It's been an alright week returning as Neptune Striker.
Yeah the PR stuff, the cape fights, and the incessant paper work was something he didn't quite miss. But, it was a lot better than cutting up trees in a random forest in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and being left to contend with a midlife crisis.
Coming back to it was like riding a bike. Much like baking cookies for his colleagues at the PRT Commons.
A young lady floats into the common, a cardboard box tucked under one arm, looking around at the room with the vibe of someone who hadn't been there before. Other than the broken nose and black eye that Image's makeup was wearing off to reveal, she seemed relatively nondescript, a t-shirt and basketball shorts for attire.
"Someone cooking?" she mutters to herself.
"Oooo, you look like you took a hit there friend. Cookie?"
Striker set his plate of cookies down on the table and removed his baking mittens. He turned his power off, regular blue pupils returning to his eyes, as he grabbed a cookie and to take a bite for himself. He realised a bit later that the cookies were still too hot, but he didn't let out his panic just yet and gave the young lady an assured (but pained) smile.
"You should see the other guy," she quips, making a little wince. She floats over, dropping her box of shit on a table and grabbing a cookie, seemingly unphased by the piping hot melted chocolate dripping onto a finger. It isn't until she pops it in her mouth that there's a mumbled "fucking hot" and the traditional oh fuck to hot need to eat fast thing.
"Powerplay," she says uncomfortably, extending a non-chocolatey hand. "Or Heather if you want, doesn't matter to me."
"Nepfune Shfriker. Or Karf" he said, giving Heather a friendly handshake, before activating his powers and having a blue hand pat through the kitchen sink until it found a cold enough water bottle. He brought it back to himself, hastily uncapped it, and glugged it down.
Once the bottle was empty, he ran his hand over his wavy hair and smiled. I cannot have the Ward think I'm a dork this early.
"Always bef....hydrafting"
She returns the handshake, before herself floating over to a chair and plopping down with her feet up on the table. "So you do... blue stuff? Sorry, I haven't had time to read any of the uhhhhhh...what do you call the who does what files? Man I got like ten binders of shit they're making me memorize."
Coiled up on the common room couch, Nereid lingers as an Anaconda. She didn't always do this, but they had this really nice.. hot lamp that was angled right over the couch and she couldn't help but bask in it, relaxing. It always felt so good. She coiled up across the couch , letting the rays soak into her as her eyes lidded closed, falling into a serpentine slumber.
Anyone who came into the common room would see a positively giant Anaconda all over the couch, coils looping in the seat and up on the couch headrests as it seems to soak in the heat of a strong table lamp aimed across the couch.
It was only a short double take as Cylynx noticed the large anaconda snoozing, must be a new teammate... She should probably go meet them.
With all the grace and poise of a jungle cat hunting it's prey she slipped across the room, a wide grin on her face underneath the domino mask as her silent steps were swallowed up by the background noise of the base.
She squatted casually in front of the couch, staring at the new cape for a minute. "GOOOOD MORNING NEW FRIEND!" She belts out.
Her head recoils as her eyes sleepily blink open, staring at Cylynx. "Oh, oh sorry. Hello!" A younger girl's voice emanates from the snake. "You're Cylynx, right?"
Nereid remains on the couch, her sleepy brain not having caught up to the fact that it was 1. Probably rude to take up the whole couch like that and 2. Definitely rude to greet a new team-mate as a snake.
"Absolutely, Positively, Definitely! You have me at a disadvantage, I didn't know we were getting a new member." She offers a hand to the snake like this was completely normal, "Nice to meet you! Enjoying the heat lamp?"
She blinks at the hand for a moment then you can see her eyes widen. "Oh. Oh my I'm so sorry." It takes a second or two, but you see her snake form fold back up on itself, and left behind is a young vaguely Asian-American girl with dyed blue hair. She's wearing casual clothing, a T-shirt with a small Monterey Bay Aquarium logo and jeans. She takes your hand and gingerly shakes it. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was an Anaconda there. I'm Hannah. Granddaughter of Captain Poseidon. Uhm, my cape name is Nereid." She sheepishly grins at you
"You didn't have to change back if you were enjoying the lamp." Cylynx laughs, her handshake steady, "It's nice to meet you Hannah, I'm..." she pauses before she stands up and puts her hands on her hips, "Alia, Hero of Justice!"
"It's nice to have you on board with us. What brings you to the team?"
"Well for one thing I think my grandpa would kill me if I didn't join. Granddaughter of a Semi-Famous Denver Protectorate cape with similar enough powers not being on the team? He'd scalp me. Also well, I guess I just like to help." She chuckles. "It was a natural fit in the end of the day."
It takes a second but Alia's face lights up, "I knew that name was familiar! I'm sorry about his identity getting revealed, that must have made things very difficult."
"It would probably grow back, the meat suit is pretty adaptive." Cylynx shrugs, "And that's the spirit! We're Heroes, capital H, it's what we do!"
"Well it happened a few years before I was born so I've lived all my life with it. Some popularity but honestly not a lot, and we got some PRT people coming by the house to check up on us and give us some safety tips and drills to do in case a villain attacked, but overall it wasn't a huge deal." She shrugs.
She squints at you, "So you're a tinker right? I know you have the whole cat thing but I don't know much other than that, what's it like?"
"That must have been weird growing up, but you had the right support network for it!" Alia nods sagely, choosing to ignore that obviously Nereid had triggered.
"Ha! The cat thing is just a theme, I'm not like a cat tinker. I'm more like... One of my previous captains called me a walking armory and it kind of makes sense. I'm a weapon for lack of a better explanation. I do a lot of surgery and medical work, so if you ever get hurt don't be surprised if you wake up with me hovering over you." She stands proudly, "I'm always happy to work with everyone on the team to keep them in tiptop shape! Diet and exercise!"
"What about you? The snake thing can't be all you've got. What's the haps?"
"Huh, alright. So you like, make weapons and put them in yourself." She shivers a bit, "Glad I don't have to do that."
She ponders it for a moment, "So, I'm a bit like my grandpa, where he summons sea life I turn into it. A little bit tougher, and my power's a bit broader than what he could manage, like he couldn't summon whales or semi-aquatic snakes. I can then swim-fly through the air. Oh! And I can also breathe underwater and in air in any form, base included." She smiles, "But yeah my power's broad, basically any animal that can swim pretty good is included. Capybaras, Polar Bears, Orcas, Sharks, Some crabs, etcettera."
"Something like that!" Alia laughs, running a hand up through her hair and over the multiple surgery scars.
"That must be so much fun! You can fall asleep in the bath without a worry." She laughs, "And that's quite the spread of changes, so you could turn into a brown bear and be... More durable than a normal one and breath underwater?"
"A bit yeah, it's a good amount for larger animals, but even more for smaller ones, helps balance it out. Like I could be a goldfish and you can stomp on me and it'll fuck me up but I'm not gonna go squish" She chuckles morbidly.
"What have you installed in yourself out of curiosity? Sorry if it's an inappropriate question."
"What is the result when you change back? Are you an instant healer when you shift forms... Where does it shunt the damage to?"
Alia had started to lean in, her power itching to see what designs she could cook up with a good look under Nereid's hood, the question got her to focus.
"My current set of augments is extensive, I haven't installed anything new since I transferred in, I want the first one to be special." She paused a moment, taking in a breath, and listed from top to bottom her augments for Nereid. Only pausing to reminisce on the importance of her first augmentations, the claws on her right pointer and middle fingers.
She leans back a bit at Alia's lean forwards. "Wow, that's a lot of stuff. Uhm, as for the wounds, they transfer as closely as they can really, We haven't been able to test it with massive damage so far, but if they scratch my arm and I go dolphin my fin and maybe a part of my body will be scratched too. But if I get hurt I can like, turn into a =n Axolotl and heal it no problem!" She says
"You could say that I'm full of surprises!" She laughs, flopping into the couch and scratching her chin. "Your power is incredibly interesting, it will be nice working with you. I wonder what I could apply from your power with my own."
"The natural healing properties are very interesting, that's a clever use of your power. Let's try and keep it that way, the whole not testing massive damage. It's really not all it's cracked up to be." She traces a few scars, "Trust me."
Nereid glancing at the scars nods slowly, "Yeah I wouldn't want to test it. If I lose my arm that's 2 months in Axolotl form to regrow it, which isn't fun." She says.
"You can build stuff from my power, as like inspiration or something?"
"I wonder if we could speed that up..." Cylynx mumbles, reaching up and poking Nereid in the arm.
"Yeah! Something like that. It's weird, if I get enough time messing around with other folks powers, like a lot of tinkers can learn new things that way."
"Huh, ok." She muses it a bit. "Do you wanna see some of my forms?"
Doc Pulsar is sitting around in the commons, currently messing with a small device which looks remarkably like a handheld gaming console. Funnily enough, it looks nothing like any handheld on the market, despite the resemblance to a Switch and how he's currently playing a Pokemon game on it. Something he made himself, actually!
In any case, he's currently in his under-costume, a lightly-armored blue and white jumpsuit with a mask that covers his head entirely save for his mouth, eyes, and hair. He's off-duty for now, after all, even though he recently got back from patrol. He wanted to game really quick, sue him.
He's paying attention to his game more than his surroundings, so anybody showing up will have to get his attention if they want to chat.
As is usually the case, Cass enters the room by loudly pushing open the door. Sadly the doors in this building aren't the old kind that you can really hear, but she still does the best that she can with what she has available.
As a lot of her belongings are still being transferred over from Texas, she's currently wearing gym shorts and a PRT hoodie. She strolls over to where Doc is sitting, leaning her arms against the back of the seat.
" 'Sup with that?" Even that little bit of speech drips with her accent, obviously from Texas, and not the parts with money
Doc doesn't really notice Cass entering, still playing on his handheld. It isn't until she makes herself known that he looks over at her. He takes in her appearance and tilts his head in confusion, unsure of who she is and why she's here.
"It's a handheld. Y'know, like a Nintendo Switch? My own model, though, made it myself. Didn't wanna have to spend money on cartridges that aren't sold anymore when I can just get the ROMs and port them over to my own." His voice has a bit of a foreign accent to it, just barely noticeable, due to his Swedish heritage.
He looks at her again, not entirely sure of her appearance. Especially since she's not got a mask on. Maybe she's another Ward?
"Sorry, but uh, I don't know you. You another one of the Wards? I only joined recently - debuted as Doc Pulsar."
She has a kind of blank expression of clearly not understanding what he's going on about as he talks about the games but checks back in once he's done with that. "Close enough. Got shipped up here to be one. Haven't had a chance to get all that costume bullshit done yet. They're gonna do something stupid about it, I know it."
She stands up and walks over to a couch, just sort of falling into it. "But anyway, got let off the leash long enough to check out the rest of the building. Pretty swanky."
Doc finds his interest piqued at that. Someone shipped in from somewhere else? Explains the slight accent, at the very least. He gives a bit of a sympathetic grin in response as she mentions not having a costume yet.
“Yeah, I know what you mean. I remember when I went through the hell that is Imaging. I swear, they had no idea what they were thinking until I managed to sell them on my current look. Almost got called Crown Joule, believe it or not.”
He hums to himself as he returns some of his attention to his game and hums in affirmative to her remark about the building. “Yeah, it’s really neat. I’ve been having some plans on adding to the Commons, actually. Set up a console and some controllers, download a bunch of games onto it from different game systems so we don’t gotta have a bunch of different appliances. Might take a while to program, but I reckon I could do it.”
She scoffs at the old name idea. She doesn't actually get it, but she's not going to show that fact off. "Dunno how much slack they'll hand me, but probably not much."
She sort of cranes her neck around, looking for where he'd put it. "They let you do that? Thought they'd be tightass around anything fun."
Doc gives a shrug. “I mean, it’s not like I’m asking to make a BFG or something like that, right? I figure something harmless like a universal gaming console would make it through approval. As for the handheld, I made it with stuff out of my own pocket, so they can’t really take it away from me.”
He sits there for a moment, before something occurs to him. “Hey, actually.. did you have any ideas on a name and costume? I-I don’t really know what your power is. Me, I’m just a Tinker who works with electricity, so I went with something kind of outta golden age comics. Scientist angle, y’know?”
"Got jack and shit. Hard to make what I got saddled with look any good on camera. Long as I don't look like an idiot it'll be alright I guess. Still a pain in my ass it's gotta go through those office shitheels."
She leans her head back over the armrest, letting her hair dangle back over the edge. "Still, those ancient little comics? Can't say you struck me the type."
The tinker chuckles a little at her remark about him liking comics. “Heh, those ‘ancient little comics’ have influenced society and media alike since they showed up, believe it or not. We still look at people like Superman as the gold standard for what the best hero would be. I figured.. what with giant kaiju and all these villains being around.. I’d like to think I can bring back some hope that there’s heroes like that. Just gotta find ‘em.”
He spends a bit smiling to himself. “And, well, I’m a nerd. Pretty sure someone would revoke my geek license or something if I hadn’t read any comics.” He laughs a bit before something occurs to him.
“Actually.. hey, what’s you power, anyways? Maybe I can help figure something out. Me, I’m just an electricity tinker, not much going on that front.”
"Eh, respect the attitude. Can't say I'd ever be like that but I'm not the one running around calling themselves one." She smiles a bit to herself, shaking her head a little. "Guess you're the kind of people I gotta learn to live with now."
With that, she sits back up, hugging her knees to stay upright easier. "Power got all my insides changed out for rope. Shoots out like a hole in a water balloon if I get stabbed or something. Without my real body in the way of it all I can throw cars around and shit. Couple hours later I'll get in a little cocoon and go back to being flesh and blood."
Doc blinks at the power description, thinking for a bit. “It’s a fairly useful power. Brute rating at minimum.. only other close-range fighter is Powerplay, and she doesn’t exactly count since she can fly.” He gets up and starts pacing in front of the couch, his handheld forgotten for the time being.
“Simple names.. could go for Spool? For how your rope exits your body, like thread unspooling. Could also go for Stitch, or Twine. Simple names that don’t exactly give much info. Though if you want something a bit more, well, exotic.. oh, Ariadne, maybe! Like the Greek myth about the Labyrinth! Could also mislead people, since Ariadne was more about keeping Theseus from getting lost.”
After he’s finished rambling, he notices how he’s been pacing and stops, rubbing his arm in embarrassment. “I, uh.. I really like Greek mythology.”
"Appreciate the help, but I don't think I'll ever make anything like Ariadne work." With her accent and unfamiliarity, she absolutely butchers the name. "Stitch ain't half bad though. Think they'll let me do some horror movie look? You know, lean into it being all scary like."
She stands up on the couch, sort of hopping off back onto the floor. "Be more fun than getting saddled with something like Scarf or some shit."
He winces briefly at the butchered Greek name, but looks deep in thought after her mention of a possible horror aesthetic. “Might be able to? You’d have to try and sell it convincingly to Imaging. Could also play up the ragdoll sort of vibe? Hell, Ragdoll or Seam would also work as a name, especially with that aesthetic…”
He devolves a bit into mumbling to himself, seemingly lost in thought and forgetting that Cass is there.
At this point she's already committed to forcing through that name and identity, so with Doc going into some kind of rambling speech, she decides now's the right time to finish this little introduction. Walking over to him, she slaps him on the back to knock him out of that.
"Don't gotta run your head in circles there. Stitch is plenty good, just gotta make sure they agree to it. Got you to back me up on pushing it through, yeah?" She gives him a smile, not really a convincingly happy one but turns around back to the way they came from quick enough that it's easy to miss
"Nice meeting another Ward. Be seeing you around."
