First Player/Rocksteady
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
"What are you, crazy? You can't rob this place!"
The huge man in the trench coat reached out casually with one of his massive hands and lifted the shocked security guard effortlessly off the floor of the armory. The portly man's feet dangled nearly a yard from the ground as he was brought face to face with the frightening visage of his captor. The giant had to be nine or ten feet tall with vastly proportioned limbs and torso.
"Do I look crazy?" he said pointedly.
He looked mean. In fact, he looked like the kind of man who was used to getting what he wanted and wouldn't think twice about popping his head off like a bottle cap
The guard found his voice, "Uh, n-no sir. O-of course not."
"Good." He dropped the guard casually. "Now where's the cash?"
"The vault's in the back," the guard stated, scrambling to his feet warily and backing off, "But there's a yard of concrete surrounding it, not to mention all the guards and security devices. You'd need a tank to get through it all!"
The man shrugged off his trench coat. "Nothin' can stop me now." he muttered as he swatted the guard aside and lumbered towards the vault.
Miles Benedict was brushing his teeth when he felt the first tremor and had already geared up when he heard the first explosion. The night air felt cool on his face as he shuffled up out off his hidden underground bunker. The sound of wailing sirens was briefly muted as he slid his visor over his face, locking it into place around his headset. The HUD lit up, showing all systems at peak efficiency. His hoverboard had already been powered up and was floating above the steel-reinforced entrance hatch, humming quietly. He hopped onto it, the magnetized slots on the bottom of his boots locking into the face of the chrome covered board he'd dubbed 'The McFly'.
First Player lifted off the ground, zipping up into the crisp night air of Paragon. The superhero handle “First Player” referred to his video game-themed arsenal of gadgets he’d invented to fight crime, not the least of which was the mobile robotic drone named R.O.G.E.R that trailed behind him. Miles himself possessed an innate superhuman talent for invention - an intuitive genius concerning all things technological. Gifted with the ability since birth, he'd been lucky: His mutation hadn’t been disfiguring in the least, in fact out of his superhero guise, it would have been impossible to notice anything different about him. Not every mutant was that lucky. In the case of the behemoth making trouble below, his skin had turned to rock, granting him a superhuman level of strength and durability. Stoneface, he called himself.
"Out of my way!" A casual flip of the wrist and an SUV went tumbling like a Matchbox car. Another car swerved to avoid him and ended up hitting a parked van.
All he had to do was get out of the city and let things die down for a few days. He must have scored at least a million, maybe more. Enough to live comfortably in some South American rat hole for several months. He was overdue for a vacation.
The ground exploded in front of him, jarring him from his thoughts.
"I thought that'd get your attention." First Player shouted, hovering above him. He clipped one of his gadgets---a pulse generating metal rod he called his "joystick"---back onto his magnetized belt.
Stoneface glanced upwards. "Better move along kid. You're outta' your league tonight."
"Yeah, we'll see about that." First Player retorted. The front of his hoverboard dipped and he zipped towards the rocky brute. Stoneface lurched forward slightly and brought one arm up, connecting with First Player, and sending him careening upwards across the street, crashing through two floors of a parking garage. He groaned as he brushed rubble aside and stood slowly. He'd built his belt to project a force field that absorbed heavy impact hits such as that one, but even still he couldn't take another hit like that. "Ugh. What's that guy made of anyways?" he grumbled,dusting himself off. Just then, his robotic sidekick flitted up through the hole in the concrete he'd made. "Ninety-three percent organic igneous matter and seven percent other unknown organic minerals." The artificial intelligence chirped.
"That was rhetorical, but thanks." Miles replied.
"Sensor scans show he is currently casting a force field as well."
"A force field?!" Miles questioned incredulously. "Why's he, of all people, need a force field?"
He ran a scan with his sensors anyways. Force fields could be taken down or overloaded. Once he had a frequency, his suit could make the proper adjustments and-
SCAN COMPLETE, the heads-up display in his visor informed him, FORCE FIELD COMPOSED OF UNINDENTIFIED ENERGY SIGNATURE. DOES NOT CORRESPOND WITH ANY KNOWN RADIATION INCLUDING GAMMA, PSIONIC, IONIC, PLASMA, OR ELECTROMAGNETIC. CONCLUSION: MYSTICAL IN NATURE.
"Oh, awesome! Magic. I hate magic." Miles sighed, slapping his thighs. He whistled and his hidden hoverboard appeared from underneath rubble, rising into the air and settling in front of him.
On the ground below Stoneface was busy pushing past cars and shrugging off bullets fired from police officers who'd only just arrived.
"Move!" he boomed, back handing a minivan which soared though the air and crashed into an oncoming police cruiser. He lifted his foot, then stomped on the ground, sending out a shockwave that lifted most of the police officers off the ground and into the air. He chuckled to himself before noticing the neon green blur racing towards. His head was snapped backwards as the tail end of First Player's hoverboard whipped the side of his face. He slowed as he spun in the air, "Aw, you dinged my board, bro!" he quipped with a faux-surfer accent. "I hope you know a good auto-repair shop."
Stoneface rubbed his rocky cheek, an action which screeched like nails on a chalkboard. He clenched his fists as First Player swooped back down towards him. He swung wildly but First Player ducked under his arms and leaped upwards, a rocket-powered fist uppercutting him sharply. The punch sent him reeling as Stoneface staggered backwards and First Player tuck-and-rolled off his hoverboard, using his opponent's knee as a jumping off point and slamming his elbow down on his stone head. Miles winced.Without his power suit, the force probably would have shattered his arm. He still felt a bit of the impact as he fell backwards off Stoneface, who'd fallen onto a (thankfully empty) compact car, crushing it like a can. He was down and out.
Two other heroes Miles didn't recognize arrived a few minutes later. A male and a female, a duo perhaps. A quick HUD scan revealed they were Dogstar and Lady Quantum, two cosmically powered twins. "We'll take it from here." The male nodded, acknowledging the unconscious Stoneface. Miles didn't hesitate. They were more equipped to deal with threats like him. Part of being a hero is knowing ones strengths and weaknesses and Miles welcomed the assist. He nodded as he stepped onto the McFly and lifted off into the air. Dogstar saluted and Lady Quantum waved and smiled widely.
"Mental note for later, Roger, send a personal thank you email to Lady Quantum, along with my phone number."
"Noted." he replied dryly as they floated up and away.
