Wearing the Cape 4: Small Town Heroes (31 page)

Mr. Gray:
Of course the Department of Superhuman Affairs has a strong interest in New Orleans’ supernatural community (especially the vampires). Mr. Gray is the local DSA station agent and, loosely, Jacky’s local DSA “minder” when she’s in town. He is also a supernatural himself, one of the fey, and that makes him a mystery; most fey hang with the Seelie Court in San Francisco.

Graymalkin:
Hope’s cat.

The Green Man:
Not much is understood about the Green Man. “He” appears to have been able to transform himself into a disembodied “spirit” capable of possessing plants and generating amazing waves of growth. He threatened Chicago with successive eruptions of green, but proved vulnerable to extreme heat at the center of his manifestations. There are indications that he may have been boosted by the Ascendant.

Grendel:
Brian Lucas is a transformed A Class Darwin-Type (he “adapts” to his environment and opposition). Grendel lost his family when the Ascendant exposed several thousand victims to a psychotropic gas which triggered hallucinations, rampages, and several psychotic breaks and breakthroughs, and was permanently transformed into a gray and monstrous humanoid form which is the baseline for all his changes. He is potentially stronger than the strongest Ajax-Type. Grendel has joined the Young Sentenels, and also sworn himself to Ozma’s service (he is currently the Royal Army of Oz) in return for her promise to help him gain justice for his murdered family.

The Guardians:
The Guardians are one of the largest CAI franchises in the US, with teams in most states. The other seven Crisis Aid and Intervention teams in Chicago are all Guardian teams, named for their districts (South Side Guardians, West Side Guardians, etc.). They, and the Sentinels, are all coordinated through the city’s Dispatch Department in The Dome, under the direction of the Sentinels and city coordinators.

The Hammer:
When the Russian Mob in Boston killed Silversmith and his family with a car bomb, an unknown vigilante dubbed The Hammer brutally wiped out the organization’s senior members; one of the reasons organized crime outfits generally leave capes alone. If they go do after capes, they do it when the cape is in costume and on duty, and they
leave his family alone
. See also: The Deal.

The Harlequin:
The Harlequin, called Quin by her friends, was an acrobat and aerialist with Cirque du Soliel in Las Vegas. During a performance her rig snapped and she fell thirty feet to the stage—and
bounced
, her body permanently transformed to a rubber-like substance. Her skin is the texture of latex, her bones the density of hard rubber, and she is almost immune to direct kinetic damage; she will bend and bounce back under an impact, whether from a fall or bullets or a hit from Astra, which would injure or kill a normal person. Her transformation also makes her a lot stronger than the average person of her trim athletic build, and she can run faster by “bouncing” along. She is a trained martial artist and marksman (although she doesn’t normally use guns), and is also the Sentinel’s field medic publicity and marketing coordinator, which she does with Alex Chandler.

Have No Fear:
No backing down, no giving in./
I pick my fights, but I fight to win.
/
Though the Reaper draws near me I cry,
/
Conquer or die!
Have No Fear is an all-breakthrough band of Hillwood Academy alumni. They are also CAI-certified capes, able to drop in with disaster relief and stage a concert afterward. They’re
the
most successful group in history, and rumors of artistic differences are completely exaggerated.

Hecate:
Dr. Charlotte Millebrand, antiquarian, folklorist, Merlin-Type wicked witch, and Chicago Outfit assassin, tried to unite the second team of Villains Inc. to take down her bosses and seize control of the Outfit. The mob-war left civilian bodies everywhere, and Artemis put three bullets through her heart during their final fight.

Hero Beat/Power Week
:
These are both superhero magazines.
Hero Beat
is a breathless fan-mag oriented towards teens, while
Power Week
is a more serious publication, a sort of cross between Time and People Magazine with a focus on superhumans.

Hillwood Academy:
There is a lot of trauma in childhood, and teen breakthroughs create their own unique set of problems. Hillwood Academy is a boarding school for teen breakthroughs, many of whom come from bad circumstances or were isolated by their breakthroughs. It is slowly becoming famous for its more illustrious alumni, and a television action-drama has been (loosely) based on it.
 
Hillwood Academy handles students grades 7-12: younger students go to Whitlow’s Academy.

The Hollywood Knights:
There is a term,
Hollywood heroes
, applied to superhumans who go to LA to act on television and in the movies, playing themselves or, more often, real capes in “biographical” movies. The Hollywood Knights began as a movie cast, but morphed into a team which makes a movie about their “adventures” each year, and the rest of the time acts as a disaster-relief CAI team and does charity events. Its current roster is: Rook (an A Class Atlas-Type and the team leader), Balder (a photokinetic), Starkness (scary), Ceres (a florakinetic), Fire Lily (a pyrokinetic capable of
killing
fires), Maui (a tattooed Maori shapeshifter). Seven was a member when Astra met him, but he has transferred to the Sentinels.

Humanity First:
Members of Humanity First believe that breakthroughs are a threat to humanity which must be checked by whatever means necessary. More fanatical members believe—against all evidence—that breakthroughs aren’t even human. Their beliefs and activities have been compared to Aryan Nation and other racial supremacist groups.

Iron Jack:
aka John Corrigan. Iron Jack is a transforming A Class Ajax-Type. He is a highly successful Chicago architect, and he experienced his breakthrough on the day of The Event. He became a reserve Sentinel, and has been able to maintain a secret identity because of his ability to unrecognizably transformation himself (in Iron Jack form he looks like a statue of iron plates and rivets). He kept the secret even from his children, which gave Astra a
second
shock on the day of her own breakthrough.

Director Kayle:
The day of The Event, the President of the United States was aboard Air Force One returning from a campaign trip to LA. Air Force One made a crater and Vice President Kayle was sworn in as President Kayle the same day. President Kayle is the main reason that federal superhuman-restriction laws were not passed in the first weeks after The Event. He created the Department of Superhuman Affairs, built the alliance system that became the new League of Democratic States, and successfully guided the United States through the internal and external chaos that was much of his eight years in office. He hand-picked his successor, Touches Clouds, and shepherded her through her successful presidential bid. She made him Director of the DSA. As the Director, he prefers to work quietly and behind the scenes, but make no mistake—he is one of the great power-players in Washington. Many conspiracy theorists believe him to be a secret superhuman; the only way to explain his amazing success.

Kitsune:
Kitsune is believed to be Yoshi Miyamoto, an old man who disappeared from an elderly care center in Osaka Prefecture. A true shapeshifter, who apparently also has the magic ability to invade dreams and who may actually
believe
himself to be a spirit-fox, he engineered the war between Villains Inc. and the Outfit to avenge the deaths of his daughter and granddaughter. A thief—or at least someone not adverse to stealing things in pursuit of his goals—Kitsune is wanted in several countries. His current goals and plans are unknown, but he has taken a liking to Astra for no apparent reason. Perhaps she reminds him of his granddaughter.

Legal Eagle:
aka
Tommy Brannigan, esquire. Just out of law school, Tommy learned how to fly when his weekend skydiving vacation went horribly wrong. Since flight is his sole power, Tommy went into law instead of trying to become a cape. The media dubbed him Legal Eagle, which he doesn’t mind at all; he quickly carved out a niche serving Chicago’s capes and superhumans, and is on retainer for the Chicago Sentinels and the city’s Guardian teams.

Lei Zi:
Her name means Mother of Storms and comes from Chinese mythology. Lei Zi is an A Class Electrokinetic Type able to fly by electrostatic levitation, suck the power from electrical systems or burn them out with power surges, and draw from the atmosphere’s static charge to generate lightning and ball lightning. She is the daughter of Chinese Nationals who fled China during its collapse into warring states. She served a tour of duty in the US Military, after which Blackstone recruited her to be the new Field Leader of the Chicago Sentinels after the death of Atlas.

Lunette’s:
A bar and club in LA, Lunette’s mostly caters to a breakthrough crowd. Unlike the Fortress, it is not a high-profile establishment and non-breakthroughs usually get turned away by the bouncer at the door; mostly it is a refuge for breakthroughs, capes or otherwise, a place where they can hang out with others who are like them or who at least understand them.

Marc Léroy:
A relative newcomer to New Orleans and reluctant member of the vampire community, Marc Léroy is a bodyguard for hire, fencing master, and owner of the
Salle D’Armes
, a fencing school and his home. He hides a secret or two of his own.

Mrs. Lori:
 
Mrs. Lori is one of Chicago’s grande dames, a fearful arbiter of social approval, and was an intimate friend of Mrs. Corrigan’s deceased mother, Hope’s grandmother. She both disapproves and approves of just about everything that Anne Marie and Hope do.

Mama Marie:
Marie Bouchard, “Mama Marie,” is one of New Orleans’ reigning voodoo queens. She is also Jacky’s grandmother. She is a powerful force in the local community and Lieutenant Emerson walks carefully around her. Whether Mama Marie’s voodoo is backed by real breakthrough power is open to question. Best be careful, anyway.

The Master of Ceremonies:
Jacky calls him MC to his face, but it is doubtful anyone else does. Mister Hans Lichter, the self-styled Master of Ceremonies, is the unofficial but very real Boss of New Orleans’ vampires (he pays Darren Tomlin’s retainer). He likes things
peaceful
, and is willing to go to great lengths to make them so. He also owes Jacky a great debt, despite the fact that she burned down his house, and watches over Acacia and does other favors to repay her. He likes having her around because she scares the other vampires at least as much as he does (she can come at them in the
day
).

Megaton:
Malcom Scott was just your average high-school student, a bit of an overweight science geek who muscled up and lost two digits worth of pounds during sophomore year and joined the school wrestling team to escape bullying. His breakthrough gave him the power to fly by “blasting” like a rocket and to project powerful destructive blasts in defense—and accidentally killed an innocent bystander. Now a member of the Young Sentinels, Mal seeks redemption as a cape.

Doctor Mendel:
Dr. Alice Mendel is the mental-health counterpart to Dr. Beth; she has been retained by the City of Chicago to vet all of its contracted CAI heroes for mental fitness. Understandably, she has taken advantage of the situation to study superhuman psychology close-up and has written many papers and monographs on the subject.

Metrocon:
“Capecons” are the biggest events in the cape-watcher’s calendar. The biggest annual capecon is Chicago’s Metrocon, which combines with the annual National CAI Conference, training and expo, in the country; three days of serious training and lectures, three days of inter-team competition and fun. New York and LA hold sister-conventions and each year sees is a much wider second tier of smaller capecons across the country hosting regional training and events. Of course fans flock to the capecons to see the capes, buy merchandise, and cosplay, but the conventions are also job-fairs for breakthroughs seeking to introduce themselves to local teams and pass qualifications, and even professional CAI heroes seeking to move up into bigger and more visible teams.

Michael:
An aging mega pop-star who saw his stardom fade in his twenties, Michael experienced a breakthrough the day of the Event which changed him into a human hologram. Now eternally young and able to manipulate his image to change his wardrobe and hairstyle, glow, and even generate visual pyrotechnics, Michael returned to songwriting and the concert-tour circuit with a revitalized career. Unlike Nimbus, although immaterial he can still talk (nobody knows how).

Detective Paul Negri:
A Cajun from Church Pointe Acadia and a New Orleans police detective, Paul is also a lycanthrope; a Benandanti—a Good Walker—shaped by his mother’s Italian legends rather than the local loup-garou stories. Jacky is his “civilian consultant” and window into New Orleans’ vampire community.

Nimbus:
Some transformations are so complete that you are no longer human. Nimbus never related the circumstance, but whatever triggered her breakthrough it transformed her into a being of pure intangible energy. To relate to others, she shaped her body of light into a form approximating the one she had before, appearing like a glowing angelic nude with the details smoothed out for purposes of modesty. She could fly at the speed of light, focus her power to project bolts of incredible energy, and was of course intangible and immune to most forms of physical damage. She was definitely A Class, easily the Sentinels’ deadliest member. She died in the Whittier Base attack, killed by an A Class Projector whose “sonic” attacks disrupted atomic structures of any kind.