Hemalurgic Headshot

@Comatose Did Notley contact the Circle at all after the research lab incident? Just need to know for something I'm planning. @Drake Marshall How is Taya's little infiltration under the guise of Agent Rook going?

Now, it might be too soon to suggest something like this, but could we convert WHiE into a comic? I bet we have enough accumulated artistic ability to pull something like this off, even if only a sample page of a cool scene.

Riley opened his eyes and saw the sky. Lazy clouds with wispy edges against a blue backdrop of unfathomable depth. His hand rubbed the ground. Concrete. Concrete? He sat up with a jolt and looked around. Surrounding him were towering metal tanks connected to a jungle of pipes and beams. Metal catwalks jutted out from the industrial labyrinth. The pipes extended down to his right and down to his left. He glanced over his shoulder. More steel spaghetti. There was no grass. No trees. He looked up above the tops of the pipes and saw the towering smokestack. His heart leapt into his throat. He was in the refinery. Panic started to creep in. He was outside of Sherwood Park. It was everything that he’d dreamed of and feared of. He also had no idea where he was. Hesitantly, he rose to his feet, then stumbled, pain flaring up through his leg. His bandaged leg. Riley stared at his wrapped leg in wonder. Who had bandaged his leg? The last thing he remembered was blood pouring out of the bullet holes in his calf, before the pain and the wooziness became too much and his vision faded to black. He shifted weight to it and hissed in pain. The leg was still too tender to walk on. Scanning the area again, he spotted a broom in a corner. It was bleached in the sun, and rather worse for the wear, but still Riley hobbled over to it. Heating his hand, he burned the bristles off, then fit the broad end under his arm. Now he had an improvised crutch. With crutch in armpit, he ventured forth. He had no idea where to go from the refinery, or where in the refinery he was, but he was going somewhere.

“Not a prob, though I’m wondering what his deal is and what your deal with him is,” Kokichi replied. Liam leaned back in the seat and looked out at the industrial skyline. “I’ve never seen him before in my life. Seen plenty of Epic’s like him, though. Consumed by their rage. I don’t know why he didn’t target us, only the officers… maybe he has a bad history with the government. It doesn’t matter to me very much.” Liam paused. Kokichi was obviously referring to why he bothered to clean the Epic up instead of just ditching him. Could he lie? Knowing Kokichi, they’d probably see right through it. The real question is how Kokichi will react. “I have my own reasons for cleaning him up, but you have nothing to worry about,” Liam said. If he couldn’t lie, then he would just avoid the question. In the center of the dash was a screen that Liam had installed with the Circle’s funds. He tapped it, and a rendered map of Edmonton appeared. Liam entered the van’s approximate coordinates, and a blinking dot appeared on the map, a bit to the east of the city. “This is Edmonton, or Olympia Polaris, as I’ve heard it called these days,” Liam told Kokichi. He pointed to the dot on the map. “This dot is where we are. Now, I’m here to shut down a black market operation somewhere around Edmonton. I’m not sure where it is, and I know that it moves around, but either way I’m going to find it and destroy it.” He looked at Kokichi. “I’m assuming you’re cool with this, right?”

As the van pulled away, Liam shook his head. That will go down as one of the most unbelievable experiences of his life, definitely. Fooling an Epic? Lying to his face? It doesn’t compare to anything he had experienced in any of his years as an Agent. He grinned. Next step: refuge and recovery. He glanced to the back, where Kokichi was yet again lounging on the sofa, having procured yet another bag of sweets. The other Epic was laying on the plastic sheet, the blood pool slowly filling up. There hadn’t been time to properly bandage the wound before the green Epic had shown up. He was still clearly unconscious and breathing slowly. Having an Epic like this in his van was crazy. Any moment, he could wake up and kill them both, just like he had the motorcyclists. The van approached the vacant interchange. On the other side was an industrial complex, apparently for processing oil. However, as Liam could see from the trailing smoke and blasted tankers, there had been an accident recently. Somewhere among those stacked containers and industrial wreckage, the van could hide. BANG BANG Liam glanced at the rearview mirror. The distant Epic had a cluster of bulky men around him, who were opening fire on the van. Liam smiled to himself. He was right about the army. In response, he reached over and pressed the eye icon on the dash to activate the Parallax cloak. To the Epic and his cronies, the van was now somewhere else. Liam didn’t know or care where exactly it seemed to be. He just floored the accelerator. Soon the red bullet-scarred van was among the smoldering husks of the oil vats. Ahead, a single singed smokestack rose, surrounded by its refinery complex. Liam thought it would be a good hiding place for the van, distanced enough from Sherwood Park that hopefully, the Albertan Government wouldn’t come knocking. The road diverged to the main entrance, a remotely activated chain-link gate. It had been knocked open by some previous visitor, and Liam drove the van through without problem. Ahead was the tangled mass of pipes and tanks that was the refinery, topped by the smokestack. It appeared to be abandoned, probably when Epic activity made working with a volatile liquid dangerous. Liam maneuvered the van under a bridge of pipes and into the heart of the refinery. With care, he pulled it up close to one of the tankers and parked it. Liam stepped out and inspected the van. It was quite beat up in some places, with rows of bullet marks marring the paint job. Liam usually kept some cans of spray paint to patch up here and there on the go. He’d have to dig them out sometime. However, he had more important tasks to do. Pulling the side door open, Liam looked down at the young Epic lying on the floor. The blood was starting to spill off the sheet and onto the floor, prompting Liam to frantically grab a pair of latex gloves, which he put on, and attempt to push the puddle of blood away. Sparks, he needed a mop. With the blood temporarily taken care of, Liam pulled out a box of surgical equipment. Most of it was only for extracting blood samples, but there was a roll of bandages, a scalpel, and an assortment of narcotics and painkillers. Liam started by examining the Epic’s leg. It seemed like all the bullets had ripped right through the leg, which made his job easier. He didn’t have a good way of cleaning the wound beyond wiping the blood off the leg. He began to bandage it carefully, wrapping the strip around and around the wound. Soon, the wound was bandaged. Liam looked at the Epic resting in a pool of his own blood. He looked so peaceful, quite a difference from the raging being before. Liam didn’t want to kill him, though it’d be safer to. Sparks, why was he so soft? Hawk wouldn’t even have bandaged the leg! Pushing these thoughts aside, Liam quickly took a blood sample and stuck it in a cooler in the back. Then he dumped the bloody plastic sheet on the ground, tossed the sheet in a corner, carried the still unconscious Epic a few hundred feet before setting him down, then drove the van to another part of the refinery. Once the van was tucked away into another hiding space, Liam looked back at Kokichi, who had continued to eat candy while they watched the whole operation happening at their feet. “Sorry about that, if you’re not one for blood,” he apologized.

The green-haired Epic smiled. Sparks. “I’m sorry to say, but I really must ask you to stay a bit. It’s quite rare that eight uniformed, motorcycle-riding blokes just up and shoot a van, with no provocation. Especially blokes wearing what appears to be government-issue uniforms.” Liam stared at him. “That does seem strange, doesn’t it?” So, he obviously knows about the research facility, Liam thought. How many people did we just get mad? From the look on the Epic’s face when Liam had mentioned “army,” he has some sort of backup waiting. Now, this could get very messy very quickly, if the Epic was somehow in collaboration with the government. Perhaps they’ve placed a bounty on his head. That would be just great. The Epic still hadn’t made any outright accusations yet, which interested Liam. If he knows the truth, but doesn’t want to admit it, then what kind of game is— He’s stalling. Sparks, and with the kid Epic in the van, Liam silently cursed. I need to get out of here before he wakes up, and if this Calamity-blasted Epic won’t let us leave, then so help me. “It is strange, now that you mention it,” Liam said, letting no notion of his inner anxieties show. “From my perception, this area seems to be under the protection of the local government. And, as any government does, there are laws on speeding. I’m not from around town and I haven’t followed the speed limit in nearly ten years, so the change was quite startling to me. The local police tried to chase me down and give me a ticket.” This was the most ridiculous story that Liam had ever told. “From instincts honed from living out in the Canadian wilds, I don’t react well to being ganged up by a group of motorcyclists. So, I floored the pedal harder. After a few warnings, the police pulled out their guns and began firing on me! I understand that in this dangerous world, the police force needs to be prepared for any kind of disturbance, but I was not prepared for that. I began to swerve, and I went over the side of the road, right here as you can see. There would not have been any bloodshed if another Epic hadn’t appeared and made short work of the officers.” If this Epic was sympathetic in any way, and had no knowledge of the research facility incident, (not to mention slightly dumb) he might believe it. Liam doubted that this Epic was any of those.

I threw that one in sarcastically, to emphasize my lack of a better term for the Alberta Government.

Well, I'm at a loss at what to call them, if not feds. Albs? Staters? The po-po?

The military Epic stopped about forty feet away, placing himself in the middle of the road. Wide open. “Mind sharing what just went down?” The Epic inquired as he slung his shield, previously unseen, over his shoulder and rested the edge of it on the asphalt. The shield was large, maybe two and half feet across, and was made of bark, thick and rough-looking, as if it had been sliced off a tree five minutes ago. Maybe it had. He obviously was trying to set them at ease. From this distance, Liam could blow his head off without much trouble. It might not have any effect, though. Sparks, if only he had intel! “We had a brief altercation with these individuals here,” Liam said, shrugging in the direction of the scattered motorcyclists and keeping his tone almost sarcastically formal. “They had been giving us a bit of trouble, as you can see from the bullet scars on my van, so it was about time to end the fiasco. I’d prefer if you also left us alone, you and whatever army you’ve brought along.” Liam thought he saw something pass over the Epic’s face just then, but it was gone in an instant. “And if we’ve intruded on your territory at all, don’t worry, we’ll just be going now.” Liam watched the Epic’s face, watching for any sort of reaction.

Ah. Interesting.

I must have. Possession as in ghost-possession?

... what? Why is Nighthound coming back?

@winter devotion is Kokichi standing in front of Liam, or did he just toss his hoodie in front of Liam? Just wondering in case Liam has to shoot.

@winter devotion, I might need your help here... @Weirdpersonx, Phyto has been spotted. We'll see how this goes.

Liam dumped the unconscious Epic’s body into the van. He had laid out a sheet of plastic on the floor to catch the blood, which was already pooling, and prepare for operation. Having an opportunity to collect samples like this was too good to pass up. Liam glanced over at Kokichi, who was watching the Epic intently. “Keep an eye on him, please,” Liam asked, then he walked around to the front of the van. Though the cycle team was incapacitated, it wouldn’t be long before another team came looking for their missing comrades. And when they did, Liam wanted to be far away. He had decided to leave the bodies where they lie, including the unconscious ones. Moving them would be too much of a hassle. “Hello there!” A cheery voice called out from the other side of the road. Liam immediately dropped and brought up his shotgun in the direction of the voice. It was too soon for another fight, Calamity blast it. The voice came from a man, clad in a forest camo military uniform and featuring green hair. Of course, compared to Kokichi’s, everyone’s hair was bland. The man was sturdily built, presumably from his military background, if the uniform was anything to go off of. Yet, what most uneased Liam was the man’s demeanor. He walked with the confident, purposeful stride that screamed “Epic” and his voice, though jovial, was directed towards him. This man, this Epic, knew about him, what happened, and he was here for him. And, now that he thought about it, that tree-line behind him seemed much thicker than it was before.

Riley was discussed on page 84. I'll go ahead and add his info to the bio thread.

Riley Henderson stood in the shade of the old Toyota dealership, looking out at the final smoking tower of the refinery across the freeway. Just over a week ago, two Epics had fought there, reducing the oil refinery to a charred husk. Riley watched the whole thing from his hideout, here in the autopark. It was quite the spectacular battle, with lots of exploding fire and such. The autopark was a good hideout; Riley had been here about a month. After gas prices skyrocketed after Calamity, not many people were in the market for a new car. And there wasn’t much of a selection now, since everything that was worth something had been stolen by scavengers. Now the three dealerships marked the resting place of hollowed out cars, their own interiors looted and carved out. Not only was the autopark now desolate, but the surrounding area was just trees and grass. There might have been more development planned, but after Calamity, it was cancelled. Currently, Riley was bored. Usually, he was entirely focused on avoiding the feds, but today had been relatively silent. The autopark really was a good hideout. He stared at the tower in the distance. How he wished to go out there. Why wouldn’t he? He was strong, he was powerful, he was an Epic. He was a coward. Riley snarled and shook the treasonous thought from his head. But in his heart, he knew it was true. He was scared of the unknown, out where Epics much stronger than he roamed and fought, just like at the refinery a week ago. It was his grim secret. Luckily, the sound of gunfire broke his thoughts. He turned towards the sound and strained his vision. Racing down the freeway were the bright heat signatures of vehicles: one large one, with two passengers, and surrounding it eight smaller vehicles, probably motorcycles. He gave the surrounded van a pitying smile. Whoever was in that van was not his concern. He concentrated, and his vision returned to normal color. His eyes widened as he saw the motorcycles more clearly. The feds. And they were heading right towards his hideout. His hideout. His first thought was to run, get far away from his mortal enemy. But then the accusing thought poked in his brain: coward. The grimace on Riley’s face twisted into a snarl. It was time to act. This time, the feds would pay. He leapt to his feet and ran to the hollowed husks of cars in their lots, pressing his hand to the hood of each and drawing the heat from them. When he left, hints of frost crackled in the corners. These cars had been baking in the sun all day, soaking up the heat. They were the perfect “batteries” for Riley’s power, for he could give and take heat all he pleased. At the end of the lot, the air around Riley’s skin was rippling in the heat from his body. The grass at his feet withered and smoked. He had to focus on stealing the heat from his clothes as it absorbed it, so they wouldn’t burn off in the excessive heat. The energy lost to the air was not his concern. Now packed with heat energy and a growing rage, Riley stood in the road, facing the oncoming entourage. His lips curled back as his smile turned feral. Bring it. Liam swerved the van back and forth as they tore down the freeway, heading towards the city. The cycles had to move out of the way to avoid being smashed, disrupting their aim. However, they did not desist, and the lead cyclist continued to scream warnings at him. “THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. PULL OVER AND SURRENDER, OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO DESTROY YOU.” Destruction wasn’t on Liam’s plan for today, but then again, his recent actions weren’t exactly helping that. What had he been thinking when he broke into that storage room? Whatever it was, it didn’t help the present. As another burst of machine-gunfire sprayed the side of the van, Liam decided that it was probably a good time to get a turret installed on the van for situations like these. Suddenly, Liam’s eyes widened and he swerved to avoid the man standing in the middle of the road. The van spun and lurched over the curb and into the grass beside it. The pursuing motorcyclists circled around to face the now stopped van. Liam grabbed his shotgun and watched the cautiously approaching men through the rearview mirrors. He cocked the gun and held his breath. The snare-drum-like patter of gunfire filled the air but lacked the complimentary metallic pinging of the bullets hitting the van. Liam glanced over his shoulder. The gunmen were now distracted by something, which he saw shortly when it cooked one of them well done. With a fist, Riley transferred several thousand kilojoules of energy into one of the feds’ face. It blackened and charred, filling the air with a smell not unlike a badly burnt barbeque. He ducked and rolled towards another fed, avoiding a spray of bullets. Though he could manipulate heat, he couldn’t melt bullets well. He could, however, cook a man inside-out, which is what he was doing. The man screamed when Riley grabbed his leg and burned through it, his flesh, and the bone. The man collapsed and passed out from the pain. The five remaining feds stared at him from the other end of their gun barrels, looks of fear, disgust, and fury in their eyes. Riley grabbed the fallen fed’s gun and strafed the assembled feds, who returned fire. Riley hit two but took several rounds to his leg. He gasped at the pain, which turned into fury. He grabbed the smoking barrel of the gun and stole its heat, then flung himself and the nearest fed with his good leg. His finger only just brushed the man’s magazine, but it was enough to transfer heat. The ammo in the magazine combusted as they overheated, causing the gun to explode in the fed’s face. He fell to the ground and stopped moving. Riley swung his gun around to mow the other two feds down but found them already crumpled on the ground, shiny stars orbiting their heads. What? Instead, an imposing bearded man stood over them, brandishing a shotgun like a club. Behind him, the most ridiculously dressed person he had ever seen stared at him with much more curiosity than he deserved. Sparks, that hair hurt his eyes. “Should’ve let me finish them off,” Riley hissed, then passed out from pain and blood loss.

@Drake Marshall Sparks, what have you done... I have no idea if Taya will be arrested on sight (I mean, the Circle just broke into their research facility), but masquerading as an Agent? So many different possibilities could dome from this, and I'm excited to see any of them. Additionally, PM me and Winter if you want to coordinate characters. Same for you, @Weirdpersonx.

When Kokichi began speaking, thus began one of the strangest experiences in Liam’s life. It wasn’t just that he began to see something that obviously wasn’t there. No, he had fought illusion Epics many times before with the Circle. He had always been prepared then. He had seen many strange, eerie, and beautiful things done by Epics with their powers, but nearly every time, he had prepared himself beforehand. The flashback came unexpectantly, and what’s more, Liam let it happen. That was the difference. As Kokichi began to speak, the air in front of Liam began to shimmer and warp, gaining color and definition before, at last, the mirage began to depict Kokichi’s life story. Shapes and forms gained clarity, and Liam could see a young child lounging on their bed, reading a comic book. Liam knew it was Kokichi, but the child was vastly different, yet the same. The hair, the eyes, the way they relaxed, all of these things had changed. Yet it was Kokichi. Through the window rose Calamity. Yes, Calamity. Liam caught himself mid-snarl and tried to relax. He hated Calamity. Young Kokichi stashed their comic book and rushed to the window, watching the sinister red dot climb into the sky. The scene changed, and the way it did set Liam off-balance. The whole flashback sequence was eerie, moving in a stuttering way at times. It was like the animation in an amateur film: missing a few frames here and there. In a series of following clips, Liam saw the descent of chaos upon Florida: gradual, yet sudden. In that same fashion Kokichi learned to use their own powers. Liam watched Kokichi escape Florida, but then the mirage blurred, as if viewing something very fast zoom by. When it cleared, he saw the red van, his red van, and the familiar Canadian countryside. Finally, the image dissolved, leaving Liam staring at Kokichi, who looked simultaneously smug and expectant. The van also had not crashed. Liam took a moment to collect his thoughts while Kokichi waited. They had obviously declined to include certain parts of their past, and Liam respected that. Of course, they couldn’t object if he did the same. “Alright,” Liam said after a minute or two, “I suppose that it’s my turn.” “There I was, happily married… It was a Tuesday, Liam remembered. The initial scare of the new red star, now named Calamity, had passed, and Peterborough was settling down again. Liam hadn’t paid the doomsayers much mind, because none of the other doomsdays (2012, for example), had ever come to pass, so he didn’t have much cause to worry. He wasn’t worrying when he got home from work that Tuesday evening. Melanie, his young wife whom he had married the year before, was just setting the table for dinner when he walked in. Their son, Oliver, cooed in his padded chair. He walked in, gave Melanie an affectionate peck on the cheek, picked Oliver up and spun the smiling baby around before setting him down, then set his laptop on the kitchen counter. Liam could remember it all like it was yesterday. “Honey,” Melanie began. These words were the beginning of the end. “How was work today? Did you get the raise you asked for?” The raise. Melanie had always been a go-getter and tried to get that philosophy to rub off on Liam, who was a bit more laid-back. One day, she decided that he deserved more money than he was getting, so she challenged him to speak with the manager about it. On Monday, he had, but did not receive an immediate response. That response came Tuesday. Liam paused. “Well, no,” he said sheepishly. Melanie set the stack of silverware she was holding down with a clank. “No?” She inquired, her pretty coffee-brown eyes staring into his soul. “I asked the manager yesterday, like I told you. He said he would think about it. Then, he told me today that the company was not in a position to increase my salary.” Melanie bit her top lip, like she always did when she was trying to control her anger. “’Not in a position to increase your salary…’ the nerve! Liam, you are more than deserving of a raise, and you should know that! I’ll speak to your manager myself,” she declared, then began to resolutely finish setting the table. “What?” Liam exclaimed. “You can’t speak to him!? I mean, he’s not your manager.” Melanie whipped her head around to look at him, eyes ablaze and startling on her feminine face. “Liam, I care about you. I care about our family. This family deserves that raise.” At that point, Liam gave up. There was no arguing with Melanie when she got like that. And unfortunately, speaking to the manager herself didn’t change anything. The atmosphere at the dinner table that night was tense, despite Oliver’s adorable antics. The root of Melanie’s anxiety was Oliver. She wanted the money for him, it was obvious. However, it was hard for her to vent sometimes, so the emotion would just sit and simmer for weeks, or months, until it exploded. I remember the night after the hearing. The night after my life was truly and completely broken. The first night since my marriage that I was alone. I can tell what happened that night in two words. I cried. It didn’t make any sense to me in that moment, why my beautiful loving wife would suddenly break our relationship and take our only child with her. I couldn’t blame it on her. I wasn’t done loving her yet. And there is no way on this earth that I would blame this on Oliver. Not him. So, I blamed it on Calamity. It was completely logical. Before Calamity, our marriage was perfect. We had Oliver. I had my job and with it, a steady income. After Calamity, all of that was taken from me. I couldn’t function for weeks after the divorce, and when I finally came back to work, I just couldn’t focus. The only thing I could focus on was the old Volkswagen Samba my Uncle Jeremy had left me when he died. So, I devoted my life to that vehicle, since I had nothing left to devote it to. I suppose that love and effort I put in is finally repaying itself. When the Epics arrived, people with spectacular powers, I didn’t pay them any mind. My world was already over, so I didn’t care about the rest of the world. When the office I used to work at—thankfully I had been fired a month prior—exploded in a flash of blue light, I realized that I still had my life and I was going to keep it that way. I was also about to get evicted. So, I packed what was left of my belongings into the Samba and left town. I could say I never looked back, but I did. How could I not— RATATATATAKKATKATAK!!! The spray of machine gun fire pinged off the Samba’s reinforced exterior and left a crack in the passenger window. Liam was ripped from his reminiscent reverie and swung around to the front. Closing in on every side of the vehicle were black dangerous-looking motorcycles, each driven by an armored man wielding a machine gun. On their helmets was the insignia of the Albertan Government. “Pull over! We have you surrounded!”

Sounds appropriate.

Sparks yeah, man.

I"M ALIVE!!! Truly sorry for the absence, and anything that it might have caused. I'll just say that now. I'll also say that you guys are amazing writers! Superb stuff in the thread! Now that I'm back in the scheme of things, I'll have to start pulling my weight. A few ideas: One, I would like Liam and Kokichi to interact with as many PCs as possible, just for the fun of it. In RP-Time, they are currently cruising through Sherwood Park, where the Alb-Gov't Cycle patrol is about to spring upon them. This will cause a car chase, some nice action, and then my plan is that they chance upon Riley. Riley is a very interesting person, because he views his powers as a curse. His life was fine until Calamity came. Additionally, he hates the Albertan Government, so I think that will be the grounds for his intervention. Once Riley deals with the cycle patrol, it will be the nudge to get the van out of Sherwood Park and into the city. Once the crew is in the city, anything can happen.

Hey guys, I'll be out of town and unable to post for the next week. Sorry. However, I'll try to check in when I can, but don't expect anything new in the RP thread from me.

I don’t know. Did we?

Well, we could run a Season 2 of WHiE, if it goes successfully and we come to some sort of "season finale" and conclusion we all agree upon (which in itself would be an achievement). Season 2 could be a few weeks/month afterwards the current RP's events. But that's way to far ahead to be thinking about.