The Exemplar: Engage

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[Attn: Closed]

Armada, Attack!
Warriors, Rise!
Exemplar...Engage!


I've forgotten how long it's been since my dad passed away. It feels like it's been years. God knows my sense of time is terrible. The Exemplar disbanded not a month later. That was one heck of a decision. Then again, most of them have gone and settled into normal lives. When daddy died, I guess it scared a lot of them. The chance to have a normal life isn't something to take for granted, I suppose. I still see some of them every once in a while but...I miss it. I miss going out and smashing bad guys' skulls together. Ah, come on, Polly, how would Liberty or American respond if you'd said that out loud? "It's not about that. It's about helping people and doing the right thing." They're right but...god beating up bad guys was fun.

The Exemplar, the debatable greatest superheroes on the planet, disbanded some time ago. This woman, the jovial young Paulina Powers, walks in through the front door of her large suburban home, feeling strangely empty. It was a feeling she'd hand since the day her father perished, helping to defend Earth's Greatest Champions against their deadliest foes joined under the title of "The Nefaria". She lived alone now but that wasn't it. She'd lived alone before. Now was simply the first time she actually felt...lonely.

Then, as if a star listening from the sky had heard her wish, something truly unexpected occurs. As Paulina sits at her reading desk, she sees a light approaching the window. Using her psionic powers, she wills a barrier of psychic energy into place. It helps nothing. The figure is the mighty demigod, Gladius, powerful enough to level the entire building ten times over. As he crashes through the window and the floor, Polly looks to him as he lies in the basement of her home. Forming butterfly-like wings upon her back, she floats down to him. "Gladius! What are you-"

"Mortal friend, Powers," Gladius says as she helps him up. "This world is in dire need of its greatest champions."

"So you came to ME, of all people? Not American or Liberty, or-"

"You were the nearest and know, by heart, the whereabouts of the quarters where the rest lay their heads."

Super Criminals and Villains were at large by the dozen in the bustling city of Skyline as of late. Meanwhile, more and more heroes were beginning to decline. The Exemplar, the shining examples of heroism in this city, had gone. The next best thing, the Warriors, had only just disappeared. The city was falling into chaos. But Polly hadn't the faintest idea of how bad it was until she saw this, the Exemplar's biggest gun, second only to the nigh omnipotent Number 7, battered and thrown aside. "What did this to you?"

"I am unsure. But if I were to venture a guess, they will have been the cretinous demi-devils known as the Negative. There were but three of them. They attacked, having taken me unawares. Fight, I did, but their power was great individually. When combining their efforts..."

The Negative...the Warriors tended to take care of situations involving them. They had the only usable weapon against them in the city; Scarecrow. The Negative were a high level threat. They would need to be dealt with in high level response. They'd need the Exemplar treatment. "Come on," Polly says, deciding to help the injured demigod outside. "Try not to change back into your mortal form. I have a feeling this one is the only thing keeping you alive right now. I'm getting you to some place where you can get medical attention. Then...then I'm getting the band back together," she says as she moves him toward the garage where her car sat.

[Attn: Coir]

"I'll be okay," she says, having already sized him up.  His costume was certainly more tame than hers.  She composes herself and looks around.  "Here, let me just-". She approaches the thugs then looks at her own fist before aiming it and firing a silk line and coling it around them.  "That'll he harder to get out of.  And if I remember correctly-". She aims and a splatter of silk covers the mouth of one thugs.  "That one has a potty mouth problem."

[ATTN: Open]
((Posting for Fairy))

Skyline city- a lot less hopeful than the name would lead you to believe, we can assure you of that. Even despite the somewhat hopeless situation- a few heroes still remained. And in this instance 'a few heroes' meant 'a group of hapless teenagers with superpowers and way too much time on their hands'. The merry band of four, two blondes, one African American and another whose form resembled something of less...substance- leaped along the rooftops, stopping robberies, rescuing damsels in distress- petty crime and the like. After a while of beating up street thugs and troublesome teens, the group decided it would be in their best interests to separate- and by that it meant the egotistical blonde of the group felt it'd be a great idea to fly solo- with his fellow blonde counterpart and haggard *sadly flightless* brother-in-arms lagging close behind. Their ghostly companion decided to stick to the skies, surveying the city from above.

After running around in circles for what seemed to be an hour- it became extremely apparent to the two tagalongs that this misguided 'search' was going absolutely nowhere. It wasn't until their airborn comrades voice came crackling through the 'communicators,' (Modified walkie talkies - But don't say that to either blonde teammate, or you will get hit,) that their 'leader' finally stopped, and assumed a comically heroic pose.

"There's a car chase going on...about a mile or so from you three," The almost emotionless, stale voice stuttered into their ears.

"Excellent- what street, Spectre?" For someone who wanted to be taken seriously, he did take this 'superhero' gimmick a bit far. A beat.

"Well, Sonic Youth, I'm about 500 feet above the city- doing something somewhat productive in surveying the city- it's a bit difficult to read signs." The two behind him snickered.

They didn't have to see the boys face to realize how irritated he was. "Oh? You two seem to think it's so funny- you handle it." Scorpion sighed- Sonic was an egotistical, posturing b******- but no way was he going to be the one to say it. The two chasers merely shrugged at each other and took off under Spectre's guidance.

After seemingly running a rooftop marathon, their 'GPS' stopped for a moment. "Well- it seems as someone else has it taken care of.."

"WHAT-?" Bad girl shrieked, causing Scorpion to wilt away from her. "We ran a MARATHON and someone ELSE had it handled? Spec- I swear-"

"It's because you two are flightless losers- don't blame him." Sonic snickered over the com.

"Hey- maybe if you weren't such a wimp to take the job- we would have gotten it. Sides I was in no mood to chase a car..." Scorpion finally piped up.

"Whatever- back to base for now." Sonic signed off- and 'base' as per usual- meant his house.

[ATTN: Open]

Sentinel took off into the air again, flipping to Argus. Nothing out of the ordinary with Coir's little green dot - he'd be perfectly fine.

She tuned back into police radio, taking off to make a circuit of the city while keeping an eye on her battery.

[Attn: Open]

American stands on a rather high rooftop, watching the heroics of the girl in the suit. He recalled her helping not long ago when the Do-vv invaded the city. Those tech assimilating machines may have been the end of them all had the superhero turnout not been so immense. "This is American, reporting in," he says over his comm. "I just saw a few potential candidates, though they're a bit young."

"How young is 'a bit'?" Polly says over the comm line.

"Younger than you were."

Polly pauses what she is doing to think that over. "John, I was barely 20. You're talking about children."

"Hey, look at the Warriors. Did you know Mercury was a 16 year old girl? Thirteen when she started out, in fact. Besides, I've seen a couple of these kids before. That car chase you tipped me off to was stopped by Coir. He helped bring down Major Ruin. The girl in the suit helped save the city from the Do-vv."

Polly says nothing for a moment. "My search isn't going as well, it seems. Neither is Jim's. Black Phoenix is a no-go, prefers working alone. Ananci said she'd be honored but there's a problem she's taking care of right now that only she can deal with. So we'll have to wait a while there. Virtue's on his own team but I'm pretty sure he's just holding a grudge. And the rest of the ones on this list, we can't trust not to go killing every crook we come across."

"The last thing this city needs is a repeat of the Chaos problem," American says. "I still think Wild-Child would be a good choice."

"She doesn't seem like a team player, John."

"Neither did Hotshot. And look what happened with him. He nearly gave his life saving us all."

Polly thinks about it for a moment. "Coir, Wild-Child, and, based on this list, suit girl is Sentinel. That's all we got? A bunch of kids? I'm not sure I feel like taking that one on, John. They're not done growing yet. They-"

"I let Bev be my sidekick for a reason, Polly. Being a hero has a funny way of making you grow up a lot faster."

Polly gets back into her car, having been leaving the lab where Virtue has been known to work. "And if it comes down to it, you can convince Am Eagle and Ms. America to come out of 'retirement'?"

"You know Carmen's always ready and I'm sure Julie will drop everything to help."

Before Polly has time to think, let alone respond, the signal is intercepted by Man-Monster's line. "My good friends, I am well aware of the grim nature of our situation but there is an emergency on our hands."

"What is it, James?" Polly says.

"A few blokes with very advanced armaments had decided it was a right dandy idea to try and stage a mass prison break. They didn't get far but the guards, unfortunately weren't what stopped them. Are you familiar with these inky black devils? Because they're destroying everything and the guards aren't much help."

"The Negative? Those are the monsters that hurt Gladius! Man-Monster, do not engage them. Not yet. We're on our way."

"Oh, you won't have to worry about that," Man-Monster says, perched far enough away that he can observe from a safe distance.

[ATTN: Coir, Open]

Sentinel took up a new post on another building, and with a groan she sat down, dangling her feet off the edge. She glanced down. Still gave her a pit in her stomach sometimes. Weird how you can fly and still be a little weirded out by heights...

She perked up as she heard something over the police chatter. She pulled her legs up, crossing them, and listened for a few minutes, trying to make sense of it.

She switched back over to Coir's channel. "Justice Boy, something really big is going down at the prison. There was an attempted prison break, but something's gone bad - I'm not sure what, it's unclear, but I'm not sure whatever it is is human."

[Attn: All]

Silk stands there and watches Coir dart off as the police officers pull up in their cars. "Oh...hi Officer Vega," she says.

"You again, kid? Didn't we have this talk about getting involved in police matters? You can go save people from burning buildings all you like but there's a process to go through, here."

"Well, I was only trying to make sure no bystanders got hurt and you WERE chasing them so I figured-" Suddenly the report comes in on the police scanner in the car, loud enough for all parties to hear. "Listen, I'm sorry and I'll let you lecture me another time but right now there's apparently a situation at the detention center that we both know I can help with."

Officer Vega stares at her for a moment before turning to get into his squad car. The unnamed super-heroine still ached all over. Every muscle was tense and she felt as if she'd fall right out of the air but something was nagging at her that he couldn't ignore this, no matter how much she wanted to. So she points her fist and a silk line fires from the back of her hand which she uses to swing off toward the prison.


At the detention center, a number of inky black devils were causing uncontrollable mayhem and shoving through guards like nobody's business. Man-Monster had decided not to hang back any longer and he'd taken to the action. He could shape-shift into many a monstrosity and his choice for this bout was the form of the mythological creature, the Minotaur. As he plows through one of these Negative creatures, another grabs him and holds him down. A third raises its forked claw over its head before suddenly being struck by what looked like a locomotive, made entirely of...pink energy?

American and Polly arrive in the nick of time, the Star-Spangled Adventurer leaping into the fray. He may not have had the strength to fell these demons but he had the finesse. He leaps through them, jumping around and causing them to trip over themselves as Polly, being the closest thing they currently have to a powerhouse, uses her psionic projections to distract them by creating a giant pitching machine, launching enormous baseballs at them. "Well, at least I'm getting better at this. A little rusty but practice makes perfect."

"Don't go too big too soon, Polly," Man-Monster says as he frees himself from the creatures grip and headbutts it away. "You'll sooner exhaust yourself than topple these demons."

The guards and arriving officers were doing their best to distract these devils with gunfire but to little avail. "This isn't working," American says. "We need a powerhouse here. Gladius, Lady Liberty, Number 7, SOMEONE."

"Sorry to disappoint, old friend," Man-Monster says, "But powerful though the Ms and I might be, the Negative are only weak to so much. Excessive light is one such thing. But they're a step ahead. They've cut the power to all of the search lights."

"I don't suppose battling them until sun up is a viable option," Polly says.

"They'd kill us by then," American says.

[ATTN: Coir, Open]

"I'm coming too," she said, pushing off the edge of the building and shooting off into the air, flying hard towards the prison.

She adjusted her course so that she'd intercept Coir as they arrived, and half a mile from the prison she drew alongside him. "There you are," she said, acting surprised that she'd seen him. Only three more days until her experiment was over and she could spill the beans... Oh yeah, by the way Coir, I placed nanotrackers on you two weeks ago secretly as an experiment to see if they're ready for usage on less friendly targets you don't mind, do you?

(Attn: open)
Back at 'Base' *Also known as Alex's apartment- by far the most livable of any of their homes* costumes and names were dropped, pizza was ordered, and the odd, scrawny and- out of costume- unbelievably dorky teenagers gathered in a circle around their TVs.
As news reports poured from the scratchy speakers, and the smiling newswomans shape flickered on the grainy display, Finnick*Sonic Youth; the alter ego of a perpetually tortured artist who treated the guitar as if it were an instrument sent down and played by god himself* muttered angrily 'I could have stopped that' or 'we could have stopped that'- while the rest of his teammates rolled their eyes at his misplaced determination.
After the fifteenth repetition of this- Alex clamped his hand over his friends mouth, brow furrowed and eyes closed in irritation.
"Finn- you are my friend, my brother, my bandmate, and I love you. But I swear to god if you say that one more time I will make your tongue go limp for a week. Don't test me because I did it once, I'll do it again-" After he removed his hand, Finn glared at him, but went back to the tv, which relayed the days current news.

[ATTN: Coir, Other Heroes]

Sentinel nodded, frowning as she looked down at the mass of black monsters. The police were trying to contain them, to no avail -

"Wait... is that...?" Among the throng of black was a shot of blue and another monster who didn't fit in. Sentinel pulled up in the air and shot one of the three concussive rockets in her shoulder down at the monsters attacking the other heroes, blasting some of them back.

Only an idiot wouldn't recognize the star-spangled hero. "Sir," she said, turning and finding Coir, watching his status closely. "Any way we can help?" She wished she could carry more projectiles in this thing - she had two more rockets and her laser in her right arm. Normally we aren't fighting an army...

[Attn: Coir and Sentinel]

The spawn stops.  Its main eye moves along the inky surface of its body until it is facing the back.  As Coir darts toward it, the beast's four arms retract into its body like a turtle pulling in its limbs into its shell.  Then it fires them out toward Coir like cannonballs.  The four black tendrils swat at the child as if he were a fly.  They snatch for him occasionally.  The unintelligible roar of the beast echoes over the prison yard.

American lands near a few officers.  "Do you have a light source anywhere near here?  A big one."

"The back prison yard's lights should still be working."

American turns to Sentinel.  "Good, the cavalry.  I was beginning to think we were the only heroes left in this city.  All right, these things are weak to intense light.  If what the officer, here, says is accurate, then we need to lure them out to the back prison yard."  Suddenly he hears one of the devils' gurgling roar and looks up behind Sentinel as one of them rounds the corners.  "Get down!"  He says, diving out of the way.

The spawn uses one of its tendrils to strike American and Sentinel but misses and grabs one of the officers that'd reacted too slowly.  It reels him in, seemingly absorbing him.  However, after a moment, it spits him back out in the form of a smaller spawn.  The converted officer attack American but is kicked out of the way suddenly by Wild-Child.  "Well, didn't know they could do that," she remarks.

"I suddenly respect the Warriors a lot more, dealing with these things as much as they do," American says.  "All right, I take it you heard the plan.  So here's the plan, Sentinel, make sure that doesn't happen to any more guards and officers.  Wild-Child, you help her.  I'll rally everyone else and we'll try luring them to that back prison yard."  He then turns and looks up at the beast, rushing off to distract it and try to get to the others.

Wild-Child looks to Sentinel.  "So I guess I can round up the boys in blue and you make sure none of the tall, dark, and uglies snatch em up with those arms of theirs."

[ATTN: Wild-Child, Coir]

Weak to intense light? Well then... "Got it," she said to American, then turned to look at Wild-Child as she appeared. Coir would want to be here for this. "I can do that," she said, holding up her right arms and inspecting the laser piece on it. It did only have so much juice, so she had to hope the others worked fast...

"Justice Boy, you might wanna join the party!" she said into her comm. She needed some way to zoom in on that map in her helmet, because right now it looked like Coir was right on top of her. Had to find him the old fashioned way. She leveled her arm down at the mob approaching several police officers and let fire, driving them back with the high powered laser. "Might need you to play bodyguard!" she said, flying up higher and taking aim again.

[Attn: All]

Polly forms a tractor trailer over one of the beast's heads and lets it drop, if only to distract it. These things were hard to stop and she was having to form up bigger and bigger means of holding them off. It was beginning to cause her fatigue. "Man-Monster, we need to...to..."

"Ms. Powers," Man-Monster says, leaping up to her in his base form and allowing her to climb onto his back. "We're going to need you at higher ground. I have and idea."

"What are we-"

The black furred beast man suddenly transforms into a mighty winged reptile. "Are you at all familiar with the term Napalm?" He says as he takes to the air.


American weaves through the mass of Negative beasts, making evasion seem near effortless. But no sooner can such be said by an onlooking cop that he is caught off guard by one of the lesser Negative's, likely a corrupted officer. As he struggles to get it off, an unexpected tendril wraps itself around him. Digging his hands into the ground, he holds his ground as best he can. Negative spawns, however, were unfortunately very strong.

Suddenly a streak of green and yellow flies in. It slams into the spawn, tearing it from its intended goal and ripping the tendril it'd had the star-spangled hero in. It was the young woman from Underside Park. She lies out on the ground before eventually struggling to her feet. "Owowowowow," she says to herself before turning around and leaping out of the way of a tendril. "I swear I have some sort of subconscious death wish," she says.

American sees her then thinks for a moment. He didn't see a way to get these things into the back prison yard without marching THROUGH the prison. "This isn't going to work," he says to himself. Then he looks up at the searchlight towers. They probably had a backup generator in case some crazy knocked the power out to try and escape.


Wild-Child tackles a cop out of harm's way then leaps and grabs another by the arm and carries them both inside. "Maybe you'll think about this day the next time ya try to shoot me," she says before rushing off. She leaps over one of the tendrils and uses it as a ramp at one point, leaping off and diving to a cop caught between three convert and with a spawn on the way. She scoops him up and hears the low roar of then turns her head. "Domestic violence is never the answer!" She shouts as she avoid being swatted at and snatched up.


"Someone get to the searchlight towers and power them up!" American says as he returns to the main yard. "It covers less area but we can use the searchlights on them."

"I can get one of them running," the girl in green says, slinging a silk line up to the tower and pulling herself up.

"That leaves the second one," American says.

[ATTN: Coir, All]

If Coir could have seen her face, he would have seen her stunned. "You are the most unobservant... My plan is their plan," she said, gesturing wildly in the direction of the other heroes. "We're protecting the police and trying to get some lights running, they're weak to light - "

She blasted another shadow with her laser to demonstrate, and had to fly up out of the way as the blast got the attention of the others. She looked up as American asked for someone to power the second searchlight tower.

"You want that or should I, Justice Boy?"

[Attn: Open]

She makes her way up to the first searchlight tower and pauses for a moment. She had to ignore the pain for the time being. She opens up the searchlight power box and looks over the circuitry. "If I was the kind of hero that didn't shut up, I'd probably say something like 'Dang it, girl, you're a doctor, not an engineer'. Okay...dad's an electrician. How would he fix it?" She says to herself, doing what she recalls him doing in a similar job not long ago. As she glances up, she sees one of the beasts corner Wild-Child. She speeds up, muttering hopes of this working.

Wild-Child leaps over a snapping tendril and slides down it. But as she tackles a cop to safety, another tendril wraps around her ankle. "...Crap," she says just before it begins to reel her in.

The girl in green frantically races through fixing the power box and finally just slams the door shut and switches the light on. The feedback summons up a rain of sparks but the light turns on. She quickly grabs the handles and guides it to the beast holding Wild-Child. It roars its unintelligible gurgle and drops her. Smoke rises from its body and it seems to shrink to nothingness. "Whoa."

Wild-Child lands on her feet and dusts herself off. "Hello! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"

(ATTN: Open)
After the group said their goodbyes, Alex found himself the solitary occupant of his apartment. It was a bit...lonely, yes. But he was used to it. How long had it been now since discovering his saliva was capable of melting through steel beams and able to kill a man in seconds? It had become such a normal part of his day to day life he didn't even notice it, anymore.
Well, not really- As he stood brushing his teeth that night, pulling it out of his mouth only to discover it was now nothing more than a melted, mutilated piece of synthetic hairs and plastic- it was at moments like that that his superhuman spit became rather apparent.
'D*mn I go through toothbrushes like The Flash goes through trainers...' He sighed as he tossed it in the trashbin. In the other room he heard the faint chirping of his cellphone, echoing eerily through the walls of his apartment. He found it, finally, wedged between the cushions of a couch he had salvaged off the curb.
City living, right?
He checked the caller ID; 'Finn'.
'Well this ought to be good.'
He flipped open his phone. "Hey Finn, what's up?"
"Dude, you've gotta come over-" His voice was frantic, but before Alex had another moment to worry he continued. "They are doing doubles shots for a dollar at Mojos and the chicks here are hot."
Alex gave a surpressed shudder, his nose wrinkling in irritation.
"Finnick, no." He said sternly.
"Dude what part of hot don't you understand?"
"I understand it perfectly well, Finn. But it's two in the morning, we're underage and I am not getting shots with you."
"Come ooooonnnnn-" He whined on the other end. "I'd do the same for you!"
"Yes, I'm sure. But the difference here is I don't beg you to come get shots and pickup women with me at two in the frickin' morning."
"Duuuude-" Came his response.
"Goodnight, Finn." He closed his phone, only for it to ring minutes later.
He answered.
"Hello?"
"I'll even pa-"
"Goodnight, Finn." End conversation.
-
Later that night came, once again, the chirping ringtone of his phone. His hand searched his sidetable for his glassed, reaching them and putting them on his face; he peered over at his phone only for the caller ID to read 'Finn'.
"D*mmit, Finnick, no means no.." He grumbled, his mind still cloudy from sleep. He silenced his phone, rolling over, and tried to salvage his remaining eight hours.

[ATTN: Prison People]

"Right," she said. She could soothe his hurt ego later. Besides, probably just embarrassed.

She shot up to the next tower, reaching up to her right elbow and fumbling with her suit. As she detached the arm, the arm powered down, and she quickly removed the other before she tackled the power box.

She frowned, staring at the thing - wires were wires, she could do this, and with some fumbling around and a moment of near electrocution the searchlight powered up. She stood, aiming it near some police officers who had been cornered. "Better than a laser."

[Attn: Prison Group]

The officers cheer as the twenty-five foot monstrosity withers and shrinks into nothingness at the touch of the light. Be this their Kryptonite or their Red Sun, no one was asking questions. For now it was working. Officers that'd been enthralled are set free of their bonds and returned to their natural human form. These lights were useful but the sheer numbers of these beasts were daunting.

Man-Monster takes note and looks out into the nearby docks. He sets Polly down near American and seeks out Coir, remaining in his dragon form. "Greetings, my boy. Would you do us a favor? Over on the docks I spotted a tractor trailer that appears to be filled with gasoline. Ms. Powers is in no condition to help me lift it and I have no form that would allow me to bring it here on mine own, at least not quickly enough. So would you be a sport and help a fellow hero in need?" He says, turning and flying off toward the docks.

[Attn: Coir]

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Man-Monster says as he nears the truck, landing at its side. "My friend and I are going to have to borrow your load, I'm afraid. Official Exemplar business. You understand." With that he grabs one end of the trailer and tells Coir to grab hold of the other end.

The workers certainly would have been furious had it not been for what was just said. Instead there was a quiet rumble of chatters. Whispers of this so-called return of the Exemplar? Workers were turning to one another with smiles as others watched in awe. The very word inspired something in the people of this city. Hope, perhaps? No. Hope wasn't the word. Pride? No. That was but a stage. Regardless of what it was these people felt at the mention of Earth's Greatest Super Team, they knew that it could only be good.

"Now, we are going to set this down in the prison yard. Tell your armored friend to take aim and fire at it the moment we're clear," Man-Monster says to Coir as they carry the heavy trailer over the river to the prison.