Open | The city at the center of it all

[welcome_summer]

Who: open to all, 4th wall visitors more than welcome!
What: New faces and new cracks in the sky
When: August 2022 4th Wall- Weekend
Where: Central City
Content Warnings: If needed

[As Friday night rolls into Saturday, the repercussions of this Earth rejoining the multiverse are starting to become more clear. Missing persons reports are flooding the airwaves, the OurPowers metahuman-only social media network included. In Excelsior, it seems the newly-sentient tech devices are adding to the noise. News coming from Sunset Falls is terse-- there is also a Strong Magical Effect of some sort active in addition to the disappearances. Not even Little Love is immune; thankfully, the residents report no additional hazards.

But here in Central City, the citizens only grow more tense with each resident taken. A powderkeg with a long fuse that has just been lit. The sky is starting to crack, and the feelings of homesickness and fear are starting to spread.

It’s not the warmest welcome a visitor could receive, but the meta population has been put on alert for new arrivals, searching from rooftop to water’s edge. Central’s a VERY big city, but hopefully some generous souls can point you to the swanky Diadem Hotel in the end.

Resident metas, you might want to check in on your nearest and dearest before heading out. Some of you might be deploying to Sunset Falls or Excelsior soon, or making plans to get to Little Love before Central gets… too rough. Some of you might be adventuring Elsewhere very shortly. But maybe there is time to help out a fresh face, extricate them from a confrontation, give them the lowdown about this alternate Earth? After all, you were once new yourself.]

((4th-wallers, feel free to touch down here! Network/”text” threads welcome. Mingle to your hearts’ content))

Comments

[robintohood]

Jason watches the... liftoff? Or at least the person attempting to escape. At the same time they nearly topple him over, Jason had taken several steps back.

"It's okay!" He says after they apologized.

Then Jason sees the crowd start to turn to them.

"Come on. You don't wanna hang here any longer. There's an alleyway shortcut down the block."

Jason starts to take several steps back as the mob notices him trying to help.

[shrikesback]

Wren's helmet usually has a heads up display that can access city maps, but it can't connect to any network here and Wren doesn't have the time to stop and go through every firewall they've got on it to see which (if any) is the problem. So they'll have to rely on the directions given.

"You don't have to do this, I can handle myself," Wren says quickly as they head in that direction, hoping to absolve the helpful stranger of any possible need to help that would put him in the line of fire too. As far as Wren knows Jason's just a normal guy on a grocery run after all.

[robintohood]

Welp. Too late. There are shouts at Jason for helping "another stinkin' meta" so he's going to bolt with Wren.

"Don't suppose you got knockout gas in that suit?"

[shrikesback]

"Sorry, not my crowd control suit, this one only has kung-fu grip and a trading card," Wren said as they ran. Doing some quick math in their head to judge the space, though, they had the little extra bit of distance Wren had initially needed that had kept them grounded in the first place. So-

"You don't have weird anti-air missiles on buildings around here, right?"

Look, better to make sure first, the way Wren's day was going.

[robintohood]

Jason stares at Wren with a raised eyebrow. That was a hell of a question to ask.

"Last I checked, no," He replies. He's gone rooftop jumping all over the city long enough to know by now.

[shrikesback]

It does seem like a weird question doesn't it?

"Good to know. Uh, sorry, hold on-"

Under normal circumstances Wren does try to get permission before putting hands on another person. It's just common courtesy, alright. They've got pursuers though and there really is one fast and easy way to lose them.

So the 'hold on' is the warning Jason gets before Wren is grabbing hold of him and taking off, initial force of lift kicking up every bit of street debris within five feet as the two of them head straight up to the closest level roof.

[robintohood]

Jason yelps and instinctively holds on as Wren zips off with him. He's not used to being on this end of a "grab and fly." He looks down as the distance between and the angry mob grows.

"Thanks for the warning," he says, still clinging and pretending to be more scared than he actually is. He's assuming Wren knows what they're doing with their suit's flight capabilities.

[shrikesback]

Wren has had to emergency lift out two of their teammates in the past and was able to fairly easily manage it. Admittedly, neither of them were quite as built as Jason is but the two of them together were definitely heavier.

The landing is a gentle and graceful one, and look maybe Wren is being extra careful both as an apology for Jason getting caught up in whatever Wren stepped in as well as to prove they don't always fumble like that first one. Can't prove nothing. Either way Wren only lets go once they're sure Jason is steady on his feet.

"Sorry - again," Wren says. The fully covering facemask may hide the cringing expression but the voice modulator can't cover the audible emotion of it. "You okay?"

[robintohood]

Jason nods as he stand and straightens himself up. He looks back at Wren, studying their suit. He doesn't recognize it or the tech its using.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replies. "How about you? What was that about before?"

He gestures vaguely at the street below.

[shrikesback]

There's a pause when Wren notices Jason's scrutiny and prepares for - some kind of negative reaction. The suit has a history where they're from, after all, and not a good one.

It's more low-tech than it looks, too. The helmet has some fancy add-ons to it. But without any kind of internet hook up it seems it's mainly stuck on voice disguise, probably night vision, and keeping bugs out of Wren's face during flight. The rest is mainly lightweight armor to take hits and padding to throw off an instant silhouette recognition. Wren has to keep their secret identity a secret.

When no instant recognition is forthcoming, well. Wren shrugs, looking over the edge of the building cautiously, but however mad the people were, it wasn't 'storm the building' mad and they seem to mostly be dispersing rather than trying to follow. That's a relief. One less thing to worry about as Wren instead begins to pace the roof, looking around at the skyline they have a much better view of, as well as the unfamiliarity of it.

"I wish I knew. I'm not even sure where I am... I was in a part of downtown Cobalt City just a few minutes ago… also it was close to midnight."

[robintohood]

Jason furrows his brow as he listens to them. How many more unexpected visitors is this Earth going to get?

"Can't say I've heard of Cobalt. You're in Central City," he says. "I don't really understand it but something's happening that's making some people disappear and new people suddenly getting dropped in. It sounds like you're one of them."

[shrikesback]

Wren swears softly under their breath. A single emphatic "Fuck," followed by a "I am so missing my test tomorrow."

They were already taking a risk being sleep deprived, but they've been sleep deprived through tests before and done just fine.

Anyone in any English-speaking part of their world has heard of Cobalt City, and given Wren has never heard of Central City, well. They've never experienced alternative universe fuckery but they are a mask - they know a guy who knows a guy who's fallen into some mirror universe or another.

"And I'm guessing there's no handy publicly accessible wormhole ready to go to send those dropped in home?"

[robintohood]

Jason doesn't miss the swear or grumbling. He's sympathetic. It's a crap situation no matter how one looks at it. Plus, it had only been a few months since Jason himself got dropped onto this version of Earth.

"So far, nope. The guilds seem to be trying something but no word on when a solution's gonna happen."

[shrikesback]

"Guilds?" Maybe that's the word they have for whatever masked teams there are or - Wren shakes their head, straightening up a bit. Sure the crowd had said this guy had to be a metahuman too if he was being sympathetic, but Wren had seen plenty of crowds accuse someone of being part of a group just because they weren't a complete dick to people in it. And even if he's not a totally normal person - outside of a costume, with their own secret identity to hide, Wren has every intention of aggressively pretending he damn well is. "Sorry - shit, I keep saying that. I can figure it out for myself. You've already helped me a lot and really didn't sign up for your day being derailed like this. If the roof access door isn't unlocked I can get you back down to the street around a corner so you won't be seen with me again."

[robintohood]

"The guilds are for superheroes and supervillains," Jason replies. "All the members there are metahumans. Superpowered. Central's always been kinda tough on metas but it's gotten a lot worse the last few days."

He then gestures at the cracked sky.

"Metas are getting blamed for that and the sudden disappearances."

He then looks back at Wren. He appreciates them offering to give him an out from their mess but with the hostile environment they're in, Jason's concerned if they're going to be okay. They're not familiar with the city.

"Don't worry about me. You got bigger issues."

[shrikesback]

Wren nods along to Jason's explanation of the guilds. That sounds like where Wren needs to reach out for info, probably. The most likely place, provided Wren can get a hold of the right one. Looking up at the cracked sky again brings up all the troubling emotions that come with that - Wren can't even blame the people here for reacting like they did. It's a grim kind of situation to someone with powers. Wren can't even begin to fathom how terrifying it is to someone with none, left to rely on the very people (seemingly) responsible for it happening in the first place to fix it.

"... I do, but that's been true long before I got here," Wren admits, "If I can't keep people from getting hurt because they happened into the crossfire, though, it's a 'failed step one' for putting on a ridiculous costume in the first place."

[robintohood]

Jason's sympathetic to what Wren's saying. To some extent and despite his violent approach as a vigilante now, he still feels that way when it comes to helping people.

"Hopefully you can keep up," Jason says. "For now though, it might be best for you to keep a low profile until you find an exit."

[shrikesback]

"Can't argue with that. As soon as I can get something other than the suit to wear I'll be keeping my head down," Wren promised, and no one who knew Wren well enough was there to point out that that they were utterly and completely full of shit.

Given they did almost get someone else hurt, Wren could probably hold to that promise for maybe 15 hours. 24 if sleep was involved in that time. They weren't going to clarify though that they'd technically retired from this mask stuff seven months ago and yet when a problem arose that they could possibly help with ... Wren could never help themselves when it came to trying to help people.

This much trouble to spare, no way someone who was so chronically unable to mind their own business could stay out of it even if it didn't come directly to them. They'd try, though, and feel bad about failing, and ... that would have to do.

[robintohood]

"No camouflage or stealth on that suit either, huh?" Jason says. "You can always try to move at night and stick to the rooftops if you can't find anything by then."

Jason was of course, speaking from experience.

[shrikesback]

Wren was very good about maintaining a solid line between their identity as Wren Fulton-Gray, college freshman, and the Shrike (II), mostly retired hero. They'd done so for several years and never once messed up and revealed themself when they hadn't meant to.

It was deeply tempting to yank that helmet off just to get the full force of Exasperated Glare.

"This isn't the Raven's high tech super suit with a million gadgets on it, alright. It's repurposed modified motorcycle gear, ninety percent of this is just body armor," Wren pointed out, thumping the side of their chest to show the solid sound that made thanks to clever layering of various protective materials. "Also maybe be careful with the advice if you don't want me thinking you are another meta or mask or super or whatever they call my type here, too."

So that would be a two, three minute record for Wren managing to Mind Their Own Business after they just said they would.

[robintohood]

Jason just shrugs and doesn't flinch from Wren's indignant tone. He's faced worse.

"Well it's not like you're the only super at that level of tech," he says calmly. The funny thing is his Red Hood suit and gear could be described in a similar way. "You're welcome to think whatever about me as well but I could've joined in on the pitchforks and torches just now."

[shrikesback]

He's right, and Wren considers it a strength of theirs that they can admit when they're wrong, even when it stings.

"... I know. Thank you. For the help," they say, shoulders sagging a bit.

[robintohood]

"You're welcome," Jason says, remaining unoffended. It's a stressful situation for anyone.

He gestures at one particular direction.

"The guilds' headquarters are that way. Probably safe to assume security's been beefed up though."

[shrikesback]

It is stressful, but Wren expects better of themself. Always a higher standard - it's how you keep yourself from failing.

Wren looks in the direction Jason points, memorizing what they can from this distance. Might be easier to stick to above the skyline - more eye-catching maybe and that could always lead to the wrong kind of attention, but they don't exactly have normal clothes to change into so they can stick to inconspicuous surface streets.

They'll figure it out. They always do.

Testing the roof access door, it proves to be blessedly unlocked, so Wren need not worry about stranding Jason up here.

"They inclined to shoot first and ask questions later?"

Beefed up security can just mean no chance of sneaking in, or it could mean lasers that shoot anyone that moves too close that's not authorized personnel after all.

[robintohood]

"Don't know," Jason replies, following Wren. "The Alliance are probably more willing to listen but be especially care of the Society. That's guild for villains."

Jason's been wary of both guilds but he would hope that the guild supposedly for heroes would be a little more reasonable.