forum Stealing the Spotlight | One on One | Closed

Started April 28, 2021 by @Mojack group

tune

Welcome to Zion.

It’s one of the busiest places in the world, and with good reason. Zion is notable for its high population of supers- super powered beings.
People were always born with abilities. They’ve only increased in frequency since ancient history, and the experts believe we’ll only see an increase in the super population from this point on. Supers are known to become superheroes - the people who work to protect our world. Usually on a smaller scale of course, as not one hero is going to defend the entire planet. But together? Heroes are quite powerful, as a force protecting us.

Not all supers go to become heroes, though. Some, we know as criminals. Villains. Supervillains. There’s a hierarchical thing in the whole Super scene, not just with villains either; although with heroes, it is lesser known. You’ve got criminals, the ones who might rob a store or two, maybe a bank. Do arson. You know. The usual criminal stuff.
The villains, who might employ criminals to do their stuff. Villains are seen as a stronger threat - it’s also the stage where you decide if you’re staying on the bad guy’s side, or get knocked out of the game. Completely. That’s a politer way to say jailed, imprisoned, etc. In rare cases, killed. But they don’t exactly report about that, do they? Not for villains. Only for heroes.
Supervillains are in the big league. They’re the ones who stuck through, survived, escaped, etc. Zion has one big supervillain. They’ve had the spotlight for several years now, maintaining firm control over certain areas of Zion. They’ve escaped time and time again. They’re the reigning Zion supervillain, and the name they go by is…
..well, we’ll get to that later.

Villains (also can be used as an umbrella term overall) sometimes interact with another. More often than you’d think. Sometimes it’s to form alliances, or deals. Other times, it’s not a very friendly meeting - sometimes, they fight. Sometimes the heroes don’t have to worry about the villains - they might just take each other out.
Especially when you have a seemingly new villain strut into the light, confident enough to challenge the strongest villains for power and territory. Those are usually the fellas who get knocked right off their high horses, just so you know.

And speak of the devil- it seems like Zion may have one of those new villains after all. A new villain, challenging the top supervillain in Zion. Well? What are you going to do?

Been digging a RP with more action, so…RP in which people with powers exist. Although they’re more common than ancient times as mentioned before, less than half of the world are Super.
Two things:

• it is highly unusual for a Super to be born in a family with no history of superpowers at all.
• usually, superpowers appear at 18 at the latest.

Two characters in this RP: the supervillain, and the ‘new’ villain. Maybe not new to the business, but new to Zion. Clarification: whoever joins this RP will be the supervillain from Zion, while I will be taking control of the fella who’s going to be arriving in Zion very shortly…

If I do not recall your style, I will ask for a sample.

RULES

1. Do not autohit, but don’t dodge everything either. Play to your strengths, but remember your weaknesses.
2. This will probably be a mature RP in terms of violence n blood. Though there’s a time and place for those two.
3. And as always, swear to your heart’s desire!
4. Ask questions as needed. I’ll be pleased to answer.
5. Response time may vary, from same day to several days later. Please keep that in mind!
6. Absolutely no one liners. I’ll swing you into the sun if you do one even though you’ve read this rule
7. Please try to have good grammar/punctuation!
8. Say the sexytimes somehow happen in this, it’ll probably be a fade to black sort of thing. Sorry. I’m not good at writing that stuff, nor am I extremely fond of reading it.
9. If you have any ideas for this..let me know.
10. This list may change (most likely won’t, but I always mention this just in case).

And the template….remove brackets.

Alias: (Most Supers have them! They’re the names they go by, when they’re out and about. With good reason, they keep their true identities hidden. Aliases can be just about anything, relating to their abilities or not, or have a deeper meaning.)
True Identity: (Their real name. Make sure to list if anyone knows their identity, or just how many people.)
Gender/Pronouns:
Age: (20-24)
Nationality: (although Zion is a fictional city in the United States, your character may have originated from elsewhere, or at least had family history of different nationalities. or not, your choice.)
Orientation: (sexual/romantic orientation)
Affiliations: (are they affiliated with anyone else? their own group/business, someone else’s business, another villain?)

Appearance:
Normal/civilian clothes: (some villains/heroes do not have a difference between their Super outfit and their civilian outfit. It’s rare, but can happen.)
Super outfit:
Background: (can be short or as long as needed.)
Personality:
Powers: (the most amount of powers to be recorded in one person was five. three powers is the average, though.)
Drawbacks: (what drawbacks do their powers have? drawbacks may be minor to severe.)
Other: (anything else)

(yeah! Sorry for the wait, I was driving home)

As soon as she opened the door, Shea had thrown a knife and lodged it into the first man's chest. A choked, gurgling noise bubbled from his throat as Shea slammed him against the wall and lodged the knife deeper into the man's primary organs. She whirled around, hair flying around her like a deadly halo, and implanted her weapon into the second opponent's head. The light left their eyes and they slumped to the floor.

Shea yelped like a kicked puppy when an attacker's foot collided with her head. She stumbled forward, barely catching herself on the wall before turning to block a punch aimed for her temple. The adrenaline racing through her veins was the only thing keeping Shea conscious. She was hardly aware of her already potentially fatal wounds and wasn't even thinking about other ones she could obtain. The only thing on Shea's mind was getting the thumbdrive somewhere safe and into the right hands.

Punch, punch, punch, dodge, duck, punch, punch. The rhythm she was fighting in was monotonous, something that was programed into her brain since she was just a girl. That programming was the code that helped her get through missions like this, missions like this that often destroyed the weak and unskilled, but Shea knew she was neither of these.

As she took down her third opponent with a well placed punch and snap of a neck, the black spots had returned to her vision. She took a labored breath and slumped against the wall as the two adults took down the last enemy.

"Thanks…" She breathed, closing her eyes and sliding down the wall.

And then she was out again, this time covered in enemy blood as well.

Alias: Poltergeist
True Identity: Korala "Kora" Maestoso. Nobody knows of her identity.
Gender/Pronouns: Female, she/her
Age: 22
Nationality: American, but has family from Egypt, Croatia, Congo, and Zimbabwe.
Orientation: Biromantic Asexual
Affiliations: Mostly keeps to herself, but is involved with some of the larger villains out there but not closely

Appearance: Kora has smooth and practically perfect ebony skin. Her hair is a snow white and reaches to the bottom of her ribcage. Her hair is straight and pulled back into a perfect maryjane style. She stands at about 5'6" and is fairly skinny with some hidden muscle. She has large dark lips, a small nose, and large eyes. Her eyes are black at the centers and gradient into white around the ends of the irises. She inherited her eyes from her father, who got them from his powers. She wears large, full-moon glasses with thin silver frames.

Normal/civilian clothes: Usually dresses very formal. Pencil skirts and formal blouses with high-heeled boots and sharp blazers. Very intimidating wear with a greyscale color scheme. Wears a necklace with her father's ring on the chain. Wears lots of silver jewelry. Silver framed full moon glasses that she doesn't really need but wears anyways.

Super outfit Poltergeist's outfit from bottom to top: Black leather boots with a tall, thin heel that tightly lace up to her knees; a black silk dress that's in an extreme high-low style, with the front hitting mid-thigh and the back trailing behind her, always slightly floating because of her gravity powers; silver silk belt with a few steel knives tucked into it; the top of the dress is sleeveless with gleaming french-inspired designs sewn into it; billowing nearly-transparent cape that is always flowing behind her as if she's underwater; her arms are bare, the only things on them are a few silver rings on her hands; lots of delicate silver necklaces; and a mask that's just a light gray plate that resembles the "drama" masks except without any of the features on them. Just a smooth, blank light gray mask over her face; her hair is just down, sometimes floating around her, sometimes just hanging messily but beautifully. Very beautiful and will kill you to say the least.

Background: Kora comes from a noble family of powerful Supers. Her mother can control and read minds of those not blood-related to her, her father can see glimpses of the future, and her older brother can stun someone with a touch. Her father, however, left when she was young and has only made a few short appearances in her life. Her mother is not the kindest of humans, abusing her abilities to get power. So, the bottom line is that she grew up in a pretty abusive household with an absent father, but that's just a motivator for her. She wants to become the top dog (and she has) to prove to her mother that she's nothing compared to her.

Personality: Kora is subtle, calculating, clever, and ambitious. She does things her way and only her way. She knows how to impress different people and can easily switch between personas. She is a great liar, able to fool even a lie detector test. Very cold and reserved, usually not associating with people unless absolutely necessary. Knows how to get people on her side and how to keep them on her side. Calm in all situations, because more often than not, she's the one orchestrating them.

Powers:
Phasing: Kora can un-stitch her molecules and reassemble them on command. She can do this to pass through walls and other solid objects.
Gravity: Kora can manipulate the gravity around her, but only around her.
Invisibility: She can just turn invisible for a short amount of time. Her super outfit also turns with her, but not her regular clothes.
Insanity: Kora's favorite, she can get inside someone's head and mess with it. She can't control minds and can't telepathically communicate, but she can irk somebody. Sometimes, if somebody's mental state is weak enough, she can drive them to the point of insanity.

Drawbacks: Cannot phase through anything that's natural or fluid; if she's invisible for too long, she can flicker and feel sick; if she's stops phasing between something, it can kill her; with insanity, she can only do so much and it depends on entirely who the other person is to see how it affects them;

Other: Extremely skilled with knives and always keeps a few on her

((Great! I’ll get a starter up soon.))

Alias: Bombshell
True Identity: Thorsten Kessler. Only the group he previously affiliated with in Germany knew of his identity. As far as the world is concerned, no one knows who he is. Something to note that even if someone were aware of his true identity, he still prefers to be called Bombshell.
Gender/Pronouns: Male, he/him.
Age: 22
Nationality: German. His heritage has stayed Western European for a while, mostly staying in the area of Germany. He was also born in Germany, and grew up there - only leaving for Zion just recently.
Orientation: Asexual biromantic
Affiliations: A small group of villains back at home. As he’s just arriving at Zion, he isn’t really known by anyone here, unless you’re paying attention to German news.

Appearance: In reason, Bombshell has kept his appearance pretty hidden away. He’s about 5’8” in height, with an athletic build. His skin tone is close to a beige, although much of his torso (and entire body, really) has scars, a fair portion of them notably burn scars. His face is scarred enough to the point where even in his ‘normal’ wear, he covers most of it up. But that could also just be him not wanting to show off his face.
Complete heterochromia in both eyes. One eye is blue, while the other, an unnaturally bright shade of amber.
His hair is slightly curled at the edges, going down near his ears. It’s dark brown, so dark it nearly reaches a shade of black.

His right arm is one that is mechanical. At some point, he lost the real one - maybe it was an accident or battle. It’s incredibly heat resistant, and although he wears it often, isn’t one to wear it 24 hours a day (depending on what he’s doing or how high alert he is). The arm is slightly bigger than a normal arm though, and doesn’t look like a human arm at all, being highly mechanized, with no attempt made to make it look normal.

Normal/civilian clothes: Whilst taking to a normal life - or as ‘regular’ as his normal life can get, Thorsten prefers to adorn suits, while wearing a half mask - covering the lower half of his face, all the way up to the bridge of his nose. He usually wears gloves, or in this case, only one glove since a normal glove doesn’t really fit over his mechanical arm. Basically, dresses formally. His suits aren’t bright colours, usually shades of grey or darker colours.
Occasionally, if he’s looking for something more casual, he dons a duster coat and black pants and shirt - usually, the shirt has some sort of bright graphic on it. As usual, though, he sports a half mask.
Super outfit: Bombshell’s super outfit is made from heat durable materials - manmade ones. They were specially designed to resist his abilities.
He wears a light brown, almost tactical suit looking thing, geared up with a fair sized bag on his back. The helmet he wears is full face, obscuring himself from view - it’s also partially mechanical, able to show LED expressions/images/emotes on the visor.

Background: Thorsten was ‘born’ in Germany, although born is somewhat of an inaccurate word. It’s more like he was made there, and just grew up there - only leaving within the past few weeks to head to Zion.
Thorsten never had real parents. In his youth, he was more irrational, and prone to losing his temper, as opposed to his current self. With abilities like his, losing his temper could prove to be quite..destructive.
The only sense of family he ever had was the group he had affiliated with. Also the closest thing he could have to actual blood relatives - they were cloned from the same cells, after all.

Although all clones, they all fought to have their own identity, and you could very well say that they all have it. Even Bombshell. They may not be all known by the world, but does that matter?
Maybe a little bit. But he’d never admit it, that he does like to be in the spotlight.

Personality: The first word coming to mind is show-off. If he can do anything extra when it comes to his work, he will.
Thorsten is incredibly confident, but also eccentric. He generally doesn’t keep to plans, nor does he listen to anyone - essentially why he rarely affiliates with other villains, who find his unpredictable nature a risk to themselves. Thorsten has a will - a will to make the biggest impact of them all.
Although taking things lightly at first, if given the sufficient ‘wakeup’ call, Thorsten has proved himself to be incredibly persistent. And unforgiving. He holds grudges - very long ones.

Powers:
Superhuman durability: Bombshell is more durable than the average human, and maybe average Super. In addition, he also has faster healing than humans, although most Supers generally recover faster.
Stages: Named by Bombshell himself, perhaps his most unique ability is being able to shift into various ‘stages’. The higher a stage is, the stronger it is, but the harder it is to control and shift back out. Essentially, he becomes a literal monster in this form. Usually, the highest stage Bombshell goes to is stage two.
Beam emission: Bombshell is capable of emitting a highly explosive beam, via his right arm (his mechanical one). The ability can be amplified in some of his stage forms, though - and even adapted.
Heating up the air around him: He can also heat up the air around him. To a lesser degree in human form - not enough to cause major burns, while considerably in his stage form.
All of these abilities can be amplified when in certain stage forms, minus stage one (where everything is pretty much the same).

Drawbacks: Although durable, Bombshell can still feel pain. He could technically stand and hold off hits for a while, but it would hurt, and he’s not willing to find out how much his durability can stand, as overconfident as he can be.
The higher his current stage is, the harder for it is for him to control himself. Although he’d arguably be more dangerous to his foes, he’d also be endangering himself. It also becomes harder to shift back in the process. Even if he manages to switch out, he most likely won’t make a big appearance for at minimum a week, just to regain lost energy. Worst case scenario, his human consciousness can become overwhelmed, and there’s no coming back from that. This makes his Stages ability the riskiest power to use - while the strongest, it brings big risks.
Adding on, shifting takes up energy - meaning if he’s planning to fight, he either starts out in human form, or shifts to his ‘stages’ and sticks to it.
His beam also takes up a lot of energy, meaning he’s unable to use it repeatedly under most circumstances. Also, without his mechanical arm, this ability becomes hard to use, or nearly impossible (in his human form).
In addition, heating up the air around him takes energy to maintain, meaning it’s an ability he uses only for a few seconds at a time.
Other: Relies a lot on technology when in human form. He can definitely hold himself in a physical fight, but…would rather not. At least, not while he’s not in his Stages.

_“Uh.. You’re still sure about this, right?”

In a large plane high above the skies of Zion, a question was asked, and answers came quickly. Bombshell crouched, peering outside of the plane. The ground was hardly visible from here, but thanks to the bright lights of Zion, and it being nighttime, it was very easy to hear the target.
“Oh please, I’m more than sure.” Bombshell drawled, standing up and turning to the asker, who stepped back slightly. “When I make choices, I make them with purpose. If I make mistakes, they aren’t mistakes, they’re just..surprises. I never go back on a plan. Especially one as expensive as this.” Although he hadn’t actually spent that much money on the plan, it was still troublesome, hunting down the correct people. He had to get a temporary crew, who dealt with villains like him - to drop him over to Zion.
No one knew of his arrival. He had actually arrived to the States a few days ago, but only now, was he at his final destination. Today was the night. The night of his showtime.

“..Right, right. Just making sure.” The man nodded.
Bombshell tilted his head back over to the side of the plane and looked down. He squinted - of course, such an expression wasn’t visible on his face, which was hidden. “Are you sure we’re at high enough altitude? I need time, when I go down there.”
The man walked near him and looked down. “Yes..should be high enough. I can check in with the others.”
“No need,” Bombshell said, standing up fully again. “I always like a hands on experience, when it comes to things like this.” He turned around slightly.
“What..wait, what are you..wait! Your parachute!”
“Auf Wiedersehen,” Bombshell winked - the LED lights on his visor mirroring that in a blue colour, before he allowed himself to fall from the plane. Bombshell watched the plane quickly head off - he hadn’t actually told the crew that he was going to just jump out. Like that. Given he was also one of the Supers who couldn’t fly naturally, such a thing was probably worrying, but they’d see very soon, that Bombshell was indeed fine.
Feeling the wind rush past him, he had little time, but Bombshell could make it work. It wasn’t long before he was reaching the top of the clouds, and by then, he activated the heart of his plan.

On the ground of Zion, by its docks and coast…

Zion was busy. Both at day and night. The docks were no exception, being one of the busiest places in the cities. It wasn’t the only dock in the city, but it was one of the biggest.
No one had really expected to see a flash of light in the clouds. People who looked up at the right time could have sworn to have seen a shadow visible in them. It was odd. There wasn’t any thunderstorms, were there?

The smart people realized what was going to happen and started to flee the area, but there wasn’t much time.
Like a meteor, out of the clouds was some sort of spinning, large object. Were those scales? It was a near miss with the docks, but the tall buildings surrounding the western side of the docks were not spared, crumbling almost instantly as the thing hit them at high speeds. It didn’t stop moving until almost 30 seconds later, slowing to a stop, and beginning to cool down.
And then it moved. It came out of its balled up position, and stood on its legs - the thing was large, had to be at least 20 metres tall. Its tail unfurled, the pincers at the end of it clicking, and the beast, reptilian in overall appearance, with orange and black scales, stood up fully, all four eyes staring into the moonlight above it.

Bombshell was here. And Zion was meeting him for the first time.

It didn’t take long for news to get onto the event and begin reporting. Reporting live - the details were as followed: a large, flaming object struck the eastern side of the city, causing massive damage. The object turned out to be a monster - Supers who could shift into monsters were not unusual, and had been recorded before, but it was still frightening either way. The creature had continued to cause damage, with no known goal. It shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, either.

Kora watched the news with a grim look, fork tightly gripped in one hand and the other balled into a fist. Micki - her idiotic brother, bless his soul - was too busy trying to figure out how to butter his toast without getting bread crumbs stuck in the butter to notice her focus on the rather interesting events displayed on the television.

RAMPAGING MONSTER ON THE LOOSE IN EASTERN ZION!: The headlines screamed. Kora watched with inquisitive fascination at the monster and knew she had to get a closer look. Without saying a word to her brother, Kora stood soundlessly and left the vast dining room, heading up one of the many staircases and arriving in her room. She looked over her shoulder to ensure she was alone and walked into her closet.

Behind her impressive collection of pristine blazers, only in shades of assorted grey, there was a room. Kora phased. The feeling of her body slowly splitting into individual molecules was something she couldn't get over. Would never get over. As her body restitched itself on the other side, Kora allowed her emotionless facade to fall away into the one she prefered. A natural scowl and eyes cold enough to freeze hell over. Kora traded her modern clothing for something people remembered her by. Poltergeist.

She fastened the smooth white plate over her face, hiding her identity and slipped into the black outfit with the flowing cloak that resembled smoke. Whenever she moved in it, the fabric would flash different shades of grey, sometimes not even appearing visible at all.

It was about time she put this newbie back into their place.

Bombshell continued to terrorize eastern Zion to no signs of stopping. It was rather easy to see where he had been, leaving behind a literal trail of destruction. He had no goals in this destruction - essentially, it was pointless destruction. The only reason why he was doing it was to make a ‘sufficient’ introduction. One that hopefully reached world news, but even that was pushing it. Still, he wanted his siblings to see what he had done. That he was finally going for the big leagues. Like, the big leagues.

Bombshell stopped, taking in his surroundings. He could hear the noise of helicopters in the area, staying quite a distance away. News helicopters, reporting live, he assumed. That’s good. They’d want to see this.
His tail lashed out, meeting the unlucky car behind him with a slam- the car stood no chance, practically crumpling beneath it. No one had been in it.

He shifted his forearms a bit further apart, then stood up - balancing himself solely on his hind legs. It was time for something a little bit more explosive.
Bombshell opened his mouth - in this form, it was perhaps the most alien part about him, the unearthly sort. It could split into three parts when it opened - and within his mouth, was filled with rows and rows of sharp, hooked teeth. A sharp shriek pushed through the air - people were unable to figure out where it was coming from, but by the time they realized, it was far too late.
In about three seconds, a beam of light emerged, angled upwards. The beam directly hit some tall buildings, barely hitting some, then went into the clouds. The sheer brightness of the beam contrasting the night almost seemed to light up the area for a brief second.
Bombshell closed his mouth, and by the time he did that, the buildings that had been struck by the beam, even just barely, collapsed, as the areas that were hit exploded. If they considered his landing to be massive destruction, then this would be devastating.
Bombshell paused to look in direction of his destruction, then turned another direction and proceeded on. He didn’t plan to do much more.

(I never got around to drawing the outfit ha oops so I bit the bullet and described it in the template and tweaked her powers a little bit)

Kora walked through the streets, the mask hiding her face away. No, it wasn't her identity. Poltergeist is her identity. Korala Maestoso was just the human side of her, the side that people could put to a face and not the sleek plate in place of her features. The mask wasn't a facade, it was still her face, just a different side of her. The side that people learned to fear.

Screaming people and crying children ran the opposite direction, occasionally looking back at the destruction. Despite how terrified they were, the stampeding crowd parted like the Red Sea when they got near Poltergeist. Whatever monster was behind that might've been bad, but nothing could be worse than Poltergeist's wrath.

The nearer she got to the mystery monster, the scarcer the landscape became. Buildings were crumbled and corpses hung out of the rubble. Her nose scrunched at the smell as she stepped over a large multi-colored puddle that seemed a little too near the burning remains of a semi truck.

Even someone as proud as Poltergeist had to admit that this new kid in town was impressive. They were like destruction walking, a catastrophe animated, a living bombshell.

"Can I help you?" Poltergeist asked in a calm but commanding tone. Her fingers twitched and the monster shifted with it. She smiled with grim satisfaction knowing that she had got into their head.

Bombshell gave a satisfied growl, gazing upon the destruction. Buildings that were struck by the beam crumbled, and he turned away, walking off without another thought.
The destruction he had just caused may seem devastating, but in comparison to the true size of Zion: it was nothing. Zion was a large city, and Bombshell had only landed on the eastern portion of the city; not to mention, it wasn’t even the entire eastern portion. But bigger destruction would be reserved for…later plans.

Where are the heroes around here? All sleeping? Did I catch them at a bad time? A car crushed into the ground as one of his claws stepped onto it. He sniffed, listening to the sirens in the distance, the noises, everything.
And then there was a voice.

Bombshell turned to face whoever had spoken, slowly. Reptilian eyes glanced towards the costumed person - his expression was unreadable for a brief period of time, before his scaly lips pulled back in a curious, yet not so happy grin. “Oh? Are you one of those heroes this city has, come to respond to the call at last? Really could have showed up minutes earlier. You know, before I blasted three buildings into dust.” And started rampaging around the entire city.
His voice was distorted of course, compared to his human form. More rough, deeper, with some sort of beastly growl to it. Compared to his human voice, it was different.
He stiffened - something didn’t seem right. It was weird. He felt fine before, until this mysterious person showed up…

Poltergeist almost laughed at the hero accusation. "No," She answered, voice clearly ringing out through the ruins of what was once one of Zion's grandest areas. Poltergeist took a few more steps towards the monster, her heel coming down on something with a sickening yet satisfying crunch. "I believe you're trespassing on taken territory," She twitched her fingers again.

"I believe you've heard of me…" Twitch. "But in case you haven't-" Poltergeist squared her shoulders up, the familiar buzz of control forming around her. She took another step, the rubble lifting and falling with her foot. The buzz grew stronger as her hair, cape, and back of her dress raised. "I'm Poltergeist."

She clenched her fist and watched the monster momentarily tremble underneath the insanity. "And I rule this town."