The Monotony of NYC

High above the city streets in NYC, the air was moderately cooler than down at ground level. Mostly because of elevation of cours but the bluster of the wind didn't help it be warmer in the least. It was no different any any large city with skyscrapers towering over everything, or so Adam Greyrose was aware.

Actually calling him 'Adam' was bit of a misnomer in this instance because A 16 year old genius college student had no business sitting on the ledge of a 14 story office building. No This person was Plural, a fledgling superhero by anyone's standards, but regardless he was out doing his superheroing business. At the moment, he was being bored looking ,actually listening to be more precise, for anything worth his time to investigate and look further into. Sitting on the ledge he was cycling through radio signals being broadcast by the police band and emergency cell phone calls. it was probably illegal in itself to be doing such a thing but who would care when lives and property damage and insurance claims were at stake? It was being a slow night in his opinion and he had grown bored of leaping from rooftop to rooftop looking down alleyways and out across large expanses of city looking for trouble. Really he found that to be an exercise in futility and unnecessary leg work.

So there he sat listening for something to peak the interest of someone with superpowers and a penchant for crime fighting. While his ears worked cycling between calls of varying degrees of importance, his eyes were working overtime , scanning police reports for unsolved recent cases in the last 2 days, while occassionally zeroing and zooming in on pedestrians and normal traffic, looking for car jackers or people with warrantsout for their arrest. All this was possible because of his "Smart Box' the miniature super computer he wore on his hip. With it's help and his vocal direction, he was weeding through monotanous details for anything 'good'.

"Parking tickets, 8 year old aggravated assault charges that have been dropped, shoplifting, more parking tickets. This is starting to get downright boring. Smart box, take a note, devise faster and more efficient method of tracking down crime in progress. Consider AI program that looks for key words in police radio and emergency calls as well as EMS dispatch.....Duh. EMS dispatch. End note. Switch to Ambulance and Fire Department dispatch radio." he requested of the automated device, having a stroke of relative genius. He hadn't been searchign the full gamut of potential cases. he had forgotten that people didn't call the police around this city for most things of interest. 'Fuck the Police' and all that urban propaganda. But an Ambulance? or a fire truck? Yeah those people want around.

With the switch audible in his ears, Plural pushed himself off the leadge with his hands and leaned forwardtil he was almost horizontal with the ground and then bent his knees, springing off the concrete wall of the office building,sailing across the street to the shorter 10 story roof across from him with utter ease, a side effect of super strength, being able to make fantastic leaps. Skidding across the pebbled roof he continued on, aiming to loosen up his muscles some again, having grown stiff in the cool air and sedintary position. Off into the night to find his first activity of the night.

"Smart Box, Secondary note: Find a jacket..."

Jason and Lilian were outside of a Starbuck drinking coffee. "Do you know what's great about working at Starbuck?", Jason asked Lilian. "What?", Lilian replied. "Discounts!", Jason said as he took a big sip of his drink. Lilian laughs as she also took a sip. They were enjoying their time when an amubulance rushed through the street, passing the Starbuck in a hurry. As the ambulance droves out of view Jason turns to Lilian with a longing stare. Lilian sighs, "I swear, your hero gig is like a drug to you isn't it?", she said as she gave a approving smile. Jason smiles and got up, "Hey as long the drug won't kill me from an overdose, than I'm fine.", Jason said as he pays for the drink and sneaked into an ally with a fire escape and went to the roof and began free running after the ambulance. After a minute, Jason noticed two more people following the ambulance on either the roofs or in the air and decided to follow with them. "So... feeling a bit like a hero tonight?", Jason asked as he free run next to Plural.

Just like a certain other Hero, Gwharr had spent an undisclosed time on the rooftop, although his reasons were probably considered far more selfish than those of the previously mentioned hero. He had caught himself quite a number of dogs earlier in the evening, and had decided to find somewhere private to devour the poor pooches without being disturbed by shouting women, angry men or the bloody annoying boys in blue. Even though their weapons were far too puny to harm him, they could still destroy his clothes. The thought of them damaging his beloved old coat was particurlarly irksome. It might be sleveless and worn, patched up and torn, but it was still a favourite of his. The fact that it was patched up with the pelts of many a dog only made it more awesome to him, since it smelled faintly of dinner.

Gwharr was currently gnawing on a bone whene he saw the sight of a figure leaping rooftop to rooftop without much effort, similarly to how he, himself did it, even though this man used his legs more, and for all intents and purposes looked like a human at first glance. However, his curiosity was piqued and he decided to investigate. He quickly got to his feet and spat out the bones and started his journey with one great leap, following the curiously leaping man, making no effort to hide himself from his pursuer. Being sneaky-like could be interpreted as an offensive gesture. Although, he made no effort to make his presence known either.

Gwharr leapt from building to building, grabbing ahold of scaffolds and fire-escapes, swinging forward like a great ape. The man was probably quicker than Gwharr, but the caveman still managed to keep up, even though it meant that he had to strain himself somewhat. The man was soon joined with a flying lady and another leaping fellow. He would have followed even though these two appeared, but their presence is still merits a casual mention.

The Curious, Carnivourous Caveman immediately realized that this was far from a common occurance. Presumably these thinlings where up to something interesting. Although, he might aswell keep following them from a distance. They might be hostile, and he really had no intention of getting into yet another scrap with these people. The last time he had gotten involved with people like this he had ended up throwing a truck across the street to crush a man with metal arms due to a slight misunderstanding, and that had lead to even more trouble. No, this time he wouldn't get involved. . . Unless something interesting happened. . . or if he got bored.

The sound of air rushing past as one free runs did little to mask the sound of feathered wings in the night or the rustle of leather slipping across itself. Of course that’s if you could just ignore the dark shadow cast from overhead by the bright lights of the city being obscured by someone with wings using them.

Plural glanced over his shoulder subtly, his gaze flicking upwards to spot the dark winged figure who swooped in close to drop something over him. An instant’s investigation revealed it as the source of the slick sound of leather because it was a jacket, not a net of some sort. Luckily he took that time to see what was going on because his instinct, as suppressed as it was by his prodigious sense of logic, had been urging him to spring upwards and drop kick the airborne assailant. But of course the angelic figure spoke her intent by mentioning the jacket.

“Oh well thanks but…I’m not one for charity, Not to mention it doesn’t match my color scheme,” he replied without missing a beat in his flow, smoothly pulling the article of clothing from his shoulders and tossing it into the air as he leapt across the gap between two buildings.

In his head Plural was wary of this new arrival and even more so when a moment later someone else made his way beside him. Another flick of the eyes set an overlay of a hero profile over his vision as the Smart Box recognized the individual. A supe from Seattle known as Retaliate.

“Hmm. Rooftops seem to be a bit crowded tonight. But Yeah a bit heroic I’d say. Though someone’s a long way from home wouldn’t you say?” came the response to Ret’s question.

Keep up the façade. Cool collected and mouthy. Teenager. Just think of how Paul the frat boy acts….

His thoughts were interrupted by a blaring dispatch message in his ear. An alarm triggered at two simultaneous locations within 5 blocks of each other. One a museum, the other a relatively worthless research company’s building. Both called for police, Fire and EMT response. Something about explosions, lasers, robots, and superpowers…

“Perfect,” Plurals pearly whites flashing in the dark as a smile crossed his lips.

Looking over to his two new companions he saw a shadow moving off to the left maybe two buildings away. Not a subtle shadow. Big imposing even from this distance and obviously not trying to stay hidden. “Zoom and analyze,” he muttered under his breath, too quiet to be overheard.

The image that came back popped up a very incomplete Renegade File. Nameless Caveman Type. Buried warrant for arrest for Mass property damage and disturbing the peace, and quick blurb of a video from a cellphone of the guy punching through a tank to get to a known arsonist. Strong, relatively dumb, and brutish with little regard for the environment around him. Potential problem and potential perpetrator. Things were getting crowded and more dangerous by the moment now…

Slow night’s picking up. Keep ace up sleeve until necessary, keep eyes and tabs on everybody. Deploy ‘recon drone’ at earliest opportunity. Note: Combat potential lowered by 12% and unknown complications increased. Factor for potential ‘teammates’ in field situation now…Also avoid rooftops during recon in the future…


“Well, anyhow, I’m heading to a museum explosion….over there,” the blond hero revealed, pointing off in the distance to some difficult to spot rising smoke and flashes of light off to the north, “I guess you’re ALL welcome to join me. Just be on your best behavior. Innocent people are around and there’s idiots with superpowers involved according to my intel.”

His words were loud enough to carry over the roofs to even the bounding Gwharr.

______________________________________________________________________________________________


A few minutes later after picking up the pace, Plural landed with a soft thud in a large field of grass and trees in front of the Museum of Natural History. The area was a large open space like a park of sorts trying to make the area beautified to be more appealing to the public. The attempt wasn’t very good because in the end…this was still a museum. A few metal statues and memorials littered the fields and a big fountain and mural sat smack in the middle of things.

Not a bad place for a throwdown…though the collateral damage here could still get pretty bad. But whatcha gonna do?

He waited for his tag alongs to make their way to standing beside him before storming the castle looking for the trouble which was still going on somewhere inside because at least 8 police cars with lights flashing sat in front and a gaping hole in the concrete wall was still smoking. The muffled sound of gunfire could be heard inside and the occasional odd flash of light.

“Oh look…a day that ends in ‘y’ in New York. Something blew up and the cops are useless..”

"Hey don't mind me! I'm just here on vacation!", Jason replied as Plural told him he was a long way from home and later told him that he can join with him for the night, "Sure.", Jason replid as they continue to jump/run to the museum as Chelle flew ahead of them. After they finally reached the museum Jason rolled on the grass and landed on his feet, the museum was a mess with some of the statues destroyed and litered the ground. "Well someone was in a hurry.", Jason said sarcastically as Chelle offer them a lift the roof. "Yeah.", Jason said as he is lifted from the grong and can now see the museum in chaos, "I think I can see my hotel from here.", Jason said jokingly.

Gwharr kept his distance from the group and soon enough the fellow he initially decided to follow acknowledged his presence and even told him that it was alright for him to join up with whatever it was that this little group of misfits was up to. He quickened up his pace a bit and soon caught up with this temporary new "pack" of hunters. He grinned happily as he landed on the lawn, his immense weight and the sheer length of his last leap causing him to make a very small, quite decorative crater of his own as he landed. Taking the time to brush the dust and dirt from his tattered and patched-up coat and brushing a few stray blades of grass from his equally well-worn fedora hat.

He slowly moved towards the group, utilizing his usual, gorilla-style knucklewalking. Gwharr was savvy enough to know that moving slowly was a way to indicate that he meant no harm and to avoid startling the puny humans. He was well aware of the effect his appearance occasionally had on people like this, they tended to take his presence the wrong way, especially if they were tightly wound so to speak. "To be Captain Caveman. To want to help." the Halfwitted Hulking Humanoid said, his booming, inhumanly deep voice filled with pride. He was going to show these little people why they should fear and adore him! Why they should fear and adore Captain Caveman!

However, the happy smile occupying the Grubby, Grinning Giant soon faltered and gave way for an expression of bloodlust and fury. The reason for this was the deceptively young sorceress that had wandered onto the scene, playing at being totally innocent and clueless, whilst she was in reality a particurlarly Malovelent, Machivilean Mastermind. Her presence here would not be tolerated, and he had already decided that he would do her best to rip her to pieces and feast on her flesh.

Gwharr bared his sharp, pearly white teeth and gave a loud snarl as he extended a massive arm, pointing at her with a finger that was far thicker than the poor witches arm. "YOU!!" He roared, his voice now practically dripping with bloodlust and ill will. Gwharr clenched his melonsized fists, stood up straight and started beating his chest like an enraged ape whilst shouting out his rage in the form of a bloodcurling, almost deafeningly loud roar!

"To see the killer! To see the planecrasher! The evil shaman of bad magics! Evil! To Rip it apart!" he said before leaping at Elena Marie, smash her into bits wih a series of fast but deceptively powerfull jabs.

Adam smirked at the angelic figure, forcing his face effortlessly.He made it look as i he agreed with her contrary to his actual beliefs. To think that his only skills were to throw his fists and beat up things. It was almost insulting even if it had been meant ever so minorly as a compliment. The assumption that every guy in a mask or a cape was a worthy combatant, even if it was true, was like spitting in the face of people with motivations and civilized methods of resolving a conflict or issue. All the same, he had to play the part, alternate personas suck.

"Yeah. True that!" he said, embellishing his statement, mockingly cracking his knuckles as his other allies landed around him.

"And no I don't need a lift. I'm going to walk in the front hole. Use the opportunity for free admission into the overpriced educational bore house. Honestly if someone's going to go through all the effort to blow a 20 foot hole in something, might as well use their handiwork, right?" plural responded, poking fun at the newest attraction and entrance into the museum.

This time he wasn't lying. His intent really was to make use of that hole to move the fight from the priceless ancient artifacts to the lawn. As little collateral damage as possible if he could help it.

"I don't really have a name yet to be honest. Never leave anyone conscious enough to ask for it. Plus i'm sorta new at this. Not exactly what you could call famous....or infamous....." he replied with a shrug, shifting his gaze intently to the hulking behemoth who arrived next. Sure poking mild amounts of fun at a guy who was physically stronger than he was was probably dumb but that was the risk of being known as a wisecracking mouthy little git.

Then another unfamiliar face arrived on the scene. Short...about his age and female. Nothing showed up from the smart box for facial recognition but the device began composing the information for a data file later. Another grin spread across Plural's face, something that would be mistaken to be friendly but was actually rather conceited.

He was happy over his own genius. The program that automatically began compiling information on the things he saw was working and organizing in front of his eyes. Flicking through his various different visual filters taking simple scans for information, revealing weapons, heat signatures, power sources, notable features and details before returning to normal. It was excellent.

The singular superhero, turned to face back to the loping caveman who had just gone through an introduction only to find the beastly caveman's face contorting in rage. The source of his displeasure became instantly obvious as he roared and pointed before leaping,fists flying, at the latecomer.

"Hey guys can we save it for the criminals perhaps? Oh hell this is going somewhere specific in a handbasket...SERIOUSLY!!! Kill each other After thegood doing is over. Get your glory out there with the bad guys and if your anger's still around then throw down. Til then STOW IT!!! Children I swear...." Plural hollered, aiming to intimidate and show some guts to the neanderthal hoping he'd respond to rage and save his vendetta til later. He needed to establish some vestige of leadership or alphadom as it were.With this many solo crimefighters in one group they needed a leader and he aimed to be it...hopefully.

Jason looked at Elena for a moment as she talked as he was set back to the ground, "Have we met? Your voice sounded familiar.", Jason said curiously while looking down a bit as he try to remember where he heard her voice from, it felt as if it was important somehow. But his turn toward Elena again, "Oh, and happy birthday.", Jason said as he watches as Chelle stepped between Elena and the Caveman, "Don't hurt your self.", Jason said to her as he turn back to Elena, "Seriously, have we met? It feels like I should remember I met you from somewhere.", Jason said as he continue to ponder, but turn his attention back to the museum, "You know what? Nevermind for now, we got something to deal with first.", Jason said as he turn his attention back to Chelle and the Caveman, "Hey! You guys can kill eachother after we're done with the bank heist!", Jason yelled at them to make sure they know why they are even here.

Gwharr roared in frustration as he realized his attack missed! He looked up at his pray and quickly noticed that she had been saved in the last minute! Saved by some despicable, cowardly, description-defyingly horrible Bothersome, Big-boobed Bird-woman. Since she was helping his opponent our Brutish, Boisterous Bruiser had no qualms about putting her in the aptly named 'Evil' category, and thus he would have very few qualms about putting her out of his misery by utilizing extraordinary amounts of violence. He growled vicously at the two women, issuing a challenge by beating his chest ferociously and letting out a deep, ear-drum-rupturingly loud roar filled with all the bloodlust and fury that was flowing around in his veins.

However, this was not all. It seemed that another guy leapt between them. The one who he had followed and who had graciously invited him into joining his pack. One of his companions also seemingly leapt to stand besides their leader. This made the Caveman somewhat reluctant when it came to charging at the two evil-doers. Two of his primary instinct were colliding. His loyalty with his rage. It was unbearably difficult to decide what to do. He whimpered in frustration as his diminutive midn furiously tried to work out a plan. Work out something for him to do, someway to appeas both of his primal urges without breaking his own moral 'code'.

The gargantuan caveman snarled, his small, ice-blue eyes furiously darting right and left under his inhumanly massive brow, whilst his teeth were grinding against eachother in desperate fury. They had invited him inot their pack! Why, oh why did they not take his side in the conflict? Why didn't they just help him to destroy this woman, and then they could go on and do something THEY wanted to do!? Where they traitors? Had they somehow fooled him into this moral dilemma? Gwharr suspected they had, since deciet, trickery and treachery where all the tools of the modern man. He would not stand for this sort of interference! If they where not with him they where against him, and he would show them what happened to people who were foolish enough to stand against him

"To have no quarry with you. To give you chance step aside. To let righteous Captain Caveman break evildoers and eat their hearts." he snarled, his inhumanly deep voice almost dripping with freshly baked red-hot fury