Knocking Off the Rust (open)

Ryan gazed upon the expansive vista before him. The twinkling lights of the city illuminated the night. He had missed this, not all of it of course. Not the broken bones, the beatings, or the bone-crushing levels stress of course that came with his chosen profession, but this was nice. Ryan had always enjoyed seeing the world the way few people could ever dream to. High above it all watching life go by lazily, it was pleasing to him.

Ryan’s did more than just take in the scenery though, as beautiful as it may have been, his eyes vigilantly searched for any type of large scale disturbance. For any excuse for him to rouse himself from his post, and get back to doing what he did best... well what he used to do best. It had been quite a while since he slipped into the old suit, which was a shame because he thought he looked damn good in it. His feet swayed back and forth occasionally from the sporadic gusts of wind; which also sent the mask in his to dancing gracefully.

The suspended steel beam he sat upon was part he skeleton of in development high rise near the city's heart. It made for a nice secluded perch. Perhaps he had chosen a poor night to make his valiant reappearance for it at the moment it looked like it would be a quiet peaceful night in Los Angeles. He had no qualms about that though, a night where he did not have to intervene was a win as far as he was concerned. No super powered mad men, or god forbid, regular criminals terrorizing the streets for one night was good for everyone. He enjoyed staring out over an illuminated, peaceful city for a change.

In the distance a flashing red and blue light caught Ryan's attention. It was entirely likely that is was nothing just a bit of routine police business. It would not have been the first such instance this night. It was the that the light was joined by second, then a third, and soon he realized that cruisers were converging from all directions. Ryan disappointed, well actually it was more of a bitter sweet feeling than true disappointment. He was sad to see that something obviously terrible was happening but on the bright side he did enjoy beating on baddies, so it wasn't all bad.

Ryan stood and looked down at the mask held in his hands, then back to the police lights. There was an excited grin that spread on his face as he raised the mask and pulled the mask down over it his head. He had been out of the game for a while but it's just like riding a bike. At least that's what they say, not about this in particular, but he was sure the same principles would apply. Electricity rumbled from BlackOut’s body and his body lifted from the beam and forward into the night skyline. It was time to see if he was still as good at this as he used to be.

Within the chaotic swirl of lights, sirens and panic stood the massive and monstrous form of Ban. "Big Ban" as the locals have taken to calling him. Though usually not much of a nuisance, limiting his rampages to the outskirts of LA instead of the actual downtown area, Ban was found today right in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles. And what a wreck it's been. Cars embedded in buildings, roads destroyed, parking structures nearly destroyed...it was not a good scene by any means.

The police were trying desperately to hold Ban off, but seemed unwilling to open up full frontal gunfire on the beast. As Blackout nears the scene, he'd see why. As the monster roared and threw debris at the officers in his way, he'd spot a little girl seemingly duct taped to Ban's arm. Duct taped? It seemed terribly strange. The girl was obviously scared and crying...

"You leave BAN ALONE!!"

A car would whiz by Blackout's head. Yeah, the monster was enraged. But it at least for the time being, the little girl seemed to be all right...

BlackOut got in closer still unsure what exactly was going on then he saw a car approaching him a quite an unbelievable speed. The threat did little to faze him as he easily got himself out of the way of the massive projectile by doing an agile corkscrew maneuver in the air. The flying vehicle did indicate that he was indeed dealing with an enemy of superhuman abilities, but he would not get a clear idea of what exactly he was dealing with until he got in nearer. Black swooped down low and hit the surface of a nearby roof. He purposefully marched to the edge of the building to observe the scene unfolding below. The police seemed to have formed a perimeter around what looked to be some kind of rampaging beast. He could not help but feel a slight pang of disappointment; it was not quite a super villain but it would have to do.

The circle of vehicles seemed to be a rather useless deterrent considering that the beast had just clearly launched a car in his direction just a moment ago; unless there was someone else out here tonight throwing cars around. Black then inspected the monster, a hulking mass of muscle tissue that seemed to just be in a mood. Why these things always resorted to smashing to express themselves was beyond him.

After a moment closer scrutiny, Black noticed that the beast had a small child apparently taped to its forearm as farfetched as that sounded. Black rubbed his temples with one hand as he felt himself getting angry. It was one thing to smash up a few dozen buildings, but kidnapping a child and putting in imminent danger that was just low. Black was ready to jumping there and beat the thing into submission, but he knew that he was a severe disadvantage now. He could not attack the thing without putting the child in danger. That left him two options; he could either try to reason with the monster or pull the girl off himself. Neither choice seemed to be very appealing to him but he could not let any harm come to the child.

With an annoyed grunt Black hopped off the building into the ring of police cars. He landed softly and gracefully in contrast to rampaging beast’s destructive fury. "Here goes nothing." He said to himself posturing his body to look as intimidating as possible; which was quite silly considering the monster lurked over him a good foot and a half. BlackOut was not easily intimated though.

"Alright, I don't know what you want, but I’m going to need you to put the girl down. I won't tell you twice." Black narrowed his eyes at the monster, though I could not be seen due to his mask. The light police lights were reflecting off of the lens of his mask though and it did look rather interesting. He highly doubted that his words would have much effect; they rarely did with the big ones, and he found himself wondering how fast the beast was just in case he had to fall back on plan B.

Big Ban's roar would vibrate the very ground he stood on. As Blackout landed in front, the beast's primal rage would narrow and focus; solid white beady eyes locked onto the costumed man in front of him. The muscles across his body tensed. Audible cracks and tears through the street they stood on could be heard as Ban's feet ground into the pavement below. He was keeping the arm with the girl attached to it extremely close to his body, so getting to her seemed extremely difficult without getting into face punching range.

The officers behind Blackout valiantly held their ground, but it obviously wasn't going to deter the beast for long. One of them called out to Blackout.

"He's gone crazy!! Never been this far into the city before! You've gotta help us get that kid away from him so we can call in some heavy artillery or somethin'!"

During that informative bit of exposition, the ground beneath the gathered cars, and now hero, would begin to shatter. Big Ban had just launched himself into the air in an impressive strength fueled jump straight over their heads, aiming for a destination only the monster seemed to know. Unfortunately the damage his mighty jump caused would need immediate attention and would be a sore test of a hero's abilities. The pavement had all but collapsed due to the damage and pressure the beast had been putting on it; the entire road was caving into the city's sewer system!

Police vehicles and personnel were desperately trying to back away from the rapidly crumbling road, but many officers and a few civilians were beginning to dangle from the exposed pipelines and hanging concrete!

This was a fine night to be out. Dr. Gravestone had just finished his shift at the hospital and was walking home. Really, he ought to have been driving, but he couldn't seem to remember where he parked his car. Instead of worrying about that tonight though, Dr. Gravestone decided he would just walk. Going through the streets of L.A. randomly, he saw police car after police car go flying by. He then saw a flying car go over the buildings. An illegal auto-salesman selling illegal flying cars! This was a job for Dr. Sciuridae. Diving into the nearest alley, a quick suit change later, and out emerged Dr. Sciuridae. Rushing in the direction of the lights, Dr. Sciuridae rounded the corner to see the scene going on.

A pair of Siamese twins were trying to sell flying cars illegally to a man in a black suit, and the cops had moved in on the sale. The only problem is that one of the Siamese twins was huge. This would be difficult, but Dr. Sciuridae could handle this. Rushing forward just as the beast, or was it beasts, took off into the air on a super-powered jump, Dr. Sciuridae saw the mayhem that was about to ensue. He rushed all the faster to the point of the beginning of the hole. Grabbing those nearest, Dr. Sciuridae carried four of the worst off civilians to safety. After they were at a safe distance, Dr. Sciruidae went back for more. Introductions would have to wait.

As he expected his words did little to stay the monster’s fury, he could hear an officer addressing him but his attention was lock firmly on the beast that stood before him. Besides it was not like the man was saying anything that he did not already know. Getting the girl away from the thing had already been his primary focus and he considered turning around to deliver an arrogant remark about himself being the heavy artillery but he did not have time for that currently. Black outside stepped slowly around the beast judging for the best moment to spring forward in an attempt to dislodge the girl. Unless the beast had any tricks up his sleeve black was quite confident that he could get in there and get the tape off of her if he moved at his full speed.

He was tempted to make his move just as the beast gave a heavy heave and launched itself off the pavement into the air. Black was ready to take up chase when he realized the destructive aftermath the leap had caused. The shockwaves tore through the ground and caused the road to fall away beneath his very feet. This was not a big deal for him as he could fly and did not particularly need the road, but he could not say the same for the rest of the people around him.

Black growled and swept around the opening snatching up any of the people who were in danger and tossing them up onto the pavement as he went, and telling them to run for it. He noticed someone else assisting him as he went about saving the civilians, it was a welcome sight. After Black was satisfied that he and the other hero had gotten the people who were in imminent danger to safety he turned his attention back to the monster who he could not see anymore. Black shook his head in annoyance and shot upwards into the air scanning the city for any sign of the beast. He was quite sure he would be able to find it, because if his experience in this field was any indicator things like that could not help but make a mess of everything around them. Sadly he saw nothing.

Black furrowed his brow and sunk back downward to the ground. He pressed the palms of his hands against his eye in irritation. This had been a disaster. Black turned to the newcomer and shook his head. “I didn’t see it anywhere.” He said with a dejected tone in his voice. This was not how he had pictured his glorious reappearance. Losing the bad guy on his first go round did not bode well. Gritting his teeth and shaking off the self-pity he turned his attention back to where it was really meant to be. Back to that little girl. “Alright I don’t know who you are, but thanks for helping out back there. Now I need to find that girl, and if you would care to join me it would be much appreciated."

((Okay, so I noticed yesterday that the character Bandit had been trashed, but I am quite open to continuing on this thread in some other direction. Shoot me a pm and let me know what you think?))

All the people had been saved from the collasping roadway. Good. Now that that was finished the metal armored Dr. Sciuridae could handle the perpetrators of todays heinous crimes. Turning to find where the two of them went, he couldn't see them. He looked in the direction of which the giant siamese twin beast had jumped. Quickly calculating the speed, force, trajectory, and wind speed and resistance, Dr. Sciuridae prepared to proceed after them, when one of the guilty parties flew back.

In reply to the guilty party's comments, Dr. Sciuridae replied, "Helping? Helping? I will do no such thing. I hold the law in high regard in every way. Except vigilantiasm, but I'm working on that one. I will not assist in your procuring of illegal flying cars. I don't care which girl you're trying to impress. Now I need you to come with me as I chase after your dealer friend. I am bringing you both to justice for your crimes in trafficking unsafe and highly illegally flying automobiles." Dr. Sciuridae mentioned for the man to follow, and taking his previous calculations in mind, launched himself on the same path as the giant.

BlackOut stood dumbfounded as the man berated him for what he believed to be buying flying cars. He had to snap shut his mouth as it hung open at the other meta's rant; and before he could respond that man leaped into the air away from Black with instructions to him follow. Black stood there for a while scratching his head quite literally as well as figuratively. He let a long exasperated sigh rolling his shoulders back and looking up into the polluted night sky.

He had really had had his fill of literal crazies in his time and he was debate just blowing this off and going the other direction just he wouldn't have to deal with this guy any more. He knew he was not capable of that however, as much as he wished he were. After a moment he shrugged and gave chase as well. He feel the rushing feeling of his electricity flying upward through his body as it expelled downward and pushed him up through the air. The man could think he was buying flying cars if he wanted to, as long as he helped him find the monster that was fine with him.

Black was able to catch up the guy with relative ease, he was able to catch up to most people with relative ease though so it was not some big surprise. "So, crazy guy." he said lazily floating alongside the man. "Do you have a name or should I just keep on calling you crazy guy." Black tilted his head to enhance the sarcastic interest of the question. "And on a related note I'd like to know how the hell you expect to find this guy.. uh excuse me, I mean my accomplice." Black laughed trying to look on the more humorous side of the situation he had been dropped in for what seemed like the millionth time.

Dr. Sciuridae flew through the air on his rocket boosted jump, landing right in the middle of the giant Siamese twin's impact point. He watched as the criminal clearly understood Dr. Sciuridae's authority. Upon calling the man calling the good-intentioned doctor crazy, Dr. Sciuridae laughed, "I am not the crazy one. Someone trying to buy flying cars and thinking they could get with it would be crazy. Which, might I add, would be yourself. I am Dr. Sciuridae. When something squirrelly is going on, I arrive on the scene to take care of the heroics." Dr. Sciuridae stood tall with his hands at his waist in a pose of his promised heroism. "And for how to find your Siamese twin accomplices, I will simply followed their trail. The first step was recreating their leap for freedom, next we should see footprints going in a direction," Dr. Sciuridae explained to his "captive." Sure enough, Dr. Sciuridae quickly lead them to the first of a trail of heavy footsteps, leaving cracks in the pavement. "Now we follow the trail," Dr. Sciuridae announced.