strode into the crowds of ecstatic pedestrians as if it was his world.

Edited March 23, 2023 by Jedaii (see edit history)

[Civit]

Angrily, "Two can play the Tweet game." Nikki takes a snapshot of Champion shmoozing the crowd and Tweets "Champion? Champion Douchebag claims credit for other heroes' work"

Was it petty? Yes. Deserved? Absolutely! 

[Rudolf]

Jinn just rolls her eyes. Tweeting each other wasn’t what heroes were for.

 

“So, I don’t understand why or how anyone would do this. But let’s say Invulnerable is right, this is someone with powers like ours. Who can do these things? Does anyone know? I can’t say that I have a bulletin board covered is newspaper clippings and red string.”

[eltorin]

Invulnerable

"What a prick, he's acting like I'm not even here..I don't know what I expected, anyway."

Invulnerable turns back to Jinn with a slightly incredulous look on his face, like "is this guy real?" then quickly shakes his head already trying to get rid of the memory of the encounter. "Aaanyway, back to the problem at hand. I can't recall anyone or any one group with powers like these, working in tandem. I have to give it to them, it was effective, and with the storm they endangered the people around here for real."

Invulnerable, at this point, realizes that he doesn't have his phone around, as he left it at Baxton, in his backpack.

He asks Star Girl, seeing that she does, "Do you mind if I send a quick text to my boss, before he starts to get worried? You know, in my other life..I want to handle one problem at a time.  "

 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)

[Jedaii]

9:21 a.m. downtown SF

 

The street was overcrowded with people taking pics and video of the heroes, but mostly smoozing with Champion who was describing in the most animated way possible how he had once again saved the Bay! Vehicles still stuck in traffic began honking horns to clear the street - then sirens! SFPD cruisers started flowing slowly into the block some of them taking to the sidewalk and parking! Officers jogged to the crowds and started having them disperse - Champion gave one of them a 'high-five' then he too started getting pedestrians out of the jumbled cluster. 

 

A police detective wandered the area carefully examining random people as if he was either looking for someone or making mental notes - or maybe both. The slender man in a dress shirt, suit vest, slacks, dress shoes, and well-groomed looks sported an SFPD detective's badge on his waist with a holstered firearm on the other hip. Making eye contact with Champion the two nodded in greeting, but the detective moved on continuing his scan of the crowd striding finally up to the heroes, "Police Detective Klopp, downtown precinct. Crazy weather we're having, eh? Good seeing you Jinn. You two, Invulnerable. Kelpie, how's it hanging? Any idea what's going on, and more importantly: who the hell is this 'Apocalypse'?" The detective resumed eyeing the crowd, "Hm. Even Star-Girl showed. Something big has to be going on then." Klopp nodded at the heroine then whistled at an officer and waved a finger at the crowds, "CLEAR IT! Let's do our jobs officers and restore some order. People have places to go."

Edited March 24, 2023 by Jedaii (see edit history)

[eltorin]

Invulnerable

Invulnerable shakes Klopp's hand without even thinking about it, seeing him calms him significantly. Police and other law-enforcement relations in general could always go smoother, but in his experience Klopp is as solid as they come. "Detective, it's good to see you, too! I'll give you a quick rundown, mostly because it's quick to summarize, unfortunately. Little is known, so far but what we could gather is that the giant shadow was, in fact just a very convincing illusion or projection". He conveniently leaves out how convincing it's presence was for himself.."When it dissolved, all the perceived damage to buildings and the environment did, too. However, the storm and the chaos it caused was very real, when I checked a few minutes before, I could see some of the rain clouds clear just then and it was most unnatural, like someone was doing it right in front of my eyes. That gave us the idea that this is the doing of not one single individual, but at least two, the projector and someone with weather control abilities. Does it ring a bell for you? I couldn't remember anyone with similar abilities but it might give you a clue. All in all, though it is not much, now you know everything we do."

Invulnerable aims to keep Klopp in the loop and not leave anything out if unneccessary. He thinks high of teamwork in general, and that any member of can bring something important to the table. And it never hurts to receive some brownie points from the local force. 

 

Edited March 24, 2023 by eltorin (see edit history)