Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

---

---

Ugh... why the hell does this always happen? Thought a pained Alexis as she groaned, trying to move away from the boulder, to no avail. Though her force field had absorbed most of the impact, some momentum still carried through, causing quite a bit of pain but not harming her otherwise. Quickly growing exasperated by her inability to move away or push off the boulder pinning her to the ground, the blonde girl had half a mind to either blast it away or blow it up with her remaining spare power cell, but before she had to resort to that, someone ran over to help her out.

"Yeah, of course I'm fine!" The tech wizard cried out defensively as she shoved aside the smaller stone that now covered her, comparatively less heavy and easier to handle than the whole giant rock that she had been hit with. Now finding herself free, she looked at Stella and took a deep breath. "I... sorry. Thanks for helping." She mumbled afterwards, looking at the ground for a moment before shaking her head. This isn't the time to feel blue!

Looking back, she saw a battle already raging. Casimir had just struck one of the stone monsters' heads, causing it to stumble back slightly and creating several cracks in its head, though it didn't seem to cause any more damage; Amir, meanwhile was using magic to keep the other in check, and-

"What the HELL?!" Alexis shouted as she saw Elle of all people, someone who hadn't even headed down with the rest of the crew, pulled out not just a rocket launcher, but a quadruple rocket launcher, and shot it at one of the two monsters. Nearly panicking, the blonde girl extended her hands towards her two teammates, pulling them back towards her right before the rockets struck, sparing them from the explosion.

Stopping her traction modules just before Amir and Casimir crashed into her, Alexis turned to glare at Elle. "Shooting four god damn rockets into a tight hallway where two of your teammates are fighting, really?! Did you lose your freaking marbles?!" She shouted, before turning back to the hallway as she saw something flying towards her. As it turned out, Elle's rockets, while not incredibly effective, did succeed in dislodging part of the chained creature's arm from the rest of its body... a chance that its teammate took to kick the stone towards the Young Bloods, aiming to score four kills instead of one.

Oh, hell no. Thought Alexis as she reared back her hand, the orb on the palm of her gauntlet beginning to glow brightly. Before the boulder hit, she sent her arm forward, her gauntlet sending out a powerful wave of repulsion just as it touched the boulder, causing it to shatter into hundreds of tinier rocks which pelted the group harmlessly.

"Yeah!" The blonde girl cried out in triumph, though after a moment she noticed the beeping noise in her head and the blinking icon of an empty juice box at the corner of her view, courtesy of her (now badly cracked) visor. "Wait... shit." She mumbled, attempting to use some of her right gauntlet's functions, only for it to fail miserably to do anything.

"Uh..." The tech heroine looked up at the looming rock creatures and gulped.

[Finland SSR]

Casimir Herman

Amir Zairi
Underneath the Wonder Foundation

Shadowkill
Underneath the Wonder Foundation

Alexis

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Phew. Phew. In all meanings of the word. Alexis wasn't turned to mush, and besides acting a little too hostile, she was fine, not even wounded. Which was honestly kinda odd - sure, there was a force field around her which protected her from any deep wounds or, God forbid, limb loss, but even when you're protected by one, there's still knockback to keep note of, right? That was a heavy and fast-moving boulder and Alexis is no superhuman, at least not on, say, Casimir's level of durability, so shouldn't she have been left more wounded?

Well, whatever. She's okay, that's all that really matters.

What was not okay is the fight which had been happening around them, which had turned into complete chaos. Kabuto and Wondermaker were the first to charge, the former lunging right at one of the rock monsters despite looking like a train collision victim, while the latter distracted the other with a magic shotgun and chains. Then suddenly Elle shows up - God knows what she has been doing this entire fight, this was the first time Renata saw her involved outside of the evacuation procedure - and pulls out a god damn quadruple barrel rocket launcher, ignoring the nearly half a dozen squishy teenagers nearby and firing all four rockets straight at the rock monsters.

If it weren't for Alexis pulling Casimir and Amir away, the fragmentation would have probably left them both looking like bloody spaghetti. Not that Elle really seemed to care.

And all it did was dislocate one of the rock monsters' arms, which it happily kicked right at them. This time, it was Alexis who stepped up to save everyone else, using her gauntlets to take out the incoming projectile and turn it into a cloud of dust and pieces of gravel, both harmless, however, the beeping sound from Alexis's visor and an "uh" which slipped from her mouth indicated that it was the last they're going to see of that.

Which also meant that the only option for healing which Renata knew this group had, this being the healing function in Alexis's gauntlets, was now gone. And if these people continue rushing forward without a plan and without any recovery, they're all just going to die. Simple as that.

No thanks.

Alright, that's it, I'm taking charge of the operation.

"Kabuto, you dimwit, stop rushing into battle at this condition! Shadowkill, don't fucking nuke the room we're in, please! Everyone calm down!" Renata explained, not even realizing that she had just lost her cool to the point where she relied on an F-bomb to convey her dissatisfaction. With the first demands laid down, the heroine turned her eyes towards the two menacing rock monsters. "Look... These things are clearly made of tougher material than any of us can easily just punch through - however, their structure is humanoid, so their design can be exploited to dispatch of them or at least make them unable to move. For example, if we were to take out specific joints, especially whatever constitutes for their knees. Since when Elle popped off a piece of its arm, that rock monster couldn't just rebuild that arm and its friend kicked it instead," Renata pointed towards the two monsters to illustrate her point. "means that they have no regeneration and would lose their legs for good if we cut them off."

A lot of the plan which built up in Renata's mind was based on guesswork and assumptions, but the heroine wholeheartedly believed that it was better than just rushing in with no plan.

"Chicle, restrain Kabuto! You're the only person whom he could even listen to at this point!" Renata began relaying orders. "Shadowkill, Wondermaker, if any one of you have a way of patching him up, use it immediately! We'll need him!"

Out of their team, those two were the only people Renata assumed could even have anything in store for that. Elle has a whole arsenal in some pocket dimension of hers, right? Maybe it also holds a bag of first aid equipment or something. And Amir was a mage, maybe he has a healing rune of some sorts. Again, it's just guesses and assumptions, but at this point, it was the only thing Renata had. That and desperation.

"Makeshift, I'm not going to ask you to try to get close to one of the monsters and use your power cell, or whatever you used on that door, to blow their kneecaps off, but if you think you can pull it off without dying, go for it," the heroine then spoke towards Alexis, turning her eyes towards the blonde mechanic for a second before focusing on the rock monsters once again. "I was personally thinking of trying to heat up their joints from the distance with a laser to have their structure lose cohesion and thus watch them collapse... but I'm not sure how viable that is. They're not going to just stand and watch."

Or, if Amir has a some sort of freezing spell, we could pull a sort of heat-cold alternation which pops rock in an instant. Assuming he can even do that.

"Unless you want to play distraction."

[Bentus]

Yoshiro
San Diego

---

Ignoring the fatigue in her muscles from the fight, Yoshiro forced her legs to pump as fast as they could to close the distance between her and the encased villain. She could feel a sense of panic rising in her chest as the crack in the icy prison continued to grow faster and faster. At this rate, there was no way that she was going to make it there in time, and it seemed as if most of the team had already let their guard down. He was going to break out, and then everyone standing around him - Roy, Pitch, Blackout - would be taken by surprise. And what am I going to do when he gets out? I’ll be right there beside them too. Yoshiro didn’t have super strength, she couldn’t dodge a bus as it was hurled towards her, but it was too late to hesitate now.

“HOLD ON YOSHI, I GOT YOU!”

Hearing her real name yelled out across the courtyard, Yoshiro glanced over to see Carter shooting through the air towards Beast. Extending his arms with a look of determination on his features, the Young Blood gritted his teeth as he began to concentrate on the growing crack.

Wait, Carter - you’re too close! If he breaks out now then you won’t be able to get out of the way in time… Yoshiro felt her stomach twist as Carter crouched right in front of the trapped villain, her mind already picturing how vulnerable he was in that position. But, she cut off her warning as she saw the crack’s expansion suddenly begin to slow. He was doing it! Whatever that air-head was doing, it was working. Furrowing her brow with determination, and drawing on a reserve of energy that she didn’t know that she had, Yoshiro pushed herself to sprint even faster. Reaching out with one of her arms as the imprisoned Beast loomed large before her, she began to focus on the villain’s faint aura. If Carter was giving it his all, then she would too.

The dull pulsing of the villain’s thoughts, his muted emotions, was tangible in the air. Yoshiro’s fingertips were mere inches away from the icy prison, a brief second away from making contact and giving her a physical connection to his mind, when the clinking sound of the metal canister impacting the contact echoed from nearby.

“LOOK OUT!”

A bright flash enveloped Yoshiro’s vision, the blinding light suddenly flooding her eyes as she let opened her mouth in surprise. But before she could even utter a sound, the soundwave of the flashbang’s detonation struck her eardrums. It was the loudest sound that the telepath had ever heard, and it felt as if a physical hammer had been driven into the side of her skull. Squeezing her eyes shut in a desperate effort to block out the increasingly bright light, the flash steadily becoming painful to watch, Yoshiro stumbled on a broken piece of concrete.

The world slowed down around her as she felt herself begin to fall. Blind and deaf, she felt her fingers brush against something cold and slippery as her body headed inexorably towards the ground. A small part of her realised with a sickening certainty that she had just missed her chance, that now her hand was heading away from Beast. Unable to see the world around her, Yoshiro never saw the ground rushing up until it struck the back of her head, sending a sharp explosion of pain shooting through her nerves to join the growing cacophony from the flashbang. Dazed, Yoshiro’s eyes flickered open to see the starless sky above San Diego looking down on her. She couldn’t tell if the ringing in her ears was due to the detonation or from hitting her head, but she just wanted the pounding in her head to stop. Wincing, the telepath glanced to her side to see Blackout racing towards Pitch, although Yoshiro’s brow furrowed as she realised that she couldn’t hear any of his words despite his mouth visibly moving. Everything was muffled and faint, causing the girl to feel like she was half-a-world away from the battlefield rather than lying in the middle of it. Suddenly, an unknown, feminine voice pierced through the veil.

“Le marionette te salue.”

Squinting up at the unrecognisable silhouette above her, Yoshiro couldn’t quite make sense of the words. It sounded like gibberish in her head, her disoriented mind unwilling to put in the effort to comprehend the sentence or to interpret its meaning. She felt a cold hand press against her neck, the cool sensation feeling nice as it chased off the booming headache that continued to pound within her skull. The telepath smiled at the woman, it was probably Kiris speaking in her native tongue. Opening her mouth to thank the figure and to explain that she was ok, Yoshiro never go the chance to utter another word.

The girl winced as she felt a sharp sting in her neck, like a bug bite or a bee. Scowling, she was about to curse her luck when her eyes suddenly shot wide open. A stab suddenly shot out of her neck, the entire world freezing around her as the sensation spread like fire down her spine and throughout all of her limbs. Yoshiro’s eyes widened stunned surprise as she felt like her entire body was suddenly aflame. At first it was difficult to describe the sensation. Her mind had never been forced to interpret a feeling quite like it before, the animalistic nerve endings and chemistry of the human physiology not having evolved to understand the sensation of being mentally overwhelmed. In the end, after a split-second of consideration, Yoshiro’s subconscious decided to interpret the feeling as pain. Mind-numbing, excruciating pain.

Lying on the floor by the still-imprisoned Beast, Yoshiro’s jaw dropped. Even as no words escaped from her throat, a piercing mental scream echoed out from her thoughts, the shriek clawing at the minds of those around her for a brief instant, before any feeling of a telepathic link, any sensation of Yoshiro communicating with the team, simply stopped.

---

Blinking her eyes open, Yoshiro was looking up to see her hands gripping onto what looked like a ledge of some kind. Confused, the telepath glanced down only to let out a cry of surprise at the mammoth, dark abyss that stared back at her from below. Panicking, she immediately tightened her grip as she dangled over the cliff, clawing desperately at the icy snow as she ignored the painful chill that sunk into her unprotected fingers. Breathing heavily, and feeling her heart pounding, Yoshiro tried to force herself to calm down. Think. Where was she? What was the last thing that she remembered? A chilling breeze brushed by her body as she dangled over the pit, the cold wind sending a shiver down her spine as condensation from her breath formed a white cloud in front of her mouth.

They had been at the Wonder Foundation, fighting the Cabal. Some of the team had gone inside to find the rest of the villains but she had stayed back to help combat Beast. Angelica had managed to encapsulate him within her ice, but Yoshi had realised that he was breaking out and she had tried to run towards him when...there was a flash? The memory quickly became hazy at that point. Something about this place is familiar.

Ignoring the thought, Yoshiro tried to concentrate on her memory. She had been disoriented by the grenade, and she had fallen. Which meant that she hadn’t been able to help the team with Beast. And then, someone had approached her, right? It had been Kiris, coming to help her, to probably take her to safety before the villain was able to break free. Why do I feel like I’ve been here before?

Pausing, Yoshi furrowed her brow as she tried to make sense of the memory, forcing herself to concentrate despite the growing fatigue in her arms. Wait, that didn’t make sense, did it? Kiris was with Red and the others at the Hilton fighting Marionette. What would she have been doing at the Wonder Foundation all of a sudden?

“Le marionette te salue.”

Suddenly, Yoshiro’s eyes shot open as she recalled the phrase. In an instant, she realised where she remembered this place from. Back then she hadn’t seen it from this angle, but she had stood on the ledge as Red had desperately clung to the cliff. She remembered his fingers slipping before she reached out to grab his hand, pulling him up before she turned around to see…

With a sickening feeling in her heart, Yoshiro slowly moved her head to once again look upwards to the cliff above her. She felt fear stab into her chest like a stake as she was greeted by her face staring smugly back down at her. The doppelganger stood with one of her arms on her hips, a Scarab tattoo visible on the back of her hand.

“P-please, help me up.” Yoshiro pleaded, her teeth chattering the icy chill. “I can’t keep holding on like this.” She could feel a fatigue beginning to gnaw at her limbs, the cold working inexorably to sap her strength. However, her words seemed to only cause the other girl’s smile to widen.

“For what? For you to wake up and tell all of your friends about me, to figure out how to get rid of me?” The Scarab rolled her eyes. “Really, how stupid do you think I am. I’ve got a much better idea.” Lifting one of her feet, the Scarab brought it down firmly on one of Yoshiro’s hands, causing her to cry out in pain as her fingers were crushed by the other girl’s heel. Holding her foot in place for a few moments, the Scarab eventually moved it away to allow Yoshiro’s hand to swing down by her side, unable to continue helping to support her weight.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to do! Maybe they could help both of us, ok?” Yoshiro was becoming increasingly desperate, the one hand which continued to hold onto the ledge beginning to slip so that fewer and fewer fingers had a firm purchase. The Scarab couldn’t help but chuckle at the proposal, crouching down on the ledge so that she could look straight into Yoshiro’s eyes.

“And you expect me to trust you? Please, I’ve been in your head, it’s embarrassing to see you trying to lie to me. Besides, I’ve been cooped up in the back of your mind for way too long.” Reaching down, the Scarab grasped onto the telepath’s fingers, a menacing smile spreading across her features as Yoshiro could only look on helplessly. “I think it’s about time that I got a go at the driver’s seat.”

“Wait, you can’t - !“

And with that, the Scarab pulled open Yoshiro’s fingers and pushed her hand away from the cliff.

[Confederation of the Equator]

[minecraft villager sound]

[Absolon-7]

Shadowkill

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

Alexis

Viviana Couture July 23rd
Soon enough Alexis and Amir had arrived down the hole to join up with the trio already down there while they talked she kept to herself as she felt she didn't have anything to contribute at the moment. Plus Casimir looked like he was going to fall over any second. Sorta like any building in California. The wizard among them guided the squad through a long foreboding hallway which they walked along. Before they knew it they had arrived to some large foreboding doors. I believe that this is what they call an obstacle, she sarcastically thought to herself. Alexis had the good idea of blowing them up. Viviana joined the others in hiding behind the last corner to avoid the blast. She hunched over and clasped her ears with her palms. Shutting her eyes she waited through the tremendous explosion rocking the building.

Opening her eyes she saw Alexis bounce over to the other side before immediately being thrown back and trapped under an enormous boulder. Turning her head she saw two stone creatures guarding the hallway and by the looks of them they were real nasty critters. She stood with her mouth agape and barely being able to utter a word. All the meanwhile Casimir was the first to attack the creatures and followed up with Amir. And she just stood there. Whether it was because of fear or shock she didn't know but she stood there nearly trembling.

"Chicle, go help Makeshift! Me and your boyfriend will buy you some time!"

Luckily, Amir broke her out of the state and gave her an action to do. "Gotcha! I'll be there lickety split!," she affirmed unconsciously grateful for avoiding fighting them. Although by the looks of it Renata had freed the dainty blonde who shortly broke out a swear to something behind Viviana. Turning she saw that another Young Blood who hadn't been with them had arrived and shot a QUADRUPLE BAZOOKA RIGHT WHERE CASIMIR WAS FIGHTING! Didn't those things have a crazy blast radius? "You almost blew up, Kabuto and Wondermaker, geez," said Viviana to the newcomer.

Good thing Alexis pulled both back in time with her gauntlet power but that large chunk of rock flying at the group wasn't very pleasant of a surprise. Once everyone was together Renata stood up as leader and gave out orders to everyone. And Viviana perked up once she was given something to do. In this case, restrain Casimir.

"Alrighty!," affirmed Viviana with her arms rapidly shooting out and warping themselves around Casimr from chest to knee, "Sorry, Casiboy. What the boss wants the boss gets." With the last words she gave a little wink for emphasis tilting her head to the side.

Casimir Herman July 23rd
Just as he had predicted, not using his full power had less than stellar results but useful results never the less. As Kabuto came back down to the floor after the large impact of his fist against the rock creature's face, he began to squat down to power another jab at the weakened spot. But as he was midair he suddenly felt a tugging sensation that swiftly pulled him back and as he traveled backwards he spotted four goddamn missiles heading the opposite way to where he once was. He stopped midair just as suddenly as he was first pulled and landed on his feet. He only got more confused one he started hearing an angry Alexis scolding Elle. Wait...the hell did I miss? He was thankful for the ranged backup in Elle and more so for Alexis being unharmed but now he was grateful his internal rage from earlier was internal. Would have been awkward if he vocalized anything.

At that moment his fly sense activated and turning around he saw the scorched boulder like arms of the creatures flying right at them all! He didn't even have a chance to swear before Alexis turn to save them all came up and with her gauntlets disintegrated the rock now only a bunch of harmless pebbles that merely bounced off his helmet. "Kurwa, that all came out of nowhere," grumbled Casimir before greeting Elle, "Sup, Shadowkill."

Speaking out of nowhere, Renata took the reins of leadership and began barking orders to the rest of them. Who the hell does she think she is? No one tells Kabuto what to do. And it wasn't like he would have choice in the matter as Viviana complied with Renata's order of restraining him. Her rubber arms coiled around him and firmly clenched his torso and all the way down to his knees. The plus side was Renata gave Amir to heal him and he still felt guilty, even if he didn't want to admit it, about letting the moth girl attack Renata earlier. The least he could to was comply. A cohesive hive is a happy hive after all, thought Casimir. Another good thing was there wasn't any blood sloshing around in his helmet so his skin must have reabsorbed it. Letting out a tired sigh Casimir said, "Hey Wondermaker, just give me any sort of healing. Preferably something that helps with internal injuries."

[Auropa]

Shadowkill

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

Alexis

Casimir and Viviana

Mike Mathews
Wonder Foundation (not-so-secret secret labs)

Confused, angry and a little lost, were all words that could describe Mike as he made his way deeper into the Wonder Facility. With all the chaos outside, the rushed evacuation and Warwolf’s makeshift defences, it was easy for him to get further into the facility and even easier to find a path leading to the lower levels. It hadn’t been long since he started descending but he had already begun to loose count of how many floors he had passed and while he didn’t know much about the building, he figured that that there wasn’t meant to be some secret underground complex. What really bothered him though, was that considering how easy it was for him to get in, ‘how easy would it be for the Cabal to sneak in?’. As he kept moving forward, all thoughts about leaving went away, ‘sure’ he figured ‘this isn’t exactly what anyone would call smart, safe or even thought-through. But stuff from a secret lab had to be one of the last things anyone would want a group like the Cabal having.’

For a short while the building seemed almost peacefully still, ‘calm before a storm, sure, but its still nice to have some peace’ Mike decided as he made his way down another hallway. The one problem with a bit of quiet time though, was that there wasn’t much Mike could do other than think. He worried about the team still fighting above ground and about how they’d take on that behemoth of a fighter. Last he saw, Roy was taking it on as Carter moved in to help. Part of him regretted not running into the fray to help too but without his gear and comms he figured he’d be less than useless. Scratching his head in frustration, Mike tried to calm down, though he couldn’t deny that he really, really wished he had his communicator with him. Knowing that people knew where you were was a comfort he didn’t realise he had been taking for granted, plus being able to plan instead of move around blindly was nice touch. Either way, he was here now. He’d find out if anything was happening, put a stop to it then… improvise. “This is by far the worst plan I’ve ever had” he muttered to himself as he walked.

The moment the words left his mouth though, the whole building seemed to shake as the sound of an all too close explosion rippled out from nearby. ‘Alright, back in we go’ and without hesitation, Mike dashed towards the source of the noise. From how it sounded, it had to be close. A few moments later and another impact shook the building, this time it felt like it was from just around the corner. Keeping to his style, Mike took in another deep breath, lowered his stance and turned into the hallway only to be met with nothing. For a second, he stayed readied behind his shield ‘was it a trap? Was it a fight? Where was everyone?!’. It wasn’t until he heard the muffled words "HEAVY ARTILLERY" followed by another explosion, a much closer shockwave and the appearance of a dozen cracks across the floor did the pieces suddenly fall into place. ‘Okay’ he thought with a sly grin ‘This, I can work with.’ He hadn't been wrong, the sound came from here, just a little bit lower. Doing his best to move fast but softly, Mike moved further into the hallways, grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall as he passed. There was no way to tell who was fighting who, so to be safe, 'all things considered', he moved to side opposite all the explosions and shouting. Whether he was dropping behind friendlies or enemies he had to be ready. ‘Still. Its going to be hard to explain this’ he thought to himself as he tightened his scarf before shifting his focus between the floor below his feet and the extinguisher in his arm.

‘Huh, this is... a bit more solid than I'd expect’ rather than some simple concrete and rebar, Mike couldn’t help but be surprised at all the reinforcing he felt below him ‘not that it’ll do them any good’ he thought slightly cockily. Things weren’t exactly calm with the constant muffled sounds of fighting paired with the odd explosion but with no one shooting at him, trying to stab him or just generally pulverize him, he could shut it all out and focus. As he closed his eyes, he felt energy leaving him and pouring into a circle on the ground below him. First it wore down the metals on the end, then spread inward. From there it built up relentlessly until finally, it was at its limit. “Okay” he muttered as the world rushed back to him "what could go wrong?"

As he released control, the pent-up energy burst out downwards with a thundering crack. The small portion of floor Mike was crouched on was suddenly shattered into chunks as he dropped through his newly formed entrance. The fall didn’t even last a full second. As he hit the ground in a crouch and looked through his plastic shield his mind burst into action. He could still hear fighting but muffled and distant but before his eyes could fully adjust to the room, he saw the figure in the room with him, and while he hadn't met him before there wasn't any doubt in Mike's mind ‘that’s Hex huh?’.

Hoping to catch him by surprise, Mike tossed the fire extinguisher as hard as he could before releasing its own pent up energy. The moment he did, its red container burst into a white cloud of powder obstructing his, and hopefully Hex’s view. At the same time, he raised himself to his feet and broke into a sprint with his shield raised and ready. ‘All I have to do is get close!’ he thought to himself as he reached his makeshift smokescreen. ‘Just a few hits and then it’s over!’ And as he worked on re-strengthening his shield he couldn’t stop his anticipation from spreading a sly grin beneath his scarf ‘I’ve taken down up vampires before, how much trouble can this guy be?’.

[Aidannadia]

The moon shone dark overlooking the horror below on terra firma, while the earth stared back grimly.

Mugwuppe led Tadeo into the courtroom chambers, six tall seats with the faces of the attending court members masked in the shadows.

"Fae-kin. Approach the altar." A voice came from a golem sitting as the scribe of the court. The Greater Pixies were still silent, eat court seat hidden from view.

"Yes, scribemaster, it is an honor." Tadeo nodded, gulping nervously, uncharacteristic for the seer. Mugwumpe shook with fear, very characteristic of his general attitude. The magician walked up the steps to a raised alter, getting on his knees and inspecting the tiny desk in front of him. The wood grew from the rock below, curling to form a flat surface. As he knelt before it, the roots that comprised the alter shifted a size larger to fit human standards.

"State your business."

"I have come to give freely my due to the will of the court." Glowing came from each chair, illuminating the faces of each pixie, their colorful attire and energetic air contrasting heavily with the established mood of the event in question.

"The Court accepts your due!" They all said in unison. Tadeo's vision went black.

---

Color. All around. Warmth. Belonging. Whimsy. The air sparkled. The ground- there was no ground.

I... Tadeo felt his gaze extend outwards from his own eyes and back unto his form. Yes. I remember.

His gaze returned to his own eyes once more, swirling masses of energy appearign in the colorful mist. Emotion swept over him in waves. Struggle. Perseverance. Triumph. The cool breeze of a summer day. Plants growing in unimaginable patterns. An apple, maturing before his eyes as if months passed instantly.

The apple soured. The images grew dark. Screams. Flames. Destruction. Untold tragedy..... This... yes, I remember the history. Beasts, creatures of the void with their tentacles, mangled faces, and wide eyes. The collective upheaval of an entire realm. The instability of the dimension. The hurried escape for their lives. The Cataclysm. Thousands of millions of fae, desperate to escape before the Garden fell to the terrors. So few actually crossing the breach.

He felt the suffering wash over him, his own pain replaying before his eyes once more. The village. His parents, his family, his life, torn from the teary eyed child he was. The running. The countless tragedies he saw time and time again. Still running. The horrors of the Infernals. The creeping stench of undeath. The pangs of watching disease eating beings alive. It all resonated with the rest. He felt the two histories begin to harmonize. To meld. To fill him with strength, with belonging.

And now he felt the strength ebb once more. The memories began to fade. The world began to shift. The color began to blacken. The lights dimmed until they looked like stars, panning out in every direction.

A scream. Tadeo turned, feeling cold for a moment, the shocked eyes of his friends all staring at him. The cold overtook him. What? No, this isn't supposed to happen. I don't understand. The magician found himself in the snow, a blizzard keeping him from seeing anything in front of him. He trudged through the banks, stumbling, catching himself barely before falling into a deep ravine. The scream again, this time he could hear it coming from the abyss below. Without thinking, he jumped immediately into the ravine. He contineud to fall. And fall. Until there was something... someone......

"Your due has been given. Good day." Tadeo awoke in a sweat, his hands gripping the desk tightly. He was back in this world once more. The magician gave a quick bow, then hurried out of the courtroom. Mugwumpe followed behind him.

"Tadeo! Wait, you should rest for a bit before heading back? Don't you wa-" The brownie's cries disappeared with a few teleports, El Hechicero making a mess of teleporting through New Eden, crashing into countless pedestrians among the brambled streets and alleys of the city until he saw the Earth once more.

The world shook, and he accelerated through countless dimensios once more. The world spun, his body exerting its limits. His muscles thinned with the exertion, every single one crying out in pain just as he did.

"I should have been here." He cursed, collapsing on the floor of his room, reaching for the door.

[Solisian Union]

Catarina!

---

When she got herself into the ship, most especially the cargo hold, the huntress regained her confidence. She was comfortable in the setting. It was night time, it was dark and it reminded her of the time she raided a ship that belonged to the Medellín Cartel in order to prevent them from getting the stuff they needed to make more drugs that threatened her tribe.

Although she was with Nightraven, she chose to go ahead, hunting alone as she wielded her knife in one hand and used her left hand to serve as a set of claws. She was moving slowly, searching for targets and always keeping quiet. She spent a good minute or two getting around the cargo hold until she found some mobsters serving as guards. That was the first catch for her tonight.

The cannibal Colombian super now moved more aggressively. As she watched the mobsters play Durak, she distracted them with a whistling sound that grew quieter the closer she got. It got their attention and made them stop their game...but it was too late. The two mobsters witnessed themselves losing their throats to her knife. After that, she made sure to...enjoy herself after she watched them die like animals, like those poor things in slaughterhouses. What fun~

When they stopped making noises and moving around, she treated herself to them one by one, chewing on what was easy to eat before leaving the bodies but only after she gathered their bones and drank their blood before it dried up. With her part of the cargo hold clear, she began to explore, searching for more...

[Scotatrova]

Diego Belcourt

Diego had heard the rumors. Rumors that drifted around the magic community about this rogue group of sorcers that planned to manifest their lord here on Earth. At first, Diego thought they were just that. Rumors. But what he was witnessing had confirmed that those rumors were true. He got a lead about a supposed clan meeting up near an abandoned hiking trail, so he decided to go and investigate for himself. The moon was high above in the night sky as a steady collum of smoke rose in the air from a burning fire. Surrounding the flames was a mix of men and women of all ages, but they were all dressed alike in black pants and shirts, with bloodred ribbons tied around their arms, legs, waists, and necks. On each person’s chest, whether rendered in chalk, paint, or fine stitchery, was a similar design of stylized horns. Ram horns. Every person’s head was shaved bald, and their scalps were covered in complex tattoos. Most of them had patterns of pentagrams, ouroboros and upside down crosses. The art ranged from very crude to exquisitely rendered. Diego moved away from the rocks he knelt by and silently threaded his way through a stand of leafy shrubs so he could reach a high stone ledge that rose above and behind the group of people. He moved like a ghost, and no one saw or heard him. He flattened out and went utterly still with a clear view of the gathering through a tiny break in the overhanging foliage.

The crowd suddenly stiffened and turned as two additional figures stepped out into the moonlight at the edge of the trail. A woman, with a brute of a man walking a pace behind her. The gathered mass of people bowed with great reverence to her. Diego heard many of them speak a name as they bowed. "Mother Lilith." The woman, this “Mother Lilith", was the most beautiful person he had ever seen, like one of the goddesses from the books of ancient myths. She was tall, with haughty features and eyes that seemed to radiate their own dark light. Unlike the others, she had all her hair, and it fell in gleaming black curls around her face and shoulders. This woman’s personal power was such that all the others, even the men who towered above her, seemed to shrink in her presence. Behind Mother Lilith was a man Diego knew had to be a bodyguard. He was enormous, a giant who could not have been an inch less than seven feet tall. He had skin the color of mahogany and a shrewd, intelligent face on which was no single trace of compassion or humanity. It was a killer’s face, and Diego knew what killers looked like. The giant stood apart, just inside the darkness of the forest. He leaned on the haft of a long-handled scythe.

“Blessings to you all, my angels,” Mother Lilith said in a soft southern drawl. “May you always walk the shortest path to the darkness.”

“Praise be to the darkness,” they responded.

Mother Lilith said, “As we all know, Brother Michael was the favored son of the Lord Cernunnos.”

“Praise be to the darkness,” replied the gathered angels immediately upon hearing the name.

“Brother Michael had his own path to the darkness,” continued Mother Lilith, “and it was for him alone and not for us to understand.”

“All blessings to Brother Michael,” said one of the angels. “All blessings to the beloved of Lord Cernunnos.”

As the others echoed his words and bowed low, Diego saw Mother Lilith cut a quick look at her bodyguard. Was that a smile they shared? Or a sneer? Diego was not well practiced at reading faces, but he could recognize deceit when he saw it. Whoever this Brother Michael was, Diego guessed that he should be worried about how much Mother Lilith truly respected him. And what was that name Mother Lilith had mentioned? Cernunnos. Diego frowned. The name tugged at a memory. Not someone he’d ever met, but something he’d read. He didn’t push at it; instead he relaxed his thoughts and let the memory float to the top. Cernunnos. From the Celtic culture. His frown deepened because as he remembered it, Cernunnos was the god of the underworld. One of the angels was about to speak and clamped his jaws shut, clearly struggling with something that he wanted to say, or perhaps feared to say. Mother Lilith saw this and touched his face. “What is it?”

“A few of the scouts have sighted a, um . . . girl among this city's mages.” He spoke as if prying the words from his mouth. “The descriptions match Sister Mary.” Everyone gasped and took involuntary steps away from the angel, as if they expected lightning to strike him for some great sin. Suddenly the giant dropped his scythe and caught the man by the throat, lifting him effortlessly until the angel stood on the very tips of his shoes. “We do not speak that name,” he growled. The angel’s face turned red and then purple as the giant squeezed his hand. Mother Lilith leaned past the giant. “Are you sure, Brother Eric?” she asked in a voice that was as cold and hard as a knife blade. “Y-yes,” croaked Brother Eric in a strangled little voice. The giant glanced at Mother Lilith, who studied the choking angel with narrowed eyes. She touched the giant’s arm, a soft brush of fingertips over the landscape of his bulging muscles. “Brother Henry . . . ,” she said, and the giant released Brother Eric, who collapsed to his knees, gasping and honking as he fought to drag in a breath. The giant, Henry, picked up his scythe and returned to his station just behind Mother Lilith. The woman reached out and touched Brother Eric’s cheek. “Tell me,” she said. “I—I have it from five separate scouts, your holiness,” stammered Brother Eric, his throat still raw. “The description matches, even to the markings.” As he said this, he touched the pattern of flowers tattooed on his scalp. “Wild roses and thorns.”

“Sister Mary is dead,” said Mother Lilith in a harsh whisper. “My daughter abandoned her family and her god. She runs with heretics and blasphemers. She is dead.” Mother Lilith spat this last word. “The gift of darkness is not for her. I hope that her flesh lives on forever. Lost, alone, and damned.” The angel placed his forehead on the dirt by Mother Lilith’s feet. “Holiness, forgive this foolish sinner for causing you pain.” His body shook with sobs, and Diego could not tell if his tears were from grief, regret, or fear.

Mother Lilith raised her hand, and every tongue fell silent. “In the actions of heretics the schemes of evil are revealed. We know, we have been told, by the prophet Brother Michael that in these times the struggle to conquer evil will be hard fought. We know this. You, my angels, have endured fire and blood to send heretics into the darkness. You know, as I know, as Brother Michael knew, that at the end of our struggles the darkness waits for us. Once we have accomplished our holy purpose on earth, our lord will embrace us and grant us everlasting peace. There will be no more hunger, no more sickness, no more fear. The darkness is eternal.”

“Praise be to the darkness,” they intoned.

“Only two kinds of people are here in this hell of flesh and pain. The heretics who refuse to accept the truth and the will of our god,” said Mother Lilith, her voice strident and powerful, “and us, the sanctified soldiers of God. We are the angels sent among the wayward fields to make way for our god.”

“Praise be to the darkness!” they cried.

Diego could see that most of the angels were openly weeping, nodding in absolute agreement with everything this woman said.

“And yet we are mortals, we are of the flesh, even if we are filled with the glory of God,” she said. “While we remain steadfast to our purpose, we must never forget that we can only glimpse the will of the lord of darkness. We are not arrogant enough to say that we know all of his will.” The angels said nothing, though Diego saw some of them frown, as if they were uncertain where this was going. “We must also be prepared for our holy purpose to last as long as our god needs it to last,” continued Mother Lilith, “even if that means that some of us must remain in the flesh.”

“But for how long?” begged Brother Eric. “How long until we are all released from the flesh?” Mother Lilith turned fully toward him, and even from his place of concealment Diego could feel the impact of that woman’s stare. It was as hard as a fist and as riveting as a sudden thunderclap. “As long as God wills it,” she said very slowly, spacing each word and filing each syllable to a dagger point. “If he calls us home this minute, we should be ready to open red mouths in our own flesh.”

“And if the lord of darkness says that we must wither of old age before we are called home, then is that too costly a price for the faithful to pay?” There was such powerful challenge in her words that every tongue was stilled, and even Diego held his breath. Mother Lilith stepped close to Brother Eric. “Answer me, my brother,” she said in that cold, cold voice. “If God wills that our holy purpose last a hundred years, would you spit in God’s eye and defy such a request?” Brother Eric dropped to his knees, weeping and shaking with terror. He struck his own face and tore at his clothes before finally collapsing facedown in the dirt. “I am the humblest of God’s servants,” he wailed. “My life is his unto the end of time.” Mother Lilith smiled and nodded. “Thus speak all who truly love the Lord Cernunnos,” she said, and then turned away. “Praise be to the darkness!” shrieked the angels. Mother Lilith raised her hand, and they all fell silent. “Brother Eric,” she murmured, “rise and stand before me.” The wretched angel staggered to his feet. Blood leaked from his nostrils from his self-inflicted blows. “The lord of darkness requires much of you,” said Mother Lilith, then turned to the others. “He requires much of all of you. Will you, by fire and steel, earn your passage into the darkness?”

“Yes!” they screamed. Many of them tore at their own clothes or beat their chests. "Now, my holiest brothers and sisters, take the first step in pleasing our lord of darkness! Open red mouths in your flesh so that Lord Cernunnos can take the first step in establishing his kingdom here in this cursed realm!" Suddenly every one of the angels whipped their blades from belts and sheaths. The wicked silver flashed in the moonlight. The angels began swearing on their lives, their souls, and their salvation. Only the giant remained silent, watching like a granite statue. Then Mother Lilith spoke. “Praise be the darkness. Praise the Lord Cernunnos.”

“Praise be the darkness,” cried the angels before each and everyone of them slit their throats. Mother Lilith waited until even the sound of the collapsing bodies was gone, and then she exhaled, blowing out her cheeks. The giant set down his sledgehammer and grinned. “Jeez, you laid it on pretty thick there, Lily,” he said. “It works every time, Henry.” Mother Lilith shrugged. “Besides, you can’t dial it down with this crowd or they start thinking for themselves.”

“Heaven forbid,” he said, and they both laughed. Brother Henry came and stood close to Mother Lilith. “You are one devious broad.” He chuckled. “You know they’ll skin you alive if they ever get a whiff of any of this, right?”

“Which is why I have you, dear Henry.” She patted the huge expanse of his chest. “I think it’s high time the Night Church had its first martyr.” The giant gave her a cruel leer and hefted his scythe. The big man bent and kissed Mother Lilith full on the mouth. The kiss was intense and passionate. Mother Lilith pushed him roughly away, but she was laughing as she did so. She took a deep breath and exhaled. “It’s coming soon, Henry, can’t you feel it? Our god, he will come, and we are going to own this world.”

“What’s left of it,” he snorted. She punched him on the chest. “Oh, I think there will be plenty left for us to play with.” They laughed at that, and then turned and walked hand in hand down the trail. After they were gone, Diego climbed silently down from his ledge and moved to the spot where the group of angels had stood. He studied the scene with a grim look on his face. These people sacrificed themselves hoping that it would help pave the way for their god's arrival. He bent and studied the footprints of each of the people who had just left, identifying them and cataloging them in his mind. Henry’s prints were larger than any prints Diego had ever seen. He would be very easy to track, though Diego knew that if it came to a fight, he would have to use his magic. There was no way he wanted to tangle with that brute and his scythe. He moved along the trail, backtracking to follow Mother Lilith’s footprints. They came from the north. Mother Lilith had clearly come from the north, just as all of these strangers had. Coming from the north, pushing trouble to the south.

[Bentus]

Marionette seemed undeterred by Kiris’ angry shouts, the hero’s fury only appearing to cause her smile to widen. The villainess watched from the mezzanine as the Hadrian’s head turned around frantically, searching for some weapon to use against her. Leaning on the railing, Marionette idly began wrapping a strand of hair around her finger as she waited patiently for her opponent to join her. Her eyes leisurely followed the Young Blood as she grabbed a hold of a few chairs, her claws instantly setting them ablaze as she hurled them towards her. Seeing the attack coming from a mile away, it was simple for Marionette to casually step to the side as one of the flaming projectiles tore through the railing she had been behind just a moment before. The girl whistled in admiration as she scanned the damage of the impact, Kiris taking the opportunity to leap up to the higher floor with her.

“You don’t get to talk about me and my friends like that, you monster!”

Hearing the Hadrian arrive, Marionette glanced over her shoulder to see the heroine glaring at her with her teeth bared aggressively. The villainess seemed to be surprised for a moment before a friendly smile returned to her features. She offered her opponent a thumbs-up for encouragement. “Good throw, I’m sure you would have had me if it had hit. If you keep trying your hardest like this, then you’ll definitely be able to win.”

Already, Marionette was enjoying the fight. She could hardly believe her good luck, not only getting to see Kiris in action but to also see her fight valiantly for her friends. She smiled slyly, determined to keep pushing the Hadrian’s buttons as she adopted a defensive stance.

“I would hurry up if I were you though.” A look of concern and worry spread across her features, as if she had just thought of something terrible. “I really don’t know how badly hurt Rocket is. Don’t you think it would be awful if something terrible were to happen to him?” Marionette smiled menacingly, eager to push the hero further. “Outside of his mech, what chance do you think he has if a vile villain got her hands on him?”

“I would be more worried about myself if I were ya!” Kirisvala growled at the pink-clad girl, enraged and yet trying to avoid falling into Marionette’s tricks. With her lover badly wounded and unconscious, she wasn’t having a lot of success, but she still made an effort to keep a cool head, lest she do something rash and give the villain a victory on a silver platter.

I can’t do something dumb, not like him. If he hadn’t...

The alien tensed up as she remembered the thoughtless decision that had led to this moment, her fists tightening involuntarily. If I want to beat this witch, if I don’t want to let Mars down, then I have to act smart. I have to make sure she’ll pay for what she did! Thought Kiris as she pondered a way to get back at the villainess, glaring at her all the while. But I won’t accomplish anything if I don’t act.

With that final resolution, Kiris charged towards Marionette, rearing back a fist in order to deliver a white hot punch, literally.

Marionette stood still as Kiris began to charge, the corner of her mouth twisting upwards ever so slightly as the hero gave in to her rage. Holding one of her hands behind her back, Marionette had been quietly extending some of her threads from her fingertips, allowing them to creep down and under the mezzanine flooring. It had been fairly easy to draw Kiris’ attention through their conversation, although Marionette was worried that at any moment the anticipation would have caused her to let something slip. But slowly and surely, the thin threads had crept their way closer and closer to the Hadrian until they were able to simply lie patiently in wait. Now, as Kiris barrelled towards her, all Marionette needed to do was spring her trap.

Unbeknownst to the villainess, however, Kirisvala was well aware of the threads snaking their way towards her under the mezzanine. Right before they would burst forth from underneath and bind her or worse, she grabbed her crystal torronir from behind her back, using a claw to vault herself over the red thread attack before swinging the bludgeon straight towards Marionette’s head with a battle cry.

As Marionette’s threads burst up from under the floorboards, sending wooden shards and splinters flying into the air, the villain’s eyes widened as Kiris expertly dodged the attack. Throwing up an arm at the last second to defend herself, the powerful blow from the club nevertheless sent the blonde girl flying across the floor until she collided into the wall with an oomph. Wincing from the sharp pain from the impact, Marionette was given no time to recover as Kiris roared once again, racing to press her advantage.

Rolling to the side, Marionette managed to move out of the way just as Kiris’ next swing came crashing down. The crystal mace slammed into the marble wall, cracking and shattering the tiles right where Marionette’s head had been moments before. The vibrations of the impact reverberated up Kiris’ arms, and the heroine immediately froze, eyes going wide upon realising that she had been too eager with the strike - but it was too late to make up for the overcommitment.

Grinning at her opponent’s mistake from beside her, Marionette wasted no time stepping closer towards Kiris, moving within the radius of her club before delivering a quick punch to the other girl’s stomach. The crystal armour took most of the impact, but Kiris still gritted her teeth as she felt the strike connect. Unfortunately, that was not all the punishment that Marionette had intended to dish out. Hardly giving Kiris even a chance to breathe following the punch, Marionette followed through with her elbow, slamming into Kiris’ chin and sending her head whipping backwards from the superpowered blow.

The Hadrian did her best to keep her voice to herself and avoid showing any signs of weakness to the cruel aristocrat, but it was evident that what little advantage she had earned was short-lived. In addition, despite her armor, she was feeling the pain from Marionette’s blows, and her fatigue, offset by her desire to protect Mars, was beginning to creep back in, making her begin to feel desperate amidst the struggle.

“RAH!” Kirisvala screamed, forcing herself to stand her ground instead of continuing to step back. With her free claw, she grabbed Marionette’s incoming fist, stopping it mere inches from hitting her lower torso - precisely one of the points where her armor was weaker. Allowing herself a fugacious smile, she gripped the villainess’ fist as tightly as she could, both the pressure and the white fire’s embrace causing her a good deal of pain and, more importantly, forcing her back as the Hadrian advanced. With a grunt, Kirisvala raised her club and swung it at Marionette once more.

Wincing as the hero’s red-hot fist gripped her own hand, Marionette instinctively recoiled from the contact, but refused to allow herself to give in to the pain. Pulling away from the Hadrian, she played into Kiris’ plan and the Young Blood took advantage of the increased distance to once again bring her club down towards Marionette. Grunting as she poured her rapidly depleting strength into the swing, seeking to catch the villainess by surprise, Kiris was taken aback as her weapon suddenly stopped halfway towards its target. Marionette smirked as one of her hands gripped tightly onto the blunt instrument, halting it in its tracks. Her eyes widening as she realised that the villain had been expecting the move, Kiris immediately tried to pull the club away but found it held firmly in place as threads quickly wrapped themselves up and down its length.

“Uh-oh, not so tough without your big stick.” Marionette commented, winking at her opponent.

Glaring at her opponent, Kirisvala drew in a breath of air and then, summoning her strength, she leaped away from the mezzanine and swung her club towards the ground, the sheer force of the motion dragging Marionette along and sending her crashing towards the ground. The villainess was caught off-balance as Kiris pulled her towards the railing. Her eyes widened in surprise and a yelp escaped from her lips as the hero swung both her and the club through the barrier surrounding the mezzanine, straight on a collision course for the ground below. Hitting the ground with her back, the Hadrian driving her body into the floor, Marionette felt a sharp pain echo out from her spine. But she wasn't done yet. Sparing herself just a second to catch her breath after Marionette had crashed, the Hadrian swung her torronir again, attempting to smash the villainess against a nearby column. Much to her dismay, however, she once again felt the club stop suddenly in its tracks.

Spinning herself around as she was swung through the air, Marionette pirouetted her body around to plant her feet on the column while bending her knees to cushion the blow. Without missing a beat, the villain pushed herself back off from the surface to spin over Kiris’ head. Feeling the club - and her arm - being dragged up and over her shoulders unexpectedly, Kiris found herself tugged off-balance as Marionette landed deftly behind her. Still grasping tightly onto the hero’s club with her threads, Marionette twisted her body as she delivered a sharp kick to the square of Kiris’ back. The impact shoved the heroine forward, causing her to stumble as she felt her torronir get torn from her grip. Her eyes widening as she felt her weapon vanish from her hands, Kiris tried to whirl around to face her opponent, but was too slow to complete the move before her own crystal club slammed into the side of her face. The impact twisted Kiris’ neck in an instant, sending a wave of pain shooting out through her skull as her whole body was lifted into the air.

Flying a short distance from the sheer force of the blow and landing in a different area of the ballroom, Kirisvala sank her claws into the floor to stop herself from sliding away even further and looked up. The splitting pain in her head didn’t let her concentrate, and the world looked like it was all out of focus. As badly disoriented as she was, she didn’t notice Marionette’s threads slithering across the ground towards her until it was almost too late, and forced herself to roll out of the way just as they rose up and attempted to envelop her, noting with despair that her body was taking longer and longer to respond to her wishes.

I can’t… Not now…!

“Tired already? But we’re just getting started!” Marionette’s voice came from just above her, and with horror, the alien girl looked up to see her preparing a powerful descending swing with the bludgeon. Involuntarily, Kiris let out a small shriek as her claw shot up to stop the weapon in its tracks. It wouldn’t have been very difficult normally, what with the Hadrian’s tremendous strength,but her fatigue was really starting to show, her claw trembling as she tried to keep the crystal mace away. Looking up and seeing Marionette’s grin, she glared back, trying to put on a brave face, but the facade was cracking.

“That was a cute cry, Kiris. But you can’t give up yet!” The villainess teased, her sadistic streak no doubt surfacing after hearing the heroine’s shriek.

“S-SHUT UP!”

Marionette’s smile seemed to widen, a twinkle shining in her eyes as Kiris struggled to hold back the club. Sensing the advantage, the villain steadily began to push more and more of her weight onto the mace, gradually pressing it down closer and closer to the tiring hero. Grimacing as she felt herself being pushed towards the ground, Kiris’ dropped onto one of her knees. Now looking down on the Hadrian, Marionette was incapable of disguising her excitement. Her eyes bore into Kiris’ with a look of giddy anticipation, relishing the feeling in her chest as the end of the fight drew near. Gritting her teeth together, and refusing to give in when she still had breath in her lungs, Kiris reached out with her other claw to grasp onto the mace. No! I won’t let her win! Growling with effort, she gradually began to move the weapon back towards the villain.

Looking surprised for a moment at the renewed surge of determination, Marionette’s wide, excitable grin swiftly returned. This is the Kiris that she had been hoping to meet! This was the hero that she had read and heard so much about on the news and online. And seeing Kiris give it her all would make what came next all the more satisfying.

Taking a swift step to close the distance between herself and the still-crouching hero, Marionette brought up one of her knees to deliver a crushing blow to Kiris’ chest. With both of her arms held up by the mace, and all of her concentration focused on keeping it away from her, Kiris was entirely unprepared for the underhanded strike. Her eyes bulging as the air was forced from her lungs despite the crystal armor that adorned her body, Kiris doubled over instinctively from the pain as she released her grip on the torronir. Reaching out with one of her hands, a flood of threads surged from Marionette’s fingertips and slammed into the vulnerable heroine, pushing her back forcefully until she slammed into one of the ballroom’s columns. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt the torrent of lethal strands pummel her torso as they continued to press into her armor. Wincing, Kiris looked up in horror to see Marionette walking calmly towards her. She could feel an increasing tightness clamping down on her chest as the threads constricted around her. Glancing down, Kiris saw the red strands wrapping around her torso and her limbs, holding her fast to the pillar but avoiding her claws, lest they be caught aflame. Trying to move her arms, her legs, anything that she could in an attempt to break free of Marionette’s snares, Kiris felt herself quickly depleting the last of her strength.

“You know, you really surprised me there. For a moment I thought you were going to turn the tables on me again!” A giggle escaped from Marionette as she inched closer and closer with short, graceful steps. “But I guess you’re done for, now. It’s such a shame, but maybe you simply weren’t made to be better than this. Oh, but don’t feel bad, you gave me a pretty good fight. Honest!” The villainess offered an encouraging smile, as if to console her opponent after she had lost the fight. All the while, Kiris glared at her, but in her current state, bound and helpless, she was in no position to silence the monster in front of her.

“Still, I’ll have to think of what to do for fun after this… Ah, of course! Silly me, your boyfriend is still back in that crystal cage you made for him!” The blonde girl softly smacked her forehead with her hand before letting out another amused giggle. Kirisvala’s eyes went wide as she remembered that Mars was still unconscious, resting inside the crystal barrier she had erected with a spell. A knife twisted itself in the heroine’s chest as a growing sense of horror rose up in her throat. It had been meant to keep him safe while she won the battle and got him to a safer place, but she had clearly failed in that regard, and if she fell, Marionette would have all the time in the world to get through the cocoon and…

Tears began streaming down the alien’s face as she realized what she had inadvertently done.

I… I handed Mars to her in a silver platter… the person I love… why…?

Seeing the sorry mess that had become of the heroine’s face, even despite her helmet’s obstruction, Marionette felt all the more giddy and eager to continue pushing Kiris’ buttons. Smiling brightly, she put a finger to her chin. “What should I do… hm… well, why am I wasting my time asking myself when you’re right here with me?” The villainess spoke before leaning even closer, until her face was only a couple of inches away from the heroine’s helmet, wide open blue eyes staring into the red. “I wonder, should I hurt him real bad, or should I have a little fun with him along the way? What would piss you off more?”

The insinuation was more than the heroine could take, and she redoubled her struggling, forcing her arms, her legs, and even her bound tail against her bindings in a knowingly futile effort, her strength insufficient to break free. She was fully aware that she couldn’t save Mars like this, but she struggled all the same, the pain preferable to simply bearing with Marionette’s threats and teases while doing nothing. Soon, loud screams and roars of rage and helplessness began to echo throughout the entire ballroom, as if she wanted to destroy the strings with noise, as if further depleting her own strength this way would help her. The way she acted now resembled more an animal than a person, though she wouldn’t have cared if the fact had been brought to her attention.

All the while, Marionette watched, delighted. “Wow, Kiris! I didn’t expect such a good reaction from you! This is way more than I bargained for!” She spoke with glee, practically skipping around the column with dainty steps to get a better look at the struggling heroine she had captured, before suddenly coming to a stop in front of her once more. Looking at Kiris, Marionette frowned slightly. “Wait, you’re not even listening to me at all, are you?”

After a while, the frustrated screams devolved into short exclamations, and then simple whimpers.

I’m not a heroine, I’m useless… I can’t do anything… anything at all… I should’ve never joined, maybe if I hadn’t, then Mars… he wouldn’t… The Hadrian thought, her fatigue barely even letting her form coherent sentences in her own mind. I’ve got to do something… anything… but what? I can’t...

In a sudden moment of lucidity, the answer came to her. In accordance with her mental state, it was less of a plan and more of a single, disconnected idea. One that could end horribly wrong for her if it didn’t work. But come to this point, she was willing to wager everything over such a nebulous hope. And so she did. Struggling to simply take a breath, she sang out a single note, which caused all of her crystal constructs to fade into curtains of shimmering red dust. The large wall she had raised around the hostages disappeared, as did the smaller one around her unconscious lover. The torronir, too, vanished, and even the armor that covered her body, piece by piece, plate by plate. Helmet, cuirass and boots all turned to dust.

Surprised by this action, Marionette looked around the ballroom and then back at Kiris. “What’s this? Did you give u-” The villainess began, only to be swiftly cut off as an alien claw clamped down around her neck. In destroying her own armor, she had given herself just enough space to reach out with one of her arms, and though the strings had dug very painfully into her skin at various places, sometimes drawing blood, her bargain had ultimately worked out. Marionette was utterly shocked by the sudden attack, control over her strings wavering enough that Kirisvala was able to free herself and hoist the psychopathic heiress, flames licking at her skin and dress.

With a scream and a massive surge of strength borne out of rage and despair rather than honor or justice, Kiris turned around and slammed the villainess into the ground hard enough to shatter the floor beneath her.

Then she did it again.

And again.

On and on the alien went, each slam sending violent quakes through the floor of the entire ballroom, a growing hole appearing beneath the area where Marionette’s body crashed time and time again until suddenly, the whole ground gave way, collapsing around the two girls as they fell to the floor beneath the ballroom together. Feeling no more strength to go on, Kirisvala closed her eyes and let Marionette go, surrendering herself to gravity and the merciless embrace of the cold floor. Pain flared through her entire body as she landed, but she lacked the strength to even open her eyes.

Instead, she simply lay there. She could feel various deep cuts on her shoulders and a gash on her forehead from where Marionette’s strings had sunk into her, as well as a nasty mark on her neck that could have easily become a fatal injury had she acted just an instant too late. Her back felt battered, and her chest even more so. Her arms and legs burned like hell, and her hands and feet felt heavier than mountains. Breathing brought a familiar painful sensation, the likes of which she had experienced before, though this made it no less pleasant. All of these things and more became increasingly apparent to her as she lay helplessly on the ground.

After several moments of wallowing in pain, Kirisvala tried to open her eyes once more, and found that she succeeded. The world was less of a definite reality and more of a haze this time. Her strained eyes could not make out anything concrete, nor tell individual objects apart from each other. The only thing there was a strange hole in the sky, and a light beyond that she felt connected to, though she couldn’t reach for it nor even call out to it. As she continued staring, things began to take form, and she realized that the bright light was not the sun of her ever distant home, but the burning railing of the ballroom’s mezzanine, which threatened to consume the entire place if left unchecked.

Right… I still have to…

Attempting to take a deep breath, the Hadrian suddenly coughed out, the action causing a searing pain to shoot through her entire chest, the powerful sensation nearly making her tear up yet again. Pausing for a moment and taking shallower breaths, the girl tried again, this time succeeding, and sang out another note, different from the previous one. In an instant, both the flame around her fists and the flame beyond the hole above her disappeared. Her claws still smoldered, the heat they gave off warping the air around, but she could not feel them and the fire had all been extinguished. As it died, so too did the last coherent thoughts in her mind.

I’m so exhausted…

Did I… win?

Mars…

Then darkness.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

Wendy grimaced as she watched the masked figure began choking out Roy. She felt helpless crouching behind the stone banister, but knew her charging would only make the problem worse. The only chance of helping him was her plan. Fortunately, at that moment Icarus jumped into the fight, knocking the man down and freeing Roy. With the coast clear, she yelled for Angelica to start freezing the pipe.

Concrete and asphalt began cracking underneath the intruder, and before he could realize what was going on, a tidal wave of ice engulfed him. Wendy smiled at the successful implementation of her plan. Before she could start celebrating though, Yoshiro began running towards the figure, shout about how he was still awake and a threat.

Wendy began searching through the remaining Warwolf tech, her options far less limited now that both rogue Juggernauts had been taken care. She was so focused on everything going on she missed the flash bomb being thrown in the middle of their group until it exploded. The world went white before slowly returning to colors and shapes, her ears ringing as she looked around and spotted Yoshiro’s crumpled form. “Y...Psyche.” She shouted, running over to her friends body. “Please be alright.” Wendy muttered as she pressed her fingers against Yoshiro’s neck, looking for a pulse.

[Finland SSR]

Amadeo Obregón, Champion of Liberty!

One year ago

---

The series of printers in the middle of the basement, allowed to stay here thanks to the goodwill of the house owner, were working overtime, spewing out page after page of the Anticóndoristas serial, ¡Acción!, while a number of dedicated workers with somewhat blousy eyes did their best to get all the pages for each copy in order, bind the pages of each issue together and put them in the ever growing pile, ready to be distributed across the nation one way or another. With the forces of the Condor Regime so vastly superior to anything the Anticóndoristas could throw at them, the resistance took the fight indirectly, and with this strategy, spreading underground press, getting the Ecuadorian people a chance to learn about what's happening around them without the reach of censored state media, and incite popular support for their cause was just as important as raiding government convoys or stockpiles in the Amazon.

Two of the resistance fighters based here in this basement did not work on the serial, however - instead, they oversaw the hasty operation and played the role of guards in case anything went downhill. One of those two was Amadeo, the fairly recent, though talented and already noted Hadrian recruit, a custom made taser pistol with a grip designed for his alien claws attached to his thigh. The other, leaning on the wall on the other side of the room, was a mundane human much like the absolute majority of the organization - Maria was her name, and her weapon of choice was not bone claws, but instead an AK-47. The rest of the Anticóndoristas worked silently, only occasionally letting out a blurb about needing more paper or ink or whatever. Maria finally broke this silence, however, by turning her eyes directly towards Amadeo and speaking:

"So an alien then, huh? Interesting..." Having been assigned to this part of the country very recently, Maria only learned about Amadeo's Hadrian origins a few hours ago, when she herself asked him about it, and it has interested her since. "Back when I was still a kid, I wanted to go to space one day, actually. You know, like all children. What's it like? I heard you don't actually immediately freeze to death when you go into outer space without a suit on, is that true?"

Amadeo's answer was laconic. "I don't know, I haven't been there."

"Really?" the answer took woman by surprise. "But you're an alien, right? How does that work?"

"That's what my foster parents told me, yes." the Hadrian replied, folding his arms. "But I've never known anything beyond Ecuador. I have no idea who my real parents are. And if the small information I've gathered about my species is correct, then I'm something of an anomaly. All of them either live in a colony in Australia or beyond Earth, not anywhere else, and especially not as far as here..."

"Weird."

"Weird indeed."

"...Why do you look so similar to us, though?"

Amadeo's head perked up in slight confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean... we're talking about a species which evolved on a completely different planet, right? With a completely different biology and everything. And yet, despite all of that, you look just like a normal human with claws, horns and a tail, and maybe with slightly off body proportions. How did that happen?"

"I don't know."

"Do you have a clue, perhaps?"

"Not a clue, either."

"Do all the other aliens you know have no clue, either?"

"I have never met an another Hadrian in my life."

Maria laughed. "You're just a man of no's, you know that?"

Amadeo let out a sigh, his eyes trailing across the ground. "I'm... sorry. It's just... I know just as much as you do, which is nothing. Nothing and a bunch of mysteries. It would be a lot easier to solve them if I could get into contact with any other person of my kind, but, well, that's not really an option."

Maria was about to offer a retort, but any further discussion had to be cut off, as the door of the basement suddenly opened with a slam, drawing the attention of everyone in the room and letting out an exhausted, panting member of the Anticóndoristas, a Kalashnikov at hand, who immediately exclaimed:

"We... we need to pack up and leave, quickly. The Condors... are coming, and they know that we're hiding here..."

"Gabriel, calm down!" Maria exclaimed in response, lifting herself off the wall and running up to him - thankfully, he wasn't wounded, just tired. "Are you sure they're coming?"

Gabriel, however, was far from calm. "Am I sure?! Their truck is going to stop by this house in three minutes! I saw everything!"

The rest of the resistance fighters had already started to pack their belongings, especially the already printed issues, upon hearing the warning. Maria turned her face towards the Hadrian, her face filled with worry.

"I don't know who stabbed us in the back and revealed our positions, Amadeo, but that's not nearly enough time for an evacuation."

Indeed. One of the Anticóndoristas opened a hatch at the back of the basement, leading to an exit directly into the starlight of the night, getting around the no-go zone which the ground floor of the house had now become, but it was narrow and they had a lot of things to carry out, which meant that any evacuation through there would take too long for them to escape before the Condors stomp them all out. Unless there was something drawing their attention away...

Sorry, I'll be the man of no's again.

"No, there's still a chance." Amadeo spoke, unfolding his arms and walking towards the front exit of the basement, leading to a series of stairs to the ground floor. "Cover the people evacuating, Maria, I'll draw away their attention."

"Amadeo, no!"

"Amadeo, yes."

---

Well damn, Gabriel was not kidding. With his back tightly rammed at a wall behind a large wooden wardrobe, Amadeo watched through one of the windows as a truck pulled over next to the front door of the large three-story house and six people in fluffy overalls, with feathers adorning their heads and waving with the wind stepped out. Anyone who has ever lived in this country knows who these people are. The Andean Condors, once the beacon of hope for a nation oppressed under a military junta, now the horsemen of the new regime which they themselves established. And the evacuation is probably not yet done, either...

Where the hell is the owner of this house?! While Amadeo appreciated the fact that all the lights were turned off, which, combined with the darkness of the night, granted the Hadrian a favorable fighting environment, the wealthy, moustached owner who generously allowed them to set up shop here could definitely come to help in stalling for time. It's odd. He was so enthused with the chance to help the Anticóndoristas and even risked himself and his safety to allow them to work from here, and when trouble arrives, he's nowhere to be-

This was a trap.

How else could have the Condors find out their location so quickly? Why else would this rich bloke, who should normally be a supported of the regime which granted him safety and order in the streets, be so enthused with helping the resistance? This was a trap. This was definitely a trap.

Amadeo's claws clenched into a fist - not just from the anger at the betrayal, but also because of realizing how much of a fool he was, just like the rest.

After some brief chatter, the Andean Condors decided on a plan of operations, or at least that's what the Hadrian presumed, and the team of superheroes soon dispersed. Mere seconds later, the crack of a doorlock opening echoed across the empty halls of the ground floor, and a tall, bearded pink-haired man stepped into the building.

So the leader himself is involved?

The darkness which had set in the wide living room which the front door lead to was suddenly upset by a bright source of light, shining from behind Silver's intimidating stature. Someone else was with him. Leaning behind the wardrobe a bit, Amadeo caught a glimpse of them with the corner of his eye - it was a girl with hair just as hot pink as Silver's, looking around with slight worry in her eyes and trying to stay close to the dictator. Amadeo knew who Silver was and what he could do, but this new girl was a mystery. A new member of the Andean Condors?

Silver calmly stepped across the room, drawing nearer and nearer to the wardrobe behind which Amadeo was hiding. With time rapidly running out, the Hadrian took a second to think over his options.

I haven't fought Silver ever in the past... but there's got to be a chance for me to win here, right? He's strong. Obviously. But he's still just a man. And I'll have the advantage of stealth as soon as I take down that girl and her light...

Here goes nothing.

Amadeo suddenly tipped over the wardrobe behind him, letting it fall towards Silver, and leaped forward without a second thought, straight at the surprised Laser Girl, crashing into her claws-first, his eyes capturing the teenage girl's terrified face for a moment, and dragging her and her feathery costume across the ground for a second before tossing her at a wall with a wide swing. Suddenly, however, a metal net formed into existence right before the girl would have slammed at it back-first, catching her and letting her fall back on her feet. Silver, who had been holding off the wardrobe pressing towards him with both hands, put it back into place and turned around, the net losing its shape immediately after and returning to its owner.

"You can react faster than that, Renata. Don't be a sitting duck." the bearded dictator spoke, keeping his eyes locked towards Amadeo - and the Hadrian responded with the same. The pink-haired heroine rubbed at the back of her head a little, groaning, then stood up and spoke:

"Sorry, sorry, he just caught me by surprise..."

"There is no such thing as being caught by surprise, Renata. There is only failing to pay attention to what's happening around you."

"I know, I know..."

"Now don't do this aga-"

Now.

Swiping to the right, Silver barely dodged an incoming Hadrian claw, gunning for his face, the surprisingly careless attitude from earlier now replaced by a frown. Follow-up quick slashes ended up hitting nothing but air, too, and while the third sweep seemed like it was about to slash at the superhero's chest, his palm suddenly caught the incoming claw and squeezed it. A layer of metal coalesced around Silver's hand, giving it additional weight and thus pressing strength - enough for Amadeo to wince in pain.

In response, the Hadrian clenched his left claw, throwing it forward as a punch - and while it actually landed on Silver's cheek, a layer of metal formed above it just in time for the strike to leave no damage, with its only achievement being that the superhero let go of Amadeo's right claw. Sure, the results were nothing to write home about so far, and God knows if it's even good enough of a delay, but at least he was holding his ground for now! Maybe I can continue pressing forward like this and find if he has any weaknesses, then-

A blast of plasma suddenly slammed into Amadeo from the side, cutting his train of thoughts short and sending him sliding across the wooden floor of the house. That was... the girl which was with Silver, right. Opening his eyes after coming to a full stop, Amadeo saw Laser Girl speed towards him across the air with her feet aimed forward, clearly aiming for a foot slam. No thank you. Avoiding such a fate with a dodge roll, Amadeo got back up on his feet, his focus now shifted towards Renata, only for a metal-coated fist to slam straight into his cheek, splashing blood across the floor and sending the Hadrian reeling back.

A final plasma blast into his chest to send him crashing on his back and tail, and that was the end of his resistance. Renata pressed her foot on the Hadrian's torso to keep him locked in place, then turned Silver, as if asking on what she's supposed to do next.

"He's an Anticóndorista, Renata," the dictator spoke, the metal layered on his fist and cheek sliding back into his pocket. "They're robbers, traitors and terrorists. You have the legal right to execute them on sight."

Faintly opening his eyes, still somewhat dazed from the beating. Amadeo saw a bright flash of light right in front of his eyes. It was the tip of Renata's finger, aimed towards his face, light crackling in front of it. All it would take is a single laser shot. It was strong enough to punch through flesh and bone, after all - just target it between his eyes, a quick and painless death.

"I-I can't do it." Renata spoke, lowering her finger.

"Renata, focus!" Silver suddenly exclaimed.

Stepping off from Amadeo, the heroine turned towards her father, exclaiming back:

"I-I'm not going to execute people, that's not what a hero does!"

"Renata, don't lose sight of him!"

"What-"

A bone tail suddenly smashed across Renata's face, sending her reeling back and leaving several bleeding wounds across her cheek. Silver's muscles instantly tensed and the superhero ran towards his daughter.

"Renata!" he exclaimed as he came closer. By the time he reached the scene, however, the Hadrian was already gone, having smashed through the nearest window and leapt off to the plain outside of the house - but it was the last thing his mind cared about. "Renata, are you alright!"

"I-I think so..." the teenage heroine muttered in response, clutching onto her cheek and collapsing on her knees.

"You scared me for a moment there."

"And you let that bastard go free... I'm sorry, I just couldn't do it."

"It's alright, Renata, he won't get anywhere far. The average lifespan of those terrorists is short for a reason."

[Turmenista]

Johnny Swift/Weirdo Clique
666 East Cooler St.
Comic Book Time

And just like that, Floyd had vanished. Gone completely. Even Johnny, as fast as he was, wasn’t expecting his partner to just bug out on him on such a short and abrupt notice. After all, they had one hell of an adventure through the night that full of ridiculous fights and feats from Keith that were borderline NASL-worthy. At the bare minimum, the speedster only thought that Floyd was enjoying the night as much as he was, since, up until getting a car thrown at him and being blasted out of a house by a powerful telekinetic, Johnny was having a pretty enjoyable time.

Evidently, Floyd wasn’t.

He never anticipated his colleague to just leave on a pretty harsh remark and just leap over the fence, quickly leaving his sight and dissolving into the dark streets. He also never anticipated for Floyd’s remark to be so harsh, given how their previous banter had been nothing more than… well… banter. This time around, he sounded like he meant it, and was just as fed up with him as the Weirdo Clique were, who had devolved to the point of simply trying to get rid of Johnny rather than reason with him.

Now, it was a four on one, the odds heavily in the Clique’s favor. Johnny knew what would happen. A team of competent Chaos Magicians with dangerous powers would annihilate a speedster like him in a heartbeat. Johnny’s speed had its limits, and he couldn’t rely solely on his ability to dodge or hit fast to bail him out on this one.

So, he did what any logical person would’ve done, and backed his ass up towards the fence, much to the amusement of Gabriel, whose palms sheathed away to reveal a sharp, elongated bone that extruded from his arm, inching towards Johnny, snickering. “Nice job making a fool of yourself off some stupid idea you had, buddy.”

Johnny remained silent, backpedaling a few more inches towards the fence separating Keith’s yard from the street. The fact of the matter now was that he was alone, without any Floyd Tolson to back him up this time. He could either stay and face them and probably end up in critical condition, or simply leave, like how they had wanted him to do so for hours now.

This isn't looking good. I need to make a decision quickly. Johnny's eyes darted around, looking for a window of opportunity. Fuck me royally, I can't go down on this one.

Despite having previously expressed her indifference towards the situation as a whole, Thelma spoke up, placing her hands into her jacket’s pockets as she watched her friends surround Johnny like a pack of dogs. The whole ordeal was kind of silly, though, but the speedster deserved it for the crap they had to put up with through the night. “Ironic, huh? The ‘tough guy’ here thinks he’s a messiah or something, all because he punched someone at a party. The weight of this must be terrible, huh?”

“Your puns are terrible,” Gabriel remarked, turning away from Johnny for a brief moment.

“So, what’s stopping you from doing the same to us?" Thelma continued. "Numerical advantage?”

“Eh... nothing I can’t do on an off day,” Johnny bluffed, trying to suppress his anxiousness and buy himself some time with some good old hubris. “Unfavorable odds is just another way of saying bigger challenge, y’know.”

At this point, Clara was just fuming, trying to get her ex-boyfriend to leave immediately, but Keith seemed to take the words right out of her mouth, evidently calming down from his state a few minutes prior, in which he boiled over and blasted Floyd and Johnny out of the garage with his mind. Even know, Johnny wasn't sure if that was his full power—no one was. “Just go, Johnny, before you make this bigger than it needs to be.”

He paused briefly, taking a glance at Clara, who certainly sounded like she was concerned for his safety before, but was just irritated in his stubbornness. Being as considerate as he could towards his old friend, Johnny sighed, frowning. What came next meant admitting defeat, something he wasn't too keen on doing right now. Got yourself in some tough shit now, Johnny. How are you gonna wriggle your way out of this one?

“Alright, Keith. Fine. Clara, I’m sorry. Just try not to blow up th—”

“There he goes again.” Gabriel sneered in a singsong voice, smirking at the thought of his nemesis's faltering will, folding his arms as Johnny began to walk away slowly, not responding to the bone manipulator's teasing. “Ruining everyone's day again. Typical Johnny Swift shit. First, you take the British dude on a wild goose chase through town just to mess with us, then get that hoopty of yours turned into birds. Then, you ruin our night when we were trying to do some harmless little ritual that could happen on one single night every year. And now, look at your pathetic ass! Apologizing? Isn't that not your thing?"

Keith gave a grunt, nudging his friend with an elbow. "Yesod, knock it o—"

But, Gabriel continued. "And, not to mention, look at how much of a.. a nothing you are! God, I just don't have any words for this guy! Just totally fucking capitulating whenever he has the chance to talk to his little damsel in distress. You know what I call someone who can't move on from his girl and acts like a fool, Swift? Someone who can't stand up for himself deep down inside? A fucking joke.”

Up until Gabriel pressed the speedster's Johnny Button, Johnny had done a pretty good job in toning out his verbal beatdown. After all, he had just as many remarks and insults to counter Gabriel's. But once he said that, Johnny stiffened up immediately, an action that caused even Keith to take notice.

“What’s wrong, Swift? Chicken? Can’t run from what you caused.”

He stopped at Gabriel's last quip, balling up a fist as anger boiled in his veins. That scene kid little fuck was gonna get it, and learn to think twice in trying to cross Johnny Swift's pass. “Alright, then.. Thelma. I’m sorry for what’s gonna happen now.”

The gravity manipulator suddenly raised a brow. “What?”

Johnny suddenly vanished from their view, disappearing from thin air as a mere afterimage of himself as Gabriel abruptly swore out loud, not expecting the speedster to move out so quickly. Eyes struggling to find where he went, Keith gritted his teeth in frustration as he prepared a mental blast of energy outwards in all directions. “Clara, shield up NOW and get everyone under! I'm stopping his ass!”

Clara thrust her arms out to the sides, shouting the ancient words "Quiesc—"

Something whizzed past Clara's front before she could do so, grabbing a hold of Thelma and lobbing her at Gabriel. This turned out to be nothing to worry about as Thelma automatically reoriented and stopped herself in mid-air before she hit Gabriel, with Keith telekinetically assisting in pulling her back before things became messy. However, it was all just a ruse: Johnny's image had reappeared, a vapor cone appearing around his leg that, practically in slow motion for everyone watching, connected with Gabriel's chest and sent him away with a loud Oof! Gabriel landed flat on his ass first breaking into a roll as he stopped on his chest, grunting. "That... hurt."

Their gazes all snapped over to the blurry object as it slowed down and landed atop the fence, mocking them (and especially Gabriel) from afar. "About time your school shooter-looking ass and that mouth of yours got what it deserved, Gabe!" Johnny called. "No hard feelings, but you guys take things way too seriously! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to be going home now after a fun night out. I'll read your text, Clara. Smell you chumps later."

Then, he was off, disappearing into the night just as Floyd had, leaving the four standing in Keith's lawn wondering what exactly had just happened in the past minute. Keith just shook his head in disbelief. “Well, I’ll be damned. He finally left.”

Gabriel was the next to comment, slowly pushing himself up from the ground. "The next time you all see that punk is gonna be at his fuckin' funeral, I swear to God," he hissed, holding a sore shoulder as he pushed his arm up, a loud pop echoing in the air. "God damn, that hurt."

Turning to Gabriel, however, Keith placed his hands into his outfit's pockets, disappointed in his friend’s suggestion. "To that, that's a stupid idea and you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking it. That goes for everyone else, too. As much as I really wanted to grind that little shit into human paste on the ground, that wouldn't be the right choice. Johnny might be stupid, and annoying, but his stupidity doesn't necessitate killing him. We aren't villains, Gabriel. After all, he and Clara are still friends, and I don't want to be held responsible for creating grieving parents."

"Right," Gabriel grunted, rolling his eyes. "Bet your ass $20 they still hatefuck monthly—no, weekly. Maybe that's why we can't seem to get to the next level in our Chaos stuff, whatever Chaos entity that's out there is mad that someone can't stop going out late at night to meet her little lover."

"Shut the fuck up, Gabriel."

"You know I'm right."

"Guys," Thelma pulled out a cigarette and lit it, staring off into nothing in particular as the two stopped their quarreling. "Keith is right, and Johnny did have a point. Everyone was kind of on edge and quick to fight when we could've just, uh, explained what we were doing to Johnny so he could get his curiosity into check. Other than that, I don't really care. There's other ways for us to learn more that don't involve videoconferencing some Europeans." She paused to take a draw from her cigarette. "Crazy Europeans aside, can we all agree that tonight was kind of fun?"

Gabriel shrugged his shoulders as Keith made no visible response. "I was trying to tell Johnny myself, but, guess my voice doesn't get heard." Clara put her hands into her pockets, sighing quietly.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Keith knew Thelma and Clara had a point. Everyone was way too quick to anger tonight, and had all made a mistake in pitching all their apples in on one basket: in this case, it was trying to do a ritual with an arguably more experienced group of Chaos magicians. He sighed, stepping away from the fence to face his friends. "I think we all learned something valuable today. For me, it was that I need to keep my anger in check. Johnny might be an irresponsible delinquent, but that doesn't mean he's still Clara's friend and looks out for her. For the record, if I wasn't so frustrated tonight and if he and Floyd didn't push my buttons so goddamn much, I wouldn't have had to fight them personally."

Turning to Gabe, he folded his arms. "Gabriel, I've known you the longest, and we both know that you hold grudges. Johnny is hardly an issue for us that deserves a grudge. If I were you, I wouldn't bother with him, and he shouldn't do so with you. It'd be self-destructive for you both."

"Ok, Gramps," Gabe quipped. "No promises."

Then, to Clara. "Whatever is between you and Johnny, I can understand. Just... don't turn this into something that'll pull this group apart. If I were you, I would make it up to him myself."

Then, finally, to Thelma, who took a puff from her cigarette that Keith rather forcefully snatched from her mouth using his psychic powers, crumpling it into a tiny ball in the air. "Don't smoke. If there's one superstition I'm sure of, it's that smoking will kill you in the future."

---

Johnny Swift
Johnny’s House
Present Day

Stepping up to the front door, Johnny paused, taking a look at his phone.

Earlier, he had been texting Floyd to try and apologize for the shitshow that happened with the party and Weirdo Clique and everything, which went mildly well due to the swordsman's usual indifference, and suggested they do something fun for the night to make up for what he'd done. It was a sound plan in practice, but that's when things got a little weird: Floyd was remarkably cryptic in saying that "he had plans" for tonight, which Johnny, gullible as usual, understood. After all, he's an adult. He should be working... does he have a job, though?

Then he got the alert: Warwolf basically locked shit down to respond to an incident at the Hilton and other places in the city, an alert he received on his phone. Then came the text from his father, practically in all caps urging him to come home, which he did expediently.

He opened the door, being greeted by his father who sat down on his favorite chair, remarkably not drinking anything alcoholic. The speedster looked around the living room, placing his hands into his pocket. "I'm home, like you said. Where's mom?"

"Taking a shower, upstairs. She got let out early for the curfew." His father explained, his eyes glued to the television screen. Johnny stretched his legs and moved over to the couch, likewise watching the harrowing report on the television screen. Remaining silent for a good minute, Johnny sighed, resting his head against his palm as he propped an elbow up against the back of the couch. "Look, Dad. Back when there was the party and everything... I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I—"

"No need to say sorry," His father interrupted him. "I realized you, like all teens these age, need to go out more. To be frank, so do I." Arms folded across his chest, he watched a middle-aged man with blonde, unkempt hair take the cameras with the caption "PRESIDENT SPEAKS ABOUT RUSSIA MILITARIZATION." He scoffed. "On the other hand, this senile bozo does. Why's he working with the commies again?"

"Dad, I don't think Russia's commie anymore."

"Whatever, Swift," Johnny's father grunted with disgust in his voice, motioning for the fridge. "The energy drink. The one with the silver can."

Johnny opened up the refrigerator, revealing one of the cans in question and wincing at the name: 'Magnus Super Powered XL Energy Drink with Death Pepper Spice.' Last time he had one of these, he'd almost burned his trachea out and reached enough speed to cross through the entirety of town in a couple of minutes. "You know this stuff kills people, Dad."

"I've been shot at, beaten up, tortured, and smoked. You think some stupid little drink's gonna kill me, Swift?" He chuckled, taking the can from his son and opening it. "Y'know, I was in Russia once, when real super soldiers were a thing. You know, no fancy lasers being shot out of your hands or flying, just the real deal. Me and the boys in big, hulking suits of armor—can you believe it? I obviously couldn't tell your mom, but I guess you can keep a secret. Heh."

He took a sip from the can, as Johnny tried to make sense of what his father had told him, while also watching the afternoon news. His father let an ahh escape from his mouth, smiling. "Yep. They just don't make 'em like they used to."

---

Harley the Dog
Wonder Tower
Present Day

Wow! Amazing! I'm a member of the team now! Keeping his head held high, Harley pranced around the room as if he were a show dog. If he had the proper muscles to do so, his facial expression would be "smiling," like a human. Letting his tongue loll from his mouth, he excitedly ran around the room, his tail wagging wildly. What am I gonna do first? Am I gonna stop some fiends? Chase some squirrels? Fight some—

Then the door closed shut on his face and clicked. Like a bird, Harley tilted his head to the side, looking at the door with confused eyes. ...What?

He approached the door, trying it with his paws to no avail. A bark to tell Carter to "get back here" only came out as a short "ruff", which practically went unheard as no one came to open up the door. Upset, Harley whimpered and turned away from the door, eyeing the room in confusion. Where had Carter gone? Why had he left? When was he going to come back? He quickly lost track of what he was thinking about and began snooping around. Pacing around Carter's room once more, Harley tried to find something that would make his time less... boring. Rummaging through drawers and closets, he found what appeared to be a small stuffed animal, something Harley was familiar with. It was reminiscent of a bear in everything except smell, so Harley found a liking to it quickly, picking it up with his mouth and tossing it over to the bed.

A search under Carter's bed revealed some very... bad... smelling clothing that was strewn across the floor, one of which found its way atop Harley's muzzle after sniffing the ground for things. He shook his head and ran wildly away from the stinking clothes, wrinkling his nose in disgust. Carter was very nice and all, and he did give him a home, but did he have to be so messy with his things? Even Harley thought he was clean for a dog, with most of the people that met him on the street mistaking him for some couple's lost dog instead of an actual stray.

Inadvertently running into the side of Carter's bed and slightly tipping it for a moment due to his strength, Harley flopped down onto the ground and whined, before his eyes fell upon something shiny under the bed. Laying down on his chest and extending his head out under the bed, Harley pulled out the small, unassuming cardboard box, accidentally tipping it over. Several miscellaneous books scattered themselves out from the small box, along with two strange-looking ones in particular, seemingly hidden under the regular ones.

Sniffing the strange items, Harley looked down at one of them in particular, trying to make sense of the words and oddly-positioned human on its cover.

"Galaxy Girls: Hottest Babes in the Universe"? What could that mean?

His mind straying away from the weird pages, Harley hopped back up onto Carter's bed, inspecting the soulless eyes of the stuffed bear deeply. It seemed to be staring back at him.

You lookin' at me funny, huh? He lunged, taking the bear up with a snap to his neck and wringing him around, before tossing him over to the other side of the room. His eyes widened as he hopped off the bed, running over to the stuffed bear that, miraculously, was still intact. Oh no! Did I hurt you? Are you ok?

No response. Harley flopped down onto his rump, whining in sorrow. Nooo! I killed him!

---

Meanwhile
CORE & PLEX vs the Fresno Firestarters
Fresno, California

Despite all the obvious death and destruction that was going on, Billy thought that their ride into Fresno was a pretty awesome sight to behold. Every member of the Firestarters were riding towards the alien mothers that had Fresno on lockdown in unison: two titanic, chrome-covered robotic giants that had erased a couple of people with dark matter weapons were currently wreaking havoc to the rest of the city, in a seemingly targeted attack against any people who had powers. While parts of the city ahead of them burned and people screamed and ran, the Firestarters rode towards the sounds of chaos, using the now vacated highway lane that went towards the city to close in on the aliens as droves of people were stuck in traffic trying to leave.

Additionally, it was quite the artistic sight, to be honest. The city in chaos in the background provided a great backdrop to the sight of Daniel's mech suit and Kiera flying alongside Kyle's tiny fighter jets and Giovanni himself, all as Billy rode the sports bike through the burning streets. Despite this, they were well aware of the danger that came with this mission, and they very well could've been riding to their deaths.

A suitably epic ride, Billy thought, watching the buildings of Fresno pass by. ...for an epic battle.

Ahead of them stood the two so-called "alien invaders:" two hulking metal beasts that walked fluidly towards them through the smoke and flames, their figures being distorted by the heat waves both by weather and burning nearby vehicles. The airborne members of the team slowed down and landed ahead of Billy as he braked, moving his sportbike into a long power slide across the street before eventually coming to a halt. The robots stopped what they were doing upon hearing the squeaking tires, turning slowly towards the team in unison.

Kiera spoke first, floating above the tean as she gazed upon the Enforcers with awe. "To be fair, I never knew they were so.. tall. They look like they mean business."

Kyle only gulped, stepping off Billy's bike as the master martial artist tied his signature red headband around his forehead, practicing a few moves against invisible targets. As much as he respected his enthusiasm, it wasn't going to help them at all. This wasn't a very good situation to begin with. A team like the LA Stars could hop right in and be just fine, whereas they, some B-list team in all levels, were going in without any proper planning whatsoever. It wasn't in their control, but it was still something to worry about. Not to mention, these were two robots that could easily wipe out half the city if they so wanted to. His expectations, to say the least, were quite low.

Billy reassuringly moved over to the red-haired teen, patting him on his shoulder. "Ey, Kyle. Tell your soldiers that I've spotted the enemy: two big ass metal bastards walkin' our way now, just askin' for an ass-whooping."

"Noted." Kyle nervously walked back towards the rear of the team as he opened arms. Behind them, a miniature brigade had appeared, complete with helicopters, artillery pieces, and infantry that took various positions by debris. RC car-sized tanks rolled past his feet, stopping in a firing formation in front of the team. He intended on using them as support against the robots, reserving the big guns like tanks and artillery against the robots whereas his troops were more or less just distractions. He couldn't do much, obviously, but if it meant providing a buffer or at least slowing the robots down, he'd do it.

Meanwhile, the three flight-capable members of the team landed, Giovanni powering off as he glared down the two robots. "Stay on alert, guys. We don't know what these things are capable of."

_____________________________________

For a moment, it seemed like CORE glitched. His red eye became even brighter as he flanked his brother's side, one arm morphing into an arm cannon as the other fashioned itself into a blade. Several of these "superhero" life forms were inbound, which, to say the least, greatly alarmed him. PLEX too became alarmed, moving into a defensive stance as he spotted the group right away, preparing for battle. The response time had been, to say the least, very slow, but for people like the "superheroes," response time didn't matter. All that mattered was destructive output, which PLEX was concerned about. Immediately, his mental logic with PLEX's, opening up linked communications with his brother.

>>PLEX
>>PLEX
>>PLEX
<\Loud and clear.
>>SEVERAL SUPERHEROES ARE INBOUND
<\And you panic?
>>NO
>>INITIATE THREAT ASSESSMENT IMMEDIATELY
>>WE ARE OUTNUMBERED TWO TO FIVE.
<\Affirmative, CORE. Initiating Threat Assessment Scan.
<\....................... ................ ....................
<\Results: Capestagram Search indicates team is known as "Fresno Firestarters."
<\They are a local team.
<\Scanning social media archives now.
>>HURRY.

In only a few moments (nanoseconds in human terms), however, PLEX had already scoured social media, finding a plethora of information related to the team... they, apparently, used social media excessively as a promotional tool, but were not very popular outside of the "California" area.

<\The results are in. Sending video files.
<\Giovanni Emiliani: Energy-based combatant capable of flight.
<\Kyle Bormann: Miniature army.
<\Kiera Ambrose: Vector-based anomalous powers.
<\Daniel McTavish: Powered assault armor.
<\Billy Reeves: ...Magic headband. I am unsure as to what this means.
<\ATTACHED: FresnoFirestarterVlog#103.mov
<\I estimate that there are 10^9 different scenarios to this outcome.
>>BUT ONLY ONE WHERE WE DESTROY THEM
>>PRIORITIZE GIOVANNI AND KIERA, THEN MOVE TO DANIEL.
>>WAIT ONE. THEY APPEAR TO BE CONTACTING US.
<\Indeed.
>>FORMULATING VERBAL RESPONSE IN THE NATIVE COLLOQUIAL TONGUE.

_____________________________________

"I said, what's your deal, you big, walking rust buckets? Are you mute or something?" Billy called out, much to his team's dismay. He hadn't given the robots no longer than five seconds to reply to his first call when they suddenly stopped moving, and so he flung call after call at them, referring to them as such names like "tin-cans" and "robo-bitches." Giovanni rolled his eyes at the sight. One of these days, Billy's banter was going to get him killed, but he couldn't do much about it, knowing how stubborn he was.

Then, one of the robots—the one with the red lights—moved forwards, stopping once he was within earshot of the Firestarters. A baritone, artificial voice then greeted them, rattling their bones.

"GET LOST, B-LIST, CARBON-BASED SCUM."

Appalled, Billy leaned back. "Hey, who you callin' B-lis—"

Then, the other one stepped forwards and began to run.

The ground shattered underneath PLEX's feet as he broke into a sprint which was, admittedly, pretty slow compared to the fastest on the Firestarters, but was abrupt and sudden enough to make the team jump in surprise and get serious. Giovanni cried out first, the team leader shouting "SCATTER!" as he powered up, golden energy surrounding him as he leaped up out of the way of the charging robot, while Kyle's miniature army began dumping whatever they could onto a now-charging CORE, in an attempt to slow him down, a wall of glowing tracer rounds and small explosions that peppered his armor only barely causing the Enforcer to stagger. He swatted Billy's incoming "Lion Uppercut" out the way and slammed him down with an open palm, before being blasted away by a large railgun shot from Daniel.

Quickly changing direction in mid-air, Giovanni dive-bombed PLEX, whose head suddenly snapped upwards to him, flashing him with a golden light from his eyes. The Enforcer's silvery armor plating quickly changed to a darker, opaque color as he grabbed a hold of the flying Italian's leg with swiftness only Billy could match. Miraculously, PLEX's hand was not burning off—as any other object normally would be—and Giovanni could only cry out as he was lobbed away effortlessly, bringing up an energy shield around his body at the last minute as he crashed across the street towards Kiera. The physics manipulator then caught Gio with her powers, diverting him over to safety as she frantically swung an arm up, causing the incoming dark matter beam to bounce away from her and into a building, gutting the structure.

Kiera looked around through the dust and smoke. "That was clo—"

A metallic sound she'd practically only heard in movie trailers then came in front of her as the dust parted ways: CORE was coming in for another bull charge, swinging a fist down into a chop that connected with Kiera's vector shield. She was sent flying as another swing shattered the shield, barely escaping a messy fate from hitting the building as Giovanni came out of nowhere at the last minute, catching her before she hit the building.

"Now we're equal." Giovanni set her down and resumed fighting the Enforcers.

Once he was up from his painful chokeslam, Billy jogged over towards friendly lines, eyes wide. "New plan," he suddenly grabbed Kyle by the collar of his jumpsuit, turning around and raising a leg. "Secret Reeves family technique: run for your damn life!" Then, he turned tail and broke into a sprint as he dragged Kyle along, dodging a large violet beam that streaked past him and Kyle, vaporizing a few of Kyle's miniature units in the process.

Kyle swore loudly as he was wrung into cover, right beside a few of his miniature snipers and artillery pieces placed at the other end of the street. Billy panted, shaking his head wildly. "Okay, Jesus Christ, dude. That thing almost zapped me."

"Hold on, I'll get an airstrike going," Kyle said, nodding as Billy ran back into the fight to help out his flight-capable counterparts. The red-haired teenager swore loudly as he summoned a miniature radio telephone operator (RTO), who tried organizing an airstrike on their position. Just as he had anticipated before, the Firestarters had just gone into the fight without any proper planning or scouting, and now, Kyle knew they were paying the price for their ignorance. He heard how easily they had dispatched the police and other people earlier at Gio's house. A team like the Firestarters was no different, and if they didn't get a proper plan up soon, they'd all be toast. Vaporized toast.

"Sir? We've got CAS on the line." The toy-sized RTO saluted him. "What'll it be?"

"GBU-43/B. Danger close on our position. We need it ASAP."

_____________________________________

Daniel's thoughts about his fate in the fight were interrupted by a series of rapid beeps on his right ear.

On the right corner of his armor's HUD, red alert markers alerted him of an incoming projectile to his right, as his armor automatically located the incoming lance of energy. Knowing how he was in no room to dodge them, he knelt down to the floor and held out his arm as if he were holding a shield, producing a steel shield that bore the brunt of the purple beam. He slowly slid backwards as the shield began to melt away, purple flames licking the sides of the glowing metal. Then, once the robot stopped firing, he dropped the now molten mechanical shield from the Silver Knight's arm, activating the rocket thrusters on his back as he picked up speed. He began running towards the silver behemoth with the blue lights on him, the one who had fired the beam at him.

"Vector!" He called out to his friend that, with the help of Gio, knocked the one with red lights into the building. "Weigh the blue bastard down, would you?"

"Got it!" The vector manipulator then pointed her fingers down, the ground beneath the blue robot suddenly buckling and cracking as it found itself immobilized by an unknown force. Then, Daniel began to move. His plan was simple: use the thrusters on his armor to gain enough speed and slam into the immobilized robot, and proceed to destroy it with a railgun to the face. Carrying forth with his plan, Daniel slammed a shoulder into it, his mech driving the blue robot into a nearby building as he reached to his side, drawing one of his gauss weapons up and swinging it up to the robot's face.

"Eat this, you—"

Despite its sluggish movement speed, and the fact that it was partially pinned down, the robot's right arm suddenly disappeared and reappeared near his chest. PLEX's reaction speed was high, almost higher than the Silver Knight's, in fact. It grabbed onto the barrel of the railgun-like weapon right as it fired, its hand seemingly tanking the brunt of the round without any effect as he crushed the barrel like a sheet of paper. Before Daniel had a chance to act, small tendrils came from tiny pores in PLEX's armor, briefly hooking up to the Silver Knight as the mech suit's systems began to glitch. Then, once he regained control, Daniel tried to throw him off, only to miss as PLEX drove his head forwards and blasted Daniel off him.

Leveling himself above the ground as he checked his chest for any severe damage, Daniel landed on his feet, focusing in one one of PLEX's other arms that was slowly forming into a long, pointy blade. Immediately, he reached to his power suit's side and revealed his own blade, bringing up the sword in a block against a rather powerful swing sent to him by PLEX. He then launched himself backwards, away from the silvery titan.

Jesus... the hell is this thing made of?! Daniel began to walk backwards slowly as the silvery robot's blue light blinked, his armor suddenly changing texture to a dark, stealth-bomber like paint as Daniel readied his shoulder-mounted heat seekers.

Alright... let's try something... new!

He launched the missiles at PLEX, each of which screamed towards the alien but... didn't stop him? They didn't even register PLEX as a target.. simply arcing away and twirling off towards another target as PLEX just ran straight, his armor turning back to the silver material it once was. He planted one foot into the ground and leaped up in an earth-shaking yet graceful move that he could only envy, the sword-arm morphing back into a regular fist that drove straight down towards Daniel's own counterattack. The resulting shockwave blew away both mech and Enforcer alike, forcing the Silver Knight onto the ground as PLEX merely staggered, remaining anchored onto the ground.

"Holy cow... Kiera, you see that?"

His girlfriend landed by the Silver Knight, nodding grimly as she assisted it upwards. "It used your move against you.."

"Damn right it did." Daniel knew he would have to be careful around this one, knowing how it could so easily copy his moves, use it against him, and adapt to what he threw at him. Unlike the other, red one, which seemed to be relying on brute strength and durability, this one was the smarter fighter, constantly learning attacks from his enemies... However, it hadn't seemingly adapted to Kiera's vector attack along with a slam by his shoulder, which set off a bit of a lightbulb in his head. He reached to his side, revealing two more gauss pistols that he clicked together, one barrel of one weapon snapping into the other, forming, essentially, one giant assault rifle-type railgun. Reaching a hand to the side of the Silver Knight's helmet, Daniel began to speak.

"Hey, team, I think I found a way to beat 'em! They can't fight two things at once! Kiera and I are gonna take on this blue one, and Gio—Gio?!"

_____________________________________

Concurrent to when Daniel and Kiera began their assault towards the robot with blue lights, Giovanni and Billy began theirs towards the one with red lights, with Kyle staying behind to provide covering fire.

Giovanni stared down CORE like a cowboy preparing to duel with an outlaw. "I'll take the bastard from above, paisan. You take out his legs."

"Got it." Billy tightened his red hairband as the Italian powered up and flew forwards, leaving him to sprint towards CORE. The robot, however, didn't even skip a beat. The ground beneath his feet was essentially pushed away as he charged, causing a minor earthquake in the process as his body began to manipulate. What were once arms and legs turned into spoke-like feet that rotated rapidly, allowing him to pick up speed and momentum as he approached the two. Giovanni flew upwards and above CORE as Billy slid under him, but the Enforcer seemed to be well-prepared for this, morphing his spoke-limbs back into their default state as he broke into a roll, passing by the two.

He whipped his body around and fired a dark matter blast from his arm, which collided with Gio right as the golden-haired Firestarter crossed his arms and brought up a shield, tanking the beam. While this happened, Billy dropkicked CORE onto his side, finally being able to shout his "Lion Uppercut!" that sent the Enforcer up into the air, sliding upwards across the side of a nearby building. However, CORE didn't fly so well, beginning to plummet down to the ground like an anvil.

Judging by his direction and speed, CORE was planning on crushing them. With the speed and grace of an Olympic gymnast, Billy evaded the incoming Enforcer, but was brought up off his feet from the ensuing shockwave that blew pieces of the road in all directions. Billy covered his eyes from the ensuing cloud of dust and from the burning in his eyes—the fires were getting even worse, which meant either they had to move or take down the robots themselves, and quickly. The prospects weren't looking too good regardless.

_____________________________________

<\You seem to be having some difficulties with those two, CORE.
>>NO
>>TACTICAL UPDATE: THEY WILL BE DEFEATED IN T-MINUS FIVE MINUTES
<\Then I shall start a timer. Ha ha ha!
>>DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER, BROTHER
>>DO NOT MOCK ME
>>I HAVE FORMULATED A STRATEGY TO DEFEAT THEM ALL IN A TIMELY MANNER
>>SOMETHING YOU SEEM TO BE INCAPABLE OF DOING AS WELL
>>RECOMMEND YOU STAY AT A CLEAR DISTANCE.
<\Acknowledged.
>>START TIMER

Now came the hard part: fighting two things at once.

CORE was always the more brutal and cunning warrior-class Enforcer as opposed to his brother's cunning but brutal nature. His plan was simple, yet brilliant at the same time: use the energy manipulator's own power against the rest of his team. Giovanni was teeming with limitless amounts of energy that he cold easily harvest and use to wipe out the rest of the team in one fell swoop. The only drawback with this was trying to bait Giovanni into charging him headfirst.

With the fighters obscured by the cloud of dust, CORE switched to thermal vision, and then to infrared, spotting the white hot outline of the two right away, stunned by the dust and nearby fire. CORE ran forwards again, targeting Billy first and swinging through the smoke. His fist walloped the martial artist who immediately went into a ragdoll state, allowing CORE to toss his body away from his prize. His throw had inadvertently caused the destruction of a great deal of tiny aircraft from Kyle, causing the red-haired adolescent pain as CORE spotted him doubling over. He decided not to follow up on Kyle, much rather deciding to focus his priorities on the elephant in the room: Giovanni.

The Italian was coming right for the Enforcer, who stood his ground. Just as planned.

As the glowing gold object closed in on his position, CORE stradled his legs and opened his rather wide chest cavity right for Giovanni. What would've been a powerful strike turned into the exact opposite for Giovanni as CORE's Threat Absorption Device activated, quickly siphoning energy from the powered-up young adult and converting it into a usable form. Lest he try and break away, CORE pushed Gio further into his chest, ignoring the shrill screams and wails for help as he quickly reached his Threat Absorption Device's limits—let alone his dark matter core's limits.

>>FASCINATING
>>THIS POWeeeeeeeeeeeee---ee
>>WARNING: POWER CORE OVERHEATING --- MELTDOWN IMMINENT
<\Two minutes remain. If you will.

Unsure about whether or not he was going to explode first or if Giovanni was going to die first, CORE suddenly paused as the latter abruptly powered off, going limp. He discarded Giovanni to the side, much to the horror of the rest of the team—namely Daniel, who cried out his name in shock.

Hard part down. Now came the easy one.

Aiming his arm-cannon downrange to the vector manipulator and man in armor, CORE unleashed Giovanni's captured energy out as his own, a colossal car-sized focus beam completely negating Kiera's shield and Daniel's Silver Knight, blasting the two away into submission. Still firing the beam, he then cast it towards Billy, who made the foolish mistake of trying to block the incoming attack after he was up, whilst also failing to realize his own durability. Like the others, he was flung away, leaving Kyle the last man standing of the quintet.

CORE cut off the beam, aiming it at the red hair—

KA-BOOM

A thunderous explosion rocked the area, much larger than any ordinance Kyle had sent out thus far. The MOAB, once it slapped against CORE and detonated, was powerful enough to launch him backwards towards PLEX, who simply sidestepped out of the way of his incoming brother. Kyle had expended most of his troops and remained on the ground, crouched, seemingly injured as his troops endured vast losses throughout the battle. Now, he was the last to remain. PLEX raised his arm upwards and pointed at the teen, just about ready to ultimately erase him, when the booming voice of his creator was heard in his head.

>> * WARRIORS CORE AND PLEX * <<

>>I LISTEN, ALCYONEUS.
<\I listen, Alcyoneus.

>> * A SUBSTANTIAL THREAT HAS BEEN DETECTED ON THE EURASIA CONTINENT. * <<
>> * IMMEDIATE RETASKING: LOCATE AND DESTROY THE THREAT. DO NOT DELAY. *<<

_____________________________________

Sparing him, either out of luck or because he wasn't willing to expend energy to kill something that wasn't even remotely a threat, the Enforcers turned away from Kyle and lowered their weapons, summoning their spaceship that arrived soon afterwards. The bottom hatch on the geometrically-bizarre spacecraft opened up, an antigravity lift sucking the two in just as quickly as it had arrived, leaving the scene promptly afterwards.

The ensuring gust of wind from its takeoff blew away much of the smoke and dust, allowing Kyle a good look at the devastation around him: much of the surrounding area already destroyed from the Enforcers' earlier rampage had been obliterated in their fight alone, meaning that a recovery would take months, if not years. The sound of sirens in the background quickly reminded him of his friends as he whipped his head out of cover and around the battlefield to find many of them scattered across the battlefield, bruised, battered, and—for all he knew—dead.

As he limped over to Billy's body, which had been surrounded by dozens of miniature medical tents and military ambulances, Kyle dropped to his knees, an eye twitching in disbelief at the horror before him.

They're gone... those robots.. they just come over here, just to beat up my friends to the verge of death.. and leave..?"

_____________________________________

---

Meanwhile
Undisclosed Location, Russia

Before Russian President Oleg Martyanov stood a semicircle of tall, onyx obelisks, each with the codename of their respective Kaspersy Unit's Strategic Command (СТРАТКОМ) member emblazoned on the front. Officially, these men didn't exist, operating at a level that not even those in the Russian Defense Ministry's highest echelons knew about. СТРАТКОМ was an inner circle comprised of high-ranking GRU members that met monthly with Martyanov via teleconference, from a location that, effectively, didn't even exist. That didn't keep rumors from being spread around the cabinet as to why the President kept up with his streaks of "meetings" with the American President, ever since the Yank's rather controversial camptaign.

As far as the rest of Russia knew, however, no one knew the severity of these meetings, and no one cared to figure out why. However, today's meeting was different, primarily because the regularly-scheduled monthly meeting had happened yesterday.

Each of the onyx obelisks in the dark room lit up with the respective codename and personal emblem of each of the СТРАТКОМ members as they signed on. Oleg drummed his fingers against the table, showing no signs of emotion aside from frustration on his clean shaven head. "Tell me what we know, gentlemen. About the invaders."

"They seemed to have noticed our increased military presence after the parade was broadcast worldwide, and are headed to Russia now. Should they keep on their current course, they will reach us in six hours."

"Hm." Martyanov grunted. They were moving fast, almost too fast, and that was barely enough time to prepare. "And what can we expect of them when they touch down?"

"Destruction on a massive scale, sir," another member of the inner circle answered. "The American city of Fresno was decimated by their attack, as were a local team of heroes known as the Firestarters on the media. If they were to reach a city such as Moscow, it would fall within hours."

"But that is where we differentiate, is it not?" A female voice belonging to another member of СТРАТКОМ inquired, to which Martyanov nodded in agreement. "Continue, General."

"The Yanks gladly flaunt their overwhelming presence of superhumans on the media, in advertisements—everywhere in public life. They embrace their diversity among humans and nonhumans alike, which led to their disaster in Fresno. The invaders' attack was targeted—the primarily superhuman quarter of Fresno was destroyed, along with a great number of people who all had one thing in common: their super-lives were active on social media."

Now things were getting spicy. Martyanov couldn't help but sneak a grin, knowing what he was implying. He liked where this man was going. "What are you suggesting, tovarishch-General?"

"That such a targeted attack would be impossible in a center like Moscow if we were to act quickly."

Martyanov adjusted himself in his chair, trying to hide his excitement. He was appalled a person like this wasn't a higher rank yet—let alone a woman. "Continue."

"Because we live in a society where vigilantism and "villainy" is illegal, sir, very few people broadcast their super-lives online. I have summarized that these invaders will go wherever they believe is a substantial threat, so, theoretically, if we were to re-purpose a few, say, obsolete Soviet-era radar posts around the country to broadcast fake reports of our military power, we could lead the invaders on a wild goose chase throughout Russia, giving us enough time to prepare for their worst. Adding on to the fact that we happen to have a highly-trained, well-equipped unit dedicated to stopping threats like these known as the Kaspersy Unit, along with an experienced powerhouse from the United Champions..."

"It would make for the perfect trap." Martyanov grinned as he finished her thoughts, standing up from his chair. "Ladies and gentlemen, we have our plan. We will lead the invaders on a wild goose chase throughout our country utilizing fake broadcasts, which will give us enough time to review what the Yanks did wrong and what we can do better, and how we can prepare Special Unit K for battle. Additionally..." He paused grimly, well-knowing the implications of what came next. "It will give us enough time to try and reason with Igor Casitov." The man had changed drastically from his time in the Russian Mob, spending most of his free time with close friends and family. Martyanov knew asking such a well-respected, yet fearsome hero, was going to be a hard task.

Nontheless, he persisted, confident that the man could return for one final mission. "However, I have hope. Comrade Mammoth's country calls him—and I am determined that he will heed the call."

[Charmera]

Reem

Cassandra

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Pulling onto the blade of the sword held in Jason's hands, Floyd suddenly noticed the blood on his arm and seeped in his shirt collecting on his wrist, forming a construct. Oh, right, how could I forget, that bloody bitch. Literally. Still locked in a struggle with the mold monster, Floyd didn't really have much he could do besides wait, but as soon as he felt the construct start to tug at his wrist in an attempt to yank him away, the swordsman let go of the blade and suddenly tossed himself in the direction of the pull, rolling across the floor a few times before landing on his feet and suddenly smashing his fist at the floor to break the blood construct.

He lost his sword, but at least he didn't lose an arm.

And his problems weren't even over, as the sound of something flying through the air was caught by his ears. Ah, a steel table, thrown by the robot charging towards him. I didn't even know this room had steel tables, huh.

Floyd's answer to this gambit was swift - charge at Cassandra, catch the steel table by one of its legs and chuck it right back at the android, only to watch it get obliterated by her plasma cannon. Ah, obvious.

Let's see. I'm not sure why she bothered to toss that table at me when she has a plasma cannon available, but since she has pulled it out, she's clearly going to resort to using it. And without my sword, I have no ranged defense. Alright, I don't know what this thing's physicals are, but close quarters will have to be my go-to here.

With cracks and sparks of crimson pupping in and out of existence around him, Floyd suddenly entered a burst of superhuman speed, closing the distance between him and Cassandra in mere seconds and continuing past that, aiming to tackle the android directly and then yank her by one of her arms into the floor as a body slam.

Floyd's response was unfortunately swift, and her attempt to unbalance him with the table gambit had failed. She had not fully calculated his advanced speed correctly, though the readings of his potential energy were inconsistent and confusing. It was more than likely whatever force gave him his abilities were making it harder for her to get a read on his capabilities. Some of the more esoteric forces could do that, like magic or psychic ability. His reaction speed especially was a mystery, as if some variable in that equation kept changing.

If I had more time I could likely account for this. But I don't. Incomplete information was a danger to a being that functioned on data. He's a tactical fighter, and he knows that without his sword he opens himself up to ranged attacks. This is why he is attempting to eliminate me.

She had no way of stopping his tackle and no way of dodging, he was too fast and her cannon was not in a position where she could simply fire repeatedly to keep him back. Instead, she braced to take the tackle instead, planting her own mass firmly in order to keep herself upright.

The slam of the tackle itself was inconsequential in terms of damage, but the exchanges of forces would be key in determining how the next few seconds would play out. First, it was a horizontal force which pushed her back. The main thing was to ensure she was not bowled over by the force. If she spent any amount of time on the floor, she would open herself up to punishing follow up attacks. A savvy enemy would disable her movement, then her arms, then finish her with blows to her head that would disable her completely. In fact, it might even leave her software beyond repair, corrupted and leaving her effectively inert metal.

The next few seconds were life and death.

The intial force of the tackle was surprisingly less than she had anticipated, but then she saw the reasoning for it as she was suddenly grappled by her arm. Then she was yanked by one of her arms, then the analysis of the forces involved informed her of his next move.

She was already grabbed, there was nothing she could do about that. Her opponent was fast enough that she was not able to evade it and strong enough that said grip would be far to difficult to wrench in this space between moments. She could not get free.

Or could she...

She was being lifted up by her arm, presumably for a slam downwards or a punishing jab from his free arm. She was now, for the briefest of moments, off the ground. This gave her legs room to move.

With a vicious suddeness, a metal kick was unleashed towards her opponents face. If he took the blow, then she would have enough force to free herself from his grasp. If he grabbed her leg she could use her weight and an attack from her free hand to unbalance him completely. If he moved his head, he ceded valuable time with which she could counterattack again to his chest.

Whatever the result of her kick, she used the bought time, space and/or oppertunity to point her free arm at his face, that arm transforming into a cannon which blasted out a blue energy.

She wouldn't escape unscathed. The swordsman, temporarily relieved of his sword, would likely be able to take advantage of her desperate attacks as much as she. Perhaps she would lose an arm or somethign else. But this would stop herself from being taken out of the fight completely.

Repairs are cheap. She thought, her eyes flickering briefly to her allies. opportunities are priceless.

[Indo-pasif archipelago]

Amir Zairi
Beneath the Wonder Foundation
As I struggled to put the rock golem down, a girl suddenly jumped next to me shouting 'Heavy Artillery!!' before she pulled a freaking rocket launcher out of nowhere. I could barely protect myself properly when the rockets exploded. Lucky for me, an invisible forced pulled me behind and away from the blast zone.

"Thank you for nothing, Elle." I spat at the try-had edgy girl that almost blow my ass and Cas' to the seventh heaven. "Maybe try to see if your teammate could be exploded to tiny bits before you shoot a goddamn rocket in front of their face!" Before I continued venting my anger at her reckless behaviour, Renata snapped me out of it by taking control over the situation and coming up with a plan. I agreed that we need to target their joints, which was part of the reason why I did the chain trick earlier. I should definitely try it again, preferably more permanent than last time. Alright, we could do this. Let's beat 'em up.

"Aight Kabuto. I need to prepare for it though. Let's move away from where the enemies are and find a better spot. Chicle, come with us and help me patch your boy up"

We moved to one of the smaller halls so I could focus better on fixing Casimir up. Healing spells are not something I looked very much into. One thing is that human body is a highly complex mechanism, with each of its part interconnected to one another. What I think would be helping could do exactly the opposite. Second reason why I do not researching into it is the fact that my shield charm is usually enough to protect me. After that fight with the vampire though, maybe I do need to start reading on this stuff. Anyway, healing Cas was my top priority, do upgrades later. First, I needed to improvise as I do not have chalk left. I cut the tip of my finger and let my blood flow. There is a reason why you see so many cult leaders or wannabe wizard use blood sacrifice; they are really potent to be used as part of a magic spell. All I need was a shallow cut on my finger tips, but It was enough for me to draw the rune I needed. I waved my hand to briefly open the magic orb that surrounded me so it wouldn't get in the way.

"Chicle, help me and open up his helmet please." I asked Viviana. She duly complied and put the helmet aside, while Casimir laid down next to her. "It might be a bit gross, but since you have this whole bug aesthetic going I guess that won't affect you much. Anyway, close your eyes now. Don't want to blind you with my own blood." As I said, I did not know any rune that could instantly heal him back to full health like video games power-ups, but I do know a rune that could increase the cellular regeneration of a creature. I used it a few time to tangle people using overgrowing vines, but this would be the first I use it on a person. Hopefully I was not giving him a cancer. I would just draw a limiting rune as precaution.

"Alright, done." I announced to my first patient. "It would take some time until you can feel the effect, but basically what I did is amping up your regeneration. You would need to stay still for a minute or so. Chicle, make sure he doesn't go anywhere kay? That's doctor's order." I returned back to my Arcane Orb and hovered toward the battle. "I will go help the rest of our friends, go join us once all your organs are back in place."

The moment I returned to the fight, I saw that both side was still stalling for each other. I used the chance to do the same thing I did earlier, but with a slight change. Part of the orb unfurled and struck down the ground beneath me...

Before it appeared next to the golem and tangled it, preventing its movement.

"That's your distraction Stella. Go now!"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

"Looks like I don't need to play distraction after all." Makeshift said to Stella after seeing Amir quickly pull back to heal Casimir and then move forward and bind one of the golems so that Stella could put it down with her lasers. "You take that one out. I'll deal with the other." She ordered, a stern expression on her face as she pulled out the power cell from her remaining working gauntlet and retrieved two more, one intact and one half-consumed, from her vest, leaving her with her rocket boots as her only functioning gadgets. It was a highly dangerous gambit... but given the situation, it was all she felt she could do.

Jumping into action, Alexis flew towards the stone golem that was not yet engaged by her teammates and delivered a spinning kick to its forehead. Lacking the sheer level of strength that someone like Casimir had, she nonetheless still managed to put a good crack on it and send its head reeling back a little, thanks to the speed and momentum that her boots gave her. Needless to say, it also hurt, a grimace appearing on the blonde girl's face as she quickly flew back out of the giant's reach; luckily her boot was armored, but the force of the impact was still huge, more than what a regular person could take, especially without a force field keeping one safe.

Good thing I'm a tough girl. She thought, before taking a deep breath and shouting at the giant. "HEY, STONER GUY! YOU'RE GONNA HAVE TO MOVE MUCH FASTER TO CATCH ME!" She teased. She didn't know if it could even understand her or not, but either way, the words were to reassure her as much as they were to insult her opponent. Having said her piece, she flew up to the blast door behind the golems and planted the three power cells on it. They would explode the second she wanted them to, thereby getting rid of the last barrier that separated them from Hex... now, she only needed to get the golem to move close enough to be enveloped in the explosion, without getting turned to mush in the process.

Easier said than done.

Standing next to the door and watching as the golem approached clumsily, Alexis started shaking, mentally cursing at herself for it. Raising up a hand to her comms, she spoke. "Casimir, whenever you're patched up, I could use a little help here."

[Absolon-7]

Amir Zairi

Alexis

Casimir Herman July 23rd
As he was currently tied up in Chicle's arms Casimir couldn't do much but follow Wondermaker to a smaller hall away from the danger of the rock monsters. Amir told him to lay down on the floor for the healing spell and begrudgingly he complied. Viviana followed Amir telling her to remove his helmet. Now this was annoying. How could the amazing Kabuto expose his head and bring down the glory of superheroics? Whatever, if this could stop his organs from feelings like juice pulp then he could go through with it. Laying flat on the floor he closed his eyes and waited for the spell to start. Wait, what the flying fuck did he say about blood? And just because he had a goddamn bug aesthetic didn't mean he didn't hate getting dirty! Oh fine, let it be so.

He barely stopped himself from headbutting Amir as the magician wiped the blood rune on him and a tight grimace of annoyance filled his face. A bright light shined on his face and before he knew it Amir excised himself to join the rest of the squad. Opening his eyes Casimir could feel the healing energy course through his internal organs powering up his own regeneration by a high margin. Turning his head Casimir saw Viviana squatting down next to him with her arms crossed in front of knees.

"Sup," greeted Viviana, her joyful blue eyes contrasting her black domino mask, "Hope you don't mind me keeping you all wrapped up."

"Normally I would have minded but since your costume shows your bare legs I'll forgive you," said Casimir with his attempt at flirting heating his face up to match a ladybug.

"Aw shucks," said Viviana, "We're on a mission right now Casiboy. Gotta stay professional dontcha know."

"Speaking of which," said Casimir lifting his legs up and then heaving himself upwards fast enough to land squatting, "I feel mighty alright now so let's kick ass." Grabbing his helmet from the ground Kabuto and Chicle ran to where the others were but on the way Casimir's comm device acted up with Alexis' voice about needing help. "I'll be right there Makeshift" spoke Casimir into the device.

When he finally caught up with Alexis he spotted some of her power cells on the second blast door. Now this would be easy. Flinging both wrists out he shot twin strings of webbing at the blast door before jumping and pulling his arms down to his waist. The sheer force of the action slingshotted Kabuto across the hallway and boots first onto the golem's head before he let go of the webbing at the last second. This sent the rock monster stumbling back several steps and almost tipping backwards. Not satisfied, Kabuto ran at the golem and leaped up to deliver a spinning kick at the golem and this time it hit the blast door with a loud thud. Kabuto back-flipped until he was next to Alexis and said, "I assume that's what you wanted me to do?"

[Finland SSR]

Cass

The Great Floyd Tolson!

---

Alright. Good so far. He got close enough to the android chick to tackle straight in the torso, and while it wasn't enough to tip her over and win precious seconds in this duel, it didn't really matter at this point, as he got a good hold on her arm immediately afterwards and yanked on it, ready to slam her straight into the floor, then again, and again, and-

And a kick straight into his eye. Bloody hell! Doing his best to maintain discipline in the maneuver, Floyd ignored the powerful strike which had just struck him in the face, but the mere milliseconds of knockback and hesitation were apparently enough for Cassandra to gain the upper hand. Suddenly, the swordsman saw a plasma cannon form in front of his face and the light from its tip overwhelm his vision, moments before a powerful blast struck his frame directly and sent him reeling back, sliding across the floor and stopping less than a meter before a broken window. A smear of ash and blood droplets was now spread across the left side of his face, nothing critical, but a well-placed strike regardless.

Alright, this close combat shit ain't gonna work. I need my sword back. Where is that dirty ass bugge-

Jason was busy gorging himself with the food on the tables around them, with his sword nowhere in sight - even though the black slime monster was the one who held it the last time Floyd saw it.

"Where the hell did you put my-"

A gust of wind from the broken window brushed past Floyd, reminding him of what was right behind him. That window wasn't broken last time he saw it, right? No windows were. No problem putting two and two together, then.

"-oh."

You bastard.

With the corner of his eye, Floyd caught the sight of Marionette being defeated for good by the pink-haired Hadrian girl, collapsing from exhaustion immediately afterwards. Bloody hell, that's how long you can last? You were the one most excited for this fight! No doubt, with Marionette defeated, the rest of the Young Bloods are going to pile up on him pretty soon.

And Floyd wanted none of that. He was a thrill seeker, but his mind didn't classify suicide as one. The swordsman cleaned off the blood dripping across his chin with his right fist, cracked a smirk and muttered:

"Honestly, I can only give you lot applause. When I first heard of the Young Bloods forming up, I thought you're all just like what I was your age - bunch of pathetic weaklings who think they're hot shit just because they got a power at their belt. Thought life was going to do you all in faster than I do. But nope, there's some actual talent out there in Thomsen High nowadays. And, what's more important, it was fun."

Glancing behind his shoulder for a second, Floyd observed the situation below. There was plenty of police below, but as long as he leaps off with enough of a headstard, he should be able to touch down on the roof of one of the buildings around the scene. Will be less of a bother, even if it means he's not getting his sword back anytime soon. The height was the least of the swordsman's worries.

"And, one more thing - don't hesitate to just give Marionette the guillotine here. Even I don't really like her. Adieu."

With a backflip and a boost off the windowsill, Floyd leapt into the darkness of the night.

---

Viviana Couture

Casimir Herman

Amir Zairi
Beneath the Wonder Foundation

Alexis Callaghan

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

For a second there, Renata was a little afraid that the rest of the team was not going to follow through with her order, or, worse, actively resist her command - thankfully, those fears didn't end up put into practice, as the rest of the Young Bloods dutifully did as requested. Casimir calmed down after Viviana restrained him, Amir activated a healing spell on him, and the entomopath and Alexis both began putting Renata's plan on taking down the golems into practice on one of them.

Huh. This actually ended up kinda fulfilling.

Even if her dictate wasn't followed word by word, but hey, baby steps.

While one of the two rock giants was distracted by Alexis, the other was restrained by a spell activated by Amir - after which, Renata sent a nod of approval towards the magicians and turned towards the immobilized giant. Electromagnetic radiation immediately began to crackle between her fingers, imbuing both of her arms with plasma, ready to be fired. Renata took a breath through her nose.

It's restrained, but it might break out any moment now. If it hits me, I'm dead. The only advantage I have against it is speed and knowing which of its joints to strike.

Can... can someone help out? Father? Icarus? Casimir?

No, no, no! Quit it with that defeatist attitude!

Get in there, and win this battle for us.

With a sudden lunge, Renata ran forward, closing in the distance between herself and the rock monster, then applied radiation underneath her feet right before reaching it, jet-leaping to the side and tossing the plasma blast in her right palm at its left "knee". Still flying in mid-air, the heroine then formed her right hand into a finger-gun and fired a laser towards the monster's other knee, to try to melt it and have it lose its cohesion.

And now...

With a second jet boost from beneath her feet, Renata suddenly charged straight at the golem, moving her legs forward and aiming to slam at it with full force, as a way to try to separate it from its legs and have it fall on its back, hopefully leaving it harmless.

Only at the last second did the heroine realized something.

This is going to break my shock absorbers for good, isn't it?

[Segral]

Carter Graystone

"Le marionette ta salue...."

---

Wake up...

He couldn't see. He couldn't hear, couldn't smell, forget tasting or touching. He was floating in complete limbo, everything was gone. Except for one thing: nothingness. He could feel his body, feel his teeth in his jaw, feel his feet and his legs, feel his skin drooping from his eyes, but he couldn't move. He wanted so badly to move, to twitch, blink, breathe, anything. But all his body gave back was silence. His lungs remained immobile cages of steel, his eyelids remained firmly shut, his muscles paralyzed in place, his body stiffened like rigor mortis...was he dead? That had to be the only explanation. He had died, died at the Wonder Foundation. Something had happened, he remembered a blinding flash of light, a massive crack, several shouting voices...and then nothing. Yup, he was dead. Probably a bomb, full of shrapnel, probably cut right into him, tore him apart. Well, Red would be happy.

So, he was dead. It was quite peaceful actually, all floaty and blind and relaxing. No soreness, no tension, nothing. It was almost relieving, like going to sleep at the end of a very long time. He felt calm, happy, not even a twinge of sadness. Wait, that didn't make sense. He should feel sad that he was dead, he should feel angry, or upset that he was dead faster than the dog in "I Am Legend". Why didn't he feel sad? Sure, he felt a bit of regret, a little bit of envy, but he felt more relieved than upset. Did he really hate living that much?


"You're not dead yet, Carter. Come to us."

Suddenly, the world was torn away from him.

He suddenly felt his senses rush back to him. His eyes flew open, lungs violently wheezing and crying, mouth gaping and sputtering as he attempted to choke down all the water in his throat. His vision was blue, blurry, the sound around him was muffled and murky, salt was in his mouth, his whole body was cold.

He was drowning.

Suddenly, he felt water gush down his throat, gurgling and bubbling about as it filled up his throat, and began to pool in his chest. Suddenly, he felt his breath snatched away, like someone put a gag over his face. His nose and his mouth and his chest were on fire, his stomach was on fire, his face as on fire, he was on fire. Giving a silent scream of terror, he began to thrash wildly, dragging his feet uselessly and waving his arms, trying to see sunlight. It was so dark, just the faintest bits of blue, the murkiest of shadows could be seen, and his eyes were stinging and scabbing and twitching from salt. His mind suddenly went into a full panic mode, his throat spasming wildly into a series of throttled gasps as he twisted and turned, attempting to kick his way to the surface while he coughed away his life.

His vision was now turning yellow, his lungs burning, his whole body screaming for air. His head was dizzy, so dizzy, so..dizzzzzy, ah, it was so great, so great. Clothes...so warm and cold, child's play, old detective games. Everything is black now, so deep, so lovely, so black. Why thrash, why thrash, there's even hands telling him to stop. Lovely brown, and white, and yellow, and black hands, all telling him to stop. Look at how nice they are, pulling away at him, stopping him from staying alive...I'll just die here. Yes yes, what a good ideeea, to die here, so peaceful. He's so warm, so warm as the fire burns him away, look at the pretty fire! Burning him, scorching him, finally, he can dieeee.


"Not yet, Carter."

Suddenly, he was on dry land again with a spluttering cough. His clothes felt dry, his skin felt dry, he was warm, safe. But then he looked around. He recognized this place. The brown shag carpet. The peeling, cracked wallpaper, the one that always looked like onion skin. The threadbare couch, dotted with brown stains. The old Cathode Ray TV, screen shattered to pieces and antennae torn right off the top. The windows were grimy and half-open, surrounded by lacy curtains. The table...the same table, chipped on one corner, a couple milk rings etched onto its wooden surface.

No...not here.

It couldn't be.

Suddenly, a screeching noise. Like nails on a chalkboard, swords on a stone, just scraping and screeching away with a high-pitched wail. It almost sounded like screaming, but a thousand times more painful, like someone who had been screaming for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to not feel fear, who had grown so worn out he just screamed because he had nothing else to say. Like he'd given up anyone hearing him a long time ago. Carter fell to his knees, clamping his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown out the insufferable wailing. But it didn't work. It even seemed to get louder, if such a thing was possible, almost seeming to split his eardrums apart.


"We're not finished yet."

Suddenly, Carter saw something move towards him. It was a shadow, but it didn't look like one. It walked like a human, stood like a human, but it was a pitch black figure, a human, with a form cloaked in darkness. The edges of it seemed to flicker and sputter, almost like an old video game with some wonky pixels, like one of those monsters in Super Smash Bros. It walked with a familiar loping gait, a familiar, spout-necked shape in its fist, the same fist that his father carried...no.

Had he gone to hell?

"No..." Carter moaned, shuffling and backing away as the shapeless figure moved closer, glitching in and out of thin air. "Why...no, oh my god, why?!" he sobbed, his eyes beginning to water, spilling with tears as his face morphed into one of sheer terror. This was pure fear, pure anxiety, a terror enough to make the spine freeze. He was on his bum, scuttling away with his hands and feet as he stared endlessly at the hunched, dark figure, walking at the same, steady gait. A perfect rhythm, even footfalls, not even a minute change in speed or step, just the endless, slow march.

"LEAVE ME!" he shrieked, kicking at thin air as he continued to back away, tears frozen to his face. "GO AWAY, YOU SHOULD BE DEAD! I SHOULD BE DEAD, EVERYONE SHOULD BE DEAD, THE WHOLE WORLD SHOULD BE DEAAAD!" he babbled, becoming more and more incoherent with every step until his words blurred into unintelligible whimpering.

Suddenly, he hit a dead end. The wall. No space to back away now, he was stuck between the big black shelf and the milk-ringed coffee table.

No distance left to run.

"Noooo...." he weakly moaned as he began to swat with his hands, trying to get the man to move away, go away, run away. He had to break out of his prison, his dead end. He needed to fight, needed to fight out of his prison, his cage. With a mighty yell, he punched the leg of the table, snapping it cleanly in two. Splinters flew everywhere as the table came down with a mighty crash, only it didn't sound like a crash, more like a boom. He punched the top of the table, breaking a hole in it. He then turned to the shelf, breaking a hole in the back. Again, and again. Each time he struck the wood, his eyes pulsed with different colors, sounds started becoming...weird. They reversed, or they were too high, or too low, or too fast, or too slow. The man was moving backward, sideways, forwards, diagonals. His punches were left, right and center. Everything was falling apart, the light was brighter, the drywall was crackings, the screams were loud, so loud, oh-god-get-me-out-of-here loud.


"Stop resisting."

The man was right in front of him.

Suddenly, Carter felt a hand grab the collar of his coat and roughly yank him in the air, his body flaccidly suspended perpendicular to the ground. It was cutting into his neck, stopping his breathing, but he didn't even care. He just wanted it to all end. He wanted the screams to stop, the pain to stop, he wanted his life to stop, so he could move and get it over with. The black, featureless face stared at Carter's wide, staring eyes and firmly clenched jaw, skin a thin tinge of red. They stood like this for a little while, both staring at each other, not moving a muscle. Despite having no mouth, Carter could feel hot breath on his face, a pungent smell of beer stinging his nose.


"Why so afraid, dummy?"

Carter suddenly stared in horror at the source of the voice. It was childlike, high-pitched, youthful like it belonged to a toddler or a small child. But it came from nothing pure, childlike, or joyful in any way.

It came from the shadowy man. His father.

Suddenly, the shadow began to fade away, revealing a murky, indistinct face. Long hair could be seen, big eyes, a thin nose and a wide, yet thin mouth. Baby fat could be seen on the cheeks of the figure as it continued to develop, creating sockets, eyelids, lashes, teeth. The face could now be seen, a smiling, happy child's face.

It was a young Carter's face.

Carter stared at the beast, his own face plastered on the shadow-cloaked body of his drunk, abusive daddy. It sounded like something out of a bad horror movie, or a night with too much acid, but it was real. It felt real, even if every piece of logic in his mind told him that it was fake, that it was just a dream. His fear felt real, his soreness felt real. His eyes, his nose, his mouth, his ears, they all felt real.

After a long silence, Carter managed to croak out a single question:

"W-who...are you?"


"I'm you, dummy! Can't you see?"

This was seriously wrong. He could hear little Carter speaking, but his mouth wasn't moving. He still had the same, sick grin plastered to his face, with the only signs of motion being a tilt of the head, a few blinks, his eyes finally meeting Carter's. It was like one of those weird animes with some telepathic girl, speaking into someone's head while she smiled away. This was no child, no real human being.

"W-Why are you doing this to me?" he moaned, shaking his head as he feebly attempted to wiggle out of the figure's grasp.


"Because you think you're dead! But you're not dead, we both know that. DON'T WE?!

Carter cringed at the sudden shout, hearing the voice reverberate and echo, like the room was a deep, high chamber. It was so echoey, so dreamy, it felt more and more like a telepath on TV. Or maybe...it was a telepathic conversation. It was all in his head.
A look of realization began to crack through his veneer, his eyes brightening slightly. The child seemed to nod, smiling widely as Carter seemed to realize what was happening.


"See, you get it now! You're alive, you're just dreaming. You're a dreaming old fool, lost with your head in the clouds."

Shivering, Carter locked eyes with the child, who seemed to grow uncomfortable, turning away slightly and moving its head. Sweat was plastered to his face in a mask, his lips quivering. He didn't look fearful anymore, just resigned, as he had finally accepted what was happening to him. A final sense of determination seemed to set into his jaw

"So...how do I get out of this...lucid dream?"


"Carter Graystone, do you want to reset?"

"...Yes."

The child nodded, his smile never-changing. With a final wink, his face began to become cloaked in shadow again, the features of the child's visage becoming lost to the creeping darkness. First, the face was merely shadowed, slightly darker than normal. But the features dissolved soon after that, becoming murky shapes, and then nothing at all. Carter closed his eyes, not wanting to see the horrid transformation, not wanting to see the figure of his father.

Suddenly, he felt himself being jerked upwards by the scruff of his collar, being swung through the air. By his internal compass, it was about a 90-degree clockwise turn, with Carter's back facing the wall. And then, a flying shove forward, and a crashing, bone-crunching impact into the wall.

Only he didn't stop.

He simply phased right through the wall like a ghost, becoming weightless, unafflicted by simple physics. He couldn't even move, he just felt himself glide through thin-air, through pitch-blackness, as if he was coming back through the void. Everything was rushing back to him now, he felt like he was watching a movie in front of his eyes. He could see the Iowan house, a bottle of Jim Beam, the old oak tree, the black and blue face, the pennies, the suitcase, the spray paint, the fists, the blood, the plane models, the guitar, the Salmon Ladder, the fire, Inferno, Red, his bedspread, and his mother.

With a jolt, he realized what the screeching noise was. It wasn't nails on chalkboards.

It was his mother's screaming.

---

Suddenly, Carter burst back into consciousness, leaping forward onto his hands and knees as he sputtered for breath. His mouth was jittering, every bone in his body shook, every hair was curled into goosebumps. His mind was still racing, his eyes were still ingrained with images of what he had seen. Most of all, he couldn't unsee the child version of himself, smiling with that sick grin. He wanted to puke. Or rather, he almost did, based on the quantity of bile in his mouth.

Shakily wiping his lips with his sleeve, he started at the ground and his hands, attempting to regain his equilibrium. He felt dizzy, nauseous, and his hands were...vibrating.

He lifted one hand closer to his eyes, attempting to see the vibrations across his hands. It wasn't his hands that were vibrating, it was...the air around them, shifting around. It kind of looked like a heat haze was coating his body, as now that he looked around, he could see the area around his entire body vibrating. Hesitantly, he reached out to touch the vibration, only to met with a strange resistance. It was like a jet in a hot tub, with some invisible force pushing back on his hand. With a little more strength, he managed to break through the layer and touch the back of his hand, cold and clammy.

Some nearby yells managed to bring him back to life, yells that sounded like they were coming from Wendy. Looking around, despite the shiny pulses in his eyes, he managed to see Wendy kneeling near a crumpled, seemingly unconscious Yoshi. Hell, she could be dead, but there wasn't time to think about that now. Because that hellhound-summoning mist-phasing brown-haired sonsabitch with still frozen, and the cracks were still there, and growing wider by the second,

With a new fire in his chest, Carter struggled his way to the cube and began to work his powers again, freezing the cube even faster this time. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins, he had some untapped pool of energy inside of him that was working its magic. He had to start from square one, but already, the crack was beginning to slow slightly, and maybe, just maybe, he could buy enough time for his team.

But something was bothering him. There was some kind of voice in his head, speaking some garbled message. It sounded feminine and high-pitched, but sounding like an adult's voice. There was some kind of European accent to it as well.

For some reason, the voice wouldn't leave his head.

[The Republic of Atria]

Wyatt was so focused on figuring out the best way to attack Floyd, he completely missed Kiris and Marionette fighting. It was hard to see what happened, but they were both on the ground and Marionette seemed down for good this time. When he looked over to the group who was fighting her, apparently she had done more damage than he expected. Mars was out cold, with an arm that looked... Wrong. Wyatt shuddered at the injury, blood and gore was bad enough, but it was difficult no not physically cringe when it came to bone injuries. Maybe it looked worse than it was. "Kiris! Mars! You guys okay?" No, they obviously weren't.

Why was he so useless? He unconsciously clenched his fists, not knowing what he could do to help. Fuck... God dammit. What do I do, WHAT DO I DO? He silently screamed. He hated seeing this, hated seeing people he couldn't protect, seeing his friends hurt while he couldn't do anything to stop it. I need to go see her again... Why the hell is she so secretive? Maybe Orro knows where she's at. I can't take this anymore. I need power and I need it now. So badly he wanted to just snap and break down. So much had gone wrong in the past month. He was tired of being useless, it was time to double down on practice and learning magic.

"Eeeeeeeeeaaaaahhh!" Jason called to Floyd, mouth and hands full of life giving shrimp, cake and whatever else he could. A quick swallow returned his speech to normal. "You better run bitch! Next time I see you and your stupid bowlcut, you're dogfood!" He proudly boasted while slinking over to the back. Jason slowed and looked at the blood soaked and dismembered bodies. "Christ... Okay, new exception. Remember how I said we should try to avoid killing people? He goes on the list of people we go full murder hobo for. I'm even okay with you eating him. Fucking hell..." He walked around, stepping over the bodies. It was a disturbing sight, but something was wrong. "I should be... I don't know. Really disgusted right now, but I'm... Not? At least not as much I should."

"Our thoughts are melding. The more we stay together, the closer to one we become."

"I swear, if I get a craving for pigeons, I'm going to be mad at you... Me... however that works." Jason got a very stupid, bad idea. He saw a pair of legs not attached to any body. The pants were soaked, but a wallet was visible in one of the pockets and Jason picked it out. "Miranda Giland." Jason spoke the name on the drivers license. "She had a hundred bucks on her. Guess she doesn't need it. Sorry lady, you deserved way better this this. Pretty sure you all did." Jason went around, reading the names of the people who had an ID on them. "John, Mary, Isaac, Juan, Gabriel... Jesus Christ." He read some of the names, pocketing what, if any money they had. "First chance we get, we push that guy into an jet turbine."

It felt wrong, but they both needed to eat. Table scraps would only work for so long. Otherwise they would lose control and go dumpster diving. The both of them were better than that. At least that's what Jason said. And a couple hundred dollars would keep them sated for a little while longer. "We're gonna need to be more proactive if we're gonna keep making money. You think that the Young Bloods are still taking in new members?"

"Ask. Perhaps when they are not injured."

"Point." He finished, absorbing his wallet back into his body. "Big dragon dude seems pretty not injured. Though he looks pretty wound up. Let's go offer our services." He spoke and approached the group.

"You all look like you need some help. Give the word and I'm on it."

[Tomia]

Wendy's fresh never frozen beef

Roy
After barely managing to escape Beast's grasp, Roy dropped to the grown as he was frozen. Catching his breath, he decided he needed to focus on making sure his teammates were okay. Specifically he noticed that Yoshi seemed hurt. Wendy was there checking on her and Roy was going to ask her what happened when suddenly there was a huge flash that seemed to knock Yoshi unconscious.

"What was that?" Nightshade shouted as two dozens Warwolf soldiers marched passed him. "Call off your team Nightshade, we've got this from here." Before Roy could respond they were marching to surround Beast, who was slowly breaking out of his ice prison.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Roy heard someone that sounded that Frostbite shout. This mission was going south fast and Roy needed to get a handle on it. He needed to take one thing at a time, and help the people within his reach. "Wifi, are you okay?" He asked, clear concern in his voice. "I'm going to get Pysche somewhere safe so we can figure out how to help her." He said, before picking up his teammate and holding her in his arms. He brought Yoshi back to Warwolf's base site where Naja was coordinating population control with the Warwolf command.

"Naja something is wrong with Pysche!" He shouted, bringing the psychic down onto a table.

Naja looked over the young hero and frowned. "Her physical injuries don't seem too serious. It must be something else..."

Kiris WINNNNNSSSS!!!

Mars was barely conscious as the crystallized walls around him shattered. He groaned as he rolled over to see Kiris collapsed underneath him. "Kiris!" He called out, using all his effort to push himself to his feet using his one good arm. Then he pressed a button on his wrist watch and Rocket reformed out of his suitcase and dropped down to the floor below. He slowly approached Kiris and then bent down and picked her up, "Uh guys? I think Kiris and I could use some help here!" He called out to the rest of his team. He didn't want to risk moving her around too much with Rocket, especially considering how little he himself would be able to help if something went wrong. Then looking around he saw Wyatt, "Hey Wyatt, think you could help me get Kiris out of here?"

[The Republic of Atria]

Busted arm

"Rocket's got her, Mars." Wyatt replied quelling his frustration to focus on helping his teammate, pulling Mars' good arm over his shoulder and holding him up. "You're hurt too. Oh, and the other creepy slimy guy is on our side. Let's get you two back to base." At least he could do this. Not that any else couldn't, he was just the first one to show up. That feeling sucked. Even now it continued to eat at him, though he tried his best to maintain his straight face in front of his team.

"I have a name. Jason. And yes, for the record I'm a good guy. Still trying to figure out this superhero thing. 'Course the slimy exterior and British teeth don't help." He muttered, the toothy jaw unhinging revealing a normal human head on a body that looked much too big for it. "Wish I could've done more with Bowlcut. That damned psycho needs to be put down." Instinctively, the jaw to his "suit" covered his head again. "I don't think we should stick around. The cops and press are gonna want to pick this place apart, and I'd rather not get framed for murder cause I look freaky." Mentioning that the "suit" talked to him and pretty much had a mind of it's own as well as having some influence on his decision making was probably best left unsaid for now.

"Way ahead of you." Wyatt replied and carefully helped escort them all out of the hotel, where they were almost swarmed by the press all shouting questions. "I forgot about these guys." Wyatt felt his body tense up as the frustration began to come back until Jason stepped in front of him, the press backing away and quieting down as his rather intimidating size and appearance. Wyatt relaxed a bit when he saw. "You got these guys? Just don't say anything that makes us look bad." Wyatt said as he started making his way to the van Red brought them in.

Sludge's face retracted, revealing Jason's. "Yeah. But I want a place on your team." He spoke, turning his attention towards the press. "I'll be taking questions." Just as the reporters were about to start rambling again, he stuck his finger up. "No questions right now, I want you all to hear what needs to be said. Once I'm done, I'll do my best to answer your questions to the best of my ability. Anyways. You see them? More importantly, you see the girl being carried? Yeah, she saved a lot of people. And you know what everyone else over there was doing? Fighting a bunch of deranged psycho killers who were killing because it was fun. You know who didn't, and still fu-freaking hasn't shown up? Warwolf!" Jason accused, pointing a finger at the nearest camera. "These people, some of them who aren't even human, are risking their damned lives for complete strangers all the while Warwolf sits on their asses and arrests powerless people for not taking their crap!"

He knew Warwolf was doing more good than he said, but it was his whole thing to be controversial. After all, when he got a merchandise deal, he'd sell like hotcakes. "And don't even just take it from me! Go ask them!" He motioned to the group of people near ambulances, getting taken care of. "I'm sure they have a few choice words for our fine protectors. How is it that a bunch of high school students can deal with supervillains than the multi billion dollar PMC sticking their fingers in every piece of our city!? You hear me Warwolf? Where's the protection? You're supposed to stop this crap, but then we still have to do the superheroing ourselves?! It's bunk. You hear me Warwolf? You SUCK! People are dead because of you! And some are alive despite you! Yeah. You're welcome for doing your job, better, and for free. But sure, take all the credit and go arrest more powerless vigilantes. Clearly they're the problem."

Wyatt didn't hear too much of what Jason was saying, but he did hear enough to put together that he was lambasting Warwolf, and that was all he needed to know to put in a good word with Naja that he was legit. Not that my words mean much anymore.

There it was again. The doubt, the frustration. Every time he tried to think positive, it sneaked back in.

Some of the press had dispersed to go interview the people Kiris had Rescued.

"Yeah! The girl with the claws and horns saved our lives!"

"Me and my son would be dead if it weren't for her!"

"Warwolf never showed, but the alien girl did!"

"How did a buncha kids figure out what an army of adults couldn't? Slime guy's got a point."

Jason smiled a bit, more than a little smug with how this all turned out.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

---

While his senses were still readjusting after being overloaded with light and noise from the flashbang, Icarus felt himself being pushed off to the side, losing his focus and nearly losing his balance as well, stumbling away a few paces before managing to straighten himself. "The fuck was that for?!" He inquired angrily, glaring daggers at Pitch, before noticing that she was devouring the loose concrete from the earlier explosions, as well as the now useless flashbang cannister. Raising an eyebrow at the bizarre display, he shook his head. "No wonder you're all grumpy with that diet you've got there." He remarked.

Looking around to get a grasp on the situation once more, the vigilante was at least relieved that whoever had thrown the flashbang hadn't used the distraction caused to get the jump on him, Pitch and the Young Bloods. If anything, it looked like what happened had been a futile attempt to win time, by someone who wasn't brave enough to come out and fight. I guess that's fitting for a shadowy group that uses subterfuge to deal with Warwolf. He thought. But then, what had it accomplished? Cracks continued to spread on the ice, but it seemed the wimpy blond kid had that under control. More importantly though, one of the Young Bloods, the same girl that had ordered him to leave after he had saved Nightshade's ass, was now on the ground, unconscious.

Was that what they were truly after all this time? He wondered.

Suddenly, Warwolf reinforcements arrived. Immediately, all alarms inside Blackout's head went off; he didn't know if the Young Bloods would be able to deal with the masked madman once he inevitably broke free from the ice, but he did know that Warwolf would try to have his head long before that happened. Was it worth it to stay around regardless? Was it worth it to risk his life on the off chance that he could save someone else's?

Isn't that what heroes do?

The idea, sown in his head by none other than Stella, made him stay put for just a little longer and watch as the soldiers surrounded Beast, weapons trained on him as some of them forcibly removed any Young Bloods present from the immediacy of the ice block. Without Frost Bite and Aeolus' aid, the frost prison deteriorated quickly, until finally, it became unable to hold the psionic might of the vampire, and with one final push, the ice shattered into a thousand icy needles, poised to fly straight towards any nearby foes as the former prisoner stood once more.

"Turn on the floodlights!" Captain Osler shouted. Immediately, the floodlights that had been lying inactive during most of the battle and had only recently been discreetly repositioned surrounding the ice block from afar were activated. A light with a composition very similar to sunlight began streaming off of them, and straight towards Beast, who fell to his knees after a moment, powerless and howling in pain as a thick layer of magical protection over his skin was rapidly being peeled off of him. Two soldiers with specially made handcuffs approached slowly, but they seemed in no hurry to restrain him and take him away from the light.

Watching all of this, Icarus frowned. Beast was a villain, but this looked like unnecessary cruelty. "The hell are you doing?! You're going to kill him!" He shouted at the Warwolf soldiers, some of them turning to him and training their weapons on him after recognizing him.

"Blackout. You didn't seem to care much about murdering people on the 17th." One of them commented rather casually, provoking the boy's ire.

"What the hell did you just say, you bas-" Icarus began, only to be cut off as he suddenly felt a piercing pain on his thigh. Visibly paling, the teen looked down only to see a familiar dart sticking out of his pant leg, its liquid contents already emptied inside his body. Soon his legs began shaking, a feeling of weakness spreading across his whole body. Falling to one knee, the boy let go of his hammer, which swiftly disintegrated, his powers fading away and no longer sustaining the construct. He could only glare as two more soldiers approached him, ready to take him in.

"After coming here and helping your incompetent asses... I guess I had it coming."

"What the hell?" Pitch turned from the horror show unfolding with the vampire to Blackout suddenly getting weak from a puny dart. As the soldiers moved in, she cursed under her breath, grabbing both his arms with tar, pinning him to the ground in a swift show of force. She leaned to his ear, the boy now at her mercy, "Yknow, I don't think murder sounds like you. What do you think?"

Had he had the energy required for it, Blackout would've happily chewed out the tar-powered vigilante, even if it was the last thing he did. As things were now, however, he figured it was better to pick his words carefully. "Three kids are shot to death in an alley, and the one who takes the blame is the only one without a gun or firearms training. What do youthink?"

Pitch sighed, looked back at the villain they'd nearly beaten, at the soldiers, some with weapons trained at her as they cautiously moved in on the pair. "That's what I was thinking too." She shifted positions, more solidly pressing him against the ground.

"Man, I'm gonna get so much shit." The heroine released his restraints, blocking the bullets that sprayed at the pair. She felt the lead beat against her protective covering, bruising her solidly.

"Oh, I already regret this." She laughed through the pain, slinging herself and Blackout into cover.

"Dammit!" The Captain shouted as she watched the two vigilantes get away, despite one of them having been depowered. She looked at some of the soldiers gathered there. "What do you think you're doing, idiots? Go after them!" She ordered, with many of them immediately breaking off from their positions to pursue the two runaways, futile as it might have been to attempt to do so on foot. Meanwhile, the rest had already solidly restrained Beast, and the floodlights were turned off as they prepared to take him away, though various parts of his skin had already sustained nasty burns.

Meanwhile Frostbite did not appreciate having guns drawn on her by Warwolf. An angry snarl now sat under her mask. "You think we're just going to let you stroll in and take over? Where were you when Beast was actually a threat?" She asked angrily. The Captain stepped towards Frostbite. "Yes, I think that's exactly you'll do. It is our legal responsibility to protect this city, not yours. So thanks for your help, your city thanks you. But back off."

Frostbite stared at her for a moment before storming off. The captain likely thought that their conflict was over, until Angelica returned with Roy at her side. "So Captain, does that contract of yours sign off on police brutality? Or is that just Warwolf's signature style of asshole behavior?" He asked, his tone mocking but his eyes showed his serious.

The captain scowled, "I don't have time for this. Your team either clears out now or we do it for you, understood?"

Roy's grip on his staff tightened, "I'd really like to see the latter..."

"You guys do that." A third voice joined the conversation, breaking up the standoff as both Captain Osler and Roy turned to look at her, along with the rest of the Young Bloods and Warwolf soldiers present. It was the same figure that had attacked Yoshiro while everyone else was blind. "We won't get in your way anymore. Feel free to beat each other up to your heart's content." She said as she reached out to touch Beast's shoulder. Before Warwolf's soldiers could react and stop her, she gave everyone a dainty little wave, and then disappeared along with the vampire.

"Au revoir."

---

---

---

Seeing Kabuto beat up the first stone golem and send it tripping back towards the blast door, Makeshift smiled, though she only barely managed to get out of the way in time to avoid getting turned into cherry toothpaste. Nearby, Stella's wild charge had been a success, the plasma blast that left her drained and her shock absorbers ruined also managing to sever the monster horizontally, leaving it largely unable to oppose the group anymore.

"That's perfect, Kabuto! Good job, Stella! Now for the grand finale..." The petite blonde girl spoke, her rocket boots quickly activating once more as she grabbed Casimir and began flying away from the cramped hallway, scooping up Renata with her free arm on the way out. Reaching Amir and the others, Makeshift judged they were at a safe enough distance, and let the others down before turning back to look at the two stone golems in the hallway.

The one that had not been cut horizontally attempted to get up, but before it was able to do so, with a big grin on her face, Alexis snapped her fingers. in an instant, a huge explosion engulfed the entire hallway, destroying the blast door and, more importantly, turning both of the stone creatures into harmless piles of smoldering rock. "Yes!" Alexis cried out, finally satisfied with her performance. Sure, she'd had to sacrifice the functionality of most of her gadgets, but in the end it had been worth it! She had taken out two huge monsters with a single bang!

Before she could celebrate, however, Warwolf soldiers began pouring into the area. "What the..." The blonde girl mumbled.

"Stand down, children. We're taking it from here. Go join your teammates on the surface." One of the soldiers ordered as they took positions at the hallway, weapons trained on the blast doors. She was about to protest, but as the dust settled and the interior became visible, something far more important took up her attention.

---

---

A lot.

A lot of trouble.

While a battle raged on outside of the Wonders Foundation storage, Hex had calmly been completing his spell, chanting to fulfill the ritual that would teleport the bounty of Wonder Serum present within the storeroom away to their hideout. He had gone through the painstaking process of making the spell untraceable, too; he knew that he was not the only talented magic user in town, and it would not do to have some snotty wizard or even a member of the Phantom Brotherhood go snooping around the Cabal's home turf.

They won't last much longer, huh... The young sorcerer mused, sensing the waning strength of the stone constructs that stood guard outside. Well, no matter. They served their purpose well. Just another moment... He thought even as he continued to chant, his divided focus allowing him to continue weaving the spell perfectly while a part of his mind was permitted to wander.

Then, suddenly, the giant magic circle on the floor lit up with a color that seemed to exist only in the dreams of children and old men.

The next instant, everything had disappeared from the storeroom. All the crates, all the shelves, all the serums. Everything except Hex himself, who looked around, a delighted smile appearing underneath his mask. A job well done, and Ghost has done her part as well. Everything according to plan.

The only issue he could see was the fact that the ceiling had suddenly shattered, and someone had jumped through the newly made hole and landed behind him. Hex turned around just in time to see the fire extinguisher explode into a white cloud. "Helvete!" The teen cursed as markings similar to those on his arms spread across his face underneath the mask, his eyes glowing as they began tracing not only the light that reached them, but also the life force of beings around him, including Mike. There you are.

The Young Blood suddenly burst out of the white cloud with his shield raised, but Hex was prepared and quickly stepped to the left to dodge Mike's opening move. "Who are you supposed to be?" The sorcerer asked, curious, as he continued dodging the other teen's attacks with relative ease, displaying surprising agility for someone whose specialty was supposed to be the arcane. "Do you honestly think you're anything compared to the training I went through in the Brotherhood? Compared to the battles I've gone through outside of this world?" He asked as he grabbed Mike's shield. The tattoos on his arms morphed into a different pattern and began glowing, and the makeshift shield suddenly began melting away into a pool of foul-smelling black goo.

"You're nothing. Valhalla won't take you when you die. Elysium won't take you when you die. Tonatiuhichan won't take you when you die." The sorcerer growled, pressing a hand against the ground, arcane energy flowing into it and causing the ground beneath to shatter in a straight line leading up to Mike, a sudden pulse of energy suddenly sending the teen flying away just as the blast door exploded and Warwolf soldiers began pouring into the room. The teenage hero crashed into the first couple of soldiers that walked in, but soon others entered, training their weapons on Hex, who seemed unconcerned.

"It was a nice try, Young Bloods. I applaud you for your duty. But you were not prepared." He proclaimed out loud, staring at the small group of heroes that stood some distance behind the line of Warwolf soldiers. "Until we meet again."

Then, with another swift spell, the masked sorcerer vanished.

"Dammit! We couldn't catch him!" Alexis shouted as she slammed a fist against the wall, before looking at the person that Hex had launched away before escaping. He was undoubtedly familiar, and a gasp escaped her mouth as she realized who it is. "Mike? What the hell are you doing here?" She asked as she ran up to him, the soldiers around him taking a step back and staring at the Young Blood. "Are you alright?" She asked him, before noticing the suspicion and hostility with which Warwolf's troops were regarding the young heroes. For now, that was the extent of it: they didn't seem interested in picking a fight or anything of the sort, but she had no idea when that would change.

"L-lets go back to the surface and regroup for now..." Alexis said, a little intimidated. Without her force field protecting her, what could she do?

[Aidannadia]

Pitch pulled Blackout along as best she could, slinging around corners for momentum to do most of her work. The boy was heavy, but her tar helped handle how large he was. She turned into a place she'd used to hide out a few weeks back, a warehouse she'd cleared out, the windows still broken and the walls still spray painted, bullet holes really tying the room together.

"You should be good to hide out here for a while." She said, half-throwing him through across the floor and pinning him again with tar on his wrists and ankles. "Stay there while I freshen up." The heroine smiled, walking off to turn off the power breaker for the warehouse. I don't know when his powers come back, but I don't want to have to fight him when they do.

Pitch returned to gaze on her captive, a tall lanky hero in dark clothes and long hair. "You know, I usually don't do this until the third date." She chuckled to herself again despite their dire circumstances. The heroine paced around him in the dark, contemplating her next move.

"Let's get to know each other." She sat down cross-legged in front of him, moving his bonds with a snap of her fingers so that he could sit up in front of her too. "I've suspected for a while that Warwolf was actually behind those deaths in the alleyway for a while, but I don't have any hard proof. You're one of the witnesses of the scene itself and I trust you as a..." She was hung up on the word to use for the vigilante, "... colleague. Now that you've pulled my public opinion down with you, it's in my interest to clear your name so that my reputation is similarly cleansed." She scooted towards him.

"So, we're working together whether you like it or not. And just to be sure...." Pitch's mask deformed around her face, revealing Aleta's face beneath it just as she leaped forward and pulled Blackout's mask off, to her great surprise revealing her classmate Icarus beneath. "Christ, is everyone at Thomsen a super?" She rolled her eyes and continued. "Anyway, mutually assured destruction. There's nowhere we can hide if either of us gets caught, or if either of us betrays the other." Aleta nodded matter-o-factly.

[Scotatrova]

Diego Belcourt

"Mass suicide ... Ritualistic sacrifice ..." It soon made its way onto the airways. The news networks aired nonstop on the sacrifice that Diego witnessed that night, and even when he wasn't watching, it was all he could picture in his head. More suicides were also reported, but most of them were just scattered reports, and didn't seem to have any to do with the ritual, Diego knew otherwise. In the meantime, he had been researching through his bestiary on the "lord" Cernunnos that Mother Lilith and her angels kept referencing. The Belcourt's bestiary didn't only depict magical creatures like dragons, unicorns, basilisks and griffins, but also various beings and figures of myth. The closest that Diego was able to find on Cernunnos was the Horned God. The Horned God, as known to the Belcourts, is depicted as a benevolent deity of fertility. It was known to be associated with nature, but yet modern culture has this image of the devil that lines up with the appearance of the Horned God. This cult was also fueling the image of it being considered satanic. Diego sent an astral message to warlocks in the city that he knew he could trust about finding more information on the cult. Unfortunately, they knew about as much as anyone else thanks to the news reports. But, a couple hours later, one responded back. Even then it was information he already knew. Sacrifices to appease and welcome their Horned God. They did mention about a girl that was a supposed member of their cult but left after she didn't want to take on the role of leadership from her mother. Mother Lilith? She had mentioned a daughter that rebelled and left. Diego didn't know anything about the cult's next move, but he knew of one thing. He had to find this daughter, maybe she could help bring an end to the cult's plans.

It had been a couple days before Diego got a good enough lead on this girl. His tip led him to this small dive bar in the heart of Downtown, known to be an underground for the city's mages. Enough time had passed to where he began to have doubts, but they disappeared as soon as he saw her exit the club. The only description he had of her tonight was that she was wearing a vest and camo shorts. She exited the club and began to make her way down a narrow alleyway, and Diego slowly trailed behind her. The girl then made a quick cut left into another alley, but as soon as Diego turned he found himself staring at a brick wall. It was a dead end. But he could feel movement behind him, it moved with silent stealth. He gripped his staff as he made a quick turn behind him, and there she was. It was a girl. A teenager. Beautiful, tall, and wild. This girl was maybe seventeen, with large brown eyes, a small mouth, and a scalp that had been completely shaved to reveal a complex series of tattoos. Wild roses and thorny vines. She had multiple silver rings pierced through the upper parts of both ears, and a silver necklace from which hung an old-fashioned skeleton key. She wore tattered camouflage shorts, sneakers that were worn to threads, and a vest that was buttoned up over, apparently, nothing else. A Marine Corps belt was strapped around her hips, and it supported a leather-handled hunting knife, a whistle, and a lumpy pouch of what Diego guessed were stones. The girl held a slingshot in her hands, and there was a sharp-edged rock seated in its leather pouch. The rock was aimed at Diego’s throat. “I think you better lower that staff,” said the stranger. “Right now.”

“Do as she says,” growled a voice behind him, and Diego wheeled around to a man right in front of the brick wall. He was tall and middle-aged, with black hair tied back in a ponytail. He raised a shotgun to his shoulder, the barrel pointed at Diego’s head. “Mary,” barked the man, “take his weapon and gear.” The slingshot girl, Mary, gave a short, harsh laugh. “You heard the man. Drop all the goodies and maybe you'll still be sucking air come sundown.” Diego did not drop his staff. “I won’t tell you a second time,” growled the man as he took a threatening step forward.

Diego swung the staff toward him and met his eyes with his own uncompromising stare. “You pull that trigger, and I’ll kill you where you stand.”

The man snorted. “You’re at the wrong fight for a staff, boy.”

“And you’re at a long range for a shotgun. Let’s see who’s left standing to take the next shot.”

They were all in bad positions. Diego felt the moment becoming incredibly fragile. If someone made a move, probably everyone would die. The man’s face was flushed, and fury seethed in his eyes. “Why can’t you freaks just let us be?”

“What are you talking about?” barked Diego. “How am I bothering you?” Diego shifted his position, putting himself squarely between Mary and the man.

“Don’t buy that bullcrap, Mary. I’ll bet you dear ol’ mom sent him to grab you so they could sacrifice you. That’s just the kind of thing she’d like.”

“Sacrifice? What are you, nuts or something?”

“We know she was being chased,” cut in the man. “How stupid do you think we are?”

“You really want an answer to that, baldy?” asked Diego coldly.

“Well, ain’t you got a smart mouth?” said the man, grinning a nasty little grin. “I’d love to kick it off your face.”

“Try it.”

The man’s grin flickered. “Angels don’t open their mouths unless they plan to lie,” warned Mary. “Believe me, I know.”

“I'm not an Angel, I'm just looking for-”

“Looking for what? The darkness?” demanded the man in a tone that was heavy with disgust.

“Look, guys,” said Diego, “I think we should just chill out and talk about this. I don't want to hurt anyone here-”

“Speak for yourself,” said Mary with quiet menace.

“-and it sounds like we have a lot to talk about,” Diego concluded.

The man wasn’t impressed. “If you want to talk, then put your staff down.”

“You put your gun down first and then we’ll see.”

“Not a chance,” said the man, and Mary gave a snigger of agreement.

“C’mon, Ruben, don’t let him scramble your grits. My mother’s people are gonna be here soon. This punk is probably a scout or something equally squirrelly. Let’s put him down before we get overrun.”

Diego thought to himself. “don’t do anything crazy.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he murmured. And then he swung at Ruben. Ruben flung himself to the ground, twisting and firing as he fell. Diego dropped down to avoid the buckshot, but the pellets went high and wild. Diego heard a thwop sound, and something whipped through the air a finger’s width from his cheek. He saw Mary with the slingshot in her hands. Mary's hands moved with incredible speed as she fished out another stone and seated it into the sling. But the stone wasn't no ordinary stone. As she placed it, it caught fire, its flame blue. He tried to get out of the way, but Mary’s stone hit hard on his hip, and it hurt like hell. He landed sloppily but got up fast, bringing his staff up. Mary snarled at him, and there was murder in her eyes as she fished out another stone. “Don’t,” he warned. She drew back the sling, and froze. Ruben had froze too. Then Diego heard it. It was a loud motor sound and it was heading their way, closing fast from at least three different points. "Angels..." whispered Mary.