Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I'm saving SSJ the trouble of setting up a thread for me. She be busy afterall. 3nodding ))

LoQuinn stared intently through his binoculars at the form of his target. He'd only had to stop into a Quick Mart for supplies on his journey to civilization west of the Rockies to get word of the 'Mountain Menace'. He wondered if perhaps his training sessions with his mother in the mountains had gotten out but they'd taken the utmost precautions to find secluded areas for him to use his evo powers. He'd gotten fairly good at controling small sections of rock working on the principle of quality over quantity. His body made no vibration as he walked across the ground, crouched his focus being placed under his feet. It was so minor a power signature he doubted even an advanced Earth evo would be able sense it. Afterall what was a footprint of void feeling when some could feel for miles around them?

He watched her as she played, testing her abilities and limits. This was no doubt why she'd been called the mountain menace, she seemed completely random, the effects and durations varied vastly as she attempted to hone her control. He'd started out in more or less the same manner however her choice in locale left much to be desired. If she couldn't control herself it was likely people would get hurt.

"Irresponsible." he said to himself.

He put the binoculars down and guaged his distance from her, about 200 yards. His hand went palm flat facing the ground and he concentrated on the earth directly below it. A segment of the ground lifted up and formed into a ball on his hand. Though the size of a volleyball he kept his focus, making it more or less weightless. He was able to lift with his willpower about as much as he weighed, however forming it into a shape required substances of lesser weight. He took a step forward and threw the ball of earth at his target expecting her to keep her concentration to her power training.

Once his missile had left his hand his mind took over, pushing it higher and farther than his body was capable of and ensuring it's accuracy as it flew to it's target: her chest. Had he chosen harder materials or compacted it and hit her in the head it was likely to have been lethal. However his intent was to get her attention at a distance so that he could politely tell her there were better ways to go about training, perhaps even offer her a partnership if she was so inclined. It was for this reason he collapsed the front of his earthen ball causing it to spread out and reduce it's hitting force. It would knock her down, maybe take the breath from her lungs but aside from that she'd be fine.

He was moving the moment it hit, changing his position so that she would have a harder time finding where it had been thrown from.

LoQuinn nearly stumbled as he ran, he kept his eyes on the girl as she righted herself and regained her footing. It wasn't natrual, her eyes trailed his path through the treeline as if he were lit up with flares. She made a motion with her arms and LoQuinn went head over heels, face first into the ground. Having his powers syphoned wasn't painful but it was disturbing. Like he'd been wearing a giant latex skin and he was being peeled from off of his body, the feeling of awareness was gone. It was likely why he'd fallen, having lost contact with the ground and feeling it only a physical sense was something LoQuinn hadn't experienced in quite some time.

"What the ******** was that?" he said alloud as he picked himself up and selected a new direction to run: away. However before he could put much speed into his tactical withdrawl he spared a glace behind himself. The woman had utilized what he could only assume as his stolen power, by way of a heaping mound of earth cast back at him with far less skill.

LoQuinn leveled his hands at the debris as it closed attempting to force a part in the wall of his own element. The effect was a rather intense pose and a lot of concentration however nothing opened up and LoQuinn was forced to duck behind a tree to partially conceal himself from the crushing weight. He was knocked onto his back and dragged a few feet. The sediment having buried him somewhat.

He could see her as he attempted to dig himself out. She was unearthing actual stone rather than the sediment he'd used to knock her down. It meant she likely planned on killing him. Perhaps if he could get away his powers would return. "Wait!" he called out to her, "I can help you to focus your powers like I can. This is a misunderstanding! Your powers are chaotic, there are better ways!" Bargaining wasn't begging, firstly because begging wasn't something LoQuinn would allow himself to do. He understood that begging was almost always the last act of a helpless person and even if at this moment he was helpless he sure as hell didn't want her knowing that. Secondly, he was being serious about the whole thing. His goal was to simply help the girl focus her powers so she wouldn't be a danger to herself or the community. Perhaps if she was interested in gaining control she's spare him, if not his road to bigger and better things had been drasticly cut short. However for good or ill, there would be no going back.

LoQuinn had spent enough time in the wilderness of Colerado to realize that there were two distinct catagories that reality dealt with: alive and dead. As he attempted to prepare himself for a rather painful and sticky end he found himself hoping for only two things. The first was that he'd be killed quickly, suffering a slow blunt-force death wasn't high on his list of things he wanted to experience. The second was that he hoped no one would find his body. He couldn't bear to have failed this early on, not for his own pride, but for his mother. She'd risked her life, her freedom for him and if he'd died the very first week after leaving home...

BOOM!

There were several loud accompanying thuds as his executioner's attack was destroyed. He continued digging even as he watched her get blasted off her feet. Oh, sure. She'd stay down when someone ELSE was doing it. Whatever the case she'd let go of her pull on LoQuinn's power. He found himself more aware of the area, aware of the jeeps, aware that they were police. He pushed himself up, standing and fighting the urge to run away. They had a powerful evolved with them, not to mention guns. He charged his power as he approached and covered his face with a thick mask of dirt hoping to obscure his identity somewhat.

LoQuinn didn't expect anyone of reknown to show up in this neck of the woods. It gave him quite a bit of shock to see one of his very own rolemodels jump down in front of him. He blinked at the question. The thought of her being a villian had never crossed his mind before. She just seemed to be practicing, he'd reconned her before taking any action. She didn't seem to have any malicious intent.

"She was trying to kill me. I was just trying to help her control her powers, she wouldn't have been a threat to anyone then. The town wouldn't have been at risk then. I was just... trying to help her control her powers."

He eyed the super carefully, then the police. He'd heard things, done some research into the various disappearances of evolveds. They'd make the news, they'd be processed, they'd disappear. LoQuinn had never seen any headlines about what was done with the detainees afterward. Nothing about rehabilitation, nothing about prison sentences. How long could one keep an evolved detained? Surely they'd always consider a dangerous evolved dangerous.


"Uh, yeah no problem. And thanks for the offer but no thanks. I'm on my way to the coastline though, freelance superhero-ing if I can. If you could keep them out of my way," he gestured to the suits. "Not a fan of law enforcement."

LoQuinn eyed the man who he'd once viewed as a personal hero. He tensed, preparing himself to put up whatever resistance he could. That would be if things couldn't be remedied. "Whats your plan then, you going to cart me off for detainment like her?" He asked coldly his face growing warm. There were things worth than death, one of those was living out the rest of his life in a cell somewhere. Hopefully being out in the wilderness would give him some sort of edge that would help his odds against the verteran Super.

Things once more seemed to be in a bad way for LoQuinn.

His wariness didn't just evaporate but there was something in Photon's voice that told him he truely didn't believe any intentional harm would come to 'Ms. Voodoo' (if that really was her alias) or to LoQuinn himself. A pinch of paranoia was something that had certainly helped throughout his life. Could he really trust a man whom he'd admired, even though he was coupled with the organization that had forced him to go into hiding so many years ago? He remained silent for a moment allowing his thoughts to sort themselves out.

Ultimately the verdict was: did he really have a choice in the matter? He could put up a valient fight, maybe even get away for a while. However the moment he showed his face in any town to help out they'd just come back, stronger. Or he could go with Photon quietly and hope that things worked out in the end.

"Yes, I do want to become a hero. You give me your word she won't be harmed?" He'd always seen a hero's job being to capture and detain with a minimum of force. It was why he hadn't killed her right off the bat.

LoQuinn would wait for Photon to give his word (undoubtably he would) before adding two stipulations to his 'joining'. "Fine, but I want to talk to her before we leave, only you can be present. I also want no cuffs, and no collar on me for the duration of our trip."

"A threat? Probably not, even if I did have the intent. Theres just talk of what happens to Us once we're rounded up. However that offer seems fair enough." He said with a shrug. The only really important bits were that a) she wasn't going to be harmed and b) he wasn't a prisoner. He could live with not attempting to explain to Ms. Voodoo why he'd done what he'd done. At least she'd be getting the control, or help, or whatever it was that she needed. LoQuinn knew that there were some people you couldn't fix in society and he hoped never to meet up with her on bad terms again.

"I'm The Graveler."

"I truly wouldn't put it past some people. A sense of security is what most people want, I know what people will do, even to their own families, in order to have that. Everything normal, and purge what isn't."

LoQuinn would let that lie as it did, he didn't want to dwell on the failure of humanity to be 'human'. He took Photon's hand firmly, giving a slight nod of his head.

"It's not as good as I'd like. It's been a few years of solitary practice in the mountains." Seeing that he'd made a partnership and all LoQuinn decided to confide a touch more in Photon. "Not so good with man-mades though. Concrete and mortars specifically. I can crumble it just fine but property damage is what brought me to these hills in the first place."