Our story continues on Friday, December 27th, at noon in an abandoned warehouse by Lake Michigan...

Whistler, not wanting to disrupt the desired secrecy of the breakout who she calls The Mason, opted to take her motorcycle to the warehouse and a thin, hooded sweatshirt -- sleeves cut off -- under her usual biker leathers for the sake of concealing more of her appearance than just the domino mask did.

She motored into the industrial park around the warehouse quietly as she reasonably could, the engine growling quietly until she shut it off, dropped the kick and pocketed her keys.

A soft whistling began as Dani powered her flight to very briefly jet over the chain link fence and continued into the warehouse, eyes darting back and forth for the Mason, an ambush, or any fine Chicago people who she'd rather not have witness the meeting.

"Mr. Mason? It's Whistler!" She called out in a stage whisper.

The 'Mason' had arrived early, ridiculously so.  Logically, there was little to fear.  He knew that.  But he was a careful person by nature and his worry (and lack of any real 'training' or clue about any of this) did little to assuage that concern.  So sadly, he stood immobile, waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.  All the while questioning if ANY of this was a good idea.  But he had to do something and he couldn't think of anything else so...

His internal worrisome round robin was interrupted as a woman entered the abandoned storage building.  She had mentioned she had little in the way of caution but he had expected a little more careful scouting.  Or maybe she did and he was just unable to detect her?  Perhaps she brought others who he couldn't sense?  He could certainly feel her now and no one else though.  But was he confident in that?  She could be scouting him out somehow?  Or maybe she really did come in good faith?  Giving himself a mental shake, he forced his nerves to settle so he could actually make a little progress on this new part of his life.

From a darkened corner, a voice like shifting sand called out though there was nothing to actually see no matter how hard one looked.  "Ms. Whistler.  Please don't be alarmed.  When I use most of these new abilities, I don't exactly look normal."  Pausing, he took a deep breath that he didn't really need and took a step forward.  From her perspective, it looked like a section of the wall detached and stepped forward, shifting down into a humanoid figure made of shifting sand or other fine dirt.  Raising his hands slowly in a placating manner, he only moved a few steps away from the wall before coming to a halt.  "As I said in our correspondence, I have real concerns for hiding my identify, protecting people I care about and all that.  I've already had a bad experience of someone tracking me; the 'real' me.  Forgive my caution in looking like this for our meeting," his voice sounding apologetic.  "I have another form that is more... dangerous looking I guess.  This seemed an acceptable middle ground.  It's nice to put a face to the voice," he added with a shifting smile.


OOC:

Whistler, who was as uncautious as they came, was hardly any shade of frightened when the Mason revealed himself to her. If anything, she looked delighted.

The mid-height young woman was, herself, not all too remarkable looking. Pretty but not doing much with it -- she wore no makeup, hadn't done much with her short hair, and generally looked more rough-and-tumble rugged than the average Jane -- and dressed in black biker leathers with copper nozzles at the shoulders, elbows, and knees, a dark hoodie, and a domino mask spirit gummed over her eyes that probably didn't hide much of her identity to anyone who got a good look.

"Well, look at you!" She chuckled, and took a hand from her jacket pocket to wave at him from across the warehouse floor. "Clearly I should have suggested Sandman. Mr. Sandman, maybe. Sandperson? I shouldn't assume your gender. No fretting about alarm, though! Not like you're the only person here who's a little weird."

To make her point, the air filled with a soft whistling -- her namesake -- as heat began to escape the nozzles, distorting the chilly winter air. She made a little hop and nozzles hidden in the soles of her boots released not steam, but gouts of blue-white fire which propelled Whistler a few feet higher and then held her there, supplemented by more bursts of flame at her joints that helped her stay steady. With her right hand, she summoned a charge of more of the intensely bright and hot flame, while the skin of her left corruscated with a cooler and more usual orange fire that she visibly struggled to keep from exploding into the open air.

And then it cut out all at once, the whistling with it, and Whistler herself hit the concrete with an honest-to-goodness three-point superhero landing. There could be absolutely no doubt that she practiced that. A lot.

"Figured I'd show you mine, only fair!" Whistler explained. "But, truly, no need to feel self-conscious. You're impressive, don't get me wrong, but I just met a kid with metal skin who might be sort of like a robot and a girl who, I shit you not, summons things out of her imagination. I don't even think she does it on purpose! I had really delicious kale chips made by a sort of muppet creature with an oven in his stomach while standing in an office building that, itself, exists in the tummy of a gigantic imagination creature named Plidinous Vogue."

Beat.

"That is a real sentence that I just said."
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:06, Mon 17 Oct 2022.

“No, I’m definitely a ‘he’,” he added quickly before whatever else he wanted to say faded away as she hopped and then flew briefly on gouts of fire.  Watching her brief flight with a sense of wonder, he couldn’t help but feel a little jealous.  Flying was just cool no matter which way you looked at it.  The sound her shoes made (he had no idea how much those shoes had to cost!) when she flew explained her name a bit though.  So much for sound or sneaking based powers.  A good lesson on assumptions too, he figured.

He had more than a few things he wanted to ask before she said…a lot of weird things.  Mason just looked at her and, while it was hard for sliding sand on a nondescript face to show emotion, looked rather skeptical.  Sure she had just flown and he was made of dirt but that sounded like just drugged induced weirdness or something.  “Um…okay?,” he responded, trying to put his thoughts back together after such a weird sentence.

“Well, you’ve clearly embraced this whole new life with powers thing.  Got the showy landing and everything,” he added with an odd sounding chuckle.  “You’re actually the first person I’ve met in person like us, though I’m set to meet others soon as well,” Mason added.  “How did you train yourself to fly, with fire no less, without being spotted?,” he asked the unimportant question first; he just couldn’t help but ask.  Unsurprisingly, he had been rather careful and somewhat reluctant in his own ‘training attempts’ and was easily far less sure than she clearly was.  The woman was confident, no question there.

“Whistler makes sense now.  I was thinking it was some kind of sound thing at first.  Honestly, before putting up the pillars, I hadn’t even thought of what to use beyond my own name.  I was toying with Geo or Marl though I guess Mason works too,” he admitted, clearly still debating with minimal progress.  “To be honest, I really don’t know what to do with all this regardless.  Just felt I should try and reach out,” he said with a shifting shrug.

Dani shrugged as if to say 'um, okay has been the last few weeks of my life.'

"I'm first, really? Well, consider me flattered! As for being spotted, well, a friend of mine owns a junkyard. I used to practice parkour there; now I practice rocket punches, focused burns, flying and..." Whistler put her hands in a prayer pose and both of them began to glow. More than glow, they shed real light. And heat. The space surrounding Whistler leapt from 20°F to 90 in the space of seconds, and waves of heat came from her palms on another level altogether. This one she actually looked careful about, keeping her eyes on the power activation until she released it and the effects vanished as quick as they came.

"And other things. But really, I... I haven't done much to avoid being spotted. I rode my bike here today as a courtesy to you, but my, er... Superpower puberty, if you will, happened while I was skydiving. Lit my parachute, went rocketing into the ground without any real control, and walked away from it. I guess I figured, since nobody saw me then, why bother now?"

Dani scratched at the back of her head thoughtfully. "But I don't live the most usual life, I guess. Dangerous things pay my bills, all the powers did was take the fun out of it. Knowing how to get hit by a car and survive is really, really boring when the car's more likely to get dented than me. But I've also had months to get used to this, and I'm getting the impression that you and a lot of the others are a bit newer to the whole... Everything.

"Oh! Geo, that's cool! I don't know what Marl means, but that's a nice sound too. Mason was just... You made stone pillars, masons work stone, pretty straight line between A and B. You definitely need a name to join the super team, though."

"Sounds lucky.  I had to carve a place out underground to ensure I had any privacy," Ryan responded, eyeing her efforts curiously.  If he had thought about it, maybe he could have come up with something simpler.  But it would have never been as certain he supposed.

"Mine was a bit more public," he said sadly.  "It was never connected to me but...it was a lot to process.  Months ago as well.  Just thought it was a dream, then that I was nuts.  Then some denial.  Took a while to build up the acceptance to try and do anything at all.  So not 'new'; just takes me longer to build up steam I guess," Ryan added with a small shrug.

"Sounds like you've got a lot of the rough and tumble skills mastered.  I did a little sports back in school but outside of a couple shoving matches, I don't think I've ever even been in a real fight.  Just wasn't my life.  Pretty much a white collar life before all this.  Family, friends, office job."  As he spoke, his sandy arm extended to double, triple the length, before shrinking down and the concrete floor around them rippled like a wave before settling to a smooth floor once more.  "Not that I need to work anymore," he added with a little shrug.

"Of course there's a super team," Ryan added more to himself than to her.  "Maybe I should have read comics or something as a kid," he said with a sandy chuckle.  "Oh, Marl is just another word for earth, terra firma.  Synonyms for the win.  But Geo works I guess.  Short and simple.  So...are you really serious?  Trying to make a super team like in the comics?  What's the goal, the point?," he asked curiously.  It wasn't like there were super criminals to stop and alien invasions to fight off.  At least, he thought that was what comics dealt with.

"Yeah, I am pretty lucky to have a friend like that, aren't I? I need to tell her that more often." Dani beamed.

To his other questions and comments, Marl/Geo/Mason got a light staccato of good-natured laughter and a shrug. "I'm a stuntwoman, I did things like this long before I could jet around the city on a plume of fire. But yeah, actually, pretty serious! The name is getting workshopped, working option right now is the Paragons of Chicago, but it's a real thing. Not, like, full-on Justice League, but Atlas -- the guy who caught the airplane, I'm sure you saw him on the news -- was already going to offer the city his participation as some form of rescue worker or first responder, and I've been trying to deal with street crime on my own. We figure it's harder to sue us for property damage and vigilanteism if we make a formal organization for the city to sanction and to use as a springboard for Good Samaritan laws.

"Besides, not every Paragon -- branding, very important -- is cuddles and kisses like you and me. I've already met at least one who ran with a gang, and he wasn't afraid to use his abilities with lethal intent. It's a lot easier to stop someone like that, especially stop them without seriously hurting them, if we have the numbers advantage."

Nodding, he offered an easy, if sandy, smile.  "Definitely set up for this life then," he agreed.  She was likely leagues ahead of him in most of this 'Paragon' stuff.  "Paragons," Ryan said, mostly to himself, rolling the word around to get a feel for it.  "Hmm.  While I'm not a lawyer, I've worked with more than a few. Short of getting a police or security contract for the city, and that's a really big if, vigilantism is a crime no matter how you slice it.  Even the 'self-defense' argument is overly analyzed with skepticism if it happens regularly I suspect," Geo remarked, not that he seemed particularly bothered by the idea. "The suing for damages though, I have some experience with.  At least in an ancillary form.  Given the current laws, you'd have to actually incorporate.  And all of that will pretty much mean things like taxes and identification and everything that goes with it."

"I agree about branding though.  Public opinion is likely going to matter a great deal.  Especially given how likely people will react with fear and such.  If enough positive opinion gets generated, it could cause a sway to have decisions made that are beneficial to those intents," Geo mused aloud, though it was clear he was skeptical of the likely hood of it happening.  "I'm far more concerned about government identification and men in black suits.  I suppose I read Firestarter once too often," he added with a humorless chuckle and a small shake of his head.

"Some of the messages I received in the pillars had folks who definitely seemed of a more aggressive intent.  Have you had to fight anyone?," he asked, both hesitant and curious at the same time.  "I tried looking for crime happening several times but I found nothing.  Though, admittedly, I was mostly wandering aimlessly in the poorer sections of town.  Really had no clue what to do honestly," he admitted.

Dani passed her hand over her head. "Pshew, totally not the woman to explain any of that to! I had to Google what Good Samaritan laws were, incorporation is a whole different world to me," she admitted with another friendly smile.

"And hey, I'm the one who starts fires, here! I wish I made Drew Barrymore money to do it but that's life, right? Anyway. Yeah, I've been in a fight or two. Not against another paragon, but some assholes who were brandishing guns at the guy I mentioned, the one who turned out to be something of a gangster himself. Besides that, not much success on the errant do-gooding for me, either; it's not really as intuitive as you'd think, even with a crime rate like ours!"

Ryan chuckled.  "Sorry.  Force of habit.  And I'm no expert anyway," waving the concern away.  "I'm sure someone will have looked into all of that."

"Need to get like a police scanner or something," Geo mused aloud.  "If money is needed, I can help with that.  A little careful work and it's fairly untraceable."

"So...do these Paragons of Chicago, name in progress, have meetings?  How'd everyone meet up?  Hell, where do you meet without being spotted?," he asked curiously.

"Yeah, somebody who isn't me. My job is being mostly fireproof, kind of bulletproof, and completely awesome," Danielle nodded sagely.

"Money? I don't know about that. Probably something you'd want to talk to Atlas about. But we actually met at your, um... Art project. The one in Millennium Park. I think Atlas, Daydreamer, and Metro all left you notes like I did, and you saw mine, so... Probably theirs too, right?

"We didn't have a whole secret super meeting there, obviously. That's when we went into the tummy of the giant imagination creature, Plidinous Vogue. It had beanbag chairs, really nice clubhouse. But that's the only time we've gotten together so far. Holidays, who has the time, know what I mean?"

Confidence in spades.  "Ok, I've got to ask.  How do you know about the bulletproof, or near enough, thing?," Geo asked curiously.  "I tried dropping a massive rock on my toes.  You know, to see if it hurt but without risking my life and all.  Barely felt it.  Never tried a gun," he admitted.

The concrete swirled up in a brief pillar and dropped off a small piece the size of a thumbnail into Geo's waiting hand before sinking back down, merging with the floor seamlessly.  Holding the broken concrete between two sandy fingers, it smoothed out into a perfect (or near enough) sphere.  Extending his hand towards her slightly, she watched as it shifted color into a fiery opal.  Tossing it to her, he nodded.  "Had to do a lot of research on geology and minerals and all that when I started working on these powers.  Not super rare or valuable or anything but kind of fits your fire I guess," he offered, revealing another aspect of himself.

He shook his head.  "Never got a message from an Atlas or a Metro.  I've spoken with Daydreamer a couple times though, through voicemail really.  Left her a message this morning actually," he explained.  "I got lots of messages but only a dozen or two that were actual possibilities of people like us.  Paragons."

That he nodded at.  "Indeed I do.  Not that whole doorway into a imaginary panda thing.  But family and holidays and stuff," he added with a gravelly chuckle.

"How do you think I know?" Dani asked, as if it were the clearest thing in the world. "Same friend who has a junk pile also owns a handgun -- legally, obviously -- and we tested that, then we went out to Gary and bought a shotgun and tested that, too! And you're going to make a face, everybody I've told this to has made a face, but I feel I must reiterate: I fell out of a plane without a parachute and suffered almost no harm. I am built Ford tough. Plus, you know, we started with fists and rocks and a paperclip and worked our way up to ballistic tests. I suffer injuries professionally, it wasn't completely unscientific."

Dani caught the opal with only a small amount of accidental juggling, and gave it a long look as she held it towards the open warehouse door and the winter sun streaming through. "Wow..." It was the softest her voice had been, although her smile wasn't going anywhere. "This is lovely. Thank you." Whistler tossed the opal up a foot and caught it, appreciating its heft and shape. "If I ever have a real super costume, this is getting worked into it."

The leather-clad pyro rubbed her fingers on her scalp with one hang and played one-handed catch with the opal as she considered that. "Daydreamer's a lovely little thing, isn't she? You don't meet a lot of pure hearts like that, especially at... I think she's 16? Maybe? Um... Oh, Karl Brennan, that's Atlas's name. He was already on the news so his identity isn't secret, but that's where his head was at on the codename. 'Here comes Karl to save the day' just doesn't roll off your tongue.

"You know... I imagined a space whale flying through the infinite realms of imagination but the inside was just an office, so... Dunno. Could have been a panda. Have to ask Daydreamer about that, I guess!"

Shaking his head wryly, Geo still offered a smile.  "Still, seems crazy doesn't it?  I only tried crushing a toe or two. Never had access to a gun; though I admit, I doubt it would have occurred to me to actually test it on myself," he admitted.

He nodded in acceptance.  "I don't do organics though.  So can't help with that; not that I know squat about sewing or the like anyway."

"Her being a teenager explains a lot actually.  Hadn't met her yet, plan to obviously, but she definitely sounds 'bubbly', I guess the word is.  Seemed fun," the sandy man said with a little shrug.  "Didn't seem particularly careful though but she is a public figure I suppose."

"Well, next time you have some weirdo doorway meeting, let me know.  I'll try to show though I'm pretty slow at turning that phone one," he admitted half shrug.  "But whatever it is she does is likely pretty secure.  I just have a hollowed out undergrounds area."

"Honestly? Whistler sat down cross-legged on the warehouse floor, rolling the fire opal between her hands. "For a while, I was more annoyed than astounded. Being tough as marble -- literally, in your case -- takes so much of the fun out of life. I'm an adrenaline junkie so, you know, not the archetypal person, but still.

"Nah, it's fine, I've got friends who do costuming I could ask to help if we get far enough for costumes. Might be able to get you something, too, if you want."

Thinking of Becca got a sweet smile out of Whistler. "She's a hoot. Pretty good yoga content on TikTok, too, did one of her routines before coming. But if and when she opens the gate to tummyland again, you will be looped in."

"You're not invulnerable though, right?  Yeah, minor things probably aren't a risk anymore.  But you can just 'scale up' all the stuff you did maybe?"

"At first, I was in complete denial.  Thought I was nuts and just had some kind of delusion or something.  Imaged the whole thing, you know?  Because that kind of thing was just impossible.  Then it was worry, fear.  How screwed my life was," he said with an uncomfortable shrug.

Geo's human form collapsed into a pile of sand before shifting/sliding back into humanoid.  "Don't think a 'costume' would work for me," he added with a chuckle.  "And no, I'm not actually naked."

Nodding, he replied easily.  "I'm looking forward to meeting some people.  Slowly trying to put myself out there, take chances.  Slow starter," Geo shrugged.  "But once I get going..."

Another big shrug, arms out. "Why do you think I've been riding around and looking for muggers? That and trying to get better at flying. My top speed potential is... A lot. But I don't know what happens if I start going faster; that's a lot of fire and speed, and physics are weird. The goal isn't to start a Second Great Chicago Fire, after all, just... Keep it fun."

Ryan recalling his distress got a sympathetic frown from Whistler. "That sounds hard, Geo. I'm sorry it was a scary time for you. But it doesn't seem like your life is screwed now, if you're able to keep your identity secret and control your shape so nicely." His display of sandy collapse got a polite applause. "Like that!"

Whistler chuckled, and stood up from the floor. "Speaking of getting going, I think we best not linger too long. Two paragons in one place, we'll eventually get the looky-loos. But we'll stay in touch, okay? You'll be really popular, I'm sure. Kids are going to be on the playground rising up out of the sandbox, 'I am Geo, master of earth and stone!" Dani emphasized her prediction with the appropriately dramatic voice and grand arm gestures towards the ceiling.

Nodding, Ryan pondered a moment.  "Not that I'm advocating or want to organize it, but maybe we should think about some kind of group activity both to keep people like you, who normal things are more boring now, entertained as well as some kind of training?  How to use powers safely, how to fight without killing someone or whatever other skill we think it's important to share.  I could probably provide a safe place to do that, or just to cut loose I guess?," he said, half to himself, just tossing the idea out there.

"Took a while but I got there.  Still not the same as having my old life but I'm keeping what I can.  But denial is kind of pointless.  This is the way it is, for who knows why," he remarked with a shrug.  He tried snapping his fingers, which clearly didn't work since they were sand, as he thought of something.  "Which reminds me.  I know I worry about this but we should probably look into some way of communicating that's a bit quicker and is harder to track.  I take the battery out of the burner phone I got when I don't look like this because of that," he finished with a shrug.

"Fair enough," he said though he added a raised shifting eyebrow at the last.  "Uh...yeah.  We'll see I guess," he offered with a small half smile.

"Training sessions? Hm... Yeah, yeah, that's got potential. I'll send it in the group text."

Whistler extracted her own burner and flipped it open, then clicked out a quick message to Daydreamer, Metro and Atlas.

"Well, we've got a group text, and you could... Leave the battery in?" Even Whistler didn't sound confident about whether that was a good idea. "I probably don't take the secrecy as seriously as I should, I'm not the best person to figure that out.

"But, hey, you want to be added to it?"

Sorry, figure we should just start to wrap this up so GM can do the time jump to New Year's!

"It's fine.  I try to keep both parts of my life separate; for as long as I can anyway," Geo answered with an apologetic shrug.  "I'll try to check more often though.  But yeah, add me to the list.  You've got my number."  He nodded to her once more.  "I'm sure you don't need it but you're good to leave without assistance?"


OOC:
No worries.  I agree.  Thanks for the RP!

"Can do!" Dani took her phone back out and made a new group text, including Geo in the bunch.

"Haha, nah, but thank you. I parked outside and jumped the fence. Take care, Geo, and happy holidays!"

With that, Whistler put her hood back up and headed for the fence, which she would leap on a flame jet the same way she came in.

OOC: Thank you, too!