A better way to fight back

The chilling breeze of winter swept across the concrete jungle of New York forcing many to take shelter inside of their own houses and apartments. Students at the college remained mostly in their dorms cramming in research for their finals the next day. Plastic bags and newspapers flew across the front lawn of one of the schools many dorms. Standing before the building was a blond male, obviously well built beneath a very expensive looking grey wool trench coat. His eyes were covered by a pair of sleek sunglasses with red frames. Beneath the mans jacket was a custom tailored business suit, grey in color with a red tie.

He walked through the now blistering wind into the front door of the door, removing his glasses and placing them inside of his jacket. This could go a lot of ways but either way Connor knew that this 'hero' had a few skeletons in his closet. He needed to know if the subject 'Phoenix' was capable of controlling himself. If not, than, Connor would only offer him a few select options.

Taking the stairs, Connor went up to the third floor were he walked down a hallway to dorm room 313. He knocked with his right hand, and waited for the young man to answer.

"One second" Andrew yelled from his bedroom." It's too early to be Tom, I swear if it's my parents." said Andrew. He opened the door to a well dressed man. "What's up?"

"Mr. Andrew Pettiglio, Good afternoon," Connor offered the young lad a hand shake. "My name is Connor Claret, CEO of the Claret Research and Development Institute. You may have heard, but recently we made a donation to your school in exchange to scout out possible future brilliant minds amongst your class"

It was an expensive cover, but not one he couldn't afford. Retracting his hand, whether Andrew shook it or not, Connor offered a friendly smile. "I had a meeting with several of the professors and despite your seemingly average intelligence level they seem to think you have a dormant, untapped source of power that could greatly benefit humanity if properly nurtured."

Connor took notice that only Andrew was in the room, which made thinks easier. "If I may enter, we can further discuss what possibilities this holds for you. As you know, CRDI recruits students around the world and employs them to learn as well as develop new technologies. A very promising future." Connor had a good poker face, though what he said was true it was far from why he came to visit Andrew that day.

Andrew shook the mans hand. "Come on in" Andrew remembered hearing this mans name before. Andrew always liked helping people and this man seemed legit.
As he lead them to the living room Andrew sat down in the recliner."Would you like some water or something before we get started Mr. Claret?" asked Andrew. While looking at the mans outfit, "I gotta go shopping more" He thought to himself.

Schnieder was rather enjoying himself lecturing the biomedicals students here, ofcourse he had to have made a compromise with his wife so he could go, she was always worried he would be asassinated due to his financial standings, many shareholders in his company wanted his power. So for the sake of his own sanity, however little may be left, he agreed to the terms that his usual guard take over the campus patrols, he had 40 armed mercs around the campus, and that just felt like overkill. he quickly finished up what wass left of the morning lecture and proceeded to the Deans office to wait for the afternoon lecture. he opened the door without knocking as he always did, he was the top contributor to the schools advanced biomedical center, though he had heard that CRDI had recently invested a generous sum to the budget aswell. As normal when he came for these lectures the dean lept out of his seat and moved around the desk,"A pleasure to see you again Mr.HelCraft." the dean said bowing slightly. "Enough of the pleasntries just leave me be for awhile will you Alastair." Though it sounded like a question the dean had no doubt it was an order, and he left the room. Schnieder crossed to the deans seat sat down and propped his feet up, he really hated having nothing to do.


He had absolutely no idea how he had ended up on a college campus, though he didnt really care much he was just wandering around like he usually did, enjoying new sites over and over again. though today was biting cold and he only had on a light jacket he felt pretty good about today, as he rounded the corner hoping to score some food from a kind lunch lady, only to see a couple of guys messing with a girl one had a knife at her throat, acting on instinct he pulled the knife away from the guy using his powers. it wasnt that great of a feat when they where only ten feet away. he used his power to shatter the knifes blade then let the steel slide from one of his rings forming a metal staff, "You guys should know better than to pick on girls at your age." He told them promptly knocking both out as the girl ran away."Oh come on not even a thank you? oh well now wheres the cafeteria?" he said out loud looking around again.but missing the guard pulling out a walkie and radioing in, "Sir we got a Meta on campus."

Connor entered the room and closed the door behind him twisting the lock mechanism to ensure nobody disturbed them. "that will be alright but thank you." Connor took a seat by a near by door and took in a deep breath. "I'm afraid I am going to have to get straight down to business."

Connor reached into his coat and pulled out a small device that resembled an old CD player. Setting it on a table, a small hole opened on the top of it which projected a holographic image of what was once Andrews' old school, the one he had burned down and destroyed in his younger years.

"I take it you remember this place...you ought to considering you're the only survivor from the fire of 2016." Connor paused for a moment, watching what his reactions would be to him bring up this matter. Connor waved his had at the hologram and suddenly the image became 2-dimensional displaying information on Andrew.

"I don't believe it is a coincidence that you are the only survivor...and i also don't believe it is coincidence that the hero titled 'Phoenix' started fighting crime in New York roughly around when you started college." An image of Andrew and an image of Phoenix appeared on the screen as AIVAS ran a facial Recognition program. The boarders to the images turned green, confirming that their was a facial structure match between the two images.

"I'd like to ask you to kindly not deny you are who i say you are and that you understand I have the safety of the public to consider. So, I would like to know Mr. Pettiglio, what happened in 2016 that resulted in the deaths of the entire student body and faculty of that school?" Connor was ready in case something were to happen considering he had no idea how Andrew would react.

"Ok, look. Yes that happened, but I was young and I didn't even know it was me doing it. I ran from the fire, I thought it was following me" Said Andrew standing up. "To this day I still try and use that power at little as possible. I destroys more than it saves. And I save lives Mr.Claret" "Now I see you tense, don't worry, like I said I am a good guy. Andrew said wholeheartedly. Thinking back on the destruction he caused made him feel bad. "Now I will answer any questions you have, but please for my family's sake keep my identity between us." Andrew said and sat back down.

"hmm? a metahuman what is his power?" He listened intensly before one of his oh too sinister smiles, "Thats not bad at all lets start a game of cat and mouse shall we it will help to pass the time!" He could always blame the shootings on the fact the kid had attacked 2 students and had attempted to kill them, it wouldn't take much to convince the boys thats what happened aswell, this would be a fun and easy game to cover up. He stood stretching and walked over to the window wondering if the fireworks where gonna come this way.

Several choice swear words went through his mind as he heard the shot go off then saw the bullet bounce off the wall infront of him, thats when the fight or flight response kicked in and he took off, completely forgetting about his powers and training just running for his life. He cut a corner to the front of the guy's dorms where another gaurd raised his gun and fired,Michael got back behind the wall as the bullet grazed the corner and three guards came running the way he had come. Then he remembered his powers and as the shots came at him he stopped them mid flight and let them drop to the ground. They where probably attacking him based on the guys he had knocked out earliers accustiations, he had to clear his name before things got really out of hand.

Shortly after Andrew finished defending himself against what Connor had said, the echo of gun shots could be heard from outside. Alarmed, Connor stood up from where he was sitting and walked past the younger hero to peer outside his window, using his hand to brush aside the drapes.

A boy came running from the side of the dorm but stopped short as a few more bullets were fired at him. "They're aiming to kill..." Connor said to himself, looking at Andrew quickly debating a course of action. Unbuttoning his coat, he revealed his belt buckle which seemed to be a small device of sorts with a glowing red core. Tapping it once, white light appeared above him and descended down on top of him slowly changing his clothes from what he was wearing before to his suit of body armor.

The black visor soon activated and illuminated red as he peered down towards the face of the young man being assaulted. AIVAS began a facial recognition on him bringing up what data it could steel from multiple sources including some back doors left in some government computers.

"No match." Aivas stated, making his creator slightly nervous. "I've also ran a diagnostic on the men attacking him, they do not seem to belong to the government." Connor opened the window and tapped his equip. A long barreled rifle appeared in his hands, the LNR sniper. Tapping the equip once more, he pulled out a clip of 'shock' rounds so he could take out his targets without lethally injuring them.

"Andrew, stay back away from the window and keep your head down. This is to dangerous for a kid." Grabbing onto the upper window seal, Connor slipped out of the window feet first and as he dropped shot his grapple hook upward latching onto the edge of the buildings roof. With one arm, he aimed at the closest armed gun man and fired off a shot.

Regardless of why they were chasing this young man, it was clear that they intended on seriously injuring him or worse. To avoid the fire which would surely follow after ringing off his first shock round, the grapple retracted pulling Red up to the roof as he took a second shot at one of the men further away. It was then that AIVAS picked up a strange disturbance in front of the young man as bullets seemed to stop in front of him.

"It would appear the boy has some sort of magnetic force field protecting him." AIVAS stated, trying to identify the anomaly. "So he is a meta?" Red reached the roof in no time and used the momentum of the grapple to flip himself over onto the roof top. He was currently out of site, back crawling away from the ledge to avoid more gun fire. "Times likes these i miss having Blue and Violet to back me up..."

His two former comrades having retired happily together still worked for CRDI, but retired when they discovered Violet was pregnant with Blues' child. Red insisted they retire, and let go of their pasts which they finally were able to do. Since then, Connor needed to find a new way to combat not only crime but 'Evil'. That was exactly why he was there today, to recruit Andrew into his new program.

The LNR sniper disappeared and he tapped it once more bringing out the LNR SMG. He then ran to the side of the building were the boy once was and jumped down. using his grapple and latching onto the side of the building, Connor slowed his fall just enough and then cut his own line allowing him to drop down behind the unknown boy. "Come with me if you want to survive." He stated calmly, his one hand tapping the equip and drawing out another device of his, the Bubble shield in case he would need it.

"Red vengeance is on route to your location" AIVAS stated, which would ultimately be their escape route hopefully.

((OOC: Just so you know Phoenix, you don't have to do what i say XD.))

Phoenix saw the man dive out window and said to himself "Just sit here, and miss the fun. No thanks" So he got on his gear and quickly followed Mr.C out the window. He ran up next to Mr. C and asked "So what's the plan?" He knew he should have listened to him and stayed, but something inside him told him other wise. "I'm not useless you know, I can help" Phoenix always had knack for wanting to help others, and always being the first to step up to the plate.

"Umm not to be a stickler when help comes my way but, ive been in alot of bad situations after accepting help from guys in masks..." Another rounhd of shots stopped his mouth long enough for him to block them, "The again surving sounds fun, lets go!" he said he was confused enough about the guy in armor offering help, when a guy in what looked like a jogging suit ran up asking what he could do to help. How much more is gonna happen huh?, went through his mind before he noticed the small sphere lobbed at them, he tried to stop it with his power but it kept coming, plastic he wondered? well he wasn't taking any chances the steel rings he wore began pouring metal which formed a massive shield covering him and the guys who wanted to save his bacon.

"Hmm? you had him pinned then two others appeared and one in red armor? well thats fine keep most of the guys back to take the places of the ones that get knocked out i doubt the great hero red would kill them, justhold them down for awhile more this sounds incredibly fun i will be joining you shortly. he chuckled into his walkine reaching into the bag he had had brought up earlier pulling out a halloween mask a placing the draw string over the back of his head. He had to say the devils mask was a good fit for him as he removed his tailored smock coat, his suspenders shirt and pants were just average clothes, no one would think him to wear such cheap cloth but it had its advantages that way. he just had to make sure not to leave any behind with traces of DNA in it. He opened the window and stepped out onto the balcony, the let himself freefall over the side before his powers caught him and he floated with his face a few centimeters from the ground. He righted himself then took off towards the shots.

Despite Connors' orders, Phoenix had followed him outside and meet him by the other younger man. "Don't listen very well do you." Connor said cockily, as suddenly a round sphere landed near by. Planting the bubble shield in the ground, he took no chance of the metal shield failing to protect the three of them as he activated the device and a bubble formed around them stopping just short of the sphere like device.

Safe for the moment, Connor took the time to quickly introduce himself as AIVAS brought up a layout of the school grounds. "You can call me Red, why are they after you?" They didn't have much room to escape, and with Red Vengeance still a distance away they would be over run shortly.

"There is an underground electrical tunnel beneath the school grounds, the access points are being marked on the layout." AIVAS stated, only audible to Connor at the moment as he started plotting. The nearest access wasn't to far but it was towards the armed men.

"Hey, I just wanted to help" Phoenix said with a chuckle. "Also, you can call me Phoenix. I'm a fire manipulator, 18. Oh yeah, and I love long walks on the beach" he said sarcastically.

(so sorry about the delay my grades where slipping and I lost my comp now that's crashed using my phone so it's going to be short posts)


The round object exploded putting a few small dents in the metal shield This is so not cool they just lobbed an explosive our way what's wrong with those people jeez. Oh and you can call me Ballast for now.

Schneider whistled softly from the roof top vantage point he had picked out, things looked they would turn out fun today and he was hoping to get ahold of the gear red used and mass produce it after his company expanded into arms dealership. Skidding the Halloween mask down he let loose and crumbled the roof top, his old man had always taught him if your gonna make an entrance make it big!