Amber Magellan: Ace Detective (Storm)

Amber had heard of some kind of emergency going on in midtown, and that a Titan was neutralising the threat, when she heard this she dropped what she was doing and ran over, then she got tired and took a taxi the rest of the way. When she arrived, she saw that one of the Titans was in combat! Amber decided to stick around until it was over, then she would try to get closer to the Titan.

Kristen Opprotune dodged and weaved around cars and buildings in pursuit of the unmarked black van careening through midtown's streets. With a flap of her wings, the Nephilim increased speed to get closer to the van, from which a machine gun appeared from the front passenger window of the vehicle, raining fire onto Kristen.

Kristen brought up her forcefield of light when she saw the firearm, encasing herself in holy cyan light magic that engulfed her like fire. Every bullet from the weapon was absorbed into the forcefield, causing the Nephilim to sustain no damage at all from the futile attack. 'Idiots... you'd think they would have figured it out by now...' the indoctrinated thought.

"Give up already, will you?" she shouted at the van through her cyan forcefield, "Regular gunfire won't do anything to me at this point!"

As if to counter Kristen's words, the back doors of the van flew open, and with it a strong demonic presence broke through as if a dam had been opened and a flood of the presence rushed past. Cultists now adays were getting clever, being able to hide their presence until the very moment before using their profane demonic magic against their enemies.

These city cultists didn't look as outlandish as one might think, however, bearing the attire of common bank-robbing thugs. It was when one thug from the back of the van decided to strike out at Kristen with a bolt of dark mist that their true identity was revealed. The indoctrinated Nephilim dodged the bolt of dark mist expertly, charging up a Smite Gauntlet to return the fire and disable the vehicle permanently, seeking to end the chase. As she focussed, she caught the view of a fourth cultist further in the van, doting over what seemed to be some kind of precious cargo.

Kristen fired the Smite Gauntlet at the wheels of the van, cyan light and sparks exploding from it's tires as the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed it into a ditch at the side of the street. A nearby hobo jumped from his nap, fleeing from the sight.

Kristen landed behind the crashed van, cyan wings flaring. She held her hands out in a stance, preparing for the cultists to exit the vehicle. "Get out of the vehicle with your weapons dropped and hands raised. Don't try any dark magic on me, either. I will retaliate."

The driver got out first - he seemed unarmed. Then the cultist riding shotgun got out, dropping his machine gun and raising his hands - he had enough sense to realize his weapon wouldn't affect the indoctrinated. Finally the cultist in the back of the van stepped out hands raised as well.

No wait, there was one missing! "Where's the fourth?!" Kristen asked/shouted, but was met with confused gazes by the three cultists.

"We have no idea what you're talking about!" one cultist shouted, the one who had the machine gun. "There's only three of us!"

Suddenly, the Nephilim sensed a jagged demonic presence from behind her, and she drew her Okamian armament, Seinaru Hokkaido. Kristen whirled around with the rapier, clashing swords with the shadowy knight that loomed over her. A demonic shade.

"Impossible. Since when have the shades formed contracts with humans?" she demanded.

"Since the Lyjyfofs Paifped has noticed the decrease of their ofpeyfs yfytu and the increase of the secular... Fyhwedet.*" the shadowy knight answered in broken English.

Kristen got the gist. The demonic shades had taken other measures to invade the physical world that the few Nephilim left would be able to unintentionally overlook. They weren't the only evil spirits doing this either. It seemed all of Hell was jumping on that bandwagon.

"Don't be careless. You think the term 'dead men tell no secrets' refers to me? Your pact with these cultists ends now, demonic scum." Kristen disengaged from the shadow knight, charging light energy into the hilt of her rapier as it changed form into the Quicksilver Gauntlet. Light energy gathered into the palm of the gauntlet as well as her fingertips as the Nephilim girl threw a punch at the torso of the shadowy knight at a blinding speed, releasing in a flash of light magic, temporarily blinding any who would be directly staring. When this blindness wore off however, it was seen that the demon had vanished, leaving only it's vile sword in remnants.

The cultists stared in shock at Kristen, the hero who had just vanquished their demon shade in one fell swoop. The shadow user cursed under his breath, but then remembered something, "Fool, you forget our secret weapon!"

"Idiot!" the driver took a moment to smack the other cultist upside the head before returning his hand to the air, "Now she knows! Not very secret anymore, is it?! Quick, we need to make our escape!"

The shadow user frowned, but knew what must be done. "You fought well, Nephilim. But you won't catch us this time." black lightning and shadowy mist formed around his hands as well as the hands of the other cultists, and they all released the shadow charge as it acted as one huge smoke bomb.

Kristen instinctively raised her arm to block the fallout of the escape mechanism. When the dust cleared, the cultists and their precious cargo seemed to have disappeared, leaving only the empty truck still crashed into the ditch.

"Damn it..." the Nephilim muttered, dispelling her forcefield and revealing her face and armour. She transformed her Okamian weapon back into it's rapier form and sheathed it, treading over to the truck to inspect it for anything useful on the cultists.

((OOC: *Translations from Rhefugi Demonic:
Lyjyfofs Paifped = Revenant Council
ofpeyfs yfytu = ancient enemy
Fyhwedet = Nephilim))

Woah. That was hardcore. Amber had trouble catching the whole thing because she had to run to catch up, that was also why she was so out of breath now, but now it was time for the whole reason that Amber had tried to watch a Titan fight in public. She walked to a position so that she was as close as she could be without being obviously suspicious and attempted to read the Titan's mind.

Kristen was about to approach the back of the van when she felt a prodding in her mind. It felt like someone was trying to root through her thoughts and memories, although they seemed inexperienced. Kristen had her mind read before, so she knew the signs of a mind-reader. She also knew how to and had the innate spiritual and mental stubbornness to force them out.

'Don't go rooting through other people's thoughts without their consent - that's an invasion of privacy, you know?' the Nephilim thought while Amber attempted to read her mind. She then promptly released her spiritual permeation, started to counter the mind-reader with her own focus, and with a short burst of cyan light from around her, resisted any further prodding from Amber. If the mind-reader was inexperienced enough and didn't know how to gain a foothold yet, Amber would get booted out of the Nephilim's mind.

In the meanwhile, Kristen's cyan eyes analyzed the interior of the van, looking for any notable evidence to take back to base. She then remembered the shards of the shadow knights abandoned sword, and turned around, beginning to walk towards the weapon. She looked around. "I know you're out there, so show yourself."

Well, this was a new experience for Amber, she had never met anyone who knew how to stop their minds from being read. The Titan was actually able to reject Amber from her mind! What even was this!?! What is even going on!?! When Kristen demanded that the mind reader show themself, Amber accidentally gave herself away by growling in anger, then she realised her mistake and tried to act casual, which only made it more obvious.

Kristen looked to where the growling was coming from. What she saw was a teenage girl that appeared to be a year younger than her taking cover in an area that was in the open but wouldn't be overly suspicious. The Nephilim raised an eyebrow in amusement. Who was this girl? Possibly one of those B-Teamers she was hearing so much about?

"Come on out, I won't bite." Kristen grinned, "I'd keep a distance from this weapon here though, I don't exactly know what it could be made of, it could be harmful to the unexperienced."

With that out of the way, the indoctrinated returned her focus to the weapon, studying it. It was made out of some kind of blackish metal and had shattered when the shadow knight was vanquished. She would probably bring it back to the Tower for analysis.

The Titan said to keep a distance from the weapon, not that Amber had any intention of being anywhere close to something so dangerous and intimidating looking, she wasn't stupid. Maybe if she was just a little bit actually capable of taking care of herself like this girl she wouldn't be so scared by things like this. It was moments like this that made Amber jealous of some of her fellow B-teamers, like Fen or that one girl with the super punch.

Kristen sighed. The inexperienced tended to be fearful of what they did not know. "My name is Kristen Opprotune. But maybe you've heard of me by the codename Seraphim. What's your name?"

Presently the Nephilim looked back at the sword remnants. She couldn't leave them alone for fear of the cultists coming back with reinforcements to attempt to reclaim it, but she couldn't just ignore the innocent bystander/Beamer that she was attempting to make conversation with, either. Thinking of what to do, Kristen picked up a stick on the side of the road and poked a shard of the weapon with it. On contact, the tip of the stick turned to a strange black colour and quickly spread up the branch. Kristen promptly dropped it.

Upon further inspection, however, the material the sword remnants were made of didn't seem to be affecting the concrete below. "So it seems the contents of this sword corrodes organic materials on direct physical contact. Definitely not touching that." she confirmed.

"You saw that, right? No touchy." she called over to Amber.

The girl named herself as Kristen Opprotune, also saying that she goes by the codename of Seraphim which Amber may have heard of, which she had. She asked Amber her name, which Amber just responded by blinking Uhh... Amber Kristen seemed to be investigating the weird object, she poked it with a stick and something unusual started spreading up the stick, Amber squeaked in surprise and backed up significantly, even though she was already far away. Kristen told Amber not to touch it Yeah, funnily enough I didn't have any plans of touching it, I think I should go, I'd just be in the way Amber was disappointed that she didn't get to read a Titan brain, but it was preferable to dealing with this supernatural nonsense.

When Amber said she was probably going to leave, Kristen shook her head, "No no, stick around, Amber. You won't get in the way. After all, you followed me for a reason, right?"

Kristen looked at the sword remnants again. She couldn't transport it to the tower by hand, but that wouldn't stop her from moving it. The Nephilim shot out a hand, and the remnants floated up from the ground and into the air, coming to a stop at waist level with Kristen. "I need to take these back to the Tower for analysis, so why don't you tag along? As a potential future Titan don't you think it would be cool to see Titans Tower?"

Kristen suggested that Amber should in fact not leave, and should instead stick around, saying that she had followed her for a reason I just wanted to read your mind is all, I was just hoping to find out secret information Amber didn't really like secrets or mysteries, they always made her want to solve them, that's why she had gone after a Titan in the first place.

Amber watched as Kristen used telekinesis to lift up the shards, Amber couldn't do THAT with her mind. Kristen then invited Amber to come over to Titans tower, Amber was slightly confused by that, why exactly did Kristen think that Amber could be trusted? She had just said she wanted to find out secrets Umm... alright? she sighed and decided to follow anyway, she did come out to find out things after all.

"Secret information, I see, I see." Kristen pondered, "Well, would you want to find out this information for the sake of knowing, or for selfish reasons? Or for selfless reasons?"

She paused, letting that question sink in, "That's a key identifier in discerning a neutral party from a villain or a hero, I think." She summoned her cyan wings, taking off a bit with the sword remnants hovering beside her. "Well, follow me then!"

Soon they arrived at Titans Tower, "Wait here," she said, walking further into the tower to drop off the sword remnants in a glass box in the analysis room for later. When she returned, she would be free of the sword remnants but typing out a text on her communicator to the head enforcer to take care of the van at the crime scene.

Kristen looked back to Amber. "Now that that's out of the way..." she paused, thinking. "I know. How about I help train your mind reading skills? You're a B-Teamer anyways, right? At least, you look like one." she squinted, "Considering I've never heard of you before and you seem inexperienced as it is, it only makes sense to assume that."

When asked about the reasons for wanting this information, Amber thought about it for a second I guess... it just bugs me not knowing things... like, I just go out to find the information with my powers she didn't seem to care that she was invading people's privacy, even if she did realise that it was wrong she would still not hesitate to do it.

Kristen would then lead her to Titans tower and would actually let her in! Amber looked around, the whole "she wanted to know things" was very evident as seen by the way Amber looked at everything, even little things like the way the place was decorated. She was just considering taking a peek inside one of the Titan's personal rooms when Kristen adressed her, she jumped slightly since she was lost in thought.

Kristen then offered to help her train her powers, saying that she suggested as such because Amber was a B-teamer; her justification for saying this was that she'd never heard of her and that she was inexperienced There are thousands of Metahumans in Jump City, they aren't all B-teamers. That Kicker guy is like my age, maybe a grade above me, he isn't a B-teamer. the fact that Amber was in fact a B-teamer was by the by. Still, Amber appreciated the offer, she couldn't help but smile That would be great, thanks

"It was an educated guess. Kicker has probably been in the business longer than someone of his age who has just recently discovered their powers. Someone of his skill probably doesn't need to be in B-Team." she shrugged.

"Anyways, yeah it's not a problem. I think it would be a great idea since I can train you to cut through the enemy's mental blocks. I can promise you that a lot of the stronger ones will probably have them."

Kristen led Amber back outside and sat down on the rocks overlooking the ocean, motioning for her to sit as well. "Okay, try reading my mind again. This time I won't try so hard to force you out, but I'll still provide a little bit of resistance. Try to break through."

Amber shrugged, she just picked an example out of her head, she didn't care about that Kicker guy. Kristen said that she would train her to cut through mental blocks, which made Amber smile in a worryingly creepy way, but then the look disappeared quickly, so maybe Kristen wouldn't notice it. The two would then walk outside and sit on some rocks, Kristen would ask her to try reading her mind, Amber nodded and did as asked, trying to get in her mind. There was some resistance, so Amber struggled slightly to get in, when it wasn't working she tried concentrating hard, but once it was actually put to the test it seemed that Amber's mind reading powers were weaker than expected, she couldn't do it.