You are (Not) the Heroes IC

While daff and Gaia are chatting, two greentinted, seethrough Timberwolves drop into the hideout from the ceiling, they take a look around before projecting into the others haeads: So what will be our final plan to seperate the prey from Zapp? Also when do you think the rest of our hunt will join us?

Inu and Zellbriq shimmer for a moment before returning to a more substantial form, woth brown woooden sticks makeing up theri bodies, with a slight green glow visible through tiny cracks in the bark.

Faege wrote:"What's this about plans?"

Well, that got Robyn caught up with the conversation inside. She follows behind the colt as he skips inside to claim his new toy.

Faege wrote:"We just go in there and punch the lights out of Locust when it pops up, right? And, I guess maybe talk to Zapp?"

"Yes, talk," Robyn replies, using her urban voice. "This is..."

Faege wrote:He disapoofs in a flurry of snowy feathers, and with a faint whump reappears behind the pair of tall ponies. "So that's how it works. Huh, that's easier than I thought it would be."

"This is the district where a lot of ponies hold jobs," she tries again, "and where a lot of the money the city makes comes from. The last thing we want is Zapp getting into a fight and going wild with her nukes here."

nightlight wrote:"I like Dove's plan! Punching evil very firmly in the head has worked very well for me in the past!" he calls back as he begins digging through the new toys.

And then Gaia chitters to Rousseau and starts flirting  with Daff. Robyn pays little attention until the subject turns back to the group’s strategy.

Espresso wrote:"I can work with the little one's plan as well. Sounds as sensible as any, delivering swift justice to Locust's behind."

”Won’t be so swift if Zapp tries to fight it,” says Robyn. ”Especially if she goes and  blows up a chunk of Maretropolis’ economy and job market trying to beat it. What we need is a plan to…”

Then Zellbriq and Inu drop in from the ceiling.

Welcome to Maretropolis, Miss Blind.

Sliverbrony wrote:So what will be our final plan to seperate the prey from Zapp?

”Yeah, basically do that,” she finishes.

Sliverbrony wrote:Also when do you think the rest of our hunt will join us?

”If her entrance is any more conservative than yours, she’s probably standing outside waiting for somepony to say ‘I wasn’t expecting this sort of Horspanish Inquisition”.”

"Is that what you think of me?" calls a voice from outside. From the door slides in Madame Mask, levitating a brown paper folder beside her. "You should know by now that I only use my own material, darling," she continues, fudging the truth as she does. "Are we doing some planning right now? Ferrum has told me he will arrange for scouts to search the sewers for the hive, so until they find it we must throw Zapp off their trail until then. What's the current plan?"

Robyn cracks a big smile..

"I think a lot of things about you, precious," she teases, then blows a playful kiss.

Madame Mask peers an eye open in annoyance and suspicion. "Well, I hope those things include 'ridiculously resourceful' and 'absolutely amazing'," she retorts as she brings the folder to her face and opens it for herself, "After all, I know all there is to know about these locusts."

Paper Shadow wrote:Madame Mask peers an eye open in annoyance and suspicion. "Well, I hope those things include 'ridiculously resourceful' and 'absolutely amazing'," she retorts as she brings the folder to her face and opens it for herself, "After all, I know all there is to know about these locusts."

"They also include 'no fun at all'," Robyn pouts. Then she breaks into a chuckle. "We'll see how long that holds. What'd you find out?"

Rousseau gives a mischievous nod back to Gaia while Daff blushes at the compliment. "I... uh... you look really nice, too. Err, I mean, your coat does, since it matches..." he blinks, realizing that she does not in fact have a gas mask. "Your... mane? Oh, planning!" he makes a hasty retreat while on his head, Rousseau face-palms.

Paper Shadow wrote:"Well, I hope those things include 'ridiculously resourceful' and 'absolutely amazing'," she retorts as she brings the folder to her face and opens it for herself, "After all, I know all there is to know about these locusts."

"You do? Where'd you find that? What did you find out?" Daff prompts eagerly.

"The plan is simple enough: We work with Zapp to beat down and try to capture Locust while also taking advantage of the situation to track down Locust's source so that we can put an end to its rampage." Crimson announced as he finally decided to step into the conversation, dressed up for the occasion and prepared for war. He suspected that his plan was going to be met with some resistance through. "I'm going to make this perfectly clear to each and everyone of you. I don't care about what our backers say, whatever grudges you may bare or even whatever your egos are telling you; The reason we are doing this is to stop a threat to innocent lives while keeping innocent ponies out of the crossfire and if that means working with Zapp on equal footing to maximize our chances of doing that then so be it. If you feel that you are unable to do that for any reason please speak up now so we can put you on the 'Locate Locust's Source' team. If I can't trust you to watch my back in a fight because you've let your own interests get the better of you, I don't want you anywhere near me."

"Zapp is a hurricane - a force of nature" Gaia says, looking to the Chef. "She may be a hero, but she bends to no one and stops for nothing. Many times has she proven willing to cause damage - perhaps even severe damage - to the city and its outlying territories in her pursuit of justice. Her powers alone guarantee significant collateral damage, and don't get me started on her legendary bullheaded stubbornness. She could hurt herself. Or worse, hurt us, and the city with her. Don't you think that makes separating Zapp from Locust as soon as possible a priority?"

She holds up a hoof. "But - if you think cooperating with Zapp is a necessity, then I am not the one to convince." She steps aside and indicates towards Sunset and to a lesser extent, Madame Mask. "I'm only speaking my mind - Sunset is the one who suggested the plan to limit Zapp's involvement to avoid innocent harm. I don't have a strong inclination either way. Just thought that I should mention the biggest concern with trying to work with Zapp."

jaguargamma wrote:"They also include 'no fun at all'," Robyn pouts. Then she breaks into a chuckle. "We'll see how long that holds. What'd you find out?"

nightlight wrote:"You do? Where'd you find that? What did you find out?" Daff prompts eagerly.

Madame Mask revels in the attention for a moment. "I have my sources," she replies. She is about to begin with her information when she hears Crimson's comments...

Senshuken wrote:"If I can't trust you to watch my back in a fight because you've let your own interests get the better of you, I don't want you anywhere near me."

"Oh darling, and here I thought you were the smart one here." She quickly slams the folder shut with her magic, the sound echoing slightly through the building as she does. Her decoy appears somewhere around and hangs its head and shakes it in shame. "Do you think the Power Ponies will care if we help them? Do you think anypony will care about us if we help Zapp? No, we'll just be a footnote, the side act. The Power Ponies would get the credit and continue being the only superheroes in Maretropolis, our benefactors will drop their support, and our stage show will die before it truly began." She leans into Crimson's direction. "May I remind you why we were hired? It wasn't to just protect Maretropolis from villains; its to stop the Power Ponies from treating the city as if it belonged to them, help Maretropolis be its own city again. We are suppose to rise above the Power Ponies, not grovel and kiss their hooves as they trot all over us and everypony else."

"We don't need Zapp's help to beat the locust. We have done it before, and when those scouts find the hive, we can finish this up and be the heroes we all know we are. Why should we give up the opportunity we have here just to gain a victory so tiny in the grand scheme of things that it will be forgotten within a week?"

"Not to mention," says Robyn, "if we save Zapp from ending up depowered or dead AND defeat Locus again AND stop her from blowing away chunks of Maretropolis's economic infrastructure in the process, we'll score a ton of points with the city bigwigs..."

The stack of dossiers Ferrum left that morning floats over and hovers in the air next to Robyn.

"...and we'll make ourselves visible to all these heroes the Power Ponies forced out of active service. They see us being better heroes than even one Power Pony, and they'll get inspired to put their capes back on. That means more support for our fight against Locust."

With that, Robyn moves to stand beside Madame Mask, pausing a moment to whisper in her ear, "Sorry about bailing on you earlier, by the way" before she turns around to face the rest of the group.

"Now," she says aloud, her gaze fixed on Crimson Chef in a piercing death glare, "everypony shut the hay up and let Sexy tell us what she found out about our bug problem."

For a moment, Madame Mask can only manage noises that swing between pleasantly surprised and pleasantly flustered. She gives herself a cough to regain composure. "Well, these locusts, or rather, 'Tempests'," Madame Mask puts extra emphasis on the 'pests' part to indicate that she isn't just saying tempest, "They aren't aggressive by nature, it'll take powerful magic to do that, and they take a long time to be powerful enough to be dangerous. My source believes that they have been in the city for months gathering power. But, because they aren't usually aggressive and don't usually fight, when they do, it exhausts them of their stolen magic. If we exhaust them on the surface and then quickly destroy the hive, then the swarm will be without a safe haven and with reduced numbers, they will fade away in time."

"But here's the catch," she continues, "Zapp has had previous experience with the tempests. If she finds out that this is what is the source of the problem is, she'll know exactly what to do, and do it by herself, and there'll be no way for us to catch up. The less she gets involved the better it is for us. At the very least we need to buy time for Ferrum's scouts to find the locust hive, so we can take it down together before she finds it."

At this Celbrig starts to thinka at the rest again: well how about this, Inu, Gaia and I try to distract Zapp by pretending to be wild or enraged animals escaped out of the nearest research facility, and hope that it takes her enough time to beat us up for the rest off our hunting party to take down the prey. He then takes a look at everyone, while Inu yaps, ~yes let`s do that sounds exciting.~

"Wait, previous experience?" Dove Colt raises a hoof. "How does Zapp know about these? Has she fought them before? Wouldn't she be able to recognize the signs?"

"Zellbriq, I don't know if that's a good idea... Zapp's awful scary when she's in beat-up bad guys mode." Dove Colt scuffs the ground. "I don't want you guys getting hurt."

"Tempests." Gaia says, smirking. "Cute."

She pats Dove Colt on the head, but looks at Zellbriq with a confident smile. "Relax, child - if it comes to that, there are few things in the world faster than a pack on the hunt. If we really have to be the distractions, we'll be safe."

Robyn shakes her head.


”She won’t go for it. She was already investigating the freak weather even before we staked out the bank yesterday, and she would've figured out it was tempests yesterday when the radio DJ said the words 'lightning bug swarm'. She'd ignore the runaway animals for the bigger threat.”

She takes a moment to think.

"So we don't want to work with her, because she’ll get all the credit on account of being a Power Pony and make this whole thing a waste of our time. But she won't back off and let us handle the situation unless she's convinced that we have it under control. So...let’s convince her. Tell her we’re already making headway toward finding the source of the tempest problem, and that we held our own just fine with the tempest that attacked us yesterday. We got this.”

Robyn’s eyes drift to the stack of dossiers, and light up with another idea.

”And if she still wants to be involved,” she says, ”she can help us draw these inactive heroes out of retirement and get them into shape for when we’re ready to push in on the tempest...whatever it is tempests come from. Hive? Nest? That should keep her busy and out of our manes while we continue our investigation.”

Suddenly the group's cards start glowing, and those who say the key phrase can hear Argent's voice say, "Alright kids, Zapp's been spotted hovering above the old radio tower. I hope you have a plan, because she looks preeeetty pissed last I checked. I gotta get back to keeping the media quiet about this and run damage control - try your best to make it quick, okay?."

"We should go, guys." Dove Colt says, fluffing out his small wings. "Maybe we can decide on what to do on the way there?"

Robyn calls her costume and gear to her and starts suiting up the instant the cards light up, and finishes before they go dark again.

”Nope,” she says, her accent back in full force, ”If the fight's started before we get there, we won't get the chance, so we need to wrap this up now. Zapp's already out there throwin' down the gauntlet, so we go help her fight off the bugs and keep the collateral damage under control. When the bugs are gone, we'll tell her we been makin’ headway on the same investigation, and see what she'll take as far as coordinatin' with us. If she's on board with workin' with us, we'll let her take on the stuff that'll keep her out of our hair while we keep doin' our thing. That's about as good a compromise between violence, cooperation, distance, and PR as I can think of. I'll be in the truck.”

With that, she spins in place and makes for the door, the sound of Ol’ Trigger’s engine starting outside saying exactly what she’s thinking: Pack it up, we’re movin’ out!

"Frankly as long as Locust is hunted down, and no innocents are harmed in the process, I don't really care how we go about it." Gaia says, starting slowly towards the door. "If we manage to do so without having to conflict with Zapp, then even better - But I'm eager to just get this started."

She follows Sunset out, her slitted eyes glowing with anticipation.

If you all want to help her fight locust fine, but I won´t accept zapp or any ther power ponies continued participation with this hunt of ours. Zellbriq informs the others, while trying to find a way out for him and Inu, both still in their Timberwolfforms. Inu on the other paw begins to growl as soon as working with her is mentioned ~Help? one of those invaders, why should we? If we don´t help her that might help our chance of retaking our hunting grounds~ After a while, both of them manage to get outside using the gate for deliveries, as they can´t find away to fit through the normal door, and neither of them wants to waste time.

"What? Oh, good idea! C'mon, Rousseau! There's crime to stop!" Daff gallops towards the truck. "Rousseau and I get to sit in the back!" he calls.

Madame Mask leaves the building as everyone else gets ready. "I don't think Zapp will work with us or former heroes, she'd sooner return to the Power Ponies and get their help. But let us see the stage before we plan the act." She opts out of the truck ride and flies to the scene...

Crimson sighed a little as the conversation didn't go as well as he had hoped, but as the cards came to life and reveled to them that the time limit was a lot shorter then he had believed it to be there wasn't much that they could do about it now. Following the others as they made their way to meet their destiny one way or another, he confidently requested "I would like to be the one to speak with Zapp to try and convince her to either work with us or at least give us a shot to do it ourselves. No offense to Madam Mask or Sunset but you might not be the best ponies to talk to a Power Pony... or at least talk to one and not end up with an argument of some kind."

It wasn't meant to be a jab at either of them; Both of them had made their opinions on the Power Ponies clear and Crimson worried that hostility would carry over and screw up negotiations. "I promise to either get her working with us or at least get her to back off while we handle the fight. Sound fair?*" He asked, awaiting an answer.

Once the matter of who would be doing the speaking was taken care off, Crimson did have another question. "Madam, you said that Tempests weren't often aggressive without outside interference... What's strong enough to turn them hostile?"

* Actions:

From where she sits in Ol’ Trigger’s driver’s seat, Sunset watches her teammates file out the door, each one either activating their own means of getting to east industrial or making a beeline for the truck…

...and then feels her ears burn as Crimson Chef starts talking again.

Senshuken wrote:"I would like to be the one to speak with Zapp to try and convince her to either work with us or at least give us a shot to do it ourselves. No offense to Madam Mask or Sunset but you might not be the best ponies to talk to a Power Pony... or at least..."

”Madame Mask and I don’t have as big of a grudge against the Power Ponies as you keep assumin’, Chef,” Sunset interrupts. ”And not three minutes ago, you cut her off from givin’ us vital information, tried to force us to follow your half-baked plan, and then tried to shut down any discussion before we even knew what we needed to plan for. Zapp's an angry major-league demigoddess of thunder that can blast us all into ions. There is a fresh warm stain growin' on my clean coveralls from me even thinkin' about that A plus B. Let's just let me and Mask handle the talkin' when we come to it. Safer that way. Y'all loaded up?”

She waits for affirmation from her passengers, then hits the gas and tears off toward the east indies at the more moderate pace Ol' Trigger's bad suspension would allow.

And thank you, Airwave, for deciding to play "Low Rider" at this exact point in time...