A Three Hour Tour (OPEN/AEGIS)

[Timothy Smith]

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, People of All Ages and Kinds, welcome! to AEGIS HQ!"

Tim's voice boomed out in the lobby of the aforementioned headquarters. It was assisted by a little headset microphone and an amplifier he was wearing, because they'd drawn a rather large crowd. Apparently, the annual-ish Grand Tour of Aegis Headquarters was a big event for Astaria. News reporters came to do a piece on the inner workings of the world's premier, and technically only, internationally recognized superhero organization, hopeful rookies came to get an idea of what they were getting into and pick up an application, and more than one school group made it a field trip.

Really it was more of an open house in the lobby with a guided tour offering, but most people came for the tour. And this year Tim was up for tour guide duty. It made sense, really. He was public with his secret identity, he was decent at public speaking, and some of the newer tech he personally helped make. He knew what he was talking about.

"Before we get started, I have to set some ground rules. I know, I know..." he responded to the groans that came from some of the kids. "Sounds boring. But don't worry, I like to make it fun. Plus, if you pay attention and are able to answer the questions on the really easy quiz I'll give at the end of the tour, you could win some exclusive merch."

That perked the kids up, and some of the adults too. There were some collectors who tried to get the commemorative pins from each year's tour. You could buy the open house ones at the pop-up gift shop, but the tour ones were an "exclusive chase variant" that you could only get from the tour. It kept the collectors coming every year and paying the $2 tour admission fee.

"Alright, first things first, ID tags have to be on at all times. If you take it off, well our automated systems might just give you a nasty shock, and we don't want that. That'll also happen if you go somewhere you're not supposed to, so stay with the group. I know it might seem like a perfect opportunity to sneak around but remember, this is Aegis. You're in a building with some of the most powerful super-beings on the planet, and we want to keep you safe. We can't do that if you go poking around where you're not supposed to. Finally, I don't know what it was like last year but..."

He made a show of pulling out and throwing away his cue cards. Really, he had this memorized, but he liked to ad-lib anyway. "Feel free to ask questions at any time. If we need to move things along, our handy automated assistant Alice will let me know and I'll make my answers as quick as I can."

"Hello. I am Alice, and I am here to assist."

Alice intentionally put on a more monotone, robotic tone to her voice. Everyone assumed she was just a very advanced Siri-like AI, and that's the way she, and everyone else who knew the truth, wanted it to stay for now.

"Now, before we get really started, are there any questions?"

((Open, also tagging Aegis members if they want to pop up during the tour!))

[Deleted]

Astra smiled excitedly as she rushed around her apartment, getting everything ready to go to the special event today. She giggled like a school girl as she picked up her motorcycle keys. This was THE day! The day she would get her first glimpse of AEGIS! She almost jumped but quickly checked herself. She didn't want to look foolish in front of her idol Superheroes. Shrugging on her white jacket with a baby pink stripe up both sides and matching wings on the back, she took a deep breath, let it out and calmed herself down before reaching out for the door handle. It was a quick trip there, all things considered, and she was really early, hoping to get a decent spot in line. There was bound to be a lot of people wanting part of this tour.

Soon, a giant building loomed over her and she had to look up in awe. It just suited the Superhero team so well! She was surprised to see that there was no-one in line, but everyone was gathered inside the building. Grinning like a kid in a candy store she opened the door and stepped in, immediately looking around the room with wide eyes full of awe. It took her a while to get her bearings, but she soon found the application desk and gingerly picked up an application on the counter in front of a nice secretary.

Then, a loud voice boomed through the room, commanding all present to look at the head of the windowed area. Quickly, she turned and ran to join the crowd around the speaker, impressed that it was SURGE! Timothy Smith! She was ecstatic! This was the closest she ever got to him! Crushing through the crowd delicately, as silent as she could be, she got within a good viewing range of one of her Heroes. She listened and looked down at her tag when mentioned, fingering it lightly to get a look at it, smiling and looking up again as soon as she could, excited to hear all he had to say. She would be sure never to lose it! It was a connection to them in a way and she was hoping to keep it after the tour as a souvenir. She nodded sagely as he mentioned that they shouldn't go poking around where they shouldn't. Aegis did their best to protect their citizens, even the world! The people needed to do their part. Grinning as he threw his cue cards away, she almost clapped at seeing Alice! She was SO amazing! She had never heard of an AI like her anywhere else! Though she was sure she was similar to SIRI, but she secretly hoped she was more. Then the end finally came and she rose her hand as fast as her strength would allow.

Timothy Smith

[Deleted]

She could do this because it was easy so when the man started talking she slightly cocked her head to the side and then straightened it up. Rules made sense because who knew what would happen if you did not have them. Chaos. The answer was Chaos and still she listened. A quiz? "Totally going to fail that" she said as her eyes began to look around. This was fancy though she let out a sigh about the name tag. She looked down at hers and almost tossed it when he said something about shocks so she let it stay in place.

Her attention went to the hand that immediately shot up and she looked at the young woman as she politely passed others and made her way to the back of the line. "Sorry" she said quietly as she looked down at her name tag as she now stood in the back of the tour line. "Hey how long is this tour?" she asked some random person and the person quietly held up three fingers. "Three minutes okay yeah I can do that." The person shook their head and then said hours. "Probably one to three hours?" she said in a hushed tone.That was it. She was leaving a really nasty letter and then she had a thought. She just slowly blinked and continued to look around. "Everything is okay. I mean Micah told me not to go out by myself because he does not think that I can do this but I can and I am and I am a big girl and really these people they like protect people so yeah." Mire on the loose.

[Deleted]

She spotted Cae Mire and shook her head because it was becoming hard to know who was more of a pain in the ass between her and Micah. It was bad enough when she only had to worry about her brother spouting off about Aegis but now had he roped her in too? She simply held up both of her index fingers and crossed them as she made her way over to the young lady. "Let's go right now."

She did not care to be here because heroes died and who wanted to do that. "I'll buy you a flower or how about some candy?" There had to be something that she could bribe this young lady with. "We don't belong here so come with me. I'll give your money back if you are worried about that."

She started to stomp her foot and demand that Trove come out right now when a woman came up to her and handed her a blank name tag. She looked at the woman and shrugged as she pinned the blank name tag to her shirt. As the name tag touched her shirt the ribbon that her shirt was made of began to place itself along the blank space and simply put the name Ribbon making sure to put a small decorative piece for the mark above the I which of course would be indicated as a place marker for the dot that was above the I usually.

"Oh great looks like we're touring together." Well actually Trove was touring because Ribbon pulled out her phone and dusted it off as small S' began to flicker across the screen. She quietly smacked it as the man was waiting on questions and it flicked on, volume down luckily. "Ooh Words with Friends. Look at that it's still my turn, just give me a slight nudge when we need to move please."

[Deleted]

....a few hours ago....

Impulse sat on top of his favorite buildings rooftop several stories above the ground, he wasn't wearing his nanobot mask because he was tossing chocolate covered raisins into his mouth. He was also scrolling the internet on his phone with the other, not that he was that cocky....actually Impulse was cocky....he loved reading all the Impulse stories...

IMPULSE THE AEGIS BAD BOY SAVES THE DAY AGAIN!.............

........RUSSIAN SLEEPER AGENTS FOILED BY IMPULSE!

WHERE ARE THE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES? HERO IMPULSE KNOWS......

........IMPULSE FATHERED BATBOY SAYS MOM!

The man who played Impulse enjoyed it too, but Arthur Glass had been battling with letting his true identity be revealed a policy that Aegis allowed each hero to make with full support from the team on either choice. Arthur had picked to remain hidden and allowing Impulse to be the heroes face. Ten years of service and just a few weeks to decide Art was choosing to reveal his identity to the public, all the proper steps to protect the few people in his life had been made. Art was ready for the fame and he hoped honestly that somewhere and somehow that son of a bitch Bakuhatsu was watching. It was all part of the long game.

Standing up Impulse put away his phone and the rest of his candy, this suit was amazing and his own design but since the bank heist Tim had put in a few tweaks of his own! The best so far, with a push of his button his nano mask quickly covered his face. An email had come through:

THE ANNUAL TOUR IS IN 20 MINUTES! - ALICE

Without a second thought Impulse falls forward off the building and the suit's newest add kicked in as jets carried him forward! The motorcycle hadn't been cutting it for response time so after the bank heist Art gave up trying to equip this feature himself and asked Tim. It was awesome and Impulse had cut his travel across town in nearly half of what he use too!

WEEEE-WOOOOO!!! WEEEEEE-WOOOOO!!!

Sirens in the distance, gunfire, and some bad guys. Impulse had twenty minutes to kill and what better way to make an introduction than bringing in some ba-

A bullet tinged off of his left shoulder and it seemed the masked men making a stand against some cops spotted him flying in. He had no option now so he came in fast landing behind the three masked men. They all turned startled as Impulse kicked one man in the chest sending him flying into the car they had defended. One guy took off while the last one attempted to crack Impulse in the face with their gun but Inpulse was quicker catching the man by his wrist and cross checking him with a solid punch. Impulse began to hover above the ground, "Officers you can pick this guy up at Aegis headquarters....its PR officers!"[/color]

Impulse with his knocked out bad guy launch into the air, flashes from cameras lit up the exit.

......at the Aegis tour....

Impulse landed right at the entrance of his job/home the Aegis building with a unconscious but now handcuffed bad guy slung over his shoulder. When he entered most of the attention was quickly turned towards Impulse, "Oh my God its Impulse," screamed a woman. The entire tour group turned its attention as security guards approached Impulse, "The good men of Astria PD should be on their way to retrieve this scum, so hold him for us guys! Hello proud people of Astria,"[/color] cameras began to flash rapidly as Impulses mask suddenly melted away and for the first time the public was seeing the face behind Impulse. Arthur's heart was beating so hard and rapidly that he was sure these people could see it, but he flashed his smile and gave his signature Impulse salute.

[Deleted]

She nodded at Ribbon and spoke. "Sure" she said as she eyed her friend's phone and heard the screams of a woman which caused her attention to be pulled out of the conversation with Ribbon but she did nudge her as she spoke. "If she really wanted his attention she would pretend to be lost instead of screaming. Do you know how many women probably scream that man's name?"

She shook her head as the man's mask begin to melt away and she stared at his face. Memory Locked."Hey Ribbon look over at him" she said as she reached over and grabbed her friend's phone. "I will take this" she said as she put the phone in her pocket and spoke again. "I'm going to jump on him and pretend to be his number one fan girl. How long before you think security comes and drags me off and more than that do you think I can get a memory locked of what he smells like?"

She was really considering it. "Alright here I go. Listen to the man giving the tour carefully and let me know what I miss. Impulse seems like he is about five steps away from me so this should not take long." She slowly began to walk through the sea of people.

Ribbon Harmony

[Deleted]

Ribbon looked at Cae Mire when she took her phone and she slightly raised her eyebrows and pouted in synchronization but it did not seem to matter as Trove started talking about..was it called fan girling? "Sounds fun," she said as she looked all over the inside of the building and then let out a sigh as she stared up at the top of the building as the line of obscenities left her mouth. "I knew this was a bad idea."

Ribbon slightly ran her hands through her hair and spoke."She's going to get caught red handed if she tries to touch him." Ribbon was sure that Trove knew the consequences she just was not sure that Trove cared. The red ribbon quietly wrapped itself around Ribbon's hand and she looked over the people and spotted Trove but more than that she spotted her phone that had been taken from her. Ribbon quietly ducked down in the crowd of people and pushed the ribbon off of her hand and along the floor watching as she spoke. "I'm going to kill Trove. I am going to kill her and then I will just tell Micah he should have watched her better." The ribbon rolled and curved. "I need my phone back."

As if on cue the ribbon carefully turned itself extremely thin and slightly turned itself along Trove's pocket and wrapped itself around the phone. Ribbon watched as she was being forced to squat to make her way through the crowd. "Sorry, sorry," she said as she bumped a few of the people that were coming for the tour but were a little late but seemingly not turned away. Aw there was a beautiful girl in the crowd with dark hair and a nice tan that slightly reminded her of Mila and Ribbon completely lost her focus as she started to think about Mila. The ribbon turned itself on the other end that was still in Ribbon's hand and ran itself along her arm breaking her concentration. "Stop that tickles," she said under all the sounds of the different conversations going through the crowd but at least that put her attention back on Trove.

"Alright carefully now, get my phone." It was not commands that made the ribbon work but the fact that since the ribbon sprouted itself from her scalp the ribbon had a connection with Ribbon and would always give her what she needed not for others but for herself in order to keep her balance and that phone was important. The ribbon took itself and made itself a little wider so that it could now wrap itself around the phone. "Alright now give the phone a little tug so that she stops what she is doing and gets back here." Ribbon turned her head and looked through the people. "Before the crowd starts to move and we get escorted out for suspicious activity."

[Timothy Smith]

They had a pretty decent group this year. Some people seemed a little distracted, but he was sure he could bring them around once he got to the training rooms. Really though, Impulse walking through the door and taking off his mask really drew everyone's attention.

Tim shot him a couple looks. The first one was sort of a "really, you're bringing your perp through the front door during the open house?" and then the second was "are you aware that your mask is off and you really want to do this?" Arthur had been pretty good about keeping his identity secret from the public, and from the look on his face, Tim could tell that he was ready to go public. Guess he wanted to skip the press conference.

"Ladies and Gentlemen and Everyone Else, we've got a special guest. His name is Arthur Glass, but you probably recognize him and know him better as the hero Impulse! Hey, now that he's gone public, he might get the honor of leading the tour next year."

Tim leaned towards the crowd, put his hand on the side of his face as if trying to hide his mouth from anyone watching, and in a loud stage whisper said "He'll definitely have to stick to the cards though."

Art's dramatic entrance had shaken them up, but Tim had done this a couple times.

"Alright folks, let's get back on track. We've got a limited amount of time and a lot to see. Now, miss," He pointed at the woman he remembered had her hand up, "I believe you had a question? Let's hear it as we start heading toward our training areas. Please follow the glowing orb, when it's green we're going to be moving, when it's red that means we're stopping to see something!"

Tim's powers made following him very very easy to do. He was a hard man to lose in a crowd. This was why he didn't go on stealth missions that often.

((Alright, the tour is moving! By way of reminder, as per our rules we are to keep to a posting order unless permission has been obtained to skip whoever is next up, so let's try to keep to it. That being said, @astraica is up next, followed by Cae Mire, then Ribbon Harmony, and finally @impulse before coming back around to me. This thread is also still open, so if anyone new wants to join, they can pop in at any point, and then that will be their place in the posting order.))

[Morrigan Cavanaugh]

Morrigan was fully aware that the tour was on.  And she was also fully aware she had a shit ton of paperwork to do.  However, this was the one time people were in the Aegis building and she wasn't going to miss it.  After all, it was only last year she'd become a Pillar.  It was time.  But she wasn't about to just walk up to them.  Oh no that had no professional sensibility.  And when she was melted into the shadows, she literally WAS the shadows.  She could become shadows.  She smiled, then saw Impulse come in and steal the show by showing off his public identity.  Well, she couldn't let him have the spotlight for too long.  Of course, she was still in her costume because she didn't reveal her identity to the public.  Her outfit was a bunch of black leather with straps all over.  And a brown leather jacket over it because well...it was revealing around the chest so she had to adapt.  And then a domino mask to top it off.  She let herself become normal instead of made of shadow, walking out of the shadow casually and slowly.  And then Morrigan spoke at the same time.

"I know you like to make an entrance Arthur, but please keep the criminal away from the floor.  Blood is really hard to scrub out of the tiling grout.  If it gets in there, I'm making you scrub the floor of the entrance."  She smirked, walking over to Tim.  She looked down.  She was taller, but also she fought in leather boots that had wedge heels.

"I thought I would join you for the tour.  After all, we only do this once a year, and this is my first time."  She grinned, turning to the tour group.

"Hi .  I'm Shade, the newest successor of one of the Pillars.  Nice to see you all showing you an interest in our organization."


@astraica

[Deleted]

Ichiro and Kenji came in a little late to the tour of Aegis, however their badges were ready with their names and the company the represented Ito Future. Ichiro was excited about the tour, science was amazing. It was factual. He was a walking scientific mystery himself as were his niece and nephews, half the world was now. Evolution of the human race so far had been baffling as new powered humans were born more and more every day, and no one understood them anymore than he did. He had spent years studying himself too.

"Impressive?" Kenji stated in Japanese as he clipped his badge to his lapel. Ichiro nodded as shoved both of his slender hands into his pockets joining the tour group, "For American technology that is."[/color]

The two men's eyes never left the hero the world called Surge, Ichiro wasn't impressed the boy looked normal by all means but what he could do was amazing and his mind was even more, but he stood for everything he didn't. Good. Justice.

"Everything that makes us nasty....nasty little traitor....can blow him up?!"[/color] it was the cold broken voice of Bakuhatsu whispering to Ichiro from inside his demented mind, "Be quiet you little silly beast, what would that accomplish here? On their doorstep? Didn't you hear him, they have some of the most powerful superhumans on the planet here! It would be a waste to get here so soon and lose it all Baku. You'll get your boom time in friend just in due time."

No one could see the warped view that Ichiro battled with, instead they see a cool calm friendly Asian man. Smile and nod. Smile and nod.

"I hates it! And isn't he here? Impulse?"[/color]

Impulse.

Ichiro bit the inside of his cheek and the taste of copper quickly filled his mouth, Impulee has been his archenemy for years now and here he was in the mans very own backyard. He was going to kill that man just as he did his brother, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I love it when you get frustrated Ichy, the blood boils and the sweat pours...BOOM!BOOM! BOOM!"

As Surge went on about the rules Ichiro was very impressed with ALICE, Kenji jotted notes in his Uncles little black notebook. Tim Smith was more impressive than he had thought, Ichiro hated to see such a brilliant mind go to waste for the protection of humans. What they could do together and what they will do together once he gets the clearance to met with him. So many plans. So many clueless idiots.

"Oh my God its Impulse!

The entire crowd turned its attention to the ridiculous cocky little rodent known as Impulse as he entered the Aegis building, all Ichiro saw was red. He didn't even know he was sweating until Kenji cleared his throat, "Uncle," Ichiro was still only half paying attention but he pushed a button on his watch that triggered his power nullification gear, "Do you want to leave?"

Ichiro just shook his head and smiled, even though inside he screamed with rage, and Baku with laughter.

"Ohhhh....numb me as much as you want Icky but that guy just makes you boil over with rage...I love it!"

As the sweat slowly dried he simply smiled at Kenji, "And miss the opportunity to meet the great Impulse? Arthur said he was a cocky. But this? Hmm."

Then it happened he was staring at the masked hero he had battled on many occasions and the next the mask melted away....Arthur Glass....he felt the stab of pain in his heart! All these years....

"Ooooohhhhhh Icky it looks like your boy was your enemy...."[/color] Bakuhatsu began and slowly descended into a fit of cold laughter. Ichiro closed his hands into a fist so tight that his nails dug into his skin, "You....you...bastard! Sure I was just going to use this fool to get as close to Aegis as I could but...but...," his thoughts were so jumbled now as he tried to sort out what he just saw while Bakuhatsu laughed manically, "You were my best friend you son of a bitch!"

Kenji tried to read his Uncles face but Ichiro looked calm, he was smiling as the crowd did. Kenji knew Arthur too, this was a shock. A true revelation.

"This could be good Icky....we have the face of a true enemy boom! Boom!" laughed Bakuhatsu and suddenly Ichiro felt calm, "Old friend you may be right, the hunt is over before it even started! I've won and no one knows it, I can get as close as I ever wanted now. I can kill the Impulse..."

"Come on nephew let's get closer! I can't believe it, Arthur?!" Ichiro moved through the crowd waving to his best friend, "What a day!"

"Best day ever Icky! Best day ever mwhahahahahahahaaahahahahahahah!"

@astraica