Crashlanding [Lord Sun]

”I don't quite understand why you have me moving around so much.” Colin said with an almost annoyed sigh into the cellphone pressed against his ear. The voice of Travis Masters would funnel in from the other side, a small chuckle as if amused more than anything by his annoyance with his constant movement. He was after all the one that kept shipping around, even if the money that came with it was more than worth it. Sure, he had made sure that his suit could be brought with him in case something happen that made him require it. Travis more than anything wanted to keep him from any sort of unfortunate kidnappings or death. Honestly, he wold have preferred to avoid death, and so he made sure the suit was close by no matter what.

The private jet would touch down upon a strip within a few hours, Colin gathering his stuff and stepping out into the Los Angeles sunlight. The nap on the way over there had left him slightly groggy, Colin barely even awake as the sun would sting his eyes. Yawning loudly, he would turn his eyes upon what looked like one of those black vehicles that Travis so liked to move around in. He already knew it was for him, because someone was standing beside it that typically drove him around whenever he visited the LA branch of Masters Pharmaceuticals. Stepping into the backseat and letting the luggage plop down, Colin would rest against the seat, sighing as the thing went into motion. The trip would fly by and soon enough he would stop once again, as he stepped out to set things up in his hotel room. As always it was nice, a lavish sort of room that was not too high class but not really low either.

Already resting against the wall was the Vanguard suit in it's containment thing. To anyone else it looked like nothing really, but with his hand pressed against the right spot the case would open to reveal the suit contained within. A light blue sort of metallic looking armor that was both flexible and tough. ”Vanguard suit begin start up sequence.” Colin said before changing into something more comfortable, clothes he normally wore under the suit. Not that he would end up being sweaty and burnt when operating it, but it was more of a personal thing. This ended up being a pair of khaki pants and a comfortable black t-shirt, nothing fancy but it got the job done. With the suit clamping around him, Colin would open the window and sort of fly out there. Within seconds, he was flying through the air with the wind whipping past him.

Flying around in the exosuit always had a certain liberating factor to it, flying through the air at superhuman speeds and whatnot. Something he could not do on his own, a sort of wish fulfillment of he had ever seen one, but then again it was something he really enjoyed. As usual his suit was scanning through the usual frequencies, searching for anything he could find to end the boredom and maybe wake himself up. If anything, he would not hazard a nap which would only make himself feel worse rather than better. Hopefully bank robberies were not on the list, because those were so overdone that he could not even begin to describe how much he hated those. However, that was not the flavor of today, and rather it involved something hitting his suit with an incredible amount of force. The kinetic field would spark into view around his suit before it began to sharply dive, his thruster for some reason having crapped out on him.

”What the hell?!” Colin cursed as he crashed into a building.

“... And that’s all for today. Your papers are due next week. I wish I could say I was looking forward to reading them, but I’ve never lied to you before and don’t plan on starting now. Now get out of here so I can enjoy my weekend.”

Packing up his bag as quickly as possible, Stan began to make his way towards the door. Ignoring calls of Stan what’s our topic again and wait but what font should I use, he left the classroom. The students had all of the assignment details in the packet he had painstakingly put together for them, so if they actually read the damn thing they probably wouldn’t have any questions for him. Besides, they should have asked sometime in the three whole weeks since the paper had been assigned, rather than waiting to two days before it was due. They’d had plenty of time to sort out their problems, so if they’d by this point whatever happened now was their own fault. He had more important things to worry about, anyway.

Shooting off a quick text to Kat to ensure that family dinner was still on for Sunday, he began the short walk to the campus athletic center. If he moved quickly, he could get some training in before heading home to get changed and enjoying his evening. He’d considered patrolling that evening, but with grading to do on Monday and the next installment of his mother’s endless attempts to find him a nice Greek boy on Sunday, he’d need all the rest he could get. He could always just regenerate any scrapes or bruises he may get, but that was painful and tiring and generally something to be avoided if at all possible. No, he thought to himself, No heroics this weekend unless something happens. And so of course, something did.

The TV in the lobby of the athletics center had been shifted from its usual programming of nonsense sitcoms and instead tuned to the news, and a small crowd had gathered around it. On screen, a live feed from a news copter showed a skyscraper with a smoking hole in it, while Mary Burnette, the anchor, spoke frantically off to the side. “This just in: what appears to be a man in a suit of armor has been attacked while flying over Westwood. The source of the attack is unknown at this point in time. More as the situation develops.”

And there goes my afternoon, Stan groused internally. Quickly heading to the locker room to change, he gave thanks that he’d thought to pack his mask and coat, then swore when he realized he’d have to come back the next day for his bag. If anyone were to see Lord Sun collecting a bag from Stan Floros’ locker, his cover would be blown. Lucky for him, the janitorial staff usually left people’s things alone overnight, so long as they were only there for a day or two. Still, it was an inconvenience, as was the fact that he’d left most of his regular costume at home. His athletic clothes would have to do; a v-neck t-shirt, baggy sweat pants, and Nike boxing boots, all black. Admittedly, they’d be much easier to replace than his usual costume when his powers inevitably wrecked them, but he also looked less like a hero and more like a masked hobo. Changing quickly before slipping out the facility’s rear entrance, Stan began to run towards the smoke in the near distance. It was just luck, he supposed, that the attack would occur so close to the college. Whether that luck was good or bad remained to be seen.

As Stan ran, he called on his psychic link, opening the doors to the being’s terrible energy. He felt it flow through him, filling his torso and his arms and his legs and his brain, freezing and boiling all at once. More than anything it felt wrong; a crime against nature within his body- but he was used to it. Wrong as it may be, it made him stronger, and faster, and soon enough he reached the base of the building the man had crashed into- some chichi high-rise apartment complex. Pushing his way through the crowd, he ran into the lobby and up flight after flight of stairs. He eventually reached the floor into which the man had crashed and threw open the door. He looked only briefly at its devastated interior before rushing in. “HELLO,” he yelled, “ANYBODY HERE?”

It seemed anything his suit made contact within in this downward spiral was reduced to nothing as he crashed through it, throwing glass and bits of wall around him as clouds of dust were thrown up in the impact. A small jarring sensation rose up within his back but nothing that would slow him down, a low groan issuing from Colin as he tried to regain his bearings. ”Suit, analyze damages.” He sighed as it would do just that, running diagnostics upon itself and him as well to be sure no damage was done. There seemed to be no damage to him or the suit, save for a small flux within the kinetic barriers which was fixed quickly enough. Self repair systems, now they were a life saver when he knew almost nothing about how to fix the damn suit itself. As far as what had hit him, well his suit could not quite determine what that was.

With everything taken into account, Colin would slowly move into a standing position while taking a survey of the room around him. Debris had fallen around him, some of it sliding off of him as the suit proved it was more than capable of keeping him from being pinned down. Then there was the sound of a door being thrown open, Colin rapidly turning towards them as his sensors rapidly scanned over the man. They appeared to be radiating a strange form of energy, something that was similar to plasma but the suit could not quite describe it. To him however they were just another metahuman likely trying to save the ay, which he could appreciate in a sense. ”I'm here!” He would call out to be sure they heard him, waving his right hand as if motioning towards himself.

Features he noticed suggested the male was older than him but by how many years he could not tell right off the bat. ”You wouldn't happen to have seen what attacked me would you?” He asked, wondering either if they could help out in whatever way.