Post proprio-perfect landing, Lucas barely maintains a neutral expression as he heads off in pursuit of the nearest subway station. The difficulty of his self-imposed Try Not to Laugh Challenge is further enhanced by the hasty departure of a random pedestrian that was clearly alarmed by his sudden arrival from above.‘Man, this’ll never get old. It must be even better with speed too... 427, go convince Boss System that I should be able to take speed without increasing the tasks I gotta do, kay thanks.’[...It’s highly unlikely that it would be approved. And that’s even if we tried to argue that it was an emergency purposes only power, considering you have no business letting anyone else see you using any additional powers. Unfortunately, until such time as you no longer need to hide your status as a member of the Superhero Enhancement System, taking any obvious powers like speed or invisibility would be ill-advised. Thanks to your viral popularity online, which demonstrated both your
Right when Lucas becomes bored enough for his mind to wander over to the fact that he could pull his phone out to play around; the not-all-that-long-awaited subway train arrives.Once it comes to a complete stop, a set of doors slowly open a few steps to the side of where he is waiting. After Lucas uneventfully minds the gap, he discovers that the only other inhabitants of this particular compartment are a pair of young women who are whispering to each other off to the far right side. Thanks to how socially spent he is, among other world-specific reasons, he opts for the furthest seat possible from them.Pulling out his phone before settling in, he resumes his previous sombrero research.‘Hey, am I gonna lose signal once we leave the station?’[I’m pretty sure Miss Calculated would take it personally if she knew you asked that question.]Lucas lets slip a small snerk of amusement.‘I’ll take that as a no then.’Although Lucas doesn’t have any success searching for a mariachi-style h
Lucas clears his throat once he’s done milking his cookie for all the extra time he can manage.“Uhh, actually I got noticed by Boss System around lunch the day before we met.” Lucas’s casual address for the Superhero Enhancement System elicits an amused smile from Jonathan, though he looks mildly surprised after processing the timespan.“Remember Clara, er, Clarissa?” Lucas pauses for a moment, quickly answered by Jonathan nodding. “Well, tryin’ to help her get her purse back from some asshole ended up with me gettin’ stabbed.” Lucas gestures at the serrated knife in the dish drying rack as Jonathan’s eyebrows subconsciously scrunch up. “That sounds like it was j-just a minor task? D-did you do something big to get that close?” It’s now Lucas’s turn to nod in answer to Jonathan’s question.“Yeah, it was. I’ll get to why my GDV was where it was in a minute, though.“So, I was bleedin’ out and 427 showed up an’ gave me a rollback with superstrength. I wasn’t exactly ready to make any
[The target is the young male that will be at your 3 o’clock. Arriving in 3... 2... 1...]Jonathan is running along the sidewalk, clad in a black tracksuit with equally black sneakers, weaving between the other intermittent pedestrians going about their business. Relative to him, these people and the passing traffic all seem to be moving in slow motion. But, from a regular speed perspective, a black blur is darting through the area, suddenly changing directions to veer off into a side alley.‘Disarming him should be good enough, right?’[Correct.] Jonathan doesn’t even come to a complete stop as he snatches a crowbar out of a man’s hands, who was in the process of lining up the edge of it with a door frame. Thanks to how heavy it is, it’s a two-handed task for Jonathan to move the crowbar around. Even still, he simply continues running at superspeed back out of the alley with his loot, not even paying any real attention to his victim.The extremely confused man takes a moment to lo
“Hmm?” Mikah turns to look as well once he notices which way Jonathan is staring. ‘Was it that guy with the gym bag? What is he taking out..? Oh.’Jonathan frowns slightly and glances at Mikah, who is now squinting with a confused expression.Jonathan stands from his seat, turning to face the approaching service bot. “I-I’ll be right back.”He darts off without waiting for any sort of reaction, only slowed down momentarily by the process of pulling the door open.After Jonathan traverses several yards’ worth of sidewalk, a familiar dry mechanical voice speaks up.[...Bzzt, reliably safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; a new moderate GDV task has been assigned. Please prevent the acts of vengeance of the recently laid-off ex-employee from Howling Cartographer ahead of you.]Skidding briefly as he slows down to normal speed, Jonathan lets out an involuntary snerk of amusement upon mention of one of the previously mocked supervillain organizations. A short distance ahead o
The duo’s fiery funnel further forces the growing multi-car pile-up towards the middle of the street for a few seconds longer. Finally, the flames falter and fade. After a short delay, the wind wanes as well.‘Oh, I shouldn’t give them any extra reasons to think I’m a threat.’Jonathan swiftly shuts and pockets his switchblade as he follows the sidewalk. While doing so, his attention flicks between the ongoing chaos in the street and the front door of Howling Cartographer’s HQ lobby.Ashley steps through the door with Jason right behind her. They both take a moment to appreciate their destructive handiwork with smug expressions. Considering that Jonathan is conspicuously the only person still in the immediate vicinity, they quickly focus on him.Before either of them manage anything beyond a glare, Jonathan raises both hands in a submissive gesture, showing that he isn't wielding a weapon. "I-I just wanted his gun!"Ashley's exposed eye squints with amusement, the not hair-hidden cor
Once Jonathan is finally en route to the hairdresser...[Safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; you have exceeded 10 GDV. You have one enhancement available.]‘Oh! Um, you said before that rank three vision should be good enough to see through Maria’s powers, right?’[Correct, rank three should be sufficient as long as her target is in motion. Rank four would be necessary to see anything stationary, given the current strength of her powers. Please be aware that going beyond rank three for any individual enhancement has additional requirements.]‘Three should be good enough to avoid most of her pranks... Use my upgrade on vision.’[Please confirm that you would like rank two vision.]‘Yeah.’[Understood. Please close your eyes during calibrations to avoid nausea.]Jonathan slows from running at enhanced speed into a normal-paced jog for a few steps, then stops and shuts his eyes.[Bzzt... Calibrations complete.]He opens his eyes and looks around, blinking several times.‘Wo
After the harrowing--see also; totally normal--experience of getting his hair professionally cut, Jonathan blinks a few times as he looks himself over in the mirror. ‘Oh, wow. That’s way better.’ He’s now sporting a long-top, backswept, tapered hairstyle with a rounded back. Given how clearly tense he was throughout the entire cutting process, a trendy skin fade would have fairly obviously been too much for his liking. After giving Jonathan a few moments to make his mental evaluations, one of the hairdresser’s dreadlocks uses a soft-bristle brush to clear away the loose hair clippings around the collar of the barber cape. A few other coils of his hair organize the various tools he used, setting them aside for cleaning. Meanwhile, he quickly sweeps aside the bulk of the rogue tufts of hair on the ground in a much more conventional hands-on-broom method as he uses the mirror to make eye contact with Jonathan again. “Lookin’ good, mon. Well? Whaddya tink?” His question pulls Jonath