smash_logs | [open] city log! Can I really be the hero?

[open] city log! Can I really be the hero?

Who: YOU and YOU and maybe you
What: catch-all open log for all your drug vigilante needs
Where: Final Destination City
When: WHENEVER YOU WANT
Warnings: drugs and vigilanting, at the very least
helpful links: here.

Indeed, ever since that casual Monday outing turned tragic, civil unrest and tensions have been high again in FDC, and worse yet; fingers are starting to be pointed in Smash Academy's direction. After long since flying under the radar of this whole mess, no attacks have happened on the school yet, but who's to say how long that will last?

The city is tumultuous. It's not impossible to still have a completely incident-less outing, but it would be wise to not go out and about with your Smash Academy uniforms on for all to see. Not unless you like fearful whispers and hissing insults behind your back. Even a simple trip to the grocery store could prove dangerous if you aren't careful.

Maybe you're a little more creative however, and are able to purposefully mask features that might otherwise identify you, or you sneak around in the dead of night using the shadows as your cover...

Humans now tend to segregate themselves with other humans, "freaks" tend to ostracize anyone not of their kin, and all this negativity intensifies rapidly if those colorful candy pops are present. Crime and riots are now common than occasional. The FDC Police manages most of the affairs but they can't prevent everything, and would probably appreciate a helping hand regardless if it's from a human or a "freak"... though thanks and courtesy may go one way or another depending on who/what you are.

Who knows, maybe you'll save someone's life and give them a better appreciation for the things you do instead of what you are...

[[As it says on the tin, HERE'S AN OPEN LOG, GO NUTS. Get together with some of your buddies and go play masked vigilante against a group of drug thugs bullying someone who doesn't deserve it (or maybe they do, for all you know). Save someone from a burning building set on fire by some angry social justice warrior animals. Escort someone to the grocery store. Break into the sheriff's office and demand your own brand of justice. Maybe you simply want to get a drink at the bar without incident.

Please feel free to NPC your bad guys/mooks/innocent civilians, or go snag Kat or one of the other lovely lady mods if you have any questions.

ONE RULE: you must use anime thread titles. That's all.

Edit: I lied. Rule 2: tag yourselves in.]]

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"Tough luck chump, ya ain't gonna go anywhere but to the headlines!"

It was clear that the man had lost it, even his expression had been twisted in the bout of insanity, eyes wide and even a trickle of drool running down the side of his mouth.

"Down with the freaks!"

Maybe it had been the tension, maybe it had been all the different things one had to watch out for, but what had been missed in the whole final moments of the stand off was that the last remaining goon had set something off behind the leader before taking off in 'fear'. That last bit of sound as an ignited wick dies off was the maniacal rising laughter of the man and the sudden roar from the Charizard.

The moment the explosion set off, the large dragon blew a hard gust of wind with her wings as she dashed to grab Pulse and get them out of there. Unless he refused of course. Whatever the case, she was gonna fly away, and the gust of wind gave them a few seconds to do so, but at the cost of fanning the flames back and getting a few more things caughts on fire.

Pulse still didn't know much about how pokemon were able to take on human form at the Academy, and it hadn't occurred to him at the moment that they could also change back whenever they wanted. He had half expected, not expected to see Riwane still there, having hoped that she would have taken the chance to escape on her own. He certainly didn't expect to see her in her original state, and for the moment he was confused if it was really her.

With his focus locked on the Charizard, he lost sight of what was happening behind him. He certainly wouldn't have noticed the lit fuse or even detected the explosive, seeing as how it wasn't electronically controlled with a mechanical detonator.

He saw the light as it illuminated everything in front of him, casting pitch-black shadows as everything was thrown into stark contrast. In that split second, he anticipated a blast wave, he anticipated a burst of roasting heat, both of which he needed to get away from immediately. But even with his lightning reaction speed, the situation which resulted upon the detonation of the explosive caused him to hesitate; there were too many factors, too many choices he needed to make right then, that his brain finally just locked up. He froze where he stood, looking around frantically.

"I can't... I can't..."

He felt something catch hold of him, grabbing him tight around his upper body. He let out a cry of surprise as he felt the G-forces from being suddenly whisked upwards; it definitely wasn't something he was used to. There was something warm and scaly pressing against him on one side. His attention was attracted to movement; he looked down to see the ground falling away, a bright fireball having erupted from almost right where he had been standing a second ago, one side of the alley now a raging inferno. He tried to see where the brute was, but then common sense kicked in; if the brute were still standing there at that moment when the device went off, there would no longer be a brute for anyone to be concerned with now.

"Uh..."

Pulse felt a sharp twinge in his gut. If he had a normal, working digestive system like a complete human, he might have thrown up then, but instead he had to deal with the constrictive feeling of wanting release but being physically unable to experience any.

Then he happened to notice the arms gripping him, a bright orange, the large stubby fingers tipped with white claws. He turned his head to look; he recognized the features, having skimmed through a pokemon database some time ago, starting with #001 and going down the list from there, so he definitely knew a Charizard when he saw one. With nothing else there to busy his mind, he finally realized who had him.

"Oh... Riwane... You... didn't... leave?"

Pulse had rarely, if ever, been rescued before. Usually, it was he who did the rescuing.

Edited 2013-05-06 15:37 (UTC)

Riwane looked down when Pulse spoke and gave him a nod and a low rumble from deep in her throat. She kept looking down and shaking her head, this would definitely get back to them but she hoped that things could be seen for what they had been... It hadn't been their fault! They were the victims right?

And yet she had an uneasiness in her stomach that told her that there might be a chance that this just made things worse.

Hovering for a bit to make sure no one else got injured, she waited until she could hear the fire department sirens coming closer. Once she was sure they were on their way, she began to fly back to the Academy.

When they were near school, she touched ground as she landed, letting go of Pulse on some soft bushes before she crashed a few feet farther. After the initial shake, she shifted back to her human form and groaned.

"Sorry... still gettin' tha hang of landin'."

Pulse accepted Riwane's answer, and brought his arms up around the base of her neck to provide a little more stability. Noting her gaze, he forced himself to look back down, though he didn't particularly feel strong enough to do so.

The whole time, his mind was racing, searching for solutions. He had no means of putting out a fire; his powers too often resulted in starting fires. He gulped nervously at the thought: They could very easily blame this on me. But at the same time, he felt better that it might be him rather than Riwane. He was trying to protect her. He didn't want her to get in any more trouble.

Besides that, he knew how fires were traditionally put out in modern human settlements, and he certainly didn't want to be anywhere nearby when there were great streaming jets of water involved. That thought made him feel even more useless. I can save the whole world from a cyber-terrorist, but I can't do anything about one stupid fire.

Then he thought about the humans. This whole time, he realized, they had cornered Riwane and threatened her, with the intent of killing themselves, getting it all on video to make it look like she had done it herself. That upset him to no end. They hated her and anyone like her so much that they would commit suicide to try to get her in trouble with the law. Before tonight, he had yet to experience first-hand that level of hatred directed towards people of "his kind"; he had heard about it and read about it, but he had never been there to see it happen. Now that he has, what was he to do? Not to mention the whole mess that was left behind...

He perked up at the sound of sirens. Wordlessly he scanned the streets, watching for the familiar lights. It didn't matter to him how the fire department was contacted, or what all information was fed to them, they were coming now and they would put out the fire. Pulse acknowledged that at least that part of the situation was out of his hands.

He felt Riwane shift and turn about, realizing that she was carrying them away from there. The lit streets passed by beneath him; he had never really seen the landscape from this high up, not while moving. It looked comfortingly familiar, especially at night. Freeways like circuits. He continued to watch as they faded away at the city's suburbs and outskirts until there was nothing but black, save for the odd streetlight by the highway; he looked ahead to see the Academy building drawing closer. He could tell that they were descending...

"Wouf!"

He found himself surrounded by leaves. Reorienting himself by the pull of gravity, he got up from the bush, brushing himself off; a few chlorophyll stains had made their mark on his yellow breastplate. Looking around, he spotted Riwane nearby, having missed the chance to see her change back. He quickly rushed to her side, extending a hand to help her get up.

"Miss Riw--I mean, Riwane! Are you all right, ma'am?"

Riwane brushed herself off and nodded, but didn't take the offer for help. She felt useless enough already.

"Yeah... yeah, Ah'm alrite. Nothin' some bandages won't fix rite up..." Not the same she could say for those humans. Even though they had done all those things, she still felt sorry for them. She knew that there were evil humans, and really good humans, but there were also those stuck in between, those whose morals shifted and could be easily moved with enough passion... Maybe those goons would have been fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts in another time, another day...

But she couldn't have those thoughts now, she had to focus and get back to her appartment and wait out the aftermath.

Looking over at Pulse, she shifted a bit in place before speaking. "How 'bout you? Ya alrite there? Sorry to have gotten ya involved Ah.... Ah shoulda stayed home like Ah was told instead of riskin' it for some meaningless fun... Ah'm real real sorry Pulse."

Pulse looked over Riwane from where he stood, attempting to make note of any injuries she might have sustained. Back when he was following Cyrus's lead on a pokemon information database, he had read up a little on how pokemon were taken care of when they got hurt, and remembered just how easy it was to restore their health, using machines and certain items. Considering how Riche used to heal him in a similar manner, he had wondered if perhaps he and pokemon were somehow distantly related...

When she asked about his condition, he blinked and perked up, suddenly brought back to the matter at hand.

"Oh, yes, ma'am, I'm fine... Maybe just a bit... overwhelmed..."

He was nothing if not honest.

"...Ma'am, if it helps... If it's any consolation... I wasn't supposed to be out, either. I thought if I just stayed in the network, I wouldn't be noticed... But then when I was watching one of the places where the people go to dance, I saw you there. I didn't want anything to happen to you, so I followed you..."

He fell silent for a moment.

"...Ma'am, what happened there in the alley, that wasn't your fault."

Riwane offered a half-fake smile before rubbing her arm awkwardly and sighing.

"No need ta sugar coat things hon, it really was mah fault. If Ah had done what Ah had been told, none'a this woulda happened. Lesson learned fur sure but... Ah'm more worried 'bout tha cost..."

How would it escalate the current conflict? Hopefully not at all but... somehow she knew better...

"Ah think all we can do now is head on home an' hope fur tha best... Ah really am sorry Pulse..."

After hearing Riwane's words, Pulse began to realize what it was that upset him the most about what happened. No matter what he had tried to do, in the end he had still lost control over the whole situation. No, not lost; control was deliberately taken from him. And the people responsible for that were either dead or had escaped, and there was no tracking them down.

He hated failure, and hated himself for failing, but after looking back, he realized that he had been set up to fail. It was all premeditated, and things pretty much turned out exactly how they wanted. What he had to focus on now was what he was going to do about the aftermath, the fallout...

Once word got out that he had disobeyed curfew, that he was involved in this incident, he was very likely going to be punished for it, probably banned from venturing outside closed cyberspace, or from jumping into cyberspace entirely...

But he wasn't the only one involved. What would happen to Riwane? She was probably going to lose a lot of her freedoms, too.

"...Ma'am."

Pulse raised his head to look her in the eyes. He approached her, raising his hand and letting it rest on her shoulder.

"Whatever happens, I... I want to let you know... I'm here for you."

There was a lot to lose that day, yes. But there were lessons to be learned and most experience in this new life to achieve. To say that she wasn't worried about the punishments would be a lie but right now at least she had a friend.

"You're a real pal ya know that Pulse?"

Without really asking for permission, she leaned down and gave Pulse a tight hug.

"Thanks hon."

"Wha!"

He didn't expect to have the breath squeezed out of him that moment, but thankfully he wasn't so tensed up that he could deliver any kind of defensive shock. That would have been bad. Especially for a Flying-type like Riwane.

"You're... You're welcome, ma'am."

With his free hand, he was able to pat her lightly on the upper back.

Riwane smiled and let go of him.

"Well, guess Ah should get going... Thanks again yanno? Ya really helped me feel better. See ya 'round Pulse."

Hopefully not in trouble. With one last wave, Riwane turned and began heading ot the girl's dorms.

"Yes... Um... Goodnight, Riwane."

Pulse would have offered to walk her back to her room, but there was a reason they were called girl's dorms, and because of that it might not have been appropriate. Besides, where they were now was sanctuary enough; it suddenly dawned upon him how much he should have realized that before he had taken off earlier to sate his desire for information. But if he hadn't broken the rules, what would have become of Riwane then? Maybe this was just how it was supposed to happen.

Pulse watched at least until Riwane made it back inside the building. After she was out of sight, he sought out a nearby telephone wire and jumped on it, headed for the school's computer lab.

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[open] city log! Can I really be the hero?

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Thank you for a fun thread! It was intense and fun!

Indeed! Thanks to you too! :D