Attack of Antova

RP place

Thud-thump slap. Thud-thump slap. The rhythmic thumling of the rubber ball as it went from hand to wall to floor and back to hand was oddly soothing to Brody. But then, it was always soothing. Helped him think. It's why he'd brought the thing along in the first place, and he hadn't even expected to need it much. Now though...Careful planning had already been a necessity before, now a foolproof scheme could well be a matter of life and death. Hmmm...It's a good thing I like a challenge. He thought to himself as his hand went through the toss-catch-toss motion almost of its own volition. I can't underestimate him now. I'll need collateral. Escape routes and a back up plan. Better to assume he'll win the first encounter than be caught off guard when he does. I can make that work though... A grim smirk crept slowly across his face as his plan began to come together in his mind. Time to see who was truly inferior...

Red was busy basking in the sun, there was this one spot in the forest where the sun shone in just the right spot and the branch curved in just the right way to make it the perfect sietsa spot. He had yet to find a place that could top it. His life was pretty simple now a days. The city was at the point where it could police itself without his intervention, so he was free to just experiment with his powers and figure out just all he was capable of. So far all the things he had figured out were amazing, the scales on his arm at least were things he had known how to do for so long, but it took him much longer to figure out that a similar thing actually allowed him to reverse the aging process of cells and keep him young. And even now when he was dozing off in the sun he could still keep an eye on his city. He had always had a sixth sense with plants, being able to sense even when they were miles away. After playing around with his own body for so long he started to notice that he was starting to be able to sense people as well. Which is really what he was doing now, he was training that sense while still dozing off high in a tree. This was the life.

He'll only have gotten stronger from where he was... Thud-thump slap. Which could mean he'll have gotten complacent. Can't let him know who I am yet. Save that card for later. Thud-thump slap. Still, he'll have to rest some time...
"DJ!" Brody's summons reverberated down the hall from the office towards the common area. He knew there was an intercom, but he didn't like it. This was his crew, always had been. The soon-to-be-welcomed newbies would get the intercom voice of Mr. Nichols, but DJ and his gang knew Brody well enough to be above that.
Several minutes passed before the head and shoulders of an almost diminutive blond man in his mid-thirties poked around the door. "Yeah boss? Need somethin'?"
"Yeah. I need you guys to start distributing those packages. Don't rush-no rushing yet. You guys get caught and this whole thing could collapse. Here." Brody extended a sealed envelope towards the gold-capped head as he reclined further into his desk chair. This thing was way too comfortable for clear thinking; he needed a new one. That can wait, though, he thought silently as the envelope was taken from his offered hand.

"Maps C and G. Nobody but you and Carla see them, and nobody delivers more than one package. Got it?"

DJ was already retreating back down the hall. "On it boss," came the barely audible reply.

He sat up and looked around with his eyes at all the plants all around him, using his sixth sense to really get a grasp of just how many tree where here. It was amazing, never had he felt so powerful, so free! This place was so full of life, and every day it awed him. Every day though he kept expecting EVIL to show up and uproot him from this life. The worst part was he didn't know how he would react when that day came. Of course he wanted to protect this place, he knew what would happen to it if he didn't. But if EVIL brought his friends? What could he do? He wasn't going to fight them. He sighed and shock his head, hundreds of years to worry about that and he still hadn't come up with an answer. The only answer he had was to continue to train and be as ready as he could when that day came. Because he knew the question wasn't if they came, but when. He looked up at the sun, looked like siesta time was over. Back to training.

What weaknesses did he have here? Hmm...Plenty to exploit back home, but nothing his reconnaissance knew of yet in this stream. Not that Brody wizhed he had Red's friends handy. That eould be an excellent way to get himself killed. No, he needed something less tangible. Something with too many little bits and pieces to be considered a single entity one could protect. Now that, they did have. He'd have to be beyond careful with the implementation. This was going to be extremely touchy...and oh so fulfilling. Even if he failed, he wouldn't fail completely, that much he was certain of. This would be endlessly enjoyable no matter what though.

Red sighed looking down at the ground from this tall tree. He had a dream of one day being able to jump off it and gliding through the forest. One day he knew it could come true but right now he was still working on the math and even once he finished that there was no way he was going to trust himself before he got it checked. And since meta humans would be a thing until another few centuries he still had some time. That would give him time to finish his equations and triple checking them before he had another expert look them over. If he was going to change his arms into something wing like he wanted to make sure he got the glide ratio right and that when he took what he needed from the rest of his body that is bones wouldn't become too brittle so that they'd all break upon landing. Since that didn't really help him in a battle though it didn't concern him too much so he wasn't in a rush to get it done, it was just a fancy dream. Since he couldn't do that yet now was the time to practice his acrobatics as he raced himself back to his house, always working to improve his best time.

The city is peaceful. He'll be unprepared initially... Brody finally stood and paced around his office, one hand rubbing at the short stubble he allowed to take up residence on his chin, the other still bouncing the ball ofc the thinly-carpeted wood floor. Thump slap. Thump slap. Thump slap. If his files are accurate (and I need to assume they aren't) he'll be focused on other things by now. I need to captialize on all of his experience, turn his skill and winning streak against him. Have to be absolutely certain he doesn't find out though... How can I be sute he can't read minds by this point? I can't be. Need a contingency plan... Around and around he paced, alternating between anxiety and stress at one moment as he contemplated how many possible ways they could be thwarted, to eager anticipation the next as he envisioned things going perfectly...

Red was breathing heavily as he got back, he felt slow today though. No way to know though, since like most days he always forgot to bring a watch. They were so uncomfortable to wear with the scales though. The only solution was to have him stop going up there in this form, which was probably a good idea. Red was supposed to be long gone now. Only a legend wouldn't be good for some hiker to accidentally stumble upon him sitting in a tree. Though come to think of it, it would be kind of fun to be the local Sasquatch.

Since his foray into the forest was done for the day he took a few minutes to concentrate and turn his scales back into normal skin, changing the color back as well so he didn't look like he had a horrible sun burn. He ran his hand through his hair to change it from black to a dark brown then last but not least he turned his red eyes back to a more normal green, though he kept them a tad more vibrant than normal eyes, just because. Once he changed back into normal clothes it was time to go teach future superheros martial arts. His house was in the middle of the rain forest so it was always a little bit of walk to get to the main city.

Yes...alright yes that should work, that should-- Brody's thoughts were cut off by the crackle of the intercom.
"Uh...he-hello? Um, we're here for our appointment with Mr. Nichols?"
Beidy recognized the surprisingly uncertain voice as that of Andy, the head of the group of punks Mr. Nichols was considering recruiting to supplement his usual operators.

"Yes, of course, come in!" Brody replied cheerfully to the rather archaic phone set sitting on the edge of the desk. "The door is.." he punched a button on his desk's digital console, "now unlocked!"

The door clicked open down the hall and, after a significant span of time, slammed shut rather awkwardly. The kids were clumsy, but he knew that. It was why he wanted them. Now...to go meet the fresh meat...

The most difficult part of walking to the city from the forest wasn't walking through the forest. It was looking like he hadn't been walking through the forest for the past forty minutes that was hard. He managed though, it did help when you could most plants out of your way though. That was a plus.

As he finally emerged from the forest and into the city, well not much had really changed. Not at first anyway, there was little to no underbrush now and paths were starting to emerge. He really wasn't in the city yet though just it's outskirts. This was a beautiful city, he had managed to show people how to live along side nature instead of chopping it down. The building style was unique to here, and he really didn't think it would be possible in many other places of the world. Building a house here took a while though as they planted little trees and shaped them into living places. He me have help speed up the process here and there, but still that's how most of the buildings were made as of right now. He was sure that would change eventually but as of right now he loved it. Even with that though people still managed to have a lot of conveniences of the modern world, in limited supply though. This place was the leader in green technology, and he was working on making it the leader in technology as well. Though that would take more time. Still he was proud of what he made. Even if it was sort of hippie esque right now. There was at least a whole variety of people living here, a lot of green scholars, the people who came from those who first settled here and yes, there were indeed hippies.

The youths were obviously uncomfortabke in what he'd asked them to wear. Several of them looked like they'd never worn anything more fancy than a zippered hoodie from the way they reacted to their Polo shirts and button up tops. They also didn't look entirely comfortable in a buidling made largely of dead wood. In both cases, this zuited Brody fine. They were locals, and he'd think twice about kicking the teeth in on some of his city's kids. Or he wouldn't. It didn't matter, since Brody would prepare for both.
"Good afternoon! Thank you so much for finding something to wear! I assure you, the work will be more what you're used to, and the dress code is simply for first impressions. I have an image to maintain for the moment. After today it is irrelevant to me what you wear, since you will likely nt meet me again in person. Now then, down to brass tacs." At the perplexed looks prompted by the ancient expression, he amended to, "Er, let's get to business."

His dojo was of the same style of everyone else and just on the edge of the center of the city, just a short walk away from the residential part of the city. He open the dojo once a week, on Sunday for anyone who wanted to learn martial arts for self defense. For him it gave him some practice against real people, even if they weren't one the same level. And teaching really helped him perfect his form. It also gave the kids something to do on a Sunday night and some of the parents even thanked him afterwards since apparently it was good motivation for getting their homework done early. Who knew kids would enjoy it so much. He also just plain enjoy interacting with the community. It was good to teach kids how to defend themselves and hopefully to do good things when they can, though he wasn't sure he was good at teaching that to them. He at least tried too.

"What the hell do you want us to do though?" Andy asked after a long pause during which several unsure glances were exchanged. The boy had managed to find a tie that went with his slightly ill-fitting button up and, perhaps consequently, he seemed the least comfortable of the lot. It could also be due simply to the mostly-real burden of command he had shouldered among his less than reputable group. They did seem to defer to his judgement on most issues.

"That...is a complicated matter," Brody replied, not caring that he was obviously dodging the question. "In short, I want to hire all of you to work for me and do what I need done. I assure you I won't ever put you in undue danger..."

He always started teaching promptly at 3:00, and so since it was only 2:30 he began to warm up. First he started with basic muscle warm ups, like high knees and jumping jacks. Then he transitioned into warming up with the basic moves he was planning on teaching to day. Since it was akido, he focused a lot on his footwork and the different stances it required.

As the students started trickling him they joined him in warming up, some tried to copy what he was doing while other just did basic stretches. He just cared that they were warming up. There was a huge variety of kids, some were just 5 or six while others would be going into collage soon. He had known most of the college aged students since they were 5, though a few were new since they were dragged here by their friends one day and found they really liked it. How he normally worked class since there was no way of being to teach all of these kid individually was to have the older ones teach the smaller ones. He would demonstrate a move and then the poeple that knew it would teach those who didn't. And a lot of the time he also sparred with the older kids once the younger ones got tired. Everyone loved to watch those matches.

When his watched beeped he knew it was 3:00. "Alright everyone, today we will focus on akido." and with that his lesson started. No one called him sensei here, he didn't like that. Though he did know it was traditional. Instead they just called him by his alias Anton, or Antonio. It came from the ancient Greek name Anthos which meant flower.

"You'll make much better money here than you could out on the street, as well," Brody went on, maintaining a friendly but professional air. "You will also be under my protection, should anyone...decide to make you an enemy."

Andy eyed the older man skeptically. "That sounds a bit to good to be true, friendo," he observed, looking arounf the room suspiciously, apparently expecting policr to leap out of the potted plants. Brody was simultaneously proud of the boy's healthy suspicion and amused by his obvious misunderstanding of his own 'innocence.'

"Kiddo, if I were a cop, I'd have picked you up for distribution when I first met you all. No, that ain't how I operate. Now do you want to work for Uncle Nichols or not?"

The kids looked at each other, exchanging a wordless communique, before returning their gaze to Brody and nodding in unison. "Yeah, we'll take the job."

Antonio watched as all the kids started work on the first technique he showed them. It wasn't that complicated and soon the older kids were coming to him asking for more advanced moves since they already knew that one. And he happily showed them others watching happily as he saw them work with each other to try and master the newest move.

The little kids eventually got bored and started watching the older ones spar, since once they had mastered the moves they had learned they wanted to try it out. It was always fun to watch how they would use the new move in combat. These sparing matches were especially fun since they normally didn't stick to one style, mostly because they didn't know enough of one style to really be effective at it. A lot of times watching them gave him inspiration to come up with new combinations of moves himself.

"Splendid!" Brody clapped his hands together and rubbed them gleefully. "You'll start immediately!" he informed them, turning on his heel and starting briskly towards his office.

"Come come! I've got some fellows I need you to go see! I'll give you their information--" he stopped at his desk and rifled through his drawers eagerly as he waited for them to catch up. They filed in slowly, surprised by his sudden enthusiasm.

"Here," he extended a hand gripping 5 separate envelopes. "You will split into pairs, and deliver these to their proper addresses, then collect what you are given and bring them back here."

Several hours later, everything was in place. The trap was lain, the bait about to be set. Brody let out an anxious sigh and fidgeted, pulling at his collar, suddenly uncomfortably tight.

"Everyone know their job?" He asjed over the radio. A chorus of voices sounded the affirmative. "Alright, show time. Hit it, ladies and gents."

At that command, several gunshots rang out, in abd around the nearby buildings and screaming followed promptly after. No one should have been hit yet, but it sure as hell sounded like they had been.

Brody let a smile spread across his face and danced from one foot to the other in the catwalk in the warehouse, psyching himself for the coming confrontation. As he had requested, no shots had been fired inside yet. That would change soon, he was sure of that. "Showtime showtime showtime, SHOWTIME!"

Red was interrupted from his training by gun shots in the distance. Always a bad sign, it was also fun though. Something to get him out of his normal routine. This definitely felt strange for this city, though he supposed it wasn't that unlikely that a criminal underground was growing here just like in any city.

He changed into his costume as he scanned out with his powers to find the culprits. They where just on the edge of his range but he did manage to find them. They were the ones standing calmly while all those other people were running. Bad guys found he sent out vines to subdue them as he ran to get there, while growing his scales. He wasn't sure if he was going to intervene yet, anymore than he did but he definitely needed to check it out. Make sure it was nothing bad. He wished he knew how to tell if people were hurt with this sense but he had no idea how to he never thought to test that out before. He added that to his to test list as he ran.

A series of curses over the radio indicated his atrival
"Use the blades I gave you," he instructed those that were too panicked to recall the weapons. A new stream of more relieved cursing sounded off, along with a few still panicked voices. "Anyone whose arms are tied, say 'I.'"

Three answers.

"Hold still, all of you." 3 loud metallic PTING noises preceded 3 separate hissing noises as Brody pressed and swiped andtyped on his holographic wrist display. "Pull hard. You can get free if you're not already. The gas will dry the vines, and your masks will protect you from them."

Three voices confirmed the orders and affirmed the freedom of their limbs. "Remember, he'll send wood plants next. Possibly something else. Signal me when he does. If he hits you too hard, surrender for the time being."

Red stopped running when his vines were neutralized. That was someone who was expecting that, not just an ordinary gang. Someone was luring him there then, though since he wasn't sure who it was he decided to play it safe. He could take care of his thugs anyway from here. Or he thought he could, worth a shot since then he wouldn't be walking into a trap. Since he was still in the middle of the forest he would be able to sense if anyone was coming. Still to be safe he grew a dead tree stump surrounding him. He hated making dead stuff, but he needed to be safe and didn't want to grow an entire tree to hid him.

That done he now had a hard job in front of him. He closed his eyes to focus solely on his six sense and tracked down the people causing the problems. He knew there would be police coming soon so his main concern was to get rid of their guns. This was going to be like going into a battle half blind, he could see the outlines of the people but nothing else, he could easily kill all of them... and it was tempting to. He didn't need to resort to that yet though, he was smarter than these guys. He focused on the first group of guys that were the closest to him, even though they were still a few miles away. Knowing now that his vines would last long, he had to resort to different measures. Still first he used his vines to pull them all together, then he did something similar to what he did to himself. He grew the base of a giant tree all around to capture them. He continued to grow vines as needed to keep them in place as he did that. As soon as their arms were immobilized in wood he stopped. He also wanted to be able to stop them from speaking; however, he didn't know were there mouths were so just left it at that.

"Fudge, boss he's got us." It was Carla's voice that cane over the radio. "He's trapped us in a tree, no getting out of here easily." Sirens had begun to wail in the distance.

"Alright, don't fight it. Wait for the police, I'll get you out later. If he comes, tell him where I am and someone use the codephrase if your radio gets broken before you tell him. The rest of you, position two, incognito."

The remaining 11 gunners switched to other buildings, all moving up to the second floor of the new buildings vefore drawing their weapons and forcing the few occupants out; almost everyone had fled the gunshots, even from separate buildings.

"Stay silent until he acts."

He cursed. He just realized if he wanted to have any idea who this person was he was probably going to have to question one of his henchmen. And with the police coming he was going to have to work quick. He checked to make sure no one was near him, and ran back home. Now multi tasking he focused on the other groups. The ones in tree buildings were pretty easy, just simply because they were surround by a living entity that was his to control. He just grew a cage around them with tree and sent out strengthened vines to go in a crush what he hoped were guns that they were holding. If the vines could crush it in time he sent out others to grab them and throw them in a corner were he would promptly grow more tree over it. The guys in the other building he didn't have time to come up with a good plan for them so he just kept them busy with vines still trying to at least disarm them.

More cursing exploded over the radio. "Boss? I lost both my guys. Flamethrower is shot too. This place is full of vines. Gonna take me a while to get out" Ian's group was gone too then. A similar situation was described by Ana and Zachary. Andy and one other in his group had escaped the mess of vines, but were unarmed now.

"Return to the warehous and rearm. Take escape route B. Use your map, it will show up...now." Brody tapped several icons on his readout to send the map. "Nora, get ready, he'll come for you next. Don't let him catch you with the vines and keep your weapons close. Be rrady fkr anything."