If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Post by Will Chase on Jan 2, 2018 22:39:28 GMT
| It had been a long year. After he'd shot the doctor Will had felt lost - he had never killed anyone before, and he had hoped that he'd never have to. Killing changed a person, he'd seen it in his colleagues and now he'd seen it in himself.
He'd withdrawn after that, had stopped talking to his family and many of his old friends - Ash was still making the effort, for which he was at once absurdly grateful and intensely guilty.
Self-loathing was not really a new thing for Will, but never before had it been quite so pressing.
Of everything that had come out of that day, the only good thing was the strange friendship between he and Claire that had come into being, a friendship very much based on how that day had affected them.
A lot of things could change in 12 months, and a lot of things had. Will still wasn’t sure of his own opinion of the new Hero Program; he didn’t doubt that many of the people involved truly believed that what they were doing was right, but the same was true of most police officers, and Will had seen firsthand how such a position could be subverted. That was what the Hero Program was, in his eyes - just another police force, except this one had powers and a competent PR department.
But there had been changes on a personal level as well, and those were not nearly so public. He had told no one, in fact. Will’s power had changed, in a fundamental and frightening way. He had thought that he was the weakest of their group, capable of little more than could be accomplished with decent hearing, but if what he now thought was true, then he had significantly more potential than he had thought.
Will had lost his old power, he could no longer sense threats as they neared. What he had gained in its place was much scarier.
He could hear things, like he had in his dreams right after the accident. Voices in his head. He might’ve thought he was mad, and indeed he had for a time. But there is only so long you can go before you start looking for a slightly kinder explanation for what you’re going through than schizophrenia.
People around him could have no secrets. Anything they tried to hide, he could pluck from their minds.
While his initial withdrawal had been because of the death of the doctor, his new ability made crowded places legitimately painful for him. Too many minds fighting for his attention, too much noise.
That was why he was meeting Dominic in a place outside the city for their talk. Well, that and the subject matter.
After all, it wasn’t every day you told a man you thought his organisation was involved in something far darker than it should be
An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded
| Will Chase | 480 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Nov 29, 2017 21:54:32 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Nov 29, 2017 21:54:32 GMT
| Will accepted Alice's anger; he deserved it, for his tirade had been unacceptable - he was supposed to be better than that. His rage was gone now, replaced by the more familiar burn of guilt.
But he didn't have time for guilt, or apologies, or any of that. He had been right, it was too late now.
Or was it?
Even as Harry and Roman entered the fray, as Alice struck Claire and sent her staggering back, Will found himself totally focussed on Dominic as the Doctor struck the younger man and sent him sprawling. Why had she done that? After all, she herself had said that it was too late for them to do anything. Why then, had she reacted so violently when Dom drew power from the wall? Perhaps things were not so dire as they seemed.
Persephone was already going to Dom's side, and Will followed, despite knowing that there was nothing he could do that she could not. But then again, he was not going there to try and help Persephone, but to tell Dom what he had realised.
"Surge," Will hissed, desperately hoping that the doctor couldn’t hear him. "You might be able stop this, all of it. That might be why she attacked you when you absorbed that electricity. If you absorb enough, you might stop the machine from activating."
There was the sound of rapidly pounding feet as Harry and Roman moved deeper into the room, the slender Asian American steering well clear of the heavy form of the Doorman. The fat man reached out and placed a hand on the heavy wooden crate beside him. There was a momentary inrush of air, and then the whole thing was gone. A cry from Harry revealed its new location, as he dived from beneath the falling wood. It split open as it landed, scattering pieces of metal and complicated looking machinery over the floor.
So that was the Doorman’s ability then. Some form of teleportation. It explained how the Doctor had vanished, the first time Will had met her. It explained why the man was so apathetic as well, if you could make any threat disappear just by touching it, you would probably never feel afraid again.
The Doctor herself had returned to the centre of the room. In combat one should always know how far to stay away from an opponent, but clearly the Doctor had a far greater reach than someone of her stature ought to possess, judging from her attack on Dom.
That attack had sent Dom flying, and hadn’t appeared to have been of any more difficulty for the Doctor than crushing a fly would be for Will. If she could do that so easily, then she could probably kill him just as easily; that meant that if Dom was to manage anything, she had to be distracted, kept from realising what was happening. Claire was stunned, Persephone was busy, Mason was… somewhere, and Alice was far too likely to help the Doctor at this point to be trusted.
That left distracting the nigh-immortal, apparently unstoppable being down to Will, the only member of their group whose powers had absolutely no combat potential. At least Harry and Roman were there, they must’ve had some confidence in their ability to take her down if they came alone.
Will skirted the edge of the room until he was far enough away from Dom and the power conduit, then pulled his gun out of his pocket and trained it on the Doctor. He sure as hell hoped she was bulletproof.
He squeezed the trigger.
Yesterday is not ours to recover, but
tomorrow is ours to win or lose.
| Will Chase | 604 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Nov 11, 2017 17:26:38 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Nov 11, 2017 17:26:38 GMT
| Everything was rapidly spinning out of control, and Will didn’t know if there was any way he could salvage the situation before it all collapsed. While he couldn’t bring himself to disagree with Claire’s words, and in fact agreed almost wholeheartedly with them, he couldn’t help but feel that airing her opinion in such a manner was a misstep of colossal proportions.
Perhaps Claire couldn’t see it, but the doctor was not someone Will wanted to risk pissing off. In a world of people with inexplicable abilities, Will didn’t doubt that someone who had lived hundreds of years would be more than capable of defeating a group of inexperienced, untrained hopefuls. If this came down to a fight, it was not one he thought they could win, whatever any of the others thought.
Hell, Alice may very well decide to side with the doctor if it did end in conflict, and she was without a doubt the single most dangerous member of their group, capable of ignoring anything the rest of them could do.
Alice’s words had angered Will, in a way he would later doubt she had intended, but at the time they brought a rush of white-hot anger. He had kept a hold on it, controlled it as Claire and Dominic and the doctor and Persephone had spoken, but once they’d finished he found himself overcome and snapped at the young woman.
“What gives us the right to doubt her?” His voice was hard, cold in a way that none of them had heard before. “What the hell gives her the right to do this Alice? Age? Power? Since when has that been justification for anything? What gives her the right to twist the world, to change it in this manner? There are good people in this world, many of them. How many of them will die, because of this? Have you bothered to think about that? She has,” he pointed at the doctor.
“She believes that everything that comes as a result of this is none of her concern. She will have done what she set out to do, and the consequences will fall on the shoulders of those she did it to. This is not some grand awakening, where humanity will wake up and look at itself and see greatness and purity. This is the beginning of a cataclysm, that will shake the very foundations of civilization. What gives you the right, to declare that this will make the world a better place?”
“This is not a comic book. This is not some grand story, where good triumphs over evil, and everything turns out alright in the end. This is real life, and real life doesn’t have a happy ending.”
Finally, Will was spent. Finally, he could calm down, and realize how far he had gone in his anger. He slumped, all passion gone like dust in the wind.
“You can dream of a better place where everyone is happy and everything is good. People don’t work like that. People are messy, and violent, and cruel. There is goodness in some, but for every good man, there is an evil one. Every story has its villain, but in life the villain can win.”
And all of this was ignoring the single most important thing the doctor had said since they entered the damn room. ‘“It doesn’t matter now, it’s begun.”’
If that meant what Will thought it did, then they were already too late to stop what was happening, if they even could’ve in the first place.
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.
| Will Chase | 607 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Oct 20, 2017 22:05:37 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Oct 20, 2017 22:05:37 GMT
| The doorman reminded Will, oddly enough, of the doctor they were there to confront. They couldn't have been more different in appearance and personality, so far as he could tell, but they had the same unshakable confidence. If the doctor's confidence was born of the conviction that nothing could threaten her, however, this man's seemed more from apathy; less that he could defeat any attacker, more that no one would ever even be able to attack him in the first place.
It worried Will in a way he couldn't quite place, but that feeling was nothing compared to what he felt when they stepped into an enormous chamber. It wasn't fear, not quite. More... anticipation. Like the whole world was suddenly holding its breath.
He couldn't explain it, not really. It was just a feeling, a gut instinct that told him that he was looking at the makings of something momentous. Something that would change the world. Ah, so that was why it felt a little like fear.
Changing the world was dangerous.
Alice embracing the doctor took Will by surprise, though it probably shouldn't have. After all, she had been the most enthusiastic of them about their new abilities, so it wasn't particularly outlandish that she would feel grateful to the woman who granted them. Will though? Well, Will remembered what Harry had said. He remembered what he had learned, and so he was cautious. Unfairly perhaps, for the doctor hadn't actually done anything particularly worthy of distrust, but Will still didn't understand her, and so he was hesitant.
He glanced over at the others, happy to see that Claire and Persephone at least appeared to share his misgivings, though he couldn't see much of Dominic's face and Mason's invisibility left his opinion as anyone's guess. Will was far too cynical to fully believe what Mason had explained of the doctor's motives. Loneliness could be a powerful motivator, but to Will the woman didn't seem to suffer enough of it to explain the lengths she had already gone, let alone how far Harry had appeared to fear she might go.
The revelation of her age - and what a revelation it was - changed things. For one thing, it changed Will's perception of the doctor and her potential motives significantly; he was far from arrogant enough to assume he could truly understand the mind of a person who could talk about 150 years like most people talked about 20. Will was an intelligent man, but the mind of an immortal, or at least as near to one as he had ever met, was not something he had experience in. Solitary confinement in prisons could drive people mad in days, what would hundreds of years of even partial isolation do?
Will felt something very near sympathy as he looked at the doctor with new eyes, seeing not a being of immense power and potential threat, but a person just like any other, no better and no worse.
Ha, perhaps he was arrogant enough.
He wondered if the others could see what he could see. He thought Mason could, the man had certainly seemed to feel sympathy for the doctor when he was explaining what she had told him.
Duchess could, that was obvious enough. Her feelings appeared less like sympathy, however, and more like contempt. Will wondered at that. He'd worked out that she had very different feelings on family to him, but this seemed more than that. She was certainly more cutting than he had expected.
But her point was valid. After all, Will knew as well as anyone that sharing blood didn't always make people love each other, and the doctor's vision as she'd described it was missing what Will felt were several key details. She talked about giving people the chance to realize their gifts, but Will wondered how much thought she'd put into what they might do with powers.
People did terrible things enough, without superpowers being added into the mix.
"You speak of this as if it is so simple, as if you will grant all those people abilities beyond their comprehension and everything will turn out alright. What happens if you're wrong? What happens if they go in a different direction?" Will spoke softly and deliberately, carefully choosing each word. "I have seen people do terrible things to others, sometimes for no other reason than because they could. How many more people will die, if the next madman wields a power like yours instead of a gun?"
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?
| Will Chase | 753 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Post by Will Chase on Oct 3, 2017 20:02:30 GMT
| The bar had certainly been a gold mine of information. Though he hadn't learned the doctor's plan there, or even her motives, he had discovered one very important fact. He'd learned where she was. Los Angeles, in some underground complex.
He didn't know the area, which was disturbing for him; Will had lived in San Francisco for decades, he knew the city like the back of his hand, could find his way from his apartment to any of a dozen different significant places with his eyes shut. But he wasn't in San Francisco anymore, he was in Los Angeles. That was a huge difference, especially when he'd only ever left San Francisco to visit family or go on vacation, never to investigate strange underground tunnels in search of a strange woman with even stranger powers.
Will didn't like this. Call it instinct, or perhaps a product of his power. There was something... wrong. Something about this place was foreboding, like something momentous was about to happen. The information Mason had brought back from his own meeting with the Doctor
But he wasn't a man given to random fantasy, so he brushed it off. A mistake, on his part.
The weather was certainly suitable for the occasion. The clouded sky left the light as dim and grey, and the powerful wind sent loose clothing flapping everywhere. The only thing that could've made it even better suited would be rain. Will shook his head in mild despair; he knew he was being melodramatic when he started thinking about whether the weather was suitable for what he was doing.
The knock of Dom's hand on the door forced Will out of his reverie and back into the real world. Unfortunately, the result of this was that he was left feeling just as awkward as the rest of them as nothing happened for a while.
Then, the sound of footsteps on the other side. There was a sound of metal grinding on metal, like some heavy bar was being removed.
The door opened.
It soon became obvious that we were but on the threshold of the discovery.
| Will Chase | 338 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Sept 22, 2017 13:32:44 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Sept 22, 2017 13:32:44 GMT
| When Will first received the message from Dom he had been hoping it was just a nightmare, but two weeks had passed without him waking up. The existence of abilities like theirs was no longer only professed by conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat enthusiasts, it was starting to gain serious traction. The whole thing was gaining more and more coverage - it was far beyond local news by now, with even international groups sitting up and taking notice. The second video hadn't helped.
Maybe they could keep things under wraps until the whole world forgot, but there was no way Alice or Dominic would stand for that. She was far too noble and he, well, Dominic's attitude had reminded Will of nothing so much as a shark scenting blood in the water. The younger man had seen opportunity, and seemed determined to grasp it with both hands and not let go.
Will couldn't even say he was wrong to do so.
Not that he could've done much to stop it. He wasn't exactly in fighting shape at the minute, not since the baseball bat had slammed into his elbow and fractured the bone. There was no miracle doctor this time, leaving him with a short hospital stay and, once he finally managed to escape, a cast. The thug had gone down easily enough to Alice and Mason, which was something he was grateful for; had they not been there, he'd be worrying about more than his elbow.
He'd resigned himself to sitting around for the few weeks it'd take to heal, which meant he was very surprised when he sat down for a coffee and saw a familiar face on the opposite side of the street.
Will didn't realise who exactly he was seeing for a few seconds, but when he did he stood and left without even touching his coffee.
After all, he hadn't seen Harry in weeks and Will had questions.
It was definitely the man he had met before: the same leather jacket and jeans, the same asian cast, the same confident walk that said so clearly 'my friends are scarier than you'.
Will knew the streets of the city like he knew the back of his hand, which left him feeling rather confused by the direction his quarry was travelling. While there were significant things in this direction - Saints Peter and Paul Church and the Church of Scientology, to name a couple - none of them seemed the sort of thing the Harry that Will had met would be interested in. Admittedly, their meeting had been brief and Harry had possessed a specific goal, but Will believed he had a fairly accurate read on the younger man.
He walked for going on half an hour before Harry finally entered a building. He walked down set of steps recessed into the street and stepped through a nondescript black door at the bottom. The peeling paint made it look exactly like every other door on the street. The only thing that set it apart was the man that could be glimpsed just inside the door frisking Harry as the door swung shut behind him.
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
| Will Chase | 527 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Aug 23, 2017 16:43:56 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Aug 23, 2017 16:43:56 GMT
| Four on one was not a winning scenario for Will, particularly since three of them were armed and he was not. A baseball bat, a crowbar and a length of pipe; a good enough blow from any of them would put him out for the count, quite possibly for good.
Will didn't think the doctor would resurrect him again.
There's a difference between learning how to fight, and learning how to intimidate, and that difference was the only thing that allowed Will to do as well as he did. Three of his four opponents were armed, and even had they not been the number advantage left the fight firmly in their favour, but none of them knew how to use the weapons they carried properly; they came in with wild swings, blows so obvious that, had he only fought them one at a time, Will probably could've taken them on blindfolded and still avoided most of their attacks.
Even the smallest of the four, the one Will had disarmed earlier, was swinging wild haymakers that, even if they hit like battering rams, were so easy to see coming that they might as well have been spitballs.
One on one against any of the four, Will would've won handily. But it wasn't one on one, it was four on one, and Will was reminded of that unfortunate fact when he swayed aside to avoid a swing of the crowbar and nearly took a blow from the pipe in the face. The reminder was all the more insistent when he ducked a punch, replying with a quick jab to the man's solar plexus, and the baseball bat caught him in the thigh. The bone didn't break, thankfully, but it did send Will staggering away from the four.
He had been right, he had no hope in hell of winning this on his own.
Then, suddenly, he wasn't on his own anymore as the door burst open and... nothing happened. Will sagged slightly, if there was going to be a moment for an inspiring arrival by a group of reinforcements, it had just occurred and there was no help to be seen.
Then, a glimmer of hope. There was, after all, one absolutely amazing young man that Will had recently become acquainted with, a man with a real talent for avoiding attention. Then baseball bat tripped over nothing, and Will felt that glimmer of hope explode into a burst of new confidence and he advanced on the three standing men. Four on one had been a losing scenario, but now it was four on two, with one of the four winded and the other face down on the floor with, at the very least, a broken nose.
Mason's presence was a godsend, for while he was no tougher than any other man the thugs couldn't see him to hit him, so he was able to harass them and keep them from focusing all their attention on Will, who was finally able to leverage his greater experience and training to start turning the course of the fight. Even with Mason's help however, the fight was still close.
In that regard, Paladin's arrival was probably the best thing that could've happened, short of the entire SFPD smashing down the front door. In another regard, it was the worst thing that could've happened - while Will, Mason, and three of the thugs were staring at the girl in the wall, the fourth thug swung his crowbar in a devastating blow that smashed into Will's elbow.
There was a moment where he didn't quite realise what had happened, then the pain hit.
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
| Will Chase | 605 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Jul 21, 2017 16:59:21 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Jul 21, 2017 16:59:21 GMT
| Alice sent the man immediately behind Will crashing back down the staircase in a flurry of limbs almost as soon as he reached the top, but while Will immediately opened the door to the side and stepped into the second floor he heard Alice instead start up the stairs to the third floor, separating them. He would've gone up after her, or at least called out to warn her that she was just trapping herself, but he could hear their pursuers coming up the stairs behind them and hesitated.
It was only for a second, but that second was enough to leave him cut off from his friend by what felt like at least six men, all of whom were more than willing to cause serious harm, judging by the guns some of the attackers had been carrying.
Will slammed the door shut as loudly as he could, before sprinting over to the side of the open space that made up the vast majority of the second floor. He smashed a window, again making sure to create as much noise as possible, before sprinting back to the door to the staircase just as it opened and a man with knife stepped into the room.
Will had not thought his actions through as much as he would later claim. They had been a likely misguided reaction to his fear for Alice's safety, and his anger at himself that he had been so foolish as to let the group go out and try to fight crime. Had he taken the time to think, he would've realised that Alice's ability protected her against most forms of attack these men would have access to, possibly even against bullets, while he himself was still just as vulnerable as he had been before the accident. Even then, however, he likely would've still done the exact same thing.
Will was a man who would always choose to risk himself over risking other people. It was just who he was.
That was why when he realised that he and Alice had been separated, he chose to draw as much of the attention of their pursuers away from her and onto himself. After all, he was the elder, he was the one with training, and he was the one who should've known better. Alice was younger than Ashley and, unfortunately for Will, just similar enough to her to hammer on his protective instincts.
Will tore his arms out of his coat as he ran and threw the heavy thing on the first assailant even as the man was getting his bearings, blinding him just long enough for Will to rip the knife out of his hand, throw it as far away as he could and kick the man into the wall. Then the next man was through the doorway and swinging a baseball bat, smashing it into Will's raised left forearm in a blow that almost broke the bone in an instant. Had the thug had more room to build up his swing Will would've been left with a shattered forearm, but even with the bone still intact the agony left the arm virtually unusable.
Will backed away as two more men pushed into the room, leaving him alone with four attackers, a busted arm, and no way out.
Sometimes, being a nice guy just wasn't worth it
Jump into an open grave? What kind of idiot are you? I might as well put on a red shirt and volunteer for the away team.
| Will Chase | 559 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Jun 27, 2017 21:00:01 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Jun 27, 2017 21:00:01 GMT
| Will found himself reminiscing of the good old days - just a few days before, actually - when Alice hadn't smashed a drug dealer through a wall.
Why you ask?
Probably because back then he wasn't being shot at by a bunch of very angry looking men with guns. Will disliked being shot at; had he been a more humorous man he might've quipped about being allergic to bullets, but as it was he just really liked being alive. His sister may have had her faith to tell her that she'd be fine after death, but Will was the kind of skeptic who'd talk about wanting proof then really wish he'd just shut up and gone to church when he was in a position where he might possibly get it.
Fortunately, being as incredibly cynical as he was about this whole idea, he had brought his own gun. Even more fortunately, none of the thugs appeared to have visited the range recently and they'd missed every shot.
Will was already moving as Alice smashed in the nearest door and he darted in after her, pulling his gun out of his pocket as he did so. She'd probably be pissed at him later - Alice seemed the kind of person to have a problem with killing people (though severe bodily harm appeared totally fine, considering what she'd done to that drug dealer) - but he'd deal with that issue when he came to it. It wasn't as if he was going to be killing anyone if he could help it, he'd prefer to avoid even needing to shoot any of their attackers, but he wasn't sure she'd see it that way, or if he'd be able to avoid killing someone; given a choice between the lives of any of them, and the lives of their attackers, he sure as hell wouldn't prioritise the lives of the attackers.
They were in a warehouse, with trash on the floor and a stairwell to the side. No cover, nothing they could shelter behind. Alice was already dashing up the staircase and Will followed, turning when he heard the sound of a heavy boot striking the warehouse floor. He hefted the gun in his hand and took a careful aim, hesitated a moment, then fired.
The bullet smashed into the floor beside the man's foot and glanced off, slamming home into the wall beside the door. There was a shout of surprise as the thug froze in shock and terror only for the man behind him to collide with him at a run, sending the two of them down in a tangle to more shouts from their fellows. Will fired twice more, hoping to keep them from poking their heads round and seeing him standing exposed on the stairs, before turning to finish his climb to the second floor, hoping against hope that there might be some way out of this that didn't involve needless death.
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal
| Will Chase | 491 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Post by Will Chase on Jun 2, 2017 19:27:12 GMT
| Will liked Mason, he did. The man was honest, brave, and most importantly of all, uncomplicated. He was someone that Will could understand with relative ease. Not like Persephone, who hid everything behind a mask, or Alice who was just a little too enthusiastic about becoming a hero for it to be wholly normal.
But, no matter how much Will liked the younger man, he didn't at all feel reassured by Mason's claim to have a good sense of direction and good leadership skills. Call it a gut feeling.
Claire had chosen to be the backup driver; Will approved - she not only actually had a car, having picked up one to replace the one she'd lost in the crash while most of the rest of them hadn't gotten around to it yet, but she was sensible and seemed reliable. Will still didn't have a good enough read on Persephone to fully trust her, and Alice and Mason were far too invested in the whole superhero thing to be trusted to sit waiting in a car for an indeterminate amount of a time. Even with as little knowledge of them as he had, Will was confident that neither would've lasted long.
Alice wanted him to be their backup in case Mason missed some threat or other. It made sense to Will, his ability certainly seemed made for the task at first glance, but he worried that she would place too much reliance on the idea that he would know if any danger was near. He still didn't know how his power really worked after all, it might only pick up on lethal intent and ignore people who just wanted to hurt someone, rather than kill them. That wouldn't be particularly helpful, considering that the number of actively murderous people on the streets of even a place as large as San Francisco was incredibly small. Hell, he didn't even know whether someone had to be actively intent on causing harm to trigger it.
But he'd long since given up on dissuading Alice, and found himself resigned to going along with it and hoping that he could keep her from getting herself and everyone else killed.
Mason was lost for what to do, apparently. Will fortunately managed to avoid expressing his relief; it wasn't that he didn't think they could deal with trouble, but he'd much rather avoid going anywhere near it at all. They still didn't know if Alice was bulletproof after all - that was one thing not even she had wanted to test.
Will was about to speak up, to suggest a potential course of action when suddenly he felt it. A pressure, like his skull was being pushed into the front of his brain. It was something he'd felt only once, and he was not at all pleased to be feeling it again, particularly since it was far more intense now than it had been when he first experienced it. "Guys," he said, voice low, "we've got trouble coming, and it feels really bad."
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
| Will Chase | 506 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
|
Post by Will Chase on May 7, 2017 21:29:47 GMT
| This whole thing had been a dumb idea from start to finish.
That was perhaps too harsh, but Will wasn't feeling particularly charitable after what Alice had done. He apparently hadn't spent long enough telling her to avoid drawing attention, because she'd smashed a guy into a wall and there was no way he was going to forget it. Perhaps if she was six foot five and built like a brick outhouse the drug dealer might've dismissed it, but she was a five foot five slip of a girl. The human mind could ignore things it didn't understand when they were small details, but no one would forget something like that.
Dominic hadn't helped much by electrocuting the other man; Will knew he was being particularly unfair in this case, because if Dom hadn't acted Alice might've ended up dead, but he couldn't help himself.
There was a difference between making yourself known to the world at large, as Dominic had originally suggested, and making yourself known exclusively to the criminal element of whatever city you happened to be in. The former granted a degree of protection - when people are in the public eye they can't just disappear without questions being asked - but the latter, not so much. San Francisco was far from the most dangerous city in the US, but none of its gang bosses were dumb enough to leave a group of dangerous vigilantes alone.
He had held his tongue for the week since then, despite his displeasure. While he would permit himself the luxury of being angry at the consequences of Alice's eagerness, he could hardly criticise it; too few people were willing to do something as it was, without him doing his best to turn away one who was.
The others were in their fancy costumes, even Mason - Will still didn't quite understand the younger man's desire to wear a flamboyant, near skin-tight suit when no one but himself and whoever he managed to stretch his field to encompass could see it. Only he and Claire - Ink, he reminded himself; he might find the whole superhero names thing a little silly, but he knew the value of hiding your name from people who might want you dead - lacked the fancy costumes.
He wasn't the leader of their little group - that was probably Dominic, though Alice was certainly the most motivated - but he chose to answer Mason's question anyway, crossing his arms behind his back.
"Better that you go ahead Mas- Spectre. Paladin and Surge are rather conspicuous after all, and I believe your dreams of heroism would be rather spoiled if people mistook you for overenthusiastic comic book fans. It's not quite the heroic introduction I imagine you desire."
An open mind is like a fortress with its gates
unbarred and unguarded
| Will Chase | 460 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
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Apr 20, 2017 16:51:19 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Apr 20, 2017 16:51:19 GMT
| Will doubted Dom's words. He hadn't minded being a mentor to young officers in the force - so long as they were sensible - but there was a difference between trained police officers, even if they were inexperienced, and a few totally untrained civilians. Namely, the former could at least be expected to pay attention to the guy training them.
Alice in particular, though well meaning for sure, seemed to be the kind of person that'd throw themselves into dangerous situations before taking the time to think it through. Will had seen it before, and it rarely ended well.
Once again, he found himself missing the security that came with being a member of a large organization of men with guns. No one with any sense would dare attack a cop unprovoked, but a group of over-eager vigilantes? If they weren't careful, they wouldn't last a month before someone came down on them hard. San Francisco still had its own mob, and the Queen of Spades had a lot of power in the city and neither were appreciative of people who tried to upset the status quo.
"Well, here's hoping you're right Dominic. Send me a message when you've arranged everything, I'll make sure to be there. Can't have you getting yourselves killed now, can we?"
With that, they said their farewells and left the warehouse. Dominic had whatever it was that he needed to do and Will... well, Will had a mystery to solve.
Better safe than exsanguinated.
| Will Chase | 245 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
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Apr 16, 2017 11:08:33 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Apr 16, 2017 11:08:33 GMT
| Will knew Dominic was right, he was expecting too much. His bitterness was illogical, he was self-aware enough to know that at least, but knowing that only made it easier for him to recognise that it was affecting him, not for him to get rid of it.
Dominic's suggestion of trying to speak with people who might already know more was a good one, and one he would have to follow up when he got the chance. Will had never been quite as dismissive of conspiracy theorists as many of his contemporaries. As a man who sought the truth, no matter the cost, he could not help but respect the desire to reveal all, even if many of their ideas were, frankly, ludicrous. Someone would know something, he'd just have to find them.
The suggestion was energizing; finally, he had a path he might be able to follow to the truth.
"I'll look that up, see if I can find anything."
Dominic's second idea was also a good one. While Will was hardly the most qualified person to train burgeoning vigilantes, he was certainly in a better position to make sure that they didn't end up dead or in prison than anyone else. He knew where to avoid, who to not piss off if you wanted to survive the week and how far you could go without breaking the law and going to jail. Though he doubted they'd really appreciate it, not many were aware of the real slog involved in police and PI work, he also knew how to listen in on conversations or tail people without being noticed.
San Francisco was far from the worst city in the country, but it had its fair share of rough neighbourhoods, and even had its own crime lord, though Will hadn't managed to turn up much on the guy since leaving the SFPD. As nice as it was to no longer have to deal with quite so much red tape, there's something to be said about having a dozen guys with guns to back you up if you get into a dangerous situation, so he'd needed to be a lot more cautious.
"I'll see what I can do, if you really want my help. If you do, it would be better if you could get everyone together here, so we can get it over with quicker."
An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
| Will Chase | 393 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
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Apr 12, 2017 19:52:15 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Apr 12, 2017 19:52:15 GMT
| Dominic's vehemence surprised Will. The older man certainly wasn't happy with the current state of affairs, but Dominic seemed to have a real hatred of them that surprised him.
He hadn't come across as a man who held grudges or got angry easily, but as level headed and genial.
Perhaps it was something in particular about the situation, rather than what Dominic was like personally, that was making him aggressive. Will would be the first to admit that he was far from the best at dealing with people, but he could normally make a fairly accurate profile and Dominic's attitude was throwing him off. But that wasn't important, Will reprimanded himself. He was distracting himself, as he had done before, deliberately avoiding considering the issue which most needed his attention.
"That's the problem here Dom, I don't have any more than I did the last time we met. Not a whisper from Harry, or any of his compatriots, and nothing more from or about the doctor. That's why I'm bitter, even the most difficult cases I've had before I've normally had some way to find out more, but right now I have nothing."
Will winced slightly at Dom's pitch. It wasn't that he didn't see the logic in it, because he did. Dominic was intelligent, and he'd obviously put thought into what he was saying, but Will was still unconvinced, and he made sure to tell the younger man so.
"And... I still don't think drawing attention to this is a good idea just yet. That was my bitterness talking. I mean, even ignoring the moral debate as to whether or not we have the right to reveal this, for as long as we keep the information hidden, we have leverage. As soon as we reveal it, that leverage vanishes, and we're no longer in a position of any strength. So far as I know, the only person that knows who all of us are is the doctor, and it's unlikely that she'd turn against us after the work she put into saving us. But someone else? Someone who sees an opportunity, or threat, in us? We might not be so lucky a second time."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"It's not that I disagree with your desire to blow this whole thing wide open, I just... well, I'd just like to have a little more information first."
There aren't any magical words, really. Words just hold the magic.
| Will Chase | 397 Words |
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If I have something to say, I want it to be meaningful.
CLASSIFICATION
Gleam
POWER
Advanced Telepathy
AGE
41
Civilian
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Apr 11, 2017 13:18:55 GMT
Post by Will Chase on Apr 11, 2017 13:18:55 GMT
| No connection, again.
There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the abilities they had gained. No unifying thread which might explain why their powers had manifested in this manner. No indication that there was any link at all between them. From whatever Will himself could do, to Mason's invisibility, to Alice's apparent redirection of energy, or something. There had to be a link somewhere, but if there was then he had no idea what it was.
Onto more pressing matters, however, Dominic had a point. The lack of further contact from anyone had left Will jumpy, forever expecting the Doctor, Harry or someone else like them to appear before him. He despised his own lack of knowledge, and hated his inability to learn more.
He stopped pacing in front of the younger man and clasped his hands behind his back.
"I've tried looking for them, that's what I've been doing the last few days. But I still know so little that it seems impossible. They could be anyone, and their abilities could be anything. The doctor healed us, and after meeting with me she vanished from a hospital simply by stepping into a closet."
"Maybe she's more powerful than most, or perhaps she has allies, but I don't know. And that makes this whole thing all the more difficult. Hell, for all we know there are more like Mason, hidden from view. He could get into anywhere on the planet with relative ease, I'm sure there are plenty who can escape anywhere just as easily."
Will sighed, slumping slightly and rubbing his brow with his right hand. "I'm not a man who gives up easily, or at all, but this is pushing me near to doing so. There's no way that I can think of to track down someone who knows anything about them, not unless they reveal themselves to us."
"Perhaps your original idea was the better one." Will's tone was bitter as he admitted what he saw as his own failure, and it was that bitterness that drove his words. "It's not like they could avoid contacting us if we revealed our newfangled abilities to the world."
For those who seek perfection, there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
| Will Chase | 361 Words |
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