ZippyWharrgarbl

Thak's ability to buy his way out of jail is kind of similar to something I've been planning behind the scenes for Rotor and XPlode's profiles, but theirs is a two-guy deal to explain what happens with them in the show. However, I reckon it's only fair to ask that Thak's money not be used as a free escape from jail every single time for every single crime, since he's a player character, not an NPC, and even in the case of Rotor and XPlode their plan wouldn't work if both were arrested (or even if just XPlode was). I don't want to go into detail of issues he could face because I don't know much about this kind of thing, but I don't think he'd be able to flash money to get out of any and all jail time. Small offences, maybe, but not really big crimes.

The others have approved him and while I have my reservations about the money thing and whether it would be even possible for him to have little to no jail time, I won't ask he not be approved, but I reckon it's only fair for the get out of jail free card to have limitations. Also, I don't think that it should become a regular thing for villains to be rich and able to buy their way out of trouble. XPlode's established to be rich in canon, and it wasn't something anyone mentioned could be an issue before Thak popped up, but I'll be keeping an eye out from now on in regards to player characters. Just a head's up about that.

IC: Timothy Gyro - Making Friends

Man, this kid was new. Gyro patted his back. "That's good enthusiasm right there. I remember my first mission. Nothin' as cool as this, though. It was a robbery in progress. We caught the guy, but I spooked some of the civilians a bit."

He paused, and said quickly, "Anyway, you'll do fine. Remember your training, and if you don't know what to do, stick close to someone who does. You got a team yet?"

~

IC: Ken Render - Hero Factory

Render got off at his stop and jogged up to the front doors.

~

IC: Mara Quiver - The Ardor Cardor

She sat in the back, listening to the thrum of the engines and the machinery humming and chugging around her. Ardor hadn't said a word to her, which was good. She'd stayed out of his line of sight, which might have been the reason. After the awkward situation she put herself in with Captor, she wasn't really in a talking mood, except to speak quietly with Forticus when prompted.

~

IC: Dorothy Quark - Hero Factory

She landed the ship on the front lawn and opened the doors. "Don't go running off. I have to walk you both inside. I mean it. Don't make this situation worse on yourselves."

She turned off the engines and took her keys before unbuckling herself from the pilot's seat.

~

IC: Wilbur Flood - Arena

"What's going on?" he asked Wolfe loudly, over the roar of the crowd. Part of his sentence was obscured by a lout bell being struck in the ring.

~

IC: La Puño de Hierro - WRESTLEMANIA PART III

The bell went, and Tiger Stripes wasted no time in rushing her. La Puño braced herself and barely gave ground when they crashed together, struggling to throw each other down. She managed to shoulder him aside and push him away, granting enough time to forcefully swing her fist into his side. He took the hit with a pained grunt, but was quick to respond with a foot to the stomach.

Another opening. She grabbed his foot and twisted it, sending him toppling. He was quick to get to his feet, though, and jumped at her again, this time angling to get her in a hold. He managed to get a good enough grip to throw her into the ground, and she had to roll to dodge his knee drop.

"You call that a drop, hombre?" she called to him as she jumped to her feet. "Why don't you let me show you what a real drop looks like?"

"What about you lie on the floor and let the ref count you out? Save yourself a lot of hurt."

She charged for him, but as he went to defend against a grapple, she instead extended her arm and dropped, catching his neck sending them both to the floor. The crowd roared and cheered as she rolled to her feet and backed up for the ropes. He was still trying to get up, but it looked like she was going to be able to show off her new move once he did so.

What a finisher, she thought to herself proudly.

OOC: I'm not sure how long wrestling matches usually go for but I've kept people here for a decently long while. From the few wrestling matches I've seen, they're not all that long. Besides, this has been going on for a while now and I'm sure everyone's keen to go and join the mission.

You can bring one of your other characters over, Scorp! But, just like the others have said, make your character fit into the Hero Factory universe.

Deial approved (2/3). Sorry to be a stickler for the character type, it's just a common issue we have and it's just so much easier to have all characters fitting into three neat groups.

Oh, and I forgot to include in my last post: I agree with Nato in that Var's ship has a heck of a lot in it for something so small.

I still have no idea how Var is meant to be superhumanly fast and agile in a massive suit of armour. I'm holding off on considering approval while I puzzle it out and decide what's gonna be done about the general Lightsaber situation.

Himitsu and Laplace approved (2/3) and I'll approve Deial if you change their character type to "Civilian". "Himitsu's AI" isn't a character type. I understand you want that info there, though, so just toss it in the bio or wherever else you think is fitting. Otherwise, looks good!

EDIT: Shoot, nearly forgot. Solidez approved (2/3), but keep in mind that you're gonna have to find a way to smuggle it off and on the planet.

I'm regretting the moment Star Wars-esque lightsabers entered the fray.

Okay, so in the case of the Great Lightsaber Debate, I agree that it's a pretty OP weapon, especially with all Var's other powers. I'm thinking that maybe, as a suggestion, we could nerf all lightsabers down to the style of lightsaber I have for Quark- that is, it's basically just an energy sword with the functionality of a sword. Maybe if you get a cut from it, the cut'll be a little singed, but it doesn't have the super OP cutting that Star Wars lightsabers do. That's just a suggestion, though.

On to the profiles themselves. Sapphire seems fine. Approved (1/3). But, please take notice of the fact that she doesn't have advanced reflexes along with her speed.

Var is, as the others have pointed out, really OP. How does someone in a big, thick-plated battle armour suit retain not only any kind of speed, but also ridiculous agility and jumping ability? It might be reasonable in some instances, but she's also got telekinesis, super strength and a super sword. She's also organic, but as Nato has mentioned, you've gotten rid of any kind of weakness that could be attached to that. Or, well, anything, really. She's got no weaknesses. She's got super dodging so you can't hit her, she's got super tough armour if you do hit her, it's unlikely you'll be able to hit her because she can use telekinesis on you once you're close enough to hit her, she's got super strength so she can hit back really hard, but she doesn't really need that because she's got a sword that can cut through anything with ease.

Some issues would be fine- such as being able to move fast and super-well in such heavy armour- if not for all the other stuff piled on her. She legit has no weaknesses, or at the very, very least, no weaknesses that make up for how OP she is.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention, Onaku mentioned the lightsaber would be able to deflect attacks. I'm first of all not sure if Star Wars lightsabers can deflect physical bullets, which would be an issue. Also, I vaguely, vaguely remember this coming up in the old HF RPG at some point, and I think we agreed it wouldn't be a thing? I think the problem was it was too OP.

IC: Mara Quiver - With Friends

She glanced up at Forticus briefly. Well, maybe it would be all right if she just didn't stay in Ardor's line of sight. He might forget she was here.

"O-Okay," she said weakly.

~

IC: Timothy Gyro - Hero Factory

"Tim Gyro," he replied with a grin, shaking Flames' hand. The nice thing about rookies was most of them hadn't run into his villain likeness before, and so didn't ask why he looked like the guy. "From the sounds of Zib, you got a pretty big first mission ahead of you. How're you feeling about it?"

~

IC: La Puño de Hierro - WRESTLEMANIA PART II

"And facing off against La Puño de Hierro tonight, hailing from Grexon VII, absolutely roaring and ready to finally get a shot at the championships, we have... TIGEEEEEERRRRRRR STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIPES!!!"

La Puño turned towards the entrance as her opponent walked on stage, a robot with tiger stripes on his shorts and boots and a large tiger head stencilled into his chest. He approached the stage, greeting fans as he went, though he kept looking to snarl at her (which she returned). When he finally made it to the ring, he swung himself up over the ropes and landed with a bang on the mat.

Though they did exchange words as well as blows in wrestling matches, they didn't carry microphones with them, nor did they link their vocal units to the speakers. The former wouldn't be reasonable to carry around while wrestling, and the latter would give too much feedback from grunts and vocalisations from impacts. Her mentor had explained that often there were sound amplification systems hidden around the ring, both to make impacts on the mat sound louder and more impressive, and to pick up the words thrown around in the heat of battle. She wasn't sure of the specifics. It worked out, either way.

"YOU'RE all that stands between me and the championships?" he scoffed. "May as well just put my name in there right now, this ain't gonna be long."

"Put your name in where? The trash?" she laughed. "They may as well, yes. It would save you a whole lot of pain tonight. Though it would be a shame to waste all the pain I've brought to put on you."

"You'll really know what pain is once I jam that smug grin of yours up your EXHAUST PIPE!"

"OH, YOU'LL BE SEEING A LOT MORE OF THIS GRIN, AMIGO! RIGHT UP TO FIRST PLACE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!"

They charged each other, struggling to throw the other onto the ground. The referee shouted at them to break it up, climbing into the ring, and they pushed away. She locked eyes with Tiger Stripes, and he bared his dental plating at her. She did so too, in a grin. She was so excited, it was all she could do not to just shout wordlessly in glee.

"I want a nice, clean fight here today," said the referee. She wasn't new to this; La Puño had had her refereeing for a few of her matches before, but the easiest way to tell was she didn't seem at all worried about standing between two large robots ready to fight. The referee looked between the two, and continued, "You know the rules. Tiger Stripes, in case you haven't gone against a luchador wrestler before: in luchador fights, removal of the opponent's mask is absolutely forbidden and will result in an immediate disqualification. I'm not kidding with this."

"Pretty attached to that mask of yours," Tiger Stripes snarled at her. "Did you make it yourself?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, I did," La Puño replied. She was very proud of that, actually. Especially since it didn't look like her other attempts at making things; it actually looked very good. "Did you make up 'Tiger Stripes' yourself, or was that just your factory default name?"

"Oh, you'll see why they call me Tiger Stripes when I get my claws on you!"

The referee blew her whistle and gestured for them to move away from each other. The match was about to start. La Puño cycled air through her systems, waiting for the bell. She was prepared for this. She'd been training for this. All those days training with her fellow luchadores, all the research put into tiger-themed insults and quips, it was all ready to come together. She'd walk out of here on her way to the championships, or she'd walk out with the determination to train harder for the next fight. Either way, she wasn't going down without a fight.

OOC: Tiger Stripes hasn't been submitted in profile form because he's basically a named NPC. He's probably not going to appear outside of matches, and if somehow he gets pulled into combat or something similar that would require knowing his profile, I'll toss something up for him. If you think he does need one, however, that's fair and I'll get one up ASAP.

~

IC: a duck - Her Kingdom

The duck was dozing when she heard her young ward leaving the nest. She had no idea little ones were so nocturnal in their ways. She would not leave them to wander undefended, though, and so she gave herself a little shake and followed them. She gave them a questioning quack, one that still had the wooziness of sleep about it, even if the feeling was disappearing with every step she took.

IC: Ken Render - HoverBus, En Route to Hero Factory

Render idly tinkered with some schematics he'd been drawing up on his CPU as he watched the landscape go by beyond his HUD.

~

IC: Mara Quiver - The Titanos Housanos

She nodded too, but was more preoccupied with Ardor and both avoiding eye contact and staring. Ardor was not exactly someone she would describe as a friend unless she really had to. She had grown used to him looking mopey and unkempt, and it was odd to see him returning to his former state. She wasn't sure if this was good or bad. On the one hand, he was Titanos' friend, and while not as nice as Captor, she still wanted him to feel better. Sadness was a terrible feeling and she wouldn't wish its extended presence on anyone, much less a friend of a friend.

On the other, he was... even mentally, she struggled for a nice word. She gave up and settled for 'bully'. In his saddened state, he'd rarely leave his room, meaning she didn't have to fear being the subject of ridicule or annoyance very often. It was good he was feeling better, but she couldn't help but feel worried about seeing him more often, and what that would entail in terms of enduring mockery.

~

IC: Timothy Gyro - Hero Factory

Gyro touched down outside the front doors of Hero Factory- the unfinished parts of the Hero Factory were a tempting entry point, but Zib had told him off for it since his presence had spooked a few workers- and gave his blades a flap before walking in. The ground felt alien, but it wore off quickly as his steps thudded into a walking rhythm. It looked like he wasn't the only one here; there were quite a few other Heroes arriving and heading the way he was. One, a rookie by the looks of them, passed him by, so he sped up his pace to talk to them.

"You look new," he said cheerfully. "You been on a mission before?"

OOC: That's Flynn Flames Gyro's speaking to right now.

OOC: A quick reminder to The Invisible Noob, there's currently no training areas in the Hero Factory itself. It was destroyed and they're still building the new building, so at the moment there's not much else apart from the Mission Control, Hero Hotline centre and Assembly Tower. Hero Factory instead has rented out spaces throughout the city for temporary training purposes- these aren't as good as the old ones, and as such a lot of rookies are a bit less experienced than usual. Don't worry, though! This was something we brought up ages ago, so not knowing is fine. It's mostly my fault; I still have to get onto a FAQ for this RPG.

Also, for the below post: I haven't posted up Quark's ship profile. That's very bad practice of me, and rest assured if it was in combat I'd put one up quick smart. At the moment it's just ferrying people to Hero Factory though, and it's essentially a normal Hero Factory dropship with some minor alterations mostly to do with helping teach rookies to fly a ship, so I promise you it's not anything groundbreaking. It was used in the last HF RPG, and I'm likely going to be using most of the info from its old profile to make the new one.

~

IC: Dorothy Quark - Quark Qruiser

She grumbled something inaudible to herself as she closed the hatch. She took the pilot's seat, did a standard flight check, and took off for Hero Factory.

Sorry, Nato! I didn't mean for you to fact-check. I meant that I'm pretty bad at visualising distances and I wasn't sure if 20m was too big of an area. Thank you for the post, though!

I might be too excited about the duckling to make a proper judgement, but I can't see anything wrong. Approved (2/3). Please tell me it has duck mannerisms it has picked up from its mother.

The duck is getting too powerful. She cannot be stopped by any earthly means.

Aw shoot, The Invisible Noob. If you wanted to have a secret profile, you could have PMed it to one of the GMs! We do allow secret profiles, so long as the GMs approve them first and there's a reason for it- it's obviously a case by case scenario, but if it's for a grand reveal- like yours- or, as an another example, the setup for a joke- like I did once- then it's usually fine. I mean, in your case you'd probably have to reveal the profile once the fire friend appeared, since giving people warning about their powers is only fair, but it's allowed and doable.

Okay, so he's aware of his friend, since it's a Hulk scenario? The MOC looks like Flames is hanging out the bottom of the guy (I could be wrong) so now I'm just picturing him with his arms crossed and looking fed up with everything through the fire friend's rampage. He half-heartedly waves to Heroes he's friends with while it's all happening.

As for the numbers, I'm not entirely sure. I reckon Nato'd be able to give you a better idea of whether it's fine or not. It seems like a huge radius, though. I'm guessing that it's an increasing heat, where it's not lethal at the 20 metre mark but if you're close enough to touch it things get really deadly really fast? And maximum range would be that 20 metres, yeah? If so, that sounds pretty okay with the heat gradient deal, but I'll wait for Nato to weigh in.

I'll approve Michael Barrier with his new gun, though I'm sad he didn't stay with the gentle poke gun. Approved (3/3) (Rylinth, I had my approval for the plain ol' shotgun, but meh we're all approving so it doesn't matter all that much)

As for Flynn Flames, I was at first wondering if bullets would melt before they hit but someone pointed out to me they'd be travelling too fast for that, odds are. I'm gonna make an educated guess and say the radius of heat isn't going to be anything like "people standing within 10 metres are instantly turned to ash" or whatever. Oh, and the radius doesn't need to be exact, by the way! I'm guessing you won't need to think of one for a little while. Feel free to give Flames better heat protection or grant him non-Euclidean protections to his circuitry during his metamorphosis. Either way it sounds fine.

Flames and BFF approved (3/3). I'm picturing that the fire friend's name is literally "???" and is pronounced as a really exaggerated sound of confusion.

Oh, and thank you for changing the profile type! I understand wanting to keep it ambiguous, but it's just easier to keep everything in three categories. Also now, you can almost picture it as Hero Factory having the fire friend on record as a villain but not knowing they're connected to Flames. The Heroes just chase the fire friend into the next room, shooting them with lasers and such, but when they get there the fire friend is gone, replaced with Flames who is glowing white hot and slumped to the floor. Maybe they just assume the fire friend is some random villain who really likes harassing Flames, or Flames keeps popping up in the wrong place at the wrong time and runs into the fire friend a lot. The Hero Factory speaks often with Flames' rivalry with this fire friend.

Actually, that brings me to something I've been wondering about: does Flames know that he has a friend in him? Or does he just wake up in a parking lot somewhere covered in fire damage and laser/bullet fire and assume that's his life now?

@The Invisible Noob: Believe it or not, we've actually had at least one other fire-shooting Hero before (who wasn't Furno). But that's not to say your concept is unoriginal or a carbon copy; it's actually quite nice! The concept of the alternate profile is pretty cool, but type-wise, I'd classify it as a villain, technically. However, sadly, there is an overpowered issue- see, he's hot enough that it seems like any projectile weapon or energy weapon wouldn't do much if anything, and you can't really face it in melee combat either because of the intense heat. That makes it almost undefeatable to most characters. If energy weapons did something (I'll admit I'm not exactly certain what'd happen to space lasers and the like under extreme heat) I think that might be better? Basically, there needs to be a method to defeating him. But, I commend you because for a giant eldritch ball of fire, it's actually pretty reasonable, all things considered. Softened armour to make attacks hit easier, slow movement added to that to counter any instakill issues (one of the other fire Heroes in the old topic originally had an issue of being literally able to vaporise everyone in the room with heat, which as you can imagine was a problem)... Pretty dang reasonable if there's a way to hit it.

Also if it's hot enough to soften heat-resistant armour, I'd hate to think what it was doing to Flames' insides. But that's not really an OP problem, and I'm guessing Flames' friend has some kind of otherworldly ability to not destroy its own vessel.

I am a big, big fan of eldritch horror (or any horror, really) and I love the concept you have here. I'm keen to approve it. Just give a reasonable way for it to be hit, and maybe a radius for its heat, and you should be fine I think. By "reasonable way to be hit", I mean give it a weakness that is reasonably accessible by a good amount of characters. So, in the case of this guy, don't make its weakness punching because obviously no one's going to be able to reach the fiery orb of death to punch it. Water would vaporise before touching it, most likely, so maybe not that either. Energy weapons would probably be a good one, but feel free to suggest others if you don't like that one. Oh, and by "radius for its heat", I mean as in how far away would a non-protected character have to stand to not be in danger. Also, it sounds like it can increase its temperature? Do you have a vague rate on that and/or a rate on how fast the radius would expand due to it?

(I assume that by "protection" you mean heat resistance and not plain armour)

(Also before I realised the above point I was coincidentally writing out a thing about how Flames was pretty underpowered if he can't hurt people with armour on, and I hadn't realised ??? was technically part of Flames' profile since I was reading and remarking on them one at a time)

EDIT: Also forgot to mention at the end but also could you change ???'s profile type to "villain"? We try and keep it to three main groups that cover everything so we don't end up with a billion types to try and sort through. Basically, Hero is a Hero model currently under the Hero Factory's employ, Villain is a character that breaks the law (hurting people and trying to heat up the universe would fall under that), and Civilian is everything else.

~

(I'm putting a divider because that got long)

@The Collector of masks: if Whipcrack's organic, that would also presumably mean he could only pass his disease on to other organics, and if close contact was required then his armour should deal with that by granting some space between him and his opponent. And, presumably, if he's coughing all over the place then other organics would at least get the hint to try not to go near him, so fair enough. I was concerned we'd get some kind of epidemic on our hands from this guy. I mean, having the ending to HF RPG be "everyone stayed home sick" would be incredible, don't get me wrong, but incurable illnesses can be a bummer.

From a purely scientific point of view, it's pretty interesting that it would be spread only through close contact. A lot of diseases that cause coughing use that as one of its means to spread, since then a sick person is basically ejecting a whole bunch of disease-causing particles into the air for other people to breathe in. Not all of them, of course, but it's a pretty neat fact.

Finally, it is never too late to go to the wrestling match. Or, I guess it'd be too late after the match, but I still need to write out the second part as well as make up a vague idea of what Thumper's opponent will look like, so your character can absolutely go to the match and you have plenty of time. And there'll no doubt be more to come. Since your character's a villain, there's a chance he may even star in an impromptu match if he ever faces Thumper while she's on duty. It is a big risk that every villain in this RPG signs on for.

Does it make a difference whether physical bullets or energy blasts are hitting the shield? Energy blasts would be the canonical common thing to protect against, but we have a weird amount of physical bullets being thrown around.

Also, just so you're clear on this fact, it's been explained to me that standard shotguns would be basically useless against robots. So that pretty much helps weigh out the issues I had with the power balance, I suppose. Granted that fact, approved (2/3).

If you want to change the weapon, don't count that approval and I'll give a different one if the new one's fine. But honestly having the gun equivalent to a feather duster sounds really good

So, a quick reminder/apology: Sorry about how slow it's been! It's been very busy in terms of real life stuff. I'll try and get another wrestlepost out soon, I just want to get up to date on profiles first. And do a quick post for a couple IC things beforehand.

To start with, Kyuhaun: I feel like I should reiterate that his disguise probably won't work all that well most of the time, so don't expect to be able to walk into high security places or the Hero Factory itself or anything. I mean, he's pretty much busted the moment someone asks for an ID/scan his core/systems for identification/etc. Still, that's not a reason not to approve him- it's not an issue with overpoweredness or conflicting with established canon, so as long as you keep that in mind (his profile mentions he got the fake core to grant him access almost anywhere in the universe, and clearly that's not going to work out well), he's fine. Approved (3/3)

To be clear, his ship's communications would probably not have access to Hero Factory lines of communication, nor would he be able to identify his ship as Hero Factory-owned (or not successfully). I mean, the extra armour could give it away too I guess, but some characters have customised ships in Hero Factory so I'm willing to let it slide that, on sight, it's not that conspicuous. So approved (3/3)

Devo Whipcrack, as Rylinth has mentioned, will depend entirely on how he's played. The issue I have is mainly the whip, purely because something that can one-hit defeat an enemy isn't really fair. That said, stunning isn't really defeating, more like shocking or throwing someone off guard, so... It's borderline. Also whips are tricky to use and he wouldn't be able to rapid-fire like one could with a gun- if he misses, he'd have to draw back and flick it again. I do have to ask though: so, he's presumably organic, since he has a disease (I mean robots can have em too, but usually you say something robot-like in that context because this is the robot science fiction future)- are his strength and reflexes affected by that? Or his stamina, since his breathing/airways are affected? And, is it contagious? The last three questions are purely out of interest, not connected to his approval. Approved (3/3), but be careful with how you play him!

Whipcrack's ship is fine, but I'm concerned about how many Hero Factory dropships are being stolen. I bet it's just this one guy who keeps leaving his keys in the ship. Approved (3/3)

Michael Barrier's main deal is his shield, which might be a bit over the top, especially with him having so many other abilities/weapons on top of it. Abilities and weapons are tricky to balance, and it's often a case-by-case scenario of what's balanced and what's too much. If Michael Barrier had less in the way of abilities, it'd stand out less as too powerful, I think. I'll get back to you after I consult with the other GMs, and then let you know how that goes and if there's an issue I'll do my best to offer a solution.

IC: Dorothy Quark - Catching A Bee

She watched Sparrowhawk climb on board, growing concern about the mission Zib was relaying pushing her lingering annoyance aside, and turned around in time to see Beemer start to wander off down the street. She groaned, loudly, barked at Sparrowhawk to stay there, and marched to grab his arm.

"First of all, no, you don't get to walk off in the middle of getting summoned back to the Hero Factory for a disciplinary hearing," she said, her stern tone laced with a note of tiredness. "Second, if you're going to the Hero Factory, that's quite literally where we're headed. Right now. By ship."

OOC: I'm sorry, I just found this mental image of Beemer wandering into the sunset really funny for some reason. I was going to add in her waiting for him to climb on, but I figured Dallior'd just forgotten people were waiting for him.

~

IC: Wilbur Flood and Ken Render - Arena

They whooped and cheered as Thumper made her appearance. Render's was cut short by Zib's call. He glanced to Flood quickly, to see him still cheering; the kid must have turned his communicator off. Render would have had his switched off too, but he was waiting in case Quark called. He glanced down to Thumper. Well, Flood could come down with Thumper after the match, and he sure wasn't about to throw off her fight for this. With all Heroes being called, he was sure a couple Heroes turning up a little late wouldn't matter.

He tapped Flood's shoulder and then nonchalantly wiped the slime off on his hip. To answer Flood's confused look, he shouted over the crowd, "Th' Factory wants me back in, somethin' 'r other came up. Enjoy th' match fer me, 'n bring Wolfe 'n Thumper up with you in case they need a couple more'f us."

Flood frowned, and shouted back, "Are you sure? I can come along, too."

"Nah, skipper. Lots of Heroes free right now, 'm sure they have enough help t'spare."

The younger Hero nodded reluctantly, and Render began to sidle through the crowd towards the exit.

~

IC: Mara Quiver - The Titanhouse

She heard the call. Briefly, she hesitated, and then she set her television to record the match. She picked up her weaponry and quietly went to find the other Heroes. She didn't really want to go alone... she hesitated when she realised that she might have to travel with Ardor, but tried not to dwell on it.

~

IC: Timothy Gyro - Aimlessly Flying Over Makuhero City

At the call, he immediately headed for the Hero Factory. That villain was long gone, he figured, and it sounded like this was important, or at the very least exciting.

IC: Wilbur Flood and Ken Render – Makuhero City Arena

Flood pointed at the doors to the arena. “I think they’re going to be starting soon. Perhaps we should head in. I’m sure Quark will be around.”

“Aw, shoot,” Render winced. “S’pose we’ll have to go in without her, ayuh. Come on, Wolfe; we’d best head in.”

He and Flood started making their way for the door.

~

IC: Mara Quiver – Titanos’ Titanhome

Quiver carefully set down a one-haired brush after wiping it free of gold paint. Her HUD alerted her to the time; she could get so carried away with her work, as peaceful as it was, that time would fly by without any heed on her part. She turned on the small television in her room, checked it was set to mute, and switched to the channel Thumper’s match was being shown on live. It might have been loud and too intense for her in person, but she could still watch her friend and support her from afar.

~

IC: Eloise Thumper La Puño de Hierro – WRESTLEMANIA

It was time. La Puño de Hierro tied her cape around her shoulders in a loose knot and took one last pose in the mirror before throwing the door open and marching into the hallway. A few members of security followed her, more out of shooing off fans who sneak backstage than actually protecting her. They walked by a few reporters as they approached the entrance to the arena- not a lot, but enough to record something for the people watching at home. She could talk to them properly after the match, but a few words beforehand couldn’t hurt.

“La Puño de Hierro!” called one of the reporters, camerabot at their side. “How are you feeling about the match tonight?”

La Puño gestured for the security guards to wait, and then grinned at the reporter. “A lot better than the other guy, seeing as I’m not the one who is facing me.”

She’d thought of that one last week, and was still proud of it. It made her grin wider all the way to the doors to the arena, where she and her security guards waited for her cue. She thanked them both and took her stance in the dark, waiting for her cue. She made sure her communications were switched off- she hated to do so, but leaving it on would lead to too many accidents as people from Hero Factory placed general call-outs and announcements over the feed, which were very distracting.

The arena went dark. The tension and excitement could be felt in the air. La Puño almost felt as if she would be able to grab it in her hands. She checked her mask, found it fastened properly, and ensured the costume she wore- a one-piece, her arms completely exposed and short pants sleeves that covered part of her thigh- was comfortably resting as it should.

The announcer rose from his desk and meandered, almost casually, to the ring. He slipped easily between the ropes, and as he stopped in the middle of the ring, a spotlight fell on him.

A moment of silence.

“Good turnout,” he commented lazily, glancing over the crowd. “I’m sure you’re all here to see the matches. But I don’t think we can waste our time if you’re going to be this quiet! Tell me, Makuhero City: are you… READY TO SEE SOME WRESTLING?!”

Cheers erupted in waves and roars across the stadium, deafeningly loud. La Puño bounced on her heels a little to the noise, motors revving softly, systems raring to go.

“Well, don’t we have a lineup for you tonight! I’m sure, if you arrived early, you saw the newbies strutting their stuff in here. Good kids. Now, we’re into the big leagues. And to start us off…”

Lights flared a few steps beyond where La Puño waited. She readied herself.

“Our first fighter, fresh out of Newbie rank and ready to flatten the big leagues, hailing from the Lucha Libre team right here in Makuhero City… LA PUÑOOOOOO DE HIERROOOOOOOO!!! THE IRON FIST OF HERO FACTORY!!!”

She burst from the shadows and gave a roar, echoed back by the crowd. She took a second to grin at the sheer number of people who turned up tonight. Not everyone was here for her, of course; other wrestlers, bigger names, were fighting after her match. Still, her newbie rank matches never saw a turnout like this, and her special matches against higher-ranked fighters and event matches were rare. She could definitely get used to this.

The crowd whooped and cheered as she threw her cape dramatically aside, flexing for the flash of cameras and stalking for the ring. The announcer continued riling the crowd up, music blared for her, but La Puño barely heard. She hi-fived extended hands, pointed into the crowds further up, and managed a few cyber-signatures (these only needed the palm of the hand against a datapad, rather than the traditional writing with a pen or stylus) before skilfully hoisting herself over the ropes of the ring. She jumped onto a corner of the ring, feet on ropes on either side of the corner pole, and hollered to the crowd, “VAMOS A TRAER EL DOLOR, MAKUHERO CITY!”

In the cheers, she could see signs people made for her. Usually it was only her friends and other members of the Lucha Libre who did that, and even then not all of them did. Pride welled in her Hero Core, and she pushed off the ropes into a flip backwards, landing in an impressive pose.

~

OOC: This will be broken up into a few posts for people to reply with cheering or whatever you want to do. Admittedly, this was originally intended as a completely self-indulgent few posts of wrestling, so there’s not much for other people to do, exactly, unless they want to streak or something (may not be the best idea to put one’s self within range of getting pulled into the Wrestle Zone. Especially after Vyle’s grand error that still entertains me to no end. Now he’s forced to sit in an uncomfortable chair and be surrounded by a bunch of dorks who are shouting at two robots in spandex fighting each other. I’m sure this is similar to at least one nightmare he’s had.

But, never fear! This self-indulgent wrestlepost heralds the coming of the first mission! Stay tuned!

I continue to be super busy, let me catch up on these posts.

Unit brings a very good point; I believe, yes, there'd be some switching of encryption keys and friend-or-foe signalling. In Savage Planet, Witch Doctor did still have codes that worked, but I think the best way to think of it is that after that incident they tightened up on the encryption keys. So, while Kyuhaun can fly the thing (Core Hunter did so in one of the books, and they might have changed it since then but I'm willing to think it's a rare enough occurrence and also not leaving your keys in the ship would be a pretty good defence against it), he wouldn't have access to Hero Factory channels. Additionally, I'm pretty sure Hero Factory would have a warning out for the ship disappearing/being stolen, so in-depth examination (eg. checking the sci-fi equivalent of a licence plate) would reveal it to be a stolen vehicle.

Since Hero Factory is known pretty much across the galaxy, I imagine that the disguise- literally a Hero core replica with no other alterations to the villain's make or appearance- won't be very effective except in places that have never heard of Hero Factory or very, very, very rarely see them. In the time the RPG takes place, I doubt that just having a Papier-mâché Hero Core will fool people familiar with Heroes, or at least not for very long.

I was actually joking about the guns being pistols taped to the sides of the ship, but since you agreed with me, I'm just gonna point out that these wouldn't work in space. They'd be lucky to work at all. I guess you could pull them off the hull if you got into a fight just beside the ship, but then so could your opponents. Still, I'm not judging at all, and you can keep it that way. Otherwise, you should probably clarify what they are.

Oh, and the reason I asked about not altering the insides is because, besides Hero Factory having the means to track their ships, they can also apparently control them from the Hero Factory. This feature was a new addition in one of the books, and it was pretty funny to picture this villain being flown right back to Hero Factory. Of course you can absolutely change it so he did take out the tracking function, and also I'm not entirely sure if the remote control function is widespread or just in some models (I can check to make sure if needed). I just wanted to share that.

Heroes also have, for the most part, a pretty recognisable build. The Hero Core is part of what makes them a Hero, but they're also all made in the same factory and made to pretty similar standards. We do have differences- Captor would be one example- but you'd imagine even Scooby Heroo would have design elements that appear in other Heroes. A villain of a completely different brand and make might not look all that convincing. It'd be like sticking an Apple logo sticker on a Windows computer, I guess.

That's not really a complaint- to be honest, a villain running around thinking he's fooling everyone when he's really not is pretty funny to me- but I'd think it'd have to come into consideration when playing the villain.

Kyuhaun himself isn't really OP, in fact kind of the opposite. His ship I have some questions about. For one, I think Hero dropships are actually medium, not small. Small ships, from memory, house one person usually. Dropships hold a good handful of Heroes. I was going to ask where he got the dropship, but he could have easily stolen it, so that's fine. Dane brings up a good point about the guns but honestly I've been picturing them as a couple of tiny pistols duct taped to the hull of the ship. Also, he has access to Hero Factory's radio signals, right? Has he altered any other parts of the ship's inner workings, or is it just a case of the ship having extra guns and armour tacked on?

IC: Dorothy Quark - Makuhero Streets

Quark grumbled as she gave Scarlet a half-hearted wave goodbye. She'd be lucky to meet Thumper leaving her match, at this rate. To Wolfe, she said, "It may not be worth it. One of the Heroes is... a bit of a handful, and the other seems very confused."

She paused. While not a fan of wrestling herself, it was nice to see Thumper enjoying something outside of Hero work. And Thumper always seemed extra delighted when her team showed up to watch. She pinched the space between her eyes. "... Holding a seat would be much appreciated. I'll return as soon as I can."

As I mentioned earlier, I've been busy, which has led to a delay in posting Thumper's fight- originally, it was actually planned to a few posts and then done, but I delayed a little to give Quark time to get there (which likely won't be happening now) and then other characters started showing up so I feel like anything short of a spectacular battle would be rude. At the moment, I'm waiting on the interactions happening outside the arena to finish before putting something up. So, long story short, we shouldn't need a timeskip. c:

My goodness, though. I'm gonna have to make this a really good fight, for all the people who decided to have their characters come watch. It's so nice of them.

I'm actually desperate for a reason to throw Vyle into the wrestling match. Right in the ring. That's been my end goal all along.

Also Nato you should have copyrighted your idea or something because now Dallior has dibsed it and it's too late, you can't use it now. I'm sorry.

OOC: Ah shoot I forgot to have Quark reply

IC: Quark - Makuhero Streets

While she waited for her charges to follow her to her ship, she answered Wolfe. "Daren, I appreciate the social call, but can this wait? I'm ushering a couple of rowdy Heroes back to Hero Factory and I am already running late for something."

In answer to Nato: First, yeah, we were waiting for someone to take over the security, remember? That just got left behind a little. As I said, you were waiting a while and no one stepped up- and it was suggested that since my characters were so connected to the event, I shouldn't take over the NPCs. Which is fair, and now we have Cor at it so it's all worked out.

Second, I've explained this before to you, but I think you might have forgotten so that's all right. The issue isn't facial recognition. The issue is he seems to be hiding his face on purpose, which makes one in the situation wonder why he would be. It's really suspicious. If everyone looks the same, why hide it?

OOC: I don't think Vyle would have been able to walk in and buy tickets without any problems with his wearing a visor. It seems very suspicious for a guy to be completely concealing his face for no apparent reason when entering a crowded, popular event. Maybe just mention a brief explanation to the cashier?

IC: Quark - Makuhero City Streets

She frowned at Beemer in confusion. "You were attempting to stab a civilian, Beemer. I'm not sure what part of that would be attempting to stop Sparrowhawk-"

Her communicator went off; it was Wolfe. She sighed and gestured for Beemer to follow her as she walked towards her ship. She called Scarlet and Sparrowhawk over too. "We'll discuss this on the way, Beemer. Sparrowhawk, with me, and don't even think of trying to fly off. Scarlet, thank you for your time. I can handle it from here. You are dismissed."

Sorry about that, Dallior! I have a really demanding uni schedule, so I've been out of the loop for a bit.