Media Blitz

INTRODUCTION:
This is the rtzy world of fast cars and even faster women. The sun sets leaving the beaches deserted except for a few hipster bonfire advocates and the club scene doesn't even get started until 2am. Movie stars and starlets parade them selves in front of endless lines of paparazzi hoping to reign in the next cover of a magazine. Agents scream into phones about "showing them the 'money' " and the 'Goven-ater' does commercials showing just how cool it is to live in " Cali-for-nnniaaa".

It is much the same way for heroes in here 'Tinsel-town'. Glitz & glamor go hand in hand with stopping crime and villainy. Trendy heroes make guest appearances on Television shows as they take time off to vacation with the latest Hollywood starlets. And the media is as cruel to those that loose the 'it' factor as it is to the acters and actresses that pass through this dog-eat-dog town as well. Stop making headlines, or pose for an unflattering photo and your career can be over just that quick. But these are only concerns for elite among your super powered peers. Most heroes start out here, waiting tables, fetching coffee at Sunbucks or taking death defying spills as a lowly paid stunt person.

Here like anywhere else, the negative portion of society does linger as well. Villainy and super crime is as prevalent here in the 'Sun-shine state' as it is anywhere else, Except with one big difference; It's done with the same amount of pizazz as everything else is in this entertainment capital. Crimes are big business and catching an exciting one on film is a profitable as robbing a bank to begin with.




PART 1


Albert Wagner had finished up his route in record time, he prided himself on not using his powers while in the guise of normal identity. The mail needed to be delivered, come rain, sleet, wind, or snow; or even earthquakes out here; and if all his peers could do it without the aid of super speed so could he. He reached his small ranch style home and entered with his usual cheery greeting; "Hello dear, I am home!"

Mary Lou, his beautiful wife, was in the kitchen as usual. She was already five drinks into a bottle of scotch and her mood was only worsening. "Well...la-tee-da....The big man returns home from another day at the office!" She growled from her position at the counter. It looked as though she had been attempting to construct something that would have looked like dinner if that troublesome bottle of booze hadn't blocked her path.

Al came in and removed his government issue shoes and placed them neatly by the door as he always did. He popped on his house slippers and made his way toward his recliner. "Sweetheart....Could you be a dear and fetch me my pipe and a cup of coffee?" He said in his every-day happy tone. The call was answered immediately by the antique pipe being hurled out through the kitchen entry way at his heads general direction. Albert's unnaturally fast reflexes screamed at him to use his powers to reach up and grab it out of the air, but he'd sworn a long time ago that he wouldn't use them in front of her. So the pipe continued along it's path and smacked him in the side of the head and landed in his lap.

"Thank you dear....any chance about that coffee?" His tone pleasant and unaffected by her mood. The cup smashed against the wall behind the Television and coffee and broken glass rained down to the carpet. "Rough day dear?" He asked.

"Like you f*cking care...worthless c*cksucker.... Could've married a man with ambition like my father told me...." She drifted off in to a drunken slur.

Albert let the slight go, as he always did and flipped on the television to the news.

* BREAKING NEWS!!! This just in....Earlier today a criminal organization overtook a local bank. This group of terrorists has been held up inside the bank with over 30 hostages. They are armed and extremely dangerous! They appear to be the latest in the current trend of "Super-Criminals" equipped with space-age technology that is capable of not only hold police at bay but completely neutralize any efforts made by officials. They have just made their demands known and apparently they have asked for one billion dollars in unmarked currency, a helicopter capable of carrying them and that large amount of currency, and the phone number of screen actress Scarlet Johansen. Police are still negotiating at this time, but as every minute ticks away another innocent hostage dies, the death count is already at 10.

Albert stood up like a shot, He turned off the TV and walked over to where his shoes were. "UUUhhhh honey...I forgot something...I have to run back to the office...OK?" He said, moving as quickly as he could with out causing a blur in his movements.

"Yeah...What the f*ck ever! Pick me up another Bottle of booze....It looks like this one ain't gonna make it." She slurred back at him.

"Will do dear...Be right back..." He said as he rushed out the door and closed it behind him. Albert looked around and then hopped into his front bushes. His arms dashed into a blur as he started to undress, it was then he caught the nosey stare of his neighbor. Ol' lady Macguiness was peering through her drapes, the look of awe stretched across her face. Albert could only smile, stopping and pushing his costume back in to his brief case. He stood up, half dressed and waved cordially before skipping off, pants around his ankles, to the blind side of the house. Then using all his speed, he appeared in full costume.

"Fear Not citizens! The Samaritan is on his way!" And with that the man in white leapt into the air, and off to save the day.

Everyone heard it, villains and heroes alike. It was blasted all over the Radio and television. Question was, what do you do about it? The problem with media is you never know who will show up. A handful of punks with firearms? No problem. Throw in a maniac with superhuman powers and we have a problem. First off, its a bank. Yeah, it has money. No, it isn't easy to get out alive. Stupid kids, it isn't like the movies where the cool villain pulls it off like a pro. The death toll for civilian hostages is at 10, and they have 30 hostages remaining. That means they have killed off a fourth of their leverage. Stupid kids... All they did was give the police a reason to use lethality against them.

Sul-Fury didn't enjoy going out while the sun was still up, he was a night prowler. The reason being the deformity he received in an incident, quite some time ago now. He had been chasing the man who had caused it, playing the 'hero' while he was at it. "What the heck." he thought. It wasn't like he was going to bust through the front doors and whore all the attention. He was more subtle than that.

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One of the bank robbers put a joint up to his mouth, lit it, and inhaled deeply. "Yo! When we gonna get our chopper, man! We been waitin hours! I know it don't take hours for a helicopter to fly here from that airport. They're up to somethin. Maybe we should kill another hostage to show em we want it now. But on the camera out front."

The civilians were laying on their stomachs with their hands on their heads, cowering in fear. The bank robber flung his joint to the ground and walked towards one of the civilians. "Startin with you, little piece of-"

Suddenly a brick wall at the rear of the building was knocked down in a crumpling heap. The bank robber's head whipped around at the noise, only to be smashed in the face with a brick, knocking half his teeth out of his face. The robber wailed and fell to the floor. Sul-Fury walked in the room with a brick in his hand, tossing it up in the air and catching it, as if it were a baseball.

"I'm here to crash your party, boys." Sul-Fury said before he pitched the brick at another criminal, knocking him clear off his feet. All the criminals started to open fire at Sul-Fury with hand guns, but it didn't work out like they thought. The bullets pelted Sul-Fury's rock hard skin and fell off, leaving only small imprints on his skin. All sorts of weapons in a bank..." Sul thought. He grabbed a steel pole that was used as a queue line barrier and clubbed one of the criminals in the gut. He screamed as he flew across the room, firing random shots in a panic before he hit the wall.

One of the criminals stepped forward with a futuristic looking rifle, which shot out a beam of electric energy at Sul-Fury before he could counterattack. Volts streamed through his body as he threw his head back in pain. There were certain things rock-hard skin couldn't stop, obviously. He could drown, have heart attacks, and most of the internal damage that regular humans can die from. Like electrocution... Not to mention, his durability can last a long time, but even that has limits. The criminal upped the voltage and the beam threw Sul-Fury across the room. Sul landed on a table, snapping it in half with his massive weight.

Sul shook his head trying to regain his composure. "Well, they did warn me about the advanced technology these 'super-criminals' might have." The criminals figured it out, bullets weren't doing the job. They cautiously walked towards the massive man who was on his back with a variety of futuristic weapons.

The Samaritan landed, outside of the police barrier, to much adieu, Photographers started snapping pictures and flashes went off like a lightning storm in the fading light. He walked slowly up to the Officer in charge and held out his hand.

"Hello gentlemen, My name is The Samaritan, How may I be of assistance?" He said the a charming smile.

Officer Tanner looked over at his partner and shrugged, neither of them had ever heard of this guy, he definitely wasn't one of the heavy hitters that were famous around town. There must be some big premiere opening this evening. "AAaahhh Yeah ....welll.....It seems that it's the 'El Ray gun Gang' out of Mexico, They are lead by a super criminal named El Ray. There killing hostages, as you can see by the pile of bodies in front of the front door, and they've got some high tech fire power keeping us out. We just heard some sort of commotion from the inside, sounded like a wall coming down, we don't know what they are up to. If you could go in and give us some kind of opening, we could get in there and neutralize them....Think you can handle that, Sandman?" Officer tanner concluded.

"Sure thing, officer....and by the way...It's the Samaritan!" Albert said as he lepted into the air and shot into the sky high above the bank. He took a deep breath and then reversed his direction, screaming down at the bank's roof at full speed.

The criminal's now stood around the large black rock man, all with their gang's signature weapons in hand. They had had enough time to surround him and had the rayguns up and pointed at him.

It was then that the ceiling exploded above them. Like a streak of white and red The Samaritan came crashing down rubble raining down over everyone. Dust filled the room and everybody was coughing and waving their hands in front of their faces when out of the dense cloud a debris arose the muscled form of the Samaritan.

What he saw first was the large strange looking dark, rocky figure. 'They must be employing a Meta-human as hired muscle, I better take him out first!' Samaritan thought to himself. He shot out air born, fist out leading the way. His aim was to connect with a powerful air born upper cut and send the horrible looking creature flying.

(Just to give a better visual of Sul-Fury, he looks similar to Grey Gargoyle, not The Thing.)

Before the gang could fire their weapons, yet another entry was created. The Samaritan crashed through the roof and threw debris raining from above, almost killing two of the hostages. The El Ray gang members raised their ray gun's skyward, and their attention was diverted. Sul-Fury stood back up and brushed off some rubble. Unfortunately, when the Samaritan assessed the situation, it appeared he looked like he was on their side.

Sul-Fury's saturated yellow eyes glowed as they widened at the Samaritan's leap. He had only been up for about a minute and a fist plowed him underneath the jaw knocking him backwards into a wall which was only a few feet away. The massive man's body cratered the wall, but didn't penetrate it. It was only a few seconds but it didn't take long for Sul to see Captain America's 'costume'. Is this supposed to be a good guy? Sul-Fury kicked his feet off the wall and leapt forward several feet at the Samaritan and flung two out-stretched hands trying to wrap his arms around the Samaritan and tackle him down to the ground.

(I didn't say you looked like 'The Thing')

The Samaritan had turned his attentions back to the bank robbers after clobbering the stone man. He reached out with a outstretched finger and pointed at the surprised gangsters.

"Drop your guns now! I don't want to have to hurt you hooligans!" He started to announce before he was tackled from behind. The weight of the stone man hit the Samaritan and collapsed him to the ground. As they both came crashing down, the marble floors underneath them cracked. The Samaritan spun around in the creatures grasp, to face him. "Unhand Me, Fiend!" He said, drawing back to deliver a point blank punch to the thing's head with his immeasurable strength.

The El Raygun gang members never ones to miss out on an opportunity , opened up with all the rifles at once.

(I've been compared to The Thing before, not by you, because we're both of rock-like substance. I'm just mentioning it incase it effects future posts, don't get offended. It doesn't hurt to make the visuals more clear.)

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Well, his first instinct was right. The costume depicted a hero, though his actions proved opposite. Up until the part where he stated: "Drop your guns now! I don't want to have to hurt you hooligans!" But it was too late for Sul, he was already in motion. The two crumbled to the ground. Sul-Fury started to let go of his grip of The Samaritan.

"Unhand Me, Fiend!" The Samaritan blabbed with an attempted heroic voice. In retaliation, Captain America spun around and socked him in the jaw causing his head to sway to the right. He had to let it go, if they kept scrapping, he'd never get a chance to speak. He fully let go of The Samaritan. "We're on the same si-" the bank robbers weren't phased anymore by the brawl. They opened fire on Sul blasting him twice in the back, and once in the back of the head. He fell to one knee, then threw himself back up and spread out his arms with a berserkers warcry. He leapt at one of the gang members and pinned him down the the ground, mercilessly smashing him twice in the ribcage. The man howled when his ribcage cracked, but Sul leapt off him and tackled another.

The blasts stung like a wasp would sting an average human. It was one of those moments, a man either is sent running away trying to outrun his problem, or go crazy grabbing and smashing every bee in sight regardless of the pain to himself. Sul was choosing the latter. Sul-Fury flipped a long table up into the air and hurled it at two opponents, knocking them off their feet. It was best not to get back in his way at this point.

(one second a single beam damn near debilitates you and the next you take two and it feels like a wasp sting...hmmm? One other quick thing....My character profile suggests "the Eagle scout" as a nickname...not captain America. could we refrain from crossing the lines of trademarked franchises please?)

The beams hit Samaritan and he flinched as the electrical charged dispersed through his body. Smoke sizzled off of the man in white's back. He shook it off and realized what the grey man had been saying. As he watched the thing go into action, thrashing a couple of the gang members he finally realized they were on the same side.

Samaritan flashed into action before the petty Chicano gangsters could take another shot. He swooped around the room and grabbed each of the remaining energy rifles up in to a bundle in his arms, not a single man injured. He stopped in front of them and twisted the entire bundle into a firearm candy cane swirl.

"Won't be cause any more shenanigans with these toys, boys!" He announced, and it was becoming increasing appear ant that it wasn't some manufactured 'super guy speak', but actually the way he talked.

It was then that a glow started to arise from the rear of the bank. It was enough to catch the attentions of both heroes. A large living being of energy walked out from the rear vault, he glowed orange and was a similar constancy of the energy beams that had been being shot at them from the cronies rifles. Electrical energy rippled off him and arced to any surface near him. He was carrying two huge bags of money until he saw the two heros and his defeated henchmen. He dropped the bags down and tossed off the insulated gloves he'd been using to carry the bags.

"What's this? eh? Pinche' pouto gringos! YOU MESSED UP BIG TIME! NOW YOU FACE EL RAY!!!" He hissed in an almost white noise like tone.

(Honestly, I didn't know what weapons they had so I invented one. It was an Electric beam energy gun. When you posted, they had 'Ray guns'. I was assuming ray gun as in a plasma or Laser damage. Different weapon, different result. As in the case earlier, bullets had little to no effect. If the Electric Energy Beam hits me again, that'll hurt a lot more than a Ray gun. Now that it was posted the Ray guns are electric beams, it sounds more confusing than I intended. I was considering giving them a variety of futuristic weapons of various elements. We were on different pages, but now none of them have weapons, so it don't matter now.

I know what your character page suggests, but also I know what your character looks like. My character thinks "Captain America" despite suggestions. It's not like he can hear my mind. But I'll avoid the nicknames altogether if the trademark bothers you.)

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"Well, this was unexpected." Sul-Fury said. He was holding a man up by the shirt and had a fist raised in the air. The gangster was hit in the face to the point he didn't know his own name by now. Sul dropped him to the ground. He hadn't expected an actual super-villain to be behind it, an elemental one at that. He had to stick to the basics of what combat experience he had. There's always a way.

Sul-Fury flung his arms way over his head, then smashed his closed fists on the ground. The marble tiles popped up into the air and fell back down. He scooped up three tiles and charged towards "El Ray", hurling all three before leaping up into the air at him in an effort to tackle him, despite his elemental powers.

(seeing that "Captain America" doesn't exist in this universe, would be my only real argument against it...Don't get me wrong, I take it as a compliment, huge Cap fan here! But if I were to look at my character pic I would say he was a Superman archetype more than any other homage.)

El Ray only laughed manically at seeing the hulking grey man come at him with the stone shields, it would have be an intelligent defense against a regular electrical attack, but his powers weren't so mundane. Both hands shot out, one pointed at the charging Sul-Fury and the other at the Samaritan who had taken flight again, both fists pointed for an attack.

El Ray's bioorganic energy surged out of his hands in two powerful streams. But as it charged the two heroes it abandoned it's ruse as a simple, stupid projectile, and spider webbed out and around Sul-fury's stone shield just before touching it. It's intelligence steered it toward the hero's eyes and mouth with the force of a full on lightning strike.

The Samaritan's share of the blast didn't need any such tactics, it simply hit him full force in the chest and head. The blast knocked the Samaritan back and through another marble wall. The heat from the blast had caught the hero's costume a flame, and the entirety of his upper torso burned with a flash fire.

Sul-Fury thrusted his arms forward to block the impending blast, which seemed aimed at his head. The stream of electric energy split apart into several smaller, less potent streams of energy. Combined, they were of the same lethality however. Several of the electric blasts were absorbed by his arms, but others arched around his arms and jolted his head and torso area.

He tried to brace the beam, but a few seconds later it pushed him back two steps and he flew backwards into a marble pillar. The pillar started to crumble, and avalanche'd on top of Sul-Fury.

As the huge chunks of ceiling rubble came crumbling down, part of the ceiling gave way. The restrained hostages underneath struggled against their bonds but to no avail. They looked up in horror as the Silvester of the massive pieces of stone came raining down. The first three civilians exploded in a pink mist as the immense pieces of debris flattened them.

Like a flash of a smoking ember the Samaritan shot out of the crumbled hole in the wall, the top part of his costume missing from the fire damage, he was otherwise unaffected. He went to work smashing the remaining falling chunks as they dislodged from the caved in ceiling, saving the remaining hostages.

The Samaritan saw the strange hero taking the brunt of an elongated blast from El Ray, with his attentions focused on that hardy fellow Samaritan took action. He bulleted himself directly at the large energy creature, shoving both hands into the things chest cavity but found no physical resistance. Instead he found excruciating pain, this things body was the embodiment of living plasmatic electricity. There had been something the Samaritan had seen when it had attacked them the first time, a Tesla coil glowing in it's chest and he figured that must be the source of it's power.

Two things happened as the Samaritan plunged his hands in; One was that the attack on the other hero had started to let up, simply because the creature was spewing energy all over the man in half burned white suit. Samaritan knew he couldn't hold on long, but he hoped it would be enough for his companion to make a move. The second was that a rouge camera crew had snuck in the back of the bank where Sul-fury had smashed through. They were filming the carnage of the splattered hostages completely oblivious to the danger of the battle that was unfolding right in front of them.

"Perhaps I cana help mein freund!" A flash of red light tore through the creature as a white haired man ran past the camera crew, firing lasers into the beast. Gregor rolled past the large stone man firing more shots into it's writhing tentacled frame.

"Ungh. My head..." Sul-Fury tried to stretch his neck but was covered and surrounded by large boulders. "Why does it always have to be an electric guy?" he muttered to himself as he assessed his situation. He could hear lasers blasting from under the pile of rocks.

The camera crew was loving all the action up, filming it all with dollar signs in their eyes. The marble rock pile that Sul-Fury was under started to shake, and several rocks that were on the top rolled down the pile. Of all those civilians, something was still alive under there. A hand emerged from the pile, and a massive man clawed his way out. The camera crew zoomed in on his struggle as if he were a newborn avian creature trying to break out of an egg. The monstrosity of a man finally got out from under the pile. Similar to The Samaritan, a lot of his clothes he had worn were singed and torn, revealing his pitch black skin.

Sul-Fury knew he couldn't withstand that kind of elemental damage. He picked up one of the largest boulders from the marble rubble and rested it on his shoulders. The man started to run with it, then hurled it at El Ray.

The Samaritan was caught, his hands fusing to the Telsa coil at the Energy creature's core. Huge amounts of heat and electricity were writhing up his arms and into his chest and head. It was then that he saw out of the corner of his eye, a streak of speed shooting energy weapons at El Ray, this was in turn amping the creature up.

"Uuuuraaaghhhh!" The Samaritan cried out in what could only be described as the painful scream from classic sci-fi cinema , Total Recall, when Arney was getting his eyeballs sucked out. The energy out pour tripled and now the indestructible hair on the Samaritan's head started to sizzle. "For the love of Pete...stop adding to it's powers..." He had started yell when the Voltswagon sized piece of stone collided with both El Ray and the Samaritan who was stuck to him. The both flew back and smashed into the massive metal vault door, the rock exploding.

The Samaritan looked up, mildly dazed, but still he could see that the thing was tangible to physical attack while it's heart was exposed.

"Now! Hit him with everything you got!" the Samaritan screamed. His hands starting to blacken from the discharge.

Gregor drove Glanzender Teufel into the monster, grabbing ahold of it's core, drawing power from it. "Let go freund. I've got it!" With his other hand Gregor switched Grauer Falke's setting to ammunition, letting shot after shot of .44 rounds enter into the hideous creatures form.