New beginnings (Open)

[Haley O'Malley]

Haley sat perched atop the wall separating the small grassy field the local council liked to call a park from the bush land behind it. Her back to the dense thicket of dry vegetation which rustled quietly in the dry breeze blowing out to the distant sea, the young Hero watched as a lone eagle swooped in slow lazy circles, riding the heat columns characteristic of an Australian summer afternoon.

She sighed and turned her gaze to the yellowing grass before her, her warm brown eyes trying to find a pattern to the chaos with which the stems grew. It was impossible however. Sure that patch seemed to look like an elephant, but that one to the right looked like a potato… and if she tilted her head sideways it became a hammer.

The teen sighed again and turned her face up to the large orange orb dominating the western horizon, radiation beaming down onto her rather exposed skin. With the exception of the areas covered by her yellow tank top and tan mid thigh shorts, Haley’s skin drank in the energy as though it were life itself.

Closing her eyes and letting her body bask in the light and heat, Hal’s lips curled up into a dazed smile as she felt her boredom and listlessness fade away and be replaced with the build up of energy flowing through her veins. As the light bore down on her, Hal let herself fill up to overflowing point, her skin blazing with heat as her body tried to both absorb and rid itself of energy at the same time.

Feeling like she’d just eaten several Christmas dinners in one sitting, Haley peeled her eyelids back to note without much surprise that the air around her had taken on a flicking pale orange hue.

Brimming with energy, yet too full and content to move quickly, Haley let her body slide down off the wall, her bare feet hitting the ground just over a meter below her with nothing more than a light thump.

She was supposed to be meeting up with some of the other demigods right about now. They’d met about 2 weeks ago, that Tony guy moving them all to Johannesburg so Greg could explain his vision for them all. That had been quite the eventful day for little Haley. There’d she been, minding her own business in her room, admiring the new dresses she’d just got home with after her pit stop at the local mall in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Elena had already come home earlier not being keen on the whole shopping thing. Before Haley could do no more than frown at the rose red summer dress for not staying still in the mysterious wind that swept through her room, she found herself in an unfamiliar street, Elena standing just as bemused beside her.

Tony had reappeared soon after, dropping off more and more Demigods with the twins. That conversation had been… interesting to say the least. When Tony finally brought Greg to the others and the kid enlightened them about their powers no one was really all that surprised. They had just been teleported halfway across the globe by Tony after all, it was entirely possible they had powers of their own.

When the Griffon, yes that’s right, a Griffon, swept down out of the air on them all hell broke loose. Sure Greg squealed at them all to use the gifts in their blood, but you try being all Zen when a giant lion bird thing is trying to claw your face off. On the plus side, Morgan was accidentally sending all kinds of bad juju at the creature, so everything that could of gone wrong for it did. Somehow the bad luck made the monster bite it’s own tail and fly into a building at the same time.

Pulling a line from captain planet, with their powers combined the Heroes managed to defeat the Griffon. That gave Hal one hell of a buzz. Discovering her powers, being teleported across the globe, battling monsters, being one of the few people capable of standing between the Olympians and humanity, it was crazy!

Tony moved them all down to Morgan’s house here in western Sydney Australia and they’d been hanging out here ever since. Some of them worked on mastering their powers, like Hal. She’d been spending as much time in the unfiltered southern sun as she could, loving the feel of the energy flowing through her. She didn’t like the nighttime anymore however. Whilst a few weeks ago she’d simply disliked the dark, now days she felt almost drained. It was like she was suffering a major lack of caffeine.

Happily hooking her hands into the small pockets on her hips, Hal scanned the park and spied the approaching figure. Stepping off to wander in their general direction, Hal flashed them a bright grin in greeting. The sun was in her eyes still so she couldn’t see who the person was, but she doubted anyone else would be bothering to come to this far side of the park unless they were coming to see her. Anyway, she could use some company to distract her, or else she’d be sitting here basking in the sun till nighttime… several hours away.

[Eric Connor]

Eric was lost somewhere in Sydney, Australia. He was lucky that the weather allowed him to do such things as walk around wearing only a pair of blue board shorts. Nonetheless he was coordinately challenged and the more he walked around the more he couldn't help but feel like a failure at being one of the heroes. Seriously though, what was the point of him being there? He didn't have any useful powers like Tony's, Philip's or Hayley's. What is a good physique when compared to being able to teleport anywhere? As far as Eric knew that was the only thing he could do or the more appropriate words would be that was the only thing that had happened to him.

As Eric approached the end of the block he watched the man that walked by him staring at him. The guy had great body but a face straight out of a horror movie. He was a complete "butter face." As Eric gave the guy and awkward smile and quickly walked across the street. Ever since his powers had activated themselves he was constantly getting both wanted and unwanted attention. Eric knew he was hot and he knew that it had something to do with being related to a god... or something like that. Eric hadn't really been paying much too much attention until he heard the loud cry that griffon made. What was weird was how the rest of the group didn't even react to the sound until he had said something. At the end of that thought Eric suddenly saw the park he'd been searching for.

As Eric ran to the park he got halfway to the meeting when a sudden image flashed in his head. The image consisted of him and the butter face naked in bed together. It stopped him in his tracks and then he heard a voice with an American accent from behind him say

"Hi, sorry to bother you but do you know where the Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is?"

And then in his creepiest voice imaginable said

"I have a room there and I'm hoping somebody could join me."

Eric just turned around and told the guy

"Ew. Go get some plastic surgery and fix your face first, then we might talk."

Eric watched as the guy walked away. By the time he got close to the place he was supposed to be meeting people he was more than a little freaked out by what had just happened. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts he didn't notice the young woman across the field sitting on the wall. Suddenly he heard Haley's voice whisper the word

"G'day"

Then when Eric looked up he saw that she had only just jumped off of the wall and that there was no way she could have said that. Head swirling with thoughts Eric didn't entirely understand what was happening. When he finally approached her he saw her give a nice little hello smile. When they finally got towards each other Eric whispered to himself

"G'day"

[Morgan Alexander]

Morgan was sitting in a locked room, typing away at a keyboard as his eyes darted all over the screens in front of him. He knew that locking the door wouldn't stop Tony, but the others wouldn't be entering this room. With a sing, Morgan began to run through his hard drive, looking for information on the mythological creatures from Greek stores, while opening a live news feed on another monitor. He wanted to know if the news companies were running anything about the destruction of the Griffin that this rag-tag group had caused.

Coming up with nothing on the Griffin on the local news, Morgan began to search through the international news networks, starting with major news networks in the U.S. As his search ran itself, he turned his attention to the hard drive search, sorting relevant information into a separate file that he could place on disks and hand out to the others. He figured, he might as well give them something to arm themselves with. Standing around twiddling their thumbs wasn't going to help. And, here, they could practice the use of their "powers". He could pay for any damage caused, and he knew what companies wouldn't ask too many questions about it. For now, though, he was keeping a tight lid on his own powers, since he didn't want to cause bad luck for everyone he met, just in case someone died because of it. He couldn't stand causing someone else's death.

A sudden though hit him, as he sat there, sorting information on his computer. He opened up a recording program, and turned on his mike. "Note to self: Tell Tony never to transport me again without permission. Also, find out why we used the Sydney house, instead of the San Jose house."

[Tony Fitzpatrick]

The direction that his life had turned to was not something Tony had expected. Currently he was sitting on the roof of someone’s cabin by the beach in Australia. It was mind blowing to think that he had been in Ireland only moments ago. Finding out that he had the ability to move from one place to another instantly was mind blowing to say the least. Yes it was hard concept to wrap his mind around but there had been so many surreal things he witnessed in the last couple days and weeks that it wasn’t possible not to believe in it at this point. The one good thing about it thought was he could easily get away from his previous life. At least for now, even if he knew that things tended to catch up to people if they ran.

Staring out into the water, Tony sighed and pulled his green hat further down over his head. Despite how warm it seemed to be here, he couldn’t take it off. It was the principle of the matter. He had always preferred the cold and the dark more than he did the light. It was just how he was and the sun in Australia seemed not to be his friend at the moment. It made him frown a lot and squinting was getting to be annoying at this point. This morning he had taken a small vacation across the continents to Alaska where it was cold and dark just how he liked it. With his ability to be anywhere he wanted in the world instantly, Tony was defiantly going to at least try and enjoy it. Yes they seemed to have a greater purpose with their so called powers, but he couldn’t help how he was with them.

Looking at his watch, he teleported himself to the roof of the house they were all currently staying in. It was hard getting to know people in a hurry given how they all met. He still had people dislike how he had simply poofed into their homes and taken them away from it. The only thing he had done to that issue was shrug his shoulders. Standing up, he stared down at the ground for a good moment still somewhat lost in thought. Instantly, he was inside the house noting that everyone seemed to be gone already. They had agreed to meet up and the time was fast approaching. Just as he was able to leave, Tony noticed one of the doors was locked. To anyone else, that would have spelt leave me alone, however, to Tony that screamed come find me. Grinning, the Irish man teleported into the room just as Morgan made the note to himself.

Standing behind him, Tony focused on Morgan as well before he teleported them out of the room and to the place where everyone else was. “Where’s the fon in askin’ permission? he asked Morgan grinning before stuffing his hands into his jean pockets.

[Haley O'Malley]

Haley weaved her way across the lawn, in absolutely no hurry at all. Sure supposedly they were meant to fight the Gods themselves, but they weren’t going to do that today. Hell, Hal didn’t think they would ever be ready to take on the immortals. Yes their powers were pretty kickass, but they had to fight Gods. They were so boned. So the young hero shoved her duties to the back of her mind for the moment and walked up to Eric. No use putting herself in a downer mood, that never helped anyone. Besides, who could be unhappy when there was so much light?

Rolling up to bounce on her toes as she came to a halt before Eric, Haley grinned at the smexy man. Boy was he lucky. Yes he was an arrogant pig, but wow was he hot. Hal would kill to have a face like him, but alas, she was doomed to her oh so often referred to cute as a button looks. Sometimes having a round and happy face could get extremely annoying. But on the plus side, her eyes were constantly lit up. Literally in recent times.

Quirking an eyebrow at Eric’s distracted face Haley poked her tongue out at the man.

”Ye look ah wee bight confus’d t’ere Eric.” She teased, punching the guy playfully on the shoulder.

”All teh heat getting’ tah ye aye?” She grinned, winking to show she was joking. From what little time she’d spent with the man she pegged him as one who could be offended easily.

Haley opened her mouth to keep rambling on to fill the time until the others got there, but just as she did so Tony and Morgan appeared right beside them.

Letting out a squeal of surprise Haley jumped backwards, her energy full body flaring up into a beacon of violet light, almost completely obscuring her from view behind the intensity.

The jumpy girl promptly realized her mistake however and quelled the light flowing from her skin. Rushing forwards to make sure the boys were okay.

”Och, I’m so sor’ah. It’s all teh sunligh’. I’m all fill’d up.” She gushed, hovering around the trio, checking she hadn’t blinded any of them.

"An' en'way Toneh, dinnee ye mam evah teach ye no' tah sneak up on pehple like dah?" Haley joked at the Irish man, her Scottish accent thicker than usual as she forgot to focus on turning it down for the men.

Running her hands through her hair, the shimmering aura of light around her turning from the surprised violet back into the content pale orange, Haley paused and took a breath. The Heroes were meeting up here today to have some much needed 'get to know each other' time. According to Greg they would be spending a lot of time with each other in the future, and logically, if they were to stand even a small chance against the supernatural forces united against them, all of the heroes would need to know how the others worked. Personality wise, and powers wise. Hal was still unsure as to what today's session would be focusing on, but that didn't really matter to her now, she was to busy dieing a little inside from embarrassing herself with the light explosion thing.

Flashing an apologetic grin at the trio Haley slipped her hands back into her pockets and clamped her mouth shut, vowing not to say another word until someone else moved the subject away from her.

**You look a little bit confused there Eric.
**All the heat getting to you huh?
**Oh, i'm so sorry. It's all the sunlight. I'm all filled up.
**And anyway Tony, didn't your mother ever teach you not to sneak up on people like that?

((Omg this is the weakest post i have ever done. My muse completely abandoned me. I'm so sorry >.<))

[Greg Tawera]

Greg had been having a bad week. Don’t get him wrong, he adored his powers; they made it about a billion times easier to beat the crap out of people when he didn’t to. It was just the people. He’d originally contacted Tony after a vision of him, and he told him to try and teleport. It was more a way of proving to himself that he hadn’t gone insane than anything else. Unfortunately, he’d told the entire story of the vision, griffin in Johannesburg and all, and as it turned out some of the other ‘heroes’ (as they’d started calling themselves) were more compassionate towards humanity than he’d anticipated. Next thing he knew, HE’D been teleported to South Africa with the rest of these weirdoes. At the time he’d figured ‘sure, why not explain the whole story and help defeat a griffin? I mean, I’m here now, aren’t I? Why not?’ Because your only way of getting back home is by joining these people, that’s why.

Sadly enough for Greg, he actually did care about the gods taking over the world deep down. He liked the world. It was full of people he was better than. Greg wasn’t quite stupid enough to think that he’d be able to take on the Olympians all by himself, so if he had to, he’d work with the other heroes. At least until they won the war.

There was at least an upside in this whole endeavor; they were stationed in Sydney for the time being. While the others had just been taken from their homes without warning, Greg’s family had hardly noticed his absence. He could still attend school (y’know, if he actually ever decided to) and could stay at his own house every night, get a little privacy. And when the group decided to move on, he may even get a chance to spin some kind of story for his parents. It was unavoidable, however, that he would have to spend time with Them.

He’d actually attended school today in the hopes of escaping Them a little bit longer, but a meeting of some kind had been scheduled in; he hadn’t really been paying attention. Stepping off the bus, Greg sighed in an overly dramatic way. Walking down the street he dragged his feet, paused for breaks and did just about anything to ensure his lateness. There was no use. In no time at all he found himself slouching towards where he’d seen a flare of violet light. He assumed that was Haley’s doing.

“Put a shirt on, mate, you’re getting her all flustered.” He grunted as a sorry excuse for a greeting, finally stepping into the sorry circle of heroes. “I like my eyesight and I've decided I'd like to keep it, if you don’t mind.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets and slumping even more, he glanced around the people gathered with bored eyes. “Dang, and I thought I’d be the stylish one by arriving late.”