Welcome to Gaia! ::

LoQuinn had wondered as he looked at the door just what sort of people would be awaiting him on the other side. Sure he'd been given a file folder to familiarize himself somewhat but then again paper didn't seem to have the same ability to react as randomly as real flesh and blood did. He also wondered as to whether he should ring the doorbell or knock. However a twist of the knob revealed it to be unlocked so he entered with a casual 'hello?'

For a moment LoQuinn wondered if perhaps he'd come to the wrong place. No, he'd triple checked the address. What awaited him was a bit less than he was expecting. This was no hub of crimefighting, no fortress of solitude. This was a woman and what could be her daughter. In casual clothing. Doing casual things. Casually. The look that the older woman gave him was something between sizing him up and what he assumed might be the way he'd look at the bottom of his shoe when scraping off gum. Undoubtedly it was because he was dressed in his standard regalia, goggles included.

LoQuinn looked at the hand that was held out to him. He wasn't a fan of handshakes or being touched by strangers for that matter. However first impressions were still being formed so he offered what he could. He tipped his head over to Meagan and gave a nod which shifted his mohawk.

"I'm LoQuinn. Though I'd appreciate if you called me 'The Gravler' outside of this room."

He had a snicker planned, but pushed it away realizing that it was more insult than joke. Even if he did have friends he would hardly be embarrassed if they saw him with a cougar and someone his age. At least that would be the spin he'd have used. If worse came to worse they'd look kinda like a family unit, he'd just be the alternative black sheep. And what was wrong with his leathers? He'd done a decent patch job since his tussle with Storm's Eye. b***h.

Megan on the other hand had at least some idea as to what the concept behind his battle-ready yet terribly-fashionable getup was all about. Though she was like a sunny day to his winter. He hoped her appearances were misleading. She looked like all the airy females he'd known in high school. Though they were easy on the eyes they were hard to stomach. If experience had taught him anything it was that he should wait a month and then make up his mind.

He held up a passing hand to the chips, instead taking the water. Whether consciously or not he'd been eating somewhat healthier as of late. He just hadn't been craving sweets or salts since he'd gotten out of the hospital. It was all for the better though, he'd started noticing slight differences here and there in his clothing.

He said I was an over-zealous amateur? LoQuinn wondered meekly. Truth be told it kinda stung, and completely deflated him. He knew that not everyone would think of him in a positive light, and he certainly could see how his eagerness might come off as obnoxious. But Charles seemed to think well of him. Or at least he acted well. It took a moment but LoQuinn decided that Charles could go play in traffic if he had something against him being motivated to succeed.

"Charles didn't tell me a great deal. I just got a file and a promise that the next time Storm's Eye and his flunkies came around I'd get the first crack at him." He sipped his water and cleared his throat before continuing. "He also mentioned there would be an earth evolved with him. I've been looking for an earth evolved to test myself against." Another sip. "I was assigned to this team so that I could be ready for my mission. Charles believes that together we will be complimentary to each other. And if Megan, Fantasia," he corrected himself "wants some practice with earth powers I'd be happy to help, but I can't manipulate what isn't present. So unless you got a rock garden around here we're going to need some stone."

He shrugged, wasn't all earthen material quintessentially solid? Particle size was his limitation, something had to have enough mass to have a voice capable of reaching his ears. Heh, as if it has anything to do with my ears. What a dumb notion, you'd think someone would have changed that turn-of-phrase when the discovered telepathy.

The day was rather nice considering the slight chill in the breeze. Pools weren't terribly common in this area except for those wealthy enough to pay extra for heating them. It said that either the NSA was willing to spoil their veteran members, or she was independently wealthy.

"Don't worry about it. You've got most of what I'm used to." He surveyed the pile of trinkets going through a mental checklist before starting. "Uh, give me a second as I sort through this."

He took a few moments removing the concrete and other man made synthetics that were apparent to him. It seemed that Jackie had thrown in a few other mineral compounds. Lead, a lump of unrefined iron, and iron pyrite got cast into the 'dismal failure' pile. What remained however was some volcanic pumice, a selection of common quartz, limestone, granite, and a smattering of other generic sedentary items.

"Alright, that looks about right. Those over there," he pointed towards the cast out pile "are generally unresponsive. However concrete tends to only respond to my destructive energies, which I'll demonstrate later. The rest of this should do fairly well, but I've never used pumice before. Nor have I ever used this." He gestured to the gem. He'd never held something people considered precious much less fed his power into it. There was an attractive blue luster to it. By the looks of things and the price for a high purity sapphire he wondered as to it's composition.

"Anyway, here goes."

LoQuinn took a relaxed stance arms held out in front of him akimbo to help open his mind. It had roots in the meditations his mother had taught him. It also had to do with turning his powers on. Wandering through a world of stone meant he picked up a great deal of clutter he referred to as mental static. Putting the world on mute meant that when he wanted to listen he had to actually pay attention. His left hand lifted and like an orchestral conductor the science room samples followed suit. All except the gem and the pumice as he'd expected.

~~~

A little time passed and he went through some of his tricks, mentioning problems he faced with the different materials. Levitation, compression, explosion, form shifting, all the basics. Given the 'trial size' versions it was about all they could really expect of him.

"And that's about all I can do with this quantity and without risking attention or property damage. My assistant, trainer, guy usually finds it best to put me to work in the quarry." He did a mental mapquest. "Shouldn't be more than a thirty minute drive. But what about you two? A file and a face doesn't exactly give me much to go by."

LoQuinn couldn't help but be slightly impressed at his pairing. A passable mimic and a pyro. He wondered if they had been informed when and where the operation was planned. To his knowledge LoQuinn saw the mission starting on the edge of city limits and heading into the wilderness but with Jackie around that might not be the ideal situation. Instead a new plan of attack formed in the young man's head. If they could attack in one of the run down or underdeveloped areas the resulting damage would be less significant. He'd run it by them later.

A touch of shame caressed him as Megan said, 'a warning'. He hoped that most careless observations wouldn't reveal his failure to apprehend Storm's Eye. He understood that no human was perfect but he couldn't bear the thought of people thinking him inept. Christ, how long was he going to wade around in self pity? A while longer it seemed, he kicked the poolside absently. His inflection was covered up nicely by the surprised looks between Jackie and Megan.

"I don't know about you but I'd like to keep it as remote as possible. The concrete streets interrupt my focus and I sure as hell don't want to be cited for destroying public property. Did you get any further information on his associates? Storm's Eye has some tricks but he's a pushover, what about the other two goons?" It was a legitimate question, Charles had promised as much info on their targets as possible. Enough time had passed between leaving Charle's office and coming here for reports to have been filed.

For a gleaming instant LoQuinn wondered just how much authority Charles really had over local authorities. Could they search criminal databases? Could they compare evidence and physical descriptions taken from the recon team to the local police archives? Surely Charles had already had his people go through this procedure, but who really knew? If anything turned up would they be allowed to make house calls?

"Actually..." LoQuinn began after listening intently to the back and forth near-banter. The fact that Jackie, Firesnare, was behaving so very much like he had done after losing to Storm's Eye both greatly relieved and disturbed him. Megan was mildly right, was Jackie really their leader? LoQuinn didn't want to be led to his death by some over confident fool, but did she even have a spine? Christ! The way she went on and on about it he wondered if she'd need a hand to hold along the way. Wow... I'm being really mean. He followed them inside once more left wondering if the impressions of his team members would keep swaying like a bipolar divining rod.

He brought a finger to his lower lip and casually ran it back and forth tickling small silver rings that pierced it. He really wanted to be able to take a moment and think about phrasing his next words carefully. No, he wasn't going to rip her apart for self doubt. Gods how he wanted to though, hypocritical it would have been but justified nonetheless. He could see a mention being placed on his record: DOESN'T PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS. What a laugh.

"... I'd say it is possible to have them forced onto our terms. When I met up with Storm's Eye he ran and cowards tend to keep running. If they are all in contact with each other we might very well be able to get him in a situation where he calls for backup. If we can chase Storm's Eye outside of the standard concrete jungle we can force his hand."

He took the final sip of his water. "We put him out of commission and wait for his buddies to arrive. When they arrive we have a team of Charles' Special Ops guys waiting. We wear 'em out, diversion tactics and junk. How long did you go against that earth evolved? Did he tire?"

Hopefully as their leader Jackie saw where they younger man was going. If they could cause mental fatigue in the strongest of the three he'd get sloppy. And with sloppiness came openings. LoQuinn wasn't sure if Charles' men used tranquilizer guns or lethal rounds but if a single round of either found their mark it didn't really matter how big someone could build their sandcastle.

((Solid block of speech. Sorry about not cutting you some IC reply holes. I didn't want to fragment it too much. That and I don't think Megan or Jackie would interrupt until LoQuinn was completely finished. Do you have the baddies picked/fleshed out? Cause some name drops would be handy. I'm kinda gearing LoQuinn to having them both accompany him to the quarry for a training session with Raul and maybe a little sparing against each other. Perhaps bring out the killer instinct in the ladies.

I figure we can move to that private thread for the actual training - if you want to RP it out. Then move back here for mission stuff.))


An hour? Really? LoQuinn thought there were several problems with a conflict lasting so long. Things can drag on and on but that's absurd. His whole encounter with Storm's Eye had taken place over the course of thirty minutes maximum from start to finish. Most of it had been him digging up concrete and the foot pursuit into the store. Perhaps she needed to understand that escalation needn't always be procedure. They weren't the cops, they were the last resort and were given clearance to use force as they saw fit. In LoQuinn's eyes a verbal warning and a few pulled punches was the about as much leeway as a being got before he opened up on them. How long had she been working for the NSA again?

On the other hand Jackie's idea hadn't occurred to him. Using a copycat to steal his impetus would, in theory, render him almost powerless. But would Megan be able to pull it off? He held up a hand to quiet the indignation Megan seemed to show. On almost any other person he'd have called it a pout but on this person he'd just recently met it seemed to read: "Can you believe her?!"

"Well," he allowed a pause to mill over what he wanted to say and how to say it. "I believe that Storm's Eye could probably be taken without putting Megan in harms way. We would need a distraction. Storm's Eye's power of sonic absorption seems to work as more or less an innate ability. He's always doing it. But when he uses the built up charge it's focused. Kinda like a funnel but with sound waves." Truth be told he didn't quite comprehend the physics behind it, probably had something to do with things at the molecular level bouncing off each other. "When he uses it he's got a blind spot. I can be surgical with stone from two to three hundred yards." He'd started his very first evolved to evolved conflict with that very maneuver. "I just gotta hit him in the head with enough force to knock him out but not kill him. Once he's called for backup that is."

LoQuinn cleared his throat "Once... What did they call themselves?" He allowed Jackie to answer with their super names before continuing. "Right, once they arrive a concentrated effort against the earth evolved from all three of us should see him subdued fairly quickly. Enough anyway for our special ops snipers, thanks to Charles, to neutralize the target." LoQuinn knew he was making some assumptions, a lot of assumptions actually. Though he had a feeling that the big boss of the NSA would be somewhat eager to supply the manpower to bring in the killer of two of his men. "I expect the fire evolved to either attempt to flee once the trap has been sprung. If we can surround them I doubt they'll put up too much resistance."

And there it was LoQuinn's 'spur of the moment, off the top of my head' outline for what he thought. He welcomed them to poke holes in his idea, bring up questions and critiques. Whatever came to their minds really. LoQuinn was definitely not what he considered to be a tactician. The reason he left his plan so simple was because he liked to more or less fly by the seat of his pants and think in the moment. Only time would tell if what he planned would firstly be accepted by the other two, and secondly not get them all killed.

"Regardless of what we decide I think that intensity training would be a good step towards being prepared." LoQuinn had an idea of a what they could do, and exactly the man to carry it out.

((PM me your ideas on specific time frames and what you might see them accomplish in those times. I'd like to have them work with some sort of joint effort and know general styles of combat. There are about a billion different ways I see this going but that's good, it leaves us open to improvising. We can summerize the whole thing actually. Were there any specific sticking points - powers, tricks, signature techniques, etc - that you wanted LoQuinn to experience firsthand that I might not get without actual rp interaction? If that's not the case then I'd need some OOC info to make up for it.

I'm not quite sure how I want LoQuinn to 'bond' with his team mates. He's never really had a partner and seeing as how in all functioning reality he's a teen boy, straight from the wilderness, alone for periods of time with females. Maybe a crush is in order. Feedback on this would be loved.))

"Oh, I know he can get pretty bad." LoQuinn said knowingly. Afterall he'd been at the wrong end of his attacks at least two or three times in their scuffle and if it weren't for a fair bit of quick thinking he might've been somewhat less three dimensional and stuck to a wall somewhere. "I just think that if we go at them with a general plan of attack it'll be better than just free-balling it."

LoQuinn smirked at their back-and-forthing. "We'll just have to try and not tire you out too much." There was just a hint of double meaning in it before he turned to Jackie. "We can leave as soon as you two are ready. But perhaps lunch first, I'm feeling peckish." Hopefully it would give Megan a buffer to be more receptive to it.