>>6114914
Remix is a super need.

>have her send a pdf or whatever of the info. Or at least ask more than what bingo means.

>meet grant after school. Then go home.

>Text dad that we'll be home for dinner.

>>6114914
>Arrange to visit Remix at the Farm

>>6114914
>Arrange to visit Remix at the Farm.

Remix has info ixon one of our long term enemy's. Whilst grant is probably going to alert us about some random criminal/gang cape activity.

>>6114914
>Arrange the meet with Ms Grant
She actually gave us a time and place, we can schedule something nonconflicting with Remix

Oh no I forgot to take the name off
I'll have to vote by phone for the rest of the thread

Rolled 2 (1d2)

looks like a bit of a tie, so I'm going to roll 1d2

1 is visit Remix
2 is meet with Ms Grant

Meeting with Ms Grant wins. Remix is going to have to take a rain check.

Writing it up

Me - Will do.

Ms Grant - 7PM. Big news.

All right. 7PM. I could do that, with my sword lesson with Baby Girl right after. To Remix I said:

Me - Can you send that info as a pdf?

Remix - And have you understand it? Hold on, let me get my English to Retard translator booted.

Okay, very funny. Ha. Ha. I made a plan to see her later. For now I had to get to school.

I got in late to Mr Sack running gym. It bought me a tardy slip which I shoved in my back pocket. He was in his best set of gym clothes to show his ageing, fattening body and the uncomfortable bulge in his too short gym shorts. Everyone else was running laps. Mr Sack preferred the fitness part of 'health and fitness', at least for handling his students. I don't think he had it in him to run a lap himself.

"Just because you're on the basketball team doesn't get you out of running laps," Mr Sack said, "Now get changed and get out there."

Roadwork. Fun.

I joined Ben and Annie huffing along at the back of the pack with the fat kid, Lorraine. I could have lapped everyone here without breaking a sweat, but that would ruin the point of a secret identity.

"Ballsack. Asshole," Annie puffed.

"Just. One more. Lap," Ben groaned.

Lorraine ran silent, sweat dripping down his chins, a look of misery in his every expression.

Leading the group was Hunter, but right behind him was Chad. his new build was putting in the work. I remembered last year he'd have been at an even pace with his friends and ready to puke by the time they were done. Now he looked like he might take the lead. Right behind them though was Ayesha, striding along with an intense focus.

I loved watching her run. The way her legs stretched out, the sun catching her skin and giving it a golden glow.

Watching her made me want to catch up, run along side her neck and neck.

But I kept my head down. It could wait.

By the time the laps were finished Ben looked ready to puke on his shoes and Annie was on the verge of passing out. Chad jogged over to us, fresh and smiling.

"Eric, hey man how's your dad?" Chad said, "You ran off yesterday. He's in the hospital?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, he's good. Nothing too serious." Best leave it at that.

Others came up soon after to express their concern. I felt like a big fucking jagoff for it.

"Anyone seen Zeke today?" Blair asked, drying the sweat off her neck.

A round of shrugs. It made me think of the text from Ms Grant. Ayesha caught my eye, motioned with her head.

We stepped aside. She gave me a quick, hard hug. "Ivy told me you went to see her," she kept her voice low, "Told me about your dad. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," I said, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Good. And all the other stuff, with the sewers, it wasn't on the news," she said, "Should I tell Nasim her friend is safe? If you're planning something I don't want to risk blowing it."

>let her tell Nasim Ayane is safe
>better that stay a secret for noe, just in case

>>6115011
>better that stay a secret for noe, just in case

>>6115011
>better that stay a secret for noe, just in case

>>6115011
>I’ll tell Nasim myself, don’t want anything more linking you to Hotspur

>>6115011
>let her tell Nasim Ayane is safe

>>6115126
>>6115113
>>6115011
These both work don't tell her. I'll tell her later as hotspur. You can't be seen to have too strong a connection other than I saw your Twitter post...

>>6115372
>>6115126
>>6115113
>>6115045
these are tied but not exactly conflicting so I'll go with both

"I'll tell her," I said, "When the time is right. In costume. You just sit back." I kissed her cheek and she grinned.

We got through gym, and on the way out I overheard Blair and Tim talking.

"Did you hear Kaylee dropped out?" Blair said.

"Wasn't she at school yesterday?" Tim said.

"Yeah, that's how I found out, she came to tell me," Blair said, "Not just dropped out too, her dad kicked her out. Right out on the street. She said she's shacked up with her girlfriend on the south side now."

"Man, glad my parents aren't psycho bigots like hers," Tim said, "When I told my dad I was gay he just said 'hi Gay, I'm Dad'."

"What a cornball."

I'd known some of that, but didn't know Kaylee had full on fallen out of school. She'd wanted to talk to me yesterday, maybe that was why. But I'd had bigger problems to deal with, and still do.

"Rico!"

Howie came tromping up in his game kit, dressed as if we had a game tonight. He was a good kid, Howie, and tried to force a water bottle on me.

"Got to stay hydrated, Rico! Hydrated for the game!"

"Damn straight," I took a swig of the electrolyte infused water before handing it back. Howie then pounced on Tim to do the same.

"I'm really enjoying it here," Peony, Annie's cousin, said to a group of senior boys, a group of very interested senior boys, "Chicago's like, as cool as I expected. It's a big change from Duluth."

"Annie said you were from Hong Kong."

"Oh please, we lived there a year for Mom's job and go back to visit the grandparents some times, but I'm a Minnesota girl through and through. Vikings all the way!"

"Yeah, Eric's originally from Indiana, isn't he? He came in last year."

"Oh yeah?"

Nothing to do with me. I just had to get through the day, wondering what it was Ms Grant wanted to talk to me about, waiting to hear from Dusk about hunting for Flesh-smith, anticipating my first training session with Baby Girl. School seemed a little trivial next to all of that.

Turning the corner I bumped hard against Miss Flores. She dropped her coffee with an irritated 'shoot!' then, seeing it was me, backed up with a blush.

"Eric," she said, "You're here! That's good, that's great!" But she didn't say anything more than that, just glanced off to the side. My teacher, my soon to be step-mom, and the soon to be mother of my younger sibling. Yeah, I was kind of unsure what to say either.

>so say nothing and leave
>apologize for yelling last night

>>6115570
>apologize for yelling last night
Be a man and take some accountability.

>>6115570
>apologize for yelling last night.
Our outburst against flores was uncalled for, eric and his dad had been growing distant from each long before she entered the picture.

>>6115614
>>6115613
ok

"I'm sorry."

That was a good start.

"It really wasn't fair of me to yell at you last night. You've been nothing but good for Dad and cool with me too, despite everything we've put you through."

Her face softened into a smile. "Thank you, Eric, that means a lot," she said, "And I do understand how this can't be easy for you. Your life has been through a lot of changes over the last few years. Bad ones."

Good ones too, I thought.

"And I'm sorry, for slapping you," she said, "It's never okay to do something like that."

I forced a grin. "Don't worry, I've been hit harder."

She shook her head, amused despite herself.

Then she pursed her lips. "Can I admit something to you, Eric?"

"Sure."

"You're...a part of the reason I said yes," she said, "To both this, and other things. Dating your dad, moving in. You're a polite and well-mannered young man. Your parents raised a good kid, and I thought there must be something to your dad for you to have turned out so well despite all your difficulties. It convinced me to give him a shot. Well, that and his stupid good looks."

I was blushing a little. More than a little.

"He's sorry too, you know," she said, "For not trusting you, and for not telling you sooner. About all this."

There was a ring on her finger, and she put that hand to her (for now) flat belly.

And it made me remember, for a hot terrible second, that I hadn't worn a condom last night with Ivy. Oh fuck.

Miss Flores turned her head with a thoughtful frown. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah!" I said, fumbling for my phone to fire off a text. I knew I was going to have to wait for a reply, Ivy's school confiscated phones at the start of the day, so I'd be sitting in sweat until she got it back. Fuck me.

I hustled on to Chemistry with Mr Nfume. We filed in, taking our desks, getting out our screens. I sat between Ayesha and Chad.

Mr Nfume stood at the front of the class. He'd rolled down a projection screen, a grim look on his face.

"Gargantua is attacking city hall," he said.

Who?

He clicked a button and the screen flickered to life, live footage from a helicopter circling above the city center. Something giant moved down Adams Street, a giant red humanoid with a mouth as big as the school gates, all covered in lobster-like plates. He was about as tall as they second tier of Sears Tower, which he stomped past on his way too who fucking knew where or why.

And unfortunately he was clearly a 'he' because all of him was hanging out on display.

"Gargantua is attacking city hall," Mr Nfume said, "And that's the stupidest thing I've ever felt myself say. God we truly live in a stupid, stupid universe."

"Gargantua is making his way east," the reporter in the helicopter said, "We've received assurances from the mayor that the Protectors are inbound to handle the threat. The Fire Department is working with the Chicago PD to evacuate the buildings in the path of-"

"Since our universe is a terrible and stupid one, we're going to talk about why Gargantua shouldn't exist," Mr Nfume said, "Can anyone explain to me how this insult to physics violates the square-cube law?"

Hands shot up around me.

My skin prickled. Not for the question but for the sight of the monstrous giant stomping his way through traffic, crushing cars beneath his slow plodding trek down Adams Street. Who knew how many lives each step ruined.

"When an object undergoes a proportional increase in size, its new surface area is proportional to the square of the multiplier and its new volume is proportional to the cube of the multiplier," Ben said.

Mr Nfume clicked his fingers. "Straight off of wikipedia," he said, writing up the formula on the white board, "By all rights our friend Gargantua should collapse in on himself, why isn't that the case?"

"Maybe the carapace?" Chad suggested, "Those red scales look like they might act as some kind of exoskeleton. That might help support his weight."

"Maybe," Mr Nfume said with a tired sigh.

>I have to get out of here, I have to do something
>No, let this one slide. The Protectors could handle it

>>6115652
>No, let this one slide. The Protectors could handle it.
Mainly because this is their perfect photo op, they're gonna do their best to show off. They're full of shit but the result will be the same, they'll handle it well.

>>6115652
Maybe he isn't bigger the universe just got smaller

>No, let this one slide. The Protectors could handle it

If the duck it up then we can go

>>6115652
>Let this one slide
Public enough that the officials will take him down
Unlike flesh smith

>>6115652
>No, let this one slide. The Protectors could handle it
Pay attention to the fight, we can learn more about the protectors and be prepared to leave school and intervene if they can't handle it

>>6115652
>I have to get out of here, I have to do something.

How do we know the protectors will even win? They didn't seem like A-listers line up to me. What if Gargantua fights them off and flattens city hall and the urban area around it.

>>6115792
Idk City Hall sucks, let them foot the bill to the Protectors if it gets flattened

>>6115792
That one dude who hates us matched us blow for blow, if they can’t do it with their entire team there then we’d be hopeless

>>6116037
He didn't match us, we mostly avoided fighting him.

>>6116064
I dunno man reading that fight I felt pretty matched

>>6115748
>>6115731
>>6115726
>>6115653
locking that in

I couldn't dash off to fight a giant tearing through the heart of the city. I had to trust the Protectors knew their business enough to handle it. And if they didn't, then I'd race off to save the day.

Not that I knew how I'd handle a colossus like this Gargantua.

The helicopter crew kept on him, circling the crimson lobster scaled giant. Yellow eyes glared in a furrowed brow up at the copter overhead, but as big as he was he wasn't big enough to swipe it out of the sky. He stomped up to the side of Sears tower and dug a hand into its side. He started to climb.

"All right gang, he's climbing Willis Tower," Ironsight's voice came through, "We've got to stop him before he brings it down."

"Willis Tower?" Rufus sneered, a sentiment running through the class.

The tower shook against Gargantua's weight, but before he could raise his other hand the giant shook in place, suddenly restrained.

"I have him," the urbane voice of Gravitas said. The camera turned to show a dark pin prick in the blue sky. Gravitas levitated above the city in a black pinstripe suit, hands raised and wide forehead bulging with strain. "I cannot say for how long. Please, be quick about this!"

It seems the team was miced up for the show.

The largest eagle I'd ever seen swooped past him with a harsh cry, its wingspan flaring out as it dove for the face of the giant. When it struck, it bulged and writhed in a nauseating ripple of bone and muscle until it became the burly figure of Barbaric, gripping uncertainly to Gargantua's nose at a perilous height. But her body shifted again, twisting and writhing as muscle and bone was reorganized, her face stretching out into horror mask dimensions, bright orange fur exploding out across her back until she was the form of a hulking orangutan.

"Gigantopithecus, interesting," Chad muttered.

Barbaric began swinging massive fists into the giant's face, seeming to no avail. Gargantua's grip tightened on the surface of Sears Tower, cement beginning to crumble under his grip.

"Let's lay some more on him, team," Ironsight said, "Liberty, Haymaker, bring in the one-two."

They shout of the sky. It was an almost comic sight, Haymaker dangling from Liberty's petite grip as the girl flew in rocket fast, flinging the hulking ex-thug at the giant. He came in with a right cross hard enough the giant staggered back a step, but then Haymaker went sprawling, hollering in terror out into the sky. Fast as a dart though with a flare of her pleated skirts, Liberty swooped around and caught him, hurtling back up into the sky.

"Shit on me!" Haymaker swore into his mic, "This is a retarded fucking plan!"

"No need to cuss, I got you!" Liberty said, bringing him back around for another run.

"Where the fuck is Nightshade?" Haymaker said, "And when the fuck are you going to pitch in, Ironsight? I don't see you falling a thousand feet!"

"Steady there, convict, someone has to coordinate the team," Ironsight said, "And as for our little chickadee, just you wait."

"Please cease your bickering, my grip on the beast is beginning to wane!" Gravitas intoned. The camera followed him as he went from levitating mid-air to drift down onto the roof of a nearby building, hand extended to clutch at Gargantua with his gravity powers.

Barbaric, still in the form of a giant ape, pounded her fists on the giant's shoulders, but she may as well have been a middle schooler fighting a line backer for all it did to stop him from tearing a chunk out of the side of Sears Tower. Gargantua flung the ball of cement at the nearby rooftop, square at Gravitas. Liberty gasped, and the class room leaned forward, as Gravitas let go his grip on the giant to snatch the chunk of cement from the air only a few yards out from crushing him. He was alive, but now the giant began to climb.

"BRING ME!" Gargantua roared, "DAVID! ROSS!"

"Oh lord," Mr Nfume sighed, lighting up a cigarette.

"Sir, why are you smoking?" Ben asked.

Mr Nfume frowned. "Why? Because nothing makes sense and everything is stupid."

The giant tore chunks out of Sears Tower, exposing people still inside, screaming in terror as giant red fingers dug through cement and glass to rip up the exterior of the building.

Barbaric leapt from Gargantua's shoulders into the interior of the buildings, large ape hands raised to hustle the people inside back toward safety.

"Nightshade, are you in position?" Ironsight asked.

A moment of silent.

"Copy."

"Good. Okay kid, square up."

The camera swivelled to the top of Sears Tower. The very top. Nightshade stood at its peak in his urban ninja get up, wind ruffling the loose fabric of his pants. He crouched down, looking down.

"Ready."

"That's right. Now, time to cut down the giant. Go!"

Nightshade pounced. Hurtling downward, a human meteor. He struck the giant between the eyes with a white flash. Gargantua buckled, woozy on his feet. A small fist sized imprint glowed between his eyes. Nightshade drew back his fist and drove it down again. And again. And again. Each blow laid over the last until that fist sized imprint deepened and red ichor gushed out to pool up in it then run down over his face.

"That's right," Ironsight purred, "Keep it up."

The giant began to fall.

"Gravitas!" Ironsight barked, "Catch that thing before it crushes half the block!"

Even as it fell, Nightshade didn't let up, riding the falling giant, driving down punch after punch into his skull. And when Gargantua did fall, eased down by Gravitas, Nightshade didn't stop, the giant's blood splashed across his chest as he began to drive into the fruit of his brain.

"That's enough, Nightshade, the threat's contained. Nightshade I said stand down!" Ironsight barked.

"Brutal," Hunter said, agog at the sight playing out on the screen as Nightshade continued on, ignoring Ironsight's orders. Then a high pitched scream went up. It took us all a moment. It was coming from Nightshade, a high pitched primal scream over each downward blow.

"Cut the mics!" Ironsight barked, "And cut the camera! Goddamn it Nightshade, that's enough! I said stop! You stupid little-!"

And the screen cut to black.

>>6116164
That Nightshade is bad optics. Is there more to the update?

>>6116176

I wonder if Nightshade is empowered by the soul of the light wielding buddy of The Prince we saw in the vision and the reason he hates Hotsput is because of some fallout their previous lives had which he is seeing in his head.

Or they just showed him Hotspur while training/torturing him so he developed an intense hatred response.

Unless that high pitched scream was a sign its actually a lady under that outfit? I can't believe Bullpen has put another hot asian ninja into the equation, and yet I can.

Or if they got a bit of Hotspur DNA and tried to clone their own with some help. Alien help? Fleshsmith help? Villain team up when?

>>6116639
Does he hat us specifically? From the Gargantua show I feel like he might just hate everybody in his way

>>6116685
On the boat he seemed to have a hateboner for Hotsput. Maybe he wonders why the biggest hero in the city didn't rescue him from his captors who have been drugging and threatening to drug him into compliance.

Sorry, had a busy couple of days. hoping to knock out a few updates tonight.

Also I might be back working full time in game dev soon, so this quest might go on hiatus in the near future or at least slow down to single updates.

No one knew what to say about what we'd seen, but we were all a little disturbed by Nightshade's frenzy. Beating Gargantua to death at the foot of Sears Tower. The giant attack was all anyone had on their mind.

"Sucks for whoever has to clean that mess up," Rufus said, "I wonder who that guy was before he got turned into a big red lobster."

That was the question too.

"Whoever they were, man, someone has to do something about these freaks," Hunter said, "I know, I know, we aren't supposed to call them that. But six people died."

It was true, three crushed in a minibus when Gargantua had been knocked off his feet by the Protectors, two killed when they were trying to get away and got sideswiped by a truck, and one poor bastard who fell into the Chicago River and drowned.

"Seven, technically," Ayesha said, "Gargantua too."

"Sure, seven," Hunter said, "I get that most freaks are just ordinary people, and I'm not saying round them all up, but maybe they need to do like a census or something."

"Track and trace," Ben nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense."

"We're talking about human beings here," Chad said, "Should they keep a file on every Muslim in the country too, or every Russian?"

"Russians can't blow up a city block with their minds," Rufus said, kicking an empty soda can, "Man, we've had this conversation before."

"Because nothing gets done!" Annie said, "God, its all so revolting."

"What is?" Chad asked.

"Our lives! It's absurd! We live in a city under constant siege and the only answers are either 'do nothing' or go full Nazi. I'm sick of it! When do we get another choice?"

"What makes you think we even have any choices here?" Ben said, "We're all just stuck. The rich and powerful will do what they want and we just have to learn to live with it."

Everyone was angry. No one had any answers. Annie was right on one thing, it was absurd. Every time I put on my costume and stepped out to do something about the problems in our city, was I really achieving anything? I mean, really? It felt like every problem I solved only spawned three more, a goddamn hydra. I didn't say anything though, they didn't need another opinion to fester over. And for every Gargantua the hate got harder to fight.

Maybe she could see it in the tension in my shoulders, but Ayesha slipped her hand into mine, leaned on me a little. She didn't say anything just squeezed my hand in hers and rested her bushy black curls on my cheek, looking up at me with those warm brown eyes full of comfort. In a glance she said 'don't stop believing in love', and that helped. But not as much as it should.

School rang out.

I had to go meet with Ms Grant. I'd promised to tell Nasim her friend was safe, but as Hotspur, not as Eric. Then I had sword training with Baby Girl tonight.

>change into my costume and visit Nasim first
>change into my costume and see Ms Grant first

>>6117631
>change into my costume and see Ms Grant first

Iunno go visit Nasim's house afterwards. I must wonder how telling her is going to go.

>>6117631
>change into my costume and see Ms Grant first

>>6117631
>Grant first

>>6117766
>>6117769
>>6117974
ok

So many plates are spinning at once I worry I'm going to lose track of them and send one crashing to the ground.

I got home before Dad did. My phone pinged with a text.

Dad - Part of the crew cleaning up downtown. Talk when I get home.

Okay. I guess it was good his company had picked up work, even if it was cleaning up the destruction caused by a big red idiot. With a baby on the way he needed to take all the work he could get. We'd talk later. I'd make sure of it.

Changing into my costume, still missing the jacket, I made my way into the Magnificent Mile and the Water Tower where Ms Grant and I would meet. A little bit of Old Chicago, 150 years old and still standing tall, it had survived the Great Chicago Fire, the Great Depression, and the Chicago Cubs fans after they finally won a World Series. She was waiting in the shadow of the faux-medieval turrets, sunset turning the sky a bloody red wound. Wearing sun glasses and a pants suit, hands in her pockets, she leaned against the old stone work in a slouch.

Madeleine Grant, DSA, had started wearing a gun on her hip. A nickel plated revolver. She was the only person I knew who had as maybe as many enemies as I did, most of them the same terrifying people. Not far from us, chowing on a slice, waited Ironclad in his armor visor, gauntlets and greaves. That was also new, a super powered bodyguard bought and paid for. He kept his distance though, this wasn't his business.

"Spur," she said as I landed in front of her, a hand on her hip. Ms Grant had clean, light dark skin the color of an old oak table and dark relaxed hair that fell around her shoulders in soft waves. She was tall too, at least taller than me.

"Ms Grant," I said.

She lowered her shades to give me a once over.

"There a reason for the change of costume?" she asked, "That jacket wasn't cheap."

I had my mask and goggles on, but without my jacket I had no hood and the spider weave undershirt left my arms showing. After all the heat we'd had it was actually a bit of a relief getting around without it.

"Don't worry, I'm getting it back," I said, "Is that all you wanted to talk about, my choice in fashion? Don't you have news?"

She grinned, flicking her shades back up. "Oh we've got news," she said, "A friendly judge has done us both a big favor. He's agreed to sign off on a wiretap. The kid you brought in, Zeke? In exchange for immunity he's agreed to be our informant, get his friends at the Guardians on tape confessing to terrorist activity. We knock down this domino, the rest should fall."

"It goes pretty deep," I said, "The Governor is in on it some how. Maybe even Ixion. Who knows who else."

"Corruption is a Russian doll," she said, "When you open up one, you find another. The trick is to stay on it until you get to the last one."

I imagined Zeke wearing a wire. It was hard to imagine him keeping his nerve.

"I need you to keep an eye on our informant when he goes in," she said, "I don't trust the cops to run cover for him. Plenty of Humanity First members wear badges. I'm doing my best to keep Chicago PD in the dark all together, and fuck working with the FBI. We need to keep this close to our chest."

"Are you even allowed to do that?" I asked.

She shrugged. "We're running in gray zones here, Hotspur. Leave the legal arguments to me, just focus on making sure our boy doesn't get his head blown off. If you're up for it at least."

"When would that be?" I asked.

"A couple of days," she said, "Why, is there somewhere else you need to be?"

"My plate's been pretty full lately," I said.

"Yes or no, Spur, we can't afford to drag this out."

>You know you can count on me, Ms Grant
>I'm going to have to pass on this one

>>6118404
>You know you can count on me, Ms Grant
this could be big

>>6118404
>You know you can count on me, Ms Grant
Who would even be a good partner to tackle this with? If it blows up we have to drag Zeke out with one hand and fight through a bunch of armed terrorists with the other.

So if she has budget for super bodyguards and super bulletproof jackets, how long has it been since his last gift? How about a SpurMobile. Hotbike? A better jacket that he can hold the sides out for gliding after he jumps up high, maybe with wings. I'd take a Hotspur allowance account we can throw at the partner of the day, like giving Remix some funds to make cool stuff. This superhero stuff doesnt get any easier ya know. Some cash to throw at his soon to be baby sibling.

>>6118404

>You know you can count on me, Ms Grant
But ask some of Firewatch if they are free to help. I'm really sure Thunderchild would be very easy to convince to help with this. Plus I'm sure it'll be nice to catch up with the group and make sure that they're all okay.

>>6118402
Won't they be suspect him of something due to him coming back in failure, alive and late? He was supposed to bomb the protest and die in the explosion. Neither of those happened and now he's coming back after disappearing for a while?

>>6118404
>You know you can count on me, Ms Grant
And include Firewatch as well, this is important and they've got more time than normal. Usually we give hours to minutes' notice, not days.

>>6118404
>You know you can count on me
Humanity second