20° VIDEO

[faceofthe4]

[Johnny's sitting awkwardly in front of the console in his suite.]

Why is no one freaking out about this? From the sounds of it, all of our powers are gone. Just like that. [He snaps. No flame appears. He throws his hands up in frustration.]

Seriously. There should be alarms going off. People should be taking blood samples and looking at ours cells. Someone should be creating some sort of system to track different.. I don't know.. thermal.. geo.. radio... something. Is it a sun spot? Aliens? We have no idea, because we're all sitting around trying.

Something's coming. Great. That might be the cause, but if it's not? We should probably figure this whole no-powers thing out before it gets here.

[He looks down at his hand and shakes it, as one might shake a Nintendo controller when the game glitches. He stops shaking it. Nothing happens.]

Oh COME ON!

Comments

[backinakidflash]

[Bart is at his home console in normal clothes. He seems trepid about saying anything at all.]

I don't know about everyone else, but... I've been freaking out. Just kinda. In private.

Something's definitely coming. Mine's not just something you turn off.

[faceofthe4]

Neither is mine. When did you start noticing a problem?

[backinakidflash]

How are we defining "problem"? Like, hoo boy, my powers crapped out? Or when it first started to feel kinda... funny? Not funny, but definitely not quite right. Or somewhere in the middle, when it was like riding the lightning in all the bad ways?

audio;

[backbiter]

You do know how to survive without your powers, right? I mean... you have other ways of defending yourself. Like hand to hand combat, guns, swords, or ninja skills?

[video]

[flamingshortshorts]

...You said you weren't born with your powers right? [because wow even Toro isn't freaking out this much about not being able to flame on.]

[gathersnomoss]

I don't suppose you know anything about any of that stuff?

[angermanaging]

I can take a blood sample if it'll make you feel better.

[Being relaxed due to no Hulk just makes Bruce snarky.]

video;

[zerotoawesome]

Yeah, I'll get right on that once I can move my body again.

[faceofthe4]

When you started feeling weird and then when they stopped.

audio;

[faceofthe4]

Of course!..... Sort of.

I know how to use a gun, but the whole superhero thing's pretty new to me.

[video]

[faceofthe4]

Right. But I wasn't a hero then.

[faceofthe4]

What 'stuff?'

[faceofthe4]

Will looking at it actually help figure out what's causing this?

video;

[faceofthe4]

Wait, you're stuck?

[Sorry, but that's kind of funny.]

I could try to find a wheelbarrow.

[video]

[flamingshortshorts]

[Toro kind of knows what that's like. He didn't become a hero until he could set himself on fire, either. It was just...a long time ago.] You don't have to have powers to be a hero. My best pal doesn't have any and he's on a team with some of the biggest powerhouses around.

You just have to know what you're good at and use it.

[video]

[faceofthe4]

I didn't train for any of that.

I don't know what I'm good at. Sue's the business, Reed's the brain, Ben's the power, I'm the torch. That's how it works.

[video]

[flamingshortshorts]

Doesn't mean you can't learn. If you don't have anything else under your belt but how to flame on, then you're at a disadvantage anytime you get near too much water for you to steam up.

So maybe what you really need to do is figure out what really makes you a hero, not how you go about it.

video;

[zerotoawesome]

You try moving around when your body is made of rocks and your super strength decided to turn itself off.

I'm about eight hundred pounds of amazingly handsome dead weight now.

[voice]

[the_other_eight]

[Pepper is doing the best she can not to sound as tired as she feels. Even though she isn't someone who is being heavily affected by this drain, she's being affected in other ways. Namely in trying to keep a certain Iron Man from overexerting himself and possibly breaking the source of power that's keeping him alive.]

Just because we're not announcing it over the network doesn't mean we aren't doing the best we can.

[video- encrypted 30%]

[faceofthe4]

What do you mean 'what makes me a hero?' I got powers from a radiation storm and we started fighting crime. That doesn't work without the powers.

video;

[faceofthe4]

Oh, I'm picturing it. How do you photograph? We could sell tickets.

[voice]

[faceofthe4]

Oh, yeah. You and Tony are up in your lab fixing things for him and that's.. that's great for the two of you, but what about the rest of us? I'm not a scientist! We should be working together! All of us. Not dealing with it in our own ways.

video;

[zerotoawesome]

[He just sighs.] I photograph amazingly... [It's so hard to be this handsome. Someone like you wouldn't understand, celebrity Johnny Storm.]

So, what'd you lose?

Re: [voice]

[the_other_eight]

[Pepper is definitely forcing herself to stay calm in the face of the accusation.]

I don't know what you've heard about me, but I'm not a scientist, and if I'd found some form of 'fix' I would have already shared it.

[There's a part of her that wants to point out that for some people here their powers are their life force. That without that power they'll die, but even just the thought of that, the reminder of how powerless everyone is to stop this makes her heart clench in her chest.]

As I said, we're doing the best we can. If you think you can find a solution to this then Stark Industries labs are at your disposal.

[video- encrypted 30%]

[flamingshortshorts]

[Oh good someone should probably private this and Toro won't think there's a big enough reason to. He's too used to talking about these kind of things. Just come and listen young grasshopper.]

I mean what makes you a hero. Not how you're a hero. Why did you starting saving people? Do you think that people just up and choose to be heroes just because it's the thing to do? No, there's gotta be a reason you put yourself on the line for others. There's a reason why you care, you know. And not having your powers doesn't make that go away, does it?


So what makes you a hero?