Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Tomia]

Mars was relieved when Kiris seemed happy about his request. It wasn't often he did something that smooth like that so he had to take the victories where he could get them. Meanwhile he noticed Carter's over the top reaction to the outcome of a baseball game. Mars wasn't a huge fan of sports, except for Battlebots and superhero competitions of course.

"I didnt realize you were such a big baseball fan Carter." Mars commented as he took some of Kiris' sausages from the bowl.

"Uh... you are talking about baseball right?" He added, clearly a bit unsure.

Meanwhile once the team was finished eating they headed off to get their equipment and prepare for training before meeting back together.

Mars quickly noticed a large mech walking behind Alexis, his jaw dropping ever so slightly as he examined it from afar. He had known she had been working extremely hard on it lately but he didn't realize she had completed it. He was quite impressed, the design was more sleak than Rocket and while Rocket likely had more strength and armor, he had no doubt that Alexis' mech was faster and more versatile.

When the teams were announced Mars was surprised he would be fighting along side Carter and Red, mainly because he hadn't done much fighting with them since they all joined the team. He was excited at the idea however, as he came to the conclusion that their very different styles and abilities would give them a great deal of options in combat. He was nervous to be competing against Wendy however. He had never really needed to test his internal security systems against a hacker and he hoped that day would not be an exception.

When Alexis approached her team with a big grin on her face it was fairly obvious to Angelica how proud her friend was of her new machine. "Its very... you Alexis. I like it." She commented, her words genuine but a little reserved. The design was flashy and creative, traits she had come to expect from the genius known as Makeshift. "I'm glad we're fighting together." She told Yoshi and Alexis as she looked at the pair through her mask. "I used to only work alone... but the three of us make a good team."

[Charmera]

Cassandra met with her teamates, and made a brief assessment of their strengths and weaknesses in her mind. She calculated a battle plan from those assessments which would give the best chance of success. Of course, extrapolating probabilities with so many variables was not an exact art, but from what she had seen they had a decent chance of success if all went well. If things went poorly in one or more fight, however, then the entire plan could crumble.

She spoke out loud to her team. "I have calculated a plan for our upcoming battle given the variables involved." The Robot butler explained. "I will take Mr Sutherland out of the melee itself, and keep him from using his abilities to interfere with you fighting the other two."

She turned to Elle, "Given my knowledge of Miss Martinez it would be best to engage her in medium to short range. Her strength comes in long range beams, so keeping her unable to aim accurately with fast movement will effectively keep her from picking one of us off with a powerful beam." She paused. "Unfortunately I do not know much about your powers Mr Bathalsar, nor do I know the powers of your opponent. However by process of elimination you will be fighting him."

"They will be looking for a quick and clean finish of one of our team members so they can transform one fight into a 2 vs 1. Act aggressively but do not over-commit. Wear them down to the point where they become fatigued and exploit that weakness." Cass had seen a few war movies. In the speeches they usually ended with something inspirational. "If we hold firm they will break upon us." She said. Then she paused.

That was far too sinister. Perhaps I am mixing inspirational with threatening... She made a mental note to attempt to improve her oration, though she suspected it would never quite work.

[Aidannadia]

She paused. "Unfortunately I do not know much about your powers Mr Bathalsar, nor do I know the powers of your opponent. However by process of elimination you will be fighting him."

"My powers? Oh, I um... I just see things others don't." Tadeo nodded. He was a bit disappointed that somene had come up with a strategy, as he himself wasn't particularly interested in beating the other team as much as he wanted to have a good time. I can have fun within the strategy given. I guess I'll just have to pay attention to Wyatt and.... He looked over at Elle one more time. He thought he had sensed a demonic presence before in the tower, but apparently it was actually welcomed.

To Baltasar, the girl smelled vaguely of ash and dread and fear, and looked as if black and red smudges were plastered onto her person. He had tried to avoid coming close to her, standing a bit off from the huddle, but he still was able to sense her connection to a minor plane in the distance. If I was close, I could probably hone in on that dimension and see what it is, but something tells me the patron will not be so welcoming. He did indeed sense Bael, the spider, on her person, and he occasionally swore he saw the arachnid in the corner of his eye, just playing with him. Dreadful beast.

But there was no time for worrying about any of that. He had a match to start after all, and his teammate would probably be the least of his worries.... No, that's not right.

I'll have to hold back. I need to save up for the 23rd. Tad frowned, remembering his promise and responsibilities. I'll need to set up a garden nearby. Perhaps I can sleep there later. He smiled at the thought of it. Getting out of that dusty tower and into the open air like that would be nice. Yes, I'll have to start tonight.

Tad finally came back to reality just as his team was being called up for his match, and took position in the arena with the others. As he took to the stage, he waved his hand, and a glamour befell his form in a flash of light like something out of a magical girls anime. The somewhat recognizable costume of El Hechicero was in plain view to the others.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

As Naja gave the order to prepare for their training, Red couldn't help but stare longingly at the pot of coffee. While he had gotten arguably the best sleep he'd had in weeks last night, it hadn't made up for the sleepless nights he'd gone through in his investigations on Warwolf as well as his newfound search for Yoshiro's assailant from the other day. On the latter front, he had managed to compile basic information on the man, but there was still much work to be done there before he made any moves. His work seemed to be never ending, and to skip out on it for training caused a bit of frustration to develop within him. Still, he knew he couldn't skip out on the training, as these sort of things required attendance. Well, minus the last time, he thought as he reluctantly put his mug in the dishwasher before heading up to his room to prepare.

Entering his room, he opened the compartment within his wall and stared at the wide variety of gadgets before him. Thanks to a bit of help from Alexis as well as a small bit of work from himself, he had managed to create some new toys to add to his arsenal. One of the newer ones being the red disc projectiles dubbed as "Rederangs" by Yoshiro. Not the fanciest of terms Red would have chosen from, but the name had seem to stick with him. Most of them were standard metal objects, the pointed tips on them enough to puncture light targets with a good enough throw. However, a handful of them, marked with unique indentions based on their functions in the center to differentiate themselves from the rest, had other functions such as remote explosives and electric tips that could give anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck by them a nasty shock.

In addition to these, Red wielded his adjustable staff that had began to become his main choice of weaponry over the last few weeks. A few minor tweaks had been added, bumping up the voltage on the electric probes as well as adding in a high-powered flashlight on the staff end opposite of the explosive charge. It wasn't a whole lot, but he felt like the changes would end up being helpful in the near future. He had ideas for further improvements to his equipment, but given his schedule as well as Alexis being busy with her own projects, these ideas would have to wait.

After he placed the remainder of his equipment in the various compartments of his utility belt, he exited his room and headed over to where he was supposed to meet the others. Upon his arrival, the teams were announced. While he would've rather had a different lineup, he knew that Carter and Mars were far from bad picks. Mars had the capability of flight in combination with long range combat, while Carter had enough speed and maneuverability to make him a considerable threat. While it pained him to admit it, Red knew he was the most constricted of the team in terms of abilities. While he was certainly not going to be a pushover, given his current setup and the situation they were in, he was far from being able to take on the powered opponents on his own. As long as they worked together, his team was going to be far from an easy win for their opponents.

If we can work together, Red thought with rolled eyes as he met up with Mars and Carter, the latter seeming crestfallen at the annoucement of his teamates as well as their opponents. Walking up to the two with his his hands in his pockets, he became the first to speak up, the sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"So we're going against armored bugman that can unleash a swarm of flesh-eating insects on a whim, an alien armed with razor-sharp claws that can sing a tune that'll cause me to burst into flames, and a hacker that could possibly control Rocket and turn its weapons on us while simultaionously release our entire browser history to the world if we piss her off enough."

He let out a long whistle with his lips.

"I think I should go fill out a lottery ticket with my luck."

He paused for a moment, before a small sigh escaped him.

"But that doesn't mean we're totally fucked."

He stared at the two for a bit before continuing.

"So here's the plan."

---

Brianna

---

While a bitter sense of defeat still lingered within her, Brianna accepted Alexis's offer for a drink. The Gods know after that performance that I need one, she thought as she took a drink from the glass of alcohol given to her. It burned slightly going down, but it was far from the harshest of drinks she had consumed. The thought of a cold glass of mead combined with a freshly cooked meal caused her to briefly space off, until Alexis spoke up to her.

"You had me cold in there....you know that right? Just between you and me. Do you think this team needs me? Be honest..."

Brianna raised a surprised eyebrow at Alexis, but before she could answer the girl continued. As Brianna listened, she couldn't help but continue to furrow her eyebrows at Alexis's statements. Her hand gripped tightly onto the glass in her hands, until finally it shattered in her hands with Alexis's final words, the remaining contents of it splashing onto the ground below. Brianna could feel a fresh cut on her hand, but she paid it no attention as she reached out to grab onto the shoulder of Alexis with her uninjured hand, forcing the girl to look her in the eyes. A look even more serious than Alexis had seen before on the Valkyrie's face formed, the grip on her shoulder firm enough to cause a bit of discomfort.

"Alexis, do not let those words slip from your mouth ever again. Only a fool allows himself to let doubts poision his heart."

Brianna's face turned a surprising form of anger, the grip on Alexis's shoulder tightening.

"I would not have wasted my time if I did not already know you to be a warrior worthy of Valhöll. What you have done, and what you continue to do, is nothing to scoff at. To think that you, someone without any power besides what your own hands can deliver, would be willing to stand against the likes of...animals like Marionette, is something not many would be willing to do even with powers."

Her voice and expression softened, as she let go of Alexis's shoulder and instead placed her hand on the back of her head, gently guiding their foreheads to touch together as she looked into her eyes.

"I am proud to have you as a skjaldmær, as I know the others do as well."

Separating themselves, she returned her hand to Alexis's shoulder, albiet this time in a much gentler manner. A proud smile appeared on Brianna's face, as she did her best to inspire her comrade.

"So do not let doubt burden you again, and if it threatens to do so, feel free to tell me, and I will gratefully help take on the burden with you once more, as will the others who look to you as our leader."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

After standing by and hearing out the briefing given by Naja, Elena and Roy on the first training exercise they would be doing that day, Kirisvala noticed Casimir approaching and addressing her. Hearing the boy's question, she nodded eagerly. "Yup! I sure am, can't wait to give those three a good whackin'!" She said, waving one of her claws in the air. After the moments of vulnerability that she had gone through during their raid of the San Pharmaceuticals headquarters, she was eager to prove herself. Now, it wasn't going to be easy: Carter already knew how she fought, Red was a very competent hero, and she wasn't sure if she could really bring herself to hurt Mars, though he was probably going to be snugly tucked into his mobile warrior sardine can. In addition, a clear, flat battlefield wasn't her element, which was a big part of why she had been cornered during the 8th. But in a way, that only made her more excited. The tougher the hunt, the greater the glory.

Hearing Casimir's suggestion, the Hadrian looked in the direction he pointed, seeing Wendy standing by herself. Nodding at the boy, she walked alongside him towards the black-haired girl, quickly reaching her. "Hey, Wendy! Ready to whoop those boys?" She asked cheerfully. "I think I even have a plan! I can use my teleportin' spellsong to get us up in someone's face and Casy can knock 'em out cold easy. Then winning should be a cinch! How about it?"

---

---

---

Alexis feigned an expression of pure shock and indignation. "How can you even put in doubt Oberon's superiority over that unattractive pile of scrap?" She said in an overly dramatic tone, before breaking into a smile yet again. "Honestly, no idea how this girl would do against Rocket, but that's not what matters right now. If people are interested I'm sure we can stage a good old mech battle some other day." She told Yoshiro, before turning towards Angelica as she complimented her work. A bright smile appeared on the young inventor's face. "Awww, we love you too Adorablizzard!" She said, pulling her friend into a typical one-armed hug, rubbing her cheek against Angelica's.

Afterwards, she reached out towards Yoshiro, but she was just out of her reach. Frowning a little, Alexis activated her gauntlet's traction mode to pull her closer and then threw her free arm around the Asian girl. Her happy, friendly smile suddenly turned macabre and conspirative, borderline cheshire. "Now, I agree, we're one hell of a team, and that's why we gotta make the most of it with some good old plan." She began. "First off, I'm pretty sure they're gonna want to target me because of Oberon, so we can use that to our advantage. I can keep, say, Scott and Blizzard distracted while you two focus on taking Park. It's a two versus one so it should be a cinch for you two."

"And then it'll be two versus three! We can repeat that with far less risk to our lone member and turn it into a three versus one to close out the match." Yoshiro suggested, liking the way things were shaping up - in theory, that is.

"I've never faced off against another ice user before, but if everything goes according to plan, I can try to distract Blizzard while you two take out Scott. It should be interesting." Angelica commented, sneaking a glance at her opponents.

"It's decided, then! Better get going or Naja will start yelling at us." Alexis said as she released the two other girls. Quickly running around to the back of Oberon, she watched as it opened up from the back, revealing a tight space for her to squeeze into in order to pilot the mecha. She jumped in, and Oberon began walking towards the battlefield, gesturing at the two girls to do the same. As Oberon walked next to the other team, it made a casual salute in Sam's direction. Though the machine was faceless, it wasn't hard to imagine Alexis grinning underneath.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Wendy absently nodded as Kiris detailed her plan. She knew there shouldn’t have been anything for her to worry about. This was just a training fight, and Mars was almost the picture perfect opponent to use her powers against, but after what had happened the day before she didn’t feel as good about using her powers on her friends.

“You and Cas do that. I’ll stick and see what I can do to mess with Mars and Red. I just hope we can this without me hack his systems too much.” She chuckled. “It’s probably a good thing we’re doing now. I was going to make Rocket completely hacker proof the next time mars gave me a chance to look into his coding.”

[Turmenista]

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

Oh god, oh fuck — OH GOD OH FUCK

Despite having goddamn super speed, Johnny still stood like a goddamn lemming as Keith flung the car at them, letting out a rather effeminate scream as he braced for impact and anticipated waking up seconds later, either in the hospital or in heaven. However, none of those outcomes came true, in the end. A whoosh by his head indicated that Floyd had rushed forwards, unsheathing his sword and executing a clean cut across the car, severing it in half. Both ends of the gutted car that Keith had flung at them flew past them, harmlessly rolling across the ground as Floyd sheathed his sword.

"Watch where you're flaunting your junk."

"Hahahahahaha..... I see what you did there, Floyd. 'Flaunting your junk,' and," Johnny stopped laughing and turned around to the bisected car, then back over to his friend. "And he— well, he threw the car and—"

Johnny stopped as Keith began to advance across the street towards them, wiping a hand across his freshly-bloodied nose. Keith was still up, evidently, and still looking to end the fight quickly.

Fuckdammit.... Johnny cursed to himself as he assumed a crude fighting posture, looking left towards his accomplice. "Okay, Floyd. I'm sure he can't track two of us at the same time. I'll take one side, you can take anothe—"

Before he had the chance to actually finish formulating his strategy, Floyd ran forwards at superhuman speeds, seemingly attempting to close the distance with the telekinetic. Immediately, Johnny knew that his British swordsman buddy was making a grave mistake once he reared back his fist, looking to strike Keith somewhere in the stomach. He would've gone out and yelled at his friend to get the hell back from Keith, but Floyd was already too far out. It was too late to try and stop him.

But maybe it's not too late to try and help him. Okay.. so lets hope I don't screw this one up. Here goes.

Johnny assumed a ready pose as if he were on the track back at Thomsen High training, blasting off from the ground and accelerating at speeds that even supercars would envy in mere seconds. As the world slowed down around him, the speedster saw what appeared to be a clap of air or some other visual anomaly between Keith and Floyd — the second after Floyd had struck Keith, the telekinetic force manipulator inadvertently let out a blast of mental energy, ruining the nearby area and flinging the swordsman away like a dog swinging a stuffed animal in its jaws around. Seeing the opportunity of a disoriented Keith, Johnny suddenly leaped up, aiming for a sort of downwards kick towards the telekinetic. Evidently, though, Keith was able to detect Johnny, who slowed down upon his jump, whipping his head up to the speedster.

"Think you're clever, huh?! I'll turn you into paste!" Keith gritted his teeth and tilted his head upwards, as Johnny felt an invisible force beneath his feet push him away and up into the air. As he flew away from the telekinetic, Johnny tucked himself in and made sure to land on his feet, immediately springing off his legs upon landing and continuing his rush towards Keith. The street practically shattered under his feet as he launched himself towards Keith at full speed. Aiming for a kick to his chest, Johnny leaped up and sent his leg out, his feet touching an invisible block of air in front of him as Keith kept his vision straight on Johnny.

Realizing his mistake, Johnny let out a very audible "FUCK!" as Keith telekinetically pushed him away, dropping him onto the ground. He watched as Keith then began drawing his right arm behind his back, Johnny's eyes widening as he realized what Keith was planning on doing. "Holy fuck!"

Keith let out a grunt in a mixture of fury and frustration, the space in front of his hand briefly distorting from the sheer telekinetic force in his swing. Johnny quickly rolled to the side as an invisible tendril swung down and crushed the ground he was on. Before he even had the chance to get up from the ground, Johnny found himself ducking once again as another invisible tendril of telekinetic energy blasted him away. Had he remained where he was, however, the brunt force of the blast would've surely turned him — and the front of the store that was unfortunate enough to be in Keith's way — into fine chum.

Johnny rolled himself back up onto his arms and, with some pain in his effort, pushed himself to his feet. "Now do you see why this is a bad idea, Floyd?"

The speedster's photographic memory brought up a mental image of the scene moments before, however. The one thing that Johnny had noticed was that Keith was looking at him while he used his attacks. He wasn't smart enough to put one and two together and make some dramatic conclusion, but perhaps his friend was...

"Floyd, I think I found a way to beat Keith." Johnny gulped as he saw Keith crack his knuckles from afar. "But we need to be quick. I don't want to end up like that store over there."

[New Finnish Republic]

Some time later...

As the various teams huddled around discussing their battle strategies for their upcoming matches, Naja’s voice crackled over a loudspeaker that was at a high enough volume for everyone to hear.

”Everyone, proceed to your respective starting locations. The beginning of the matches shall will be signaled via flares from Roy, Elena, and myself. You’ll notice that each flare will be a different color, as they correspond to the current match being observed. For the match between Makeshift and Blizzard’s teams, their color will be red. Next, for the match between Kabuto and Aeolus’s teams, their color will be blue. And finally, for the match between Stella and Hecicero’s team, their color will be green. Upon the defeat of one of the teams, a corresponding flare shall be shot into the sky, signaling the end of the match.”

A slight pause occurred, as Naja allowed for a bit of time so that everyone could process the information. Once enough time had passed, she spoke up once more.

”As a final reminder, an opponent is defeated if you either incapacitate them or force them to surrender. While we’re allowing the use of powers to whatever level you see fit, remember that you’re fighting your teammates here. Don’t do anything that would otherwise cause serious injury or worse. However, that doesn’t mean you should pull your punches either. After all, the whole point of this training exercise is to learn how to fight against others with powers equal or even greater than your own and how to overcome that obstacle. Fight clean, but don’t cheat your opponent as well as yourself out of valuable experience. And with that said-”

Three brightly colored orbs of light suddenly appeared from the ground below, floating high above in the sky for a few moments.

”Begin!”

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Akira Yasunaga
San Diego

"Well!?" Akira frustratively showed his opinion, to the men in front of him. Men, who Warwolf assigned as his own, to solve the destruction of a Warwolf unit by an unknown group of people. Well, group is always composed of people. Akira has been a little frustrated, not helped that despite the vast resources Warwolf has, they COULDN'T find this group. The group who wasted on the Warwolf. Akira has been paid to do this job, and he'd knows better than to disappoint his client. Which in this case, is one of Earth's most dangerous faction.

"We can't find them, sir. We have put all of our assigned resources and manpower to investigate and looking at the most possible locations-," but he was cut off by Akira. "I don't need reasons! I need results! Your group hired ME to help in this city, and I use all of my disposal and resources to help you. But how can I HELP IF THERE ARE NO RESULTS!" he was angry. Angry and frustrated. This may be too much, but he'd done less and he'd probably be dead now if he's not an expert, but he's the expert in tech.

Perhaps they are magical? Perhaps. Perhaps it means they can hide from technologies. This is not a good condition. "Put your men in those areas, use every equipment we have, and maybe you can rattle them down. I don't need to tell you that despite I'm being an outsider in this city, I was hired by your faction to help. I have more power in here, they give me authority over all of you and despite my young age, you do not wish to fight me here. I may be helpless, but I'm not without political backing from your superiors. They can put you in places before you can hit me. Understand?"

"Yes. We understand," some of them may annoyed, but they realized the truth in his words. They went out after that, while Akira sat down in his room.

"Need to find this fast. Otherwise....things may got down real fast for us here, no matter how small the threat currently is."

[Finland SSR]

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

"Really, you think this was a bad idea?" Floyd responded to Johnny trying to call him out after a brief scuffle with Keith left him being forced to dodge, block and flee powerful telekinetic strikes. "This shit's fuckin' awesome. What, are the kids in your class eating all their vegetables? Because I've seen professional street brawlers with less power behind their attacks."

Standing here and watching Johnny constantly attack and constantly failing against Keith has been pretty useful, too, even if Floyd was a little bitter after getting thrown out of the fight and ignored so simply. There wasn't much more you can learn about sending powerful ass attacks with your mind, but every little bit helps. Apparently, it helped Johnny as well, because despite getting thrashed by Keith only a few seconds ago, the speedster suddenly came up and declared that he has a plan on how to beat the telekinetic. Oh really so?

"No you bloody don't." Floyd muttered, keeping eye contact with Keith and standing straight with his sword in his right hand. "You were the one who hyped him up as the guy who someone like me should run from, don't act like you had a sudden change of heart."

Maybe he should give Johnny a chance, though. Much like you would give the tapeworms in your stomach a chance to leave in peace or else face being vomited out.

"Let's give this a brief summary. Sephinroth over here is a direct ranged attacker, using a versatile power with complete tunnel vision. I could probably think of a thousand more ways how to use his power than he knows, but let's not delve into that. Every single time he has used his powers on us, he had eye contact with the target, which more than likely means that it is something necessary for his powers to activate. His powers are strong enough to break through a storefront and lift up a car, but not strong enough to punch through me despite me being in point-blank range of his attacks. I think we can work with that."

Unfortunately, the battlefield we are in works to his advantage, not ours. This street is a wide open area with plenty of junk for him to pick up and throw at us. The logical choice would be to draw him out somewhere where the range of his vision would be limited. The inside of a building, for example.

Floyd turned his eyes towards Johnny for a second before moving them back towards Keith. "I'm gonna give you ten seconds to think of a plan with that information before I go in and smash him through the nearest lamppost."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

July 19th
San Diego

"Man, I can't believe you seriously chose Archangel. She's old enough to be my mother!" One of the soldiers on the back of the car commented, making a face of disgust at the man sitting next to him. Of course, they all wore helmets, so it wouldn't be seen or cause any sort of reaction, but it was the intention that mattered.

"Well, Cole, if your mother looked like that... I'll leave the rest to your imagination." The other one said with a shrug, before quickly raising his hands defensively as Cole lifted his rifle with the butt pointed at him. With a grumble, Cole sat back down and continued scanning the streets for any signs of trouble, his helmet's night vision aiding him in this task.

"Alright, alright, I got one for our lady now. Captain Quake or Reactor?" The soldier riding in the shotgun seat spoke even as he kept an eye on the streets.

"Would it kill you to focus on the job instead of all this nonsense, Jules?" The driver complained with a sigh, eyes trained forward as the patrol vehicle continued to slowly comb the streets. "Obviously Quake, though." She added quietly.

"What? No way!" The shotgun rider exclaimed as he looked at the driver in surprise. "You're kid- Hostile incoming! It's the Cabal, call for backup immediately!" Jules shouted out as a flying masked boy rocketed towards them. The driver slammed the brakes to stop the vehicle and then quickly rolled out, the rest of the squad following suit moments before the enemy crashed into the Humvee, sending it rolling away until it came to a stop next to the wall of a nearby abandoned store.

"This is Tango 1, masked high-powered hostile encountered, requesting immediate backup from nearby patrols and local Dire units, I repea-" The driver spoke through her headset, until the microphone was suddenly blown away by some unseen force, cutting off her ability to communicate. The driver looked up at the masked boy, who now stood amid the four soldiers with a cocky smile on his face, finger pistol pointed at her.

"You may not see it right now, but that's exactly what we wanted, so thanks for that ma'am." Beast said, before rushing towards her and delivering an upward kick to her chest, sending her flying back. From the way she landed limply, he assumed she was unconscious and turned to the remaining three Warwolf operatives, who had no hesitation in opening fire. However, their rifles seemed ill-equipped to deal with him, as all rounds simply came to a stop centimeters away from him, flattening from the impact against an invisible wall. One of the soldiers pulled out his power inhibitor and aimed it at the attacker, to no avail, as the masked boy's defenses continued to shrug off their offensive.

"Surprised? Not all powers are the same, you know?" He commented, before abruptly raising a hand. Immediately, the patrolman with the power inhibitor was hurled away by an invisible force, crashing through the window of the second story of a nearby building. Beast then began walking towards the remaining two soldiers as a curtain of bullets suspended in mid-air fell to the ground. A flick of the wrist and their rifles flew away from their grip; another, and they found themselves forced to the ground as their assailant approached.

Several feet behind, the driver's body stirred, and as she raised her gaze to look in front of her, she saw the masked boy having his way with her teammates. "Ugh... Fucking abbies..." The woman growled as she pushed herself off the ground, looking around not in search of her rifle, but in search of a different weapon, a long gun with a futuristic design that featured a particularly large barrel, with Warwolf's logo clearly visible on the stock. She picked up the gun and then grabbed what appeared to be a long and thin metal cylinder which she quickly inserted before taking aim at the masked boy's chest.

Before any further damage was caused to the Warwolf patrol, the metal cylinder was fired from the gun; the telekinetic barrier around Beast, designed to stop objects carrying less brute force, was insufficient, and so the projectile tore through it, impaling the masked invader. WIth a cry of agony, he fell to his knees and the two soldiers under his grip were immediately released, breathing sighs of relief. The driver raised a hand to her ear and spoke. "Update: Cabal member 02 confirmed to belong to species 016. We'll bring him into custody soon."

The two other soldiers glanced at each other for a moment before one of them looked at the woman. "Um, Jane? Your mic's dead. Literally." He pointed out. Recalling how part of her headset had been torn off by a telekinetic bullet, she cursed, invoking the name of human feces.

"No matter, we'll inform our superiors when we're back at the base. For now, prepare to transport this guy. Our backup should be here any second now... not that they're needed anymore." She instructed before looking around, a frown appearing on her face. "Where's Jules?"

Instead of an answer, the driver received a massive electrical discharge that fried her exoskeleton and what remained of her headset, knocking her out cold. Before the two remaining Warwolf grunts had a chance to react, they met similar fates, falling to the ground unconscious. After a few moments passed, the metal bar sticking out of Beast's chest was removed, falling to the ground with a loud noise, followed by the boy, who let out a gasp and then sprawled on the ground. Next to him, a previously unseen figure materialized, clad in a suit of Warwolf power armor, albeit a heavily modified one: instead of its usual color palette, the suit was colored red and black, with what appeared to be small purple tendrils tightly wrapped around various parts of it. Warwolf logos were all replaced by the symbol of the Cabal, and the helmet visor appeared to be painted over with a skull design, making it a mystery how the user could see despite that.

"You ought to be more cautious, mon chéri. Any more toying around with them and you might've been en route to one of their prisons this very moment." Ghost's voice came from within the suit, her tone more indicative of concern than any intent to quarrel. "I'd hate it if something bad happened to you as a result of an easily preventable situation." She remarked afterwards.

"Yeah... I'll be more careful next time." Beast managed to say between laborious breaths, before giving the girl a pained smile. "So... do you think you could give me a little pick-me-up?"

The request made Ghost pause for a few moments before letting out a sigh and nodding. "Make it quick, will you?" She said, kneeling next to him as she took off her helmet.

Meanwhile, just as the ruined Humvee's driver had anticipated, two more Warwolf teams were fast approaching the position of the radio transmission made by her, accompanied by a hulking mechanical brute that towered over the patrol vehicles. After a few moments, they encountered the destroyed Humvee and what remained of its team, as well as the two culprits standing in the middle of the street: a pale masked boy and a girl clad in stolen, vandalized armor. The soldiers quickly left their vehicles and took position around them, training their weapons at them. The metallic juggernaut behind them shone bright lights on the assailants, pointing some sort of wrist-mounted weapon with a triple barrel at them.

"You will be detained for disturbing public order and repeatedly assaulting law enforcement personnel. Stand down immediately and you will not be harmed." The voice of the man inside the mech boomed. Hearing this, Ghost quickly put her helmet back on and turned around, while Beast got back on his feet and wiped a bit of blood off the corner of his mouth. He looked at her with a wild grin on his face.

"Ahhh, that's just what I needed. Stand back Ghost. I'm ready for round two." He said, the hole in his chest now all but gone. He was about to leap forward and begin tearing into Warwolf's forces or possibly die trying, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him.

"Don't go crazy. Did you already forget why we're doing this?" The girl replied as she pointed at the mech armor. Suddenly, from a nearby rooftop, another masked boy leapt at the back of the juggernaut, holding onto it tightly as the markings on his arms began shining with arcane light. Suddenly, red marks and small purple tendrils began to spread through and surround the war machine, the operator's screams echoing inside and out of the armor. Taken aback, the troops surrounding the mech turned around, aiming their weapons at it instead, opening fire while two of them headed back to one of the Humvees. The juggernaut retaliated, firing at the soldiers and tearing through a couple while the rest ran to find cover.

"Oh, yeah. It did slip my mind to be honest." Beast admitted as he watched the show unfolding before him.

Unfortunately, it was not to last. While the war machine sought out its targets, the two soldiers that had returned to the vehicle had retrieved a machine that looked like some sort of pedestal with a sphere adhered to the top. Placing it on the ground, they activated it with the press of a button. The sphere began to hover slightly above the pedestal while emitting a soft glow and some background noise. The red marks around the juggernaut began receding, while the purple tendrils shriveled up an disintegrated into dust, and the machine fell into the ground. With a cry of pain, the boy collapsed, the marks on his arms disappearing as well. Both Hex and the possessed juggernaut were out of combat.

"Hex!" Ghost shouted out as she saw her teammate fall to the ground. Raising her weapon, she fired it at the magic suppressor, a bolt of lightning briefly arcing through the air and heading towards it. Instead of impacting and frying the machine, though, it was dissipated by a forcefield surrounding it. Seeing this, Ghost muttered a French curse before looking at Beast. "Cover me." She said. Then, she sprinted towards the magic suppressor, intent on turning it off before it caused any more damage to her friend.

"I'm on it, lovely." Beast replied, making finger guns with both hands and firing wildly at all Warwolf soldiers present, telekinetic bullets slamming into them with great force. Some were simply knocked off their feet, but others were rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated; the 'bullets' were not meant to penetrate, but the force they carried was still quite harmful.

With her back covered and her armor suit protecting her from the few shots Warwolf fired that managed to reach their mark, Ghost reached the magic suppressor, pressing a few buttons to disable the machine. Though there was no visible effect on the environment or the people nearby, the device was back to its dormant position, and Ghost took some distance before firing her weapon at it once more, frying it now that there wasn't a shield there to protect it. Then, she sprinted over to Hex, climbing over the fallen juggernaut and kneeling next to her friend.

"Hex, you alright?" She said, receiving no response. "Earth to Hex. Please respond." She shook him a little. Still no response. "I'll start slapping you if you don't wake up. Need I remind you that I'm wearing power armor right now?" She threatened him as a last resource. Much to her surprise, the white-haired boy finally stirred, opening his eyes with some difficulty.

"Give me a break will you?" He complained weakly. "I'm hurt in places modern science cannot explain." He stated, only half-joking. With some effort and Ghost's aid, he sat up, watching as Beast approached and noticing the hole in his shirt. "They're getting smarter... This incursion didn't go as poorly as it could have, but it certainly didn't go as expected... We'll have to adapt and adjust our tactics just like they're doing."

Reaching the fallen war machine and placing a foot on its head, Beast scoffed, his body rapidly tensing up as his eyes took on a predatory quality. "Well, now is a good moment to start doing that, because it looks like we've got more company." He said, looking at a nearby rooftop.

[The Knockout Gun Gals]

Akira Yasunaga
San Diego

"Sir, they have been sighted! A Warwolf patrol has been dealt with, but the reinforcements were coming along nicely!" said one of the Warwolf near Akira. Akira nodded, grateful. "Good! Send more teams to reinforce them, and this time use your specialized gears whatsoever. They can stand bullets, I'm heading there as well." As the Warwolf team headed out, he headed to the suit room, where he suited up in his exoskeleton suit, though the suit is not designed for close combat environment.

He went to the same transport van as the other Warwolf soldiers. This is easier and gives him a sense of safety and protection from the Warwolf. With that in mind, they eventually reached the location. Goddamnit, though. They managed to get their hand on the juggernaut of Warwolf's. There's no way Warwolf will be able to bring in another one at a very fast speed. "Surrender now!" he exclaimed. "You're bit surrounded!" he continued.

---

Jean-Paul of Brittany
San Diego

"I sensed....a magical affinity here," he exclaimed, while in meditation. Perhaps he should go there, or perhaps not. But what could be so worse, right? Well, he's not really sure about the magical affinity, but he's sure that a magical presence was just happened. And with Warwolf in the city, there's no telling about how should things be done. "I'll get to this one. Maybe nothing, but..." as he stepped outside the Phantom Brotherhood's San Diego branch. "The sense directed me....to there," as he pointed to a direction. He started to walk there. Not fly, since that's kinda attracting attentions.

[Anxiety Cafe]

Wonder Island

Nathan woke up rather peacefully, lying on his bed in total darkness. He had had a nice, peaceful sleep, and felt more refreshed than he had been in a while. He was content to stay in bed for a little while longer, just letting his mind relax, before finally getting up and opening the curtains.

He stared out the window for a bit, his mind still groggy and half-asleep. The sunlighit streamed directly into his eyes, blinding him for a moment as his head drifted down to one of the open areas, where he spotted movement. His mouth curled into a grin as he saw blurry figures that must’ve been his teammates, only for his eyes to widen in shock as his vision cleared and he saw the battle.

Immediately he burst into action, changing into his costume as quick as he could while simultaneously running downstairs to where they were. All the while, the same thought repeated itself over and over in his mind: Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit.

Panting as he reached the battleground, he looked around in crazed confusion, before his eyes landed on Naja.

“What’s going on? Why are they fighting? Are we under attack? Are they being mind controlled? Oh god, who do I fight?” his voice streamed out in an unending flurry of questions.

[New Neros]

Near a Warwolf facility, San Diego
Earlier in the week…

---

“Wow, it really doesn’t look like that fight went your way. Although I guess you didn’t have a clue what you were getting into - but points for effort!”

Marionette giggled from the end of the alley, a wounded and heavily-breathing Mar whirling around at the unexpected voice. Her brow immediately furrowed as she identified the pink-clad figure despite the dark shadows cast by the moonlight. Gritting her teeth, the Orion member cursed her luck. The battle with Asumar had left her drained, his attacks having cut deep enough to draw blood. Attempting to take a step away from the wall that she had been resting on, Mar felt a pain shoot through her side as she tried to stand straight, instantly recognising with a feeling of dread that she was in no position for another fight.

Marionette seemed to realise this as well, making no effort to hide her amusement at the other woman’s situation. She stood calmly, her dress looking slightly worse for wear following the battle against Warwolf, but she had emerged in far better shape than the telekinetic - not in the least thanks to the marginally helpful backup she’d received.

“Gaul or Legion probably would have put up a better show, but you were still fun to see in action.” Marionette’s grin widened, and Mar could see a slight twinkle in her eye. “But it’s so nice to finally meet you, Punk! It was so cool when you turned villain, going against your own team - I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.” Shying away for a moment, there was the slightest change in the colour of the girl’s cheeks. “And don’t even get me started on the tension between you and Gaul.”

“Heh,” Mar spat with a smirk, casting her eyes around the alleyway as she searched for whatever Marionette had up her sleeve. She was one of the villains Orion had a file on, and one that the organization held a vested interest in, but within that file detailed her dangerous and chaotic nature. “I kinda liked when you basically handled Red at the Zoo. That was complete bullshit, the way they took you down, but here you are, alive and well. I heard some chatter about you and the Outriders, but information is always in short supply around here.” Mar gave off an air of relaxation, but she was scared out of her wits, and prepared to teleport out given the opportunity, but a thought crossed her mind.

It wouldn’t be all too hard for Marionette to place a tracker of some sort on her, just a lone invisible thread, and she would have the Labyrinth on speed-dial. Despite that thought, there was a standing order to approach the gal in a diplomatic way, because she was actually a sought-after recruit for the team. “So, you seem to like Legion and Gaul a bit. I figure that I have a way you could meet either one. Well,” She said, smiling a bit and looking away, “Gaul kinda got his ass handed to him by a teenage girl earlier today, so he’s not doing too well.”

Although Mar’s compliments and flattery would have normally wooed the attention-seeking villainess, the mention of the zoo and the encounter with Red seemed to cause her to freeze up. For a moment, Marionette didn’t respond as it seemed like her thoughts were elsewhere, but she quickly regained her composure and a smile returned to her features. With a wave of her hand, she accepted the praise while brushing aside her momentary distractedness. “It was nothing really. I’d been hoping to run into the Stars originally, but the Young Bloods were way more fun.” As Mar casually mentioned Gaul being defeated Marionette seemed genuinely surprised. “Gaul? Did he get into a fight with one of the Young Bloods then?” The girl nearly squirmed at the thought, it would have had to have been really recent if none of the news channels or forums had picked up on it yet, which meant that this was some seriously juicy information. However, Marionette’s expression hardened as she connected the dots to their logical conclusion. For a moment, her voice lost its usual friendliness and was replaced by a flat and cold tone. “Which Young Blood was it?”

The tactile telekinetic let out a quick snork, covering her mouth as she laughed a bit, “Psyche.” She quickly responded, “The mind girl, little telepath, has a crush on Red that everyone never shuts up about online.” She said with a quick eye roll, “But yeah, I came up on the scene with both of them talking a bit, apparently she was tracking Gaul for a while before she tried to corner him in a back alley. Well, the guy is made of muscle and moves in the opposite of slo-mo, so he turned it around no sweat, and they just started moving gums left and right, hero this, villain that, good, evil, bad, worse, you name it. Gaul left her standing and she went for the mind games.” Mar made hand motions as she spoke, guiding Marionette through the scene beautifully as she continued.

“Then it was pretty cool, because there was this internal struggle between the two of them but Gaul was like, willpowering his way through the mental assault, taking step after step closer to Pysche. This was all invisible, mind you, so it looked pretty funny from a distance. Well, I decided to get involved when the little heroine got a cocky look on her face, and Gaul started bleeding from other orifices than normal. I knocked her out, and got Gaul out of there before back-up caught up to us.” She waved her hand to signal her monologue was over, but quickly added, “This is was like, less than two hours ago, haha.”

Marionette’s expression had remained dark throughout Mar’s reconstruction of the earlier encounter, her mouth set in a straight line as she silently listened to each word. After the other villain had concluded her story, Marionette didn’t respond for a few seconds. Psyche, she had known which Young Blood it would have been, which one it had to have been. How could the world have been any less fair?

“I can’t believe the nerve of that girl.” She muttered. “You know she thinks that she actually belongs with the rest of them? Like she’s actually hot stuff and good enough to be a hero, rather than just a lame sideshow that’s stealing the show? It’s so annoying when boring people like that spoil a good show, don’t you think?” Noticing that she had allowed the pause to draw on for a few seconds too long, the villainess’ demeanor changed in an instant, and she regained the usual spring in her step. “But actually, I was hoping I would run into you at some point, you know! There was something I wanted to tell you.” Clasping her hands behind her back and swinging back and forth, Marionette grinned proudly at the other woman. “I want to join Orion.”

Mar watched the subtle body movements Marionnette made as she processed the information, a bit unclear on where the puppet master would stand because she had actual run-ins with the young hero team, and may hold some grudges against some of them. However, her final statement threw her for a loop. “Huh?” Mar said quickly, bewildered at the statement. “Er, um, huh.” She vocalized, looking down at her feet, smiling, and returning a smirk to the villainess. “That makes things a lot easier, you know. We’ve been looking to talk to you for a while, or so your file says. If you’d like, I can take you back to our base to talk it out more with Legion.”

As she spoke, Mar tossed the girl a small disk, able to fit in the palm. “This will take us to the Labyrinth. I’m ready when you are.”

Catching the teleporter, Marionette eyed it curiously for a moment before turning her attention back towards Mar. The girl beamed at the other villainess, and she could hardly contain her excitement. Giggling, Marionette glanced over her shoulder as the sound of vehicles could be heard from outside the alleyway, no doubt a Warwolf patrol looking to clean up the mess that had come out of the past night. She offered Mar a friendly wink.

“Ready when you are, Punk! I can’t wait to meet the rest of your friends, I think we’ll all get along together just perfectly."

[The Republic of Atria]

A few weeks of rest had done wonders for her health. Living without using her sorcery as freely as she used to was quite the experience. Aches, pains, exhaustion and more were things she'd thought were gone, but had since made their return. Despite that, she refused to use it more than she absolutely needed to, spending most of her time in an old Dra'Qunni facility buried deep underground. There wasn't much to do but think about the future and just how they were going to work out living with the humans. Her only company was Orro and he didn't talk outside of his duty even when she tried to make conversation, he gave simple and vague answers and the only times he didn't, he talked about the boy with a much happier tone, which stung ever so slightly. She filtered it out as best as she could as she went on with working out plans. Since her power was returning, it would be enough to return to her position as Elder and start getting her people back on their feet.

The first part was finding one of their facilities that stored an immense amount of supplies for getting their civilization back on it's feet. The largest one was basically an entirely self sustaining city that could easily comfortably fit several hundred thousand with plenty of room to expand it. It's location was in what the humans referred to as the "Sahara Desert". From what she was able to gather, it was composed almost entirely of sand and rock and almost completely uninhabited. The problem was actually raising the city above that. She could probably do it, but she had just gotten back to a reasonable amount of strength and wasn't sure if her body could withstand such a strenuous task. And that was before the realization that her people had tried to kill her resulting in this situation, making it unlikely that they would even accept her even if she did. She had already done enough damage, and forcing them to be under her control would almost certainly make things worse.

Orro stood quietly at the entrance of the room where she paced the ground, her face giving telltale signs of frustration and... Fear? Against his better judgement, he decided to speak up. "My Elder... Are you okay?" He asked. She jolted back to reality for a moment and looked at him. "Is there something I can help you with?" He asked, neutral as ever, but closing the distance between them.

"My H-Orro. I... I am scared, terrified." She replied. "I do not know what to do. I was thinking to raise T'noak. However..." She trailed off and sat down looking on the verge of tears. "Raising the city may kill me, and if it doesn't... Orro, I am responsible for so much pain." It had finally dawned on her that she was not going to be welcomed with open arms. Deep down she probably knew that, but denial is a powerful thing. "Even if I survive raising the city and it's people... They are going to hate me. I have been so selfish and cruel and only now after I have ruined everything we built do I realize. Orro, I have a very personal question and I want you to answer truthfully." She was certainly she already knew the answer, but just to be sure. "Do you wish I had died with Taurac?"

Orro hesitated for a moment, but that was all the answer she needed. Before he could speak, Naligura stood up, looking quite defeated.

"I see. Then I have no place in what is to come. Heed my final words. Return to the boy and guard him with your life. Make him better than I. He has to be better. I may not be able to earn back my people, but with my final action, I can hope to earn some measure of atonement. May the Spirits have some mercy." She finished, first transporting Orro to Bael's home before making her way to the Sahara.

[Bentus]

Yoshiro
San Diego
After the party…

---

Standing outside of the poorly maintained house on the outskirts of the suburbs, Yoshiro bit her lip as her closed fist hesitated just before the wooden door. Was she really right in coming back here? What was she hoping she would achieve, especially after how things had gone last time? Steeling her courage, and deciding that she had nothing to lose from trying, Yoshiro knocked three times - the raspy sound of her knuckles on the wood resonating out from the point of impact. Taking a step back, she waited patiently for a few seconds of silence, with no indication of any movement on the other side. Until, eventually, Yoshiro was greeted by the sound of a series of bolts and locks being swiftly undone from the inside. As the door swung open wide, Voice was revealed in the door-frame.

Standing with one hand on her hip, the heroine’s mouth was set in a straight line, her calm blue eyes casually looking over Yoshiro. Shifting uneasily, the girl waited for a few moments for the appearance of words in her mind, for the other telepath to make the first move, but instead she was greeted by an increasingly prolonged silence. Eventually, Yoshiro couldn’t keep herself from talking any longer.

“Voice, I - I’m sorry for what I said before.” She began, her eyes moving away from the piercing pair of orbs in the telepath’s face. “It was rude and I wasn’t thinking. You were just trying to warn me, to make me understand the risks that I was taking, and I lashed out because I didn’t want to hear it.” Looking back towards Voice, Yoshiro’s gaze held a new determination. “But I know now. And I still want to be a hero. But when we’re out there, fighting, I just feel so, so out of my depth. Even with Naja teaching us how to fight, and how to work as a team, I still feel like I don’t even understand what my powers are, or how I am supposed to use them to help everyone else. Please, I need someone to teach me.”

After her short, but heartfelt speech, Yoshiro held her breath as she waited for a response from the older woman. The seconds began to drag on, with neither of them moving from where they stood, Voice’s expressionless gaze still boring down onto Yoshiro as if she were still considering what to do next. With a sigh, and a quick roll of her eyes, Voice stepped aside and made a gesture for Yoshiro to enter her house. Instantly, a smile crept onto Yoshiro’s features and she walked into the living room towards the kitchen.

The inside of the house seemed unchanged from when she had last been there, although the bottles of whiskey and liquor on the countertop seemed to have been restocked. Voice casually made her way to her fridge, opening the door to reveal an array of half-eaten meals and pre-cooked dishes waiting to be prepared. Rummaging around for a moment, past a few boxes of wine, she pulled out a box of orange juice and poured its contents into a glass. Taking a seat at the table, Yoshiro waited for Voice to place the beverage in front of her before sitting down across from her. There was a few more moments of silence, and Yoshiro found herself fidgeting nervously until finally she heard Voice speak inside her head.

I was too harsh as well. The woman eventually admitted. I was more interested in convincing you to turn away from being a hero than in trying to help you use your powers. Although that’s not to say that my opinion has changed. The Young Bloods are still an utterly ignorant, stupid and childish idea that I wish Naja had never put into your heads. Yoshiro opened her mouth to respond, but was stopped as Voice raised her hand. But, I should have realised that I wouldn’t be able to change your mind. If I can at least help you survive long enough to realise how bad of an idea this is, then I guess it’s the least that I can do.

Yoshiro’s face lit up. “Thank you! I can’t tell you how much this means to me, really. I just want to be able to help, to be useful to the rest of the team rather than something which drags them down and holds them back.” Catching herself from rambling, Yoshiro turned to look at Voice. “So where do we start?”

How about you start by telling me what happened at the Church. The question caught Yoshiro off guard, and Voice wasted no time in elaborating. Naja filled me in on the details. On the Mask being framed by Marionette, the prison break. Pausing for a moment as she allowed the words to sink in, Voice met Yoshiro’s eyes. And I know about the scarab and how you beat it. But what I want to know, is what happened when you went inside the Mask’s mind.

Yoshiro felt a strange sensation in the back of her head. It was subtle, almost unnoticeable, like a muffled emotion that wasn’t quite her own. It felt almost like nervousness, or concern. She didn’t need to be a genius to realise that someone else was also listening in on the conversation. Someone that had a vested interest in however she responded. Shifting uneasily, she tried to find the right words.

“I don’t really remember.” She began uneasily, trying to recall the events of that night. “I felt that something was wrong with the Mask, so I reached out and just kept on trying to push deeper until I just sort of, woke up in this field of ice and snow. I talked to a younger Mask, and he guided me towards some kind of cabin where I could find his memories.”

That would have been his subconscious.

“I’m not sure.” Yoshiro didn’t know how she was so certain of it, but something about the child even then had felt different to the rest of the mindscape. Like he had been as much of a foreign presence as she had been. “Eventually, when I found the Mask - the real Mask - he was hanging off of a cliff and I had to help pull him up. But he was hurt, bleeding. And the younger version of himself was standing there with a beetle tattoo and an axe.” Yoshiro paused for a moment, her memories feeling increasingly hazy. “We - we fought him I think. But I don’t really remember what happened. I just woke up again, more tired than I’ve ever felt in my life, and just knew that I had saved him.” The girl shrugged sheepishly. “Well, I guess we both saved him.”

Voice’s gaze remained fixed on Yoshiro as a silence lingered between them. A few seconds passed and Yoshiro couldn’t help but glance away from the unblinking stare. A part of her knew that she should just bring up her hallucinations, to mention the strange presence that she had felt in the recesses of her mind. But something stopped her from doing so, a feeling in her gut holding her back. A loud sigh from Voice broke Yoshiro from her reverie, and she could have sworn that she actually caught a glimmer of a smile pulling on the edge of the woman’s mouth.

You did well, Yoshiro. Voice eventually said. Your actions were short-sighted, impulsive and dangerous for both yourself and Red. There is no telling what you could have accidentally done while moving around in his mind. But, given the circumstances, you were also heroic. The praise caught the younger telepath off guard, and she did her best to keep a smile from breaking out on her features.

“Th - Thank you.” She managed sheepishly, not sure how to respond to the metaphorical pat-on-the-back but feeling her heart rise at it nonetheless. Voice seemed unsure of how to respond herself, and a few seconds of silence stretched out like an awkward gulf between the two. For a moment, the former hero wondered exactly what it was that she was doing, this was Naja’s pet project, not her’s. But at the same time, seeing the girl who had come to ask for her help not once - but twice - and the determination of the rest of the team, she couldn’t bring herself to turn her away.

Let’s pick up where we left off.

---

Yoshiro grimaced as she ducked behind the doorway, pressing herself up against the wall just as the front door of the mansion got kicked violently from its hinges. The oak structure fell over onto the ground with a loud crash, sending up a ploom of dust from the impact while Voice stepped calmly into the main hall. Resisting the urge to curse under her breath, Yoshiro scolded herself as her chest raise and fell with her breaths. She was already beginning to feel fatigue from the constant mental activity and exertion, and yet she just couldn’t stay more than just a step ahead of the hero.

If you’re going to use a locked door to protect your memories, then you should at least make sure that it is sturdy.

Sighing at her teacher’s voice, Yoshiro rolled her eyes in dismay. The words seemed to echo throughout her mindscape, reverberating through the air as if coming from everywhere at once so that Yoshiro felt like Voice was standing right beside her no matter where she was. What was she supposed to do? Voice had years more experience than she did, and she had hardly gotten any more instruction than to try and defend herself before the training had apparently begun. Yoshiro had of course adopted a fighting stance, but the other telepath had simply stepped right past her, deeper into her own mind.

Your mindscape is formed from your own thoughts and memories. You have some control over it on a surface level, but a telepath will attack you through your mindscape rather than directly.

Yoshiro pressed her mouth into a line, yelling into the air with no small bit of exasperation. “Right, you told me to protect my memories from you. But how am I supposed to do that? What does protecting a memory even mean?”

It was as if Yoshiro felt an aura twitch in amusement nearby. This isn’t something that I can just tell you. You have to learn by doing, and you’re starting to pick up on it already. The older telepath seemed to notice Yoshiro’s confused expression, even though the girl was certain that the other woman couldn’t see her. Have you ever seen Inception?

The question caught Yoshiro off guard and she nearly did a double take as she tried to recall the years-old movie. It had caused a fuss when it had been released, but she’d never really seen the appeal. “Y - yeah? By Christopher Nolan, right?”

Yes. It’s kind of like that.

Yoshiro grimaced at what she considered to have been the worst possible piece of advice that she could have received. But she also knew that no clearer instructions would be forthcoming any time soon. Groaning she rocked her head back so that it leaned against the wall, ignoring the sound of Voice moving around the main hall of the mansion that she’d crafted in her mindscape. Trying to recall what she could about the old Nolan flick, Yoshiro furrowed her brow. There was all that nonsense in there about going to different levels and dreams-within-dreams, but she’d never really understood it. Silently, the telepath cursed her eleven year old self for having spent the whole movie just focusing on Leonardo Dicaprio's chiseled jaw. A loud crash caught the girl’s attention, and she heard the sound of a door being opened nearby.

Puzzled, Yoshiro leaned around the corner to see what Voice was up to, only to see the older woman opening up a door to what appeared to be one of the rooms in Wonder Tower. Confused, Yoshiro immediately realised that it wasn’t a door to her own room - but then what was the memory that Voice had found? She heard her own voice emanating out from the now open door, a slight slur clearly audible in her words.

“Wadda ya’ mean, Red? Let’s keep this party going!”

There was a hint of colour in Yoshiro’s cheeks as she realised exactly what she must sound like when she was drunk. But the initial embarrassment was replaced by a growing sense of horror as she figured out whose room lay behind the door and exactly which memory Voice had found. Forgetting all her efforts to remain hidden, Yoshiro darted out from behind the wall in a desperate effort to stop the other telepath. Her voice had risen an octave or two, betraying her fear and nerves.

“Wait, don’t look at that one!”

---

Later, Yoshiro stood by herself in an elevator further within the recesses of her own mind. Her expression still glum and sheepish after her last encounter with Voice. Since then, she seemed to have managed to lose the older woman, although she could still feel her presence somewhere within her mindscape. Now that she’d had time to get more used to it, Yoshi thought that she had begun to figure out what Voice’s presence actually felt like. It was strange, like a nagging itch that lay within her mind. Although, even that analogy quickly fell through because the entire world around her was really only inside her mind as well.

Glancing at the old analog floor indicator above the doors, Yoshiro fidgeted as the elevator continued on its way downwards, eventually reaching its final destination some multitude of levels beneath the surface. A bell rang as the doors pulled open with a slight creak, and Yoshiro reached out to pull aside the old metal greeting. She was greeted by a narrow hallway that looked like it would have fit perfectly in a lower class apartment complex. The wallpaper was wearing thin and beginning to peel in places, although the pattern itself was already dry and immediately forgettable. The brown and tan colours of the walls and floors seemed to blend together as if the whole building was not even trying to make itself presentable for visitors.

Paying her surroundings no mind, Yoshiro stepped out into the hallway just as a train running nearby caused the entire building to rumble down to its foundations. She remembered always having hated that train, but then found that she had trouble sleeping without its occasional presence after her family had moved. Stepping towards one of the doors in the hallway, Yoshiro didn’t even need to check the numbers on the rooms to know which one she wanted. Pulling a key from one of her pockets, the telepath unlocked the door before giving the handle a subtle wriggle. She’d eventually gotten used to the apartment’s strange quirks, the old, broken door just having been one among many.

As Yoshiro pushed the door however, she was greeted by the sight of her own room back in Wonder Tower. Everything from her desk to her bed sat exactly as she’d left it, down to the picture of her family and the drying laundry on coat hangers hanging from her cupboard door. Another version of Yoshiro sat silently on the edge of her bed, eyeing her counterpart suspiciously. The girl’s mouth was set in a straight line, and the usual toying or goading look was replaced by a serious expression. As she closed the door behind her, Yoshiro couldn’t help but glance at the scarab beetle tattoo on the other her’s hand. There was a brief silence between after their connection to the outside was sealed, leaving only the pair alone. Yoshiro didn’t really have anything to say, she wasn’t even entirely sure why she’d come down here, but eventually the Scarab broke the silence between them.

“Why are you hiding me from her?”

The question was blunt and direct, and Yoshiro couldn’t help but avert her eyes. She didn’t offer up an immediate response and the Scarab scoffed, folding her arms across her chest.

“I’m too weak to stop you from revealing me if you wanted, and I’m definitely too weak to hide from her. This is your perfect chance to get rid of me once and for all, and I wouldn’t even have a talisman to run away to once she’d kicked me out from here.” The girl spoke with Yoshiro’s voice, although the tone was ever so slightly off. It was more aggressive and assertive, more rigid and unwilling to bend for whoever it was conversing with. “But instead you chose to bury me in some memory buried deep in the back of your mind, behind locked doors and sealed entrances to keep her out and distracted.” The other Yoshiro’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Opening her mouth to respond, Yoshiro found that she couldn’t quite force the words out. Internally, she felt like she was struggling against herself, trying to convince herself that she had some rational reason for what she was doing. Ultimately, she knew perfectly well why she had chosen to hide the foreign presence in her mind, and why she had refused to tell any of the team about her hallucinations. Yoshiro’s shoulders slumped, and her gaze lowered to the floor.

Still sitting on the edge of their bed, a sense of realisation began to dawn on the scarab as she began to connect the dots. She could feel the current in Yoshiro’s mind, sensing the shift in the aura around her and quickly realising the answer to her own question.

“You’re doing this because you’re afraid of what would happen if they found out.” The scarab spoke firmly, although she couldn’t hide her own surprise. “That’s it, isn’t it? After everything, you’re terrified that they won’t trust you once they find out about me. You think that they’ll kick you out, and you’d rather keep me hidden from them all rather than risk it.” There was a slight pause. “Even though you know that you could be putting them in danger by doing so.”

The words were like the twisting of a knife, and Yoshiro winced under each of them like a physical blow. It was stupid, she knew that it was - so why did she decide to lie to her teammates? Glancing up, Yoshiro met the scarab’s gaze and immediately felt a stab of shame. Since the party, that first encounter with the prisoners, Yoshiro’s whole life had been a rollercoaster. She had never once thought poorly of the life that she had lived before, but now the thought of going back to it filled her with dread. The scarab had been right earlier, she was hooked to the life of being a hero. And she was willing even to keep this secret rather than give it up now.

[The Republic of Atria]

Orro

Orro appeared outside of Bael's home late in the evening. He was either still out with his friends or sleeping, which gave him some time to figure out how to explain this to him. Bael's father answered the door and let him in. "I believe Bael is still with his friends, I'm sure he'll be home soon." His father said and was about to leave Orro to his devices when he spoke up.

"I know you and your mate were not fond of Naligura, and you have every reason to doubt her, but tonight she... She is going to try to escalate matters. I'm sure you're aware of the various cities constructed in preparation for the meteor. She is going to raise T'noak, and doing so will likely be her final action." He explained. "You may not be aware of the fact that her powers have waned considerably-"

"Bael told us about her." He replied. "And she sent you here, likely to inform him of her demise. I can't help but be relieved. Our son will no longer be subject to whatever nonsense she intended to fill his mind with. He is better than that, we raised him better than that." He wasn't lying, ever since Bael had been taken under her tutelage both he and his wife had lost sleep and had far too many concerns about their son being around her. Even if she seemed to have good intentions, it was difficult to trust her with their son all the while hoping she didn't poison his mind. "I apologize if you had any feelings about her, given your position, but I think I speak for many, many people when I say, good."

Orro clenched his fist behind his back as Bael's father spoke about his relief at her finally being dead, and as much as he wanted to talk about the good she had done, both now and then, he figured it better to hold his tongue.Trying to change this man's mind was simply not going to work. "I understand your frustration with her, but there is a downside to this you aren't seeing: Bael has no teacher for reigning in his sorcery."

His father shrugged. "The woman, Onu, is quite skilled with sorcery. Bael has had no issues with controlling it since her first few lessons. I expect he'll learn as he grows as well as learning from her. I feel I can trust her and her brother with Bael. Despite her brother being... Boisterous, I appreciate that he treats my son with respect, rather than a tool to be used. I want what's best for him. I tolerated his time with Naligura for as long as he did."

Holding his tongue once more, he nodded as Bael's father spoke. "Another issue arises. The raising of the city will certainly draw the attention of the humans. Even if we work around them, I can't help but wonder if you think it would be prudent to move across the planet. It would give Bael some more exposure to his own people."

"I think we certainly will be moving to it. Living among the humans is difficult. I can speak with Onu and talk to her about setting things up so Bael can come and go as he pleases. I did want to apologize, when you and Naligura first arrived, I had very little faith or trust in you. While my trust in her never amounted to much, I am happy to see that you care about my son." He said and put his hand on Orro's shoulder. "Let us make preparations."

Naligura

She transported herself to the Saharan desert. It was quite warm and arid, ideal for her kind. Finding the city wasn't difficult, her sorcery let her expand her senses, locating the city was simple, as it was the only massive metal structure in the area. All she had to do was raise the city several miles up and activate it. Simple.

Moments passed as she hesitated going through with it. Every time she started to channel her sorcery, the fear of death caught up to her and she stopped. This process repeated for some time. She looked around, seeing nothing but rocks, sand and the very occasional lizard and dropped to her knees. "I do not want to die..."

All but a few wish it. She berated herself mentally. My death will be giving them what they want.

She struck the ground with such force that there was a dust cloud visible for miles around. Even if they awoke naturally, their hatred would not have diminished. For the first time in thousands of years, she wished that she had someone to talk to. Bael's parents hated her, they didn't have to say anything to make it obvious. Orro only followed her around because it was his job and clearly preferred Bael's company. Kaban would just try to kill her on the spot, and had a considerable chance of doing it. Onu would likely just sic Kaban on her.

Maybe Bael had a point about friends after all. Having even one person to see her off would make this much less painful. She considered going to find some more of her old Hunhow, but Orro was by far the most loyal and patient with her, and he was like everyone in that he wished she had died.

She smiled as she started to weep, right about one thing. She would not feel any pain from loss and neither would anyone else. For the first time in her life, she hated being right.

Naligura flew into the air Power pulsating through her body as she channeled her Elder sorcery, if she was going to die, she was going to die with dignity, not wallowing in misery. She was going to march into whatever was beyond death and accept whatever was going to happen. She was an Elder!

The ground shook, sand and rocks shot into the air violently cracking with a bright purple glow. An immense crater, miles wide appeared and grew deeper with each passing second as the area shifted from her sorcery. It took seconds before the outline of the elegant, domed city was made. It slowly, but surely began to float out of the massive hole it was in.

Naligura could feel her strength beginning to fade as it had many times before. Not that she was going to let it stop her, no she was much too stubborn for that. Instead, she increased the speed at which she brought the gargantuan city above the ground. Sand falling off the dome.

Half way done, with her other hand, she motioned for the sand for dozens of miles to solidify into a substance that appeared much like sandstone, but much more resilient to both heat and pressure. The crater was filled quick and the city gently placed on top of it.

She dropped like a stone, her body crashing into the now stone ground, her power waning and waning until she passed out.

When she awoke, she wasn't on the hard desert floor she had made, instead in a dark tunnel with a light at the end. Instinctively knowing that she was on the path to the afterlife, she moved down the tunnel towards the light. As she got closer, she could see people, her people, in the distance. Not just some random people, old childhood friends, her parents, everyone she had ever cared about was there. However, as she got closer, they didn't notice her approaching, and as she tried to approach them, she was blocked by an invisible force.

She struck it calling out to them, but they didn't notice. Well, almost no one noticed. A man, the man she hated with every fiber of her being walked to the invisible wall and stared at her. Ready to resign herself to her fate, he spoke: "It has been quite some time since we last spoke."

"I will hear no more of your drivel, if this is my fate I accept it."

"Hmmm, as determined as ever. I am not the one keeping you away." He replied. "You are close to death, but not quite dead."

"What are you saying?"

"I think it obvious. You haven't earned death quite yet."

Before she could ask what that meant, she was ripped back through the dark tunnel and snapped away, gasping for breath. Looking up, she could see the city starting to whir to life, and then the exhaustion had finally set in. Her power was still there, but it was going to take months or even years to even begin to recuperate. Was that a dream... What could he possibly mean by not earning death? She pondered as she forced herself to stand. A little dizzy, but otherwise okay.

Hopefully the denizens weren't feeling too vengeful...

[Absolon-7]

Casimir Herman July 19th
Casimir felt pretty great that Kiris shared his enthusiasm for the training which was to be expected. Having one of the sourpusses of the team on his squad would have been lame. Wendy didn't seem to be as excited as either of them but she wasn't treating it like Saturday school. They both gave good ideas for how they should fight the other team as well so that would be handy. Speaking of the other team, he wasn't particularity worried about facing them. Carter's aeromancy could be a game changer in this open field but he was pretty much the definition of glass cannon. One good swing and he's finished. Mar's robot suit would be a worthy challenge if Wendy wasn't on his squad otherwise the suit was a non-factor. Red was the one to watch out for as he was a crafty one for sure. He may not have powers but there's no way he doesn't have some way for compensating in fights.

"Lucky for us you didn't make Rocket hacker proof. Which looks like coincidences favored us today," gleefully said Casimir. A small rustle in a particularly tall patch of grass quite a distance away suddenly made him get a tingling, no, thousands of painless needle-like tingling feelings all over his head in a rushing and ebbing wave. It was as if a sudden wave of anxiousness had enthralled his senses and wrapped its shaking hands around his breathless torso. The repeating rhythm of his heart acting as a thunderous alarm pleading him to go away. His eyes darted like race horses calculating an escape path and as his body automatically followed the path, which was simply to duck down a bit, in the seconds that followed the rustling. Out of the grass, a tiny little fluffy sparrow gently flew above Casimir as he was squatting down once he ducked.

"Uhm, that was weird," quietly said Casimir completely baffled his body's overreaction to the bird meanwhile his mind was relatively balanced. As Naja gave out instruction for the sparring and subsequently the signal for starting, Casimir couldn't help but wonder what overcame his will in those fleeting seconds.,That feeling was nothing like any he felt before and for some reason he could feel the flies in his swarms far more intensely than usual.

Viviana Couture July 19th
Well this bus ride to San Diego wasn't so bad. There weren't that many people inside so she wasn't an honorary sardine and she was listening to an audiobook version of The Martian Chronicles so she wasn't exactly bored. By her seat's window there was a lot of morning condensation left and using her finger she amused herself making crude drawings of aliens and herself on the window.

She giggled to herself as she made the wobbly figures and imagined stories for them but her window soon ran out of space. She angrily grumbled to herself but she got over it once a part in the audiobook peaked her intrest. It was the part where astronauts had discovered a town on Mars that looked exactly like their hometown and somehow their families where there too. She was at the edge of her seat focusing quite intensely although to outside observers it looked like a brown haired girl in a sundress and straw hat was making angry faces at the seat in front of her.

It was quite a fascinating part as well as her mind conjured up theories on what it could be. The Martians were telepaths so maybe one was messing with the astronauts. Or maybe some unfortunate fate had befallen them and the whole experience was a hallucination a survivor was going through as he layed dying somewhere in the red dunes of Mars. As the book was transitioning to a turning point, it was interrupted by a notification for a call. A call from Jadwiga. She doesn't call too often so it could be for anything maybe she was gonna make dinner for her!

"Yahello! Haven't heard from ya in a while sis," happily said Viviana.

"Hello and no need to flatter me, Vivi. I don't think my little braciszek has the balls to marry someone as great of a catch as you anyways. Nevermind that you're too young to be a sister-in-law."

"Oh come on no need to be so mean," playfully said Viviana, "Anyways your picking me up in a black and orange car right?"

"Correct, oh did you want to go eat somewhere or should I drop you off at Wonder Tower so you can meet Captain Blunderpants sooner?"

"Dunno, I wanted to see around San Diego for a bit so we can go shopping," said Vivian twirling one of the two hair buns that rested on her shoulders.

"Not usually my style but I have been meaning for a wardrobe change."

"Coolio!" said Viviana jumping out of her seat but the bus's speed made her crash her back against her seat leaving her dignity a bit wounded, "I know just the brand that carries clothes suited to that rockin body of yours "

"Right...I just wanted a few extra shirts. I'd rather not do anything too extravagant. Anyways, did you get those baby photos of Casimir I emailed you. "

"Yee, oh my gosh he was so fat!", squeeled Viviana.

"Hey why don't you show them to his team. I'm sure the girls would love them."

"You betcha! So what did he do this time?" asked Viviana.

"Let's just say he should give a warning to unsolicited appearances."

"Well that's ominous," said Viviana in a frankly deadpan tone.

"Well, he didn't do anything bad per say so I'm just going with something light to get back at him. Plus I did get to spend some quality time with him since the past year hasn't gone so well between us. "

"That's good to hear. I was worried you guys would stay sour for a long time. Makes me remeber the time I was pissed off at him. Not a good look for me at all," she said giving off a half-hearted chuckle although she truly disliked remembering that time in her life..

"Yeah sure"

"So before you go I wanna run an idea by you. Ya think Cas would consider a wrestling match fun? Like how those old greeks used to do it," enthusiastically said Viviana.

"Uhm....Not in the way you think."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, he's a teenage guy and your a girl that would be in very close proximity to him."

"Come on, thats the point isn't it?" she coyly said.

"Good lord girl you tease him relentlessly...Listen I got to start the car so I'll see you in a few"

"Ok, bye-bye Jadwiga," said Viviana as the two said their goodbyes.

Her bus had now entered the vicinity of San Diego although it looked like their was a hold up some distance away. As vehicles passed one by one she spotted off in the distance some figures in power armor or something equally awesome! They were stopping vehicles along this bus route and presumably they were doing the same on the route this specific bus was going. She could barely see some of those sci-fi dudes stopping the driver and checking hia credentials or something like that. She wasn't too sure. After a few, the bus started moving again and she pressed her face against the window to get a better look at the armored figures as they went farther and farther away behind the bus. Little did she know that her face was literally pressed flat as a pancake against the window as she was too deep on focusing to realize so. Luckily, her straw hat prevented anyone on the bus from knowing any better as it covered a relatively large area. As she snapped back in reality, she turned on the the audiobook again to find out the fate of the Martian men and their own home.

[Rupudska]

Near San Diego

There are some things money can't buy - family, love, hope, pride...

Happiness is often claimed, but really that depends on your definition of happiness.

If happiness was an Airbus A380 modified as a personal jet and carrying a car for you, your brother, your father, as well as all the super heroing equipment your brother and father had developed, plus a few other things built into the plane itself for defense from supervillains etc, then yes, money could buy happiness. And Reem bint-Kadir bin-Suleiman al-Hadrami, aka 'Nazif' or, to the English-speaking world, 'Hemorrhage', was bloody fucking loaded.

Well, technically the plane was her father's but the point stood.

San Diego International was a one-strip airway approached from the south, and its short size, enormously amounts of traffic (only Mumbai and London's one-strips had more compared to other one-airstrip airports) and the skyscrapers surrounding it made landing on it less than pleasant even for the most skilled airline pilots. Luckily their pilot was a hired superhuman with the power of spatial awareness - he couldn't fight well due to weak joints, but he could fly well, and you couldn't sneak up on him unless you were invisible.

<<SAN control, SCT, this is Kilo Hotel Sierra Four Five Four, requesting landing clearance and escort. We're carrying a lot of shiny stuff here, and even with this Warwolf group I'd rather not take any chances with what we have on board, over.>>

[Finland SSR]

Amadeo Obregón, Champion of Liberty!

---

For the Anticóndoristas, the Amazon Rainforest was their second home. This thick, impenetrable jungle, its monotony only broken by sparse villages, towns and roads connecting them, was their shelter, breadwinner and nation at the same time. After the Andean Condors successfully established control over the densely inhabited coastal areas and mountains, much of its opposition moved east, to the dense forestry of the Ecuadorian Amazon, where resistance continues to this day. Continuous attempts to subjugate the Amazon resulted in fiercer and fiercer fighting, constant raids, ambushes, assaults on government troops, which remains as a drain to the Condor regime's resources even after twenty years of operation.

Deep in the Amazon, not far from a dinky, peripheral road connecting an Ecuadorian and Colombian village through the jungle, on one of the thick branches of a tall wimba tree, a teenager was hanging upside down, latching onto the branch with his bone tail and using his vantage point to observe the road. After joining the Anticóndoristas, Amadeo became a cog in this long running, oiled machine. Despite somewhat growing in strength during the last three years, his group of revolutionaries was unfortunately still limited to raiding Condor convoys, spreading underground press and occasionally ripping off a few posters in the streets. Opinions on their next move differed among the organization's members. Some believed that it was about time to take the fight out of the jungle and into the core of the country, betting on the hope that the people of Ecuador will support and join a mass uprising. Others feared that a bold offensive out of the jungle would only result in the Condors retaliating with brute force and stomping the organization out, and the best move would be to continue gathering strength until they are sure that an offensive will result in victory.

Amadeo believed that both points of view had their merits. Certainly, remaining locked in the jungle isn't going to advance their goals even a little bit - however, isn't it in the spirit of Anticóndorismo to only strike at the enemy with lethal force when you are sure of your victory? This was why Amadeo was one of the biggest supporters of the probe attack the organization planned for August - attacking Quito itself to test the stability of the Condor regime and the potential support a mass uprising would find. And it's what got him as one of the leaders of that planned operation.

Outside of the Hadrian, there were nine of them in this trap. Amadeo was the only member of the unit who wasn't an ordinary human - the Ecuadorian super community had almost universally expressed their loyalty to the Andean Condors - or even a human at all, but despite this, his fellow fighters respected him as one of their own. It's not like they could just discard a willing member when they were so lacking manpower, and especially not such an effective asset. The boy was not even 18, and yet he was already bringing better results than some of the organization's veterans. Although usually immersed in his own thoughts and wary of strangers, Amadeo also had the reputation of being friendly and open to everyone, even the most bitter member of the Anticóndoristas, like a heart of the team.

The routine of waiting in the shade was suddenly overturned by the buzzing noise of a truck engine somewhere in the distance. Amadeo's earpiece almost instantly blared to life.

"Rodrigo here. Armored truck passing through my vantage point, will reach the trap in two minutes." a hoarse, gravelly voice spoke first.

"Sergio here. I thought the target was only going to pass this point in about an hour? This might be someone else." a slightly softer, but still far from pleasant voice replied.

"I'm not sure, but I wouldn't risk letting this truck pass. It's not a civilian vehicle, that's for sure." Rodrigo gave a simple response. "Amadeo, are you ready?"

The Hadrian took a breath through his nose, pressed a button on his earpiece and replied:

"I'm ready."

"Good. You know what to do."

The armored truck was approaching the patch of the road observed by Amadeo's vantage point at a rapid pace. The Hadrian's tail suddenly leg of of the tree branch and he went to a freefall, at least for a couple seconds, before his claws suddenly grabbed onto one of the branches on the way and tossed him forward, straight at the road. After flying through a dozen or so meters of leaves, vines and canopy, Amadeo saw himself heading straight towards the reinforced steel rooftop of the incoming truck. Perfect.

Using his feet and claws, Amadeo came to a screeching halt on the roof, his momentum heavily shaking the truck, although not enough to tip it over. The driver began to stop the vehicle, a bunch of English curses, slurs and commands instantly reached his ears, and a kick opened the back door of the truck, letting out half a dozen heavily armored and armed soldiers.

Wait, English?

The rest of the plan had been executed perfectly, however. As soon as the first of the soldiers stepped out of the truck, Amadeo leaped backwards - by the time that the enemies pulled out their weapons and opened fire, he had already leaped back into the jungle canopy, submerged in the thick forestry and landing on a thick branch. Moments later, the rest of the Anticóndoristas, spread out across the jungle floor and camouflaged with leaves and moss, opened fire on the soldiers.

This was where it started to turn problematic, however.

"Maria here. These soldiers are too heavily armored, my rifle can't punch through."

Indeed, the initial salvo resulted in no enemy casualties and only took away the squad's element of surprise - the mysterious soldiers raised their weapons and fired back, spraying the jungle floor with bullets. Amadeo observed the situation, leaping from branch to branch and trying to find the best spot for a sneak attack, while also trying to put two and two together.

Speaking in English, heavily armored and armed... And they use different tactics. Instead of burning the jungle or retreating, these soldiers resolve to just gunning the attackers down...

"Amadeo here. Sergio was correct, these aren't Condor troops." the Hadrian suddenly spoke into his earpiece. Half a dozen dissenting voices immediately spoke back.

"Rodrigo here. Amadeo, explain yourself."

"Well, they-"

A modified handheld machine gun being pointed his way through the jungle canopy forced Amadeo to stop the conversation and drop from his branch - and for good reason, as a salvo of bullets suddenly burst through the leaves where he was a second ago. Instead, the Hadrian latched onto a similar one below with his tail, spinning around it like a ball on a string.

"Amadeo? Amadeo, what happene-"

The teenager in question suddenly burst of out the forestry, flying across the air with unprecedented momentum, and slammed into one of the soldiers with his claws moments before leaping back into the jungle.

"-Oh, he's fine."

At this point, the Anticóndoristas were already retreating, hastily moving away from the road to get out of the range of the enemy machine guns. A few of the resistance fighters had been wounded in non-vital areas during the firefight. The defending soldiers, on the other hand, only received one casualty, courtesy of Amadeo, and even he was not out of commission, simply wounded and dazed. It was safe to say that the ambush was a failure.

"Rodrigo here. What did you mean, Amadeo?" the Hadrian's earpiece blared to life yet again as he watched the mysterious soldiers drag their wounded ally into the truck, and, after being sure that the ambush was driven back, pack their things and drive out. Amadeo dropped down from his branch and landed on the surface of the jungle, nearly smashing a snake with his foot as he did so. Said snake let out a few hisses, but after the Hadrian gave it a hiss back, it slithered away in disgust.

"These soldiers were not wearing Ecuadorian military insignia, their armor and weaponry were too advanced for this to have been a Condor unit, and, most importantly, when I landed on that truck, I heard those soldiers talk in English." Amadeo gave a brief explanation, strolling through the jungle floor, towards the road. "It couldn't have been a Condor unit."

"Right." Rodrigo gave a laconic response.

"Sergio here. That leaves us with only a few options on what the hell this could have been. Mercenaries hired by the Condor regime, mercenaries hired by private actors, invading foreign forces."

"Gabriel here. Or all of those options at once." a new voice joined the fray - a raspy, weak one.

"No matter what this could have been, this means that there is a new actor in this conflict, and that complicates matters." Rodrigo explained. "Squad, return to headquarters immediately."

"As long as they don't ruin the plans for August, everything will be fine..." Amadeo muttered for a final addition to the conversation, and all channels soon shut down.

[Anxiety Cafe]

San Diego, the 18th

Nathan entered the parking lot of the McDonald’s quit nervous. After everything that had been going on, especially the multitude of threats Warwolf had been facing, they had been on high alert, and he couldn’t risk himself being seen. However, his distrust of the Floyd was still high, and he had no choice but to enter their meeting in his full costume.

He felt a little odd, just standing there; not to mention exposed. Now that he thought about it, anyone could just see him, including Warwolf. He needed to find a safer place, where he was hidden, but still had full view of the area. Soon after, he found himself on the roof the restaurant, laying down flat and hoping he was as invisible as he thought. Now, all he had to do was wait.

As this was happening, Floyd was also waiting - not outside, however, but inside. The swordsman, having nothing else to do to pass the time, ordered a McDonald's combo meal for one and sat down at one of the empty tables. However, Nathan just didn't seem to be coming - one minute passed, then two, then three, and the Young Blood was nowhere to be seen. Floyd was finishing his fries when this thought finally dawned on him. Did he forget to come? Not a chance, he was the one who proposed this meeting…

Or he could just be waiting outside. Maybe he’s not comfortable with visiting a crappy fast food restaurant.

Floyd couldn't fault him for that - he didn't really like McDonald's either.

Picking up his soda and regularly sipping it, the swordsman stepped out into the parking lot, looking around for a few seconds before finally witnessing the Young Blood perched on top of the restaurant.

“You know there’s seats inside, right?” Floyd spoke and took a sip of his soda. “Warwolf only patrols this area around six o’clock, we’ve got a few hours to spare. I’ll buy you some Coke.”
Nathan was sort of relieved when he saw Floyd walk out, but more embarrassed than anything. He had been wondering whether the swordsman had just decided to continue his mission alone, and had been about to leave.

How did I not see him inside?, he briefly thought, before stepping down.

“Uh, thanks.” he responded bluntly. “I, uh, wasn’t sure whether they would show up.”

The duo walked in nonchalantly, earning some strange looks due to Nathan’s costume. He passed on the coke, unwilling to take off his mask to drink, but also still unwilling to show the man his face.

“So, what’s the plan?”

Floyd took off the sword hanging on his back, placing it at the side, and sat down next to one of the tables in the restaurant, slouching on the red cushioned couch omnipresent in McDonald's joints such as this one. Planning, shmlanning… That was something alien to Floyd, but with the wildly different status quo in San Diego at the moment, life forced him to try something new.

“We’re going to need more meat shields.” the swordsman gave a laconic response, looking through the window. “If we want to rid this city of Warwolf, that is. Personally, I’m not in a rush to let go of such a good source of fights… but if they’re going to be running around eliminating heroes and villains alike, then I’ve got no choice but to put a stop to that, lest I lose everything that makes this city enjoyable. But neither one nor two people can accomplish that.”

Floyd suddenly turned his eyes towards Nathan. “You keep up with the news, right? We’re not the only people who got the bright idea of bashing some Warwolf heads.”

Nathan had, in fact, been watching the news. He was more than surprised at the amount of resistance Warwolf had been receiving, especially that one dragon man that looked very similar to Wyatt. The idea of teaming up with any of them, however, had never come to mind. Most of them seemed unnecessarily violent, and while Nathan wouldn’t shy away from violence if necessary, he wasn’t one to like it either.

“Some of those people seem to be…” he started, trying to choose his words carefully. “Of the unsavory kind.”

Not to mention, he thought. I trust them even less than you.

“Right.” Floyd stated in response. “There’s uh, if my memory serves right… A vigilante about your age with electric powers, hunting them down. A trio of unknown individuals cleaning their part of the city of any Warwolf squads. There’s that Dra’Quinni, and a guy from the Elysian Collective. I’m sure there might be some others… but these are the most notable.”

What Floyd had thought of doing was probably the most unlike him that he has been this whole week. However, the swordsman, despite sometimes acting like he has a death wish or that his superpowered nature has turned him into a sociopath, did have a reasonable amount of common sense in his head - and that common sense told him to not be dumb, not fight a PMC all on his own. Throw some meat shields in there first.

“What I’m proposing is that we should reach out of them. Form a some sort of… coalition, against Warwolf. It shouldn't be anything permanent, but for organizing a resistance against these cunts, it’ll be perfect.”

“I’ve heard about those. I honestly think our best option will be Blackout. I’ve, uh, worked with him before and he doesn’t seem as crazy as the rest,” Nathan nodded, thinking about the recent accusations. “I don’t doubt his will or ability to do what he’s been blamed for, but, well, it wouldn’t be the first time someone I know was framed.”

“Still, it would be best to approach him cautiously. Speaking of which, do you know how to do that? Approach him, I mean.”

Floyd snickered. “I’ve thought about this a little, actually - so hear me out. There’s plenty of Warwolf bases stationed across the city, right? Just like that former hospital from last time. I’ve got my sights on an another one recently - used to be a police station before being closed down due to lack of funding. If the information I’ve gathered is correct, Warwolf has bought out that building and turned it into an internment facility for various outlaws, super and mundane, which they've arrested ever since this operation began.”

Floyd suddenly stopped and took a look around to check if anyone was watching them. It sure would suck if there was someone spying on their conversation and reporting everything to Warwolf. Nothing blows more than discovering that your element of surprise has been eliminated. Thankfully, everyone seemed to be busy with their meals or chatting with others, so Floyd leaned back in, his voice quieter than normal.

“What I propose is that we raid that facility and - and I need you to follow me on this one - we stream it. Show everyone that we’re not afraid of standing up to Warwolf and that everyone is welcome to join in kicking those cunts out of this city. If Blackout, or anyone else, is truly dedicated to clobbering them, then they won't resist joining us.”

Nathan was more than excited at the suggestion, but he felt that would’ve been the opposite of cautious.

“Are you really sure that’s the best idea?” he asked hesitantly. “I have no ranged combat capability, so as soon as we go in, I’m deadweight. And as great as you are as fighting, I doubt you’d be able to hold out long enough for anyone else to arrive, if they even do. Besides, doing it so publicly would only cause Warwolf to increase their strength here in San Diego.”

Thinking about the dragon man, who Nathan was almost sure was Dra’qunni, the beginnings of an idea formed in his mind.

“I think I might have a way to get in contact with the dragon guy. Maybe Blackout. I’m not offering anything concrete, and in all likelihood I won’t be able to find them, but...I’d say we should at least let me try it before doing something so dangerous as you suggested. All I’d need is maybe a day.”

Floyd let out a slight frown. Getting shot back on his ability to take down Warwolf soldiers was far from pleasing, especially when it came from the mouth of a teenager. “Fine. Fine. If you're not confident about our chances, then I won't stop you. By all means, try to attract them before our stream. I’m going to meet you tomorrow at 6 o’clock in the evening - there is a parking lot a few houses away from their base which should be out of the range of their power suppressors. From there, we can make a basic plan of operations.”

Another glance through the restaurant to check for any prying eyes or ears. “So we’re all clear then, right?”

Nathan nodded, content at having come up with a plan, even if there was a very low likelihood he’d be able to get into contact with the Dra’qunni or Blackout. He thought maybe Renata would have some way to contact the latter, but even if she did she would have no reason to help him out, especially considering she might think he was going to try to take him down. And Wyatt might not even know the guy from his species. Still, a chance was enough to make it an option, one he found much more favorable than going against Warwolf with only Floyd’s fighting skill.
“I’ll see you then. If I can get into contact with anybody else, they’ll be there too.”
With that, he left the McDonald’s, and started back towards base.

[Indo-pasif archipelago]

Amir Zairi
Downtown, San Diego
17th July

Even with the advent of electricity and light bulbs, there are places out there where it appears as if it has isolated himself from the rest of the world. San Diego too, has such places. That one alley everyone seems to avoid, the decrepit warehouse only stoned, foolish undergrad students dare to visit, the dark lane between buildings with no lights at all. In these little patches of shadows and darkness, the last Bogeymen find their sanctuary. Away from the prying eyes, cornered from all side by Progress and Knowledge, those who once hunts humanity has now become scavengers, taking only those who accidentally walk into their territory alone and helpless.

As I walked down one of these shoddy places, I could feel the hiding gaze of these predators. The Ignoring Charm on my hat that had helped me evaded the Warwolf Guards was apparently not strong enough to shield me from the supernaturals. Not too surprised there. These creatures, after all, are familiar with the arcane and the bizarre. The glasses I wore show as much, threads of psychic connection and curtain of unfamiliar powers spread practically covers the empty lanes, hanging from one side of a building to another. Between the faint lines I could trace glimmers of these creature's psychic imprint, the threads that connect their attention to me. The predatory gaze. Cautious and hungry, signalling their readiness to pounce out from the shadow at moment's notice.

But I did not come here to fight. Even before I that battle in the island, my pop had brought me a couple times to his "jobs". Whereas the heroes and polices fight their battles under the spotlight, the Phantom Brotherhood and other practitioners fight their own battle beneath the shadows. In some sort of truce, the Brotherhood and the more reasonable members of the underworld agreed to left some places undisturbed, a neutral territory where the Bogeymen left to fight between themselves as long as they do not disturb bystanders and the innocents. Some thinks they could walk their way around this rule, and these creatures are the ones that my fathers and his colleagues hunt. This particular alley is one neutral territory here in San Diego.

Unsheating my sword, I let the runes grow with arcane light, the sigil of The Brotherhood visible to anyone looking at my direction. I was not a member, or at least not yet, but they did not know that. All they know a young man that often come with a veteran Brother had come to pay them a visit.

Some of the creatures retreated when the light hit them. Other hissed before moved to a more comfortable place before they continue their vigil. I could see an emaciated woman slithered along the emergency staircase of an apartment, writhing and hissing at the light like a snail covered in salt. The light also allowed me to see the alley more clearly: makeshift tents stood between the cracks and gaps of the building, rat-faced figures looked with curiosity from the gutter, faceless men in suit standing at the edge of the windows above.

I walked at one of the tents, a marquee made of patched satin, linen, and stretched unidentified skin. Knowing who owns the place, I'm almost certain it is human skin. The patched tarp was ragged and stained to such extent, the satin had lost any luxury vibe it used to have. Flocks of pigeons and crows crowded the entrance, and I had to swipe my sword towards them so they would open up a path for me.

Inside the "shop", if one can call it so, sat a man that appeared to be in his forties. All around him were stacks of wooden crates and little trinkets, and more pigeons and crows. The man himself wore a mismatched silk jackets, velvet tunics, and layers upon layers of clothing. His beady eyes were focused entirely on me as I walked inside the tent. The interior was not very different from its owner. Things were arranged in no particular order. Stacks of leather-bound books and magazines sat side by side with bird cages of all size and shape. Old neon sign hanged next to a painting that looks very similar to Cole's The Consummation of Empire. The same theme all over again: Mismatched combination, over-the-top elegance contrasted with urban, grimy thematics. And birds. A lot of birds.

What my father often told me about Bogeymen is that they are predictable. They always return to a type of pattern over and over again, only adapting it as needed. Like how Bloody Mary is always connected to mirrors, or how most Asian ghost is connected to black haired girl wearing white. For the Old Bran, his theme is bird.

It's not just about bird aesthetic. Like them, he collects anything from the street and brings it back to his nest. Shiny bracelet, stray papers, wild cats, lost tapes, news, memories.

If something has gone missing, Old Bran would most likely have it.

I sheathed my sword and bowed my head, showing respect and good intent within his territory. He might not be one of the crazy, mass-murdering Bogeymen, but that does not mean he is not dangerous. Nothing about the whole business was not dangerous. I was alone with no backup in the middle of a dark alley filled with the creatures that inspire nightmares and villains. It would be stupid to think I was safe even for a second.

Old Bran returned my gesture with a nod and beckoned me to sit in front of him. I walked carefully between the birds, and while the Bogeyman looked all friendly and polite, the birds around me were staring at me with murderous gaze. I knew full well that with a flick of his hands, nay, a blink from his eyes, and these beaked little demons would turn me to shreds. Trying to be polite but not daunted was hard, but I managed to sit on the wooden stool and met the Old Bran himself, his nose merely inches from my face.

"Assalamu alaikum ya ibn Salah." The Merchant greeted me. Unsurprisingly, he knew of my father, and quite possibly his roles in The Brotherhood. I was not sure if it was something advantageous or worrisome.

"Wa'alaikum salam ya Abu Tair." I replied to him as he had been called in the past. Again, I had no idea if I just honoured him and showed my knowledge to him or had I insulted him.

"What brought you here Ahl al-Nujum? I have done no ill to your kind as far as I am concerned. I certainly hope you are here for unnecessary inspection." The fact that he was worried about being inspected urged me to question him about it. His tone made sure I did not.

"I am not representing The Brotherhood in this occasion." I spoke bluntly. No need to skirt around the truth when you are talking to a being that could check if he store the truth somewhere between all these mess.

"Ah, very well." My answer relaxed him a little bit. Not enough to avert the gaze of his avian companions, but at least I no longer had to prepared an anti bird protection. "Then what purpose do you have to visit my humble demesne?"

"I want to make a deal." I pulled a plastic-wrapped heart from my bag. It was from one of the vampire killed during the San Pharmaceutical Battle, frozen to maintain its freshness. "Here is the heart of a striges." With my sword, I sliced the plastic open and showed the preserved heart to Old Man. "You must have hear about them making a move some time ago. This is a souvenir I got from one of them."

Old Man took the heart and inspect it further. His beak-like nose sniffed all over it before he gestured one of his pet crow to come and peck on the cold, black heart. He inspected it further under the light of LED lamp, before he too peck into the heart like his crow did a few seconds ago.

"It is real." He nodded with satisfaction. "So, what do you want to trade it with? An Inkborn perhaps, to be your familiar? Or maybe the lost version of Vexations, if that is what you are into?"

"I am not currently interested in forming a Pactum Famuli or the works of Satie," I refused his suggestion as politely as I could. I stood up from my chair, walked towards a pile of assorted staffs. "I am however," Among those staffs was a brass staff with ornate decorations. I took it and showed the staff to Old Bran. "Interested in this little trinket here." I let the staff flat on top of the table, bathing it under the bright neon light.

It is as long as most type of halberd, although it lacked the metal blade. Its length is adorned with gorgeous art that seems to be painted into the metal itself, much like how Damascus steel's pattern melts into the blade itself. At each tip of the rod a metal carving in the shape of the dragon head, the style does not exactly and conform to any one school of art recognized in human history. Old Bran looked at the staff, frowning as if he was trying to remember what the object was.

"You want the Dra'Qunni Glaive." He looked confused at the fact, and tried to see if he had missed something from his observation on me. "You do aware that only Dra'Qunni magic could activate it, don't you?"

It seemed that his knowledge on me is imperfect. I put on my best poker face at him in return. "All magic ultimately works the same way. I just need some... Resources to use it." I had no idea if I could actually do it. Any knowledge regarding the Draconian species are sparse and few in number. Wyatt could certainly help me in that research, but that was not the reason I bought this relic.

"I have my own reasons to buy this staff, and this is not the sole purpose for my visit." I reached inside my bag and pulled out a glass jar with red, marble-like balls glowing softly inside it. The Merchant's eyes reacted to it very subtly, but I could sense the greed that was building up behind his beady eyes. "I need some information. Whispers on the street, rumors, whatever. I'll trade these Bloodstones for any insight you have on Warwolf."

Old Bran's face turned sour at the mention of Warwolf. "Those irrumatores!" The crows and pigeons were also visibly upset. I was not very surprised. I researched about them after they start the occupation over San Diego, and while there are not many information floating around the internet about them, those few that exist all tell the same story. Warwolf Internationnal is a paramilitary group with a pretty racist behaviour towards the "non-normals". Superhumans, aliens, mages. They do not care if you are a hero or a villain. They only care if you're fitting to their version of normalcy or not. Their recent actions must have disturbed the life of these Bogeymen.

"What purpose would you have with these knowledge? A mage should understand that Knowledge is Power, Power corrupts, and Knowledge of the corrupted often brings Corruption to those who have it." The Merchant's gaze had now turned into one of rage. He still acted very calmly, save for the swearing, but the hatred in the air was so thick I could almost taste it.

"What other purpose would I have, other than to fend them off? I too distaste them and their barbaric ways. In this, we both share a common cause." I moved the Bloodstone-in-a-jar closer to him. "I am sure that fact along with this payments could sway you to aid me."

A moment of silence hung in the air until Old Bran broke it himself. "Fine," he told me with the faintest bit of disdain. "I'll give you what you need. But if you ever use this Knowledge against us, don't you ever expect hospitality from me or other citizens of The Alley. You understand Amir Zairi ibn Salah Zairi?" I quickly nodded at him. It's not like I was planning to fight a war against the entire Underworld anyway. All I need was an edge against the Warwolf, and hopefully this deal with the devil could give me exactly what I need.

A raven suddenly flew from his hand and went deep into the piles of trashes and treasures. After a minute or so it returned with a red bag hanging from its beak. Old Bran took the bag and reached for something inside it. I wondered what it might be, a stolen glance perhaps? Or maybe a forgotten memory?

"A flashdisk?" I asked him, quite confused. He only grinned in response.

"Just because we are ancient does not mean we are not able to keep up with the technology. I am the hoarder of all things lost and forgotten, and lucky for you ahl al-nujum, someone in a certain file was deleted from a particular computer last night." He threw the USB at me and I caught it with my hands. "Take your Bloodstones with you. If you hold on to your promise, getting rid of those parasites would be payment enough. Now go, human. Our business is over."

Before I could talk or act, I already found myself out of the Alley, back to the busy streets and gleaming lights of San Diego. I looked for the flashdisk and found it inside my front pocket, while the Dra'Qunni Glaive was safe inside my bag. Damn, he had done something to me, and I did not know what. My fault for letting my guard down, but luckily I was safe and did not have to deal with fighting some monster on my way out of the alley.

Now, all I got to do is to give Wyatt his late birthday present and find out what is the content of this flashdisk.

[Turmenista]

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

Keith only just gave a sigh of annoyance as Johnny and his pal convened once again to discuss their plan of action of taking him on. He shook his head, then felt something wet dripping down from his nostrils. Blood stained the top of his shoe and he immediately drew his right hand to his nose to wipe the blood away, muttering under his breath about the unfortunate and adverse side effect of his uncontrollable powers, as well as the fact that both of his opponents were still intact.

While he did so, he also had time to think about the possible outcome of this battle. While it seemed to be a rather one sided fight towards the beginning both Floyd and Johnny had both stepped it up tremendously, turning this from a 1 and a half versus one to a proper 1 versus 2. They had the numerical advantage over him and Floyd had the skills to definitely pull his weight should his speedy partner go down, but Johnny was unbelievably immature and didn’t know how to handle his powers to their fullest like Floyd could. Despite this, the speedster could easily prove to be an even match for him if he so much as had an ounce of intelligence and strategy in his tactics aside from relying on his speed every time. His agility was dangerous, if applied correctly, and could easily prove to be problematic for an uncontrolled power like Keith’s telekinetic force manipulation, which relied on an almost direct line of sight on the target for controlled and maximum damage. Otherwise, a telekinetic blast with no target would probably decimate him, but also Floyd, the road, and any building unfortunate enough to be in his way.

Floyd, on the other hand, was too dangerous in close quarters, sword included. Right now, his plan involved keeping a distance between himself and the swordsman, whilst making sure that Johnny was always within his sight and not trying to hit at him with any crazy angles. For all he cared, the speedster seemed to be getting faster, needing less room to reach speeds that only high powered supercars could dream of in seconds.

This is turning out to be a colossal waste of my time and energy. If I keep fighting like this, using these AoE attacks when I can’t see ‘em, I’ll be burnt out.

I need to get home quick and do this ritual. Hopefully Clara can help me buy enough time to escape. But how..?

His mind went back to a memory he had of the Weirdo Clique’s early escapades, involving the accidental summoning of a bone golem by Gabriel, in his usual efforts to one-up people — in that case, Clara’s mastery of Chaos Magic. This gave him an idea...

He pulled out his phone while the two misfits were busy talking amongst each other and began texting Clara.

[K:] Hey
hey clara
I need you again for a second plz

[C:] needy again it seems.

[K:] NO
Do you know that one crazy spell gabe did when he made that homunculus from his bones
what name and hand motion
need something to buy me some time and get home im still fighting these knuckleheads out here

[C:] say “Nihilis Vita Germinatis”
the target object lifts up, then u clench fists and spread ur arms out like ur ripping open the target.
just make sure its something u own like gabe did w his bones
and make sure u can kill it if it gets out of hand cause once you do this its active until it dies
otherwise ull make something thatll try to kill everyone in sight if u do something like a rock
morbidly curious question, why do u need that one in particular?



[C:] keith?

Meanwhile, Johnny placed his hands on his hips and grunted, watching Keith use his phone as if he was bored by the fighting. What a prick.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, Floyd. Alright. Maybe I underestimated Keith just a little bit, thought we both didn’t stand a chance against him, but, yeah, maybe I’m wrong,” Johnny glowered at his partner before returning to the approaching Keith. “Maybe we can beat him. Here’s how.”

Turning to Floyd, Johnny moved up close to him as if he were in a huddle on a sports team. “So, when I was busy trying not to die from Keith’s invisible slams up close I noticed he was looking at me every time I went up close. You probably saw that too. Now, I’m no idiot but at the same time it doesn’t take a genius brain to put one and two together and figure out that he relies on line of sight for his powers. Now there’s good news and bad news that comes from this: The good news is that if he isn’t looking at us, he can’t hit us! The bad news is… he might actually hit us, but indirectly, and pretty much level anything around him. We need to be quick and powerful in our strikes, and we have both of that.”

Summing up his plan for dramatic effect, Johnny clasped his hands together. “The plan’s simple. We hit him all at once and from multiple sides. He can’t hit the both of us if he can’t see us. Sound simple?”

Before Floyd had a chance to reply, Johnny stepped forward, as usual. “Good, cause I’m making the first move. Try to keep u—”

“Nihilis Vita Germinatis!” Came Keith’s voice booming from the other side of the street in some unknown language neither of them knew. A collected, penny-sized mass of Keith’s blood floated in front of him, then turned into pure red light once Keith clasped his fists together and seemingly ripped the mass in two. The resulting spell transformed the drops of blood into a coagulated amalgamation of a red, stone-like substance, exponentially growing in size and eventually taking the form of a vaguely humanoid golem, towering a couple feet well over the two.

Johnny looked at the thing in shock and disgust, narrowing his eyes at Keith. “What the hell is that?!”

He took off from Floyd’s side, accelerating down the road as the monster swung a fist down at the speedster, missing. Weaving past it, Johnny ran up to Keith and swung, his fist connecting with a loud clap, followed by another, and another, and —

WHUMP

Keith blasted Johnny away and blasted away himself, exiting sight as Johnny slid back underneath the legs of the monster, which prepared to stomp him to no avail. Outside of their fight, a noise akin to a sonic boom was heard, presumably Keith using his powerful telekinesis to physically blast himself away from the fight, leaving them to the mercy of the creature he had just summoned.

What a prick.

---

The clique waited by the van at the entrance of Keter’s house, killing time in any way they could as they awaited their leader’s arrival.

Gabriel, in particular, spun a decorative dagger around in his fingers, the elongated, bony protrusions from his hands tapping against the gate’s windows, much to the annoyance of Thelma.

“Stop it.”

Gabriel sneered. “Make me.”

“Bet your ass I can turn your bones into marrow in under a minute.”

“Aw, but Keter wouldn’t be pleased by that, would he?” Gabriel folded his arms and put away the dagger. “I bet he’d do that to you in under a second.”

“I will literally bring a comet down on your ass, crab-boy.” Thelma threatened, the two backing off from their clash of words after Thelma’s verbal dick-down. “That is true, and I don’t want a moon to be thrown at me.”

Speaking of the moon, once Clara herself looked up from her phone and at the moon, she distinguished an approaching black speck in her vision, then stepped aside as the object landed a few feet away from them with a great crash. A veritable crater formed at the object’s feet from the telekinetic cushioning, with Keith stepping aside from the ensuing cloud of ash and approached his team.

“Y’know, you could’ve called for backup,” Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I coulda taken Swift and the sword guy.”

Thelma couldn’t help but chime in a joke. “You say that, but then watch yourself put yourself back together when the sword guy cuts you apart.”

“Fuck you, you prawn-looking mo-”

“I didn’t need backup,” Keith dryly said. “I gave them a homunculus to fight, made out of my blood. That should keep them busy enough for us to do our ritual.”

Clara sighed in relief. “Good. It’s about time we did this.”

[Finland SSR]

Johnny Swift/Keith Westwoods

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

"Bloody 'ell, Johnny, that looks like a giant golem made out of Keith's blood to me, what else do you think this could be? Some bloke from downtown Liverpool?" Floyd exclaimed at Johnny right after his 'what the hell is that' comment, eyeing down the giant golem with one eye and rolling at the sight of Johnny running off on his own yet again with the other. He was the one who made up the plan of attacking together to take advantage of Keith's blind spots and necessity for clear line of sight, and yet, when the matter comes, he doesn't even coordinate his charge with Floyd and just rushes in on his own? What the hell is planning to him supposed to be, then? A coffee break?

The eye rolling went to its maximum when Keith fucked off regardless, even though he wouldn't have had any trouble smearing Johnny across the asphalt, instead leaving the fighting done to the loose congregation of red rocks which you could maybe call a "humanoid" if you were shitfaced drunk and couldn't see clearly past your forehead. It was threatening to stomp on the speedster and turn him into mush, too. Starting off on a high note, lovely. Floyd decided to not bother with immediately pulling away the kid from the danger zone - how else will he learn? - and instead rushed forward, sword in his right hand, and focused his enhanced eyesight on the golem.

It's too bad we don't have any reliable ranged options among us, that's the best counter to hulks and golems like these. But fuck that, anyway, ranged combat sucks balls. Knowing this bugger's weight, the best strategy now would be to... make sure he loses balance.

Thankfully, now that the golem was trying to stomp Johnny, it was doing Floyd's work for him - by constantly raising its foot and thus balancing on the other one, it was constantly sacrificing balance.

Floyd's attack was a simple two-step program - first, rush up to the golem and grab onto its arm, tugging it away from its center of mass while it was still trying to stomp Johnny; second, use your eyesight to find the weakest point in the golem's leg, this being a series of cracks and gaps between rocks in its "lower leg", then stab your sword at it and twist it to try to break off parts of the leg and further destabilize the whole structure.

[The Rebel Alliances]

Alexis Cain/Vendetta-Chinese Triad Bank, San Diego

Today was the day. Finally we are going to take the first strike against one of the most powerful forces of corruption in this city. I arrived shortly before the rest of my team would. Moving up to the top of a building where I would put on my new uniform or armor. The set which Chris gifted me with. I did this as my ears were pleasured with the sounds of Black Vultures from Halestorm, delivered via ear pieces which I unfortunately had to remove when it came time to place my helmet to my head and have the music taken away and replaced with a connection to Neo. With my wardrobe updated for the job, I opened up the other tote bag I had carried up and revealed a AK-47, a weapon I was starting to take a real liking to. In this little heist, I am playing the part of cover in case my team needs it. Positioned in a heightened position and with a great view of the bank and the adorning streets.

I had pondered bringing a actual sniper rifle for this, but I still need to get the hang of using one and frankly the range for this op is not great enough to warrant it anyways. The AK will be fine and with the HUD in my new helmet it should improve my accuracy a bit.

Aside from the AK, I also brought along a combat knife, grenades, smoke grenades, extra ammunition and a .45 revolver. I had been wanting to try that one, but even so this may not be the op for it. As I checked over my ammunition and supplies I kept a look out for any WW patrols and thought on my conversation with Brianna last night.

She was absolutely right. I never gave a thought to not having powers when I killed David Aims that night. I just did what I had to do to see justice done to an evil man. Consequences be damned. And now I owe it to those who have decided to follow me to follow through. I will be sure to thank her for that when I see her again.

"The team should be arriving in the van any moment. Are you ready Vendetta?"

"You know it." I chimed off in a cool tone.

"The question was rhetorical. Besides, it would not have changed anything if you said 'no'. Still have a job to do. So, stealing from the criminals and corrupt...that make us Robin Hood now?" Nick teased slightly. I smiled beneath the helmet.

"Actually may not be too far off there. If I recall correctly, he was a outlaw too. And the people loved him." I could almost see Nick smile as he lit another cigarette on the other end of the line.

"Any chance we will get the same reception?"

"Not at all Neo, the people in our world already have their heroes. They wear tights and look better on tv than we do. Can you patch me through to Brianna? Time to get this show on the road."

"No problem, and....your connected." With that I detailed what I was observing to Brianna.

"Shield Maiden, from where I stand there are at least four armed guards in the bank. Most likely carrying concealed weapons. Probably 9mms. The guys must be guards, they are total stiffs and observing anyone walking in the door. Also, the sidewalks are not that busy at this hour, but still have several people moving back and forth. So if you can take them out quickly the better, don't want people caught in the crossfire unnecessarily. I cannot see too much deeper inside the bank though...hold up a sec..."

A very tinted SUV pulled up and a older chinese an, probably early 40s or so stepped out. Escorted by two more men, again also likely armed. I got a clear view of the man with my HUD.

"Neo, can you ID this fuck?"

Of course, give me a sec." I watched him step into the bank as Nick battled away with his keyboard. Before speaking up again.

"The man is a one Peng Zhu a high ranking boss known to reside in Hong Kong, I guess he is visiting to see how Triads operations are going in San Diego. Taking him out as well as making off with their money would send a strong message."

"Indeed. Shield Maiden. I am adding on a target, this Zoo fuck. Kill him either on the way in or out I don't care. He brought along a few extra guns but should be nothing that you cannot handle. And make damn sure these gangsters think the Russians did this. If he happens to get away from you on the way in, I will be sure to gun him down on the way out. But I would rather not expose myself unless absolutely needed. After all, I do not have a van for an evac plan. Vendetta out." With everyone in position, all that was left to do was wait until gun smoke was in the air.