Junior Armada

First topic message reminder :

Silver City; a towering symbol of human determination and a testament to the human imagination. The city is protected day and night by the most powerful knights the world has ever seen. They are the Hero Armada. Dozens of heroes united under one roof with a common goal. They protect the innocent, not matter the cost. They are led by the beauty of the battlefield, Warrior Woman, the man who can't be stopped, Mr. Amazo, and the strongest man alive, Omniman. Together from the top floor of Hero Tower they watch over the city and the world, monitoring to make certain all is well. And when something isn't such, they mobilize. But today all would fail to be well from under their own roof as a Latin American young woman in a red and blue tight outfit and brown coat walks into the building through the front door.

Ricochet. Tis true what they say. Hath no fury like a woman scorned. When this woman took up the mantle of the last to bear her title she did so half out of spite. She'd been instrumental in the cretin's defeat. Now she inherited his power and many of the burdens that came with his membership. The Hero Armada was watching her. She had been a valuable member so far but she was being difficult as of late. Soon this would be a problem.

Madam Control looks up from her desk as Ricochet marches through the room to the elevator. When the doors close, she picks up the phone. "She's on her way up and she doesn't look like she's here to sit around the campfire and sing kumbaya."

"All right," Warrior Woman says in response. "Thank you for the heads up."


Some time later the conversation between Ricochet and her superiors enters a heated argumentative stage as the rising heroine slams her hands down, forcefully, on chair's round table and sneers. "You've got to be kidding me! Can't spare the people? Zephyr and Ladybug haven't had a mission in weeks! Lion Heart is pounding on local street thugs and you have me on patrol duty! You're honestly going to sit there and tell me that we can't spare a couple of people for a small strike team?"

"Adrienne, listen," Warrior Woman says.

"In this building it's Ricochet. Mask or no mask,"Adrienne says before a brief pause then doubling back. "Ma'am," she says respectfully.

"Ricochet, Ladybug and Zephyr are both Level 7 Metahumans and have access to a number of missions that we can't give you details on," Owl says.

Ricochet turns to her respected darker superior and stands upright with a sigh. "So because I'm barely a level 4 meta..."

"It's not that. The Deadwave invasion last year...and then what happened with Richard," Omniman begins, "It's an overwhelming burden and we have to make sure we're dividing our resources well. This team is an excellent idea. If we had the people to spare, I'd be more than willing to sign off on it. Be we have the remainder of our heroes on the moon base right now."

"If we had a couple more heads in this building, we'd hand 'em over to ya for your team in a heartbeat, kid, but we don't," Mr. Amazo adds.

Ricochet thinks to herself for a moment then looks away through the window. She could see a few heroes flying about outside. It wasn't an uncommon sight around here. Each of them was on a mission though. She wasn't new to that. She'd had this conversation with the Armada's leaders before. Back then they worried about her mental condition. They were entirely honest and she knew in her heart that they were right then. But now?


Following that conversation, she leaves Hero Tower and decides to go for a freerun along the skyline. She enjoyed it really. Richard was an idiot to turn on the Armada the way he did. He had it made. Everyone loved him and he was in a position to actually receive compensation for his heroic deeds. Whether he liked working with them or not, he chose the losing battle. Of course that wasn't why she became the new Ricochet. She didn't get anything out of the relationship with the Armada like he did. No, she did it for the single purpose of spiting him...and she was entirely okay with that at first. But now? Now she stayed not to make him look bad, but because...it just felt right. She lands on a low rooftop in the city and looks around for a bit. Nothing happening here. She could rest for a bit.

[Attn: Kal]

Adam stares at the orange alien for a moment. "Earth," he says impatiently.

"And, tell me, why do you put your people in strange tall boxes? Surely that is not of their preferred choice."

[Attn: Kal]

"Would you want someone hostile and dangerous to be roaming around outside freely where they can just do whatever they want? Hurt whoever they want?" Adam couldn't say he wasn't used to this type of confinement but it'd been a while. And here he said he was going to stay clean from that on.

[Attn: Adam]

Kal had a very confused look on his face. "Why do your people hurt members of their own? Surely you are not warriors, you are much too frail."

[Attn: Kal]

"We've been asking ourselves that question for years, pretty boy," Adam sighs. "Some of us are a lot tougher than the rest. Heck, tougher than you, even. And fact is...some people are just bad." With that Adam sits back and decides to get some rest, closing his eyes and allowing himself to drift off to sleep. The atlas tired him out for the day. He needed to sleep.


The next morning, Ricochet stood before the chair members of the Armada. This time she had a battle strategy for them. However, she soon came to realize that she wasn't going to need it. Omniman stood in his place as she approached. "Ah, Ricochet, it's good to see you."

"Sir," she responds. "Where are the rest?"

"They're investigating a lead on trafficking of Deadwave technology in the city. Deadly stuff...even to me. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit."

Ricochet looks away for a moment then back to her superior. "Omniman, I really believe that this breakaway team can work and if you'll just give me a chance, I'll-"

"I agree," the hero interrupts.

"E-excuse me?" Ricochet hadn't expected that. She'd been blatantly refused every time up to now. What on Earth was Omniman getting at.

The caped leader of the Armada floats down to Ricochet with his arms crossed. "You're an invaluable member of the team and I don't see anything wrong with you having this team...BUT as I said before, we don't have the people to spare." There it was. Ricochet knew it was too good to be true. She may have a use for that battle strategy after all. "Which is why you've come fully prepared." Okay, maybe she wouldn't.

It all came down to this. She takes a breath and looks at the Armada emblem behind Omniman. "Yesterday two potential threats to the city were apprehended by Alakazam and Madam Control in the Avatar drone. I tipped them off on it and they were brought back here. Well, it was a bunch of kids that brought 'em down. Kids with superpowers, I mean. Well...Madam Control probably showed you the footage. They were a little sloppy but I can-"

"I see," Omniman says with a smile as he ceases floating. "You want to take these kids and mold them into a tight knit and well oiled team of young heroes. I never pictured you as a mentor." Then he sets his hand on her shoulder and she feels the gravity of his presence in a whole new way. This is what it was like to be truly admired by the debatable greatest superhero alive. Ricochet could feel it. "All right...but there's a condition."

"W-what is it?"

Omniman suddenly disappears and reappears in a dash with a couple of folders in his hand. "Madam Control's been monitoring the city and finding quite a few other potential young additions for your team. We'd like it if you would just pick at least two of them. We think they all show real potential."

Ricochet takes the dossier and skims over them all then looks up to Omniman. "Okay...but I have a condition for your condition."

"I'm listening."


Minutes later, Ricochet stands in the lobby and speaks into her Armada Com. "This is Ricochet. If you're on this frequency, it means I gave you an Armada Communicator yesterday. Bring it to the Hero Tower Lobby. I have a surprise for you." Sometime later, The two bandanna-sporting teens stands before Ricochet. They are joined soon by two of the young heroes from Omniman's dossiers, one sporting a Spartan helm and another in red, white, and blue, both being escorted in by Madam Control and Alakazam. "Welcome aboard. But there's still one more we're waiting on."

Suddenly the exotic girl in the red and goldenrod lands sternly at the Hero Tower door, walking inside and looking around. "Hello," she says with a polite bow.

"And the gang's almost all here. Let's go."


Soon after the arrival of the various young heroes, the door to the room where Adam and Kal are being held opens and in the doorway stands Ricochet with the rest of these kids. "All right, you two have been pardoned and now you're coming with us."

"Excuse me?" Adam says, looking up.

"Let's just say you get community service," she says.

[Attn: Open]

Meanwhile, in the local North Labs facility, two of Silver City's best and brightest scramble to complete their latest project. The contradictory two, Penny Wallace and Gil Foreman verbally battle it out among themselves as they complete their calibrations and tweaks of ambiguous nature. They often worked even alongside Madam Control thanks to their ability to understand future technology with relative ease. In fact, they were authorities on future tech sciences despite their young, 20-something ages.

They were notorious for their constant battles of wit but they did respect one another and colleagues. Gil was tall and lanky with messy dark hair. He'd come from a military family and new even the most advanced aerial transports inside and out. Penny was average in height but had the facial features and figure of a goddess thanks to her own family's military background. However she was incredibly geeky and treated everything with a very matter-of-fact attitude. Having both beauty and brains was a blessing though she honestly couldn't care less about her looks. Her primary concern is to simply remain healthy...she just does an incredibly good job of it. "Gil," she says, looking over her charts, "Did you read over these numbers?"

"Of course I read over them, Penny. I think I know how to calculate a simple Quantum Flux Algorithm."

"Quantum...Gil, that was yesterday's assignment. Were you paying attention to the presentation yesterday."

Gil hops down from his ladder and reads over the charts. "Yes, mum," he says, taking a bite of an apple before plopping down into his rolling chair and making his way to his computer at the work bench. "While you're naggin', isn't it about time for me to get ready for school in th' mornin'?"

Penny simply looks up from her clipboard to glare at him. Argumentative as they were, they were certainly both incredibly productive. They designed the power core used in the Hero Armada's premier vehicles and had input in most of the Silver City Detention Center's Superhuman Security holding cells.

[Attn: Ricochet]

Kal walked with the rest to the group to wherever they were going. "Please, what is 'the community service'," he asked.

[Attn: Kal]

"I too would like to know," Goldie says.

"It means they're going to make us work so we can pay out debt to society for wrecking stuff earlier," Adam says, his arms crossed.

Ricochet pauses and turns to face this lot. "Close," she says before turning back and guiding them through the building to the elevator. "You kids are being extended an offer. You get to join together into a team under the people who work out of this very building; the Hero Armada. For those of us wearing Bandannas, you'll be getting nice new outfits, etcetera. Of course, those of you charged with a boatload of property damage get a bit more out of this." She then turns to Kal and Adam. "You two get amnesty. Does this sound like a good deal for everyone?"

"Are you KIDDING?!" Spartan says. "That sounds AWESOME!"

"I too would partake in this. You may call me Atta...uhm...Atta...Girl. Atta-Girl," goldie says, finally giving something of a title to herself.

Adam looks to Atta for a moment then turns to Ricochet. "All right, I'll do it."

The two kids sporting bandannas look to one another and nod. "We're in," says the boy.

Lastly, the girl in the red white and blue hoodie and jeans ponders for a moment then nods. What could it hurt? "I'll give it a shot." Now it all fell on the attramanian's response.

[Attn: group]

Kal had a contemplative look on his face. "I do admit that I have other duties, but if it would make apology for what I have done, I will readily join."

[Attn: Tyre]

Penny looks back up from her clipboard. "All right, well just for clarity, even our superiors get this wrong from time to time but we aren't in Temporal Technological studies. That'd be Time Travel tech. We're in Chronotechnology, AKA Tech OF all times...especially the future."

"New Future Tech is turning up all the time. In fact, did ya hear yet about what's happened in New York. If you work for North Labs ya probably know the name Lenora Woods. She created unspecialized adapting nanites based on some sort of tech she got from almost a thousand years from now," Gil says. "Called them omnites. Used 'em to make a keen little drone she calls-"

"Gil, if he needs one of your anecdotes, he'll ask. So, Mr...Tyre? Are you at all familiar with this machine? It's very basic to our particular field but anywhere else it's seen as a marvel of sorts," Penny says, pointing out the massive machine just behind her.

[Attn: Kal]

"Good," Ricochet says as she guides them to the elevator. Once out, they find themselves in the conference room. Stands there at the table are the eight chair's of the Armada; Alakazam, Madam Control, Micro-Man, Champion King, The Owl, Mr. Amazo, Warrior Woman, and Omniman. "And now for the hard part. Getting THEM to sign off on it." But at least we have one vote in our favor.

"So this is the team she selected. Was she not supposed to choose from the dossiers?" Madam Control claims.

"She did," Omniman says. "I see two of your recommendations behind her there. Besides, I don't think it'd make much of a difference if all of her choices were from the dossiers. The overall goal of the team is still the same, is it not?"

The Madam removes her glasses and holds the bridge of her nose. "Well, that is true but we don't have nearly as much insight into most of these."

"Am I the only one who's paying attention to the fact that we just had two of them in an interrogation a few minutes ago?" Owl adds.

Adam steps forward as if preparing to say something but stops to think on his intended action and refrains. Mr. Amazo takes note of the kid's restraint and shrugs. "If memory serves, Owl, your 'sidekick' is a would-be assassin. Or are you going to argue that Cheshire's just a big ol' ray of sunshine and adorableness?" Owl glances to the red and black clad hero through his mask and relents.

"Maybe this team would do well under a trial basis?" Madam Control states.

"Did WE get a 'Trial Basis' attempt, cherie?" Alakazam says.

"Nay," Champion King chimes in. "The mage is correct. We did not have such luxury."

Warrior Woman stands contemplating the situation with her arms crossed. "Still...you, better than anyone, should understand that times change, O' man of the Medieval Era. Perhaps we should allow this team to move forward and simply give them a test at some point that will allow them to prove themselves."

"That seems a fair idea," Micro-Man says. "After all, one could argue that our very first collaboration was a test of sorts."

"So we're decided then?" Omniman asks, waiting for his colleagues to nod in agreement. When they do, he floats to Ricochet. "Good luck."

Ricochet nods appreciatively. "Thank You...but there is one more thing, in case you forgot my last condition."

In a matter of hours, the entire group finds itself introduced to a very spacious but empty underground base of sorts, complete with four more levels further down. Madam Control hands each of them new Armada Coms with a 'JA' insignia instead of the typical 'A' one. "They're your communicators and your access keys to get in. Have fun and try not to blow the place up," she says before leaving.

Ricochet turns to the team. "It's no Hero Tower but our own base of operations...I call it a win."

"Excuse me," Liberty Bell says, removing her mask. "But...I have a home to get to. We aren't staying here the entire time, are we?"

Atta-Girl floats forward next. "I do not have a home here, however."

"All right, those of you with homes to get to, go ahead back whenever you need to. If you don't have a place to stay, you can move in." Then she thinks about it. My rent is getting pretty ridiculous. I wonder if it's actually funded by the Armada. If it is, I can probably afford to move in! Score!

[Attn: Tyre]

"You'd be right in thinking that...well mostly. It's several times more efficient than anything generally found in our own time period. We reverse engineered one we had lying around from a future-tech ship and applied that future tech to our own technology to get this. If all goes well and SOMEONE made sure their calculations were correct-"

"Woman, are ya gonna stand there yellin' at me all day or let me do my job?" Gil retorts.

"Well, if you did your job in the first place, I wouldn't have to raise my voice, now would I? Anyway, if he manages that, then what we'll have here is a device powerful enough to run the entire city for a few hours and waste absolutely nothing. From there we can move on to the bigger, better goal."

[Attn: Tyre]

"Spencer? In our lab? On this project? Not while I live and breathe," Penny remarks. "Nothing personal meant against him but...well aside from this not being his field, he has a bit of a problem with 'helping' as he calls it."

"If I remember correctly, the last time he 'helped', the Hero Armada actually had to send in Omniman to clean up the mess."

[Attn: Tyre]

"Well, this little lady is just about ready for preliminary testing. All that needs to be done is analyze a few more-"

"Penny, c'mere," Gil says from the other side of the machine. "Those numbers you crunched the other day are a wee bit off. Shouldn't take more'n a second t' fix it but if we factor it in, there's no telling how long it'll take for the thing to adjust. Testing might even have to be pushed back til tomorrow for all we know."

Penny sighs and walks over the Gil. "What's this about the numbers I-...Gil...these aren't the numbers I ran. Whose gave you these statistics?"

"Didn't you?"

"No, look. I would've known not to use the 'Overflow' Algorithm here. That's for determining the amount of energy lost in the event that she goes-"

"I know what it means, woman. But if you didn't give me these numbers, who did?"

"Did I hit you over the head with the clipboard when I gave them to you?"

"No."

"Well then, I guess I didn't give them to you," Penny says, striking Gil over the head with her clipboard.

[Attn: Tyre]

"Friends? With him? Hardly," Penny says.

When the alarms suddenly sound, Penny and Gil cut the crap and rush to the monitors. "No, they are not supposed to do that!" Penny shouts over the blaring buzzer.

"Are you SURE you didn't give me those numbers!?"

"Gil, shut up and help me turn it off!"

Kal flew around the spacious room, seemingly excited about the new quarters, before stopping suddenly. "Wait," he said, scratching his head, "your people build upwards with the 'skyscrapers'? Now you live underground like the Dwarkarf of Or'amz? Humans are most confusing."

[Attn: Tyre]

Gil shakes himself off and looks around. Debris had falling on Penny and he struggles to lift it. Once she was free, he looks around for Tyre. "Hey, Tyre, where are ya?!" He says, looking around before noting the hole in the wall. "Holy Heaven," he says.

"The alarm, Gil," Penny says, slowly getting up and holding her head. "Sound it."

"I don't think we're going to need it. It's gonna be hard to miss whatever made THAT," Gil says, pointing out that gaping hole.


[Attn: Kal]

"This I do understand. Structures built downward into the Earth are meant to maintain secrecy and security. It is likely built this way for the purpose of maintaining our safety," Atta-Girl says.

"She's right on the money," Ricochet says.

Atta-Girl blinks and looks down at her feet. "On...the money? I do not appear to be standing atop any currency, coins or otherwise."

"It's...nevermind."