Baptism Of Fire- A Semi-Lit Marvelverse RP

[Ruins]

Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Doctor Strange, Professor X... All of them names well known in this world. All of them working to protect the helpless people from those who also have powers but use them to torment those weaker than them. They are admired and respected by the younger generation of supers and mutants, looked up to as their... Well, their heroes.

 

Not any more, though.

 

One day during 2012, a strange plague seemed to spread through the heroes and heroines of the world; although it spread to every part of the globe, the worst effects were felt in America as it was the nation with the highest concentration of superheroes. One by one they started to fall into deep comas, whether going to bed as usual and never getting up or suddenly falling asleep at their desks as their civilian identities. Gods, aliens and mutants alike were affected, no costumed hero left awake. They couldn't be woken up by any means, sleeping peacefully and healthily with no obvious effects on their bodies. They just slept and slept and slept, some fed by drips as those who cared hovered nervously over their still forms. (If you've read this, title your application PM "Hell Is For Heroes". )

 

With their enemies helpless, the supervillains rioted: they stole, murdered and burnt anything they could lay their hands on. Hundreds of civilians died in the first few days, some of them by accident as mere collateral damage and others in hideous ways at the hands of insane mutants. The unpowered police force and army were totally overwhelmed by the waves of supervillains that crashed against their defenses, unable to save most of those they'd sworn to protect. They were assisted in their efforts by what few supers remained awake; the young and untested who couldn't quite control their powers. Those who were heroic enough to take a stand, but not heroic enough to be effected by the Sleeping Plague. Some fell at the first hurdle, but others managed to struggle on and even defeat their enemies.

 

At the heart of this disaster are two mysterious figures, one a young woman and the other a fully-grown man. Both have a thirst for destruction, and both wish to see the world burn for different reasons. They are the ultimate foes for anyone who wants to wake the heroes up and set the situation right again.

 

You are either one of those fighting against the wave of villainy, human or super-powered, or a villain as you crush anything in your path, either fighting for justice or for your own dark, twisted reasons. Either way, little do you know that there is a greater goal in this destruction than mere criminality- a goal that could affect all of humanity, good and evil...

 

Rules

1. No godmodding, powerplaying or anything like that.

 

2. No Mary-Sues, Gary-Stues or other perfect characters.

 

3. I am in charge, and Fortune is my second-in-command. Do what we say.

 

4. Keep it PG13- you can have a bit of gore and kissing, but don't frakking swear.

 

5. ((Put OOC stuff like this, and keep to a minimum.))

 

6. Keep posts above five lines and use your best spelling and grammar, please. I can accept smaller posts when used sparingly and I know the best of us get RPing blocks- just try and post something, no matter how lame.

 

7. Um... Have fun?

 

8. Oh, yeah... Be creative with your powers, because once one person has a power- any power at all- then I will be VERY reluctant to accept anyone with the same power. Also, strange powers are fun. Shapeshifting is overdone. Shapeshifting only into inanimate objects? Much better! Invisibility is yawnsome. Invisibility only when they stay still or they can't make their clothes vanish? We could have fun with that...

 

Forms- PM Them To Me!

[B]Username:[/B]

[B]Name:[/B]

[B]Age:[/B] (Less than 22 for heroes, any age for villains)

[B]Gender:[/B] (Male? Female? Both? Neither? Not sure?)

[B]Species:[/B] (Human? Mutant? Alien? Go crazy.)

[B]Looks:[/B] (You can link to a picture, but add at least three sentences of description as well.)

[B]Personality:[/B] (Not a perfect one, though... At least three sentences, please.)

[B]Abilities/Skills:[/B] (No more than three each, remember that young heroes cannot control them completely yet.)

[B]Weaknesses:[/B]

[B]History:[/B] (Eh, just put something. If just two lines.)

 

A Quick Note

Since most superheroes are American, it will be set there- though there can and will be travelling. I'm not American myself, so I apologise in advance for any boo-boos and mistakes I make about that/your country...

Edited November 20, 2011 by Ruins

[Ruins]

Accepted Characters- Full Forms In OOC

Heroes

 

Ruins- Skullthief

 

Orange- Justice Felon

 

Krys- Krys Coventina

 

Brainiac- Jessica Parker

 

Songbreeze2012- Murph Saint

 

Songbreeze2012- Connor Saint

 

Villains

 

Ruins- Hyplion Wicks

 

Fortune86- Tarot

 

Packgoater- Machitehew

 

Powers Taken

Necromancy- Skullthief

Hypnotic Singing- Skullthief

Fortune Telling- Tarot

Card Powers- Tarot

Resistance/Cancelling Out Powers- Hyplion Wicks

Tranformation Into Pegasus- Justice Felon

Engulfing In Flames- Justice Felon

Dreamwalking- Matchitehew

Aura Of Cold- Matchitehew

'Cabin Fever'- Matchitehew

Teleportation- Krys

Fire Manipulation- Krys

Wings- Krys

Emotion Manipulation/Sharing- Jessica

Learning From Other's Memories- Jessica

 

Link To The OOC

Edited November 26, 2011 by Ruins

[Khallayne]

Orange, if it is correct in British, or American, then I'd say it's correct no matter the form. Some people (like me!) mix up both. o.o

[Ruins]

I think I shall do the same...

[Obscure_Trash]

With their enemies helpless, the supervillains ran riot- they stole, murdered and burnt anything they could lay their hands on.

 

The supervillains rain riot sounds really awkward. Perhaps "the supervillains rioted: they stole".

 

Also, with dashes, I might consider putting a space after the word and before the dash. So, for this sentence: "ran riot - they".

 

Both have a thirst for destruction, and both are wishing to see the world burn for different reasons.

 

Wish instead of wishing.

 

You are either one of those fighting against the wave of villainy, human or super-powered, or a villain yourself as you crush anything in your path; either fighting for justice or for your own dark, twisted reasons.

 

The 'yourself' is a bit redundant and trips up the sentence. I would also use a comma instead of a semi-colon.

 

Otherwise, looking very good. :3

[Ruins]

Did all the changes.

[Ruins]

*facepalm* Lord strike me down for being a fool...

 

EDIT: ApologiSe is accepted by Microsoft Word. It's the English way, if I'm not mistaken.

Edited November 12, 2011 by Ruins

[Khallayne]

{{Caught my curiosity, so I looked it up.

 

Apologize and apologise are both real words, and they share all their definitions. The difference is dialectal. Apologize is preferred in American and Canadian English, while apologise is preferred virtually everywhere else. }}

[Ruins]

Sooo... Anything else or are we ready?

[sailing101]

((Is this just marvel characters, or can we use original characters?))

[Ruins]

((Most of the heroes you know will be asleep anyway, unless they're really young mutants from Professor X's school. I might allow people to grab heroes if we manage to wake them up but that'll be waaaaay in the future.))

[LoveLost]

Oh Ruins! I am soo sorry! I haven't gotten back to you in quite a bit. Things have been super hectic and i hate to leave people hanging

 

EDIT: I hope that ya'll have fun with this!

Edited November 17, 2011 by LoveLost

[Ruins]

((Okay, guys, no need to hide anymore... Guys?))

[Krys]

((I'm so excited to have found an interesting RP that I can joi right as its starting off. I don't have to play catch-up =3))

[Ruins]

((Gld to hear it... All we need is a couple more people.))

[Krys]

((Got any signatures? I mess with photoshop so I could try and throw one together for you.))

[Fortune86]

((Can we start RPing now Ruins?))

[Ruins]

((Eh... Might as well. ))

 

Central New York was a mess.

Skullthief remembered seeing pictures of it in newspapers and on the television or in the background of films, if her memory served her correctly; it had always been packed with people going about their daily business. There would be yellow taxis and expensive shops, homeless people begging for pennies as very thin women in designer coats that cost a year's wages walked past without a backward glance. All of it seemed so alive, even more alive than the cities she had visited in Europe. Visting it on holiday, it had certianly lived up to her expectations of a buzzing, flithy, dangerous but very enjoyable madhouse.

Not any more, of course. Not since the supervillains were given free reign, their enemies struck down with a mysterious sleep that refused to let them wake.

Now hardly anyone ventured outside their houses anymore, barely anyone shopping in the day and the streets deserted at night. The shops were gutted almost without exception, hardly any open for business. There were craters and scorch marks decorating the road, piles of rubble waiting to be cleared up- it looked more like Blitz-era London or parts of Lybia than an American city. Only those who had no choice but to be out wandered the streets when dark fell, each of them glancing over their shoulders for the danger in the shadows. Only those with the weapons or abilties to protect themselves- or harm others- were seen walking with any sort of confidence in New York.

Skullthief was one of the latter, a young superhero. Or wannabe superhero, depending on who you asked. She walked down the empty street- On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, she couldn't help thinking- with the telltale stride of someone who could summon up all sorts of trouble for anyone who attacked her. This marked her out for anyone who happened to see her as a super. The dragon skull she used as a helmet did nothing to dispell the notion.

Her fur-line cape waved behind her as she walked, humming a little tune under her breath. She was on patrol, helping the New York Police Department keep what little remained of the peace.

Edited November 21, 2011 by Ruins

[Fortune86]

"What the?"

 

Daniel James Steward stopped short when he saw the young girl with bright green hair inspecting the fire engine in the yard. It wasn't just her hair that drew his attention, but her clothes as well. It reminded him of the gypsies that you used to see around sometimes, or at least those who had a lot of money.

 

The girl saw him staring and beckoned to him with her finger. Despite himself Daniel found himself walking forward and approaching her.

 

"Can I help you miss?" he asked, feeling uneasy.

 

"How many engines do you have here?" she purred.

 

"Five miss. This one is out here because it needs washing, but why..."

 

"The others are inside?"

 

"Yes, when they are not in use we..."

 

One again Daniel was cut off, but this time not by words. The green haired girl had flung out her arm and there was a roar of flames. Daniel was on fire. Screaming he dropped to the ground and started to roll back and forth to kill the flames. Finally coming to a halt he opened his eyes just in time to see the fire axe coming down...

 

Minutes later the whole station was ablaze. The firemen had been trapped away from their equippment and someone had jammed key exits shut. Their screams could be heard just above the flames. Tarot meanwhile sat on a bench on the other side of the street, watching the building burn with mild interest.

[Ruins]

"Having fun, I see."

The man in the odd bodysuit seemed to appear from nowhere, when in truth he had simply ducked around a corner from the alleyway he had been waiting in. He stood and watched the flames with an unmoving, almost bored, expression for a few seconds before moving to sit on the opposite side of the bench to the girl. The light of the fire made his metal eye gleam red and made the very faint aura of darkness around his body even more obvious.

He turned to look at her with the same bored expression as he watched the fire station burn, steepling his fingers under his chin almost judaciously. "Excuse me for being, ah... slow, but remind me again how these petty acts help our cause?" he said slowly, faint annoyance showing under his drawling tone. "All I see this particular stunt doing, my child, is attracting unwanted attention to ourselves. And unwanted danger."

Hyplion paused for a second, pulling a thin iPhone-like device out of a hidden pocket and checking the screen. "You do know there is a Necromancer in the city? Not your ten-a-penny table-knocker, either- a genuine one." he added, putting the iPhone back away. "Perhaps next time you will be more careful and let the villains kill as they wish... As I believe is the original plan."

 

Skullthief growled under her breath with annoyance when she saw the distant pall of smoke rise into the sky. She hurried her pace into a jog, mentally calculating where the disaster was and whether it would be quicker- and a better use of her energy- to summon the dragon-spirit to fly her there. Hopefully someone else would have seen it and called the police and fire brigade. She hated tackling those madmen on her own, even the slightly useless backup of the civilian police was better than no backup at all.

Either way, she had to be quick. People could be dying there...

[Fortune86]

"The original plan will take too long" replied Tarot without looking at Hyplion. "I have foreseen it."

 

Without any further explanation Tarot reached up with her right hand and put her palm across her breast. The was a small flash of light and single card appeared between her hand and her chest. Curling her fingers around it she lifted it clear of her body and looked down at it. The Magician. The power over fire.

 

"If you want events to happen as you wish, they must be given the occaisional push here and there. This station is too far away from the other departments and the fire too great. Their comrades will not get here in time to save them."

 

From a side pocket she took out her deck of cards and shuffled the Magician amongst them. She wouldn't be able to use that one again for a while, but there were still other options open to her.

 

"As for the Necromancer, I have heard of them. I wish to see their power with my own eyes. How else will we know how to tackle them?"

[Ruins]

Hyplion gave Tarot an unreadable look, then turned away to watch the flames again; it was hard to tell if he was pleased or annoyed or simply didn't care.

"Too long? There is no such thing as too long, my child. Just how long we are prepared to watch and wait." he said slowly, a small smile curling the ends of his mouth. Even then he didn't look genuinely happy, more like a mask that had been painted to express the emotion. His eyes were empty of everything, no joy or even hate. "After all, what opponant are we racing against? Time itself? The scientists who work day and night for a cure, while their precious civilisation stumbles to the brink- step by step, day by day? Let them work, my child. Let them work themselves to exhaustion- to death! They cannot hope to cure this sickness, just like they fail to cure every other pathetic sniffle humans in this age fall down to. They haven't even managed to land on their own Moon yet, whereas the virus I infected them with comes from the furthest part of another galaxy. They're not a threat to us."

He looked at Tarot again, still smiling that empty smile. "Only we are a threat to our plan. Remember that."

 

A few streets away, Skullthief paused in her jogging and glanced up at the smoke that continued to drift into the sky. She scowled, wiping a little sweat off her brow and huffing as she tried to catch her breath again. It would take to long to run there, and she was already out of breath; she wasn't made for long distance running. She was more of a scholar, if she had the choice. Or a flier, if I don't. she thought, taking the dragon's skull helmet off her head and holding it at arm's length. Concentrating her powers, she muttered the brief spell that called the dragon's spirit from the bone.

A dark cloud formed in front of her, a swirling mass of shadows that slowly took on a recognisable form as it whirled and span; a dragon's foot emerged from the cloud, followed by a dragon's head and a dragon's tail poking out of the other end. Within ten seconds the dragon-spirit had fully emerged, a creature the size of the average van, casting it's glowing eyes around as it waited for it's mistress to give it instructions. Walking up to its side, Skullthief snapped her fingers. The dragon-spirit delicately caught the back of her cloack between it's teeth and lifted her onto it's back.

"Fly me to the fire!" she commanded, pointing to the smoke. The dragon-spirit obeyed without a word, crouching briefly before jumping into the sky, the pounding of it's shadowy wings bearing them both towards the burning fire station.

[Fortune86]

Tarot stopped shuffling her pack and spread out the cards before her, laying some on her lap and others on the bench either side of her legs. She turned three over so that their faces were revealed. It was the same reading she had had that morning.

 

"The world will not stay off balance forever. There is a crucial moment that will decide all."

 

She picked up the upturned Moon card for Hyplion to see better. It was a beautiful card, depicting a quater moon above two howling dogs and a scorpion.

 

"That which you wish to deny may still come to pass."

Edited November 21, 2011 by Fortune86

[Ruins]

Hyplion spared the card a brief glance, his only reaction his raising his eyebrow at it; he didn't seem to react to it's beauty at all, merely seeing it as a tool very much like his iPhone or mechanical eye.

He sighed deeply at Tarot's words. They displeased him, but he saw the truth in them anyway. "That is true. Humanity has a sickening ability to pull itself back from the brink, as shown in many of history's bleaker spots. Just when you hope they're all dead, they show up again, often stronger than ever... Like rats they crawled out from their holes after the Scouring of New Japan, breeding and reinfecting the land like the vermin they are. Not even the Waterless Flood killed them all, or the seemingly unstoppable might of the Brood. The Third Interplanetary War was just a blip on their radar." he mused, these terms dripping from his tongue naturally; any from his time would recognise them with a shudder of disgust and fear, but they meant little to nothing in this world. "The only thing that can kill humanity is humanity... Let them do so, I say, but not bring the rest of the galaxy down with them..."

[Fortune86]

Scooping her cards up Tarot shuffled them together once more before standing up.

 

"As you say, history has a way of righting its self. If you want to change the future you must keep pushing it off course, lest it fall back again. Our actions so far will make the fight easier, but they will not win the war."

 

She cut the deck in her hands twice and then flipped over the very top card. It revealed the Star, one of her favourite cards to use in a fight.

 

"There are those who still stand in our way" said Tarot looking down at it. "Their youth has protected them so far, but they can still make a difference."

 

Flipping the card back over Tarot put the deck in her pocket. Stretching her arms over her head she folded them behind her neck and walked past Hyplion.

 

"I believe one of them makes their way here now."