Halcyon City. They say theyre’s no place like it, anywhere else on Earth.
Well. The people of Bay City would beg to differ. It may not be a bustling megalopolis, but the city stakes its claim as the second largest hub of superheroes and villains in the world. And it is here that a new generation of heroes has begun to rise. These are their stories...
Issue #1!
The waterfront district of Bay City is a popular tourist destination. People flock to the restaurants, shops, and museums along the docks, and to take a cruise around the bay or watch the fishermen at work.
But today, the sounds of laughter and merriment have been replaced by panicked screams! And mingled with those screams, loud and aggressive barking. Crowds of terrified people flee from Pier 42, normally the premiere location to see the herds of native sea lions that congregate there. It would seem that the normally docile creatures have taken a turn for the savage, as they leap onto the pier, snapping their jaws savagely as they flop and waddle in pursuit of the hapless folks who had only hoped to take some cute pictures!
Amidst the dozens of vicious mammals stands a man in an armored wetsuit. An odd-looking voice modulator is clamped around his neck, translating his words to grunts and barks that the sea lions seem to understand! He commands the creatures onward, delighting in the chaos he is causing.
"Yes! Yes! For too long have these beautiful creatures languished in the bay that once belonged to them. Today, they reclaim their home! And it's all thanks to me, the Pinniped Piper!"
The man cackles maniacally, but he stops abruptly and squints at the end of the pier, where several figures have begun to assemble. "Huh? And just who are you supposed to be?" he asks...
Arriving behind the rest of the team and keeping herself out of the focus of this bizarre and creepy villain, Tumbler wears her customary domino mask over her eyes. Her bodysuit is zipped up to her neck, dark red and form-fitting. Over that a light cloak is pinned in place, where she has he right side currently concealed. Her left hand reaches out and with some effort, pulls and collects the iron sand underneath the beach, until she has several baseball sized clumps ready to go.
"...Oh my god, this guy? Am I really reduced to fighting idiots like this?" She asks, rolling her eyes. "Can we just leave this to the cops? I'm not really feeling up to this..."
The Darling Derby shows up in a derby, overalls shorts, 3 bandaids on her legs, and skates!
She calls over the Ear Buddies, “Nothin’ doing! By the time the cops arrive, the sea lions will be dabbing their chins with their victims’ grape smugglers.
“Lives are at stake! That, and my aunt didn’t buy me a second comm plan for kicks.”
Wesley considers the probable threat level and relaxes slightly. Hopefully this villain will not require more than his regular powers and not force him to push into untapped strengths. He didn't want to lose himself to the Curator, but he couldn't let these people get assaulted by a maddened pack of sea lions either.
Shifting his form slightly so he's unrecognizable as Wesley, he also summons a cloak of mists and flowy fabrics to complete the look. Then Arcanum rises above the crowd on his telekinesis as he surveys the scene.
"No one can be this ridiculous! It's got to be a ruse! A distraction! You! Who are you working for!?"
Ziss arrives along with the Darling Derby on her blue hoverboard. The White Fox wears an orange, black and white form-fitting bodysuit with a scale pattern that covers her entire body, reinforced sci-fi boots, her fingerless helix gloves, a Japanese-style kimono-jacket with a strange mythical animal on her back, and a white and blue fox mask on her face.
Ziss doesn't understand half the words Derby said, but he still gets the gist of it. "We are here to help, not for de glory, right Tumbler?" She asks, it is clear she isn't asking a question, but instead lecturing her.
Finding interest in the bandit's name, she looks for a pipe in his person, assuming he is using this to control the poor animals, as well as the easiest route towards him.
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Terri arrives piloting one of those city sponsored segways that seems to be going unusually fast, powered up by his nanites it seems. He skids and hops down to the beachside and swallows a lump in his throat which shows itself as his entire neck stretches upwards before slapping back down to normal length in an outlandish display.
He skids the segway to a stop in the sand and hops forward stumbling next to the rest of the team before recovering and trying to stand heroically with his arms posed to his sides. Elbows and shoulders taking position just a bit too blocky and hiked up to look good.
"Dude it's like, totally uncool that you're like harshing the mellow of these peaceful beach-babes. Brush off brah!"
Crimson Tide barrels straight towards the Pinniped Piper with a face-splitting smile on her face. "Bad idea broseph, this is all just part of a balanced breakfast for-" she stops in her charge for a moment to flex in a classic Muscle Beach pose at the edge of the pier, "-The Crimson Tide!"
She twists and points a single fishy arm at the villain, "I don't need Sea King here to take you on, so go back to the sea before I haul you on land to dry out!"
Diego appears in a puff of crimson smoke that smells faintly of ozone. ”I shit you not, if someone runs off with my bag and my threads, you all will be replacing ‘em,” he says as he finishes off the last bite of a corn dog. He tosses the stick down carelessly as he watches the whole…thing…unfold. ”Seriously? From monsters to seals? Oh, how far we’ve fallen,” he says, giving Tumbler a look.
When Derby speaks up though, he nods and says ”Sure thing, chica. Want me to blip over and end this quick?”
...suddenly there are strong wind currents in the dinning room, even if all the windows are closed due to the AC. Strangely all of them appear to converge into a single point: the dinning table. Mere moments after the wind started, however, it stops, followed by a faint sound that resembles the clap of a very distant thunder. On top of the table, out of nowhere, now there is a person wearing a white fox mask, their hands opened in a clear and universal sign of peace.
The figure looks around slowly, extending the silence, and seeing themself surrounded by strange people, they life their mask, revealing the face of a cute baby faced teen girl with almond skin and deep violet eyes. "Is dis Earth?... Hi?"
"Can you teach me?" Megan hears someone speaking to her. Turning around, she sees a cute tiny girl with short brown hair, almond skin and deep purple eyes wearing a one-piece swimsuit. She is pointing to Megan's surfboard.
"What you were doing dere..." She then points to the ocean and then back to her surfboard. "... with dis. It looked awesome. Can you teach me?"
"No one can be this ridiculous! It's got to be a ruse! A distraction! You! Who are you working for!?"
”I work only for these majestic marine mammals!” the Pinniped Piper proclaims!
Assessing the situation, Ziss can’t help but notice the Piper’s voice modulator. Destroying or removing it will likely disrupt his control over the sea lions. The best way past the sea lion herd would be to fly over them on her hover board, but she’d have to be careful to avoid getting knocked off!
”Enough prattling!” the Piper shouts. He twists a dial on his neckpiece and lets out a series of sharp barks! The sea lions rush forward, the bulk of them heading directly at Crimson Tide—just like she wanted!
Everyone, what do you do?
Squinting her eyes, the White Fox smiles though no one can see, since she is wearing a mask that covers her whole face. "Dat ting in his mouf... I tink it is controlling de animals!" She says, quite happy with herself.
"Cool! I'll take it!" She says as she hovers... but not towards him, since she is worried about the sea lions. She reaches an electric post and hovers along it until she is about 8 feet in the air. She then stops, standing sideways on the post as she aims the bottom of her hoverboard at the villain and then she falls towards him!
As she comes closer to him, she extends her hand...
DD cringes at the way Tumbler trusts Crimson Tide to lead. What, just ‘cause she knows how to fight and I—
She notices Crimson about to get clobbered!
“Not so fast, Pinpricked Piper!”
DD scoops sand into her Hatarang! It whirls about, sprinkling The Sands of Deterrence into the predatory eyes of crazed sea lions!
“Lions may rule the jungle, but sharks rule the sea. I did your pets a favor, so stick that in your pipe which you can rub suntan oil on—
“Daww, skip it!—the pipe ends up up your ass in the proposed scenario. Woulda been a zinger, but got convoluted.”
Dervish squats down and studies the scene.
Ain’t no way this is just about a bunch of damned seals. What are you really up to, buddy?
Arcanum floats above the fray, watching as White Fox engages the Piper and Crimson Tide is swarmed by the sea lions. She can take it. I think. The Derby then jumped in to assist, freeing him to help out in another way.
While Fox focuses on the control box, Arcanum targets the Piper himself. Sea foam sprays up and around him as a telekinetic waterspout shoots up from the nearby harbor and then down around the wetsuitted menace, blocking him from seeing the sea lions he's trying to control!
"Oh my god, the Derby is so lame..." Tumbler seems to cringe at the Legacy's banter. She never did understand how it was supposed to help, aside from buying time. But these were sea lions, who was she trying to banter to, the Piper?
Not one to stay on the sidelines, she looks between Crimson Tide and the Piper, before chaining the iron sand she'd pulled out of the beach into a thin whip, using it as a deterrent to the sea lions while approaching the Piper. It looked secured on his neck and well protected - but Ziss seemed to be on it.
"...Well. Seems I'm not really needed here. I'll go...I don't know, rescue some civilians or puppies from these sea lions," She sighed, looking to see what she could actually do.
The meal becomes more joyous when an unexpected guest arrives…
*POP!*
“I got my wish! My birthday wish, a week early! She’s super cute and too socially inept—in an endearing way, I assure you—to know how wildly unpopular I am at school! And life!
“I was probably gonna wish for a car, really, but a BFF’s even better. What’s your name, kitsune? I’m Wendy, and this is my rich aunt Maude!”
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Terri cringed at Derby's whole little spheel, "That was pretty lame dude, but it was a good save."
He charges forward raising his shoulder he attempted to tackle through the sea lions towards the Piper. He arrived shortly after Ziss and rammed into the boisterous baron of blubbery bulls.
His entire arm seemed to bubble up into a larger swollen battering ram as he landed a punch in the piper's gut.
"Hey Piper dude time for you to have a date with Brosidon!"
"Yo what the heck Derbsy? I totally had those things!" She put a hand on one of the sea lion's heads like she was holding a small child too far away to punch her. 'Sides, you know what happens if you leave a bunch of angry blind sea lions around? Bad times, man. Bad times. They gotta go back to their environment."
With massive hands spread wide, Crimson Tide snatched up sea lions by their haunches, sometimes two at a time, right above where their bodies split into paired flippers, and started hurling them back into the sea in low flat arcs one after the other.
"Sure thing little dude!" Megan beamed down at Ziss with a mouth full of teeth that were too numerous and too sharp. Her swimsuit made the comparison to a shark's bite even easier. 'Whoops, uh, don't mind the chompers. Don't worry, I'm not gill-ty of anything bad." The grin she made at her own joke(?) was back to mostly human standard.
"'S pretty simple. We'll practice getting a dry pop on land, then once you've got that down, we'll paddle out to the mush and try it the fun way. Oh, and once your board's in the water, make sure it's always pointing in and out, and never let it get between you and a wave, kay? Or you're gonna have a bad time. Ocean's real big, little dude. You wanna ride the waves, not fight 'em."
Dervish takes a closer look at the situation, thinking there may be more going on than meets the eye. But it would seem that the Pinniped Piper is exactly the sort of foolish villain he appears to be. His half-baked plans of sea lion supremacy do not seem very well thought through...
Darling Derby hurls sand into the eyes of the sea lions attacking Crimson Tide. They bark in discomfort, shaking their heads to try to clear away the sand. Some of them dive into the water, but as Derby watches, they swim across to an adjoining pier where several people have stopped to record the burgeoning superhero brawl on their phones. The rogue sea lions leap up onto that pier and begin menacing the bystanders, taking out their frustrations on the hapless nonpowered folks!
Studying this new wrinkle, Tumbler can definitely tell that those bystanders are in the greatest danger. She spots a small fishing boat tied to an adjoining pier, though. If she reaches out with her ferrokinesis powers, she may be able to drag it over to the bystanders so that they can hop onboard and escape the sea lions!
Crimson Tide begins hurling sea lions out of the way, scattering them into the water and clearing a path along Pier 42. The sea lions will recover from their surprise at being tossed soon, but for now, there is a clear path to the Pinniped Piper!
Arcanum conjures a whirling waterspout, surrounding the Pinniped Piper and separating him from his flippered friends.
Ziss soars towards the Pinniped Piper on her hoverboard. As she whizzes past him, she snatches the voice modulator from around his neck, ripping it free! "Hey! Give that back!" he shouts, grasping futilely at Ziss. Snarling, the Piper flexes his arms, causing razor-edged flippers to pop up along his elbows. "I've got more than just one trick up my sleeve, you little--OOF!"
The villain's taunt turns into a grunt of pain as Terri suddenly rushes in and delivers a brutal gut punch! The Piper doubles over, slashing at the air, but Terri is able to dodge away from his counter-attack. "Argh, ack! Sea lions! To me! Defend me, please," he coughs, but without his voice modulator, and with Arcanum's powers still in effect, none of the mammals come to his aid.
"You brats! This was supposed to be my moment of victory! I'll not let you take it from me!" he gasps, leaping toward Terri and slashing at him with his razor-flippers!
”I need swimmers and surfers to defend the peeps! As for Mr. Assaulting-a-Minor here…
“Imma saltin’ back!”
DD skates along the pier, Jet Sets moving her along the boards sounding like a locomotive. Her roller derby fighting style is quite a spectacle, or would be, if not for the sand getting into her wheels—
—too athletically perfect to accept a wipe out, she vaults on both hands, lands the round-up, and licks out a leg so the toe cable extends to entangle the Piper!
DD is too far away to be hit back, and Terri now has a foe who’s ”practically giftwrapped!”
"Hey! No fair!" the Pinniped Piper protests as Darling Derby wraps him up. He struggles against the toe cable, falling on the deck and flopping like a fish! As Terri looms large over him, he swallows audibly. "Um, mercy, please? Don't hurt me!"
Dervish rolls his eyes as the “villain” is thwarted so easily. He turns his attention to the animals next, standing as he ponders the situation.
Sea lions do not like loud noises. Teleporting onto one of the tethered barges nearby and sounding the horn could allow Diego to scare them away!
Diego spots the nearby cargo ship and smirks. He vanishes and reappears in the control room of the vessel, causing all the crew there to jump with a start. ”Don’t mind me. Just, you know, being a hero and all that,” he says as he looks for the button for the horn. Once he finds it, he smiles and says ”Always wanted to do this…”
The blaring horn causes the majority of the sea lions to scatter, diving underwater to escape the loud noise! The ones menacing the bystanders still remain, however. They'll need to be dealt with more directly!
What do you do?
Everything seems under control except for those last few sea lions. Can't engage directly, but maybe they'll respond to their natural predator? Wesley thinks as he floats over to the remaining sea lions. He envisions an orca appearing just above the heads of the crowd, chomping and snapping -- and just like that, one appears!
During the celebration -- and mourning -- following the massive seaside attack of the monsters, Wesley stayed off to the side. His powers certainly came in handy; they always would -- at least until he loses his will and his powers become a menace.
He thinks about that, and decides that someone should know. If he's going to join this team that seems to be forming... then someone needs to know.
Wesley finds the Derby and pulls her off to the side, asking if she could keep a secret. If she says yes, he waves his hand and throws up a telekinetic barrier to muffle the sound around them. "It's... it's that important," he says to explain the need for secrecy.
"These powers I've got, they may seem great. But they come at a cost. A big one. There's no easy way to say this, so here goes: I was tricked into reading the inscription on Aladdin's lamp and now I'm a genie. Or, a genie-in-training. Or something. I'm not a full genie. Yet. But when I finally am, that's it for me. In the lamp I go, and only my master gets to control me. I'll be a slave. And the man who owns the lamp? Not going to use me for good."
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Terri backs up from the crazed swing of the flippered fiend and stumbles back, having hoped that the gut punch would have knocked the fight out of him. "Not cool not cool!"
Sensing the imporatance of the device that Rocket Girl had taken off with Terri called out across the comm-bead, "Hey dudette I can probably like... hack that or something maybe and tell the seal-dudes to scram."
This of course happened silently as he scampered backwards from the now tied Piper.
As Terri backs away, the Pinniped Piper seizes the opportunity! He pops his razor flippers back into his suit, then pops them back out again, managing to sever the toe cable binding him! He laughs maniacally as he dives into the water, where two sea lions quickly swim under his arms and carry beneath the surface! Within moments, he is out of your reach.
Meanwhile, Arcanum's orca projection does the trick of scaring off the remaining sea lions before they can harm any of the bystanders. The crowd begins to whoop and cheer as you secure your victory! Phone cameras swing in you direction as the people along the waterfront snap pictures of their saviors!
Diego spots the last of the nonsense coming to an end. He then blips over to be beside a magnificent female specimen wearing some Daisy Duke shorts and a bikini top. He leans against the railing and says ”Well, that was crazy, huh? Kind of takes away from the fun though, doesn’t it? How about the two of us find us a nice, quiet beach somewhere? I know a lovely spot in Budelli. Ever been to a beach with pink sand?”
With the voice modulator in hand, White Fox flips around and points her hoverboard back to the land, falling back towards it until she is on top of the piers, when she restores herself to the proper gravitational orientation and hovers away.
Looking around, she notices the sea lions are scrambling away in fear. Since she was mighty curious about the modulator, she tries it nevertheless to make the poor animals calmer. "Calm down, cute animals, calm down! Return to your home... it is nap time."
She waves at Terri. "I fink I figured it out, tanks!" She then pockets the device, intending to add it to her collection of toys.
Wesley floats back down to earth as he banishes the orca construct. Glad he modified his appearance before the battle to keep his identity safe, he waves reluctantly to the crowd.
He leans over to Derby. "Is there a standard amount of time we're supposed to do this before leaving? There's also the fact that the Piper is getting away. Should me and Tide try chasing him down?"
Using the voice modulator, Ziss is able to calm down the sea lions. Freed from the Piper's malicious influence, they quickly return to their usual behavior patterns, hopping up onto the floating docks around the pier and laying down for a nap in the sun after the stressful encounter.
The girl Diego appears next to is surprised at first by his sudden appearance, but she giggles at his offer. "Pink sand? That's crazy! Like, where's Budelli? Is it near Malibu?"
Diego smiles back. ”Italy, chica.”
Diego smiles back. ”Italy, chica.”
"Oh! But isn't that, like, really far away?" the girl asks.
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Terri quickly scrambles back to his feet and brushes himself off, which honestly just smears more sand into his half-flesh which his nanite bits start to absorb and repurpose into raw materials. "Oh yeah, cool totally meant to do that, good uh.. good work." He stands heroically... awkwardly by himself on the beach... with no one around to see how totally not dumb and stumbling he was. Then quickly begins retreating from the water back to the pier
Diego winks. ”I can have us there in a blink,” he says cockily. ”Whatcha say?”
The Darling Derby snorts derisively as her toe cable is easily severed.
And the bad guy gets away.
She unleashes her powers of deductive reasoning.
…angrily.
“Okay, you all did excellent. We just gotta work on the bad-guy-begging-for-mercy part. So… tied up, he’s gonna cut the rope. You kick his teeth so hard they fly out his asshoIe, then yeah, mercy, pull your kicks.
“That said, if his begging was fully a bluff, he wouldn’t have fled. Which is to say he knows we’re stronger. No, not me. I’m lean. Good for a cover of a teen fitness magazine, but…”
She turns to Crimson Tide.
“You got guns that’d launch Yosemite Sam to the stratosphere. So if he’s fleeing with aid—pronoun confusion, the Piper, not Yosemite Sam—he fears you.
“Therefore, I must conclude… wait, no, just had another thought…”
Based on his knowledge of the sea lions' nature, Derby concludes that he is likely a marine biologist. Very few marine biologists would have access to the kind of technology needed to create his voice modulator. However, there is a cutting edge marine research station a few miles north along the coast. The technology would quickly be flagged as missing if it had been taken from the research station. Ergo, that must be where the Pinniped Piper's secret lair is hidden!
The girl gives Wendy a puzzled look, as if she is not completely following her. "Hum... happy birfday den?" She says as she lowers her hands and accidently dips her fingers in the salad. She fishes an olive and pops it in her mouth, getting down from the table. "So, dis is Earf, right?"
As Wendy mentions the word 'kitsune' and offers her name, Ziss offers them a small greeting bow. As she does so, Wendy and her aunt would see a small paw reaching for the girl's shoulder, and soon a the face of a small creature appears, resembling a small white house cat but with its back and the top of tis head covered in crimson red plates like a pangolin. "Nice to meet you, Wendy and Maude. I'm Ziss , and dis is Ryx. Sorry for de intrusion... so have you also been to Razzara?" She asks, curious.
Ziss looks surprise by Megan's many pointed teeth, but not scared. She gives her a polite smile as she jokes, in truth not getting it. "Oh, you change shape? Are you not human?" She asks, clearly curious. She stands up and bows slightly to her, which is strange, since she doesn't appear to be Japanese. "Nice to meet you. I'm Ziss."
Ziss appears really happy when Megan indeed agrees to teach her how to surf. She takes her newly bought board and does as Megan instructs, showing a knack for it. "It is like hoverboarding, right, but touching water... de 'wave' is dat fing dat goes up and down on de water, right?"
Diego winks. ”I can have us there in a blink,” he says cockily. ”Whatcha say?”
The bikini-clad girl shrugs. "Sure! Let's go! Do I need, like, a passport or something?"
***
As Arcanum waves to the crowd, a teenage girl pushes to the front. She has dark hair, blue eyes, and a trim figure. He recognizes her as Ashley Mills, a girl that goes to his school! "You saved my life! I thought those sea lions were going to eat me!" she exclaims. "I just wanted to say thanks. I'm, uh, I'm Ashley." She smiles shyly.
Diego grins ear to ear. ”Only if they can catch us, chica! Wait here, lemme go get my stuff,” he says before blipping to where he stashed his clothes and bag.
A minute later, he reappears beside Derby and Crimson Tide. ”I knew it! I f%#@ing knew it! Some low life stole my shit!”
"Way to go, letting the bad guy get away," Tumbler mutters to herself as she strides forward and catches the fishing boat with her powers, pulling it free from the docks and towards herself. She dumps her iron sand into it before hopping in as well, gesturing to the rest of the team that can't easily fly or travel through the water.
"Well? Are we just letting this moron go or going after him?" She calls out to the rest of the team. "This guy gives all villains a bad rep, and I am not going to be mocked for letting such a loser get one over us."
"Is he really a bad guy?" Six asks as she hovers above the water, her graviboard silent and not messing with the water underneath it. "Like, he did not hurt anyone and even lost his fing..."
As Arcanum waves to the crowd, a teenage girl pushes to the front. She has dark hair, blue eyes, and a trim figure. He recognizes her as Ashley Mills, a girl that goes to his school! "You saved my life! I thought those sea lions were going to eat me!" she exclaims. "I just wanted to say thanks. I'm, uh, I'm Ashley." She smiles shyly.
Arcanum nods his head in acknowledgement of Ashley and her thanks. He tries to keep the recognition off his face. What do I say? 'All in a day's work'? 'Just doing my duty'? That's so cliché!"
"Glad I was able to help," he gets out before his mind twists him around any further. "If you'll excuse me." He turns and floats back to the team when it looks like they're going to continue pursuit.
He lands next to Tumbler. "I don't think we'll be mocked. He hardly landed a hit on any of us, and we even kept the sea lions from getting hurt. If Derby knows where he's going, we don't have to rush, either."
White Fox hovers in circles, impatient, as they wait for Dervish and Mercury.
She hovers close to the sea lions on the beach, grabs her newly acquired toy, and tells them. "Dance my minions, dance! Raise de right paw, now raise de left paw! Yeah, dat is right... no dat is left..." From a pouch, she retrieves a metal sphere that, once activated, floats on her hand and shines bright colors beans around her, followed by a strange and alien song with unrecognizable words but a wild beat!
DD snaps her fingers—thhp—or… tries to once, and immediately gives up.
“Egg. Zactly,” she replies to Tumbler. “Only by ‘get away,’ I don’t so much mean ‘from us’ as I mean ‘from here.’” She looks around, eyes probably shifting beneath her rose-tinted specs. ”Which of you boys does teleportation? Or can fly us all to Bad Guy HQ? Or can hail a cab that can get us to the research facility faster than two sea lions propelling a lazy supervillain under water?
“In any case, the research facility IS Bad Guy HQ for reasons that are too obvious to explain when time is fleeting like RoboCop taking a knee. Bad simile, good movie. Classic.”
She turns sharply and stands between Ziss and bathing beauties and beefcakes.
“Nope, nope, nope, too early for that. Party hearty later, beach-hotties. We’re still on the job, false alarm!”
Facing the team, she repeats, “Focus. Mostly that’s for me. I’m ADHD. I’m ADH-somebuh-D.
“Research facility. Fastest means: what is? Arrive before Piper: is possible?”
Ziss hovers towards Derby, puts her hands on both sides of her head and turns it, until Derby's gaze is faced towards the boat. "Tumbler already got you a boat..."
"Get in the boat and we'll get there," Tumbler tells the Darling Derby, tolerating her behavior considering she gave them a lead on where to go next.
"Hey lover boy!" She shouts at the Dervish, "Get in, we're going to fight crime. It's weird to say that..."
Tumbler has been weird around Arcanum for a while now. She's not particularly shy around the others, aside from Crimson Tide, but with Arcanum she barely acknowledges him unless necessary. Here in her small boat, it was necessary to speak to him as she gritted her teeth.
"That dumbass has the ability to command seals and sea lions and wastes it on public stunts like this!" She is fuming a little as she pushes the boat out to sea. "Could have trained them to rob some rich snob's yacht or some cruise liner or raid a cargo ship - no, their big plan is 'announce my name to the world and then sic them on a bunch of poor tourists with nothing of value'! Ugh, it's reasons like this that made me hop over the line," She points out.