Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Tomia]

Angelica
The Conductor, also known as Roxanne Wilson, was the Vixen sitting closest to Alexis as she approached and turned her head to the young girl. She didn't recognize the very short blonde, but she was clearly a teenager by the looks of her. "Sure, I take it you and your friends are Young Bloods right?" The woman in her late twenties asked as she gestured for Alexis to sit down. By this time Angelica had followed her over in stunned admiration of her girlfriend's outing boldness.

"We are, I'm Frostbite." She said, taking a seat next to Alexis and offering her hand to Conductor. "This is Makeshift." She said, gesturing to her girlfriend. "And this Pysche, Selene, and Chicle."

Roxanne smiled, "I'm Roxanne, this is my sister Jackie, and our teammates Megan, Valarie, Karen and Alice." Jackie had short hair that was a little lighter in color than Roxanne, but despite her younger appearance the two looked fairly similar. Meanwhile Megan's black skin was complimented by shining black hair. She was also fairly tall, and clearly in good shape. Meanwhile Valarie and Alice were both blonde, while Karen was a read head with a light dusting of freckles, her hair was curly and fell just above her shoulders.

"Well, its nice to meet some young inspiring female heroes." Jackie said with a smile. "We've heard a lot about you all after all. You've certainly set the country a buzz. Everyone's been talking about you. Kind of reminds me of when we joined the league."

Roy
Roy realized his slip when Icarus corrected him, having forgot about the public make over the reformed hero had gone under when he joined the Stars. When Surge asked for a name, Roy saw an opportunity to mess with him and smiled. "Roy, my name is Roy." He replied, waiting to see the new hero's reaction.

[North America Inc]

New York City, United States
Asset: Smith, Shihong

"Actress and known Hero freelancer Abigail O'Claire turned thirty today..." Chris Clement let the quiet hiss of the audience hang as he dragged out the punchline, "Which begs the question, does anyone really care about Abigail O'Claire anymore?" Hilarity and laughter ensued. Yesterday's News Tomorrow with Chris Clement was one of America's favorite low brow, faux intellectual late night program; the show having segmented itself from the traditional smug, California archetypal liberal host with a smug, British archetypal liberal host. There's nothing that Americans love more than a British accent. Placing his hand into his pockets as he ate the audience's reaction up, the forty something with dyed brown hair and the industry mandated stubble stood there until he was finally able to get a word in. "Well we got a wonderful show tonight. So much to talk about with NASL tournaments only... Days Away!"

The whole audience started to shout their various favorite teams into the air, "Baltimore! Let's go!" "Stars are the stars!" "New York Proud!" The rather rowdy audience only got worse as a few drunk guys started standing up to display their jerseys, despite the fact that no one cared.

Pulling one hand out of his pocket, he pointed directly into the audience, "Guys...Guys calm down. Premier League was last month..." His off the cuff joke got much less of chuckle this time around, "Anyways, while I'm sure everyone wants or even expects me to talk about their favorite teams, and I will, I got a little secret." He walked towards the center camera and furrowed his brow, "I'm routing for the underdogs. I got money on the little child soldiers that could...that's right. Let's hear some love for the Young Bloods."

The Gen X and Boomer audience members sat their a little perplexed, the Young Bloods were more than a few years beyond their demographic. Most had heard the name before, but almost no one knew their alter egos by heart. Some millenials and Gen Zers did shoot out into the air though with one going so far as to say, "Go Bloods. I love you Bael!

"I can see you all are confused. Well don't worry, after this crash course you'll know everything you need to know. " The audience looked above them as a screen turned on, while the audience back at home got a direct video snippet. Showing the team arriving at JFK, Clement inserted, "Here's the first member you have to know." Jason started to freestyle on the the tarmac, before topping it off with a back-flip. "You're about to watch San Diego's newest team show everyone else how it's done!"

"This is Sludge, a name from the same word generator he used to create that speech." Clement looked over to the assistant to his right and exclaimed, "I mean seriously? After rolling the dice like fifty times looking for a cool name, he finally just gave up and said, yea I'll go with Sludge."

His Asian sidekick Lee shook his head and leaned into his microphone, "I think he got the name from the same trash pile that he got those moves from."

"Of course. Of course. Okay let's move onto to the next one..."Grainy cell phone footage came on showing Ash and Casimir ordering food at some local joint. Ash's tepid conversation made much more cringier with extended pauses, poor audio, and the very much unflattering resolution. “...I will take the one with meat, please." Clement slapped his hand against his forehead as the roar of laughter was too much to contain.

"This here is the Illuminating, Ashen Moth, the brains of the team." Clement brought her face up to the screen, the grainy cell phone footage version, "You might remember her last month when she almost bit somebodies' hand off." The image changed again to a rioter in a hospital with bandages over his hand, "I know, I know. I'm not in her shoes. All I am saying... is that she isn't hot enough to be this stupid." Another round of laughter went out.

"Oh but how I can I forget about the Light of her life? The Great Cabato!" The pronunciation painfully butchered. He held his fingers to his ear, "Hold on. Hold on. I'm getting a message from my producers. His name isn't the Great Cabato. It's just Cabato." Clement looks back up to the crowd and says, "I mean. I get it. If I was countered by a freaking Raid Spray Can, I would over compensate too."

"Come on Chris..." Lee spoke up, "When you're a scrawny teenager with the only game you can get is that Overgrown Piss-Ant and his right hand....the least you can give him is Great in the front of your name. Plus I think he's like eastern European. They do weird stuff like that over there."

"You would think that." Chris shook his finger at him, "But no, before he was a Young Blood he was some vigilant in Nor Cal. Northern California. He should be a hipster in some man-bun ordering a decaf Expresso; not talking in a broken accent that makes Breakfast at Tiffany's look good. Okay, next one."

Video footage of Wyatt comes up, and before he can even speak, Clement cut in, "He's a guy in a fur suit. Bael is his fursona. Next."

Even grainier footage of Wendy walking out of the plane and onto the red carpet is revealed, "This is Isabelle Javert; known cyber hacker, terrorist, and super-villain extraordinaire! Not only did she help steal millions, she faced absolutely no repercussions because of it. Inside sources within the NASL says that things are a little tense between real heroes, and well, whatever the hell she is. And according to the same sources...she's one of those..." In a annoyingly sarcastic and high pitched tone he added, "Boo hew. People don't like that I was evil. Mommy and Daddy were mean to me. I'm the REAL victim here. Society doesn't understand my trauma. This is so, so much worse then prison..."

"Careful now Chris. You know these pesky super-villain types. She'll probably make it her life's mission just to ruin yours."

"Oh you're right...Well my wife already knows about my mistress, so what can Javert really do?" Looking directly into the camera, "Now Isabella. I know I said some big bad adult things about you. But look at the bright side. You stole millions and got away with it. If I didn't know any better I would say you were a Lehman Brother."

Horns began to go off, as the Asian Sidekick deepened his voice, "Chris! It's time for the lightening round."

"Ugh okay. Let's run through these members." Mizu was the first one up, "No idea next."

Amir, "Next."

Angelica, "Legacy pick."

Viviana, "16 and Pregnant."

Kiris, "The Dasmel in Distress."

Renata, "La Hija de la Banana Presidente". Clement said with some awfully broken Spanish.

Roy, "In over his head."

Shi, "Why are you even with them?"

"Why indeed?" Taking a sip from her Iced Tea, Shi leaned back on the couch and changed the channel. This whole day had been building up to this very moment: her stretching on the couch and nestling into a blanket. When she got to New York, she had intentionally kept quiet at the runway or any following press events; best to keep the fans wanting more. She was, after all, the most famous member of this team. However, right now, none of that mattered. She was alone....well as alone as you can be with a butler and handful of servants. Tapping on her now empty glass, "Thomas. Make me another one."

The butler to her side bowed his head and walked out of the living room, "As you wish ma'am."

Despite the nearly eight other people in her spacious apartment, she really did feel relaxed; no teammates, no secrecy, and no worries. Wearing only a red robe, her trademark ponytail, and no makeup she was totally prepared to enjoy this tranquility. Staring into her phone's reflection as she modeled for the camera, "I really am the best at everything. Without even trying to look good, I look perfect."

A sudden ring at the door caught her attention as one of the servants walked over and looked through the eye hole, "Miss Smith. It's Miss Martinez, your teammate. Should I answer it?"

"No. No..." She was seriously considering just outright ignoring her but she relented, "No. I'll answer it." Walking over to the door barefoot, Shi opened the door to find Renata there at her doorstep, with a purse around her shoulders. Renata was the last person she expected or wanted to see today.

Before she could even say anything, Renata began her almost, planned speech, ""Hey, Shi. It's Renata. I know you said that you don't really need apologies from me, or something like that, but... I'm sorry...For what happened." Two movie tickets came out of her purse "You wanted the two of us to start anew, right? Well... would you like to go to the movies with me, maybe? I picked out something I thought you might enjoy..."

"Hold on let me stop you there..." Shi crossed her arms and leaned against the frame of the door, "You want to watch a movie? Seriously? The last time we talked you were...emotional. And then you stayed silent for three hours." Shi peeked her head into the hallway "Did Naja put you up to this? Roy?"

"Miss Smith your Iced Lemon Tea is prepared." The butler said a few feet behind her holding the drink.

"Just leave it on the table." Shi looked back at Renata, "So what changed? Why now?"

[Finland SSR]

New York City, United States
Asset: Smith, Shihong

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

September 12th

---

Shi responded almost immediately when Renata managed to finish - and instead of saying yes or no, the girl shifted the question onto her, asking why she wanted to restart their relationship in the first place. A fairly reasonable question knowing how the last time they met face to face ended... and yet it was something she was unprepared for. Renata remained frozen, occasionally blinking, and watched Shi continue by suggesting that she merely got ordered by Roy or Naja to put up with this, rather than this being something she did on her own accord.

Okay, now that is not going to stand...

"...You and me both know that they couldn't order me to do something like this if they tried." Renata muttered, her eyes staring to the floor while she thought of a way to explain herself.

Should she even explain herself? Shi's definitely not the type of person she wanted to go in depth with about her thoughts yet, and she would have struggled to put a finger on exactly what drove her to the fellow heroine's apartment in the first place. Maybe she can try to explain later, but, for now...

"I-I mean, do you really need much of a reason to hang out with a fellow teammate?" Renata answered the question with one of her own. "You don't want the two of us to be enemies, and I figured I should give you a second chance instead of acting like I'm frustrated with your mere existence, so... I figured the two of us could go watch a movie together for a start. Simple, right?"

---

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

Phew. The second lap was... pretty difficult, especially with Sina's energy reserves definitely starting to drain, but it was more exciting than anything she had seen before. Oh boy, and she couldn't wait to see what the third lap was going to give! Even more difficult stunt challenges, maybe some new obstacles to test their skills against, or maybe... Just an empty lap with no obstacles at all. A clear path from start to finish.

That was...

Amazing!

A confident smirk formed on Sina's face, and the Dra'Quinni vigilante started accelerating to the maximum. Bael was already mounting his speed, putting his Elder powers to use and speeding past the poor side characters, while the mysterious lead was as swift and steady as ever. Jeez, who is this guy? To compete with them both, Sina had two cards at her disposal - years of experience, and sheer recklessness. The strain she was putting on her wings, constantly flapping them to accelerate despite how fast she was flying, would probably leave the average Dra'Quinni screaming with agony, but it didn't even bother her. And she was going to go even further beyond.

As soon as the finish line came into view, Sina suddenly folded her wings entirely, minimizing her drag, and let gravity do the rest, falling towards the finish line like a torpedo. The maneuver allowed her to rip herself off from Bael trailing behind her, but right as she was about to pass the lead and fall to victory, he burst forward in a flash, letting out all of his pent up effort in one burst and flew off. Before Sina could register what was happening, her competitor passed and activated the buzzer indicating his victory, while she slammed straight into the magical net below.

"Oh cool, I... didn't even need a brake..." Sina muttered under her breath, struggling to speak from the exhaustion. The victor of the race nonchalantly landed on the platform above where the coach was standing, who immediately opened up:

"Congratulations, kid, I didn't know a novice could fly so well, but-"

The coach stopped, however, when the Glamour around the man's body suddenly broke apart, revealing a whole other Dra'Quinni who had hidden underneath - and one which the coach instantly recognized. And he wasn't happy.

"You know, it's cheating for you to sign up for the novices division like that."

"I know. Give my prize to that girl instead. You know I don't need it." he responded calmly, then took off towards Sina - who was still entangled in the magical net after having slammed straight into it moments earlier.

"Can't anyone help out?.. I'm kinda stuck here..." She lifted her eyes to see an unfamiliar, black-scaled Dra'Quinni flying in the air in front of her, offering a hand. "...Wait, who are you?"

"My name is Aegi Ra'thar, I'm the leader of the professional flight team Screaming Sandstorm. Try to not tell anyone I was here, though - this is how I recruit people, but it's not exactly... accepted."

"Uhuh..." Aegi who?..

Aegi picked Sina up by the waist and pulled the dazed vigilante over his shoulder, then took off, catching up to Bael. "Hey, this is your friend, right? ...How'd you two get so good at flying?"

[Bentus]

The Amazing Ashen Moth!
Freedom’s Nest, New York

---

Ash was initially surprised when Kabuto suddenly approached one of the other heroes, but she calmed down as she realised that the two seemed to already know one another. Smiling as the pair exchanged their greetings and Casimir made to introduce her, Ash decided that the tournament had already been better than she’d been expecting. Between the fans and the other heroes that Casimir knew, she was making more new friends than she could keep track of. It was as if she had suddenly been accepted into a larger team of Young Bloods, and Ash couldn’t have been more excited.

Or at least she that’s what she’d thought until Surge reached out for a handshake with not one, but two arms.

Immediately, Ash’s eyes widened in excitement as her mouth formed into a perfect ‘o’ as she stared at the glowing limb. Grinning eagerly, she reached out and clasped both of Surge’s offered hands with all four of her own - two to each of his - before pumping them vigorously up and down. She could definitely see why Casimir was friends with this hero; who wouldn’t want to be friends with someone with powers that were this cool?

“It is very nice to meet you Surge, it is very nice to meet Kabuto’s Second in Command.” Ash replied, deciding to stick to hero names considering that they were all wearing their costumes. She was still shaking Icarus’ hand when she continued with a pleased tone. “Kabuto is my best friend. He rescued me and helped me to join the Young Bloods.” Ash paused. “Are you also part of a team of superheroes?”

The question hung in the air for a moment, but another voice interrupted before Icarus had a chance to respond. Turning her head towards the harsh tone, the mutant frowned as she saw Mike looking at the group. He talked about waving and autographs in a way that made them sound bad, which caused Ash’s brow to furrow in confusion. She didn’t like seeing one of her teammates so upset, but Ash couldn’t help but feel defensive as he seemed to criticise her upcoming interview.

“You are not being very nice, Forge.” Ash replied, in a voice that almost sounded like a teacher scolding a young child. Folding two of her arms across her chest, she wagged a finger towards Mike as she tried to explain what Casimir had taught her. “Fans are very important for a hero, you know. A good hero must always have many fans and be sure to get them selfies while smiling. Having an interview is a very good way to meet many fans at once, too.” Still not fully understanding why the other Young Blood was upset, a light-bulb lit up in Ash’s head. Maybe Forge just didn’t have as many fans as her and Casimir? That would explain why he seemed so sad and upset.

Confident that she had found the crux of the problem, Ash continued. “If you would like, we could help you also get an interview to talk to your fans. Right, Kabuto?”

---

Yoshiro Namaka
Freedom’s Nest, New York

---

When the plane landed, most of the team couldn’t wait to rush out onto the tarmac - and who could blame them? Yoshiro even couldn’t help but crack a smile as she felt the nervous excitement emanating from her friends, with all of their emotions mingling together around her as the anticipation for what awaited them outside occupied all of their minds. From Casimir’s overblown confidence and near-constant determination, to Viv’s contagious optimism, the team was itching to get out there and finally make their mark on the national superhero scene. The next few days would be their chance to define themselves in the eyes of the public, the superhero community, and even the entire world. But as the young heroes flooded out of the door the moment it opened, Yoshiro moved ever-so-slightly more slowly.

Collecting her belongings and making sure to grab her hand luggage before she left, she stepped aside to allow the other teens to move past her as they exited the aircraft, but eventually even she couldn’t delay it any longer. When she found herself standing on the edge of the aircraft’s door, just one step away from New York, Yoshiro felt her chest twist. What did she think she was doing, really? Even after the conversation on the plane, nothing had changed from when they had taken off.

Forcing herself to take a breath, Yoshiro pushed the thought to one side as she stepped out into the stadium. It didn’t matter, she was here already, wasn’t she? Making a big deal about it would only make things worse, and so she forced herself to continue to smile as she tried to feel the same excitement that she knew the rest of the team were experiencing. But she couldn’t quite convince herself to push back into the midst of her friends, choosing instead to hang ever-so-slightly further back as Naja directed them towards the changerooms.

Come on, quit moping around. Yoshiro scolded herself as began to unpack her costume from her luggage. Grow up and deal with it. You’re lucky that everyone wanted to keep you on the team at all, and you know that they did it because they care. As she unbuttoned her shirt, Yoshiro’s mouth twisted into a frown. Why was it so easy to think one thing, but not really believe it? On the plane, for a moment, everything had kind of felt like they had before. Alexis and everyone was goofing off and Yoshiro was reminded of when they’d all hung out together. It had been a fun trip, and by all rights she knew that she should have been excited for the tournament considering how much she’d been looking forward to it. But now that they were here, it all felt hollow to her.

Dressed in her purple costume, Yoshiro had been running on autopilot as she’d gotten changed. Putting on the outfit had become second nature by this point, but she paused just as she picked up her domino mask. Looking at the composite mask, the telepath turned it around so that she was staring at the two empty eye holes that stared back at her. Frowning, she felt the uncomfortable feeling rising once again in her chest. The problem was that - no matter how much she might’ve wished otherwise - things weren’t the same as before, were they?

"So... Anything in particular you three want to do with our free time?"

Angelica’s voice caused Yoshi to nearly jump as it pulled her from her reverie. Blinking in surprise, she turned around to see that her squadmates had all gathered together and were talking about going to grab a bite. Forcing herself to smile, Yoshiro placed her mask over her features and completed her Psyche uniform. “Yeah, that’s a good idea Viv. I’m absolutely starving.”

---

Standing in line with the others, Yoshiro was finding that she really was hungry as she looked upon the seemingly endless display of food that was lying out for the arriving heroes. Her stomach growled eagerly at the sight, especially after the food she’d packed for the flight had been less satisfying than she’d hoped.

“Hey Yoshi, aren’t they the Vixens?”

“Hm?” Yoshiro replied instinctively, turning to follow Angelica’s gaze towards a group of older women who were all sitting around a single table. It took a few moments for the gears in the girl’s head to complete their rotations and realise that the figures she was looking at - from not a few short steps away - were the Vancouver Vixens. “Oh my God, they totally are.” Yoshiro exclaimed in a whisper, suddenly self-conscious at being noticed by the famous heroines. The six women had caused waves when they’d first formed their team, and they’d maintained an unabashedly proud public image throughout their career. Yoshiro could remember looking up to them since she was a little girl, and she’d seen them as role models in more ways than one.

"Damn right they're the Vixens!" Alexis responded eagerly, wasting no time as she turned to leave the line. She mentioned something about Roy having one of the women’s number, which was shocking news in-and-of-itself, but Yoshiro hardly had time to process the information before her teammate did something that sent alarm bells screaming in her head. "I'm gonna go say hi, feel free to join me."

Freezing in place, Yoshiro half-reached out to try and stop Alexis, but it was already too late as she whispered desperately after her. “Wait, what?! Alexis stop! You can’t just -”

"Howdy! Do you girls mind if me and my friends sit here?"

Yoshiro froze in fear as her peripheral vision seemed to fade away. Did she just...ask if all of us could sit there? The colour practically drained from the telepath’s face as she found her legs moving her petrified body over towards the Vixens and her teammate. Angelica seemed to take things in her stride and calmly introduced them all, which was good considering that Yoshiro doubted she could utter much more than a squeak for the moment. Reaching out with her mind’s hand, Yoshiro established a quick mental connection with her squadmates.

Guys, are we seriously talking to the Vixens, right now?

[Absolon-7]

Bael

Casimir Herman, earlier in the day
Casimir scrunched his eyebrows at his teammate's question as he scratched his chin. Giving insults was something Casimir was well versed in but criticism was not it or at least not constructive criticism given in good faith. Well except for the past month when he'd been training Ash to restrain and utilize her strength so he could just use that as a baseline to give advice. There wasn't anything basic Casimir could point out since he seemed to have that locked on. He'd have to remember the specifics of the battle to be a judge accurately.

"Well I guess stay on your target more," explained Casimir rubbing the back of his head, "Even if I do outspeed you, it would've been better if ya didn't let me escape so many times. Letting an enemy out of your range isn't a good idea unless you pre-planned some trap. So yeah just hound your enemy as much as you can without letting up. Anyway, I'm gonna go take a shower. Rather not stink up a three hour plane ride. Lets head back to the tower, rather not get left behind."

Alexis

Angelica

Yoshiro Namaka

Viviana Couture September 12th
Viviana was as happy as a clam that her squadmates wanted to go to the buffet which inspired her to get changed even faster into her costume. As the group exited the locker room she was similarly confused as to where to go but thankfully some super nice worker guided to the right place. And the sight that awaited beyond those doors was dominated by the buffet that could have everything she could ever want! She spent a few good seconds staring down the food imagining serving herself whatever she wanted but Angelic mentioning the Vancouver Vixens caught her attention. She loved the Vixens and this was a chance of a lifetime! Would it be a good idea to just meet them though? Alexis however did not share Viviana's hesitation and she sped off to the heroes after she was done getting her food. Viviana had served herself some pasta with a heaping pile of pudding on one side so once she was done she hurried after Alexis.

"Hi~" greeted Viviana to the Vixens as she stood beside Angelica.

The Vixens actually seemed happy to meet them! Okay she just had to not mess up anything she said and embarrass herself. How does one do that again? Suddenly she felt a slight buzz as apparently Yoshi started a mental link. Darn heck we are! Isn't it awesome, Yosh! What should we say to em? Viviana placed her food down on the table as she sat down and looked down trying to think of a question.

"So how was it like when you guys joined the League? Did ya have as much attention attention or that heckin controversy?" asked Viviana tilting her head at them.

Icarus

Mike Mathews

The Amazing Ashen Moth!

Casimir Herman September 12th
"Please. Don't underestimate me. I'm not just excited I'm nearly jumping and punching the roof to show what I'm made of," laughed Casimir returning the light shoulder punch.

Looks like the tall, blonde, and angsty fellow was doing quite well for himself thankfully as he had no problems returning a quip to Casimir's jab. He looked on as Icarus introduced himself to Ash and was surprised by the double handshake with those constructs of his but considering how enthralled Ash gets by flashy objects...Oh this should be good. It was still sort of weird thinking of Icarus in an actual team as he was far more used to him always being a vigilante on the run. Ash's reaction wasn't disappointing in the slightest and almost amusing in fact as she opted to give a very brief summary of her life on the team. Trouble in paradise would come in the form of Mike shoving his mug in into the conversation blabbering about canceling the interview, taking a few pot shots at Icarus and whatever else he usually had a trunk up his butt about. Ash was quick to defend the interview even if her reasoning was spotty to say the least.

"That's right Ash. Maybe Forge just needs some attention. Sorry not sorry but the interview's still going. It's an important step Ash is going to need to take.," sneered Casimir crossing his arms before he turned to Icarus, "Anyways, I resent being called a buffoon. I think enlightened dumbass fits me better."

[Bentus]

The Scarab & Team Exorcist
August 31st
Beneath the city of San Diego

---

- Mindscape Battle -

The sound of blades clashing rang out behind Red as he made his way into the depths of the pyramid. Red couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for leaving Jan all by himself, considering that he was fighting something much more powerful than him and on its own territory. But as selfish as it was, Red’s priorities were far placed elsewhere. Besides, if things go to plan, once I get Yoshi back this whole thing should end. Red bit his lip. I just hope that he makes it that long.

Running through the darkened corridors lit only with the occasional torch, Red tried to focus on the small sensation he felt coming from further within. It was odd, to say the least, for the powerless Red to feel what was the closest sensation he could feel to a power in some sense. Whether it was due to the fact he was in the mindscape of the Scarab or if it was Yoshiro herself guiding him towards her, he didn’t know. What he did know, however, was the sensation was beginning to fade, which caused him to pump his legs at an even faster pace as he raced down the corridors.

However, after turning around a corner, the entire landscape around him changed. No longer was he in the dark corridors of the pyramid, but instead he found himself stumbling into a wide and open room. A line of pillars and torches led straight to a raised throne, although it sat empty for the moment. It looked like he had somehow climbed a few levels, though Red had no indication of it while inside the pyramid, and part of the room’s side was open with ornate columns holding up the ceiling. The open wall allowed for a spectacular view, and Red’s eyes widened as he found himself looking down upon a bustling city. Men and women - all dressed in Egyptian garb - walked like ants through the city’s thorough-fares while boats and rafts seemed to saturate a massive river nearby. The same pyramids that he had scene in the desert dominated the skyline, but other buildings and structures populated the thriving spaces between them. Where the hell am I? He thought to himself.

“Nervous, my Pharoah?” The male voice was chiding, and Red nearly jumped in surprise as he realised that he wasn’t alone. Whipping around, he saw an older man addressing a figure who was gazing out towards the city below.

The man looked to be older, perhaps middle-aged, but his armour and the blade at his hip revealed him to be a warrior - perhaps even a body-guard of some kind. Seemingly just as surprised as Red at the interruption, the shorter figure turned around to offer him a smile. Red’s jaw hardened as he recognised her features.

“Pharaohs are never nervous, Kamuzu.” The Scarab’s tone was stern and commanding, although Red was momentarily taken aback to see her voice coming from a child. She couldn’t have been older than him - and perhaps even a few years younger. The man chuckled at her insistence.

“But of course, Ahit - how dare I even suggest such a thing. My age must finally be getting to me.” That evoked a laugh from the girl, although her expression slowly darkened as she gazed out into the city once more. There was a few seconds of silence before she finally spoke again.

“What if I’m not ready? I want to be a good Pharaoh for my people, Kamuzu.” She confided, her voice suddenly appearing to very much be that of a worried child asking for guidance. Kamuzu offered his charge a warm smile in response, stepping forward to squeeze her shoulders.

“Ahit, I have served you from the moment of your father’s death, and I have done so both out of a sense of duty and because I know what you are truly capable of.” Lifting one of his hands, the guard gestured out towards the people beneath them. “You are taking on a heavy burden, I assure you, but I am certain that it is one which you can bare - and with your gifts you shall lead us better than any Pharoah that has come before.” He paused for a second, before slowly turning the girl around to face him. “Ahit, of all my time serving as your regent, I have never been more proud than I am today. Tomorrow, at your coronation when you come of age, I shall perform the most notable act of my regency and hand over the people to their true Pharaoh.”

For a moment, Ahit - the Scarab - simply stood there, looking up towards the man that had effectively been her father for as long as she could remember, before she lurched forward and embraced him in a warm hug.

“Thank you so much, Kamuzu. Really. I’ll do my best, I promise.”

She buried her face in his chest, and for a moment the show of affection seemed to have taken her regent entirely by surprise. However his expression quickly softened, and he patted the small of the girl’s back to comfort her.

“I know you will. You will give your people a great gift, I am sure of it.”

Red stood stock still as he watched the exchange, context and understanding of both the language and the upcoming handover flooding his mind as if the memory was almost his own. Confused, he hadn’t moved even when the girl’s gaze drifted up to fall upon his face. Caught like a deer in headlights, Red felt his heart freeze as her eyes narrowed on his features before they widened in sudden recognition. She opened her mouth, as if about to scream out for the guards, before a sudden gust of wind tore through the throne room and nearly bowled Red off of his feet. It was so strong that it blew out every torch at once, with even the Sun seemingly being snuffed out as Red found his surroundings plunged into a darkness so complete that he wondered for a moment if his body was even still connected to his eyes in the pitch black that engulfed him.

Wait, how does a wind blow out the Sun?

Suddenly, light flooded into the room as a pair of large doors were kicked open. It wasn’t a ton of light, but Red could immediately recognise that he wasn’t in the same room. The walls around him sloped slightly, all converging as if towards a point above his head.

“Makt, light the torches! The torches, you fool - we need to see what we are doing!” Hasty footsteps followed a young man as he ran into the room, using the lit torch in his hand to light lanterns that dotted the walls. Looking around, Red ducked behind a low wall as he watched a number of figures enter through the doorway. A few of them seemed to be struggling, holding down a smaller figure who was kicking and grunting against their grasps. Suddenly, there was an angered cry. “Ah, shit! The demon bit me!”

And then, the same female voice that Red had heard moments before echoed out from the group. It was raspy from shouting and crying, with the threat of more sobs lurking just behind her tongue in her throat. “Help, help! You can’t do this, I’m your Pharoah!” As she struggled, Ahit found that her efforts were in vain. She was still just a girl and the adults who were holding her down refused to budge. “I will have you all executed for this: Makt, Naeia, Kanika - all of you! I’ll have the guards burn your houses and…” The girl’s voice trailed off as her gaze seemed to fall on one of her assailants. “...Kamuzu?”

For a moment, her resistance slackened as Ahit saw that her regent was involved in this betrayal. But then something in her mind clicked as she realised the extent of the danger that she was in, and she redoubled her efforts. Scowling, the still armoured Kamuzu gestured for the mob to move her further into the room - closer to the stone table that Red was hiding behind.

“She’s just a child, you idiots.” He cursed. “Makt, get everything ready.” One of the men bowed before darting off to ready some objects set off to the side. It seemed as if everything had already been prepared well in advance, with the whole event having been planned down to the last detail.

As she was hurled onto the table, Ahit swiftly found her arms and legs being held down as she continued to try and fight the powerful grips. “Wh-why can’t I feel any of you? I can’t see any of your auras!” She called out, the fear began to creep into her voice, and a few quiet tears reflected the flickering torchlight from her cheeks. “I command you all to stop this at once!”

Kamuzu chuckled, reaching into his robes to reveal a clay talisman that had been painstakingly carved into the shape of a scarab. “Your witchcraft won’t save you, Ahit. I would have been foolish to attempt this if I hadn’t been sure of that.” As she tired herself, Ahit’s efforts to resist became weaker as her regent slowly approached her. “I want you to know that we don’t do this lightly. We tried to warn your father of the danger posed by your connection to Set, and his stubborn refusal to help us ultimately led to his downfall. But I was not lying yesterday when I said that you shall help your people. As Pharaoh, I shall lead us into a new Golden Age. And your powers - contained and controlled to be used by responsible hands - will help ensure our dominance for years to come.”

A look of confusion flashed across the girls features, and she couldn’t prevent a few quiet sobs from escaping from her lips. It was slowly dawning on her that nobody was coming to help, that she couldn’t force herself free against so many, not without her powers. “Please, Kamuzu - why are you doing this? I promise that I won’t do anything without your approval, I would never hurt the Kingdom! You said that I was ready for the burden of rule.”

Kamuzu didn’t respond, but Ahit’s eyes widened in horror as she saw the glint of a dagger reveal itself from beneath his cloak. At the same time, some of the priests that had accompanied the assailants began their chant as the smell of burning incense began to float into the air. “Wait, Kamuzu just stop! Stop!” Ahit’s desperate pleas fell on death ears as the mob began to close in around her, cutting off Red’s view of the scene.

“Kanika, get the jars - but leave the brain for last.”

Unable to see what was happening, Red could only watch as the assailants ignored the girl’s final pleas and struggles, until he saw a dagger get raised above the table. In one swift motion, it swung downwards to being its work, and a bloodcurdling scream filled the tomb as the ritual truly began.

As the scream grew louder and louder, it became a force of its own as it pounded on Red’s eardrums. Torches and lanterns began to flicker, and a sudden wind seemed to accompany it as it grew in volume until everything went black once again. Except this time the torches quickly relit themselves to reveal that Red was still crouching in the same room, hiding just away from where the ritual had taken place. Looking around, it was as if nothing had happened. There were no signs of the assailants, or any remnants from the grisly ritual. Except Red’s gaze did see a body lying on the stone table. But this body wasn’t wearing an Egyptian robe, and wasn’t covered in blood - instead she had Asian features, and was wearing a purple costume with a mask covering the upper half of her face.

“Yoshi!” Red called out, racing forward to where she lay. Seeming to react to his voice, a groan escaped from Yoshiro’s lips as she slowly seemed to regain consciousness.

“M-Mustafa?” She managed weakly, her eyes slowly flickering open. “Where...am I?” Her voice was dry and weak, and she seemed to struggle to even hold her arm up to shield her eyes from the light. But as the world around her slowly came into focus, the girl’s gaze inevitably fell on the face that was looking down at her from above.

“Red?” She said, a look of confusion flashing across her features as she seemed surprised to see him standing over her. “Red, is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” Red replied, his voice quivering slightly as a wave of emotions swept over him. Reaching down towards the still dazed Yoshiro, Red picked the girl up and tightly embraced the still bewildered girl. While for so long Red had only been seeing an imposter standing in place of Yoshiro, he now had finally gotten to see the real Yoshiro. He could barely keep his composure together as he continued holding onto her, until he heard the muffled voice of Yoshiro talking into his chest.

As Red bent down to carefully pick her up, Yoshiro continued to stare blankly at him, the gears in her head still turning slowly. It felt like she was waking up from some kind of a distant dream, with thoughts and memories slowly emerging from a haze in the back of her head. Where was she? She was...not here before, because the Scarab had done something. As the events of the past few weeks began flooding back, Yoshiro felt a wave of shock threaten to wash over her. Pulling herself suddenly in close, she buried her head in Red’s chest as she felt a few tears trickling down her cheeks.

“Red, I thought I’d never see you again. I thought I wouldn’t see any of you again. The Scarab took over and she’s planning something, we have to stop...we have to…” The girl’s voice trailed off as she pulled away, her memories becoming clearer as a hand gripped at her chest. “We haven’t beaten her yet, have we? It’s not over.” Yoshiro’s eyes narrowed as she seemed to take in her surroundings for the first time, her voice taking on a more serious tone. “Red, where are we?”

Red’s expression hardened as he looked around the room they were in. “Somewhere in the Scarab’s mind right now. How I got here, I have no idea, and how we’re going to get out I’m also clueless. Jan’s in here too, and Kabuto and Tadeo are in the physical world making sure we stay saf-”

Before Red could finish his statement, the floor suddenly began to shake as if some kind of tremendous force had erupted above them. Dust fell down from the ceiling above, causing a sense of concern to build in Red.

“We need to get out of here, Yoshi. But if we’re going to do that, we’re going to need to take down that damn demon once and for all. I can’t do anything to stop it, and I’d be lying if I think Jan’s going to be able to.” He paused, grabbing a hold of Yoshiro’s hands as he looked her in the eyes, a great deal of hesitancy in his voice as he spoke next.

“Yoshi, you’re the only one who has a chance against this thing. Trust me, the last thing I want to do is ask you to fight against something that you just escaped from, but you’ve got to be the one to fight. Can you do it?”

A look of confusion flashed across Yoshiro’s face as she struggled to take in what Red was saying. Things still felt hazy and this was...a lot to suddenly have to deal with. Who’s Jan? She silently thought to herself. Nervously, she glanced past Red to see that cracks had started splitting up the pyramid’s walls, with trickles of dust floating down from the ceiling as the structure seemed to be suffering. Pursing her lips, the girl looked back at her boyfriend with a determined expression. She offered him a firm nod.

“I’ll do my best. If you came all this way for me, I can’t let you all down.” Swinging around to put her feet on the floor, Yoshi made to push herself up but immediately cried out in surprise as her legs seemed to give way under her weight. Stumbling forward, she threw out her arms to grab onto Red in order to support herself. Silently, she cursed herself as she her body felt strangely weak, drained of energy even if her mind felt fine and awake. “I’m fine. Just, help me get to her. We have to finish this.”

Red nodded, kneeling down so that Yoshiro could climb onto his back. She had just enough strength to hold on around his neck as Red ran as fast he could through the crumbling passageways of the pyramid’s interiors.

---

The dance of swords in the halls of the pyramids continued unabated. Despite his disadvantage in strength, speed and weaponry alike, Jan continued attacking on and on, each and every one of his strikes more ferocious than the last - and for good reason. A rapier was a weapon made for offense rather than defense, and the Scarab needed to be kept in place while Red searches for his lost loved one - though the latter was definitely easier said than done. The woman had no trouble parrying and deflecting all of her opponent’s strikes - even the smartest feint or the swiftest blow would see itself swatted to the side, fail to finish its course. Meanwhile, Jan was sure that the only reason he hadn’t been reduced to a smear on the floor yet was because the Scarab, for one reason or another, found his continued existence amusing.

A failed overhead strike by the vigilante’s rapier got deflected to the side and followed up by a slap by the flat side of the Scarab’s curved blade, sending him rolling across the ground and rather painfully slamming to a pillar.

“Huff… huff...” Jan panted underneath his breath and weakly pulled himself back up on his feet - two wide bleeding cuts were now stretching across his chest. “You still haven’t responded to me from earlier...”

The woman scoffed as she waited for the tiring hero to pull himself up, holding her own blade in a relaxed position ready to respond to any sudden attack. She kept her eyes fixed on her opponent as she calmly placed one bare foot in front of the other, slowly circling around him as she waited for an opening to present itself.

“Forgive me if I ignore you, but you do seem to blabber on.” She chided, smirking at the hero as she did so. She supposed there was no harm in humouring the boy if he wanted to spend his last few minutes wasting his breath. “What was it exactly that I never got around to clarifying for that simple little head of yours?”

Slowly, Jan lowered his rapier, the vigilante's eyes remaining locked on the Scarab while he took a few deep breaths. How long was Red going to take rescuing his loved one? Even if he managed to keep the woman's attention, they only had so much time before his luck, and then his stamina, runs out.

Especially not when… a dull pain was starting to shackle his head. As if he was starting to come down with a migraine, or a really terrible fever. For now, however, Jan simply ignored it, assuming it to be some sort of side effect of his imperfect transition to the Scarab's mindscape, and spoke:

"That you're a hypocrite. That you're the manifestation of the evil you claim to have been wronged by." It was a long shot, but… "But… you could be on the right track. You said you watched people rise and fall for generations in prison - but, you've got to have seen those same people try to do good, too? As selfish as some people are… not everyone's like that. They extract happiness not from money or from the suffering of others, but by helping them out or just getting them to smile...

You've been living in the mind of someone like that recently, haven't you?" Again, a really wild guess - Jan didn't even know what Yoshiro was like as a person - but seeing as those who knew about her condition had all volunteered to help her and threw everything they had to help her out, it was a guess he was willing to make.

The Scarab’s footsteps paused as Jan finished. Standing still, her sword arm seemed to lower slightly as his words caught her by surprise. She blinked for a moment, not having expected his efforts to reach out for her heart. But it was only for a moment, and then she just laughed in disbelief.

Shaking her head, the Scarab could hardly believe what she was hearing. “Good and evil? Oh, give me a break.” She couldn’t stop another burst of laughter from escaping from her lips at the hilarity of it. “You call me a hypocrite when you’re only fooling yourself by believing in fairy tales. There’s no such thing as good and evil, or right and wrong.” The woman gestured towards the landscape that surrounded them. “Do you even know how many times I’ve seen the definition of ‘good’ change? How fickle humanity’s so-called morality really is?” She cracked a smile as she studied Jan’s expression. “Good and evil are just concepts used by the strong to make the weak feel better about themselves. But I don’t deny that there are people who cling to them, people who try oh so very hard to do the right thing no matter what.”

Lowering her blade, the Scarab calmly began to approach the telepath. “And I suppose that you’re little friend really was such a person. She believed so very much in trying her best, at least. But allow me to let you in on a little secret, Lech.” By this point, the Scarab was practically an arm’s length away from Jan - but something was wrong. The pounding in his head had only been increasing in tempo, and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead as his arms felt slow and heavy. “People like that, people like her, it always ends up the same way. They burn bright, but they never last. Hell, I couldn’t even list the number of times I’ve had to save Yoshiro from running into reckless danger just while I’ve been hitching a ride. Good people never prosper, so it’s just left to the survivors like me to rule the world.” Pausing in front of her opponent, the woman leaned forward with a confident smirk. “But enough about me, how are you feeling Lech? Or maybe I should call you Jan? How’s your head - feeling like it’s hard to concentrate, maybe like those thoughts of yours aren’t quite your own anymore?”

“You…”

Seeing Scarab lean up straight to his face, Jan’s instincts kicked in immediately - but instead of slashing straight through the woman or backing off, he remained locked in place, against his will. The young telepath’s vision was slowly starting to turn blurry, his body felt like it was turning limp, that five different voices were speaking in his mind at once, and pain so sharp radiated through his head that it felt like it was being repeatedly stabbed by a corroded knife. Suddenly, his fingers snapped open against his will, letting loose of his rapier, the weapon falling to the ground immediately.

He had seen what the Scarab had done to Nightshade, the leader of the Young Bloods, and in this moment, his mind figured out that the exact same move was being made on him. In all this time, thinking that he had managed to trick the Scarab and buy time for Red, Jan had never considered that it could pull something nefarious at him as well.

Idiot, idiot, idiot! The Polish vigilante, despite all of the pain, the struggle and a possible impending end to who he was as a person, struck a faint smile.

“I feel great.” Jan spoke, defiantly. “...Not my head, that one’s terrible. But I feel great knowing… that despite observing people for thousands of years, you will never understand me, or Yoshiro, or anyone else. You will never believe in change, or hope, you’ll live and die surrounded by blind minions and those you’ve intimidated into following you… and...”

The vigilante closed his eyes. “...out of the two of us, I’m the only one who’d be willing to give my life for something.”

Chuckling at the hero’s continued defiance, the Scarab assessed him with a smile. “Oh, I’m counting on it. You’re willingness to sacrifice yourself for others is a useful trait, and I can’t wait to see what you’ll be able to do when you will soon gladly give your life to save me.” Pausing, the woman glanced up and down the young hero as he continued to struggle against her mental onslaught. “You have a strong spirit, Jan. A shame that your heart’s in the wrong place. You could have achieved great things without these pointless sentimentalities. But it looks like that was never going to be your destiny.”

Despite having his declaration turned to be used against him, the vigilante’s faint smile, an attempt to cover his unquenchable pain, did not waver.

“No… You’ve got it the wrong way around. It’s you whose heart is in the-”

As he spoke, the Scarab reached out and planted the palm of her hand on Jan’s forehead. Immediately, a piercing pain tore through his skull and the hero’s vision exploded into a burst of light that grew rapidly in intensity, burning and blinding until it consumed all of his thoughts.

“...wrong... place...”

And then, nothing.

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

The final lap was a simple sprint. Something he took immediate advantage of and sped up considerably. Already he had caught up to the few that passed him on the obstacles, now closing in on fifth place with more than half the course to go. Passing one more flier and he caught himself in fourth with one more in front of him, but the one in third was adjusting his flying to make it so that Bael couldn't pass. All the thid place guy had to do was stall for a few seconds.

And it worked. Those few seconds had secured him his third place wind, just as Bael figured out to go underneath him. It was too late for the blue Dra'Qunni to snag the third place win, or so he thought. As he climbed out of the net, he noticed that the one who claimed first place looked quite a bit different then what he saw a minute or so ago. However, the coach was scolding him and all but kicking him out of the running because he was actually a professional and the race was intended for amateurs. Something that made him cross his arms in annoyance. He'd play games where people had done similar things, though at least in this case he at least admitted to doing it to look for new members for his flying team.

It took a second but he realized that meant Sina technically came in first, the guy in front of him in second and himself in third. Not what he expected to happen, but he wasn't going to knock the money they were going to get. Though he could only imagine what Sina was going to by with it. Probably some instrument she could use to bludgeon people if he had to guess. Then again, he wasn't sure what he was going to buy with it. Maybe lunch or something.

"Hey Sina." He spoke as he trotted over. "Alright. I don't think that I gave you enough credit on your flying." He admitted, not long after he spoke to his friend, he got approached by the guy who had "won" the race. Aegi if he caught the name right, asking how he got so good at flying. "I'm not really all that good honestly. I can go really fast when I don't have to dodge anything. Not so good when I have to deal with the obstacles. I do some practice, but it's mostly just to keep from getting rusty." A half truth. He really didn't want to get the truth out there just yet. Plus he wasn't sure if that counted for cheating.

[Finland SSR]

The Scarab & Team Exorcist
August 31st
Beneath the city of San Diego

---

Even with the weight of Yoshiro on his back, it didn’t take Red as long to leave the Pyramid as he’d feared. He could’ve sworn he’d walked further on his way in, through longer corridors and more turns than the direct route towards the bright light of the desert outside. But he supposed it was too much to ask for things to make sense in this place. Yoshiro had kept quiet as they went, a look of determination on her face masking the weakness in her body as she leaned on Red. Squinting as the relentless Sun momentarily blinded her as they emerged, Yoshiro lifted one of her hands to try and place some shadow on her face. She refused to allow herself to think of how they were going to defeat the Scarab, or how crazy she was to think that she could fight her in her current state. They’d beaten her before, when they’d been together in Red’s mindscape - and that would have to be evidence enough that they could win this. Because they didn’t really have much else to hope for at this point.

However, the sight that greeted the pair of heroes was definitely not what they had been expecting. Having been ready for a fight, Yoshiro blinked in surprise as only a single figure came into focus before them. He was a boy, around their age - and she could feel the psychic energy emanating from his aura. “Red, is that Jan?” She asked, before noticing the wounds that dotted the hero’s body. “He’s hurt pretty bad.”

Red nodded. “Yeah, that’s him. Although…” Red’s voice trailed off with a tone of unease. Where’s the Scarab at? Did Jan already take care of it? Glancing around them, Red immediately shook his head. No, he couldn’t have. Otherwise we wouldn’t still be in the Scarab’s mindscape. Which means that it’s still here, somewhere.

A worried expression filled Red’s face as he turned his head towards Yoshiro behind him. “Yoshi, you think you can stay on your own two feet for now? I need to check on Jan, but something doesn’t feel right, and I don’t want you to get caught in the middle of it in case something goes wrong.”

"What do you mean?"

The young telepath turned around, sporting a surprised face. His body no longer flickered, his voice no longer sounded like it came through a filter, he no longer looked like a foreign entity which jumped into the mindscape on the last possible second. Seeing the two peers turn up in the vast expanse of the pyramid, Jan made a few steps forward, faintly reaching out with his hand, and spoke:

"And you've rescued Yoshiro, too? That's great, even though I thought you'd take… longer." The telepath waved across the empty chamber, the same one where the Scarab and her slaves had once stood and awaited their arrival. "I've managed to defeat her in the meantime. You're all safe."

Yoshiro, for a brief moment, felt a wave of relief in the news of victory given to them. Looking back to Red, she was expecting him to have the same relieved expression as her, but instead she noticed that instead his face held a look of unease. In fact, Red seemed to tense up as he stared at Jan with a scrutinizing gaze. Finally he spoke up.

“Well, good job I suppose. But before we start celebrating Jan, there’s something I need to ask.” Red continued to glare at Jan, who held a confused expression on his face at the response. Yoshiro noticed Red’s hands began to slowly twitch, hovering over his hips.

“If you defeated the Scarab, why are we still here?”

The Polish vigilante stood frozen for a few seconds, his eyes refusing to blink. No matter which way you splice it or dice it, it was a good question - without the existence of the Scarab's mind, the entire mindscape should have collapsed and all three of them ejected back into reality.

And yet…

"Because…" Jan began. "Because…" His body once again turned partially transparent for a second, before flickering back to normal.

As Red stepped forward to talk to his teammate, Yoshiro forced herself to stand steady until he was a few steps away from her. Confident that she wasn’t going to distract her boyfriend, she allowed a sigh to escape from her lips as she leaned on the pyramid’s doorway. Despite what she had told Red, even the simple walk up from the tomb had left her feeling weakened and drained. Her legs were nearly shaking from fatigue, and Yoshiro had to concentrate to stop herself from simply falling over on the spot.

This feels...strange. What is happening to me? Shaking her head, the telepath tried to stay focused on the exchange between the two boys. Even though her mind was cloudy, she could still feel the suspicion emanating from Red’s aura. Something clearly wasn’t right, and Jan’s presence just felt...off. Narrowing her eyes, Yoshiro tried to figure out what it was about his aura felt familiar.

The church. Suddenly, Yoshiro’s eyes shot open as she remembered how this nightmare had all began.

“Red, look out!” She screamed, but it was too late as Jan’s arm suddenly swung towards the Young Blood. The telekinetic power behind the blow tore into Red, sending him flying across the courtyard and into a marble pillar. Cracks spread out from the point of impact, and a menacing grin spread across Jan’s features.

“You know what, the subtle approach was never really my thing, anyway.” The Scarab chuckled with Jan’s voice as he calmly approached Red. Reaching out with an invisible hand, the telepath ensnared the hero’s form and lifted him up into the air. Red would have felt an unseen grip being to pull on his limbs, while a foreboding pressure began to press down around his neck. “Though I did not expect this host to feel quite so cosy. Maybe I’ll keep him around for a bit longer - a friendly face could be useful when I get rid of the rest of that irritating little team of yours, don’t you think?” Jan offered Red a wink. “Though I’m afraid you won’t be around to see it.”

“You...bitch…” Red managed to weakly reply as he struggled in vain to free himself from the telekinetic hold of the Scarab. It took everything within him just to remain conscious, black spots filling his vision as his brain screamed for oxygen.

Jan stopped a few meters away from the floating, ensnared, choking Red, letting out a chuckle as his possessed eyes looked across his victim’s features. Snapping the poor redhead in half and moving on to his frightened girlfriend would be so, so simple - it would only take a second, two at most if he got a surge of newfound willpower… Despite that, the Scarab waited, waited for a few seconds, allowing her victim to struggle, get the chance to savour the moment, savour the demise of the one man who has been the biggest thorn at her side ever since she first took over Yoshiro’s body - and this is where the breakthrough finally came.

“AAAAAAAAAAH!!” the young telepath suddenly roared out, clutching onto his head and crouching down, clawing onto his face and struggling to hold himself together. The battle inside Jan’s mind was far from done, and witnessing just what the Scarab was about to do gave him a burst of stubborn resistance, breaking him out of mind control, at least temporarily. It was only obvious before, but it was only made more clear - the Scarab was in his mind, and it was trying to give him the same treatment as it had done to Yoshi.

“Would you… quit it already?!” Jan yelled out to himself in a venomous tone, only for it to suddenly shift and his voice turn fuzzy again. “Get… out of my mind!”

Shouting at the top of his lungs, Jan suddenly straightened and snapped his arms to the side - “snapping” them in the literal sense of the word, as the severe resistance and the rather violent yank left at least a few of his bones broken. Not that he cared at this point. Because what truly mattered was that, if he doesn’t do anything at this very moment, he will have to witness horror beyond anything he could imagine. None of his allies outside of the Scarab’s mindscape would know that he is mind controlled, after all - and, just like she said, she could use this to infiltrate their team and take them down once and for all.

There was only one idea which Jan’s mind could come up with, no matter how much time he might have had to think.

“Red!” Jan called out. With each passing second, his body would enter a brief spasm, the Scarab constantly trying to regain control and force him to move, only for the telepath to push himself back through brute force of willpower. His arms remained stretched out to the sides, his chest was wide open, and his eyes were locked towards the redhead. “I want you… to kill me.”

Laying down on all fours as his lungs sucked in as much air as possible, Red struggled to try and make a response. A violent series of coughs erupted over Red, much to the nearby Yoshiro’s dread. Before she could take a step in his direction, however, Red managed to weakly hold up a hand to signal for her to stop, which she did with much reluctance. “Jan...you know I can’t...There’s got to be another way…”

The Pole struck a faint smile, hoping to assure his teammate that everything was okay. “Don’t worry about me. ...I’ll be fine. We’re in a mindscape, killing me will simply eject me back to reality - but as long as I keep her in my mind, that will destroy her for good. Just… do it… now!”

He could only hope that Red would believe in him, he could only hope that Yoshi did not know any better about how the rules of a mindscape work, and he could only hope that Saint Peter will forgive him at Heaven’s gate. Because he lied. To kill a person’s manifestation inside another person’s mindscape… it means leaving irreparable damage to their mind. And while he was sure it would destroy the Scarab as long as it remained latched onto him, he was sure that he couldn’t survive it either…

Glancing over to Yoshiro, Red’s eyes were filled with hesitation at what to do. In Jan’s current state, he didn’t know whether or not this was simply the Scarab trying to trick him once more. Even if it were Jan, Red had no idea on whether or not the boy even knew what he was talking about in his current state. Still on all fours, Red’s fists balled up as he tried to decide on what to do. If Jan’s right though, we can end this here. But if he’s wrong…

Red’s eyes locked with Yoshiro’s, unsure of what to do next. Even in his current state, he knew he could do what Jan had requested, that much he knew. A dilemma now confronted Red as his thoughts raced to try and solve it. Can I actually kill this guy, even if it means that Yoshi will be safe? It was a question that not very long ago would have been an easy answer, but now as he stood before Yoshiro, he found himself unable to answer it.

Leaning now with her full weight on the wall, Yoshiro could feel the beads of sweat coating her forehead as she struggled to hold back the overwhelming sense of fatigue that was washing over her. She wanted to step forward into the courtyard, to go and help Red and Jan to fight against the Scarab, but instead found herself rooted to the spot as her legs threatened to give way at any moment. She’s winning, isn’t she? It was a sickening weight that lodged itself in her stomach, the horrified knowledge that she wasn’t falling asleep or pushing herself too hard, but instead that she was feeling her mind being chiselled away with each passing second. And yet, as Jan seemed to take back control and call out to Red, Yoshiro’s eyes widened in horror.

She immediately opened her mouth to yell at him, to call him out for his lie and to stop Red from doing the unthinkable. It didn’t matter if they were in her mindscape, not so long as Jan’s conscience was here too. But only a dry croak escaped from her throat, as Yoshiro found that she couldn’t even summon the energy to warn the two heroes. No, no - Red don’t do it. There has to be another way, there has to be… She couldn’t just let this happen. She couldn’t just force Red to choose between becoming a murderer and her life! But even as Yoshiro tried to will her body into action, the corners of her vision began to turn black, and within seconds her concerns began to drift away as she slumped onto the floor.

“Don’t do it!” Jan suddenly yelled out, almost running forward to charge straight at Red and disarm him, only for the vigilante to regain control of his body and snap himself back into a straight open stance. “Don’t… listen to her! She’s turning desperate… you need to just...”

And yet, Jan could clearly tell that both Red and Yoshi were hesitant. Why wouldn’t they be? If the situation were reversed, he would have been just as wary of raising his hand against an ally, if not more… Through agony and a constant mental struggle, he struck a smile once more.

“Everything’s going to be fine. Just… do what I say. It’s the only way out.”

Red stared into Jan’s pleading eyes for several moments, before finally he began shakingly managed to get onto his own two feet. He glanced over to Yoshiro, who’s eyes he could tell were pleading for him to do something to save Jan. She trusted Red, someone who always seemed to find ways out of situations by thinking outside of the box, to find a solution that would result in a happy ending in a story that had been filled with nothing but tragedy.

However, there was no time for happy endings. Everyone here, especially Jan, recognized this. Jan wasn’t going to be able to hold on much longer, and once the Scarab regained control once more, Yoshiro and Red wouldn’t stand a chance against it. There was no hope of someone else to come in and save the day, or even make a decision for them. Jan had already made his decision, and finally it was time for Red to make his.

“I’m sorry, Yoshi.”

Before the weight of these words had reached Yoshiro, Red suddenly sprung forwards from where he was standing, the sharpened blade of a rederang gripped tightly in his hand as he drove the point of it directly under the chin of Jan. Gritting his teeth, Red made sure there was no uncertainty in his blow as he twisted the blade inside, reaching as far as the blade could inside the skull of the Polish boy.

Almost as soon as the redarang connected with the young telepath’s body, the entire mindscape started to tremble. A sudden loss of connection with the consciousness which enabled its existence led to it crumbling from the inside out. Jan’s entire body was in pain, even a mind as stubborn as his was starting to give in to the pressure, a tear slowly formed in his eye - but, despite all else, he was happy.

Nothing but gurgles and blood could come out of his throat at this point, so instead, the telepath reached out with his mind.

I’ll see you on the other side.

The mindscape began collapsing for good, ripping apart into bits, pieces and a bright flash of light, everyone within it getting ejected back into reality.

---

The castle was falling apart. Its spires were collapsing in on themselves, its walls were cracking and breaking, its halls were getting filled to the brim with debris.

For long, it had stood in the heart of the land as a beacon, serving as a reminder to the people living below that they shall always have a protector. It was the place Jan would always come back to if he felt lonely, abandoned or sad, even if there were no more people to talk to here as there were in the real world. But now, its life is coming to an end, much like the life of the only man who inhabited it.

Jan stood in the vast central hall of the castle, his eyes looking up and staring at the dome above, watching bits and pieces fall from it and a blinding light seep from each opened gap. There wasn’t much time left… not much time left to himself, that is. Not much time left to think.

Why’d he go this far? Why’d he always go this far? That question would sometimes pop up in his mind as he’d grit and push through every day. Why did he cling onto his ideals despite the harsh world around him - despite having lived in famished poverty for years, despite having been thrown to jail for merely trying to help others. Why was he willing to give his life for people he had never met before in his life? And, every single time, the answer would be the same.

“Congratulations, you doomed us both.” a voice suddenly rang out across the empty hall. A woman stepped out from the shadows, holding a curved blade in each hand, her furious eyes burning into his. Jan ignored the glare, however, and merely smiled, speaking:

“No. Just you.”

The telepath turned his eyes back towards the dome. Most of it, and the castle around him, was already gone. The first cracks were starting to appear on the floor as well.

“I’ve always known that, one day, this is what I’d come to.” Jan continued, turning back towards the Scarab. “I’ve never told you my story, have I? Four years ago… I’ve lost everything I had, and I swore that as long as I breathe, I would never let another person suffer what I had again. But a promise like that requires you to sacrifice something, and the only thing I had left was my life...”

“But… this isn’t the end, you know,” the Scarab responded, gritting her teeth. “Your destruction in someone else’s mindscape is survivable - and someone as stubborn as you could certainly pull it off. And you have so many more people to save, so-”

“Don’t do it. Your fakeness is oozing through your cracks,” was the response she received. “I know where this will lead. If I pull myself together and break free from my mindscape, I’ll survive this… but so will you. And everything will just repeat itself.”

“Wait, Jan...”

The telepath said nothing, merely closed his eyes, while the mindscape was starting to fall apart completely. The Scarab looked around from side to side, the fury in her eyes turning to desperation. She wasn’t going to escape Jan’s mindscape all by herself, and the boy was simply not budging…

“Jan, you… you aren’t actually going to do this, right… Jan? Jan?!”

---

After a long, hard and dramatic battle within the Scarab’s mind, the three mindscape travellers woke up in a scene already resolved. The cultists were already gone, the ritual was abandoned. Though Red and Yoshi would have no problems waking up, Jan remained on the ground, his breathing weak and his psionic signature fading.

Meanwhile a certain bug themed hero was sitting on the Scarab’s throne silently waiting for something to happen and the sudden awakening of his friends spurred him to action by hobbling off the throne and running towards the trio. He hopped right in front of the trio observing their movements before bending down to greet Yoshi and Red.

“Welcome to the land of the living! Next stop: the snowy slopes of purgatory,” said Casimir before noticing something was off. Jan didn’t seem to be waking up like the other two. He stepped around them and stood next to Jan’s body. Noticing the Pole getting paler and weaker by the second he exclaimed, “The hell’s going on with Jan! What happened in there?”

The fading telepath’s eyes slowly opened up as soon as he felt his body move and get his torso pulled up by Casimir’s arms. However, it did not spell much good news, either - the pupils in his eyes had lost all color, having turned pitch black instead of the usual bright green. Weakly, Jan looked across the room and the teammates before him, then turned towards Casimir, speaking:

“Why… are you sad? You should smile,” To show at least some sort of initiative, he formed a faint smile, as much as his dying body could allow. “Everyone’s safe. And I… saved them...”

Smiling, Jan closed his eyes, his head resting in Casimir’s lap, and let out his last breath.

As Jan’s body fell limp, Casimir’s eyes widened in panic as he started to shake the boy awake. “Jan? Jan? Jan! Come on man, wake up!” Casmir went into a frenzy as he was unable to accept what was blatantly obvious. Placing him down onto his, Casmir reached down and began to rapidly push into Jan’s chest with his fists in a poorly executed version of CPR as he still tried to convince himself that there was more to be done, “Don’t tell me this is it! Don’t tell me I don’t have the strength to save you!”

“Casimir, that’s enough.”

The boy ignored the sound of Red’s voice behind him as he still continued to press into Jan’s unmoving chest, lowering himself down to blow air into his lungs.

“CASIMIR, THAT’S ENOUGH!”

A sudden iron grip latched onto the shoulders of Casimir, as Red turned him around to face him. Red’s visor was set aside so that the two could look each other in the eyes. Red’s gaze was stonelike as he continued to stare Casimir directly at him with.

“Casimir, he’s gone.”

Red’s words were soft yet affirmative. It was the best he could manage to give, seeing as inside he was dealing with his own whirlpool of emotions. Yes, Jan was dead, and it was because he killed him. And not only did he need to answer to himself for this, but he also needed to answer to Yoshiro, who had witnessed it happening herself.

“He died making sure that the Scarab wouldn’t escape through him. It was the only way to make sure this doesn't happen again. He...he died a hero.” Red’s eyes glanced over to Yoshiro, only to find himself unable to look at her, the shame he felt being too much for him to manage.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

September 12th

---

---

"Roy, huh? That's a nice name." Icarus nodded along as he heard the boy's answer to his question. ...No wonder he addressed me by my vigilante alias. He thought. Sure they didn't look alike, but in the world of superheroes, tricks to change one's appearance were not exactly scarce. "You know, I actually met a guy named Roy a while ago. Bit of a stuck up prick, but some of his friends were a lot nicer." He smirked a he finished signing the baseball cap and placed it back on his supposed admirer's head. "Anyway, here you go buddy. I'm sure you're a much nicer person too."

With that done, the up and coming superhero turned to the boy standing next to Roy. "Would you like an autograph too?"

---

Some time later...

---

---

---

Hearing his best friend state that he was elated at getting the chance to show the world what he was made of, Icarus simply smirked before turning his attention back to the moth girl in front of him, who seemed to immediately react with surprise and excitement to his double handshake. As the girl took his offer and vigorously shook his hands with all four of hers, the blond boy sported an amused grin on his face, which only grew wider as she greeted him and explained her relationship with Casimir - her manner of speech was endearing enough that he didn't particularly mind her calling him 'Kabuto's Second in Command'.

But Zeus, she really does like shaking hands.

The happy times quickly came to a grinding halt as a rather rude member of the Young Bloods, whom he recognized from the time he'd spent at Wonder Tower's infirmary, came seemingly looking for a fight, bringing up his tenure as a vigilante and using it to insult him. The blond boy simply glared at the newcomer, crossing his arms in front of his chest as Ash released him from the shake, his construct limb quickly disappearing. Mike soon took a breath and tried to apologize, excusing himself by saying it 'had been a long day', but Icarus just raised an eyebrow at this.

"Well, you don't like me either - and the feeling's mutual - so I suppose I'll fit right in." He growled.

His mood quickly improved, however, as Ash stepped in to address Mike. Of all the things that could have happened, seeing the moth girl chastising the Young Blood as if he were a child was one of the most amusing options, and the reformed vigilante had to hold back a chuckle as he glanced at Casimir, silently mouthing "She's so adorable, where did you find her?" while pointing at Ash.

Kabuto soon gave his own reply to Mike and then turned to him, taking his earlier jab in stride. As expected, I suppose. "Dumbass it is." Icarus nodded, omitting the first half on purpose. "Now then, where were we?" He asked, before glancing at Ash. "Ah, yeah. I'm a part of the Los Angeles Stars now, Ash. They're a pretty popular but somewhat controversial team of heroes, the city they work in isn't far from San Diego." He explained. He didn't know if she might already be aware of all that, but she seemed fairly naive and perhaps she was even a foreigner, so he figured adding some detail wouldn't hurt. "They... well, they helped me out when I needed it the most, so I'm in their debt. That's why I'm working with them now."

---

---

---

---

"Thanks! And yup!" The short blonde girl said eagerly as she sat down next to none other than the Conductor of the Vancouver Vixens. To say she was brimming with excitement would've been an understatement, but she opted to remain composed while enjoying the moment, setting her tray next to her on the table and subtly positioning the fries so that the older group of women could grab a few if they wanted. Sharing is caring!

As her girlfriend introduced her and the rest of the team, Alexis gave her a playful kick on the foot before turning her attention back to Conductor, who smiled at the girls and introduced the rest of the Vixens. She looked starry-eyed at each of them as Roxanne spoke their names - she had seen them before of course, but seeing a superhero on TV was nothing like sitting next to them for lunch. Her gaze lingered on Megan a little longer than the others. Wow, Roy really had some nerve turning you down.

Continuing to listen to the conversation, the young inventor felt quite flattered when Conductor's sister Seer offered them a few kind words and claimed she had heard a lot about them. "Oh really? What kind of stuff do they say about us?" She asked shortly after Viviana had made her own question.

Isn't this great, Yoshi? We're talking to some of the coolest people in the NASL right now! You should join in!

[Bentus]

Gaul and Yoshiro
During the Timeskip

---

Lazily across the sky, the sun seemed to always cling a few clicks above the horizon in the last hours of the day, but it never seemed to bother the people walking up and down the boardwalk. Here, the notorious villain seemed to blend in seamlessly with the crowd despite his huge stature and distinct appearance. Everyone just had something else on their mind or something else to do, but Gaul was hard at work with his own internal thoughts.

As Invader taught him before, he counted off things he liked, things he hated, things he could change, things he could not. He assigned numbers and rankings to all, arranging his thoughts and focusing on what he could change about the things he did not like. Though he wasn’t sure if he could change it, he’d like for Psyche to leave his mind alone, but every thought he had was full of suspicion, as he wondered if she could see what he thought.

“Would you just give it a rest and stay focused?” Yoshiro’s scolding voice echoed within Gaul’s mind. She could feel his attention jumping from thought to thought, maneuvering around defensively as he tried to keep himself from accidentally giving up some kind of secret. “If you keep bouncing around like this, you’re going to give me a headache.”

Furrowing his brow at the interruption, Gaul lowered his chin as he whispered back to the unwelcomed presence. “That’s kind of the point. I’ve got no intention of allowing an opponent free reign within my own head, thanks.” Keeping his voice low, the villain kept a wary eye on anyone walking by him on the boardwalk. He hoped that none of them would think too much about a man quietly engaging in a conversation with himself. “Now could you be quiet, I’m busy.”

There was a mental equivalent of a sigh. “No kidding, idiot. That’s what I’m trying to tell you: if you keep focusing so much on distracting me, you’re not keeping an eye on your surroundings. And if something happens to you, I don’t know where that would leave me.” Yoshiro retorted, clearly irritated with Gaul’s stubborn resistance to her. “I told you that you should’ve refused this mission, what happens if something goes wrong?”

Gaul’s responding scoff was loud enough to cause one woman to glance in his direction, although she was walking past quickly enough that the man didn’t pay her any mind. “Something always goes wrong, but I’m used to it. I wouldn’t worry about anything happening to me, hero.” He spoke the final word with venom in his voice, using it almost like an insult. The villain couldn’t help but smirk as he felt a warm, simmering resentment from the foreign presence in his mind, although she didn’t seem to offer up a verbal response. Almost immediately, he triumphantly went back to the mental exercises that Invader had taught him. If Psyche thought that he was just going to roll over and give so easily to her pressure, then she knew nothing about Mustafa Gaul.

Being so lost in his mind, Gaul didn’t notice an assailant rush up behind him, but as the hairs stood up on the back of his neck, he whipped around fast enough to generate wind, pushing away the people beside him and coming face to face with a dagger-wielding, smirk-wearing zealot who pledged his undying loyalty to God and Titan, in that order. Gaul thrust out his palm and caught the first knife between his index and middle finger, slicing it deep into the palm but grabbing the man’s fist tightly, his other blade stabbing deep into Gaul’s side, just under his ribcage.

Witnesses screamed and bolted at the sight of blood, Gaul letting out a long sigh as he mentally blocked the pain, staring directly at the man known as Prophet. The night before, he and some of Titan’s men, including Titan himself, jumped Cannon and Nile and left his friend near death, and Gaul wasted no time in trying to dispatch him. With one hand on the vigilante’s fist, Gaul lashed out with his other hand and latched onto Prophet’s neck, grabbing it with incredible force and sinister intent, crushing the blood and air out of it as Gaul poured his strength into his arm.

That focus also proved to be a mistake, however, as Gaul was blindsided by a blob-like fist slamming into his entire left side, flinging him and Prophet off the boardwalk and onto the hot sand, rolling around in the grit as Gaul refused to let his grip go, Prophet choking from the hold and now from the sand that filled his mouth. Concerned turned to a wicked smile, though, as Prophet used Gaul’s touch against him, and put the damage he had done right back into the villain, a vicious bruise appearing on Gaul’s neck.

Turning him lose, Gaul swung the smaller man around and into his partner, a rubber-like vigilante who was also present when Legion rescued Nile and Cannon, who was charging to attack Gaul once more. He let go of the knife as well, sliding back in the sand and keeping his eyes on Prophet and Vulcan, clenching his bloody fist and letting a small cough escape his mouth. “Aw,” Prophet declared, “Feeling a bit hoarse today? Let me pray for you.”

“I told you to be careful, Gaul!”

“Fuck off, psycho.” Gaul replied, partially directing the words to both of the annoyances that he now faced. Prophet seemed genuinely offended by the response, and dug his heels into the sand before running at Gaul with fervor. Slashing and slicing, Gaul seemed nonchalant in slapping the strikes away, countering the zealot by kicking him in the shin once and then the midsection in rapid succession, forcing the vigilante to slide to the side and indirectly allowing Vulcan a chance to ambush Gaul once more. Coming forward with a comically large fist, Gaul grabbed the rubber material and pulled it to the side, watching as it stretched effortlessly, and becoming a bit concerned as it refused to let go of his hand. Then, he realized Prophet was coming once more, and that Vulcan was just holding him in place. Swinging his daggers wild, Prophet landed some decent gashes on Gaul’s back and side, but the villain twisted his feet in the sand, bringing his rubber-coated hands into the path of the knives.

They cut through the material like soft flesh, Vulcan yelping in pain as his flesh was torn away and Gaul freed himself, jumping back towards the ocean and removing himself from the fray for a moment. “Any particular reason you’re targeting me so soon after trying to kill Mirage?” Gaul asked, buying some time for his damage empowerment to kick in.

“Oh, so he lived.” Prophet said to Vulcan, “Shame really, I thought those hits were lethal.” He cocked his head to the side and shrugged, “The ones I gave him and the ones he gave me, which I gave back to him, of course. Tough little bastard if that’s the case. Oh! You, yes, why are we after you in particular, hm.” Prophet said, lifting his hand to his chin and resting his knife across his jawline. “Because you’re an evil villain who deserves to be sent straight to Hell. Good enough answer?”

“Sure.” Gaul said, his faster movement and increased strength coming in full swing as he blitzed forward into the babbling Prophet, catching the vigilante off-guard as Gaul’s fist made unadultered contact with his face, crushing several facial bones and sending the man flying back towards the boardwalk. Gaul kept his momentum going and pivoted on the sand, dodging past a weak punch thrown by Vulcan. “You ever hit silly putty with a hammer?” He asked Vulcan, who had no time to respond as Gaul swung his fist hard into the man’s side, rubber-like of course, but watched in horror as pieces of his midsection shattered and flew off.

Gaul moved past Vulcan, however, realizing the true threat that Prophet represented. He had a similar damage-centered power, and Gaul knew how to fight against himself better than anyone, and that required overwhelming force to take him out immediately. He scanned the beach ahead of him quickly, looking for the Artemis member, but his eyes widened as he saw a different figure instead. “Not now,” He hissed, “Not when I’m in the middle of something like this, damnit.”

Glaring back at the villain, Psyche ignored him as she scanned their surroundings. She seemed like she was about to offer a retort when her eyes suddenly widened. “Behind you!”

Gaul hardly even had time to tense up as he picked up the rapid footsteps coming from behind him. Turning around to try and face the so-called hero, he had only half-turned around when he felt Prophet’s boot connect with the side of his head. A sharp stab of pain accompanied the harsh whiplash that twisted Gaul’s neck to the side as his whole body lifted from the sand. Flung across the beach, he tumbled painfully along the ground for a few seconds before finally coming to a stop.

Grimacing at the ache that tore through his limbs, the villain spat out a glob of blood as he tried to stop the world around him from spinning. Shaking his head, the ringing in Gaul’s ears seemed to stop just in time for him to once again see the crazed grin on Prophet’s face as he ran like a madman towards him. Reacting immediately, the mountain of a man moved with surprising speed as he rolled to the side in order to avoid a downward plunge from the hero’s blade. Knowing that he wouldn’t survive while he was kept down like this, Gaul swung his legs out to sweep his opponent’s legs out from under him. While there was no chance that a trained fighter like Prophet would fall for such a trap, the move forced him to dart backwards and gave Gaul just enough breathing room to quickly roll back to his feet.

As he did, the villain quickly brought his hands up to guard his already battered face. Despite the injuries that marred his features a look of stubborn determination continued to shin from his eyes. Seeing his opponent’s continued focus, Prophet’s mouth twisted upwards into a smirk as he calmly spun his blade between his fingers. Slowly stepping around his opponent, he watched Gaul like a tiger looking for an opening to pounce.

“You are a worthy foe, Mustafa Gaul. You should be proud of your efforts, even if they are doomed to fail against the righteousness of the faithful.”

Gaul scoffed, ignoring the slight swelling in his right eye that threatened to obscure his vision. “That would worry me if I wasn’t up against some crazed psychopath, but fortunately that isn’t the case.” His eyes narrowed. “How did you assholes find me?”

Grinning, Prophet wagged a finger as he made a dismissive tutting sound. “Now, now - patience is a virtue. It would be very unbecoming of me to simply lay out our plan and methods to you just like that. But you are an observant man, Gaul. You’ll figure it out eventually.” Suddenly, the hero’s footwork stopped as he stopped fiddling with the blade in his hand. “Although for now, all I can really say is that we’ve learned that misdirection can be particularly useful against the forces of darkness.”

A puzzled expression flashed across Gaul’s eyes until he was struck by a sinking realisation. Spinning around to face the second opponent that he had forgotten about in the hectic battle, he was unfortunately too late to brace himself against an expanded fist from Vulcan flying through the air towards him. Shit. Using his elastic powers, the hero had taken advantage of Gaul’s divided attention and had been winding his arm up to deliver the brutal strike when it was least expected.

“This is for before, you bastard!” The hero screamed through gritted teeth, ignoring the pain from his cauterised torso wound as his fist ploughed into the mountainous villain. Immediately, Gaul felt the air vacating his lungs as his body was plucked from the ground and sent flying far through the air. Vulcan stumbled as his own momentum continued to carry him forward, and his rubber fist snapped back into place as he clutched it painfully.

“Shit, I think I might’ve broken something in my hand.” He complained, as Prophet frowned as he watched Gaul’s body fly past the beach and onto the coastal road nearby.

“Idiot, you weren’t meant to throw him that far. You’ve just given the enemy time to rest.” He half-hissed.

Scowling, Vulcan didn’t hesitate to respond. “Well boo-hoo, you told me to give it all I’ve got. Sorry if that was a bit too much for your liking.” Turning his attention towards the road, the hero narrowed his gaze to try and pick out the villain’s prone form as he struggled to return to his feet. “We can still stick to the plan. If you keep him pinned, I can fetch the launcher and line up the shot. If we hit him with that much firepower all at once, his powers won’t be able to keep up.”

Sighing at being given instructions, Prophet calmly turned and began to walk towards where his opponent had landed. “Yet again, the burden of duty falls upon God’s Chosen. I shall hold down the beast, but make sure that your faith doesn’t waver when you pull that trigger, Vulcan.”

Already limping towards where the duo had stashed a rugged suitcase, its contents being their ace against Gaul, Vulcan rolled his eyes at his ally’s rebuke. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He lowered his breath as he continued in a muttered whisper. “Fucking loon.” No matter how screwed up Prophet was in the head, it didn’t matter for now. Not when this was their chance to finally take out Mustafa Gaul.

[Tomia]

Angelica
Having both a conversation going on in her head and in front of her was a little disorienting, so she decided to ignore the voices in her head for now as she heard Viv and Alexis ask the veteran team some questions.

"Well there was a lot of talk when we entered the league." Megan said in response to Viviana. "A lot of people weren't happy with us. People said we were discriminatory, or we didn't actually deserve to be in the league."

"Ya we got some nasty tweets and articles written about us." Jackie added. "But it wasn't all bad." She said a little quickly, not wanting to discourage the teen girls. "A lot of people supported us too. Especially back home in Vancouver."

Then Roxanne turned to Alexis who had asked what she had heard about them. "Well, similar to us you've got some naysayers. People say you're too young and inexperienced, or they think you're just interested in attention. There's clearly a lot of people rooting for you though, us included." She said, smiling at that last part.

Wow the Vixens are rooting for us? Angelica thought, clearly becoming a bit star struck herself. She turned subtly to Alexis, giving her girlfriend a big grin.

"So, you girls ever been to New York City before?" Karen asked the Young Bloods sitting at the table. "I'm sure none of you are old enough to drink, but there's plenty of cool things to do around the city if you have free time on your hands."

Roy/Mars
Realizing Icarus had clearly figured it out and was playing coy, Roy rolled his eyes as the young hero placed the hat on his head. Meanwhile Mars just shook his head at Icarus, "I'm good." With that the two of them headed off back to the concession area of the park, leaving Icarus with the crowd.

"It's still so weird to think that Blackout is a celebrity with the Stars." Mars said to Roy.

"Ya, just a month ago he was a vigilante wanted for murder, now he's signing autographs." Roy replied, a small amount of bitterness in his voice.

"You sound jealous." Mars smirked, getting an incredulous scoff from his teammate.

"Ya right, as if I want to be the charity case in that clown car of egos." Mars noted that Roy's tone was definitely a little defensive.

"Sure thing Roy."

"Whatever, let's head back alright? We're going to need to get ready for the ceremony soon."

[New Neros]

Ava and Mark
A Brief History

“Faggot.”

A large boy shoved the smaller, weaker one hard against the brick wall, who let out but a gasp of pain and slumped onto the concrete floor, holding his chest and curling up as he strained to take in breath. The larger adversary reared back his foot and kicked where he could land, hitting the frail, skinny boy in the hands, ribs, stomach, and head until he grew tired. Throughout the beating, the bully seemed to yell out obscenities, and reference some disrespect the smaller boy had given him earlier in the day, that this was pay back and to never do it again. The young boy didn’t hear much of it and just curled up more and more, softly crying as he felt the vicious blows rain down upon him with reprieve, unsure of what he had done wrong this time.

The bully was out of steam, it seemed, and he finalized his act of violence by spitting snot on the boy, and walking away with two friends at his side, snickering and laughing at the payback they had extracted on the opposite youth. Once they were around the corner, the young boy picked himself up to the best of his abilities, grabbing his bag pack and the scattered books and papers that had managed to free themselves from it’s confines, and began to walk home in-between sobs. Just a few blocks was all it took, but it felt like fire with each step as his chest ached, his head was cloudy, everything just seemed so not-right and disorienting that the boy just wanted to collapse on the spot, but as he did every day, he braved himself through the front door.

“The hell happened to you this time?” A gruff, unrelenting voice demanded as the school boy closed the door behind him, taking a deep, sharp breath as he turned the door handle loose. “Turn and look at me,” The voice commanded, the child curling his lip in and biting on it, shaking where he stood. “I’m not going to ask a second time, Mark,” He demanded further, getting up from his old green recliner, stomping his feet towards a young Mark Nemo as the boy became scared enough to turn and face his guardian. “Goddamnit, boy,” The man declared, inches away from Mark and putting a tough, leathery palm on his head, “They better not think I had done this to you, ain’t no way I’m losing my check over this…. This shit.” He said, aggressively removing his hand from Mark’s head. “Get cleaned up already.”

Returning to his recliner, Mark Nemo sprinted through the house and ran to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water and a small package of chips from the counter, flying up the stairs quickly and ignoring the pain that persisted through his body. When he reached the second floor, his run became soft footsteps as he carefully moved past a few doors, some with open doors revealing a menagerie of rooms housing young boys and teenagers, all equipped with two bunk beds to maximize sleeping space. His room was at the end of the hall, and he shared it with two other boys. Slipping into his room and softly closing the door behind him, he gave a silent wave to his two foster brothers and shuffled up the bed to the top bunk.

“Get your ass beat again, Mark?” One of the boys declared, he was chunky, but curling a set of crude weights in some vain attempt to either gain muscle or skin up, depending on which day you caught him on. “I can handle your bully if you want. I always wanted some real world brawling experience.” He continued, dropping the weight on the ground gently and punching the air a few times - Zero of which seemed impressive to the nerdy youth above him. “Let me know who it is!”

“Nah, Anthony,” Mark replied, sinking into his worn mattress and avoiding the hole in the center, “I said something I shouldn’t have to him.”

“What did you pop off with?”

“I told him the wrong answer and he blurted it out loud. Everyone laughed at him and the teacher gave him more papers to do.”

“Dick move, not gonna lie.”

“I didn’t know it was the wrong answer.”

“Oh, so you’re a dumbass, too?” He said with a chuckle, Mark going quiet. “It’s a joke, man, lighten up. He got his pride hurt so he took it out on you, he’s the crybaby bed wetter that can’t process his emotions properly. You just need to channel that energy into sculpting the perfect body.” Anthony declared, rolling up his sleeves and observing with a wild grin as his muscle poked through his chunk exterior ever so slightly, while Mark tried his best to silently open his chips on the top bunk. “Whacha eatin’?” Anthony asked, Mark responding with his mouth full. “Share some!”

“No.” Mark said clearly once he swallowed, “No one saved me any vienna sausages so I’m not sharing with anyone.”

“Weak, I’ll get you an extra one if you share tonight.”

“That was the deal last time and you fell through!” Mark demanded, stuffing his face full of chips as he dared not leave a single crumb for his bunkmate. “And no cokes or juice! Straight up water only.” He said, cracking open and drinking his cold bottle. A loud bang was heard down stairs, the boys’ foster father slapping his hand on the wall near the staircase, shouting absolutely too loud that it was now lights out, and he ought not to receive a single disturbance. Knowing the wrath of their caretaker all too well, Anthony grumbled and rose to his feet, flicking off the lamp in the side of the room.

“Night guys.” He said as he rolled into his bunk, Mark and the other boy wishing him a good night in unison as well, forcing themselves to sleep and face the next day. That was their life, more or less, continue to wake up and go about your day until you turned eighteen, and then you’re on your own. Twelve boys in all lived in the two story apartment, and countless more had come and gone through the home, all with little prospect of becoming more than a high school graduate, and many making it by as high school dropouts.

Day in, day out, life was routine and stable, but did little to nurture and develop the kids that needed it, nor did it provide beyond the basics of care so that you wouldn’t just die under that roof in particular. Mark Nemo was accustomed to the bullying as well by the time he reached high school, becoming numb to it and actively fighting back as his body developed. Still, he was skinny, and all his efforts to put on weight just never stuck, so he still got flak for whatever high schoolers could find to pick at. Friends came and went, never staying long when they learn that Mark is a troubled youth in the foster care system, even his foster brothers were more like roommates than actual siblings or friends. Truly, the man was alone while surrounded by so many people.

“Please welcome Ava Waldstein.” The teacher declared, introducing the small framed, angry-eyed girl, who shifted her gaze wearily across the room. “Tell us about yourself before you take your seat.”

“I’m Ava, I don’t like people, I don’t go outside.” She stated clearly, walking towards her seat with her head down. Some other student called her a bitch quite loudly, causing some laughter amongst the class, to which, Ava replied with a stern “Fuck you.” And earned a reprimand from the teacher before she had even reached her seat. As she sat, though, he turned to look at her partner for a split moment, muttering a quick, “Howdy, neighbor.”

“Howdy.” Mark replied, sliding her a piece of paper with the answers already filled out for the days’ assignment.

“Cool,” She said, sliding it back, “I don’t need to cheat in organic chemistry.” She said with a very forced smile, “I can do this stuff on my own.” The boy seemed unphased by the comment, earning some surprise from Ava as she could usually get a rise out of someone with her verbal abuse. “Well, uh, what’s your name then, since you know mine already?”

“Mark Nemo.” He replied, “Nice to meet you.”

“Like the fish?” She said with a laugh, “Like in Finding Nemo?”

“Yeah,” He flatly said, “Just like the movie.” He looked at the girl for a moment and turned away.

“What is it? Something funny about my name?” She said, hoping to see what this kid could come up to entertain the new girl.

“Hitler’s wife was named Ava Braun, right?”

“It had an E at the beginning instead, dumbass.” She quickly replied, “Heard that a couple times before, too. Be more original.”

“I’ll google some things to taunt you about, give me a day.”

Ava smirked in response. “Don’t let me down, neighbor.”

To Mark, the day went on as normal, went to his next class and that was that, but to Ava, she had entire day to prove herself to the lynch mob of the high schoolers. And that lasted until about lunch time, when Ava was confronted by a group of girls in the bathroom. “You’re such a mouthy little bitch, aren’t ya?” One said, grabbing the thin girls’ hair and yanking it with both hands, pulling Ava off of her feet and giving the girl full control of the spunky teenager. “You gonna back up all that tough talk?”

“Let my hair go and I will, ugly cunt.” Ava spat back, trying desperately to claw at her adversaries hand. The girl responded by yanking the hair harder, and forcing Ava to smack her lip on the sink abruptly. She let a quick screech of pain, “Fuck you so hard, cocksucker.”

“Aww, did you just learn about cuss words, champ?” The girl asked in a condescending baby-talk voice. “You ain’t tough shit at all, I think you need to shut up.” The bully used one of her hands to slap Ava hard into the mouth and nose, already bleeding from the sink, coating her face in red. “Unlike you,” The bully said, pulling hard on the hair as Ava struggled to free herself, twisting her body as much as possible to resist. “I like getting my hair pulled, ugly bitch.” The girl then rained down hammer fists and slaps on Ava’s head, the teen covering her face as much as possible to protect it, but some good hits landed either way.

The first bell rang, signalling the end of lunch, causing the bully to forcibly remove her grip. “Come at me whenever you feel brave enough, you little bitch. I’ll beat you down again whenever, wherever.” As the bully and her posse exited the bathroom, Ava muttered some curse words, and offered a final rebuttal.

“I’ll suck your dad’s dick, fuck you, slut.” Slowly, Ava stood up and looked at herself in the mirror, and sighed deeply. Turning on the facet to wash off the blood and fix her long hair, the final bell rang and she had to hurry to her class - Using the excuse of being new to explain her tardiness. She went through the rest of her day like nothing had happened, and showed up the next day with freshly cut hair.

“Huh,” Mark began, noticing Ava’s hair was much shorter nice. “Nice cut, looks good on you.”

“Thank you for the compliment, you will receive a friendship token in the mail in five to ten business days.” Ava replied, smirking at Mark, the teenager noticing the busted part of her lip. Ava curled them in as soon as she noticed Mark looking, turning her head to the side and looking away.

“Did you win?” He asked, Ava turning back and breathing a sigh of relief, feeling more comfortable around Mark than anyone she had met at the school so far.

“Not yet,” She replied, “But that bitch won’t be pulling no hair if there’s none to grab.”

“That’s pretty hood,” Mark said in return, “Are you really about that action like that?”

“Definitely, I’ll catch her in the bathroom like how she caught me.” As the lesson began, Ava ended with, “I’ll let you know how it goes. Give me your phone number.”

As the lunch period began, Ava made her way to the girls’ bathroom on the other end of the school, knowing she was being tailed by the some group of girls who bullied her yesterday. She took her seat in the stall and unzipped her bag, producing a long white sock and a bar of nondescript soap, dropping the washing instrument into the undergarment and tying a knot in it as the door opened, some feet filling the room and taking up the mirrors. “It smells like shit in here, doesn’t it?” One of the girls taunted, Ava unlocking her stall and letting out a sharp, trill whistle as she exited abruptly.

Swinging her improvised weapon, Ava caught the head of one of the other girls who stood and watched the alpha bitch assault her yesterday, sending her cascading to the ground and cutting a gash on her cheek from the force of the hit. She swung again and landed on the girls’ nose, breaking it in and cleanly knocking her out. Ava scanned the room quickly and took note of two more girls remaining, the main perpetrator from yesterday grabbing Ava from behind while shrieking and calling her a “psycho bitch”.

Armed with a wooden pencil, Ava stabbed back and hit the girl’s stomach hard enough to puncture, impaling her slightly and giving the bullied teen enough time to remove herself from the girls’ grip, spinning hard on her foot and gaining serious momentum, slamming her now broken soap bar inside her sock hard on the girls’ jawline. She hit the wall unceremoniously and slid down, out cold like her friend, while Ava turned to look at the last girl, who held her hands up and backed up slowly. “No trouble, no trouble, I’m sorry, I should have helped you, Rainey shouldn’t have-”

“Fuck you, coward, don’t you have any respect for your friends?” Ava demanded, “You’re down for beating someone else but can’t handle when it’s on y’all? Fuck outta here.” She said, taking a few steps closer as the final girl back pedalled quickly, finding herself out of space with her back against a wall. Ava dropped her pencil and sock at her sides and extended her arms out, taunting the girl. “Swing, bitch, fucking hit me. Just take a damn swing already, coward-ass slut.” She was seething, the other girl clearly scared, to which, Ava didn’t give a damn, and just let more of her anger out instead. She lifted her foot up and stomped forward on the girls’ head, sending the back of her skull into the wall while the front was several bruised and bloody from the kick. Clutching her face, Ava kicked the girls hand and did the same motion a few times, breaking her opponents’ fingers and palm in the process. “Don’t ever fucking speak to me again, keep my goddamn name out of your mouth, and don’t ever say a fucking thing about this to anyone, understand me?”

Her demand was met by sobs, but Ava was far too mad to accept that as acceptance. “Well?” She said, reaching forward and twisting one of the clearly broken fingers on the girls’ hand. She screamed and spazzed a bit, but firmly agreed and agreed until she could barely speak between her moaning cries. Finally taking it, Ava collected her things and left the bathroom, leaving her victims to clean themselves up just like she had to do the day before. Despite the furious ass-busting, Ava was not championed as some heroine in the following days, but was immediately outcast as a crazy lady that no one, absolutely no one, wanted anything to do with, less they be on the receiving end of whatever went down in that bathroom.

But, each time their first class of the day came, Ava sat next to her lab partner Mark, who himself seemed a bit outcast and looked down on, too. Everything just seemed a bit easier, life seemed a bit better to manage, and each one could make it through the rest of the day. They’d eventually spend lunch together eating and talking about whatever random topic was on the agenda, and even started to meet up outside of school. Oddly enough, it wasn’t romance that blossomed, but genuine friendship the more the pair hung around the other.

[The Republic of Atria]

Vincent

The sun had set. Vincent had parked the car across the way from a building that looked rather dilapidated, but had a suspicious amount of activity going on despite that. He could see flashes of light like those from flash lights occasionally go off through the cracks of boarded up windows. He sighed, pulling the blanket off the passenger seat revealing the weapons he brought with him: A rocket launcher and a grenade launcher. Both of which he cobbled together out of stuff he made from all the excess junk in his garage.

"What the hell am I doing..." He muttered, grabbing the brown bagged bottle of now warm booze he brought with him. "Come on. Just get a few through the windows and by the time they realize what's happened, they're dead." He took a swig of the bottle and put it back. "Unless they're human trafficking. Dammit." He sighed. He did have plenty of nonlethal explosives, but chances were the gangsters, mobster or whatever they were called, had some pretty heavy firepower and maybe a super or two. As badly as he wanted to get back at them, he didn't want to hurt anyone that didn't deserve it.

By now, the Bourbon was starting to kick in and there came his second wind. With one more sigh, he grabbed the grenade launcher, exited the crappy mid 2000s car and popped the trunk where he kept his supply of hand crafted explosives. It was mostly the grenades since the rockets were larger and much more potent, but he figured he likely wouldn't need the much firepower right off the bat. He grabbed a few bombs with symbols drawn on them to represent what they did. One that had a sun drawn on it, four with what looks like some sort of blob to be used as ammo for his launcher, and one with an ear and several lines indicating sound surrounding it and a few random ones that he stuffed into his pouch. Just before he started walking over, he opened the front seat of his car and pulled out two small devices that he placed in his ears.

"Can't forget ear pro. Not with you." He muttered as he loaded the explosives into the launcher, now realizing that while he could just blow up the whole building he'd not be able to extract information on where to hit next. He crept over and peaked through a poorly boarded window to see at least a dozen men and women all talking and pointing at crates filled with... He couldn't see it but it most certainly wasn't money for poor kids and puppies. Probably drugs or guns. Before he left to get another position something blue blinked in his eye.

He looked in the building and saw the faintest hint of a shadow scurry along the rafters. Several uncertain blinks and second thoughts later, he powered through with the help of alcohol and moved to another window for what he hoped would be a better angle of attack. Turns out it wasn't much better. Though he did make out a few guards chilling in the corner. They could likely all be taken out in a single blob bomb.

Several more window checks yielded little more than what he already knew except for the fact that one wasn't boarded so he could open and climb his way in. He had dismissed what he thought he saw in the rafters as a figment of his booze addled mind and pulled out the grenade with the sun drawing on it. Similar to a flashbang, but without the noise. Blinding them would work just fine. The one with the ear on it would be the back up and even more debilitating. One final double check to make sure his launcher was loaded, the grenades primed and he carefully climbed in through the window and landed on his stomach.

"The hell was that?" One of the men grunted.

"Probably just the rats. I keep telling you guys that we need to clean this shithole up." Came another. "Anyways. This shit right here is fuckin' grade A product. Dunno how the hell Boss got his hands on it, but it's legit. It turn this fuckin five foot nothing punk into... Jesus, He ate the goddamn truck. No shit, the entire truck. He burped up a spark plug."

"Bullshit."

"Nah, I got the video. Take a look." He said, passing his phone to the skeptical man. Footage showed a man so obscenely muscularly that his body appeared cracked around his chest and arms, indeed taking bites out of a truck.

"Jesus H..." Came the reply. "What'd y'all name him?"

"Crazy Earl. This shit is slightly better that that. It'll still make you big and ugly... Well, it'll make most of you better looking, but ya won't be eating cars. Probably."

Vince slowly crawled his way around the dark warehouse and got a good shot at both groups. The guards in the back and the guys doing the sale of whatever in the middle. He pressed and held the button on his sun grenade and threw it. The round baseball sized bomb bounced twice, grabbing the attention of everyone. Vince had already taken to shielding his eyes when it went off.

The ball shatter, and out shot a exceedingly bright and orb that grew in size and brightness until it was easily the size of a smart car. Vincent could feel the heat coming from the mini-sun. The only thing he could hear was loud swearing and yelling about eyes.

About ten seconds later, the orb flickered out of existence and Vince pulled out his grenade launcher. As far as he could tell, everyone in the room was in pain over their eyes, something he immediately capitalized on, firing a shot from his launcher at the biggest group of mobsters. The shot exploding into a light brown tar-like substance that quickly expanded in contact with the air, sticking them to the ground or immobilizing them outright. A second shot was fired, landing near the other group and just the same, incapacitated them.

He looked around the room as quick as he could, spotting no others that he missed. "Huh... That was... Almost too easy." He muttered as he slowly approached the group nearest to the crate. Everyone looked to be stuck with the expanding glue. Taking a look inside the crates showed him what they were selling or trading or whatever: some sort of bottles filled with a glowing liquid. Whatever the liquid was, it looked as if it changed color. "What the hell? I thought you guys were selling fuckin' meth or crack or heroin." Vince hissed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the blue flash again and immediately pointed his grenade launcher at it. "Step out nice and slow..."

The glowing figure seemed to cooperate, stepping out into the dim light and revealing a Dra'Qunni. The glowing coming from a blue figure that had an outline that made it look like her, though without details. Without warning, the blue figure shot forward with incredible speed, stopping just in front of Vince and shoving him to the ground. Vince struck the ghostly figure twice with his prosthetic arm, but it didn't react, tossing him aside as if he weighed nothing.

Vince rolled onto his back, sore from the toss. He'd dropped the launcher and scrambled for it, only for the ghostly figure to pick it up. Vincent backed away.

"What a coincidence." The dragon spoke, in what sounded to Vince as female. "I had planned to attack these people tonight, but you did too? I don't believe that."

"You speak English?"

[Auropa]

Mike Mathews
Car Park, September 12th

Mike was ready for Casimir’s playground insults and while he was willing to admit that he might’ve, possibly been a tad on the aggressive side, he wasn’t about to let the words of some LA-Star wannabe get him down but Ash offering to help him get fans? Her, the prime example of reckless, thoughtless, stab-happy behaviour was both lecturing and offering him help in something completely separate to his points and directly against what he stood for. What’s more, she looked beyond pleased and proud about her actions. That broke him. Doing his best to not let his jaw drop to floor, he stood there in stunned silence as the others dismissed him and continued their discussion as Ash continued to learn the appropriate amount of finger wagging necessary to convey her points.

‘But… You’re a… You…What?!’ his brain barely managed to ask itself as he tried to recover some semblance of sanity and at least a basic understanding of what just happened. Finally giving in, Mike threw up his hands in mock surrender, let out a confused sigh and continued.

“Okay, you know what. I deserved that.”
He said as Icarus finished explaining how he joined the Stars.
“But, really Casimir? Selfies?” He added while risking a quick glance to the ever-aloof mothen-mutant at his side. “Tell you what, if you want to drag her to an interview then go ahead but don’t say I didn’t warn you if it all goes wrong. Though please, for all that is holy don’t turn her into Bug Girl or something. Dealing with one of you is already enough to drive me insane as it is.”

“…And seriously Icarus, sorry for snapping. I’ve got my issues with the Stars and Quake but it’s not fair to take it out on you like that. Just, try not to forget why we do what we do. Big hero groups like them have a habit of ignoring the little guy and pushing their toys more than any morals or ideals.” He added, just barely managing to stop himself from bringing up Icarus' now infamous time as a vigilante or the damage and danger it could have put everyone in.

'...I really need to work on this whole apology thing.' Mike decided as he considered his words. But in the end he still stood by them. While a hero now, Icarus was still a vigilante not long before and changing his name and uniform didn't do much to outweigh breaking the law and setting a dangerous precedent. Not to mention there was the matter of who he happened to be joining up with, 'though thats entirely different mess to think about...' Mike decided tiredly to himself as he did his best to keep his mouth shut.

[Absolon-7]

Icarus

Mike Mathews

Casimir Herman September 12th
"Found her in a giant test tube underneath a Wonder Foundation basement. Remember that time when the Cabal first attacked?," said Casimir as deadpan as he could, "No I'm not fucking with you."

Casimir nodded along with Icarus acknowledging his status as a dumbass. Wait...you motherfucker. Casimir grumpily crossed his arms and gnashed his teeth as Icarus continued a conversation with Ash. Starting an connection with his best friend and also another hero would be a good step for the moth girl to gain some confidence. Plus, it might be good for Icarus as well. Bloke could always use more friends. And suddenly in a grand surprise Mister Revolving-Door-Up-His-Butt actually gave in and conceded that he was in the wrong to insult Icarus. He rolled his eyes as he continued to blabber on about how the interview was a bad idea. Like hell it was. Casimir had already thought of a few outlines he could teach Ash to have the interview go smoothly. He just needs to actually go over it with Ash. Although he was confused about what he meant by turning Ash 'into' Bug Girl' as why in the world would he rename her to that mocking mistake the media always called him.

"Don't worry your little head Mike. I got it all under control," mockingly affirmed Casimir before he turned to Ash and Icarus, "Hey why don't you tell Icarus here how fast you can finish and entire meal if its meat. She's got an appetite that can rival mine, dude. I've been training her plenty in fighting too so she can hold her own too. Speaking of which, those Stars got you under anything to develop your powers?"

Angelica

Viviana Couture September 12th
Viviana blinked in a slight weird feeling has having a conversation in her head with Yoshi and the rest while talking to the Vixens out loud was a bit much but a little encouraging Yoshi a bit wouldn't go amiss. Yeah, like Lexi said Yoshi! The Vixens are awesome and I'm sure they'll think you're awesome too! Her attention moved like a whip back to the Vixens as the one named Megan and some others answered her question. Their answers were in fact quite refreshing and really took a load off her nervousness. To think actual pros faced the same type of criticisms as her team and to eventually move past it. The last part about them being supporters of the team was just enough to almost make her jump for joy all the way to ceiling and she would've too if she wasn't busy stuffing her mouth full of pudding.

"I've been to New York once for a vacation, miss. I remember going to the Central Park Zoo and the Rockerfeller Center's ice skating ring. Oooh, you got any other good places folk could go out and about?," responded Viviana flicking a bang of hair out oh her eye, "I think you'd like the skating rink, Lexi. You and Angie can do figure eights together!"

[The Republic of Atria]

Vincent

"I do." Replied the Dra'Qunni. "As I said a moment ago, I refuse to believe that this is is coincidence." She spoke with an impatient tone. The ghostly figure backed away, still holding onto Vince's grenade launcher. "I will ask you once more, and only once. Who are you and why are you here?"

"They happen." Vince replied, sneaking his hand into his pouch of bombs. "Name's Vince, kinda pissed off that these chucklefucks killed some family. Decided to kill em back." He explained and snagged a bomb. "Did not expect to come across a pissy dragon lady, honestly. Dumbass gangsters, maybe a super or two, but not you. So... you gonna kill me?"

She paused for a moment before speaking again. "Perhaps. Perhaps not."

"That's not a 'no.' Think fast!" Vince said just as he threw the bomb at her. Much to his surprise, not only did the dragon lady not so much as flinch, the ghostly figure had moved so quick that he completely missed it, but saw it again holding the bomb he threw in it's hands.

"That was a poor decision." she spoke, now with a more hostile expression on her face.

"Nah. It was the right one." Vince mused as the device clicked. Not a second after, the dragon lady collapsed, clutching the side of her head. The blue phantom dragon dissipated, dropping both the bomb and the launcher. "That's a new one I whipped up just yesterday. Releases a low frequency sound at just the right level to completely fuck your inner ear. I had made that one for supers, but you're pretty much one. I got these nifty earbuds I made to keep it from affecting me." He explained as he picked up both the bomb and the launcher. He flipped a small switch on the bomb, turning it off, but kept his thumb on it just in case.

It hit her like the worse crash landing she'd ever had. No way to tell which way was what, no balance whatsoever, all wrapped up with an overwhelming feeling of nausea. It had only lasted a few second, but even after it was flicked off, she still felt some of the dizziness. "You..." she struggled to stand, but fell right back down on her chest, still too dizzy to stand.

"Yeah, I know. But you were vague with the whole to kill or not to kill. Didn't wanna die on my first outing. I will offer two choices. Choice number one: you get up and we talk about this like rational, semi-inebriated adults and dragon-people. Or two. I turn this back on and blow up the building with you and those other fuck faces inside." He pointed his thumb to the stuck gangsters. "They ain't getting out. That stuff is tougher'n cement. Could hold back at least three elephants. Not that you know what that is, but still. What's your choice?" He asked, brandishing the sound bomb from a safe distance.

She did begin to feel better. The dizziness and nausea had almost entirely subsided and she slowly climbed to her feet. The man was a good distance away, near the end of her range, but he did at least try to come off as reasonable. "These people killed loved ones of yours?" She asked.

"Don't think it was these guys specifically. That'd be way too lucky. Plan is to squeeze some info out of these guys and see if they know anything. Don't care what you do as long as it doesn't involve hurting me."

"I don't understand all of your kind's expressions. What do you mean to squeeze them?"

"Squeeze them like you would a tube of something. For the most part it's metaphorical. I don't have any streamroller bombs. You got a name? I'd rather not call you dragon lady forever."

"My name is Zayda." She replied

"Alright Zayda. You can call me Vince. You can also help me or stand over there doing whatever. Don't really care." He said, shrugging as he walked over to the crate of product revealing three gangsters all stuck to the floor. "Alright! Listen up! I know it's a long shot that any of you specifically know who killed my folks. However, I'm willing to overlook that if you give me some addresses and names of people who might know. Bonus points for telling me what this shit-" He smacked his fist down on the crate "-you're selling is. You." He pointed to a man stuck, face up looking at him with pure hate, reaching for a handgun that was several feet out of reach. Vince picked up the gun, turned the safety off and knelt down on the side of his stuck arm.

"I ain't telling you shit."

"We'll see. FIVE ANSWERS ON THE BOARD, I'M YOUR HOST STEVE HARVEY!" He waved the gun at the wall and got close to the man's face. "Your question: Where's another little drug den just like this one?" He asked, staring with eyes that looked as if they pierced into the man's soul.

The man, now sweating bullets, kept his mouth shut with as much force as he could muster. so much that his face actually started to change color. "EHHH!" Vince mimicked the sound of a buzzer. "Need an answer!" A few more seconds passed and Vince shot the man in the head, killing him instantly. "Oooooooooh..." He sucked in air through his teeth. "Looks like he couldn't come up with an answer-"

"HOLY FUCK! GET AWAY FROM ME YOU FUCKING PSYCHO!"

"Looks like we got our next contestant. You all know the rules-" He was interrupted by Zayda running over and getting between him and the gangster. "Excuse me."

"Vince, I understand that these people hurt you-"

"Pretty badly I might add."

"But you're treating them like... Children's toys."

"'Bout the same way they treated me and my folks." Vince shrugged. "Look. You planned to come in here and do the same thing, so you don't get to judge me!" He shouted, his voice breaking just a bit.

"I didn't have the intention of being so... I don't know the human word for it. But you're acting no better than they are by treating them like animals."

"Who fucking cares?! They're just drug dealers! Selling whatever that glowing shit is to anyone! They've probably ruined more lives than exist in the entirety of their operation! I'm not TRYING to be better than them. That's for all the jackasses dressing and spandex and being worshiped by the masses. They don't deal with this kinda bullshit. Not as well as they should at least. Besides, you can't tell me that the world wouldn't be a better place with these guys dead."

She sighed and waited a moment before speaking again. Unfortunately, she didn't know how everything worked when it came to humans. They had law enforcement, but they also had a different kind of law enforcement with their colorful warriors? Maybe Vince had a point. If none of their protectors were protecting them. Then who was going to stop terrible people like these. "...I understand."

"So don't-Wait. What'd you say?"

"You're correct. Your claim of your protectors not doing what they should be doing. They should be the ones dealing with these people, but they aren't here."

Vince stood, attempting to process what Zayda had said through the filter of the now fully kicked in Bourbon. "Yeah... Yeah! See, if they ain't gonna do it, someone's gotta. So why not me?"

"I have a better idea. How about us?"

"That's so fucking stupid and crazy it just might work! That might just be the booze!"

While the two nutjobs were talking and patting each other on the back, one of the gangsters who wasn't fully covered in Vince's pseudo rubber cement with only his legs covered, grabbed for a bottle of the glowing liquid that had rolled over to him while the two wannabe vigilantes figured out what they were actually screaming about. He popped the lid off and chugged the whole thing in mere seconds. Not a moment after, he felt his body changing and screamed at the top of his lungs.

Zayda and Vince looked at him after he started screaming, half figuring that he was trying to get someone's attention. Both of them took a step back when they discovered what it was he was screaming about.

The man's body had swelled to an almost comical degree. Vince's cement that had trapped his legs, cracked and shattered, freeing the trapped gangster. His body stabilized shortly after, revealing a man easily two and a half meters tall, a body that could only be described as humongous. He took a few deep breaths to recover from the screaming and looked at himself. Thankfully his pants still managed to fit, but his shirt was gone. "Holy... Ha... HA! I feel like I could rip the planet in fucking half! But I'm more than happy to settle for you two."

[Aidannadia]

The Big Apple was an interesting name for this jungle of concrete and bodies. There was hardly an apple nearby, though Tad had not expected to see one. He had unfortunately come here a few times throughout the years; it, after all, sat on multiple ley lines used for travel across planet, and thus was a central hub not only for the world's finance center, but for many on the side of the mystical trade and commerce as well. Between the street signs and the power lines that littered this leviathan of modernity, he could just barely feel the magic teeming underneath the surface. In the dark corners of the city, the magical world managed to scrape by even here.

Trying to find a quiet place to sit down away from it all, Tad found a clearing in the middle of the sidewalk in a ring around a single person.

"Come one, come all to the show. Please, prepare yourselves for a journey passed the realm of the mundane." Tad's interest was peaked. A tall wiry gentleman in a suit and top hat with what looked like a simian on his shoulder went around the circle, clearing space. He put on quite the show with card tricks, misdirection, and seemingly pulling objects from the thick, muggy air.

Tadeo was not impressed. What a mockery. The man's skills were impressive, but his dishonesty was perhaps moreso. The wizard sighed, and continued along to find his companions in this sea of hustle and bustle.

[North America Inc]

Shihong Smith

The delivery trucks came just after 3 am. A few days before the Young Bloods arrived in New York, Shi had made a few large scale requests for her Acquisitions and PR Firm; sitting alone in her room, the thought soon dawned on her that just because she was the Best, that didn’t necessarily hold true for the rest of the team. Wendy seemed to an emotional wreck after the public revelation of her past. Jason was aloof as ever, Mark was very powerful but also a bit…slow, and Ava seemed to cling to Cosmic’s shadows as much as she did with Moonlight. All of that needed to change. Shi held her tongue on her feelings, no reason to aire her issues aloud, but the total disunity within the team was something that needed to change. The team could plow through any street gang or the odd rogue mercenary, but when something better or stronger that them comes around, sheer force of will is not going to cut it. So if she was going to fix this, then best fix it within her squad first.

Liberty Memorial Training Center, located on Staten Island, was one of the premier meta human fitness and NASL centers in the United States. Boosting more than a few famous heroes who use its’ facilities on a daily basis, the dull exterior hid the true value on the inside. Of course, there was the expected weight stations, track fields, basketball courts; however, the labyrinth facility decided several stories into the ground with each floor having its own specialty. Some floors offered realistic simulations of urban office buildings, others fully alive Woodland fauna, and even an ‘aquarium’ modeled after the Great Barrier Reef. Renting out one of the Training Center’s NASL arena emulators wasn’t too difficult for it was worth; it was booked months in advance, but a little understanding from the owner about Shi’s plight led to a few changes on the reservation list. Understanding, a sizeable grant to help to help them break ground on a new facility in Atlanta.

As the Young Bloods slept, delivery trucks delivered the rest of Shi’s purchases. Shenzhen Automation’s R Series Line of combat androids. The RSLs were thin and scrawny, covered in an white and translucent exterior, and had a visor for a face; they also came with support hovering drones, and a whole host of other features. Slight changes of the room were also made to ensure that neither Cosmic’s blasts or Shi’s lightening left any marks on the walls, a slightly different layout to be similar to last year’s Finals, and, as per the owner’s requests, the installation of a Faraday Cage into the walls of the whole arena; he didn’t want Wendy hacking into or looking into anything that she wasn’t suppose too. Now as the final delivery of RSL androids came, most of the work was finally finished.

Shi had messaged the rest of the team right after they arrived that she had rented out a space for them to practice for the tournaments and that she will beginning around 9:15 in the morning. She even arranged a shuttle for them at the hotel, if they needed it. They would know exactly when they arrived...the giant bronze statue of the Golden Age Hero was rather hard to miss. As she donned her costume and walked out into the NASL arena, Shi now just waited in the center of the arena waiting for her teammates. Behind her where the androids and drones all nicely organized into three lines. Just as the clock struck 9:10 the doors swung open to reveal the first arrival, a little worrying but she’ll work on their tardiness later/ Her arms crossed, she pointed at them and said, “Hey. You ready to get started?”

---

-Renata-

Well that was a slightly better answer than on the plane. She thought it over in her head; on one hand this was one of the few precious moments she got to herself. There was no denying though that this was almost playing into her hand. She finally got Renata to open up, which was a feat unto itself. She might be useful after all. There was still a few logistical concerns though, namely, “So what theater did you have in mind exactly? I can’t even go outside most of the team without getting recognized and rushed by fans; and that’s not even during a NASL season.”

“As for a reason to hang out with you…” Shi turned away from Renata and then back at her, “Depends on how tonight goes.” That wasn’t so much a slight as an honest admission.

“I would need to get changed.” Shi motioned to her silk road, “Since I doubt you flew, I’m guessing you drove here? In twenty minutes, I can be dressed, and have Thomas set a reservation at a theater that’s more… conservative with its cliental. Unless you’re dead set on this one, then we can go.”

[Finland SSR]

Shihong Smith

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

September 12th

---

...Thank goodness. Shi opted to not probe Renata on her reasoning deeper, it didn't take long for her to just acquit and go with the idea. Even though, immediately after, she seemingly started worrying about the whole setup, offering to have Thomas order them a reservation somewhere where they were less likely to be harassed by fans. Her concerns were legitimate, but... she really didn't want Shi to be the one worrying here. Renata was the one who wanted to show initiative here, not give it away.

"You don't have to worry about it, Shi. Just take your time to get dressed and get ready." Renata stated, nodded and smiled. "After all, do you think I would have gotten us signed up for any mass cinema? You're not the only one of the two of us who has to worry about getting constantly jumped by fans."

Though, in her case specifically, it was less pop music fans and more... other types of people.

---

Angelica

Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

September 12th

---

Before she landed on Earth and signed up for the Young Bloods, there were two ways through which Mizuma learned about the existence of New York outside of geography classes. The first was the classic, stellar movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. The best option for a remote sightseeing tour of the Big Apple, obviously. And the second was, of course, the biannual edition of the NASL Superhero Tournament, taking place in Freedom's Nest and occasionally showing the panorama of the city during the breaks. So, there were a lot of gaps to fill in her mind when Mizu landed in New York, and it turned out that the city was even more spectacular than her initial expectations had led her to believe.

Maybe it was because the NASL Tournament was going to take place soon, but one expectation which did get fulfilled was the fact that there were heroes everywhere. And, while alongside Angelica, Alexis and Yoshi, she got to witness some of her idols in flesh, too!

Oh my god, it's the Vixens!

The Vancouver Vixens! Young upstarts in the League just like the Young Bloods, but already a notable part of the superhero community, how could they not be an idol to her and her peers? When they are rooting for them, too?

Seriously! Mizu would have yelled out a loud "yay", maybe even ran forward to Roxanne and tightly hugged her, had she not managed to scrounge up a bit of composure. Until Karen asked whether they were new to New York and offered to go somewhere if they have time.

"I know!" the purple-haired heroine suddenly yelled out, pumping her fist to the air. "We should visit Duncan's Toy Chest! I mean... to see what it looks like outside of a movie... not actually to buy toys..."

---

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

"I just fly all the time, guess I got alright at it after trial and error. And sheer force of will to not hit anything helps..." Sina muttered after Bael explained himself, standing up and walking up next to Bael. Aegi folded his arms and responded with a brief nod. The boy stated he was only good at bursts of speed and didn't have as much skill as a professional racer needs - that's great, but not exactly what he was looking for. The girl, on the other hand... She had the speed coupled with some serious flying ability. And yet, she didn't wear the badge of any team or anything, and looked like she came here straight from a hillbilly fashion show. Hell, her accent was clearly from the mountain tribes back before the whole cryostasis affair.

How has she not been picked up by a recruiter yet?

"It's been great to meet the two of you. Here, let me give you something..." Aegi stated, then started searching in his loincloth until he pulled out a small grey card, handing it to Sina. "You're clearly great at flying and you love it - if you find the time, come up to me over there and I can make you an offer. Because..."

"Is that Aegi?" voices from behind all three of them suddenly started calling out. The other competitors were crossing the finish line and immediately caught the sight of a famous flying ace chatting to two of their competitors. Aaand that's my cue. Aegi departed from Bael and Sina, striking a smile and waving his hand.

"Of course it's me! Who else could congratulate everyone in today's race than Aegi Ra'thar, the leader of the Screaming Sandstorm! In fact..."

While the ace continued speaking to the ever growing collection of fliers and fans, then tried to explain how he ended up here and the presumed winner of the race simply vanished, Sina looked at the card in her hands. It listed Aegi's name, followed by "Leader of the Screaming Sandstorm professional flight team", and then the address of what was presumably their base.

"If I figure out where it's supposed to be, maybe..." Sina muttered under her breath and turned to Bael. "So, we've got the money we needed, where are we going next?"

[Tomia]

Angelica/Vixens
Angelica blushed a little bit at Viv's suggestion of her and Alexis doing figure eights, while Karen smiled at the question. "Well, there's plenty of museums and really awesome places to see like St. Patrick's Cathedral. But if you're looking for some more excitement, Coney Island is great. There's also plenty of weird but fun businesses in New York. Like there's an cool place where you can throw axes. Biggest thing though, you have to try to pizza, its really good." She told the teen girls.

Meanwhile Roxanne chuckled at Mizu's comment. "Don't worry, I get what you mean. That's certainly a popular tourist stop. I've never been there myself but I've heard it's pretty fun." She said, getting the Home Alone 2 reference.

Opening Ceremony
Once the time Naja had allotted them was up, the team headed back to their locker rooms, making sure they were ready for their NASL debut. Once they were all dressed and ready they met at the entrance of the tunnel that lead onto the field where other teams were waiting as well. You could hear the roar of the crowd as the announcer welcomed them to the final NASL tournament of the year. Then he began announcing the participating teams that year.

It was clear he was going in alphabetical order as the first team announced was the Anchorage Avengers. They got a moderate applause, as did most teams as they made their way through the tunnel and onto the stage in the center of the stadium. Some teams got special applause, like the Freedom Fighters, while others such as Boston's team were met with boos. Mars noticed that as the teams were announced the Stars were skipped. This wasn't surprising, given they won the first tournament of the year and thus their name would be announced last. After a short while of announcements, including the Vixens who got a decent amount of cheers, it was finally the Young Blood's turn.

"Now, ladies and gentleman, give a warm welcome to the newest member of the NASL family, the San Diego Young Bloods!"

As the crowd roared in a mix of loud cheers and a few boos, Naja lead her team out into the open stadium. Above them towered thousands of fans, and the glowing lights of the New York City landscape in the distance. Mars felt a huge pit in his stomach as he walked forward onto the large white platform. They took their place of the stage as cameras followed their every move. He could feel the eyes of everyone on them and was relieved when it was time for the next team to be announced. That team of course was the Los Angeles Stars, who received a thundering reception. Some screamed at the top of their lungs in support while others expressed their hatred openly. Some members like Armorer and Star Queen entered the arena stoically, while Quake played it up for the crowd with some poses and waves. Red and Blue took is a step further, as Blue flied into the arena and Red used super speed to circle around his teammates theatrically.

Once the Stars made it onto the stage, the announcer stepped forward to the podium. He was dressed in a theatrical white suit, with a hat you might associate with a stereotypical magician. He was former hero known as, Show Time, who was famous for his tricks and spectacles. "For all our new fans, and competitors out there, let's go over how things work shall we? Tonight the competing teams will be separated into seven groups, each consisting of four teams. Each team will have three fights and the top two teams from each group shall advance to a win or go home bracket to determine the champion! Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for, its time to announce the tournament's groupings. Will your tournament thrive, or get stuck in the group of death? Time to find out!" The crowd roared in anticipation.

"In honor of our beautiful host city, we are naming each group after counties from the beautiful state of New York! First in the West, Group Staten Island: Seattle Sea Monsters, Chicago Windwakers, Los Angeles Stars, and St Louis Strike Force!"

Getting the Stars was far from great news, but Mars couldn't help but feel that the three other teams had to feel fairly good about their chances to take the other remaining spot.

"Next, Group Brooklyn: Vegas Volts, The Dallas Kings, Anchorage Avengers, and the Vancouver Vixens!"

"Wow, that one won't be easy." Mars noted out loud to his nearby teammates.

"Finally in the West, Group Bronx: San Francisco Rising Suns, Mexico City Águilas, Denver Defenders, Minnesota Samaritans"

"That one is even worse," Roy said back to Mars. "Look over at Denver, you can tell they aren't happy."

"Now, for our mixed division group, Group Queens: Baltimore Braves, New Jersey Jets, Young Bloods, Toledo Terrors"

Of course, this was the announcement they had all been waiting for, and Mars found himself somewhat relieved. Of course Baltimore wouldn't be easy to beat, but at the very least they didn't have to face the Stars or Bluejays or anyone like that.Maybe we can actually pull this off.

"Now, for our Eastern groups, Group Nassau: Carolina Bluejays, Philadelphia Flying Squirrels, Atlanta Guardians, Miami Brights! Group Suffolk: Pittsburg Pyros, Cleveland Catalysts, Boston Blizzards, New Orleans Knights! Finally, Group Manhattan: Houston Rattlers, Hartford Hounds, Detroit Mustangs and your home town favorites New York Freedom Fighters!"

The crowd roared as the Freedom Fighters were announced, it was clear they were put in a group they felt good about. "Well there we have it folks, our tournament is officially underway. Now we have some great exhibition fights tonight to kick things off..."

With that the teams were ushered off back through the tunnel into their private areas, and the Young Bloods erupted in chatter about the latest news.

"Wow, I can't believe we got so lucky!" Mars said excitedly, "I feel like we have really great odds, I can't wait to start working on strategies..."

"Easy there Mars, don't get ahead of yourself." Roy told his friend. "We'll have plenty of time for that. Let's focus on having fun in New York tonight okay?"

Meanwhile Naja turned to the whole group, "Well, welcome to the NASL team, now we just have the opening dinner and we can go out and have some fun." She said with a smile. She was clearly enjoying the atmosphere a bit herself.

[The Republic of Atria]

Shi

He had some time before anything was going to happen. There was the opening ceremony, a big ass dinner for all the contestants and then the action would finally begin. On his way, he caught a glimpse of Bael enjoying his time with a handful of fans. Sure, he was a little down that he didn't have any to show off to, but he also wasn't there from the beginning nor did he expect to have the appeal that his friend had. Reassurance came when he figured that he probably did have fans, but coming to the stadium was pricey. In fact, just as he went to check the social media pages for what people actually though about the team, he got a message from Shi.

It was something about training, practice or whatever. He had nothing better going on at the moment and was always eager for a little practice. The text contained the location and he made his way, seeing the giant bronze statue as a landmark to indicate that he had indeed managed to follow basic instructs and meet his teammate there. Once he got inside, he noted how well made it looked. Then again, it was obviously made for highly skilled superheroes to train their asses off, so it made sense. "Damn. Y'know, I read about these kinds things online." Jason spoke as he looked around. "They're pretty expensive to rent. Since our glorious mother snake isn't here, I'm assuming you paid for it?" He asked.

"Where do all of you guys keep getting all this freaking money? Seriously, I wouldn't mind getting in on something of that and get my own place outside of the Tower. Waaaay too many people there as it is."

Sina

Aegi seemed to buy his explanation, with relief settling the pit of his stomach. Though he seemed to be interested in Sina's skills as a flier, which she likewise seemed interested in. The man vanished pretty quickly. "Well hey. Not only did you win, but you got an invitation to go try out. That great!" He spoke. As he did, the coach approached the pair with two pouches of what he presumed was their reward.

"I'm gonna have a talk with him. I apologize for that, normally we check for that, but we're a bit understaffed at the moment. In either case, here's your earned money." He said, giving the larger pouch to Sina and the smaller one to Bael. He checked the amount inside, not much, but he did come in third and didn't expect to even get any money at all. It was enough for a nice meal somewhere. "Well, I've got another two ideas. We could go get something to eat or we could go to this place a friend took me to when I first got here. It's really neat. You ever just relax on a nice and hot summer day on a big rock? It's pretty much that. Now that we've got some money, we can do either, or both."

[New Neros]

Cosmic
NASL Tournament: Exhibition Matches

As the rest of the team began to exit the arena, Mark held back, having enjoyed the opening ceremony and loving the attention the teams of heroes got. It was like seeing your idols in person, nothing but star-struck eyes and a gaping jaw as Cosmic ogled his literal heroes, not even worrying about the reality of facing them at some point in the tournament. Still, the exhibition matches were beginning, and Cosmic had enough to eat previously, so he ended up skipping out on the dinner Naja had planned and decided to get ready for his own match.

He wasn’t the first match to be showcased, but he was close in line, and rather than study up on his opponent and cram as much knowledge as possible into a short few minutes, Cosmic opted to relax his body and practice. He went through the motions, alone with his thoughts, thinking only of fighting and how to find victory. For the past month, he felt like a drag on the team, that he relied too much on Darklight’s input and guidance to help him through battles. Champion Thurmond was proof of that, but thanks to him, Cosmic knew a better way to fight using his powers in tantum, supplementing the fighting style taught to him by the Ultra Corps.

Alone in a locker room, Cosmic surrounded himself with energy for a moment, then brought it all into his body, filling every fiber of his being with that interstellar force he had grown so used to over about a year at this point. Closing his eyes and putting his fists up, Cosmic opened his lids to reveal his Shatter ability at play, watching carefully the lines that traced the room and air around him, sliding his foot softly to the side and gently moving his fist forward, enough force coming from his knuckles to move the air against the opposite wall. In just that motion, Cosmic knew he could deal significant damage if he managed his energy and unleashed it at the absolute last moment, and even at that, aim for beyond the person he intended to hit so even more energy could spew forth.

A buzzer sound brought him out of his trance, several minutes having already passed and some men from the tournament fetching him to ready himself for the match. Flanked by two men in suits, Cosmic looked from man to man and wondered how exactly they got that kind of occupation. He shook that thought and re-focused on the match at hand, the announcer who called out the teams some time ago finally announcing his opponents’ name. Star Griffin, from the Philadelphia Flying Squirrels, who Cosmic really couldn’t point out in the crowd nor could he tell you his powers. The hero appeared on the white tiled competition floor, the gentle-smiling sun-wielding hero of Philadelphia waved as many cheered him on. The suits stepped away from Cosmic, the floor suddenly moving him up as a hole opened above him, the announcer now introducing the interstellar Young Blood to the crowded stadium.

There were some cheers and boos, nothing on the excitement level that Star Griffin got, but that was to be expected, Cosmic wasn’t a very popular hero nor were the Young Bloods really adored in the Big Apple. The teenage hero took a deep breath and looked over at his opponent, who seemed relatively kind, tall and lanky, the man wore a golden chestplate with a sun emblem front and center. Clearly something related to solar energy, Cosmic figured, but Griffin called out to the young man before hostilities commenced. “A pleasure to meet you, Cosmic. Let’s have a fun match, shall we?” The Corpsman had two feelings, either Star Griffin was too wholesome for this world, or that he was some murderous serial killer hiding behind a nice facade.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too. When do we start?” Cosmic asked, Griffin holding up three fingers, counting them down slowly, a buzzer sounding as the final finger fell, signalling the fight to begin. Immediately, Star Griffin charged forward, a trail of light behind him as he went, approaching Cosmic as quickly as possible, the young teen’s eyes widening as his battle sense and adrenaline quickly set in. He led with a straight punch to the chest, Cosmic seeing the blow coming and stepping to the side, pushing away Star Griffin’s fist as well, causing it to explode in solar energy to that side. “Solar energy?” Cosmic asked, Griffin smirking a bit and nodding, stepping back to reset, and laying into Cosmic’s frame with several short jabs, punches, and a kick or two.

Weaving to and fro, Cosmic skirted the powerful hits, rolling his body through a punch to avoid tanking the blow at full-force, working his way through Star Griffin’s onslaught ever so slightly until Mark could forcibly put his foot on the other side of Griffin’s lead ankle. Planting it firmly, Cosmic twisted his own body and brought forth a straight left, igniting his arm in Ultra Force energy, and connecting with his opponent’s nose, sending the entire hero flying backwards from the force with a small stream of blood. Cosmic bathed the rest of his body in the energy, tucking it deep into his muscles and veins. “Energy,” Star Griffin stated as he picked himself off the floor, wiping away some of the blood from his nose, “Not the kind of energy I’ve ever seen, either, are you an alien?”

“No,” Cosmic admitted, “It’s from another dimension.” As he spoke, he adopted a proper combat stance, stepping forward with his right foot and bringing both hands to rest at his temples. “I’m from the Ultra Corps.”

“I thought you were a member of the Young Bloods?” Star Griffin asked, re-positioning himself in front of Cosmic, chest-out, arms at his side, knees slightly bent in anticipation of what Cosmic would do if he took the initiative this time. “I haven’t heard of the Ultra Corps.” Mark had no reply, and instead came at Star Griffin directly, leaping forward and cracking the floor slightly. A quick swing cut the air in front of the heroes’ torso as Griffin stepped back, his smile fading a bit as he felt the force behind the dodged attack. Cosmic shot his fist forward while Griffin moved back further, lunging his own hand down to redirect Cosmic’s fist.

Simply feeling the power flowing in the teen caused Star Griffin to recoil, and immediately opt to put sizable distance between the two. Cosmic had not realized it at that point, but the announcer had been describing in graphic detail the entire fight as it went on, embellishing several moments and close encounters, reallying hamming up the fact that Griffin had to pull back for a breather. He extended his hand in a palm, forming a sphere of solid yellow light, and quickly launched the orb at Cosmic. The interstellar Young Blood leapt toward the attack and twisted his body, avoiding the blast as it exploded behind him, and jutted out his fist, which glowed with a dull orange light for a moment, before surging outward in a beam of concussive energy. Griffin moved to the side to dodge this attack as well, smiling a bit as he enjoyed the fact that Cosmic could give and take with ease. “You’re really good at using your energy. Good job.”

Though he was commended, Cosmic felt that the compliment was out of place, and seemed more like a sarcastic jab, it truly wasn’t, the Flying Squirrel member was genuine in his statement after all. Letting the misunderstanding feed into his emotions, Cosmic locked onto Star Griffin, and launched at him once more. More than prepared to get mobile and go on the defensive, Griffin evaded Cosmic as much as possible, preferring to see what limits the Young Blood had to his energy expenditure at the cost of a flashy match. Cosmic was not having that, and quickly kicked it up a gear, able to reach forward and grab a hold of Star Griffin’s plate armor, and yanked it toward Cosmic’s body, where a strong forehead was waiting to meet the heroes’ nose and mouth.

Stopping without warning from the hit, Cosmic refused to let go of the armor, and delivered a solid right hook across Griffin’s jawline, but sneakily, the wounded hero opened his palm and held it mere inches from Cosmic’s chest, rapidly forming a ball of energy and detonating it before Cosmic could react, explosively separating the teen from the adult. Cosmic emerged from the smoke slightly damaged, a bit singed on the hair and clothes, but no worse for wear. “I’m starting to run on fumes.” Star Griffin admitted, “If only my match could have happened in the middle of the day.”

Still, a swirl of solar energy coated the heroes’ arms, all reaching a focal point on his palms as a vortex of energy began to form and expand slowly. “All in good faith, Cosmic, we both use energy as our primary power. Let’s have our beams clash and determine the winner, sound like a plan?” Star Griffin wiped the blood from his mouth and nose and gave another grin, this time missing teeth from the blows Cosmic had landed. “Ready when you are! Give the word!”

“Fuck,” Cosmic said, flooding his arms with a fiery aura of Ultra Force, “You’re too nice of a guy to fight in the first round. Why could I have gotten an asshole who could rile me up?” Cosmic spread his arms and rapidly brought them together, combining the energy and forming a small, dense sphere of energy. Lining up and aiming at Griffin, Cosmic fired his energy cannon, sparks of lightning arcing from his fingertips as the blast left his palms and speared toward his opponent. Star Griffin extended his right arm and fired a spiraling blast of solar energy to meet the beam head on, colliding with the foreign energy and holding it at bay for a moment. Their point of contact shrieked and sparked wildly, growing steadily more intense as each hero poured more of their power into the blast. Cosmic looked for an overwhelming victory, and surged more power into his arms by spreading his aura to the rest of his body, expanding the width of the beam. Griffin responded by adding his other arm to the equation, doubling the power of his solar cannon and stalemating Cosmic once more.

As tension rose, both combatants began to scream and dump power into their struggle, trying to hardest to overcome with what little they had, fans cheered on their favorite a deafening roar drowned out the crowd as the beams themselves screamed and bellowed as they fought for dominance. Bit by bit, the Ultra Force pushed back the solar energy, with each foot lost empowering the extra-dimensional force to drive harder and harder forward. Star Griffin bit down hard and closed his eyes, pouring every last bit of power into just holding on, his nose bleeding more prominently, his gums leaking blood as well as his entire face flushed red. Without warning, the hero passed out, causing his beam to evaporate suddenly. Cosmic abruptly turned his beam upwards, causing the blast to fly high in the sky as he retracted his powers and climbed down from the power jumps he utilized throughout the fight.

The announcer declared the winner, but Cosmic walked over to his defeated opponent, standing over him for a brief moment as the Flying Squirrel member came to, dizzily looking at Mark Nemo. In a gesture of good faith, sportsmanship, and competition, Cosmic offered his hand and helped Star Griffin to his feet. Griffin raised a hand and smiled wide and big, supporting his weight on Mark and turning around the stadium as the crowd erupted into thunderous cheers and applause. Cosmic helped his former opponent walk to the medical professionals standing near the tiled platform, turning him over after some words of encouragement. Turning to face the announcer and the rest of the crowd, Cosmic looked around at the audience for a moment, basking in the warmth of their shouts and whistles, and feeling a hint of acceptance for once.

---

Shi

Jason

Arriving a bit late as usual, Mark quickly came through the doors of the immense training hall, following the directions Shi had given him and getting some outside assistance by plugging in the address to his phone's maps. Ava was fast behind the hero as well, though, less awe-struck than her friend, but more impressed that Shi could get such a badass place to train on such short notice. "Wow," She said quietly as she fell in beside Mark and Jason, "You have too many strings to pull, this is crazy, Shi. Thank you so much."

"Definitely," Mark replied, nodding a quick hello to Jason, "Our glorious second in command is loaded. I learned really fast, that if you're poor, you need to make friends with rich kids so you can hang out at their house and eat their expensive food. I never had laughing cow cheese before I met this one guy, it was life changing, incredible even." Clearly in a good mood since his match yesterday, Cosmic turned his full attention to Shi, removing his gym bag from his shoulder and kicked it off to the side. "As long as we get snacks after this, I'm ready to get started. Tell us what you wanna work on, Shi." Cosmic's normal attire faded as he revealed his costume underneath, using his Ultra Force to manifest his outfit entirely.

[Finland SSR]

Opening Ceremony

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

September 12th

---

"Listen to Naja, our dear Caudillo, go out and have some fun - hell, you don't even need to come back."

The opening ceremony had left Renata in high spirits. Unlike the red carpet walk after the team had landed in New York, she was filled to the brim with enthusiasm, waving to the enormous public in the Freedom's Nest despite the occassional boos getting sent their way, and returned to the team's lounge with a smirk on her face. Mars was expressing just how lucky they were with the teams they were going to fight in the preliminaries, and though Renata wasn't exactly familiar with who the Braves, Jets and Terrors were, she was confident that they could pull though as well. After all, she and the rest of the team had been training and preparing as much as possible for this event, it's not going to go to waste!

Renata folded her arms, staring at Mars and Roy, and blew away a small lock of pink hair which had fallen on her eyes.

"Let's be real here. Not all of us are as cut out for all the high octane and high speed fighting which we're about to get thrown into. But that's okay - you can have a vacation in New York while Squad 3 gets us out of the preliminaries."

---

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

After Aegi's departure, the coach soon approached them both, giving them their reward for winning the race and then explaining that what happened with the flying ace shouldn't have happened. Right, a professional signing up for a novice race is not exactly fair, isn't it... hell, Aegi was probably surprised that there even was anyone able to catch up with him. Sina didn't really bother questioning it, however, and checked out her bag, full of N'Toak currency. While Bael was explaining their options past this point, she pulled out one of the coins and started observing it, flipping it a few times to check each side.

"Huh, so we also do that scaleless thing where we put a bunch of old faces on cash..." she commented and tossed the coin back in its pouch, turning her attention back towards Bael. "Not gonna lie, after this whole race, I'm starved. Relaxing on a warm rock sounds nice, but... can't exactly relax with an empty stomach."

Sina tossed her money bag over her shoulder, which is when an another idea popped into her mind. "You said your parents are in this city, right? You wouldn't mind if we go visit them later, would ya?"

[Agritum]

September 12th

"Yare yare da ze...*

When your powers are fueled by such a silly concept as edge, keeping them up for a short burst of time like your usual YB mission is quite easy. The same could not be said for a multiple day tournament. Elle didn't want to morph back into her civilian clothes in the midst of an high speed superpowered battle. It tended to bode badly for her health, or physical integrity.

So she had to resort to a trick, a tournament-long burst of edge that would keep her fueled for the duration of the fights. A costume change.

Enter NinjElle.

Well, her actual new moniker for the occasion was "Shadoukiru" but the nickname had stuck amongst the YBs and her own sub-team, much to Elle's chagrin. No one was really sure about how the costume change would have aided Elle in keeping up her powers, aside from the inherent edgyness of using a katana.

To a degree, Elle liked to surprise, or rather shock everyone else when it came to powering up. She also silently thanked God for not pitting her team against an Hawaii or California based group with possible Japanese American members: she didn't want to become the protagonist of the newest internet cultural appropriation outrage.

"Your words are haughty, Martinez-senpai. The path of the sword is made of twisting turns on mountain roads hidden in the white snow of Winter. Expectations end when the true combat starts, and the spirits of rival warriors clash to defend their personal honour and the honor of their school. As in, school of martial arts. But we are also defending Thomsen dojo's honour. Desu"

Shadoukiru's eyes glared at Renata's in admonishment.

[Galnius]

Mikaela Mynd,during time skip

The Great Floyd Tolson!

September

---

"If you find solace in that fact..."

Floyd backflipped to dodge an energy-infused spear heading his way, then swatted the weapon aside with his sword.

"...You're the first Crimson Host I'll get to kill."

What stood before him was a pink-haired woman with more arms than a normal person could possibly need, wielding a spear ripped with crackling energy at its rip, and rapidly advancing towards him. The swordsman cracked a faint smile, then raised his sword above his head in a defensive formation.

The first strike was heavy descending blow with the woman's energy staff - the weapon collided with Floyd's sword in a powerful clash, neither one yielding and the inhuman strength of both fighters sending shockwaves across the empty street where the two of them fought. The woman immediately continued her offensive by withdrawing her spear and sending an enormous flurry of punches her opponent's way. A bullet hell of fists, and yet Floyd managed to catch up with each and every one of them, either through blocking, deflecting, dodging, or simply cutting his losses sometimes and letting a few strike him. Each individual blow lacked enough force behind it to deal severe damage, it was the attack as a whole which was dangerous.

But it being a flurry of attacks means that you can micromanage its damage. Choose which attacks to let yourself get hit by and avoid the others.

The woman was a cyborg, an asset in the Crimson Host lineup, assigned to protect a local shipping company from supervillain attacks in the aftermath of Warwolf's departure, and probably expected Floyd to start tiring by now. But that's the thing, isn't it? That just wasn't possible. And once the woman's attention finally started to slip and she started to turn frustrated, that's when he finally made his move. An elbow smashed straight into her robotic, armored guts, the sheer force of the blow slamming her across the street and punching her through the nearest wall, leaving a gaping hole. It definitely wasn't enough to kill her, but...

Now he can pay attention to something else. Because, if his enhanced senses didn't lie, there was a third party in this little skirmish of his... Floyd closed his eyes and turned off his sight, focusing everything onto hearing.

Click. That's a photocamera. Twenty or so meters above, thirty or so meters to the left, Floyd spun the sword in his hand and tossed it at the source of the sound - a meter or so to the right from it, however, so instead of killing them, it'd simply pierce the wall standing behind them as a warning.

"You're not very secretive, ar'nt ya?"

To say Mika flinched would be quite the large understatement. When the blade embedded itself into the wall behind her, she had to fight to stay conscious. Her breathing quickened and her eyes dilated, visibly shaken. Her brain fought between fight or flight, keeping her frozen. Oh my god, he's trying to kill me? thought the dark haired girl when her brain stated functioning properly again. Her body had not, so she was still frozen in fear, but the camera wielding girl did have some moments to reflect on everything that brought her to this oint and ask, was it really worth it? Was one lousy person who didn't even acknowledge her last year worth almost dying? Hell, she could still die.

It was, oddly enough, that last thought that brought her out of her petrified state. "Plea-please don't hurt me." she said. Mika wasn't even sure if they could hear her, but they knew she was there so who knew. "I swear, I'll just head out. You'll never see me again. I'll delete the pictures. Anything. Just....just let me live." The short haired girl could feel tears flowing from her face. For the first time since she realized her powers, she felt helpless, like how she felt during her mother's scoldings all those months ago. Could she make it out of this alive?

---

Dan: Before The Tournament
After dragging Lisette to New York by way of a wild drive in his car and a boring multi-hour flight that dealt with him playing video games the entire time (meaning he noticed none of the hours), Dan had spent the past few hours getting dressed. His hotel room was of course fitted with a multi sided mirror, and he had been sure to hire free lance designers.

"No, this one is perfect to go with the outfit" said the first, a short, fat man dressed in an extravagant blue. "YOU'RE idea is hideous."

A second, an older, stern looking woman replied to the man. "Why must your ideas be so ostentatious Victor? This is why your last runway presentation was a massive failure."

"Well I never! I'll have you now, Matron Clarisse-" Victor started on a tirade, but was quickly shut down by the fourth person in the room. A meek looking young girl placed a hat upon Dan's head, and the other two went silent. The outift was complete. "Why, Annabelle, I do believe you've done it!" Yelled Victor enthusiastically. "Are you perhaps looking for an apprenticeship? After the horrible experience with Huge, I have an opening."

"Sorry, but she's spoken for." Dan adjusted the hat to be just off center so that it sat as crooked as his smile. "I already hired her as my personal designer." Annabelle turned as red as her dark skin would allow. With a wink, he went to grab a cane he had prepared for himself, it having been finished two days prior.

A pity", said Clarisse, known as the Matron of Masquerades. "Careful Anna, that boy does not play well with his toys. Why, I heard he brought a young heiress to-"

"Now now, I won't allow you to discuss rumors in front of me. Not without the facts anyway." Dan turned just before the door, addressing the three. "She's far too much a bore for me to bother. Hopefully, though, this trip will loosen her up a touch. After, well, she'll need to grow up before anything official, though y parents would be pleased. Now, if you will, I bid you adieu."

With a melodramatic flair, he slammed the door. His heart was pounding in excitement. He had been to the affair a multitude of times, but now he had a few challenges. His guest, the stars, and now a bit of information gathering. It wouldn't stop him from having a bit of fun, though. Well Lizzy, let's see you top this.

---

The Event of a lifetime, unless you have money
Daniel watched eagerly as the teams were announced from his private seat. VIP in the Stars viewing box, of course, but that goes without saying. He did make a promise to the girl beside him.

It began with Anchorage, a team that was about as interesting to most fans as a PB&J sandwich. One of the girls, it seemed, had decided fan service would be used to garner more of a following with their most recent costume change. Dan was not swayed. "Oh, honey, no", he said wincing."Do you see that Lizzy? I think she think she's sexy. Then again, I can just about feel the virgins the watch from their basement drooling, so I suppose it worked in a way."

So it went through the teams. When the Freedom Fighters came out, he began shouting. "Boo! Go back to where you came from!" He sat back down, snickering at his little joke. The seats nearby had people trying to peak in to see who the idiot in the stands was, but he was luckily shielded by the privacy known as tinted glass. It soon came to be the Young Blood's turn, and Daniel raised his eyes. "That's our team?" He asked. But...they're just kids. Did they have to get permission slips? Jeez....they are so dead..."

Behind him, the second most recent addition to the team, Jackrabbit, snickered. "You know, I'm usually not the type to agree with crazy fans, but I must agree here. They look like I could blow them away with one drop. Is your city really safer with them there?"

Dan let out a high pitched squee after being acknowledged by a member of the stars. It took multiple security officers and Jackrabbit socking him in the nose to get him back in his seat. "The crazy fan part wasn't an invitation. Save that for the party."

It was finally time for their esteemed hosts, the Stars. Getting access to their viewing box was not easy, but he had done it. They walked out to cheers and jeers, but Dan's inner fanboy once again leapt out. Pulling a megaphone (that he had been given permission to use after a substantial donation) he called out to his personal favorite. "KICK THEIR ASSES BLUE!!!!!"

---

Angelica Dalin
While many were celebrating the beginning of the NASL tournament, a young blond girl was one again looking for her teacher. She had found his address through the librarian (apparently she had some strange crush on the physics teacher) and was now pacing outside his apartment complex. What if he reacted negatively to her question? What if he didn't want to see her? What if she blew up again?

No. Angelica inhaled deeply. This was not a time to let her fears take over. She HAD to if it was true that Beverly hadn't died. She needed help as well. She found after her time talking to a stranger and trying futilely to continue on her own that she was a terrible hero. The blond had already destroyed her costume and had been on a hiatus since, and she couldn't enter anywhere truly dangerous at the time. However, Steven could easily help, right?

Having talked herself into action, Angelica hit the apartment number she was given. The buzzer rang for a moment and she spoke into the intercom. "He-hey Steven? It's Angie. May I come in?"