Gavin

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Cockroaches. Saw the episode of the X-Files where cockroaches were able to burrow into people's bodies and have been irrationally terrified of them since, don't like bugs in general but cockroaches are just O_O "Get my flamethrower!" level response.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]God damn it canteen open for Christ's sake, I'm starving![/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]I still find it hilarious in the two years timeskip they've all changed their looks despite having worn practically identical looks for decades previous to it. Renji definitely does look better without that damn pineapple 'do he was sporting for years,, and Byakuya's new pimp collar is pretty awesome. I thought the slapstick was a bit much for the chapter, contrary to what she said, this probably was Ichigo's worst moment of despair. While it was good to know she can still kick his ass into resolve something a bit more gentle might've been better. Ichigo's GT looks like it's about equal to what his dad pulled against Aizen so I'm figuring he's had a fairly distinct power-up but not quite back to Dangai level.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]@Drizzt Cheers mate. @Nom: Well aren't you the sneaky one. :P[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Ah, sorry bugger I should've clarified. Michael's just taking a break to cool off a bit after "training" with Slate. After that as I said he's going to be picking people together based on what he views their major area of improvement needs to be. If others want to look in on these training sessions he'll probably begrudgingly allow it. DeLarge can you PM me a sort of rough idea of what's coming up with regard to training related plots just so I have an idea of how to structure them ? [b]Edit[/b] Drizzt, I hate to be a pain but could you rewrite yours so that Slate was the first training session, after that one McKnight isn't going to be arrogant so much as extremely distant and formal, for practical purposes a trainer who has no attachment to the team and is interested in ensuring they develop their skills properly. He's not going to get in people's faces but if your control or power is weak, he's going to be blunt (but not necessarily intentionally insulting) regarding it. Just to also clarify, for training sessions, collars are going to be completely switched off. There's no point in having you training at a limited level of power against opponents like the Big Five. @DeLarge I imagine Slate is going to be trying to figure out how much of their conversation was training and how much of it was actual truth so if you want to pass that off between the team you're welcome to. I hope the way I introduced Project All Stars worked too. Also just to clarify, Michael's "god" comment to Slate is down to the fact all the suits have recording devices built into them, obviously Geist isn't going to just give you power enhancing suits without being able to measure what you're able to do with them. [/size][/font]

[indent][font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Originally this was going to be a group training session between Michael and the rest of the team, unfortunately I just became too complicated to write so Iâ??m going to break it down into Michael and Slate, then groups of three or four depending on what Michael views as the area in need of improvement i.e. power, control, varying technique. [HR]50[/HR] Michael was leaning against the opposite wall to the training room entrance when Slate finally arrived, his eyes closed and his expression contemplative. Ten minutes. He imagined some of it was still trying to figure out why a super like McKnight would choose to work for a company like Geist, probably rationalising it into either they held some kind of leverage over him that enabled them to control him, or that he was just so devoid of concern for his own kind that he'd throw his lot in with a group who'd experiment on children. It didn't matter, the incident with Starlighter had shown Welsh that the team were nowhere near ready to even contemplate taking on the Five and now it fell to Michael whip them into something resembling shape for the upcoming battles. He smiled at the stupidity of it, even if Slate had the potential to become a Level 0 on par with Patriot, the latter had more skills, variety in power and control than any raw Alpha coming gunning for him. The whole thing was the definition of ludicrous. [b]"What's with the grin?"[/b] The tone was unfriendly, wasn't that a shocker, not that he supposed he could blame him. Slate's problem was a lack of perspective and come the end of the training session, well he'd have a little more perspective and maybe if he was smart enough and lived long enough he'd eventually understand something of Michael's perspective. Opening his eyes he winced slightly at the glare of from the spotlights dotted throughout the ceiling for illumination. [b]"I was remembering something funny Zachary told me" [/b] Slate's eyes narrowed. [b]"Something you can share with the rest of the class?"[/b] Michael shrugged and leaned away from the wall, removing his glasses and running a hand through his hair. [b]"Oh just that you and your "team" are going to kill the Big Five. We had a big laugh about it at the time, then I laughed even harder when he told me he was serious. God, it must've taken a solid two minutes for me to even be able to breathe properly after that one."[/b] [b]"You son of a *****."[/b] He waved his hand placatingly. [b]"Tsk, don't take it so personally. I'd have done the same to any team Geist wants to send out against the Five. Sure, after your little stunt against Starlighter you've proved you've got maybe Level 2 power when you push yourself to the breaking point but given they're a collective group of practical or actual 0s then surely, even someone like you Mr Slate, can see the stupidity of such a move."[/b] Slate advanced, bridging the remaining distance between them until there was only a handful of steps between the pair. [b]"I can see you're a yellow ******* coward who's prepared to turn on his own."[/b] All geniality between the pair disappeared. [b]"No Jacob, I'm merely taking advantage of that survival instinct our ancestors so marvellously evolved in the face of greater and more dangerous predators. Currently my survival is threatened while Welsh and Geist want to pursue this suicidal aim of taking down the five currently most powerful Supers on the planet as part of this little special ops group. Therefore"[/b] He raised two fingers. [b]"I am left with two choices:"[/b] Michael folded one finger back down. [b]"[u]One[/u]: I join the squad and allow you all to take advantage of my greater knowledge, skills and experience in the hope that in the time before Zachary bravely marches us out in the name of freedom and justice, we manage to bring you to Level 0 and the rest to Level 1 which might, possibly, maybe, unlikely, give us the numbers and firepower to take down the Five for good."[/b] [b]"Alternatively, [u]Two[/u]: My survival instinct kicks into overdrive and I kill or break each of the rest of you to the point where Zachary Welsh and Geist have no team for me to join and then almost certainly die on. As you said, it seems I'm already quite comfortable turning on my own to save my own skin."[/b] McKnight smiled slightly, open aggression painting his face. [b]"Now, depending on which choice I make, or indeed have already made, why do you think I asked you to come to a training session alone while the rest of your team recovers?"[/b] Slate took a reflexive step back and brought his arms up in a defensive posture. [b]"Good. Logical. You're a special power-type, need space and materials to ensure you can keep you opponent at bay in order to defeat them. Unfortunately..."[/b] His fingers flicked out and Slate found himself dragged off his feet and hurled against the opposite wall of the training room hard enough to make his teeth rattle. [b]"Your level of control is appallingly low as is the tactical application of that power. Instinctively you want to grab the biggest piece of metal in the room and hurl it at me right?"[/b] Slate recovered quickly, using his powers to tear segments of the metal plating lining the wall to his aid. [b]"I'm gonna ******* kill you McKnight!"[/b] With that he hurled two of the huge metal slab directly at his opponent. [b]"See, just as I said. I'll bet you don't even control them after you throw them. You just hope these blunt missiles will be fast enough to catch me."[/b] Reaching out with both hands, Michael stretched his fingers out wide. Slate could only watch in rapt horror as the two chunks of metal seemed to dissolve into smaller and smaller pieces until they vanished entirely. Clenching his fingers together, hundreds of small metal spheres reformed and began to circle around one another in complex patterns. [b]"I, on the other hand, am a special control-type. Less direct power, a lot more variety in what I'm actually able to do. For instance, I can take those sheets of metal you thought were actually worth a damn in this fight, which they weren't, and turn them into my weapons because my control exceeds yours. I can also, for my own entertainment make them dance in a very particular way, tell me Slate what do you see?"[/b] Casting his eyes up Slate gazed at the patterns, a group of the spheres were held tightly in the centre, with others circling around them at a distance. A distinct sense of irritation broke across his mind when he finally realised what he was looking at, pointing to one about half way between himself and McKnight he replied quietly. [B]"Oxygen...Carbon...Hydrogen..."[/b] Michael smiled pleasantly and clapped his hands. Even without apparently concentration the elemental models made no overt changes in their pattern or movement. [b]"Excellent. You know in this situation most people don't get that. They're too busy looking at them all together to look at the individual patterns."[/b] He looked off into the distance. [b]"Elena loves this trick, it was one of the first ones I ever showed her."[/b] The use of Dr Ambrose's first name with such familiarity formed an unexpected knot in Slate's stomach. [b]"I'm glad she's not here to see it being put to such a violent use."[/b] Before he had a chance to react the spheres broke from their defined orbital patterns and darted towards him. Bringing up the remaining two pieces of steel he'd torn from the walls as a barrier, he felt several strong impacts, like bullets ricocheting off them. True to his word however the next lot merely altered their trajectory, slipped between the gaps in his defences and striking his body directly. Any attempt to move his barriers into the path of fine was met with a maddening redirection on the spheres' behalves, after the tenth the pain caused a momentary lapse in his concentration and he found his two barriers were, like the previous pieces, dissolving and reforming into yet more spheres. Slate could only look on in horror as the pattern changed once again and the spheres began to circle around him in decreasing radii but moving with such speed he was certain an impact would be lethal. No. He wouldn't let it end like this. He'd fought for so long, he wouldn't let McKnight just kill him and walk away. Lashing out with all the strength he could muster he felt his power overlap and contend with McKnight's own over the spheres. Even though he was a Control-type, Slate could tell straight away that Michael currently possessed even more power than he did, but likewise, he wasn't controlling the metal spheres through magnetism. The spheres began to fluctuate, the neatness of their pattern breaking down, many of them colliding with one another before skittering away. Pushing even harder, Slate could feel his vision begin to darken but McKnight's control also recede further, with a roar he pushed all at once and the spheres exploded away from him, hammering against the walls of the room. Grinning in assumed victory Slate sank to his knees and tried to clear his head before he lost consciousness. The sound of footsteps shattered his concentration and he watched disbelieving as McKnight approached, applauding and without a scratch to be seen on his body. [b]"Not bad Slate. I figured you wouldn't be able to handle the spheres, even large ones, this early but I guess your control is a bit better than I gave you credit for. Maybe you are Level 0 material after all."[/b] With a wave of his hand Slate found himself dragged to his feet by an unknown force, the same force he assumed had allowed McKnight to so casually toss him against the wall earlier and now it seemed, deflect the lethal spheres. Christ what was he? [b]"So I suppose this brings us back to those two choices I mentioned earlier. Right now your powers have ebbed down to their low points, which means with a flick of my wrist I could break your neck and end probably be biggest thorn in my side outside of Zachary and the Big Five, because I can assure you, the rest of your team are going to give me far less trouble.[/b] He drew up so there was less than a foot between the two men. [b]"Hell if I wanted I could bring them in in groups and then use the collars to make sure they couldn't even fight back.[/b]" [b]"Bas...tard"[/b] It was all Slate could manage to grit out. [b]"I imagine you noticed I don't have an implant. I imagine you've rationalised that I'm so tight with Geist they don't believe they need to keep me on one. You're wrong. The reason I'm not collared is because they wouldn't work on me even if Geist tried to implant one, I'm not in the habit of designing technology which can be used against me."[/b] [b]"You...made...these?!"[/b] The response was an inexpressive nod. [b]"Why?"[/b] The restriction around him slackened and Slate found himself falling to his knees once again. Gingerly McKnight leaned down, and spoke barely above a whisper. [b]"Because Supers are dangerous Jacob. Because we start to think we're better than normal people, that we're modern gods and get to do whatever we like. You only have the look at the Big Five to see the corrupting influence of power. You only have to look at people like you. Some of us didn't get into this game for vengeance or power, some of us just wanted to live up to childhood ideals of heroism and good. Then we found out that childhood ideals are best left with one's childhood and that as a whole, Supers are a plague that needs to be put down one way or another, and personally I find my way to be the most merciful."[/b] [b]"Yeah...like mercifully collared...animals. Go boy...kill...the bad guys."[/b] [b]"You think you've got it all figured out don't know? I'll tell you what Slate, if you're half as smart as you think you are go investigate Project All-Star and then maybe you'll be more than a collared animal. Until then, get ready because I'm going to run you into the ground to make sure you can be a good boy and kill the bad guys."[/b] Releasing his control completely, McKnight stood up and walked past Slate without another word until the only thing Slate could hear was his footsteps echoing down the corridor. [hr]50[/hr] Well that came out a good bit longer than intended but covered all of the bases I wanted. As you can guess, McKnight picked option 1 in the end because he's not a completely nihilistic dick. Word to the wise though, it's going to be a while before he attempts to be anything more than Dr Sergeant Nasty to everyone outside of Elena.[/size][/font][/indent]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Ugh, sorry, I know I promise a post today but I'm going to have to extend it until tomorrow again. I swear, if I ever meet the person responsibility for my university's student administration, they will die a profoundly painful death.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Sorry, meant to post last night but I just didn't get the chance. Probably won't be able to do so today either (had a lot of **** from college just fall into my lap today), so it'll be either very late tonight or tomorrow before I can make a proper post. Just for the training, if people would PM me a kind of brief summary of where their powers are at (what they can do and how well they can do it essentially) and where they would like to see them develop with training. Again CC DeLarge so he knows what's going on.[/size][/font]

[quote name='DeLarge' timestamp='1313277222' post='708892']This goes for all of you, for your own individual training sessions.[/quote] [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Heh should've said you plural then I guess. But yeah, if anyone has anything they want to do, just drop me a PM.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Not to give anything away but the first training session will be a group affair, after that Michael can either pick people or have characters come to him to look for training. If you have something specific you want to do, feel free to drop me a PM (CC DeLarge too) with what you want to cover and I'll do the best I can. @DeLarge: Those are some interesting teasers.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]I'll get a post up tomorrow or Sunday, work was wickedly busy this week so I just didn't have the time.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Like I said on Skype, it looks pretty awesome so I'm going to be waiting for this one.[/size][/font]

[quote name='Lrb' timestamp='1312486973' post='708762'] [color="#696969"][font="Tahoma"] It's nothing special but I shall post it, and thanks for the kind words everyone. ^_^ [img]http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/4205/throwawayslogowithnames.jpg[/img][/font][/color] [/quote] [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Huh, thank you for reminding me my characters name was Novus and not Nova Lrb.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Tim Curry voicing the antagonist: [b]Check[/b] Steampunk setting with political and social tensions: [b]Check[/b] No Aang: [b]Check[/b] I want this show now.[/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Heh, well we all knew it was going to happen but the execution (pardon my incredibly lame and unintended pun) was quite good IMO. Someone over on BA pointed out Rukia's new style is pretty identical to Nozomi from the current filler arc, and given Kubo's homogenisation of character faces, that may be why I'm not completely bowled over by Rukia's new do (really don't like Nozomi). Honestly given she's had the same haircut practically her entire life up (about 100+ years) until her reappearance I find the fact she too got in on the "new timeskip do" club a bit silly. It's not bad per sae but I want to see a few more panels of it before I decide one way or another, though I do at the current time waaay prefer her old hairstyle. Ichigo's new sword looks pretty awesome but I'm not digging his Fullbringer Xs that much, they just seem a bit off with the rest of his Shinigami ensemble. Renji better not be a captain unless he's prepared to shed his post-SS pussification and become a badass once again, and grow a beard, definitely growing a beard.[/size][/font]

Just to [font="Tahoma"][size="2"]compliment what DeLarge was saying regarding power levels, because they're an internal measurement system for Geist they shouldn't be taken as complete Gospel. Effectively a character's "level" is going to be a rough, average estimation of their skills and there are indeed degrees within levels. To better explain, Big Five member Freight Train is classified as a Level 1 Super, his strength, durability and speed are probably at top end Level 0 is capable of, but his lack of fine control of that super speed (mid/high Level 2) means his combat effectiveness is limited to that of a Level 1. Essentially what this means is that a characters Level isn't going to be the be all and end all of a fight. A Level 2 could triumph over a Level 1 due to a mix of the right tactics, better control or higher power, or a type advantage. As I said though, this is an internal system for Geist, so you're not going to have supers from outside of Geist referring to themselves as Level X or whatever. A character might try to work out roughly what level they are versus their opponent but that'll be about it. [b][Edit][/b] Quick edit to match DeLarge's edit. [/size][/font]

[font="Tahoma"][size="2"]Holy ****. Queue Number One, this **** is about to get real. [/size][/font]