Corrupted Candor (Cadmus/Nicole)

She's really grateful she has two jobs. She knows her hyperactive mind couldn't handle just dedicating herself to one thing. Like, currently? She's here to help with evaluating a state science fair as herself, and then she's got her first time to test herself against Chicago's  infamous crime rate. She does a pretty good job at cleaning up in the city-- but the city, ever since, well, that whole fiasco-- has some serious heavy surveillance. Here, though? It's an entire different ball game, and she needs to be prepared. She needs to learn how to disarm real threats, without the serious damage that seems to be known for. There's ways to disarm people without destroying buildings, and she's going to be living proof of it.

With two days until the fair, she's got some time to kind of walk about the streets with a heavy coat over her costume-- which, to be fair, it's cold as shit here. Certainly, due to the season it's not awful, but-- compared to the extreme heats New York can get? This is bloody awful. Part of her hopes today is peaceful just so that she doesn't have to take off the coat. She has her mask in her bag-- if need be, she's sure she can duck somewhere really quick and get it on. She didn't really like people knowing her identity-- it complicated her work as a scientist. That, and she's sure her department would ask her to focus on stopping crime, rather than researching nature. Which-- she can understand, logically, but she couldn't handle just fighting the bad guys all the time. She loves both her jobs. They're the light of her life.

She continues her stroll, feeling a bit silly in her all consuming trench coat. She probably looks like one of those watch sellers back in the Big Apple. Really-- she doesn't understand, beyond the whole damage done to NYC, why people live here in the first place? New York's at least... Ten times more fun. And has better pizza.

As she thinks absentmindedly, she hears it-- the ringing. The song. That awful, awful, high pitched twittering and screeching. Immediately, she's alert and rushes into the nearest store, and ducks into the bathroom, hiding her bag in the tank of the toilet, and climbs out the window. Okay, 60 foot radius. Where could it be? She starts a quick jog, not wanting to over exhaust herself in what could be an intense fight. Look for any signs of conflict. She's sure, in a hellhole like this, it's going to be something big. And noticeable. With that in mind, Platani dives and dodges through pedestrians who watch her with both confusion and, presumably, annoyance.

The man with the glowing eyes awoke on the bus. His light blue, lidless eyes stared at everyone around him. He dusted off his ratty blue jacket that he had been wearing for the last 3 years, only occasionally washing it. The man, whose name he did not remember sat up and just stared at his hands.

When the driver pulled off at the next stop, the driver came to the back to have a word with the man. That's when the man decided to go ahead and leave the bus driver to his thoughts. Besides, he didn't need to hear that bullshit. Though, that was his curse. Most people had come to call him the Truth, which he supposed was an apt name. He paid his toll and left the bus.

The bus driver would either get over his exposure to the truth; or end up on the side of the road, completely destroyed by it. The Truth hurts after all. Whenever he would look at someone, they'd just stop and admit their biggest secrets to him. He didn't like looking at people.

A woman he had ended up staring at for a bit longer than he meant to stated. Truth groaned under his breath as the man with her stared at his... girlfriend? Sister? Wife? Friend? in horror.

Why did he do this? Who was he before all this happened that god would give him such an awful curse? Truth couldn't remember anything from before he... died? Went missing? Got his memory wiped? Ugh. This was frustrating. Truth forced his head down before a man came up to him and punched him the stomach. "Hey freak! Don't you think you're a little too... obvious? to be out her in public? We got enough fucking gene-freaks without someone like you showing up!" He said, and his buddies laughed. Truth lay there on the ground, trying not to look at them.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, Gene-Freak!" The man yelled and his buddy came up behind Truth and shoved his head up. The man raised a weapon to his head, and Truth realized it must've been something he had been planning to use on him, and pulled the trigger.

The mans brains were scrambled by a sonic wave and he fell to the ground with blood pouring from every single pore on his face. Truth just stared sadly as the man who had held his head up ran, along with a few others who had seen the incident. This wasn't the first time, and Truth doubted it would be the last.

Cadmus stood in line for coffee. He had decided that he would help people by giving those on their early morning commute the pick me up they needed. He didn't know why he had come to Chicago, honestly. He kind of just felt like he had to. He felt like something would happen that would require a hero. But for the past couple days, nothing had happened. So he just went around doing nice things for people. He'd buy the patrons of this coffee shops coffee for them, and then head to the subway to give away the rest.

When the high pitched sound shattered the windows of his coffee shop, Cadmus knew that the time had come. He grew 3 sizes and his already pronounced muscles grew, before he even touched the gem on his amulet. Lightning crashed into Cadmus, not affecting those around him at all; and he was replaced by a large Greek warrior with a spear as long as his body. Cadmus rushed outside to see what the hell was going on, then going the opposite way that the people were running.

As she dashed through the streets, she found herself trying to push her lithe little body through a big crowd. Well-- this had to be it, didn't it? She couldn't quite tell what it was, and due to that, the Bird Song still rang true. However, soon enough-- she caught the glimpse of a giant man, but, much to her surprise, the ringing didn't stop there. It stopped a few feet after she spotted him, and another man in a ratty blue jacket. She pauses, evaluating the situation. Firstly-- if the Bird Song didn't stop when she saw Mr. Gargantuan, then she can safely assume he's another hero to help dispatch the situation. And then, the situation? Would obviously be the ruckus caused by... Whatever blue jacket did? But what did he do? He's not in any sort of fighting stance, so it has to be some sort of mental ability. Her eyes quickly dart to the other man, dead. A gun in his hand. Maybe some sort of mind control ability? Something that destabilizes individuals? Messes with the dopamine levels in their head? Oxytocin? She won't know for sure until she can get more information to deal with the problem accordingly.

She's careful, but her first priority-- making sure all the civilians get out safely-- she'll just trust that whoever that buff guy was could handle at least sniffing out the probable baddie, seeing how he's the only one still. But he seems-- kind of dejected? Quickly turning up the microphone set in her mask and releasing her concerns, she scrambles to climb up on top of an outside table-- thankfully empty. "Come down this way, civilians! My-- associate and I have this under control!  Stay on the sidewalk! Traffic may still occur! Eyes straight ahead, no looking back! Clear the area! Clear the area! This is your final reminder, clear the area so we may swiftly resolve this!" Her voice, in contrast to the nervous rambling she tends to spout-- is calmer. Stern. She's spent enough time doing this that she knows how to handle these sort of things. No matter how much any individual hates meta human's, they'd much rather listen to a 'heroes' advice than get killed. After a quick minute of surveillance to make sure the majority is listening to her, she'll hop down, running around the crowd, and through the street to meet up with the hulking individual. "Wait, wait!" She chitters, quickly turning off the mic, "Spear guy-- I don't know your name, sorry! So, this is all a guess- but he's probably got some sort of mental ability. My first guess is it messes with brain chemsitry, or some sort of mind control-- given the dead man shot himself. I can't tell if this was purposeful or an accident. Tread with caution. Given the proximation between him and the dead it could be a distance based ability. If you think you can safely knock him out in one go, though, go for it. Any physical scuffle will have to be quick, I think. So that he doesn't have time to use his ability. The perp could be unable to control his abilities, as well, given his posture and stance. I'm going to attempt communication. If he resists, I want you to take him by surprise. "

She has her hand hovering over the compartment for her bolas. She'd prefer to avoid a physical confrontation, if possible-- it doesn't seem like his powers are physically based, so she's sure a fight between this buff guy and the blue jacket guy would be absolutely no match. She turns her volume all the way back up-- her voice now loud enough to speak at a large concert, maybe, with little effort.

"Alright, sir-- I promise you-- we do not want to hurt you. If your intentions were not to cause harm, we would just like to help you find a place where you may understand and control your abilities better. We need to get you out of here-- for your safety, okay? Please, put your hands up, and get down." If he tries to run, her gameplan is to hope her aims good enough to make up for her wimp arm. She really needs to work out more. She should ask this guy what he does to retain his physical fitness, afterwards. If that's just some power shenanigans, and he doesn't have to work out ever-- she's going to be upset.

Truth stared at the big man walking towards him. His face was entirely shrouded by shadows except for the eyes. The eyes glowed red behind his helmet. Truth then looked away before his power could take hold. He hated this. "Please, I didn't do it on purpose."

Cadmus was surprised to hear another heroes voice so quickly. The world truly was full of marvels these days. Cadmus nodded at her and backed away from the fallen man. If what the man said was true, then this was all an accident anyway. Maybe he could knock him out, but Cadmus would prefer that the woman at least try to help him.

The man in the ratty blue jacket stood up weakly, both of the heroes would be able to see now that the cloth seemed to hang off of him as if he were a skeleton that started walking around. The mans face was pale, clearly not having seen the sun at all for at least 3 months. He was probably handsome once, but now his long, metal band hair had clumps of dirt and leaves stuck in it.

"I... Need a blindfold." Truth said looking to the girl, and unfortunately not before his power activated; Truth looked away when he felt the tick in the back of his head he had come to associate with the activation of his ability.

She seems relieved that this isn't some jerk bag asshole on a power kick. But, at the same time-- she can't help but feel bad for him. Sure, she had her own powers that she didn't exactly have full control over, but those were the harmless ones. The ones that made her quick, that made her quiet-- she didn't have to worry about affecting other people with those powers. This poor man does. She assumes, then, this confirms her brain chemistry theory-- maybe he has a radius of effect that drastically negates oxytocin? Leading to suicidal and irrational behavior. Or touch, but that doesn't make much sense, either-- because he said it wasn't on purpose, and she'd like to take his words. He seems genuine. Tired. So she doesn't feel wrong for trusting that.

She blinks, watching the other with concern. He's so skinny... She left her snacks in the bag in the toilet tank of that one restraunt. God damn it. That's not preferable, but she's sure she can help him out with that later. She has priorities. Like figuring out a way to disarm his abilities-- there's a chance he doesn't know what it does to the finite, which could lead to some chaos. She'd like to minimize chances of another outbreak of issues, if possible. Seeing that this communication was going well, she'd try to continue, giving her best hero smile to the raggedy man, making direct eyecontact. Sometimes some emotional support can go a long way.

"Alright, then! I'm sure you didn't. We're here to assist you." In the midsts of her speaking, he said something-- fold? Shit, she has her mic up still. But she needs to keep it up just in case.  "

For a moment, she hesitates, furrowing her brows and putting a hand to her mask. She looks to the floor, silent, for a moment. That was said to an entire street, full volume. She's sure some stragglers heard that. There goes being the fearless rolemodel, huh? She sighs, shaking her head. Letting this consume her does nothing now. "I'm going to ask you to keep your eyes down, for now, okay? Look to the floor. I'm going to pull off my little cape to give you a blindfold, alright? And we'll discuss what to do in more detail later. In a more secluded area." She decides, her tone replaced with a sort of humbleness. "Uh, my friend--" she continues, a bit awkward, halting. The confidence she has in mask replaced with the reality that is. "it's-- probably a good idea to keep your gaze to the top of his head, his nose, or his forehead, if you still want to see his face, but don't want to risk something like I just did.  Let's... Get this done, yeah?" She tries to smile, if only to do her best to brush off the heaviness of both the mask and her words. Roughly, she grabs at the cape on her costume, and gives a heavy tug. With a small grunt to go along with it, she pulls the cape off. "You may feel free to get closer, though. Power is based off of eye contact. It's like a, ahm--" she doesn't want to admit that's the truth, at least not at such a high volume. People need her to seem like she enjoys doing this. It's part of the job, to keep the people feeling safe and well taken care of. "It transmits negative thought and hyperextends it." A lie, yes, but a needed one. She steps a bit closer to the tall, muscular man, and holds out what used to be her cape. "We're going to tie the blindfold now, if you'll let us. Please keep your eyes down. We will accommodate to your shape." She then moves to turn the microphone off, and-- presumably, Cadmus can hear her sigh. She'll mutter now, just to keep the conversation between the two heroes. "it's a truth admission power based off of eyecontact. Be careful. It shouldn't matter too much once we're out of public eye, though. Your identity could be at stake. Play it smart."