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Post by Captain Admin on Dec 8, 2016 0:15:57 GMT
Capital City University's biggest claim to fame is the Vertex Centre - an on-campus cutting edge research centre, built and funded by the Vertex Corporation. The researchers based in this vast and shimmering facility explore the furthest reaches of scientific knowledge and quantum physics, seeking to further our understanding of our universe. From the outside the huge, curved building, fronted by an ornate lawn and a sheer glass facade, shines pale blue in the sunlight, looking out over the campus green. Inside you will find a sprawling and intricate complex of labs, all arranged around a circular central chamber that reaches from the very top of the roof into the building's underground facility. This underground space is even larger than the main building and is home to the Vertex Corporation's Quantum Wave Repulsor Engine - a vast and powerful machine that may help discover, or even create, new atomic elements and offer answers to questions on the nature of space-time. The machine is yet to be used and protesters are already opposing its activation, on grounds of the threat it may pose were something to go wrong...
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Post by Captain Admin on Dec 19, 2016 19:25:56 GMT
Deep in the bowels of the Vertex Centre, all manner of machinery groaned and hummed, flickering in and out of life at the touch of various switches and levers. Technicians checked readouts and gauges against the data on their standard issue tablets. Every last component of the Repulsor Engine had to be checked and refined to perfection. Nothing could be left to chance and the slightest miscalculation could result in disaster.
In an office at the back of the underground part of the complex, Professor Ted Rivers pored over the figures for the thousandth time. Everything was perfect. Everything was running exactly as planned. But nothing could account for the feedback readings. Nobody was able to offer an explanation for the anomaly. It was as if something else was influencing the machine. Something beyond their reach...
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Post by Captain Admin on Dec 21, 2016 14:45:31 GMT
Dawn had barely broken when the rumble of the Repulsor Engine's preliminary circuits started up. Technicians surrounded every computer bank and every control console. In taped off pens, reporters and photographers stood and received interviews from Vertex representatives. Beside the engine's towering core - a pillar of glass, wires and crackling energy streams - stood Professor Rivers, the project director and, at his side, Captain Omega.
'You're sure about this machine, Professor?'
'Now's hardly the time for doubts, Captain,' said the Professor. 'The energy core you recovered... we're about to harness energies we have never dreamed of before. Our understanding of the universe is about to be reinvented. Superheroes were just the start of a whole new era for humanity. This is where everything changes.'
The final checks were conducted. The announcements made to the press. Prayers and pleas muttered under breaths. Captain Omega stood, stony, still, simply watching.
The control levers were thrown.
An energy pulse throbbed into life. A beating, burning, pulsating blue glow in the conducting strips that ran around the top of the room. The lights started moving, tearing around the circular room in bright blue streams of energy. The core lit up, the glass filling with a brilliant white glow.
Sparks flew from the conducting strips, the energy streams burning ever brighter.
Burst of blue lighting exploded out from the sides of the room, connecting with the core, which was glowing more fiercely every second. Sparks crashed out of the walls and the machinery as the glass of the core started to crack. The press and the Vertex representatives were herded out of the room, along with all the technicians except for the emergency team.
Professor Rivers looked around - Captain Omega was already airborne, floating halfway beside the core column, halfway up it.
'How do I stop it?!'
'It's opening a breach!' yelled Rivers, looking at the readouts. 'A wormhole, but... it's not stable! It's ripping open a hole in the universe!'
'I need to stop it, Rivers!'
'The energy the core's taking in... we need to siphon it off, absorb it!'
Captain Omega looked around the room. Crackling bolts of energy were connecting the sides of the room to the core, all colliding within its glass body. With a superhuman fist, he shattered the glass of the core and flew into its centre, straight into the middle of the energy streams. The electric blue bolts crashed against his body, lighting him up, drawing screams of agony from his lips as his body was bombarded with all manner of cosmic energies.
'I can't contain it!' screamed the superhero.
'Dear God.' Rivers was looking at the readouts as the energy continued to build. Nothing would contain it now. 'You have to get out of there! Nothing can stop it!'
'I... have to... try...'
The light obliterated everything. Glass shattered. Machinery exploded. Vast waves of energy burst through the walls of the Vertex Centre and struck the campus with untold power.
The light bathed everything and nothing would ever be the same again.
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Dec 21, 2016 20:19:43 GMT
Herbert blinked his eyes open, groaning; his head felt like he'd been hit by lightning, which he had actually. He pushed himself up, strength returning to his limbs. "Whoa!" He cried, falling back quickly. A piece of shrapnel was revolving through the air slowly towards his face. AS his heart began to beat at a normal rate, he noticed that everything around him was moving as if through syrup. Herbert smiled with released shock and laughed a little. "What's going on?" He laughed, but his smile died as he remembered WHY he was lying on the floor. And with a shock, he realised everything was speeding up. He dove out of the way as everything resumed it's normal speed and the piece of metal imbedded itself just where he had been sitting before. With a start he realised that his movement had felt different; lighter, quicker. Like before he'd been fighting against a wind tunnel.
He pushed himself to his feet, looking around the wreckage of the centre. "Captain Omega!" he shouted. "Omega, where are you?!" He ran towards heart of the wreckage and again, he was surprsied by his own speed. He'd covered 50 metres in a second. Swept up in the delight of it, he started running around the building, looking for anyone. "hello! Is anyone alive?" He raced around the building, flying up steps and around corners. The speed was unreal; his felt light and free, his reflexes so quick he almost automatically adjusted to obstacles in his path. It felt like normal running, just sped up a x100. He checked the building, his heart growing heavier as he realised no one was alive.
He raced back to entrance, trying not to focus on how fast his arms and legs were moving because then he became aware of his speed and he started to stumble. Suddenly out of control, he slammed through the doors of the building, winding himself and toppling out onto the street.
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Post by dbzbabe on Dec 21, 2016 20:30:04 GMT
Chris slowly came to, her head felt like it had been cracked open with a hammer. She weighed in agony, clentching her stomach as it was still causing her great pain. She slowly sat up after a little while to find herself covered in a mysterious glow. She looked at her hands in such an inquisitive way that it seemed as if the hands in front of her were not her own.
She Suddenly realised why she lying in the middle of campus and looked up to see the ruin in front of her. She could hear Herbert calling out to any survivors though she could not see him. What she could see however was a dark blue blur whizzing round the wreckage but was unsure as to who or what it was.
She hesitantly got to her feet and gingerly began to walk towards the remains of the Vertex Centre, the glow beginning to fade. As she got to where the front door had been she stop, took a deep breath and timidly shouted "hello!? Is anyone alive in there!?"
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Dec 21, 2016 20:32:48 GMT
"Yep, barely," Herbert moaned from a spot 15 feet from her. He was lying on the ground, covered in cuts from running through a door. His hair was a mess over his face and his coat and pyjamas were smoking from friction.
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Post by dbzbabe on Dec 21, 2016 20:43:02 GMT
"Well looks like you've been having quite the steamy adventure in there," she quickly replied with a smerk, placing her right hand on her hip, "but seriously why are you gabbering!? What happened to you!? What happened in there!?!?"
Herbert was looking a little startled as Chris was moving and talking in very slow motion to him which he found extremely perplexing.
"Erm.....could you perhaps speed up please?" He hesitantly asked.
"Okay enough with the gabbering we need to find someone to help you, no offense, but you look a complete mess," she said as she grabbed his right arm with her left hand. Herbert simply watched with complete and utter fascination.
Chris began to embark on dragging Herbert across campus to find others to find out what had happened but as she was moving at such an annoyingly slow speed for him, he quickly asked again:"can we please hurry up?"
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Dec 21, 2016 20:49:30 GMT
Herbert tried focusing on her, and time appeared to reel back into full speed. Chris' words suddenly became clearer. "Whoa," he stopped, "that was weird." He gulped as this girl's eyes fixed on him, eyebrows raised. "I should probably explain. I know this sounds weird, but I think I have superhuman speed." Herbert knew that sounded lame and stupid but it was all he could think of. And in their world, superpowers were not unheard of; besides super speed of course. As far as he knew no-one had that one. He looked down at himself, brushing glass off his clothing. "Look," he began, "I appreciate the help, I do, but I'm fine. We should probably go back to the dorms, see if anyone is hurt." He made to walk forward, then looked back, frustrated. "Seriously, though, you wouldn't object to being carried? We do need to, erm, 'speed up'."
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Post by dbzbabe on Dec 21, 2016 20:57:53 GMT
Chris just stood there and starred at him, eyebrows still raised.
"So you think you have......superspeed?" She rhetorically asked in a condisending tone,"alright fine, you can carry me hot shot but you do know superspeed doesn't mean superstrength right?" She remarked as she sacheted over to him and jumped up into his arms though he was caught off guard and nearly dropped her.
"Erm......," Herbert stuttered "okay then, we're off!" He exclaimed more confidently as he began to run towards the dormitory.
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Dec 21, 2016 21:04:10 GMT
"Yeah, no, I know that," he stuttered. "But you look pretty light." His eyes widened. "I'm not making any comments on your weight, or anything of course, just-" Chris leapt into his arms, making Herbert buckle slightly but she was really was quite light and once he got a good hold of her, he stood up straight. It felt awkwardly nice to hold a girl, especially one as beautiful as Chris though he was careful to try to hold her respectfully. "Right, we're off," he said more confidently. Smiling slightly, he looked down at Chris. "Watch this". He started to run, his legs speeding up a blur as he shot towards the dorms at 150mph. He felt fine but he could see Chris was feeling the effect of the locamotion, her hair blowing all over the place. Within seconds they were hurtling through the doors of the Dorms.
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Post by dbzbabe on Dec 21, 2016 21:05:25 GMT
Chris just stood there and starred at him, eyebrows still raised.
"So you think you have......superspeed?" She rhetorically asked in a condisending tone,"alright fine, you can carry me hot shot but you do know superspeed doesn't mean superstrength right?" She remarked as she sacheted over to him and jumped up into his arms though he was caught off guard and nearly dropped her.
"Erm......," Herbert stuttered "okay then, we're off!" He exclaimed more confidently as he began to run towards the dormitory.
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Jan 26, 2017 19:18:43 GMT
(OOC: This event happens a week later from the last post.)
The building was a mess as Herbert made his way up to it, now dressed in a grey overcoat and dark clothes. He took a deep breath; he'd really need to steel his nerves for this one.
It had began here... his powers had awakened and here they would evolve, he told himself.
Entering the building, he made his way past the ruins, memories of super speed flying through his head. He moved up the destroyed stairs, still intact enough to be usable, making his way higher and higher. Bits of the building were missing, blown apart by the explosion. Herbert, however, kept moving, jumping over the loose bits. Chris was constantly on his mind and all he could feel was the pain, the guilt! He leapt over a huge gap, surprised at the force he managed to produce. It didn't matter though; he had one goal: to fly. It was the key to unlocking his powers.
As he finally reached the very top of the building, kicking out at the destroyed fire door and making his way onto the roof. Panting slightly, he moved closer to the edge to survey the Campus and the London skyline beyond. His breathing quickened as the nerves got to him. The drop was awful... huge... there was little chance of coming back from that if this didn't work. Unless he could activate Lucio's power but that was far from certain.
Chris... he was doing this for her, for everyone. He had to unlock flight. He knew that he had it! He had Canagold's powers and Canagold could fly... so he should be able to as well.
Taking a seat on the outcropping piece damaged roof, and watching the few people who still cae this way move below, he tried to steel his nerves.
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Jan 27, 2017 11:24:55 GMT
(OOC: Next day)
Herbert blinked as the sun came up over the horizon. He'd been up here all night, just thinking... thinking about his future, about his responsibilities, about his destiny. Taking a deep breath, he stood, going to the edge. It was time. Holding out his arms to either side... should he have called Nathan? He could fly? Could he? Herbert could have forced him to. Shaking his head, he put it out of his mind. The time was right, he could just feel it.
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Post by dbzbabe on Jan 27, 2017 11:40:45 GMT
Suddenly, the sun was blocked from reaching Herbert's eyes as a woman of average height but extraordinary beauty (OOC if I do say so myself) rose up into the sky just a few metres from the outcrop Herbert was sat on. Her long, wavy black hair fluttered about in the early morning breeze and her purple eyes glistened like amethysts. The woman was dressed in black, a sleeveless crop top with a collar that went all the way up to the chin, black jeans and two-inch heeled ankle boots. She was cloaked in a light purple aura, almost lilac in colour as the sunrise illuminated her.
Hovering in front of Herbert for a moment, she jutted her hips out to her left and placed her right hand on the indentation on her body. With a playful smile and a flirtatious wink, the young woman addressed Herbert:
"Hey handsome, why so glum?"
Chris was back!
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Post by Flynneus_Knight on Jan 27, 2017 11:43:11 GMT
Herbert blinked... then his knees collapsed and he fell forward onto the ground.
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