Journeys and Adventures

[Attn: Open]

Brianna nodded in agreement. “I see…well thank you again for your help” she added. She turned around and gave a slight wave before exiting the morgue. She would need to get back so that the group could access the information stored on the jump drive.

Casually, she made her way down the street. Her thoughts drifted to what high profile science lab would attempt something like this. Whatever company it was, it needed to be stopped. Something like that floating about was like begging for trouble. And the last thing she wanted or needed was unwanted trouble.

[Attn: Johnson]

The longer Johnson speaks, the more distraught the look on Finch's face becomes. He rubs the back of his head where Johnson had smacked him. Then he begins to stammer and speak up. "B-b-but, sir, if we can cure something like this, then who are we to deny-" And then the bomb drops. "Batch of... Military?!" Finch stands up from his seat and turns Johnson around by his shoulder. "Sir, you don't mean to tell me you've already tested it on soldiers? Real, living people. That batch failed the mice trials. It wasn't ready for human testing, yet. I-it still isn't! Wha... what have you-"

Finch pauses for a moment and walks over to his work station, picking up the vials of each batch of the elixir and placing them into a carrying case. "I can't believe I bought into this. I thought I'd be helping people. This entire time. Y-you were just after expendable super soldiers." He picks up the last vial, an early batch.

[Attn: Johnson]

"Get off of me!" Finch protests. "Sir, please. You don't understand the magnitude of the mistake you're making. The elixir isn't ready." When Johnson nods to the door and the guards begin to carry Finch out, Finch looks up at them. "Johnson. Johnson! There are people with more power than even you, Johnson! Remember that!"

[ATTN: Hostage Sitch]

Liza was out on the street, wearing a black sweatshirt she found and some sweatpants. It really grated with her aesthetic. I'm gonna get my hoodie back if its the last thing I do. And her underwear. That was a nice pair.

She'd heard on the news there was some hostage sitch going on, and she wanted to go to that, but she didn't really have the costume for it right now. Hell she looked more like one of the thugs who'd be involved in that sort of thing right now. Liza grimaced, pulling her hood up as she kept walking.

She could at least pass near the location before hunting down those other guys...

[Attn: Open]

Stacy-Lynn sits in her car, listening to the radio report on the hostage situation. She turns it off and glances up through her windshield to the sky. "This has been going on for a while, now. Where is he?"

Meanwhile, miles above the Earth, a massive rock is pummeled to smithereens before it can become a problem. On the other end of it is the ever vigilant Omniman. That takes care of that. He rights himself in the vacuum of space and flies back to Earth, making a beeline for the city until he senses a tremor of distress. He takes a detour, traveling to the west, where he grabs someone's car that'd stalled on a train track and carries it off, setting them down in a nearby field. He pries open the jammed door and helps the man at the wheel out of the vehicle. "You appear to be all right. Do you feel faint at all? Would you like me to take you to the hospital, sir? Do you need to car moved to a garage?"

"No," the rattled civilian says. "No, thank you. I'm fine. I'll call to have the car towed."

Omniman nods and flies off, trying to get to the tremors he's been feeling from the city for the past few minutes. However, he senses another spike nearer to him, indicating a more immediate danger, so he diverts once again.

[ATTN: Vivacious]

The man smirks with a pleased expression as the police call his office and assure that the man he has asked for will be there shortly. Who doesn't enjoy getting what they want? The woman in the chair, tied up in all her glory, makes no effort to escape from her bindings.

He is pacing about, bored from all of the tense silence, but halts as he felt the warmth envelope him--the warmth of the girl's attack. He turns to see that someone has, in fact, been hiding from him. Glass shatters where the beam of light had shot through, glass pouring in at his feet. He looks annoyed.

"Oh, please. Come in." The man says with his arms casually welcoming her in a polite gesture, "Have a seat."

The woman in the seat looks back as far as she can, trying to get a glimpse of what is going on. She looks frustrated and uncomfortable.

"I can always do with another hostage." He smirks.


[ATTN: Horatio]

Tam grunts, crossing her arms on her chest and ignoring Horatio's last annoying remark. Closing her eyes, she decides to rest her eyes until they reach their destination. If she's lucky, she can keep her anxiety down if she imagines nice things in her mind.

Tam says, "Play some music or something."

[ATTN: Vivacious]

The man stands still, letting the second attack come. Throwing his arms up to protect his eyes from the brightness and the glass, he lowers them again after the attack--happily, with only a few cuts from the glass.

"Ugh!" The woman in the chair looks pissed. Standing up from the seat where she had just been tied up with no trouble, she places her hand on her captor's shoulder while holding the other hand in the air, palm facing Vivacious.

The familiar ray of light shoots from her fingers, heading towards the girl's body as the "hostage's" eyes glow. Her angry tone sounds somewhat feral and out of place when coming from the lips of such a sophisticated and sensible appearing woman.

"You take care of her or I will." She says to the man with an angry tone.

[ATTN: Vivacious]

The man laughs as the girl flies in with threats. She is so cute. Laughing a little more, he steps up towards the window as the woman sits back down in her chair and proceeds to "tie" herself back up dismissively.

Stopping right before the girl, he looks down at her with a daring gaze. "Go ahead. Take your best shot, sweet thing."

[ATTN: Open]

Had she forgotten? Terry paced in the alley behind the girl's dorm while Jill watched him pace. She was grinning.

"Man you look flustered," she said. "Some girl got you in a tizzy? Some boy?"

"Of course not," he said, "just a, a partner."

"That far along already?"

"No!" He turned away as his face reddened. She was just teasing him, and he was just giving her more fuel. "For this case. The girl. Girls," he reminded himself, thinking of those that might still be alive. "She said she'd meet me here but maybe..."

She forgot? He was a little disappointed, but the more he thought about it the more relieved he was. Meant maybe he could start investigating on his own without risking her getting into trouble. He squared his shoulders, resolved. "So I'm gonna check things out on my own."

"Sure thing, man," she said. "You just be careful, alright? That weird feeling is still around and you got lots of friends here, but none of them can actually pull your ass out of a fire."

He smiled as he thought about the other campus ghosts. "Yeah. I know. I'll talk to you later, Jill."

[ATTN: Hostage Sitch]

The building the hostage situation was in was surrounded by cops now, spotlights up on the building and all. Light flashed from up in the building that wasn't from any spotlights. Supers?

Damn. Now she couldn't just walk away. She couldn't tell if the supers were the good guys or the bad guys or both. But she also couldn't make it up to that building without dealing with the police too...

She might be able to jump the barricade if she had enough energy, but she needed a mask. There has to be a place nearby I can get like a bandanna or a towel...

[ATTN: Vivacious]

As the adorable girl kicked and hit him, one right after the other, the man just stands there and takes it with an amused grin on his face. Clearly unaffected, he chuckles a little as the woman in the seat groans from annoyance.

"Dude, quit playing with your food!" The business woman says with irritation. "We have a job to do."

The man sighs. "Yeah, alright."

He turns around and walks toward the second hostage, who is tied down and lying upon the floor. He bends down to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder.

"I'll just kill this bitch if she doesn't play nice." The man says.

[Attn: Hostage situation]

She froze in shock, and it afforded him the time to grab another hostage. My powers have no effect! What do I do?!

"I'll just kill this bitch if she doesn't play nice."

That snapped her out of it and her face darkened. "Fine, you condescending prick!" She pointed both her hands at the floor beneath him and let out a shout as golden energy erupted from her hands, leveling the floor underneath him and causing it to collapse.

She cringed in horror as she realized what she'd done. She shot forward in an effort to catch the hostage before she went down with him.

[Attn: Open]

Julie sits in her office, typing away at her computer at superhuman speed. She slows down the instant her roommates enters. "Julie," Hilary says. "I know you're busy. Just ten seconds of your time."

Julie shuts her computer and folds her hands, looking up at Hilary. "What do you need?"

"About fifty bucks?" Hilary laughs and Julie blinks. "Or... you could come with me."

"You're not setting me up on another blind date, Hill," Julie says.

Hilary waves her hands at Julie. "No no! Nothing like that." She points at Julie's computer. "Mind if I just..." Julie opens her computer and rolls back, letting Hilary take over. Hilary pulls up a page detailing ticket prices.

"Alice Idol?"

"Julie. I know you grew up in the country, but..."

Julie narrows her eyes at Hilary. "Tread carefully, Hill."

"Uh... just... don't tell me you've never heard of Alice Idol. Alicia Darkholme? Pop Rock Anthem? Anything?"

Julie arches and eyebrow at Hilary and looks back at the screen. "I know I'm just a 'Southern Hick' around here, Hill, but I'm pretty sure this number's bigger than fifty."

"Well, yeah. I have most of it."

"You got that job at the cafe just to pay for some tickets to a diva pop concert?"

"NO! ...okay, a little."

Julie rolls her eyes and reaches into her purse and grabs her wallet, handing Hilary fifty bucks. "Have fun."

"Best roommate ever. Later, cousin!" Hilary says, pecking Julie on the cheek before walking off.

"That is the most grown up 8-year-old I ever did see."

---

Elsewhere, the aforementioned Alice Idol sits on a yacht, sun tanning. She hears a loud rumble in the distance, followed by screaming from other passengers. Lowering her sunglasses, she sees a chunk of meteorite falling toward them from. "Oh %@$&!" She gets up and rushes to the edge of the boat, diving over the side and into the water, just in time as the yacht is soon smashed to smithereens and explodes under the pressure of the falling space rock.

Alice awakens to several other people from the incident. She coughs up water and, as she opens her eyes, she sees a red and white blur soaring off into the sky. "What the &@$% just happened?"

[ATTN: Vivacious]

As Vivacious rushes towards the large man with the hostage in his arms, he holds tight, unwilling to let the woman go. He looks pissed as he falls down onto the floor below, where several people in their offices that aren't crashed by the falling debris being to scatter and scream.

An unconscious woman lies on the floor underneath the man, as both were knocked prone from the landing, but still maintains his tight hold on his hostage.

"You seem pretty set on getting me more hostages." The man says as he stands, girl on his shoulder and foot pressed down lightly over the head of the woman that he had landed on. "I really should find a way to appropriately thank you."

[Attn: Open]

As Finch hangs there, people gather around where he's strung up to the flag poles. Some point and laugh, others take pictures. Some taunt him from afar. He can't even muster the strength or will to call for help. Fortunately, he needn't. There is a thunderous crash and a red and white blur strikes down from the sky like lightning, cracking the pavement beneath where it lands. Omniman stands there, his cape wavering and his arms crossed. "Leave. No."

People scatter and Omniman watches them disperse. Then he removes his cape. He flies up to Finch and breaks the bindings, keeping him tethered to the poles. He wraps his cape around him and flies him to his apartment, setting him down on the roof. "I'm sorry you had to go through that, sir. If there's anything I can-"

"J'just g-go," Finch says, making his way into the building.

Omniman watches Finch disappear inside then flies off to other emergencies.

[ATTN: Vivacious]

The man laughs at her words, making no response as he picks up the squished woman and putting her over his other shoulder. Then, he look up into the hole above him.

"You get us to the stairs and up into that office again." He commands, "Or one of these women will die. And every thing that you do to disobey or defy me will end in another person's death."

[ATTN: Hostage Sitch]

A hooded figure with a black bandanna over it's face shoved her way through the crowd around the building, making her way towards the barricade. As the police started to get in her way to stop her, she leaped, sailing a good ten feet over their heads and landing on the other side near the building.

Lightweight looked up at the building in time to see a golden girl fly off out the window. The whole place looked pretty quiet now in comparison. Had she shown up too late? Was the girl a good guy or a bad guy?

Damn. Did she follow the girl or stay here?

Lightweight glanced behind her at the cops starting to close in around her, telling her to get back. What a pain. God, she looked like such a villain in this getup. Girl it was. If it hadn't taken so bloody long...

One of the cops near her stumbled as she gathered the energy to launch again, flying up into the air over the crowd and in the direction the golden girl had gone.