Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Finland SSR]

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!
Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

September 12th

---

"H-hey, where are we going?!"

Renata was hearing this same exact sentence being thrown her way for the entire trip she had been dragging Mizu. Thankfully, after she departed from the "Play Zone" which Naja drove them all into, it turned out that the nearest basketball court was only a quick walk away, and was empty as well. Also thankfully, Mizu did not try slipping away by shapeshifting into a snake or casting an illusion of a giant barrel falling on her or any of the gazillion other things which the playful purple-haired girl could have done.

"Okay, we're here." Renata finally stopped, letting go of Mizu. They were in the middle of the basketball court. Now that she thought of it, she could have just used the training areas near the Play Zone, but Bael had already went towards them earlier, so... Not really an option, either.

"But I don't know how to play basketball. My bones aren't really made for it." Mizu replied, blinking a few times from the confusion, then suddenly picking up in her well of emotions. "And I was going to go ask Mike to play Dance Dance Revolution with me, too!"

"You'll get your chance to play all the arcade games you want, I just want you to do me a favor." Renata responded bluntly.

"Eh?"

The pink-haired girl looked down at her hand, a few sparks of plasma popping in and out as she readied herself to open fire - slightly starting Mizu, but not enough to have her flee outright. "You can create illusions, right? And you can track where they are, and summon more of them on the fly... That's how they work?"

"Well yeah, more or less... Why are ya asking?"

"That's perfect."

Renata stepped away, and while a confused Mizu's eyes trailed after her, she stopped on the other side of the basketball court, moving into a combat stance, both of her hands crackling with energy and sparks of plasma.

"It's going to be simple. Combat training for both of us. Target practice. You summon illusions and I try to take out as many as possible in a minute. Are you ready?"

"Wait, wait, wait-"

"Three, two, one..."

"Waaaaaait! Aaaaaah!"

She didn't get to ask anything - how is she supposed to keep the score, why does Renata need training when they are supposed to be relaxing, or whether she should be worried about her teammate leveling the entire basketball court. In fright, Mizu flailed her arms forward, summoning human-sized illusions of the first thing which came to her mind - bunnies. Lots and lots of bunnies, each and every one of them about as tall as her, hopping around the battlefield - and Renata immediately leapt forward to start making quick work of them. One after the other, blasts of plasma and laser shots flew across the court, blasting illusions aside, sometimes more than one at once. And as time went on, Renata grew more and more immersed in the training match. Just as she expected, just as she wanted, it felt so, so cathartic. To let loose and blast away, let your emotions loose on these defenseless illusions, when you're never able to do anything of that sort without someone getting mad at her, or vice versa...

"Haaah!" Renata yelled at the top of her lungs, leaping from bunny to bunny, not even blasting at them anymore, just slapping them with a hand full of concentrated plasma and exploding them on the spot. Mizu could barely summon new illusions fast enough to keep up with the rate at which her teammate had been exploding them. And her methods were turning increasingly violent - even the Lunarian could tell that, to her, this quickly turned into something more than just a simple target practice. If it ever was.

"H-hey, calm down, could y- Waah!" Mizu was about to point that out, but yelled and dropped to the floor when she saw a blast head straight towards her. With the illusionist thoroughly frightened, new illusions stopped popping up and the remaining ones got swiftly cleaned up by Renata's rampage. Blast, smash, crush, and the last illusion fades into nothingness after a rather violent explosive slap across the face. Renata stopped, heavily breathing, her body overtaken by adrenaline and eyes shifting from side to side, searching for anything else in her path, but finding onto a Mizu lying on the floor.

"That was... great, Mizu..." she spoke in between jagged breaths, striking a deep smirk on her face. "That was... good for a warmup... Throw some more!"

Mizu removed the hands from her face and began staring at Renata. She remained silent for a few seconds, then, finally, while still laying on the floor, spoke up:

"Are-are you okay?"

"Que?" escaped Renata's mouth. "Yeah, yeah, I didn't... get hurt or anything... You didn't either... right?"

"No, no, I'm fine... just a little scared, I guess..." Mizu replied and slowly stood back up. "And that's not what I meant... I mean... Are you okay?"

Renata stared back at Mizu, blinked and sighed. The adrenaline was starting to recede. "Yeah, I'm fine... Just went a little overboard, I guess."

"A little..."

"Okay, not a little overboard. Fine. Semantics."

"You're sure you don't need help?.. Did-did you get to talk to Kiris?"

Renata stopped. "What?"

"Oh, uh... Well, um..." Mizu stopped as well. A silence set upon the scarred basketball court for almost five seconds, both of the girls struggling with their own confluxes of emotions.

"I guess it wasn't as private as I thought..." Renata finally put an end to the silence, straightened up and began to make her way out of the basketball court. "You're free to go, Mizu. Go play with Mike or whoever you wanted. I'll be off... probably alone."

"Wait, uh, you don't want to talk or something? Have ice cream, maybe? Or a coffee? Talk this out by the cafe table?.."

No answer, leaving Mizu standing alone in the middle of the court, half of her mind worried and half of it confused, but all of it sure that she was going to have to do something.

[The Templar High Council]

Icarus

Zoe laughed hearing Icarus reference one of the most iconic superhero memes of the past few years. "Yeah, I sure hope not!" Her laughter was interrupted as a robotic dog emerged from the crowd and headed in her direction; Zoe recognized it as one of Alana's, AKA Zookeeper's, pets. The hound locked onto Zoe and ran over, nudging her leg with its head for attention.

"What's wrong buddy?" Zoe kneeled down to greet the dog, and it responded by nudging her in the direction it came from. She stood back up and turned to Icarus. "Hey, sorry, looks like something's going on with the Bluejays and I gotta get back to them. It was nice meeting you!" After saying goodbye, Zoe rushed off after the mechanical companion, ducking through the crowd to try and get back to where her team was presumably waiting.

---

Viv

Icarus

Viv

"Honestly, I've got a lot of energy in me after having to sit through that dinner. I haven't done anything fun or exciting in New York since I got here, unless you count all that opening ceremony hooplah." Zoe waved her hands around to emphasize how little she actually cared for the pomp and circumstance of the event. It was certainly something to write home about, but at the end of the day it's only setup for the main events.

She started counting the suggested ideas on her fingers. "I could do some air hockey. Not my favorite, but it's something. Definitely need to eat some time tonight. My favorite games when I used to visit the arcade were the dancing ones. I don't know if either of you would want to play some DDR?" Zoe carefully asked Icarus and Viv their thoughts on her suggestion, extra anxious because the two of them were just talking about relaxing moments ago and DDR was anything but relaxing for most people.

[Bentus]

Daniel McHarris: The Dinner Party
-snip-

Lisette Aveline - The Nefarious Marionette!
August 5th
Freedom’s Nest, New York

---

Lisette rolled her eyes as Daniel commented on the ‘sights’. Seriously, was that all that boys thought about? At the very least it would explain why there always seemed to be nothing going on inside the heir’s skull. Deciding that it was best to just ignore the unwanted comment, Lisette calmly took a sip through the straw in her orange juice. Who knows? If I’m really lucky, nobody will think that we’re here together. She thought to herself as she scanned the room. The duo were standing idly by the bar as the official festive gathering of heroes rolled on around them. However Lisette suddenly coughed in surprise as she heard Daniel mutter under is breath. THe heiress’ mouth twisted into a disgusted grimace at the thought of Eden and the self-important heir being together.

“Ew, gross. Ever heard of way too much information?”

Scowling, the girl eventually sighed as she tried to purge her mind of the mental image. Despite the annoying company, she couldn’t deny that she still felt a bubbling excitement in her chest. Even after all the times she’d come to see the tournament in the past, even her parents’ connections and their deep pockets hadn’t given her the chance to experience the NASL like this. The slight, subtle feeling of jealousy that she felt for the other heir was almost as bad as the realisation that she was actually glad that he’d invited her along - not that she would ever allow herself to admit it. Although she supposed that Dan hadn’t offered the ticket out of the goodness of his heart, either.

“And yeah, I remember. Why, are you worried that I don’t know how to pull off the whole ‘being-in-danger’ look?” Lisette’s gaze shifted back towards her partner with a hint of suspicion. “Although you could maybe give me a bit more details, you know. Am I supposed to be getting kidnapped or something?”

[Zarkenis Ultima]

September 12th

---

---

Icarus grinned as the redhead laughed at his joke, glad to have managed to ease her anxiety a bit. He had to admit she seemed a lot more approachable than he had initially expected - perhaps it was only the adults of the NASL that could be real divas on occasion - and he found himself enjoying their meeting. It was almost a shame that they had been set up to be rivals on the coming days by their respective teams, but on the flip side, she seemed like a smooth enough person not to be bothered by the outcome of a glorified sparring match.

In any case, their conversation was cut short by an approaching robot, and there was a slight grimace on the blond boy's face as he looked at its form. It reminded him of the guard dogs with which Warwolf soldiers paraded through the city at times, and any memory of the detestable PMC was an unwelcome one. Caught up in such thoughts, he barely noticed Zoe petting the mechanical dog and speaking to it, and it took a moment for him to react when the redhead excused herself afterwards. "Oh, sure. See you later then!" He waved her off, though by the time he spoke she was already hurrying after the dog, skillfully dropping her full plate off at a nearby table while at it.

Well, I suppose that's that, then, the young man thought as he watched her go. With his brief distraction over, he had no excuse to stay in the middle of the room and away from his team any longer, so he quietly made his way back to the Stars' table with a plate now bearing a grilled chicken breast and some greens on the side. Saying and doing little, Icarus likewise drew little attention to himself, as the fans around the table were far more focused on the better known figures such as Quake and Queen, but it wasn't long until someone approached.

"I see someone's already scouting out the local talent! Like what you've seen so far?" Spoke one James Holland as he pulled his chair closer. He was quite handsome, with cropped blond hair and a crisp red suit - he and Jennifer had decided to come to the opening gala dressed with their respective colors, which made Icarus feel even more awkward about his own blue attire.

"Come on Red, you know that's not it." The boy replied, scoffing at the thought. Not that the Bluejays' rising star didn't seem like a good catch, but he already had someone, someone he quite missed. I wonder where she's been? I didn't think she would miss this, but I haven't seen her at all...

"I just thought I'd say hello before, you know." He added, more amicably.

"I know, I know." James replied, amused at Icarus' reaction. "Anyway, listen buddy, since the party's starting to wind down a little... you know how the real thing is at the hotel's bar and not here, right?"

Icarus nodded. "Yeah, Armorer told me not to go anywhere near it. Apparently I'm the only one on the team who's not allowed to make a fool of himself." He remarked. He didn't want to go either way, but he also didn't know what to do with his time once the gala was over. Maybe Casimir would be up for something?"

"Hey now! Rude." The hero said playfully. "And here I was just about to tell you something Blue and I have planned that might interest you."

This caught the boy's attention. "What is it?"

Some time later that night, the twin heroes and the rising star stepped into a certain arcade.

---

---

Guess I'm not the only one not all that excited for air hockey, huh? The blond boy thought as he listened to Zoe comment on the suggestions so far. After air hockey there was the idea of grabbing some food and watching something on TV, which he wasn't completely sold on despite the fact that it was certainly relaxing enough. While he could certainly go for a snack, he'd had something at the gala already, not to mention that he felt they could do better than sitting in an arcade to watch TV when they were in the middle of New York.

The suggestion that followed did pique his interest, however. Ever since Casimir had dragged him out to try one back in San Diego, dancing games had been a favorite of his as well, though he hadn't had a lot of practice between the emergence of his powers and now, for a multitude of reasons. Sure, it wasn't one of the most laid-back games around - really, there weren't a lot of games around that could be thought of as relaxing - but perhaps burning some energy and working up a sweat before kicking back for a bit was a better idea anyhow.

"...Sure, I'll take you up on some DDR if that's what you wanna go for." The young hero finally said with a shrug. "Might as well do something fun while we're here. Plus I'm a pretty decent dancer if I say so myself." He added with a confident smile, though his thoughts quickly turned elsewhere.

Come to think of it, I've never danced with her, have I?

Making a mental note to bring it up when he next had the chance to spend some time together with Renata, the blond boy quickly turned his attention back to the present conversation, now glancing at Viviana. "Do you like the idea? You can go first if you want." He offered.

[Aidannadia]

Hannah

Aleta.

Hannah had a small feeling that Aleta wasn't being entirely honest about her injury but Hannah wasn't one to pry so she let it go for now. She noticed her improvements were starting to wane as she was falling back into her previous habits. Hannah decided to change up the drills. "Alright, enough of that. Let's practice some cardio." She said, picking up a jump rope and handing it to her client. "You know how to use one of these?"

"Course I do." Aleta began to jump rope, only occasionally hitting her calves with a loud slap. "Who doesn't?"

As the workout continued, Aleta's patience grew thin, but she held her temper. Being told what to do never sat well with her. Even coming here was because Auntie had told her to. She didn't need any damn lackey giving her advice on shit she already knew.

"Are we done?" Aleta asked a few more workouts into the session. "I've got an appointment with a coffee cup down the street soon."

[Absolon-7]

Zoe

Icarus

Viviana Couture September 12th
It appeared Zoe wasn't opposed to air hockey but the girl still had some other ideas which came in the shape of suggesting Dance Dance Revolution. Viviana blinked at her new friend as she tried remembering the last time she ever played a dancing game. It was at a friend's birthday party back home up north and she remembered vividly it somehow ending with the birthday girl smacking one of their friends with a pillow hard enough to make it explode. It was a weird turn of events...Plus with that whole dinner for the post ceremony stuff she felt that she might have eaten enough for today and dancing would be a good way to keep in shape and have fun. Icarus was keen on playing DDR as well, heck he even claimed he was pretty good at dancing. It felt weird to hear someone make a fairly standard boast as she was more used to hearing Casi's more outlandish boasts.

"Huh?" blinked Viviana as she tuned in to Icarus offering her to go first, "Oh heck yeah I will! Looks like we got a gentleman in out midst, Zoe. So let's go find us a DDR platform and stomp on it to the beat!"

[Galnius]

Angelica

Steven Baker.

September 12th

---

"Eight months." It's interesting how, for Angie, this apparently wasn't enough time to get accustomed to the city. Nor did the thought strike her that they now lived in a world with things such as the Internet readily available to all. Or maybe she did know and the thought did strike her - and her need for Steven's help was deliberate. To get to talk to him. The teacher offered Angie a faint, warm smile and pulled out his phone.

Surprisingly, he did not already have the hospital's phone number stored in his mind. He never really bothered to check before. Well, there always gets to be a first time...

"I imagine you're going to like it... Ms. Dalin." It's not going to be easy to get used to referring to Angie that way. "It's a hospital network for heroes. Even if you don't fight on the front lines yourself, you'll be able to help those who do directly. ...Maybe you'll even find someone who recognizes you."

Unlikely, but... The probability was not zero.

Steven pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen, writing down the number, and handed it to the blonde girl.

---

Mikaela Mynd

The Great Floyd Tolson!

September

---

"Not a very comfortable topic, is it..." Floyd muttered under his breath after half a minute passed and not a single word left Mikaela's mouth during the entire time. The two angel hunters stepped off the brimstone bridge, continuing their trip across the hellish landscape safely. Floyd looked over his shoulder to check if the girl was still following him - yes she was. Surprising - from the way she acted when she was first brought to this dimension, he was certain that she would have stopped and hesitated at least once during their crossing.

But no, the girl had some guts. He could already guess that from the way she shot him down and then joked about his armor earlier, but from the way she seemed ready for battle and walked after him without hesitation... maybe he wasn't going to completely hate teaming up with her.

Sure, there's still a baseline of hate simply because Floyd hated working with anyone... but at least he was going to hate this less than teaming up with Johnny.

"For what it's worth, Meri was the one who thought this design would look good on me." the swordsman let out a faint blurb, referencing their exchange from earlier, and moved on. The landscape around them would turn more and more desolate. If there were demons chasing wayward souls or all sorts of methods of torture here and there before, now there really was nothing aside for a flat, scorched plane. They were approaching the edges of the dimension of Hell, after all - clearly, their target was moving out as well.

The air was starting to turn thick, dusty, as if a sandstorm was whipping up around them - and yet there was no sand particles in the air to speak of. Floyd unrolled the parchment in his hands yet again. He and Mika were so, so close to the glowing X mark...

"Stay on the lookout. We oughta stumble across it any moment-"

And then he stopped. The footsteps behind him were absent, his ears, no matter how much enhanced by turning off other senses, could not pick them up. He turned around, only to see a dim reddish fog around him wherever he turned. The same would happen to Mika - the fog would turn thicker, and thicker, and thicker, until Floyd's figure in front of her would suddenly vanish entirely, nowhere to be found again. This fog would be the last thing which wayward souls get to pass through before escaping Hell for good. Losing track of their trail and their guides, they would have to walk forward solely on their own senses and spiritual guidance, displaying their trust in God by walking forward without any hesitation and letting their faith lead the way. For Floyd, however, this was a serious annoyance. He wasn't going to let the girl wander off somewhere when the two of them were supposed to team up...

A faint light would spark deep within the fog, followed by a telepathic message reaching out to Mika:

Who's there? Are you lost?

It wasn't Floyd. The voice was slightly raspy and its tone lacking confidence, clearly that of a young man, not any older than twenty. The light would start to come closer, approaching Mika, its intensity growing and growing, until it finally stopped right in front of the photographer, revealing the person holding the beacon.

"Do you need help?"

Mika
Mika had tried to stay as close as possible to Floyd, but some things (namely, shorter legs and his stride) made it a bit difficult. Nonetheless, she managed to keep up a conversation. "Meri probably picked it out to see if you'd actually put it on", she said, trying to appear closer to him by using the nickname of the succubus. There was something she read about it now using someone's nickname for another made it seem like they were contacted somehow. She was planning on using that to slip into a group, but for now staying alive seemed more important.

Speaking of, as soon as the fog came up, the chances suddenly became slim. Seriously? Stopping for a moment, Mika looked around for some sign of a huge, annoying, armor clad demon worshipper. What she got was a bit different.

Who's there? Are you lost?

A voice seemed to call out from within the fog, bringing with it a bright light. Mika squinted in its presence, but the being appeared. "This guy...is he the angel? Her heart raced. If so, she was face to face with something she was supposed to help kill. But, then again, if this was an angel, then it could get her out, right?

"Y-yeah, I'm a bit lost. Something dragged me down here. It's huge...in some kind of armor. And I...I don't want to die." Crocodile tears ran down Mika's face, a tactic she'd practiced to fend off punishments by seeming truly sorry. If this angel could win, then it could help her out. If it started to lose, well, she had the picture of the knife. "Please save me."

---

Daniel, at the party
It seemed Lisette did remember the bargain, which was good. He couldn't wait to get the show on the road. Nonetheless, her question for details left him a bit perplexed. He didn't quite show it however. Instead, he decided to work her nerves even more. The dinner was getting dull to him anyway, with no drunken brawls or journalists getting tossed out by the ear. Anyway, his cup was almost empty.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about it", replied the heir with a coy smile. He moved to pat her on the head as he continued. "Why, if I tell you everything you might just chicken out, and we wouldn't want that would we. Besides, the less you know the less likely you are to fuck it up." He ended this part of the exchange by attempting to scruff up her hair in front of the heroes. Something about her had seemed dangerous. He couldn't put his finger on it (though he could stick his finger in any hair loops if she let her guard down), but her quite, reclusive demeanor seemed like it might be housing something....very entertaining.

Keone
Two days ago a plane touched down in San Diego carrying a particularly interesting character. There was no way to know it looking at him, but he had come here on a mission. Before the flight was booked, he had lodgings ready for 3 months. Before the lodgings were booked, he had a job in a factory ready for his arrival. He traveled light, with only a few clothes and amenities. The rest he had sent to his apartment after buying them online. He was meticulous, even with the seeming air of an impish attitude emanating from him.

The boy's name was Keone Toli, and he had just touched the days of manhood. Some may say he wasn't even there yet, as he was just shy of 18. In the past two years he had done the same in Houston, using a fake ID to get work. Luckily, he didn't have to anymore. He quietly thanked his luck as he packed up from his job in the electronics megastore known as Best Buy. Smiling, he waved farewell to his coworkers before turning away.

It was then that a rumbling was heard behind him, and a girl he worked with looked up. She was frozen in fear as a television set on display began to fall. Quicker than she could scream, he appeared to her side, knocking her out of the way. "Idiots...I told them it was lose. We're lucky the rest of them didn't collapse."

The girl, lying under him recovering from her shock, finally began to speak. "You...you saved my life..."

Before she could continue, Keone dismissed her statement. "The most that would've happened is a broken bone or two. Now if you don't mind, I really do need to head home now. My mother is waiting for me."

As he stood up, the girl grabbed his hand. "Well, thank you anyway. You said your name was Keone, right? As long as your working here, I won't hesitate to help my knight in shining armor. Don't oversleep, okay hero?"

Keone sharply did a 180 on the last word. His eyes were dilated, like a cat hunting prey. "Please, don't....Hero is a word that has changed in meaning. Don't call me a hero." With that, he exited with a slammed door, leaving the girl's rebuttal on her lips.

It took about half an hour to get home and to change into comfortable attire. As the sun began to set, he wondered what most people his agree would be doing now. For comfort, his hands brushed an ever present brooch.

Don't let such thoughts cloud your mind my child. The shadow of a voice echoed in his mind. Keone pictured his mother leaning against him for support, her haggard face somehow also thoughtful and alight with wisdom. He nodded once. Leaving his house, he set out once again. An hour later, due to some manuevering around, he ended up across the bridge from the base of the Young Bloods, currently mostly emptied. He came here with no current ill intentions, and did not come armed. However, the sight made him wish he did. If the boy was to succeed in his life mission, he would need to bring it down. Thus, slowly, gingerly, he made his way to the front door, ready to knock...

[Finland SSR]

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

The two Dra'Quinni seem to have give Naligura at least some hope to cling onto - the woman agreed with staying in San Diego, even though she misspelled the name of the city - even Sina with her family's mountain tribe accent didn't manage to do that. Sina's family was marked down as a last resort if even San Diego turns out to be too dangerous for the weakened Elder. She was sure that Mom and Dad wouldn't mind accepting her in - but getting to the Rockies in any reasonable amount of time is an entirely different matter.

So that's it, then. WIth Naligura met and her issues resolved for now, that was going to be the end of their trip to N'Toak for now. Bael seemed to lament that, or at least expressed that he didn't expect their day to go like that. Sina immediately replied:

"Aw, we didn't even get to visit that museum you mentioned..." and stared to the sky for a few seconds, before grinning. "Don't beat yourself over it, Bael. Today was..."

She stopped for a second. "...nice. And really sweet of you."

---

Mika

Jan Sorok, the champion of Heaven!

September

---

With one hand, Jan held up a small piece of the light of Heaven, manifesting itself as a glowing spark which pushed aside the thick fog wherever he went. It illuminated the person before him entirely - a girl, about as old as him, with pitch black hair and a photocamera in her hands - he'd imagine her to be a photographer, she certainly looked like she fit the bill... were he not aware of where the two of them were.

She was afraid. She was crying. She pleaded for help, she wanted someone to save her. The sight immediately sent a rush through Jan's body, and he reached out to her with his hand.

"Then come with me. I'm here to help."

As soon as he got a hold of Mika's hand, however, Jan figured out that something wasn't right here. This girl wasn't a soul, somehow dragged to Hell against her will, like she explained - this was a mortal person, her hand felt far less ethereal than it should be. And yet, he's never heard Gabriel mention that the demons of Hell drag mortal souls to the afterlife against their will - sure, there would be times when they wander into the realm one way or another, but Hell usually prefers waiting for their mortal bodies to die so they can safely claim the sinner souls... He had no reason to distrust the girl, however. She was clearly in need of help, and help is what he will provide.

"My name is Jan," he spoke as he lead the two of them forward. The ground underneath them would soon start to turn jagged and slant upwards, leading them towards the peak of a mountain. "I am a Virgil, a guide of the afterlife. What's your name?"

The fog around them would eventually start to recede and the edge of the dimension of Hell would finally unfold - a peak of a mountain of incredible proportions, not unlike the tallest mountains you could find on Earth. From the top, the entirety of the dimension would unfold before one's eyes, but the base of the mountain was obscured by the same fog which they had just stepped out of. In the center of the peak stood nothing except a staircase shooting straight upward - you could call it a stairway to Heaven, except it only lead to Purgatory. But, from there, he would be able to figure out where the girl's soul was supposed to go, or, if needed, gate her back to the mortal realm.

A staircase... and an armored man waiting next to it.

"Finally, you're out, and-" Floyd was about to send a snarky comment Mika's way, only to stop when he noticed what kind of person was leading her.

"...whatcha got here with you, girl?"

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

With a plan in place to ensure Naligura would be, relatively, safe, he had planned to just call it a day. "Yeah, we didn't get to see that. Maybe next time." He said as Sina responded to his annoyance with how the day ended up with... An unusually kind tone. It wasn't that he was surprised she enjoyed the day, in fact she seemed relatively easy to amuse. But the tone was... Appreciative? A genuinely kind statement with none of her usual banter? He felt his face head up, but he wasn't sure if he could even blush.

"I'm uh... I'm glad you had a good time." He replied. "It was a lot of fun. We'll have to come again some time." He said as he finished up the missing runs for the spell.

"Who taught you how to do that?"

"Onu did. I think you met her once. She's pretty good with magic."

"I recall." She said, remembering her brute of an older brother more than her, but she did recall how she managed to turn him into such a powerful brute. Maybe she should try to befriend her? She thought as she moved into the range of the spell and Bael took them back to San Deigo.

[Absolon-7]

Post Match

Casimir and Viviana September 15th
After some more cheering and support from the team, as well as flailing from Mizu at Viviana's teasing comment, the whole group went to get icecream to celebrate a strong start to their entrance in the big leagues. Afterwards they were slated to return to their hotel but Casimir had forgotten his phone back in the stadium's locker-room. Last thing he wanted was for anyone to take his property so he decided to return in order to retrieve it. Viviana decided to tag along as well despite telling her he'd be fine by himself but it was alas futile. Unfortunately, it wasn't at the last place he remembered in the locker-room and the two were now walking to the cafeteria for a drink.

"Goddammit, and I just happen to leave my swarm behind in San Diego," grumbled Casimir with crossed arms.

"Why did you?," curiously said Viviana, "I figured they would've been helpful."

"Eh, I figured it'd be a hassle to get the entire thing here," said Casimir, "Dammit. I hope one of those tabloid idiots got it."

"Tabloids, eh?" said Viviana, "Like that one dude that ruined your interview."

"Uhm, yeah?" hesitantly said Casimir turning his head to Viviana, "You didn't hear..."

"Oh yeah I did. Is that all I am? A piece of curves to you," said Viviana in faux disgrace as he leaned her head back and covered her face with her hand to stifle a bout of laughter, "Momma always said delinquents like you were just carnivores."

"Very funny Viv," said Casimir rolling his eyes, "Its not like I'd ever say anything about my private life in public. The world must see Kabuto not Herman."

"Okie dokie. But seriously sorry that dude ruined your and Ash's moment. Seeing her cry like that on camera was horrible," said Viviana gently.

"Well it happened. Only thing to do now is help her get better," said Casimir rubbing the back of his head, "And finding my darn phone too. Try calling it. Maybe I can get a fly to sense its ring tone."

As the brunette took out her own phone from her purse Casimir stood still to focus in on a fly in one of the dumpsters outside the stadium. Now to just guide it inside the building. Both teens were busy in their respective tasks so they'd remain unaware of any newcomers that want to approach them.

[Finland SSR]

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

Sina's comment left Bael clearly confused, baffled, unsure on how to respond besides a cliched "we'll have to come again". It was almost if he didn't expect her to say anything genuinely nice about their outing. And, sure, Sina did understand where he was coming from, knowing how she usually acts - but she really did enjoy it. It helped her take her mind off everything that happened in the Four Roses Bar, or the Outriders finally choosing to part their ways...

Soon enough, they returned to San Diego, to the exact same room from where they started their journey. Not before Bael and Naligura had a conversation over how the young Elder was able to cast a teleportation spell, however.

"Oh!" Sina suddenly exclaimed, her mind coming up with an idea, and she turned towards Bael. "Say... if I asked you if you could teach me magic... you would say yes, wouldn't you?"

All she could do was the omnipresent Glamour spell, pretty much - even though Bael was of the same age as her, he was clearly more proficient in casting spells than she was. So, why couldn't he teach her a few things?

---

Casimir and Viviana September 15

Steven Baker.

September 15th

---

The Young Bloods against the Toledo Terrors. The first match in the North American Super League Tournament which Steven got to witness. Before the match arrived, one of the things plaguing his mind was just how was the team going to get around the five member limit in tournament matches - were they going to pick out a group of the most capable and veteran members to represent them, or perhaps rotate the team depending on who they're fighting? They had a manpower advantage there, and as far as Steven knew, plenty of commenters on the Internet called them out for that... It turned out that the team's approach was one he placed a lower probability on - rotating their members on the field.

Clearly, not all of the Young Bloods were people he was familiar with - in the match, Steven only picked out two whom his mind assigned to his students with a high probability. One of them in particular crossed his mind as he was making his way through the streets of New York - the teacher was planning to spend the evening visiting a few museums and then finally return to his hotel room, but those plans got a little dashed when he noticed a couple standing right in front of him in the sidewalk. He would have simply walked around them and gone on his merry way, had he not recognized the boy's face.

Of course, how could he not? Herman was by no means the best student he's had over the years, but his personality was certainly unforgettable.

"Good morning, Casimir Herman," Steven calmly opened up as he stopped in front of the two busy teens. "I'm not interrupting something important, am I?"

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

As he finished up the runes, Sina asked him if he could teach her how to do magic. "I'd love to, but... Uh, the matter of my... Let's call it a gift. The magic I do is different from what you and everyone else would be doing." He explained. "Even this is just me following instructions from a book. That being said, I know someone who'd be ecstatic to teach you. She's really good at magic. She's actually the one who taught me to do this. Only thing is she's... She's a bit odd."

Right they arrived, Onu was waiting for them. She blinked a few times as she processed the three who popped out of space. "Is someone going to tell me what you all are or were doing, or am I going to have to make guesses?"

Bael went ahead and explained the situation. He and Sina wanted to go on a pseudo date, came across Naligura who wound up depowered and they brought her to San Diego to keep her from getting killed. "So, she needs a place to stay-"

"She can stay here. I don't have any issues with that. But!" She pointed at Naligura. "You are going to tell me every bit of elder secret stuff that you know about."

Naligura looked reluctant, but nodded in agreement to the terms. "Excellent."

"One more thing-"

"You were gone for just over an hour, what more could there be?"

"Sina wants to learn magic. And you're the only one I know who is good enough to teach her whatever she wants to know."

Onu immediately perked up when she was asked. "Of course! I've always wanted to be a teacher! No offense to you of course. But since I don't know much about Elder magic..." She looked at the other two. "We started small. It was like a children's show. Every time he tried to enchant something, it exploded caught fire, or both. Then we agreed that it's just not going to work, but I'd love to teach you Sina. Hey, maybe if Nali tells me some useful information about Elder magic, I can help you too Bael."

[Absolon-7]

Steven Baker.

Casimir and Viviana September 15th
Casimir had focused in on a single suitable fly and was now directing it inside the stadium to search for his phone which would be hopefully ringing. The experience of piloting a single insect was always a fun one. He could feel the rest of their body in an almost ghostly sensation and move it how he pleased. Dragonflies were his favorites to fly around in but they alas a seasonal insect so he'd often just not really pilot a single insect's movements. Wait a minute...didn't he bag two suitcases full of Argentine ants for the tourney? A sharp pain rang through his head temporarily blacking out his vision from the fly. My head's throbbing from all that bullshit Rhino put me through, freakin hell. He rubbed his eyes and flew the bug into the building before making it fly automatically on the lookout for his ringtone.

While her boyfriends was in a psuedo-trance like state with that weird scrying power of his, Viviana was just scrolling through her phone's feed while constantly calling his phone by a prompt that kept showing up at the top. She was pretty glad she stuffed herself into a thick puffy lavender sweater and boots because New York was just cold as heck. A fuzzy cap with ear warmers sat on her head as her phone's light slightly lit up her face. She was reading through news reports on the first preliminary match the Young Bloods had participated in. She nervously focused in on the current article wondering what people would think when she went to her match. She wasn't one of the big names on the team like Roy, Rena, and Casi were but she hoped the match was at least fun for her.

Casimir's head suddenly shot up when an all too familiar voice called out to him and its origin was befuddling to him. Meeting up with a teacher outside of school was always an awkward thing, especially when you've already graduated, and more so all across the country in a city directly opposite of theirs. Baker's class was one of the few he had actually tried since his demanding nature was nothing more then a challenge. Granted in a great shame he didn't do so hot but he sure worked his ass off for the grade he did get. Casimir stuffed his hands in his jacket's pockets and looked up at Baker.

"Mr. Baker? Not really. I just lost my phone and we're trying to find it. Should be a matter of minutes till I do," he said carelessly, "Fancy meeting you out here all the way in the East Coast. Got front row seats to the NASL tourney or something?"

Viviana suddenly grabbed onto Casimir's arms and smiled at Baker, "Hey there Mister. You were Casi's teacher right? Sorry if this nerd caused you trouble or anything back when you had him."

[New Neros]

Orion
Time

"Wake up."

Finally jarring from his deep slumber, Kenan Scott tore open his eyes, which were immediately blinded by a white light. The whirling of machinery and beeping of monitors slowly became audible, his surroundings coming to his senses bit by bit as he began to readjust. Lifting his body up from the hospital bed, he felt a great weight across his chest and arms, and touched his sternum with his right hand, but felt nothing. Glancing down, he saw nothing but metal laced with red lights, perfectly cast and molded to fit his body, and then, everything began to return to him. For a moment he lived in a world where he wasn't an enslaved assassin, using his powers to kill, steal, and to destroy, his memories came first from the car accident he had, not the fight he had lost.

And from that loss, he grit his teeth and closed his eyes, the events sticking like a scene on repeat. He spoke, knowing that he wasn't in the room, but could hear him nonetheless. "Where is she, Walt?"

"She did not make it." He answered back on an intercom.

AWOL blew air through his nose. "You're telling me that you failed to save Saga?"

"We're one in the same, then." At that moment, the hospitalized AWOL appeared behind the mad scientist, who paid the assassin no mind as he toiled away at some new contraption. He meant to attack his creator, but computer protocol prevented it, so AWOL simply stood as Walt Bismarck carried on. "It isn't for a lack of trying, on either of our fronts, AWOL." He turned to face the cyborg directly, his appearance a little unkempt, as if he had been through a hellish few nights. "You were more savable than she was, I stabilized you and spent the rest of the time trying to save her, her abilities, and her skills. She was an older model of cybernetics, one I had phased out. Simple, but with major drawbacks that couldn't be addressed on the operating floor."

"I don't believe you." AWOL retorted, his eyes wild, full of hate, ready to attack if his cybernetics allowed him. "I was the more useful tool, she was the expendable one. I'm already awake, fully repaired, able to get back in the action against Titan and his cronies, in the space of a few hours. You didn't even bother with Saga, you son of a-"

"AWOL," Walt spoke firmly, "It hasn't been a few hours." He said giving his subordinate a hard look. "It's been a month."

---

The revelation swirled AWOL's mind for a second, throwing the assassin off. "Hold on," He began, Walt interjecting.

"Check your data systems, I'm not trying to mess with you. You've been out of commission for a month, and we've had some changes take place." He explained, "We managed to beat Titan, more or less. We captured him and currently have him under lock and key, along with several of his operatives and allies. We took some losses ourselves, though." He continued, "They killed Saga, put you out for the remainder of the conflict, killed Blaze Luminous, and Mirage is a lone wolf operative for the time being. With Blaze being dead, Black Luminous is missing, so, we're actually out four members total; five originally but you've finally come out of your coma."

The news was devastating to AWOL, as not only did Saga perish, but many of his comrades did as well. Yet, this was war, after all, and it seems that Orion had the final victory in the end. "With the remaining members, what's on the agenda now?" He asked, figuring that with the villains still in the organization, they could still accomplish impressive feats despite losing their trump card, Black Luminous. "I feel like I should get back in the swing of things."

Walt cracked a smile. "Well, let's get you re-acquainted with the team. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you doing well once more."

---

Mirage

Zigzagging through the maze of concrete walls, the exhausted breaths that echoed across the mortar were punctuated by a sudden cry of fear and pain, and then silence. The man running hurried his pace, quickly trying to leave this hellish subterranean sprawl where he and his plucky gang of bandits had taken refuge in some god-forsaken part of the Condemned District. They saw themselves as modern day robin-hoods, inspired by the Cabal a month prior, into uplifting the downtrodden of the district and making them into a force to violently take over the city. To think, a single man could unravel their entire operation in a single night, is simply unfathomable.

As he rounded the next corner, the man's flashlight illuminated a solid brick wall, causing him to gasp in horror. "No, no, no fuckin' way, this was the exit. I didn't make a wrong turn, what the fuck." He whispered in between breaths, looking over his shoulder nervously as the noises of torture had ceased some time ago. "I need to use-"

"Your powers?" A voice suddenly called out from the floor below him, causing the man to jump quickly, but the leather hands of the villainous Mirage reached up and grabbed his ankles, yanking them back down onto the concrete. He phased them into the slab and materialized them, pinning the kingpin in place as he sweated nervously and shouted some incoherent threats, sprinkled with some pleas of mercy and surrender. "Calm down, Kimmel, the night is coming to a close and your gang is, well, no longer a gang anymore." Mirage stepped into the man's flash light, blood splattered all over his darkened suit, his staves still dripping with the liquid and some bits of flesh. Over his face, he wore a simple dark mask to cover his mouth and nose, and despite facing twenty plus armored and superpowered men and women, he seemed no worse for wear.

"Why are you doing this?" Kimmel pleaded, "At least tell me why. You're a bad guy, I'm a bad guy, we do bad things! It's what we do!"

"Blood runners and power boosters are some of the shittiest people on the planet," Mirage explained, "I really don't need to talk this out with you and buy you more time to use your powers. What was it again? Remind me, if you would. Some sort of fire strike ability, right? Get me talking, charge up an attack, blast me, awesome. I'd dodge by dropping through the floor, counter by breaking your wrist with my staff when I popped back in. So, what's the point?"

"Point of what?"

"Point of talking. It's over, no one is going to find you or your people until they tear this place down and they see nothing but skeletons."

"You're a fuckin' psycho." Kimmel spat, Mirage shrugging the insult. "At least I know who you are, you slimy bastard." He said with a smirk, hoping to catch up the villain. "Your real name is -"

"Nile Canaan. Former hero, current supervillain, part-time vigilante. You can google me from there." He replied before Kimmel could speak, taking the wind out of his sails. "Look, I wasn't supposed to get dragged into a conversation, so this is going to be over a lot sooner than I'd like. You, personally, did a lot more bad shit than you let on about. I did some digging, and you're a pretty nasty serial killer with a flavor for rape. I don't give a fuck about whatever your gang is up to, but you in particular, I wanted to make suffer." Nile drew a revolver-style pistol from his waist, and casually walked over to where Kimmel stood immobilized. "You had some sick obsession with kids, too." He whispered, looking down on the literal scum of the Earth before him, who looked shocked that Nile would have such knowledge.

"Is this some type of justice finally served, some form of sick revenge?" Kimmel spat, Nile raising the pistol to his face, seeing at once the terror set in the monsters' eyes.

"Call it a vendetta." Pop.

[Galnius]

Mika
Accepting help was not something Mika made a habit of doing, but right now it seemed rather imperative that she escape the literal hell, probably led by actually Satan. The main issue was the person (she thought Floyd was a person anyway) that dragged her here against her will. The other was...the angel wanted to talk.

If it were just a thing, maybe stabbing it in the back would be easy. But this...boy? He may as well have been human. And now he gave her his name. The complications confirmed one suspicion. If he wasn't human, he came very close to being one. Killing a person wasn't something she thought she could do, and this meeting confirmed it. That brought another problem, she couldn't kill Floyd either. It just felt...wrong.

When asked her name, Mika struggled to think of a lie. This turned out to be a futile attempt, as she found herself a bit stressed. "Mika" she replied simply.

They continued on for a small while before Mika spoke again. "You...you should leave as soon as possible. I'll make it out somehow, but if you stick around, you might..."

The photographer trailed off as she came to the clearing. Floyd seemed to be waiting there for her, which would be great if the boy wasn't still with her. To say she let out a sudden outburst would be an understatement, as she released Jan's hand and started waking towards the stairs. "Know what? Fine. Fine! Go kill each other. I dint care. I'm leaving." It was illogical, certainly, considering she could appear anywhere in the world, but as long as it wasn't underwater she figured she could get home with her photograph.

At least, that is if the stairs led home. It gave her pause, and she turned. "Shit...just... don't hit me wuth any stray attacks. When one of you win, can you please take me home?"

---

Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, September 13th

P.T. was quite proud of the current heist. The guards weren't very difficult to take care of, most of the heroes were off at a tournament, and the police had no way of beating his crew to his knowledge. He watched the area with some mental tracing. The only consciousnesses appeared to be of her little circuis. Mad Clown was currently dragging a large statue towards the back exit, while Ariel was stripping the walls of anything the others couldn't reach. Suddenly, however, something seemed to go wrong.

It wasn't an arrival, but more a dissapearance. Tigress, the lion tamer who could turn into an actual lion, suddenly popped out of her range. She had been overlooking some paintings and googling their worth, and then, nothing. P.T. concentrated harder on the area. Still nothing appeared, until suddenly...Lioness appeared back unconscious. From the looks, there was no struggle. She didn't even transform. Whatever it is, one thing was clear. Grabbing a radio, the ringmaster of the crime circus called in a retreat.

"Is someone near?" Replied the sleepy voice of Ariel. She was currently balancing on a small ledge across a balcony. "Why don't you just take control of em?"

"Because you imbecile" started P.T. "I'm not looking at them right now. I don't know where or who they are anyway, but Lioness is down."

A sharp gasp was heard as yet another person weighed in. "Lioness is down? I'll go retrieve her."

"No Digger, we can't risk a chemical attack on you as well. Besides, your father would quit if you got hurt."

"Damn right I would." A third voice replied gruffly, coming from a man known as Blast Juggler. A genius of chemical reactions, he was the second in command and father to Digger, a small girl who could englarge her fists like earthen boulders, allowing her to tunnel through stone and perform feats of strength. "Still, weird that there's no one here but us. Could it be a super?"

"Oh, might be" came the last voice. This one came from behind P.T., directly following a hand being placed on his shoulder. He turned in comical surprise, but what awaited him was far from funny. At least to him. "Gaaaaaah?!"

"P.T.!" Four voices called out in alarm. There leader was apparently under attack, and they had already lost one of their entourage. They prepared for battle, ready to kill.

Dan, Timken Museum of Art
As the criminal ringleader turned, his eyes were immediately met with the burning, horrid sensation known as pepper spray. Dan chuckled at his squirming. "You know, maybe telling the secret to your control to anyone nearby isn't a great idea. How are you the boss?"

A shot flew out wildly, totally missing the target. It did, however, illicit another laugh. "Alright buddy, tell you what, I'll set you up with a nice seat and we can watch the show together. Well...I can watch." As P.T. stood up, he was met with yet another gruesome attack. Daniel swung his new cane right between his legs, finding a suitable target. Moving slowly behind the criminal, Dan had a great idea. Not a minute later, P.T. was danglinh just off a pole by his drawers. "I've always wanted to do that. Good thing you're not a fatass."

Inside the museum it was chaos. Mad Clown grew to three times his size, muscles bristling and carrying the statue like a club. He was swinging wildly at air. He was sure something was nearby, as he'd already been stuck with enough sleeping darts to put an elephant down. Another Dan, who was moving around him unseen, happened to be running out of said darts. He too carried a cane, though he lacked the can of pepper spray. He pointed the cane once more as a dart shot out at close range, finally bringing down the giant clown. However, it seemed he didn't shrink when brought down. Worse, he fell in Dan's direction. It was due to nothing more than sprinting into the wall that Dan survived.

There was a third Dan who seemed to be having an easier time. He was currently walking at a leisurely pace, whistling as he approached his unsuspecting target. Ariel had moved to the balcony, guaranteeing that she could see everywhere. However, it didn't help her as this Daniel walked right through her view to the stairway to the balcony. He then went stright behind her and pulled out a simple rag. "Alright Tricky Vicky, daddy says it's bed time." She tried to gasp when she finally detected him, but that only occurred when the rag had covered her mouth. "Tell me, does this smell like chloroform to you?" asked the 'hero'. "Cause it's not. It'll keep you asleep for a solid hou-ow!"

Five Dan's flinched (one in New York City) as she raked her fingernails into the one's hand as a last resort. While this failed, she was, so far, the only one to pull of any actual damage. Then, she too fell unconscious.

"Smooth move" the fourth Dan in the area said sarcastically.

"Nah", replied the cloth wielding Dan. "That's two for the napkin of doom. What do you have?"

The fourth Dan looked at the backs of the father and daughter pair. Then, he left off a gun shot from his cane. "A double header".

Both criminals' yes widened at the sound, but they didn't get to hear a second shot. Instead, Blast Juggler saw the offending cane pointed at the back of his daughter's head. "Alright, smart hostage move. Your win. What do you want me to do?"

"Knockout gas is preferable" said the fourth. My mask doubles as a gas mask. Figured I'd buy an upgrade when I got the cane."

The hero happily talked about his new toys while holding a a young girl at the equivalent of gunpoint. Since the fall of the Outsiders, no one really expected a hero to be as brash. However, the juggler thought he knew who this was. "Daniel McHarris, the Spectre. Even if that isn't going to kill her, something tells me you'll make sure any bomb I set off hits her. Fair play. Alright, I'll do as you say. Just one question...how did you take out the others them get here so quickly? Teleportation?"

With his free hand, Daniel brought a gloved hand to his mask's lips. "That's a trade secret."

Ten minutes later, the police arrived to the unconscious carnies and subdued ringmaster, the latter who had their eyes covered with their own hat and their hands tied behind their back. The hero known as the Spectre had decided to leave his mark after finally registering as an official hero.

[Bentus]

Yoshiro Namaka
Freedom’s Nest, New York

---

Late at night, long after the sun had set on the sleepless city, the crowds had emptied from Freedom’s Nest. After the grand opening for the tournament the eager fans and hordes of media had gradually faded away from the day’s activities until the last few stragglers were shepherded away by the stadium’s security. Now that the facility was officially closed, the large, open corridors and shuttered food stands were eerily silent as they waited for the thousands who would flock the halls in the morning. Even the out-of-state hero teams that might have been staying in the stadium were absent, with the festivities and parties in full swing in both the arcade and bar. But the silence faded away closer to the private training gym that had been set aside for competitors.

Behind closed doors, the gym was lit up like it was daytime rather than a few minutes past midnight. With no shortage of sponsors and wealthy donors, Freedom’s Nest had spared no expense on its training facilities, and there was enough advanced equipment to allow a Super to put even the most problematic power through its paces. But few of the competitors would have risked fatiguing themselves with a late night training session this close to the opening matches, and even those who might have were instead spending the night out at rowdy celebrations. For Yoshiro though, the isolation of the empty gym was perfect.

With her face twisted with concentration, she struggled to keep up with her opponent’s flurry of blows. Her eyes were dancing between the swift, precise punches that launched themselves mercilessly towards her. She could only just keep up with her own parries and footwork, although she could feel the fatigue that was gradually weighing down her limbs and slowing her movement. The blank metallic face of the sparring robot was devoid of emotion as its cold programming drove it to continue pressing the young heroine onto the backfoot across the gym floor. In contrast to Yoshiro’s heavy breathing and determined effort, the robot’s movements appeared calm and measured, unburdened as it was by the nuisance of physical fatigue.

Gritting her teeth as she felt herself being forced backwards with each quick step, Yoshiro tried to find some opening in the robot’s moves. If she couldn’t figure out a way to turn the tide, it would only be a matter of time before she was pushed out of bounds again, but her opponent’s relentless offensive hardly even gave her a moment to think. Feeling increasingly desperate as the boundary line drew closer, Yoshiro’s brow furrowed as she refused to give in so easily. Blinking away some sweat from her eyes, the telepath suddenly felt a renewed sense of determination - anger, even. How was she going to improve if she wasn’t even willing to stand her ground?

Wracking her brain for some way that she could fight back against the automaton’s cold pursuit of victory, she forced her heels to dig into the floor. Yoshiro redoubled her efforts as she pushed herself to parry each blow, waiting for the opening that would have to present itself eventually. The robot didn’t seem to have expected the girl to stop her retreat, and Yoshiro felt her heart leap as she saw the chance she’d been holding out for. Throwing her weight into a quick, upwards jab with her elbow, she knocked the robot’s head backwards and caused it to stagger a few half-steps backwards. Immediately, Yoshiro felt her heart leap as the tide appeared to turn - but the smile was wiped from her face as soon as she registered the foot heading straight for the centre of her torso.

The impact tore the wind from Yoshiro’s lungs, and she felt herself pulled from her feet as she was sent tumbling backwards to slide along the polished floor. Colliding against the far wall with a grunt, the telepath felt her chest heaving as it tried to recover from the surprise counter-attack. Grimacing as the aches and pains in her limbs made themselves known, Yoshiro felt the wound stab her pride as much as her body. It let me get that hit in, didn’t it? So that I left myself open to get knocked out. Damn it, that was a rookie mistake - even for her.

Wincing as she pulled herself back onto her feet, Yoshiro side-eyed the training robot as it politely bowed and returned to the centre of the ring to either fight again or be dismissed. Still struggling to catch her breath, the telepath rolled her eyes in exasperation as the machine seemed entirely unphased by their fight. Trying to nurse her back, she spoke sarcastically to the responseless automaton. “Oh, don’t feel like you’ve got to keep up appearances or anything. I can totally go all night, but if you need to take five or something -”

Yoshiro’s voice trailed off as she noticed another presence in the gym. During the fight, she’d been so focused that she must not have noticed the aura enter. Turning towards the newcomer, Yoshiro felt a rush of colour flood her cheeks as she met the amused gaze of none other than Valerie Greenwood - or Comet, as she was more commonly known. And she also happened to be one of Yoshiro’s opponents in her first match.

Met with the sight of the Vancouver Vixens’ heavy hitter, the telepath was paralysed for a few seconds as her throat suddenly became dry. Comet was leaning casually against a wall, an amused expression on her features as she folded her heavily tattooed arms across her chest. Yoshiro felt her stomach fall to between her feet as she realised that the famed heroine must have seen her horrible performance in the sparring session.

“Sorry, I didn’t realise that you were waiting to use the field.” Yoshiro hastily tried to add, apologising profusely as she realised how out of place she must have appeared in the gym designed for the best heroes in the country. “I was just practicing and I didn’t think that anyone would come in with the party going on and I didn’t realise you were here and -”

“Yo, calm your jets.” Valerie had raised both of her hands as if to surrender to the rapid-fire verbal fusilade. She smirked at the Young Blood’s reaction. “Don’t let me interrupt you. It’s a free country, and you were here first.”

Gulping apprehensively, Yoshiro tried to force herself to respond with a friendly smile as she made her way back into the ring. Adopting a defensive stance, she waited for the sparring robot to notice her presence and resume their match. All the while, she felt Comet’s eyes patiently studying her from across the room. Taking a breath, Yoshiro tried to focus on her opponent - but it was a doomed effort from the start. When the robot darted forward to begin the bout, her mind was still lingering on Comet’s sudden appearance. Her thoughts were on whether her stance looked right to the celebrity hero and what the other woman must have been thinking of her after seeing the previous fight.

Letting out a surprised yelp as the robot suddenly launched into its offensive, Yoshiro’s defences crumbled even as she sought to put up a pyrrhic fight even as she was pushed off balance. Blocking the first few swings, she let out a defiant cry as she threw a hail mary back at the automaton, only to feel its cold fingers grip her forearm. Her eyes widening at the unexpected move, Yoshiro didn’t even have enough time to cry out in surprise as the robot twisted its torso and pulled her up and over its shoulder. Slamming down painfully onto her back, the telepath groaned at both her sore body and the humiliation that she’d just put herself through.

“If you’re going to be that unfocused in the tournament, then you’re not going to last even a minute.” Comet’s voice wasn’t harsh or mean, but the plain statement still managed to sting Yoshiro’s pride as she turned to see the heroine standing above her. Extending a hand, the Vixen offered to help the Young Blood to her feet. “But that robot also wasn’t set to the recommended level for you either, was it?”

Pausing in surprise as she reached out to grab the older woman’s hand, Yoshiro was about to instinctively deny the accusation when she hesitated. Comet was experienced enough to see through any thinly veiled attempt at deception. Pulled up onto her feet, she shook her head. “No, it wasn’t. I really need to improve and I figured that this would be the best way to do it.” Pausing, Yoshiro smiled as she rubbed the back of her head nervously. “Could you, um, not tell Naja?”

Chuckling at the request, Comet rolled her eyes she slapped Yoshiro on the back. “Tell Naja? Oh come on, I’m hurt that you’d think I’d tell on you. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” Glancing over towards the field, Valerie’s grin faded slightly. “Besides, you’re right. Villains aren’t going to go easy on you out there because you ask nicely. Training gloves just set up the wrong expectations, if you ask me.”

Yoshiro couldn’t help but let out a relieved breath. She knew that she was already walking on thin ice with Naja, and the woman had been very specific on how she had to be taking things easy for now. But after the Scarab and getting barred from active missions, Yoshiro knew that she couldn’t just keep doing things like she had been before.

“Thanks. I’m not really in her good books right now.” Pausing, she bit her lip as she thought back to how she’d looked up to Comet and the other Vixens as a girl and how she’d remained silent when her squad had encountered them earlier that day. “Sorry to be that girl, but I regretted not saying this before: I’m a huge fan of you guys. The Vixens really sent out waves when you formed, and getting to meet you in person is incredible.”

Grinning at the slight outpouring, Comet shrugged in response. “Shit, I hope I’m living up to the expectations, Psyche. Though having fans in the early days really helped, not everyone was super stoked by what we said and did. Kind of reminds me a bit of a new controversial team on the block, now that you mention it.”

Yoshiro smiled at the slight nod towards the Young Bloods, but her expression hardened soon after. “Actually, I meant to ask you: how do you do it?” Quickly, the girl continued as she tried to explain her question. “I mean like, when people say that you can’t do something or criticises you, it never sticks. You brush it aside and prove them wrong, every time.”

Taken aback by the question, Comet blinked in surprise as she thought it over for a few seconds. Looking at the young heroine, she saw the earnestness behind her eyes and realised that this wasn’t just an abstract query brought on by idle curiosity. Folding her arms across her chest, the heroine frowned slightly.

“I’m not sure if I’m the best one to answer that. I can try, if you want, but I’m just going to call it how I see it.” Yoshiro nodded, and Comet thought over how best to reply. “Do you know why you lost to that hunk of junk back there?”

Yoshiro thought it over for a moment. “I...think I got distracted, and after I got tired I just couldn’t keep up with it.”

“That was part of it.” Comet replied. “But bigger than that was your hesitation. Even against a robot, you held back. You’ve got to get rid of that self doubt and put some weight behind your attacks, or else nobody is ever going to really take you seriously as a threat.” Grabbing onto Yoshiro’s shoulders, the Vixen pushed her over towards a wall-mounted mirror. “Bit cliche, but how about you tell me what you see?”

Allowing herself to be moved over towards the mirror, Yoshiro wasn’t sure where the heroine was going with this, but she forced herself to look at her own reflection. Comet stood patiently beside her, the taller woman’s defined muscles clearly visible beneath her tank top and prominent tattoos. She said that I need to get rid of self doubt, right? “I...guess I’m a hero who’s a bit out of their depth and -”

Suddenly, Comet interrupted by making a buzzer sound with her mouth, startling Yoshiro.

“Nope, wrong answer.” Comet interrupted plainly, deciding to go for brutal honesty. “You’re looking too deep. Heroes help people, but part of the job description is to hurt people as well - badly. And the girl looking at me from that mirror doesn’t look like that at all. In fact, she looks like a total wuss. I don’t even really know you Psyche, but straight away I can go ahead and guess that you’re one of those sweet-and-friendly types who’s always been popular with everyone. I’d bet that you’re always quiet in class, real studious and all that, always turns in her work on time and always does the extra credit. The type that never breaks the rules, has had two parents pushing you to learn an instrument since before you can walk to help get you into that college you’ve always dreamed about. That all sound about right, or am I off the mark a bit?”

Yoshiro opened her mouth to respond, but she was stunned into silence by the brutal teardown she received. It was a lot to take in all at once, especially from someone that she looked up to. But Comet continued before the Young Blood could put together a reply. This time, her tone had softened slightly to be a bit more sympathetic.

“It’s not easy. But you just have to realise that there’s always going to be assholes out there who will take you at face value. There’ll always be people who second-guess you and doubt you, and who say that you aren’t good enough. Whether you choose to accept that or got out and prove them wrong is your decision. But I’ve seen the videos of you fighting - you’re not a slouch, Psyche. You’ve got heart and spirit, which is worth far more to a hero than some flashy offensive power. You’re willing to go out there and put yourself in danger in order to help others, and if someone doesn’t want to support you in doing that, then you should just tell them to fuck off and quit holding you back.” Comet paused, allowing her words to sink in.

“But whether you show it to people or not, if you want to be a hero then you’re going to have to be willing to follow through when you punch. If you’re too afraid to hurt your opponent, then you’re just giving them the opportunity to do the same to you. And out in the real world that’ll cost you more than a lost match and a wounded pride.”

Yoshiro’s mouth had twisted into a frown at the other woman’s words. Hurting people? Was that really what being a hero called for? It was a strange thought, and it settled uncomfortably in her chest. But after everything she’d seen, how different all the heroics and battles appeared now that it wasn’t all just on a TV screen, it made sense. Slowly, Yoshiro began to nod. “Yeah...I think I know what you’re saying. I...I’m not sure I know what to do about it yet, though.”

Comet offered the girl an apologetic shrug. “Can’t really help you with that one, I’m afraid. But picking yourself back up and showing that robot who’s boss might be a good start. I’m going to go ahead and hit the weights, anyway.”

The corner of Yoshiro’s mouth twisted upwards at the comment. “Thanks, Comet. Really.”

As she was walking away, Comet offered the Young Blood a friendly wave. “Don’t mention it. I’m looking forward to our fight by the way.” The woman glanced over her shoulder and winked towards Yoshiro. “Just don’t think that any of us are going to go easy on you. We’re in this to win it, no matter what. Just like you should be.”

[Finland SSR]

Bael

The Mad Lass, Sina As'tari!

August 8th

---

"Aw..." So Bael won't be able to teach her anything. That was a little disappointing. Well, actually, it was more than a little disappointing, but Sina did not express that any further, and just followed after her peer while he introduced them both and Naligura to Onu, the woman he had been talking about. According to him, she would be able to teach Sina everything she had taught Bael, and more. And Onu certainly seemed into the idea.

"I don't know..." the vigilante responded, with less enthusiasm than before, her foot fiddling around as she spoke. "Suuuure, I gueeeeess..." she finally responded. Sure, she can play along with this. Hell, maybe she'll actually be able to learn something and it wouldn't take a lot of her time. Hopefully. Speaking of wasting time, the thought made Sina recall something important.

"You wouldn't mind helping me out a bit, by the way? I might need to get back to N'Toak and hop around between San Diego and there - at least to visit what that Sandstorm flight team is about... and I can't open portals."

---

Casimir and Viviana September 15th

Steven Baker.

September 15th

---

Steven smiled and nodded in response to Casimir's question. "That's right. I can't say I'm the greatest fan of the League out there... but I keep up with it, usually." Less so because he was actually interested in watching the greatest heroes of North America beat the crap out of one another - quite the opposite - but more so because he actually knew many of the participants from years past. Surely, plenty of them remembered him, too. The thought had once crossed Steven's mind if he could possibly make his way into the League's secret lounge... but, he decided against it. That would require him to bring up his long abandoned identity once again in many years, and he was not ready to dig open that grave.

The girl standing by Casimir's side suddenly pulled onto him and raised a question of her own after accurately predicting that he was Casimir's teacher. She was unfamiliar to him, so his mind immediately went onto analysis mode.

"Well, dealing with him was certainly not the worst experience I've had," Steven responded with a snicker, then pushed his glasses upwards, a brief glimmer of sunlight suddenly reflecting off of them. "The two of you must be close friends, correct?" He did not want to be as brash as to call them boyfriend and girlfriend, but he figured they would understand the implication - and his calculations gave it a near one hundred percent chance, assuming no unexpected variables.

"How did summer go for you two? I heard your class celebrated the end of the semester on Wonder Island when... something happened, right?"

---

Mika

Jan Sorok, the Champion of Heaven!

September

---

Immediately as he and Mika stepped out of the thick fog to the peak of Hell and towards the stairway leading to Purgatory, faced with a heavily armored man who spoke as if he knew the girl, Jan unfurled his wings and stood in front of her. He couldn't guarantee to himself that this was the demon she was talking about, but it sure as hell looked like one - and if a battle was what it was going to come down to, he'd have to protect her, it's what he had sworn. With his right hand, he grasped onto the sword attached to his belt and pulled it out, the blade crackling with energy.

However, Mika had other plans. She broke into an outburst, running away and leaving both Jan and Floyd baffled - and she took straight for the staircase, making the first few steps before finally stopping. As much as she wanted to declare that she didn't care and that she was leaving while the two of them duke it out, fear still gripped her heart, as it seems.

"H-huh?.." the Virgil muttered under his breath, his wings lowering. Floyd, on the other hand, blinked a few times and grinned.

"Well, that's sweet and all, but Meri said you're my meatshield."

The swordsman stretched his right hand out towards Mika, the heavy metal glove suddenly detaching and shooting forward, tied to the rest of the suit by a dark red chain while grabbing onto the girl and pulling her in. Before the glove could even drag her back in, however, a powerful yell roared across the peak of the mountain.

"Let her go!"

Floyd moved his head slightly to the right, avoiding Jan's charging sword slash entirely. It did, however, mean that he lost his focus over Mika - which the Virgil took advantage of and locked onto her body with his telekinetic powers. The glove detached itself and the girl got pulled towards him - as soon as she fell to his grasp, he took to the air with her in tow.

Flying in general was something he was still getting accustomed to, and doing so with an another person in his hands was even more difficult.

"There's... not really many places you can hide, right?" the Virgil stated under his breath, summoning a psionic bubble shield around them both. "Except for the fog, I guess..."

[The Republic of Atria]

Team Dragonforce:
The spectacular Bael, Wyatt Sutherlund!
The heroic Stella, Renata Martinez!
The incredible Rocket, Mars Asarin!
The reclusive Mask, Austin “Red” Flanagan!
ft. the nefarious Red Princess, Shihong Smith!
versus the New Jersey Jets, September 16

The Queens Stadium was once again roaring with excitement - thousands of the tournament’s fans have gathered to watch yet another pulse-pounding preliminary fight, this time one pitting the San Diego Young Bloods against the New Jersey Jets. While the overly excited announcer pretty much yelled into the microphone, briefly introducing the two competitors and calling for the audience to give a round of cheers and applause for them, the teams stepped into their designated corners of the ring, preparing for the battle ahead.

Bearing a faint smirk on her face, Renata stood in the front, ready to burst forward and charge at the first Jet in sight as soon as the horn blows. Before that happens, however, she was warming up with some basic stretches.

“All right!” she yelled out, her voice full of excitement, then turned towards the rest of the team over her shoulder. “Mask, you’re the New Yorker here! How do I say ‘let’s kick their ass’ in your language?”


Rocket
As the starting horn blew Rocket shot forward from his team’s starting line. Before the fight they all decided they would force the Jets into a series of one on one fights to start the match. They would make sure they would stick close however, as to avoid an unwanted double team. As he charged away from the line he ran right towards Bladeblossom who he had been assigned too. His opponent was a woman who wore a purple and yellow suit of armor that resembled the popular image of a samurai with her face covered by her helmet. Mars had watched plenty of film on Bladeblossom and he knew that deception and misdirection were her favorite tactics but you ignored the sight of her blades at your own peril.

As Rocket’s boosters propelled him closer and closer to the swordswoman she leapt into the air over his head. He had expected that, she was likely trying to either draw him out or find his blind spot and strike. For now Mars would play along and the thrusters in Rocket’s legs began to activate as he shot into the air after his jumping foe. The mech hero picked up speed rather quickly and in the matter of a few seconds closed the gap between him and his sword wielding opponent.

However, Bladeblossom clearly had a plan in mind, as just when Rocket caught up to her she suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke and while Mars’ first thought was that she would strike him from behind, when he turned around she was not there. Instead she had transported underneath him onto a large rock and proceeded to hurl one of her blades at him with startling speed. Mars managed to notice the attack just in time and managed to move his right foot out of the way of the blade. It was clearly bladeblossom’s desire to disable his flight capabilities. However despite moving his leg, the blade found a target in his arm, and knocked off a small chunk of his armor before falling back to the ground and being caught by the martial artist who had thrown it.

Luckily none of Rockets internal systems were damaged so now it was time to go on the offensive. As his nanoparticles went to work trying to cover the new holes in his arm, Rocket turned towards Bladeblossom and aimed his kinetic cannon at the rocket she was standing on. Firing a rapid blast of energy the rock beneath her exploded into an array of pieces while she was forced to jump out of the way of the blast. Mars pounced forward, keeping a careful eye on his foe as she jumped. Soon he closed the gap once more and this time he was able to grab onto Bladeblossom’s leg before she was able to disappear. He spun her around once, hoping to be able to get the easy win by throwing her out of the stadium. However, her teammates had different plans.

Bael

He walked out onto the stage, leading his team and putting on his best "determined" look. Their arena looked interesting. A couple of makeshift buildings and large boulders all strewn about a large, grassy field. He could see the Jets about a good fifty feet or so away, looking just as ready, though likely even more than they were. His target was the largest of the group, the man called Mountain. He wore a strange costume that made him look like a humanoid boulder. It worked given that his was a good three heads taller than everyone else on his team.

Renata spoke, and for once, he agreed with her. "Kick their asses guys." He spoke. "We're here to prove that not only are we the team that took down WarWolf, but that we're just as good, no, better than other super teams." Buying his own hype a little, but he was going to need it. From what he heard, Mountain was a brute and a half. supposedly he even had terrakinesis. It would be like fighting a mirror. But from what he knew of the rest of his own team, they had a decent chance to win. Mountain was their best tank. His squad had him and Mars to take the punishment. Plus Mars was mobile and had range. He didn't want to jinx it, but the more he thought about it, the more he hoped and even believed that they could win.

A few seconds later, the fight started via the announcer and both teams readied for their fight. Already he could see his team getting ready to go fight, but Mountain was keeping close to his team. It looked like they intended to fight defensively. Made sense, the squad knew more about the Jets than the other way around. In theory at least. He jumped into the air and took flight, very glad he'd been practicing his takeoffs for the past month. The ceilings were relatively low, but high enough that he'd be out of reach. A thought that was shot down as quickly as it came. A rock, about twice the size of his head just barely missed him. Apparently the Mountain had been watching him as much as he'd been. Bael dove straight down, but pulling a trick out of Sina's book, as just before landing, he pulled up, shooting himself straight at the massive man.

Mountain didn't expect such an attack. He and the dragon collided, knocking both of them off their feet. Neither wasted time getting back to their feet, but Mountain was the first to break the ice. "You chose to fight me alone? From the way you walked in, you looked to be the leader of your team."

Bael readied himself, but the Mountain hadn't made any moves to attack other than the first one. "I am. Why?"

"I think it's interesting. You looked straight at me from the moment you walked inside. Judging from how you tried to separate me from my team. I take it you believe you can beat me by yourself."

Bael shrugged. "Maybe. But from what I know about you, I have the best chance of winning. I can take whatever you can give out. From what I read about you, same thing applies."

"Confidence. I like that. Let's see if your strategy has the merit you believe." He approached at a walking pace, and Mountain opened with a quick left jab. Bael bobbed and struck with a counter blow to Mountain's gut. The force sent the massive man sliding back, but he stayed on his feet, smiling and took a deep breath. "Skilled and strong."

Bael heard his words but decided to continue his assault. Throwing another rapid series of blows, Mountain countered by either blocking them or redirecting them. All it took was one tiny slip off for Bael by thrown off balance and receive a nasty strike across the side of his face. The dragon staggered back, taking a deep breath with a loud hiss got right back into the fight. This time, Bael went in for a blow, Mountain already in position to block, only for the blow to not connect at all. With his free hand, Bael grabbed his wrist and flipped the massive brute over his head and into the ground and then threw him across the field.

Mountain bounced across the field, tearing up the grass before he stopped and reoriented. The dragon was not holding back like he feared. No, he was fighting with intent to win. Which gave him the go ahead to stop treating him like a child. He stood back up to see the dragon sprinting at him. A small smile crept it's way along the Mountain's face as the dragon neared. The bounders around him were torn from their resting place and all converged onto Bael.

The first one struck home, slamming into Bael's chest, and the rest followed hardly a second after, surrounding nearly his entire body in stone, leaving only his head exposed. Bael looked to be straining to free himself from the massive stone prison, but seemed to be stuck. "A valiant effort." He spoke, his hard breathing evident as he neared. "I appreciate that you came into this with your heart in the right place. You wanted to take the strongest member of the enemy team to keep them safe. You have my respect. You don't want to put them in any danger you wouldn't put yourself in." He spoke in a genuine way. "But it appears I've won."

Bael stopped struggling for a few moments and looked at the gargantuan man standing in front of him. The looks of defeat and sadness suddenly replaced by a sly smile. "Looks can be deceiving." Right as he spoke, a scaly fist erupted from the rock and struck Mountain square in the jaw. He staggered back as Bael tore himself free from the stone with what looked to be little effort. Though he noted there was quite a bit of yellow glowing coming from his hands now. He thrust both of them forward and the stone that was once his prison became his weapon. Rocks the size of soccer balls flew out with incredibly velocity. Mountain pulled his arms up to guard his head. The rocks struck his abdomen, legs, arms, and made it very difficult to see.

Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. He looked up and saw the dragon shoulder check him. Mountain was ready for that however, as he only barely budged, wrapped his arms around Bael and smashed him into the ground. One hand holding his head down and the other forced him into an armbar that even kept his wings from spreading. "That was clever. But I'm done treating you like a child. I will hold you here until you submit and surrender." To further his point, he pushed on the armbar a little more, making it hurt substantially more.

Bael's mind and eyes raced around for ideas. The only thing he saw was that Mountain's legs were slightly awkward from his great height. His feet were still free. Gritting his teeth, he kicked at Mountain's ankle with all of his might. He didn't hit square on, instead, one of his talons slashed his calf and he reflexively released his grip in pain. Bael rolled around, pressed his foot onto the wincing Mountain's chest and kicked him off as hard as he could. The large man flew back, smashing into and noticeably budging the large boulder. He stood back up, tried to lift his left arm and winced. It wasn't dislocated, but it was sore. Mountain looked down at his bloody leg and let out a sigh and stared at his opponent who was also catching his breath as well. "I seem to have forgotten how stubborn teenagers can be." He joked. "And I have to say that I didn't expect you to go this far. This is a fantastic fight. Not too many people make me bleed."

"...Thank you." Bael replied. "I... I knew you were going to come in here trying to win. Even if we lose, I wanted to make sure you guys earned your win."

"Huh. You're quite soft spoken for having just done all of that. You're hurt, and so am I. Though I don't need my leg to fight."

"I'm only out if you knock me out. Till then, I'm not gonna stop."

Mountain nodded. "Excellent. Keep that fighting spirit." He winced as he put more weight on his injured leg. But he powered through it and braced as Bael smashed into him. Pinning him against the massive boulder. He brought his massive fists down on Bael's upper back, smashing the dragon into the ground. He stepped over, grabbing the dragon's tail.

Mountain didn't expect the kick to the head and staggered back to see the dragon's face looking incredibly angry. Bael threw a punch, and he was already blocking, but the blow hit hard. So hard it sounded more like a gunshot and despite his bracing, had knocked him on his back. Before he could even try to stand back up, Bael was on top, smashing his fists as hard and as fast as he could into his head.

Once, twice, thrice he was struck in the head before he grabbed Bael's arm and flipped him over. The dragon was still trying to hit him! but Mountain already had his right arm, and his left lacked the same power. He pinned the left one down, but had much more difficulty with the right one. It was Mountain's turn to grit his teeth as he tried and got a little closer every second to pinning Bael's remaining arm. Then came the yellow glow again. Mountain looked up and blocked another soccer ball sized rock, but had released Bael's arms in the process. The next, much larger rock came and Mountain used his own terrakinesis to fling it to the side. Once again, Bael kicked him off, but without much power. Just enough to free himself while the Mountain staggered to his feet.

Much to his surprise, Bael kept up the assault, throwing a nasty haymaker. Mountain threw his own and the two's fists collided with another loud gunshot noise. The two stood, their fists trying to overpower the other.

Red

Standing next to his teammates, Red’s eyes rolled underneath his visor when he heard Renata’s question. “Where I’m from it’s normally common courtesy to let your actions do the talking, Stella.” He paused for a moment, spinning the pair of rederangs he held in his hands in anticipation. “But a simple ‘Let’s kick their fuckin’ teeth in’ ought to do.”

At the sound of the announcer’s blaring screams, Red and the rest of Team Three began went into motion against their preselected opponents. Their plan had been to focus on going in one-on-one fights against the opponents they deemed to fit their own strengths and weaknesses. Although Red had been slightly opposed to the idea, Wyatt’s role as the leader of their squad made his opinions obsolete. Red didn’t mind too much, but as he saw the others begin their separate fights, he couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous at what the outcome might be.

“

Renata

“Eh?”

Despite having stood in the front and braced to charge headfirst into battle, Renata saw herself getting lost thinking about how different the English language might be between different regions, and so, when the bell rang and the battle began, all of her faster teammates suddenly sped past her and charged straight at the first opponent on their mind.

“Hey, wait up!” she yelled out, firing off jet bursts from her hands and feet to propel herself forward and leap into the fray. Rocket had already engaged Bladeblossom and Bael with Mountain, and, at first, Renata thought of jumping in to help one of them. Both of them could definitely use some ranged support, after all, especially the latter. One of the Jets, a rather inconspicuous looking man, clenched onto his torso and suddenly engulfed himself in bio-matter, his limbs and body instantly starting to grow and mutate, building up additional outgrowths, replacing his skin with green scales and finally taking off to the sky as a wyvern.

Okay, maybe not... It was Drake, the flier and ranged support of the Jets, whom she heard Wyatt mention more than once while they were preparing for the match. Whom Renata already had a battle strategy prepared for from earlier.

“¡Vamos!” she yelled out, gathering plasma between her hands and firing off a blast straight towards the flying superhero’s wing. Drake immediately caught on to what was happening, however, and spun in the air to avoid the blast and then smack across it with the edge of his wing, breaking it apart and thus neutralizing it. The wyvern transformed hero continued circling in the sky. Out of his entire team, he was perhaps the most hesitant to lay the smackdown on a group of teens, despite his intimidating transformed looks - buuut…

“Whoa!” Renata yelled as soon as she saw the wyvern’s head wind back, using a burst of energy to propel herself to the side, expecting a fireball, or some sort of flame, or something similar which she’d assume a dragon to shoot out from its mouth. You know, like Bael? And an attack did come out - the ground on which she had been standing before suddenly broke apart, collapsing to rubble and pieces of asphalt. “What the...”

The path of destruction trailed across the floor until it suddenly engulfed Renata outright - at which point the girl realized that it was, in fact, a terrifying, concentrated and unbelievably loud screech. The sheer force of the voice instantly pinned her down to the floor, her body partially submerged under the rubble and hands desperately trying to clench onto her ears as to dissuade the ringing pain. Drake started to fly forward, stretching out his legs and aiming to stomp on the girl while she was still pinned down, and thus take her out of the match then and there.

Which Renata soon came to realize. M-mierda… I can’t… Move... It felt like being constantly pressed down by a powerful, inescapable waterfall.

Suddenly, a narrow beam of light shot out of Renata’s thigh, piercing Drake in the eye and instantly disrupting his advance. With one draconic hand, the wyvern clenched onto his head and grunted, closing his mouth and thus letting the heroine free for a second - and a second was enough. Fighting through the lingering pain, Renata immediately leapt forward, gathering up plasma in her palm and slapping it straight at Drake’s cheek. An explosion rocketed the air between the two of them, blowing both of them away - even then, however, the heroine continued to push her momentum.

Renata cupped her hands, building up plasma between her palms, and fired off the attack as soon as she landed on the floor with a slide. It manifested as a powerful outwards burst of energy, which Drake flew straight into, powering himself through the explosion and continuing to advance… over the heroine’s head.

“Huh?” Renata muttered under her breath as she raised her eyes to the sky. No, Drake was instead going after another member of her team.

Shi

Ultra stood still as the siren went out and her team rushed into the fight; it really didn’t matter she figured, as she can cross the whole field in seconds. She watched the bright aura of her target travel towards Drake at breakneck speed; that was Stella and a quick elimination was exactly what they needed. “At least Drake is finally making himself useful…” She cracked her neck, “Maybe he’ll finally shut up about fighting kids…” Stepping off the entrance platform and onto the grasslands, she did a few stretches before aligning herself directly at the unsuspecting Stella. “Well let’s get this over with…” In a burst of speed, before most could register. As Stella stared directly at the sky to fight to fight the Wyvern, a quick blitz would catch her off guard.

But before Lang could even get within striking distance, a stream of fire smashed right into her and knocked her back. Landing in a grass patch, in her dazed state, she looked up to see a figure moving in the sky; it was coming back for another strafe. Dodging just in time to get out of it’s area of effect, Ultra very quickly moved outside of Shi’s view. Stopping in place as she searched through the ground, Shi scoured up and down the map arena.

“Hey asshat!” Ultra caught the Princesses attention just a good sized rock shot straight in the air and landing straight on her chest. Landing straight onto the ground and next to a tree, Shi looked to see Ultra’s trademark rush attack. With her hands she covered the area, while with her limbs, she flew straight back up. Just as she ascended, Ultra with all her momentum struck the tree; crack it in two with no difficulty. Lang pulled her arm back from the trunk of the three and turned around to see Smith looking directly down at her, “What’s wrong? Can’t handle CQC?” Ultra loved to goad her opponents, it made for a quick fight.

Shi just stayed in her place and smirked, saying nothing in response.

“Got nothing to say back?” Lang stood there and assumed her traditional southpaw stance, looking around the environment for anything to throw.

No response, instead Shi circled around her, blasting her.

“You can’t stay up there forever!” Ultra bemoaned as she threw another round of rocks into the air. After the first few missed, Ultra eyed tree branches and did the same; branches flew and scattered across the artificial landscape. From the perspective of the audience, it was nothing spectacular. With each successive throw and dodge, it devolved into flails and curses. Ultra already understood that her plan to target Stella was not happening, Drakon would need to do it himself; her new goal was to eliminate Shi.

As Shi circled around the tree, strafing the area with flames, Ultra grabbed one good sized pellet and watched with tempered frustration behind the lifeless trunk. This next strafe. Aiming just ahead of her flight path, it flung and flew true. Smacking against the side of the British Popstar, Shi scathed against the ground before catching her balance near an empty shed. Ultra rushed in for the attack.. Leaning against the wall, Shi brought for blast after blast, but Ultra dodged with a few well-timed swerves. As she got within ten feet, Shi gnawed her lower teeth; her new versatility had given her complacency.

“I got you know!” Ultra smashed against the rusty plating of the shed, inches from Shi’s head; the metal sheeting cracked and scattered about. Swaying to Ultra’s side, Shi barely dodged the next barrage. First came the upper cut across Shi’s left side; then came the cross, straight toward her face. Leaning as far back as she could, in those milliseconds, time seemed to prolong and slow down just as the fist came into view. The Young Blood could even see the little indents and cuts on Ultra’s knuckles, even a piece of metal lodged in between them. Finally, Ultra pulled back and came in for the hook, its target: Shi’s right cheek.

She never understood why, maybe it came from her gene therapy, her implants, or natural supremacy, but these life or death situations always seemed to slow in her mind. She could think clearer, truly take in everything, and access. Not that it was always helpful mind you, somethings were inevitable, and being forced to watch it cornering was less helpful and more horrifying. Luckily now was the former, holding up her right arm to block, the hook smashed against her ulna and radius bones, cracking both and throwing Shi a good ten feet to her left.

Walking slowly toward her future victim, audience sure loved dramatic tension, while also assuming her southpaw. “Good defense kid, you aren’t going to need to need a wire.”

Hyper vigilant and perceptive, Shi held her broken arm and stared at the bone protruding from her forearm. She sighed; she wasn’t mad at herself, just disappointed. Moving her arm and her fingers to make sure they still worked, she remarked, “At least that still held.”

“How are you doing that?” Ultra inquisitively asked as she stood over her target. The arm was still functioning despite the obvious broken bones, Shi wasn’t even in much pain. Grabbing Shi by her right hand, she effortlessly turned the arm back and forth, examining it, “You got some regeneration mutation?”

“Something like that.”

“Let’s test it out…” Ultra slowly tightened and increased her grip over her hand. First the joints began to get dislodged, then they started to crack. Ultra and Shi stared each other down, as if playing a game of chicken. The pain crept in, and despite how well she was holding it in, the redness in her face gave it all away. “Stop trying to act like you’re some bad bit… huh?” Just then she felt something else in there, something more malleable yet denser at the same time, “What is that?”

“A sleight of hand.”

“A what?” Just as she finished her sentence, a burning sensation immediately overcame her as she instinctively released and examined her hand. Her left hand was now one large burn mark, even the slightest movements seemed to agitate it. “Damn it you…” Ultra looked back up to see a fist surrounded by flames rapid approaching her neck. With no time to react, the punch connected and the ball of energy combusted upon impact.

It was Ultra’s turn to fly back, this time impacting against a four foot boulder. As the smoke clouded the air, Ultra could hear a figure slowly approaching. Shi with her dirty costume, broken arm, and now a sharp, jagged piece of metal; courtesy of Ultra’s shed barrage. Standing five feet away from Ultra, she asked, “You surrender?”

Using the boulder to balance and hold herself up, “Nah kid, I can do this all day.” And like that, she rushed toward Shi. Instinctively rushing and holding out her burnt left fist aiming directly at Princess’ pretty face.

Shi stood there with her usual aura of self satisfaction, Ultra may have been annoyed, but she didn’t think much of it. As the attack lined up directly with her jaw, Shi casually opened her mouth and inhaled as much air as she could. Fire spewed forth.. Her already sensitive hand immediately buckled from the heat and Ultra immediately grabbed and soothed her hand. Shi amused, remarked, “What’s wrong? Can’t handle CQC?”

“Why you little shit!” Ultra unleashed a downward thrust only to miss and unbalance herself.

“You lose your main hand and what? That’s all you got?” Shi circled around, clinging toward her blindside.

“How did you kno… nevermind!” Ultra flung her left arm toward Shi, no contact.

Just as she reentered Ultra’s blindspot, Shi thrusted herself forward and landed on Ultra’s neck. Before Ultra could shake her off, Shi’s broken shrapnel punctured deep between her right shoulder and neck. Then, just as quickly, Shi pulled out and landed directly in front of the agitated hero.

Ultra was having none of this, one good uppercut was all she needed to end this. Using her right this time, she pulled back and...nothing. Her arm was still, in fact, she couldn’t even feel it. Staring with utter shock at her limp limb, she looked back up to find Shi already walking away. “I’m not done with you!”

“I am.”

Using her other already damaged left to hold up her right, “Get back here! What’s wrong with my arm…”
The deadweight proved too much and the entire arm sagged and dragged her body to the right. Trying to use the last of her super speed to at least headbutt the Princess, she instead face planted onto the ground. With nothing to pick her back up, all she could do was drool and slowly accept it was over.

Mars and Renata

A horrible screech filled Mars’ ears, as he was forced to drop Bladeblossom from his grip and turn towards the attacker who had produced the sound. It was Drake, of course, the only hero on the Jets capable of mounting such an attack. Rocket raised his right arm, preparing a stun grenade to fire at the Drake. However just as he fired his arm was suddenly jerked to the right, sending the grenade off course as it blew up away from anyone.

Bladeblossom had reappeared and redirected his attack. The prospect of fighting these two by himself was very grim for Mars, so he’d need to find help if he wanted to stay in the fight. He looked down, searching for Renata beneath him.

“Stella I need your help!” He shouted down to her. “I have an idea, if we fight back to back, Bladeblossom won’t be able to get behind us.” He said as he moved down to the ground.

“WHAT???!” was all which came in response - a powerful scream, after which Drake turned his head to see a furious pinkhead fly across the air straight at him from behind. Renata’s hand latched onto the wyvern’s arm, and even though the hero immediately started to wave it in order to shake her away, she grit her teeth, held on with both of her hands and began pulling herself upward

“I’m… not… finished with you… yet!” she yelled as she raised her hand - risking her already frail grip over the tail in the process, but her muscles did not give in just yet. A bright flash of light glimmered at the rip of her finger before Renata descended it down as a blindingly bright laser, cleaving through the tail, separating it from the rest of the body, and leaving the heroine falling across the sky.

“What did you say?!” she exclaimed as she landed with the tail stump not far from Rocket - her voice barely audible in the midst of Drake’s agonized scream rolling across the entire battlefield. God I hope he can regenerate...

Drake was taken off the field to receive medical as the crowd roared with a mix of concern and applause for the take down by Stella. As Mars made his way to her side, Bladeblossom struck again, this time aiming a shuriken at her foe’s leg.

“Four against five!” Renata yelled happily and immediately turned her focus towards the new assailant. Her body reacted on instinct, stepping out of the way of the incoming shuriken and moving behind Rocket as her shield. Several other shurikens flew her way, but none of them reached her, instead embedding themselves in her teammate’s armor.

“What were you saying?” she exclaimed, preparing a blast of plasma between her palms.

Mars frowned as the shurikens imbedded themselves in his shiny new robot, but he was glad that Renata wasn’t hit. “I said we should fight back to back! Bladeblossom can’t ambush us that way!” Just as he finished speaking the ninja hero reappeared in front of him, ducking with incredible speed as Rocket threw a hard punch and countering by slicing hard through the armor on his leg.

Rocket then slammed down hard in response but Bladeblossom was gone once again, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

“Stella look out, find where she resurfaces!”

“Right!-”

As Mars ordered, Renata stood back to back with him, scanning her side of the field in search of even the faintest sign of movement. Light was building up between her fingers and ready to strike at first notice. The heroine’s eyes, shifting from side to side, briefly focused towards the spectacle in the distance.

Bael is really putting the heat on-

The second of distraction is exactly what Bladeblossom needed, suddenly appearing in front of Renata and striking forth with her blade. The pink-haired heroine’s body acted on instinct - it shifted to the side, only getting scraped by the blade’s edge instead of sliced, and promptly retaliated by blasting at the silhouette with all she had. A powerful burst of plasma rolled above the ground, but all it hit was thin air.

“Carajo...” Renata cursed under her breath, clenching her fists. “Don’t you have tracking or infrared on that suit? Or anything which could tell you where she is?”

“Uh no, no tracking.” Mars called out as he concentrated on the sudden disappearance and reappearance of their ninja foe. Bladeblossom was focusing on small strikes with her sword, clearly waiting for an opening in the pair’s defenses.

“Stella, I think I’m starting to see the pattern here. When Bladeblossom disappears from in front of me again, I need you to duck down as quick as you can, okay?”

“Can you not announce our plans so loud that she can hear them?”

Despite that, however, Renata followed through with Mars’s advice, tracking her ally with the corner of her eye until Bladeblossom appeared in front of him and, after a sword slash, vanished again, at which point she immediately ducked down. The plan then might appear rather simple. If Bladeblossom appears in front of them, she would face both Mars and Renata being able to retaliate at her, and even if she struck one, the other would be willing to blast her away. A veteran like her knew how such a situation would play out - and so, she suddenly shifted her strategy.

Bladeblossom appeared in front of Renata - but instead of standing, she was kneeling at the same level as the fellow heroine. Before Renata could react, a pierce kick struck her straight in the shoulder. A loud crack and pop followed, and the force of the blow pushed her backwards, ramming into Rocket’s legs.

“You, uh...” the older heroine immediately spoke in shock, standing back up and backing away a step. Renata was clutching onto her shoulder - it was definitely dislocated, and something there was broken. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to strike that hard… You should go get that checked out, I’ll let you-”

“HAAAA!” the girl screamed at the top of her lungs, fighting through the agonizing pain and suddenly blasting the startled Bladeblossom with all of the plasma gathered in her palm. A powerful burst rolled across the battlefield, and while Renata wasn’t sure if this took her out, she was at least certain that it landed. “ROCKET! FINISH HER OFF!”

Bladeblossom had in fact been hit by the plasma attack and it had sent her flying through the air. Rocket didn’t miss a step and proceeded to grab her by the legs as he had before. Mars directed as much energy to his boosters as possible. Swinging the warrior around, this time there was no Drake to interrupt the attack and Rocket tossed her away hard. She flew towards the out of bounds barrier and despite slowing down upon reaching it she broke through and landed on the nearby ground. The crowd cheered as another elimination happened and Mars felt the thrill of victory running through him.

“Great job Stella!”

Renata took a weaker, pained breath. Her entire left side was in serious pain and she couldn’t completely ignore it no matter how much she tried to focus on the fight. There was a lot of muttering and concern happening on the backstage, too, more than a few of the referees were asking for a halt so the Young Blood can leave the arena for medical attention, much like Drake had earlier. She had no desire to leave, however, and, were a halt called, would have likely continued to fight in spite of it.

The pink-haired girl offered Mars a thumbs up and a smile, in the midst of clutching her broken shoulder with her right hand.

“Come on, let’s go, we’ve still got three people to take out.”

Mars turned to see Bael and the Mountain locked into a head to head fight before turning to Stella. “We should go help Bael! If we can take the Mountain out we’ll have the advantage for sure!”

Without waiting for her response, Rocket shot forward, his left arm transforming into a large shield as he pressed forward at high speeds. He soon closed the gap between him and the two clashing juggernauts. He raised his shield in the air and slammed it down on the Mountain.

“Bael take your shot!”

Bael jumped back just as Rocket smashed into Mountain. His friend bought him a moment to catch his breath and figure out how to was going to actually knock out the large hero. Hitting him was too risky, and from a quick glance, his team actually had the numbers advantage and Mountain was their heaviest hitter. As much as he trusted his team, he wasn’t entirely sure that they had the firepower required to bring him down for good.

Their fighting had placed them precariously close to the edge of the arena, with the forcefield being plainly visible. He shot forward, running by Mountain, grabbing the giant’s ankle and dragged him behind as he made it to the edge and flung the massive superhuman at the forcefield.

As Mountain flew out, he grabbed ahold of one of Bael’s horns, jerking his head forward and off balance enough that the both of them tumbled out of the arena. Despite realizing he was out of the fight, Bael smiled and flopped on his back, finally able to relax. “I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but I think we’ve got the win.” He said touching the now sore area on his head and neck where Mountain grabbed his horn.

“Never count your opponents out until they’re all beaten.” He replied. “I just realized that I might have hurt your neck. Are you okay?”

“It’s fine.” Bael replied, standing back up. “You’d be surprised how many times I’ve had that happens.”

“Fair enough. After today, I see why you and your team gave those invading warmongers so much trouble. I won’t lie, I had very low expectations. What you all were doing sounded so wrong and I couldn’t help but think that this was going to be another instance of kids with more ego than sense getting themselves killed. Egos might still be there, but you’ve got more sense. Come on. Let’s go to the infirmary before we pass out.”

Rocket
With the Mountain and Bael forced out of the ring, Rocket turned his attention to Futuresight who seemed to be the only member of the Jets still standing that Rocket could see. So, he charged toward the genius leader of the New Jersey team at full speed, she didn’t seem to notice him and he hoped he could end the fight right there . However just as he reached her she jumped in the air, and without even looked at him slammed her foot into the back of Rocket. Her shoes were clearly steel tipped and managed to actually knock Rocket down.

Mars struggled from within Rocket, annoyed at himself for not expecting the trap. Rocket barrel-rolled and forced Futuresight off and back onto the ground. As Rocket forced himself to his feet she launched another attack, this time going for Rocket’s head. She grabbed onto him from behind, blocking Mars’ ability to see. Now he was really starting to panic. He clearly outmatched his opponent in terms of strength but she was outwitting him so far.

He could feel Futuresight clawing at the armor below Rocket’s head, searching for a way to disable Rocket. He flailed somewhat wildly as he tried to knock the heroine off, and could hear the laughter of the crowd as he did so. He knew he needed a way to regain control of the battle, and suddenly an idea popped into his head. The flares that he had installed on his back, those could be very useful here.

He pressed a lever within the suit and two flares shot forward out of Rocket’s back. Futuresight was caught off guard at the sudden release of blinding light. She fell backwards from Rocket, freeing Mars’ vision as he turned around to see Futuresight trying to reorient herself. He sent out an energy blast to try to immobilize her, but the heroine rolled out of the way just in time. Rocket advanced on futuresight, but Mars realized the machine was far too tall and clunky to deal with Futuresight like this. So after pausing for a moment, the boy genius pulled a lever and Rocket’s chest opened to reveal Mars’ command center. After lowering Rocket and exiting, Mars charged toward Futuresight, in his combat suit. He was nervous but ready to fight.

Futuresight actually seemed surprised by this move, but looked plenty confident as she charged toward Mars. As the hero attempted to throw a punch, she swept at his leg, knocking him to the ground.

“You’re out of your element here kid, should have stayed in your robot.” She told him, preparing a punch to end the fight.

“You should have familiarized yourself with my gadgets.”

Mars raised his right hand and shot a taser like blast at Futuresight, who was at too close a range to dodge. She seized up from the shock and fell to the ground. Mars pushed himself to his feet as the crowd roared around him.

“And with that ladies and gentlemen, the Young Bloods WINNNN!!!”

[Bentus]

Lisette Aveline - The Nefarious Marionette!
August 5th
Freedom’s Nest, New York

---

Daniel’s fingers never had the chance to reach Lisette’s hair. Seeing the pretentious movement and reacting immediately and instinctively at the affront, the girl’s hand shot out and gripped firmly onto the heir’s. Her dismissive, irritated expression towards Daniel had been replaced by a cold stare as her eyes burned in anger. Stunned that he would have dared to try and touch her like that, she felt a bubbling fury rising in her chest. Who did he think he was? He was just some sleazy, self-important parasite. He might have been able to trot around freely with people who didn’t really matter, but Lisette wouldn’t allow herself to be treated like one of those insufferable silhouettes that simply rolled meaninglessly through their lives.

“Touch me, and I will start by breaking every bone in your fingers.” The threat was delivered cold and level, with the carefree tone of Lisette’s voice having vanished. As if to prove her point, her grip tightened painfully on Daniel’s fingers. In fact, it tightened with far more force than someone would have expected to come from her narrow frame. But then, she blinked as if she suddenly remembered where she was.

Glancing around quickly to make sure nobody had seen the exchange, Lisette quickly released Daniel’s hand as she turned back towards her orange juice. Scolding herself for having lashed out without thinking, she furrowed her brow as she tried to figure out someway to deflect any suspicions.

[Absolon-7]

Steven Baker.

Casimir and Viviana September 15th
Casimir's face lowered to a grumpy scowl as Viviana teasingly apologized on his behalf but blinked in confusion once she guessed Baker was his teacher. Well guess it wasn't too far fetched since Baker was the only teacher he had described as having glasses and slightly purple hair. That glimmer of sunlight that reflected off his glasses once Baker answered Viv's question was more then suspicious in how conveniently timed it was but he ultimately ignored it. Casimir checked on his fly again as it obediently flied along keeping an antennae out for his phone ringing. He made the bug take a deep dive downwards but his attention was brought back to Baker quickly.

"Well, we are dating but we're pretty friendly too," confidently corrected Casimir a bit red in the face, "Oh Viv, this is Mr. Baker. Mr. Baker this is Vivi-"

"Summer was amaaazing Mister," said Viviana tilting her head slightly, "I'm actually from a town up north near Oregon called New Lublin where both of us were born in but I came here to see Casi since he spent senior year in San Diego. I took a road trip all the way from our hometown all the way here in San Diego. I met so many people on they way and had so much fun! The rest of summer over in San Diego was pretty cool too. The city's pretty gorgeous when there's not a villain of the week running through."

Casimir stood still staring at an nondescript spot off in the distance. He could say in confidence that summer was complicated for him and same for joining the Team. It was pretty much nonstop chaos with either fighting off nasty ass villains like Drakon, the Scarab, and the Cabal or dethroning a rogue paramilitary force that kidnapped a dear friend of his. There was also finding out his best friend was a new vigilante that was also dating a teammate of his that so happened to almost get killed by his mutant adopted apprentice. There was also his humiliating defeat by that cowardly Scott that had no right to defeat him as well as that weird afternoon he spent in that alternate universe or something. Well it wasn't all bad since there were a few gems he appreciated. He did like some people on his team a lot like enough to call a few friends and being on this hero team had given opportunities he had never imagines. Plus he was much stronger now then he was back when he got his powers in both body and a few extra new skills. Then there was Jan...

"Summer was pain in the ass really," muttered Casimir. It almost hurt not to take credit for what he was about to say, "And yeah, during the middle of the party there was somehow some escaped convicts prancing about after an escape. Heard either that former Justice Queen Naja took care of them or some powered students. Word's never really clear."

[North America Inc]

Preliminary Practice

“Killing isn’t allowed in the tournament. And neither is sleeping.”

“Huh?” Cosmic asked, his vision blurring, going sideways for a moment, and followed immediately by a bright light. “Huh?” He asked again, sitting up in his room, rubbing his eyes and tracing his fingers through his hair, “Another fighting dream.” He reasoned, swinging his legs over the bed and standing up, stretching his body out and cracking his back in several places. “Another unrealistic one-sided fight that always goes right and never goes wrong. At least my hands weren’t pillows this time.” His training session with Wyatt was still fresh in his memory. The young teen hero grabbed some clothes and his workout bag, he had to meet Shi and the rest of the team at a nearby training center. Mark Nemo was used to working with a unit and following orders before the Young Bloods, and knew Shi would be the driving force in instructing the squad.

He left a bit early and opted to walk the way there, to enjoy the sights a bit, take in the fresh morning and just take his time. He needed to clear his head, feel at peace, before it was filled with aggression and combat. It was like meditation, really. The trance broke suddenly as he arrived at the main entrance of the training grounds. “Morning!” He shouted, finding his friend Ava dotting away at her phone, leaning on a bench. “You the first one here?” He asked, smirking quickly, “Didn’t want to face Shi alone?”

“No,” She replied quickly, “Jason went on ahead of me. I was waiting for you like friends do, numb skull.” She stood upright and walked to Mark, the pair exchanging a quick hand-slide and fist bump. “Good morning to you, too.”

“Not friendly enough with Jason or Wendy?” Cosmic asked as well.

“I said what’s up, and told him I was waiting for you to show up. He literally just walked in, let’s go.” Mark walked ahead, Ava following behind him and closing out her alarms and silencing her phone to eliminate all distractions. She wanted to focus on building a strong, comprehensive team, and knew Shi was the one to do it. Darklight had pondered long into the night about what kind of tactics she could implement, and what kind of contributions she could give to the team, wondering who she could pair up with best. Though she and Cosmic had synergy and a deep friendship, he was a good one-man-army and would have better use as a sledgehammer. Sludge, on the other hand, could be paired well with her own powers of hard light construction, which could make them a harassment deathtrap for most heroes.

Ten minutes later...

A few minutes after her introduction, Shi left the team at the arena. Going up to the observation deck, the team had a few minutes to prepare while the simulation was being finalized. While nothing as grand as something you would see in an actual NASL stadium, it did have its own unique qualities. Entering the room, Shi was greeted by others inside. She said nothing as they tinkered on their laptop monitoring everything from the androids, the stadium, to the participants themselves. As they tinkered away, Shi spoke into her earpiece and through the intercom, “Before we can train, I need to know what I’m working with. While we finish up here, you four probably should come up with a strategy.” two beeps went off to signal the end of the message.

“Okay.” Wendy told the others. “We’ll split into teams of two. Mark, stay with Ava. Jason, stay near me. We’re outnumbered two to one here, so we’ll have to isolate and take them down one at a time. Remember, don’t let yourselves get bogged down and don’t focus on one for two long or you’ll get dogpiled.”

Down on the ground, the teams stood on opposite sides of themselves in a circular stadium. The floor itself was definitely odd though, with some type of white metallic material. As they talked amongst themselves, the rumbles from below caused the ground to shake as the ground morphed up and down to resemble uneven terrain. The walls around them sprouted outwards to reveal holographic projectors from all directions. The lights gave the floor texture as everything began to fall into place. The mineral seemed almost liquid as it formed into a design of buildings, artificial light shined from on top of the wall. It was a street intersection. The design was unmistakably New York, with even a dull blue hue camera filter. The intersection was almost lifelike: the building felt like brick, glass like glass, and the ground like asphalt. Yet it was the little things that made everything so uncanny. The temperature felt off, too much pressure on the metal caused it to revert, the ambient noise repeating itself.

“Jesus.” Jason muttered as the ground changed by itself. “This crap’s like something out of a sci-fi movie. I can’t imagine what the guys who made this could do if they wanted to be evil or something.”

All the while, the Androids stood still. The Ten hadn’t moved since their head tilt toward Jason several minutes prior.

A Data Analyst stood over his subordinates as they worked on their final parameters and fail safes; leaning over them, he mumbled a few things into their ear before nodding. Signalling to Shi, “We’re ready.”

The intercom came back online, “Dragon Teeth online.”

One unit in front came online first, shouting, “Wǒmen zhǔnbèi zuò mǒushì!...” The other units headlights soon followed suit, all following the same motions as their leader. The leader went on “...tóng zhì men hǎo!”

“Shǒu zhǎng hǎo!” They responded in unison.

“Tóng zhì men xīn kǔ le.”

“Wèi rén mín fú wù!”

Letting the androids finish their little routine, Shi asked, “Wendy are you ready?”

Wendy looked around at the others. “Ready when you are Shi.”

The match started and our plucky heroes rushed forward! The robots followed suit. The heroes retreated. The robots did not.

Watching from the safety of the auditorium, Shi couldn't help but shake her head. It was so much worse than what she expected. As she rubbed her temples she simply muttered, “Why am I on this Squad?”
------
A good while later…

“THIS IS THE NATIONAL AMERICAN SUPER LEAGUE. PROUDLY FOUNDED MCMLXXXVI.”

While the previous Young Bloods were relatively prime time, the crowded roster meant some fights got the short end of the time slots. First fight chosen to be broadcasted in basic cable hell was the Baltimore Braves versus Young Bloods (#5). While the major network clamoured and fought tooth and nail for specific contracts and fights, this fight wasn’t exactly going to rake in the views. In actuality, this fight was more akin to a rating suicide bomb than anything resembling good television: WiFi’s paternal revelation, the Princesses’ international demographic, Cosmic’s recent introduction, Rapid Jackal’s lingering doping accusations, and Light Shelby’s recently resurfaced past comments had all been discussed and ridiculed.

As Chris Clement described it, “It’s the type of event where you watch for the background drama than the actual fights.”

Despite that, the pre-game discussion had been relatively professional; the fight only minutes from starting. The logo of the NASL flashed forward and the image shifted to four retired, but revered professional heroes. The most well known and the most physically imposing was Steel, who’s expansive history stretched from Miami to Los Angeles to Boston. Despite his goofball persona, his four NASL championship rings was nothing to scoff at. Along with him was the domineering Street Beef, the lovable Jet, and a guy named Ernie. As the music faded, Steel took the lead, “We are only minutes away from San Diego v Baltimore, with the contestants only know just now walking out.”

It shifted over to Jet, “Yes if you are just joining with us now, the arena of this preliminary fight will be an Urban area modelled after a city block in downtown Chicago. Urban areas as a fighting area have seen a recent uptick in the last five years, with even two other preliminary fights being urban. The others being modelled after Rome and a fictional rural town.” Pausing for a second to allow for a natural change in conversation, “Now let’s cut to our woman on the ground, Sarah.”

“Yes thank you Jet…” Sarah said as she stood above the arena and against the forcefield, “The fighters are only just now being ushered into the stadium. We have caught glimpses of Sludge and Falcon through the rubble however, the actual fight will begin when the referries have finished their pre fight safety check of the arena.” Leaning against her ear, “Excuse that. It appears the referries have indeed just finished.”

As the hustle of the preliminary fight was going on all around, Squad 5 stood in their little corner surrounded by decrepit buildings and destroyed cars. Shi leaned against the wall, in costume, with a rather blank expression. The past couple of days had pushed the team to their limits physically, the constant fights with the androids had revealed more than a few inadequacies.

“Two minutes…” a referee radioed into each of their ear pieces.

No one said a word between each other, she couldn’t tell whether it was just stress or something entirely different. But at this point, it really didn’t matter. Standing back up, Shi strolled toward the center of the group and asked a very simple question, “We all know who we are targeting, we all know what we need to do. But...how’s everyone feeling?”

“Nervous.” Ava declared with a swallow, tightening her fists and loosening them as she shook off the jitters that plagued her body.

“I can see that, I was going to say…” Just before she can finish her sentence the bell went off. They were now being watched by millions of people around the world; the sound of the cheering crowd was almost palpable, despite the sound proof barrier. In the distance, each member could hear the Braves moving closer and closer. Shi walked into the street and simply said, “Let’s do this.” Before blasting off. The game has started.

Hammer Heavy

The match was starting. Shi gave him the suggestion of going after Hammer Heavy. Or just Hammer. The incredibly durable and super strong member of the Braves. Probably their heaviest hitter. Shi even told him that his job wasn't to beat her, he agreed that he simply wouldn't be able to do enough damage to even hurt her to begin with; rather, it was to stall her since he was quite mobile and probably faster than her to make up for what he lacked in sheer brute strength. Not wanting to stir the pot, and while he was unsure if Shi just wanted to watch him get the crap kicked out of him, he agreed.

As soon as the buzzer sounded, Jason shot a slimy tendril to a nearby house and got himself onto the roof. The rest of the team was going about their plan, he just need to spot Hammer before she spotted him. Taking a quick glance at the other team, he spotted the large, muscular woman who he assumed was his target. She looked about to charge straight into the fray. Just as she jumped, Jason shot a tendril that stuck to her leg. The slimy hero yanked with all of his might and pulled the woman away from the brawl, slamming the woman into the faux asphalt, shattering and cracking it upon her impact. Jason swung on top of a street light, perched on it. "Can't have you bothering them with our supremely detailed and excellent plan that I definitely paid lots of attention to."

Hammer stood back up, brushing the small shards and bits of asphalt off of herself and looked at the teenager perched above her, saying something about a plan. "Feh. I almost felt that."

"True. But see, you're all indestructible and crap, right? Means I don't gotta worry about accidentally doing something that'll hurt you. Plus, I know most of what you can do. In fact, you've got a pretty vanilla power set." Jason taunted.

Hammer responded by dashing over to the streetlight Jason was perched on and simply ripped the metal fixture out of the ground. She shook it violently to get the teenager off of it. Jason released his hold and was launched into the air. Hammer holding the streetlight as one would a baseball bat, intending to smack him like said ball.

Which she did, but widened her eyes when she didn't feel the telltale "thunk" of the metal making contact. Jason had fallen a good thirty feet and landed on his own without so much as a scratch. "Strike one!" He taunted again. Shooting a blob of inky black gunk that stuck to her face restricting her ability to both see and breathe. She reflexively dropped the streetlight and grabbed at her face to tear the gunk off. It only took a few seconds before the sticky gunk was ripped off and her eyesight and breathing was restored, but that second was all her opponent needed to stick another tendril on her leg and yanked her off her feet yet again.

This time, Jason spun her around and released at the apex of his spin, launching the woman through the walls of the "house" and following her inside. The house wasn't even furnished just some slapdash walls and just enough support to not have them fall over if they got hit once. "Okay so..." Jason spoke in a rather amused tone as he jumped into the hole Hammer made with her body and climbed to the ceiling. "So... I'm under the impression that what I just did probably ruffled your hair a bit."

"You're right." She replied from the "living room" area of the house. Covered in cheap plaster dust and wood splinters, she was otherwise unharmed. "You're a talkative one aren't you?"

"It's one of my charming qualities! That and cookie baking but shhhhh about that."

"I, and my team..." She spoke. "We're underestimating you. I can at least see that you're competent, and I respect your strategy, But you're not going to beat me."

"Bold words from someone with the speed of a narcoleptic rock."

She smiled. "I've been called worse."

"I'd call you worse, but standards won't let me."

Without warning, Hammer jumped. Her speed being like a human bullet. Jason managed to block, but the limited space made it difficult to dodge. The power of Hammers jumped launching bother of them outside and bouncing off the street. Both were on their feet quickly, but Hammer was on hers first, jumping and smashing her fist where Jason used to be. Jason retaliated by shooting yet another tendril, but to his surprise, Hammer caught it and yanked on it, pulling Jason with it. He tried to detach the tendril, but it was too late, Hammer locked him into a superhuman bear hug, bent backwards and suplexed the slimy hero.

Jason felt the impact of the asphalt cracking beneath the weight and force of his head. The squirming had ceased and she let Jason go, stomping her foot on his back to make sure he couldn't get back up. "You're not terrible. But you've got a lot to work on."

"Pro-Probably." He replied, straining his voice.

Liquid Shelby

Liquid rushed toward the center of the map, desperate for any signs of water around or near him. The wreckage of different vehicles and buildings spread across the arena already restricted his visibility; it was kind of hard to find water when you can only look at one street at a time. Knowing the inner mechanisms of the game wasn’t an issue, they always seeded the map with advantages and disadvantages for each hero. You just had to think critically. Water would be contained exactly where you would expect, and in this case… Luke shifted corner as he found it: a beautiful, bright red hydrant. “Well, well...you thought you can hide from me!” Turning into his blob liquid form he rushed towards it as fast as he could. Why did he have to worry? It was the beginning of the match and what were the chances that anyone was going to target him.

A blast from the air flung him into the air, as he twirled he saw his unexpected combatant. The Red Princess was circling around for a second go of it, he knew he had to act fast. Luckily her legendary precision was hampered while flying; the concrete was etched black, not him. As he landed into a patch of grass, he reformed back into a human. Fixing his neck, he ran his hands through his dirty blonde hair. Eyeing the smoke stream through the air, he manifested water into his hands and took aim. “Moving at least forty miles per hour, moving south...no southwest… thirty feet in the air.”

One second passed, nothing happened. Three seconds, Shi began shifting back. Six seconds, they were now forty feet apart. Sticking his right arm out, six icicles shot into the air. Just as Shi prepared to fire her own volley, she banked hard right as she eyed the nearly invisible streaks in the air. Three hit, striking her right in the chest but nothing too seriously. Landing right on top of a two story building, Shi eyed the hydrant towards her center. She wasn’t going to give him any of that. Or maybe…

Walking closer to her, stalling for time, he shrugged and said, “You know I was suppose to get the Hacker girl right?”

Shi smirked and remarked, “What do they say? Man plans and God Laughs?”

Pointing towards her and laughing at the remark, “Are you equating yourself to God? Not the most humble gal here are you?”

Toying with him, she walked back and forth on the roof. Circling around, she turned her back a few times testing him, “Well I’m too modest to boast.”

As she looked away for the third time, he made his move. Shooting a stream of his reserve water toward her to knock her off and buy him time. Quickly she responded, a stream of fire shot towards him. Fire and ice clashed, leaving only a thick white mist between them. Cursing under his breath, he should've already rushed. That top needed to come off for an impromptu geyser. He needed to play it cool, “Looks like we're at an impasse…” the battle of others roared in the background, “We both cancel each other out.”

The slow humm of static began to reach a fever pitch, hidden by the mist. He strained his eyes and stared to see a glowing blue figure began to emanate from behind the fog. “I disagree…” the bolt of lightning shot out blew out the assphalt under his feet. Turning into a blob to soften the blow, he still bounced considerable far from his target.

Regaining his bearings, “Hammer was suppose to deal with this shit…” Turning back into a human, he needed to think fast. You can’t outrun light, but he can outrun her aiming. Shouting through the increasing carnage, “Let’s at least put a spectacle together. These people paid good money to see us fight!”

Although he couldn’t hear it, Shi just said, “Hmm.”

Continuing his last point, “I mean. You got like one and a half things on me. Why don’t we make it interesting! Give me that faucet and let’s at least make a fight they’ll enjoy.” For the past five minutes, Luke had been solely focused on getting that hydrant.. In the fog of split second decision making, he never actually thought about what he would do after he got it open.

Shi jumped down and nonchalantly looked back and forth at the hydrant and Liquid. By now, he was up, his head held somewhat high. “So if I open this, you promise to make this fight not so…” She yawned, “Boring.”

“You ever hear that you are kind of a bitch. Jeez that cuts deep. Me, boring?” Luke halfway joked, “If you open it for me. I'll even give you a good shot at me. I promise, no BS.”

“A little overconfident?” She reasoned.

“Nah, I know my strength. You don't ...”

Twirling her hair, “You know what sure. I still have thirty seconds left before I got to go.” In one quick motion, she swerved towards her four o’clock and blew the lid of the hydrant wide open; the water guished upward at remarkable speed.

Without a single care in the air, Liquid ran and smerged himself into it. In a manner of seconds, the man disappeared and its place something began to form. Arms and legs began to extend from the stream and soon a humanoid shape towered a good thirty feet over her. The head and its constantly shifting features, it looked down at the small figure on the ground. “You idiot. Thanks for the W.”

Crouching down at the puddle touching her feet, she saw a stream leaked from the torn hydrant, which by extension, connected to the behemoth. Sticking her hand into it, the voltage quickly escalated. Reaching back to its point of origin, the intense geyser than disseminated the current toward poor Luke. In a matter of seconds, Luke began to violently shake and spasm, unable to even scream. The humanoid broke apart and Liquid’s human form fell on the roof of an SUV; unconscious, he was sitting the rest of the fight out. Holding her finger to earpiece, “First elimination of the fight. I’m moving out.”


Rabid Jackal

As the others ran off to fight their assigned targets, Wendy ducked behind a nearby building and looked up at the ceiling and camera’s watching over them. Sure hijacking the camera system that were being used to broadcast the fight might not be sporting, it wasn’t actually against the rules. It didn’t take her long to find the Braves, four of the group moving together as Rabid Jackal, her target, swung out to the edge of the arena, looking to flank her squad. It was hard keeping track of her thanks to the brown camo pattern bodysuit and armor she wore, but by following the arena maps layout it didn’t take long for Wendy to find a good ambush spot to fight her.

As she and her robotic partner moved to intercept the techno-organic speedster, Wendy wondered why the Braves had kept the one person on their team she had an advantage over rather than substituting her with Simon Dagger, but never correct an enemy when they’re in the middle of making a mistake and all that. Checking the cameras again to make sure Jackal was still on course for her ambush, Wendy ducked into a nearby house while her wolf backed down the driveway.

Of course Spot was never going to fool anybody into thinking he was a car. As soon as the robot lept from its hiding spot to attack Rabid Jackal, the speedster slammed on the brakes, watching as the robotic wolf raced past her and smashed into a house on the other side of the street before attempting to speed back up.

That was when Wendy went into motion. Locking up the speedsters legs, she rushed out of her hiding spot delivered a flying kick at her head. Jackal was to focused on her legs to see the kick coming, falling to her knees as it connected with her head.

“Two on one and hacking, good to see you haven’t completely forgotten your roots.” Dodging Wendy’s next attack, Jackal fired back with a pair of quick punches and kicks that sent the teenager sprawling to the ground as wolf jumped back into the fight and tackled her.

“Isn’t one the motto’s you military types love so much ‘cheat often win often?’”

Jackal simply smirked, using her enhanced legs to kick the robot off her. Before Wendy could hack her systems again, she rushed the teenager and used her momentum to hit her with a shoulder tackle that sent Wendy bouncing off the simulated brick wall behind her. Stars flashed in Wendy’s head as she crumpled to the ground.

“Honestly,” Jackal said, giving Wendy a chance to recover. “That was a pretty good plan you had. Maybe not as refined as something Mike or I would have pulled off in Afghanistan, but not bad for a kid- really.” She sighed as she sidestepped Wendy’s punch, grabbing her arm for a textbook judo throw. “Trying to catch me while I was talking.”

“Couldn’t hurt to try.” Wendy replied, rolling away from the follow up punch. At the same moment, Spot plowed into the building next to them, creating a cloud of dust and debris Wendy used to break contact with the speedster and duck into the nearby houses.

“Of course you’re going to make me chase you.” Jackal sighed, racing around the house. “Seriously, this little hit and run routine of yours just stopped being funny. Stop running so we can get this over with.” When no reply came, she started inside.

She’d just made it into the living room when Wendy popped out from behind a doorway, delivering a kick to her knee followed up by a forearm that caught her on the nose. Wiping the blood off her face, Jackal went on the counterattack, catching Wendy’s next punch and delivering a pair of knee strikes to the girls stomach before throwing her through the coffee table in the middle of the room. “Okay.” Jackal groaned, picking Wendy up and putting her in a sleeper hold. “Let’s end this.”

Wendy gasped for breath, her hands desperately trying to pull Jackals arms away from her. Her mind raced as she looked for a way out of the hold before finally settling on the hero herself. In one last move of desperation she hacked the heroes techno organic body again, using her enhanced legs to slammed both of them into the ceiling before falling back to the floor.

Shakily getting up after her last move, Wendy wiped the dust away from her face before checking on her opponent. Jackal proved to be unconscious but alive, having taken the brunt of the impact with the ceiling. “Wendy to all team members, Jackals down.” Stumbling over to the nearest wall as a wave of nausea rolled over her. “And so am I. I’ll jam up their comms now that I have one of their earpieces. Good luck out there.”

Queen Heart

Queen Heart, a heroine Mark committed to memory as his target in the upcoming battle, and one he had actually studied and read up on. Through their training session did little for him physically, he gained immense experience in coordination, planning, and teamwork. He saw Shi as the true leader of Squad 5, and deferred to her judgement and assessment on most matters. Despite his demeanor, Cosmic was very adaptive to criticism and willing to better himself when others give notice.

Still, some doubt lingered in his mind, as he worried relentlessly about what type of battle the Braves wished to have. They were experienced in this type of setting, they were veterans and ex-military, and they’re up against some teenagers. “Well,” Mark reasoned in his mind as he began to weave in and out of buildings, half running and half flying past them, “More than likely they think we’re a bunch of kids, and that they’ll teach us a lesson, so hitting them hard will give them a wake up call.” The sounds of distant battles rang clear in his ears, and the noise drew his attention as his squadmates were fighting their own opponents hand-picked by Shi.

“My, my, you look absolutely lost!” A motherly voice called out, Cosmic skidding to a stop and whipping his head hard behind him, his eyes immediately trained on the well-endowed heroine floating on a heart-shaped cloud, lazily bouncing a heart-shaped energy sphere in one hand. She flashed the young teen hero a devilish smirk, “Were you looking for me, or for some other heroes to fight against?” Queen Heart gave a laugh and covered her mouth, but the Corpsman noticed that her sharp eyes never left his own body. He felt a warm aura from her, but he knew this was part of her charm. “Cosmic, I presume? No one knows a lot about you, let’s get to know each other, shall we?”

Tightening his jaw, Cosmic lowered his head and spread his feet slightly apart, letting his Ultra Force creep all over his body as he powered up slightly, starting small to conserve his energy and test the waters with Queen Hearts’ abilities. “Remember,” Shi’s voice rang in his head, “Start small and build up. You don’t need to go full force each and every battle, especially in a team-based environment. We may need you to be ready to go in the later stages of the match. Don’t burn out.” Recalling the advice, Cosmic launched forward at Queen Heart, the heroine floating back slightly, the smirk never leaving her face as she blew her heart-shaped energy at Mark as if she were blowing him a kiss.

Intending to avoid it, Cosmic twisted his body, but it didn’t need to make contact as it exploded in a warm, forceful blast that knocked him back slightly. Queen Heart gave a laugh and pointed her finger at the hero, a steady stream of hearts dotting their way towards’ Mark, who side-stepped the attack and fly up at the heroine once more. The smaller hearts all exploded without warning, but Cosmic flew past the explosion and into Queen Heart’s personal space. “Wouldn’t hit a lady, would y-” She was immediately cut off by a clean right hook to the jaw, knocking her off of her floating heart cloud. Her eyes scattered for a moment as she fell, but she caught herself mid-air and righted her body, flashing Cosmic an angry gaze. “Ruthless boy.” She spat, raising her hand and twisting her fingers into a snap, “I’ll be teaching you some manners.”

At the snap of her fingers, her cloud erupted into a plethora of tiny hearts, each one pulsating with magical energy, Cosmic gasping at the sight, and reacting too late to be caught in the resulting explosion. His body was rocketed away by the blast wave into one of the vacant generated buildings, crashing into its upper levels and nearly putting him unconscious since he wasn’t wearing his full cloak of energy. He sighed, wondering if he should up his energy or stay at this level, and thinking back to Shi’s advice, figured it was the perfect time to raise the stakes a bit. Flooding his body with more energy, Cosmic smiled at the more familiar feeling of just being saturated with power. Clutching his hand into a fist, Cosmic formed a swirling mass of energy around his right palm. He lowered himself into a sprinting stance, and moved quickly to race through the hole his body made in the building, leaping out of it and immediately seeing Queen Heart waiting for him, several large heart-shaped bombs floating around her delicately. She seemed surprised to see him emerge so energetically, and Cosmic used that to his advantage, and twisting his body to slam his charged up fist directly into Queen Heart’s stomach.

Her turn to fly away from an explosion, apparently, as the heroine was quickly removed from the area, leaving just her floating magical hearts. Cosmic flew in the direction Queen Heart had gone immediately, narrowly missing her hearts’ blastwaves and catching up to the heroine as she collided solidly with the wall of a building. “Lucky I have a magical field for this sort of -” She was cut off from speaking, shocked that Cosmic moved fast enough to keep up with her, and punch her yet again in the stomach, cracking the wall behind her for several stories, and visibly cracking her thin protective layer of magical energy as she coughed up horrendously. Another hit from his other fist as his twisted his body around to generate torque sent her crashing through the wall entirely. Had she been a villain, Cosmic would have gathered a large energy blast in his hands, and vaporized the entire upper level of the building. But, he stayed his hand, and simply gathered the energy into his fists to continue the beatdown. Stepping through the hole, Cosmic found himself in a room filled to the brim with hearts large and small, some as huge as a car while others floated helplessly in the air. “Welcome!” Queen Heart said weakly, “It took everything I had, I hope you like it.”

“Oh man…” Cosmic whispered, earning a clap from his opponent as hearts closed his exit off.

“Ah!” She said, “The man speaks, finally, welcome to the wonderful world of conversation, my handsome young hero.” She said with a wink, producing yet another small heart, this one floating towards Cosmic.

“What?” He asked, looking at the heroine confused.

“You haven’t talked this whole match.” She dryly replied, “It was really heartbreaking to not get to know you.” She turned and blushed, swaying her hips, “It’s not often I get to have fun with such a strapping young lad.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I was thinking about some things, I’m usually a lot more talkative. Things have just been weird recently, with me, the team, my friend. Working things out, you know?”

“Any girl problems?” Queen Heart asked, her eyes forming into heart-shapes while the corners of her lips twitched upwards into a genuine smile. “I can always help with them, huh…”

“Nah, nothing girl-related. That would be too much on my plate.”

“Do you think I’d be too much?”

“Not really, you weren’t very tough.”

“What?” Queen Heart asked in a lower tone, her heart eyes disappearing and her smile fading into a frown. “I didn’t quite catch that. Come again?”

“You make magic hearts that explode.” Cosmic explained, “I have fought tougher folks off-world, and honestly, a way tougher magician on my first night back on Earth. You don’t exactly stack up, I’m sorry if that hurts your feelings.”

Queen Heart was taken aback, and silently moved her head back in a gasp, followed by a sharp inhale. “Oh, believe me, Cosmic,” She stated firmly, “My feelings aren’t the only things about to be hurt.” Cosmic sensed his impending demise, and preemptively dumped absurd amounts of energy into his body at the exact moment Queen Heart detonated her cache of hearts, forming a hellish fireball that rocked the stadium to its foundation. The building and several near it were vaporized, a small trail of orange energy being the only reminder Cosmic was once in that vicinity. Halfway limping yet still making good progress, Cosmic hurried back to assist his teammates in defeating the rest of the Braves. His upper torso was completely exposed and smoking still, several burn marks scarring his body; his hair was also nice and singed, showing that the heroines’ final attack still did impressive amounts of damage to the Ultra Corpsman.

A firm thumbs up and a chip-toothed smile confirmed that he was still alright, and upon arriving at the fight Darklight was enthralled with against Captain Condor, he offered his immediate assistance.

Captain Condor

“Condor,” She whispered, spreading herself thin like the rest of the squad, her mind racing in order to outplan and outmaneuver Captain Condor, a legend in both the armed forces and in the League for punching far above his weight class. He’s a guy in a suit with some fancy toys that regularly takes down tough villains, and Ava feels like she just could not hope to stack up.

Still, she pushed aside the self-deprecating thoughts, and focused on the task at hand. Shi gave her a tough job, and even if she manages to keep him occupied for long enough to prevent his planning and cunning to tip the scales in other fights, then Squad Five could pull a win. Rather than look for Condor directly, she opted to make herself a prime target, and flew directly into the air above the buildings. Leaving behind several constructs of moonlight, Darklight peppered her surroundings with glowing spears, orbs, swords, arrows, and discs while pretending to get a better vantage point.

Catching the glimmer of metal in the artificial light, Darklight turned her head quickly, knowing that this was just a momentary distraction by Captain Condor, and sure enough, as she moved her eyes away, the fully armored Condor attacked from below and behind, using a nearly noiseless jump boost to reach Ava’s height and swing his leg in a half-circle. The blow connected, but instead of being surprised and thrown by back the blow, the small framed girl latched onto the team leaders’ leg to keep him off balance. Mistake as well, as Captain Condor seemed to have no qualms in decking the heroine square in the temple with his armored fist.

She held on regardless, and both Condor and Darklight began to fall from the air, Darklight thanking her own foresight in covering herself with a thin layer of moonlight to eat up the kinetic forces that armor could produce. A cut opened up above her eye still, though, as the force was mitigated but not entirely absent. “Let go.” Captain Condor whispered, audible for the two of them, causing Ava to shoot him an angry look. Cocking his fist back to deliver a straight jab once more, a moonlight construct suddenly stuck itself through his arm and held it in place firmly. Giving a gasp, Condor put massive amounts of force into ripping his leg out of Ava’s grip, and managed to slide it out abruptly. With a quick hand, he threw a bird-shaped object at Darklight from his beltline, causing a small explosion of smoke to conceal the two of them and deny Darklight visibility.

Coughing, Darklight bit a retreat as well, losing sight of Captain Condor quickly, but not losing his location, as her moonlit spear could pinpoint his exact whereabouts. Ava moved her other weapons mentally, placing them around the battlefield in concealed locations to be brought out at will, setting another trap for the team leader. Darklight moved quickly, as Condor was on the move and most likely attempting to link up with other members of his team, and her job was to prevent just that. She appeared in front of the heavily armored tank as he rounded a street corner, and he wasted no time in beginning his counter-assault. Launching two cables from his hips, Ava narrowly dodged one as it embedded itself in the wall above her, but was late to notice that his second one did the same exact thing, and his intention was not to hit her with it, but to rapidly put himself at her level once more. Bracing for another impact, skill took over for a moment, and she threw her arm up to defend, blocking the right hook Condor had thrown, and honestly surprising the hero.

Ava was surprised, too, but it didn’t last long as the Captain had a quick follow up with his other hand, straight punching her dead center of the chest and nearly knocking the wind out of her. The moonlight spear didn’t seem to hold him back much, so Ava opted to explode it into shards, and hopefully take that limb out of the fight. Grunting in pain, Condor locked his suit from his forward down to his fingertips into a fist as the energy construct exploded, showering him with glass-like energy and ripping good parts of his muscles and tendons in his forearm to shreds. Each hit would be excruciatingly painful, but the highly decorated war hero could handle such torture in times of peril. “Holy fuck,” Ava whispered as she caught her breath and moved back from Condor, “You’re a damage sponge, and you’re probably not gonna stop anytime soon.”

“Correct,” Condor replied, raising his good hand and firing a cable from it, wincing slightly as he did the same to his other arm, pulling himself at high-speed once more back at Darklight, “There are no quitters in heroism. You’re either full time or a slacker, and I’m as dedicated as they come.” As he approached, Darklight had her response planned out, and a moonlit sword rounded the corner of the street and sliced through one of Condor’s cables, twisting him abruptly and cancelling his forward momentum. Ava struck quickly at the Captain’s reversal of force, and put an orb directly against his chest, exploding the ball and severely damaging his torso armor. In spite of that attack, Condor grabbed Darklight’s wrist and yanked her forward into him, the hero driving his forehead into her the smaller girls’ own head, his helmet knocking thunderously against the heroines’ skull and sending her flying back.

Clutching her face as she flew backwards, Ava only saw stars and smelled pennies, moving her hands for a moment and looking at her palms, cursing loudly as she saw them coated in blood, with more still pouring out. “Shit!” She yelled, closing her eyes and tearing up as Condor without a doubt broke her nose. The hero put his feet on the wall of the building and scaled it quickly with his other cable, jumping harshly onto the rooftop, and running in the direction Darklight was flying in. Once he passed her and pressed on, two prongs appeared at the side of his hips, the Captain grabbing one with his good hand and forcing his other hand to open and close around the second prong, locking his wrists and yanking up as he leapt forward off of the building. From his armored body, metal wings emerged, giving him flight, and allowing him to maneuver his way back around the street and attack Darklight once more. Slamming his extended fists from the tips of his wings into Darklight’s back, the Captain surprised the heroine, and sent her falling gracelessly from the skies. Landing roughly on the top of a car’s hood, Darklight scrambled to her feet, trying to pull her hands away from her face, but each time she did, more blood poured out. “Fuck…” She spat, crimson coating the asphalt as her entire face screamed in agony.

Condor landed like a ton of bricks in front of her, his hardened boots cracking the road and knocking Ava off balance. “Yield.” He demanded, “You’re too injured to continue, it’s too dangerous for me to keep pursuing you.” He turned his back on the heroine, who grit her teeth in anger as he didn’t even see her as a threat anymore. As he took a step forward, several energy lances and discs arrived on the boulevard from multiple directions, all aimed and flying fst towards the Braves’ leader. Captain Condor let out a sigh, and and wrapped his arms around himself, protecting his body with the metal wings, grunting as the lances pierced the metal and skewered his body, but the orbs and discs were unable to harm him directly. Turning on his heel, Condor stomped back over to Ava, and since the heroine couldn’t see him coming, the hero reached out with his injured hand and forced the teenagers’ hands away from her face. With his right arm clamped in a fist already, Condor unleashed a brutal uppercut that lifted Ava off of her feet and knocked her completely unconscious, breaking her jaw in the process.

She landed some feet away on the concrete, unmoving, partially breathing, out of the fight entirely. Captain Condor sighed and shook his head, the energy lances that pierced his body evaporating as Darklight lost conscious control over them, the leader calling out to his comrades on communication devices. “Queen, I’m injured and need healing. Darklight is down, can you -” He only heard static from the team healers’ end, but what cut him off was the sudden appearance of Cosmic. “Eyes on Cosmic, does anyone copy? Anyone?” Captain Condor was a man of action, but also one with a plan for every scenario, still, the Young Bloods they were fighting had too many wild cards in their deck, and Cosmic was one of them. While most of the time, Cosmic would be a flee on sight type of adversary, he looked damaged and weary, and while Condor was also damaged, he felt that he could possibly edge out the interstellar hero.

Digging in his heavy boots, Condor charged a power jump, flexing his wings to carry him further and deliver more energy in his attack, and suddenly launched at Cosmic with blinding speed. His eyes could barely keep up, but Condor could see as he got closer to the teen, Cosmic was much faster than he was, and was able to side-step the charge attack, but Condor could do nothing to exit his catapult. Opting to regroup with his team as originally planned, Condor figured he’s make the charge into a feint and run from Cosmic, but the hero felt a freight train hit his spine and force his whole body to slam into the ground. A hard elbow from Cosmic was the culprit, but he truly held more power than first thought by the Captain. Turning his head to look at the teen briefly, Condor’s eyes widened as he saw a massive ball of energy forming between himself and Cosmic.

Covering himself with his metal feathers, Condor braced for impact and felt like a bomb exploded right on top of him, with enough heat to warp his wings and partially melt part of his exoskeleton. Whatever injuries he had before were monumentally worse in pain, and his entire body felt like it had just been cooked alive, but he was a soldier, and he toughed it out as he climbed back up on his feet, wobbly at first, but firmly planting them and screaming to himself, turning to Cosmic, watching as the hero nonchalantly walked away from Condor and went towards Ava. “Never turn your back on an opponent.” Condor hissed.

“Show me why.” Cosmic shot back immediately, stopping his steps and keeping his face away from the leader. “I’m waiting, right here, if you want to give me a lesson today, because I’m all ears.” Cosmic shot a look at Condor, his eyes glowing with the orange energy of the Ultra Force, his sclera black and full of cracks, as if it were bloodshot, but signalling that his ability was active. Condor walked steadily towards Cosmic, limping slightly as his foot joints were melted together on the left side, Cosmic turning himself completely around to face the Captain full frontal. Throwing a right hook, Cosmic blocked it the same way Ava had done some time before, but the following straight punch that Condor threw was blocked as well as Cosmic threw his forearm and elbow down against it, reducing its kinetic energy as it came into contact with the Corpsman.

From that position, Cosmic leaned forward a bit more and took a quick step forward, checking his shoulder into Condor’s body and moving the hero off-balance for a moment. Cosmic swirled energy in his left fist, and looking at all the cracks in the bird-themed armor of the commander, Cosmic hit the first large cluster of shatterpoints he could find with a left jab, flooding the crevices with energy, and breaking apart the armor as the Captain screamed in agony as his equipment literally exploded off of him. He fell to the ground nearly naked except for his underwear, no longer Captain Condor, but as Mike Massimino, a normal human with a love for birds, technology, and justice. Cosmic took a few steps towards him, the man seemed to be tough even while breathing erratically, Mark able to see the wounds Ava had inflicted upon him in their battle. “Give me some advice, old timer,” Cosmic asked, “I need a little bit of wisdom from ya. What should I do in this situation? I’m not exactly used to having all of the power for once, I’ve been the weaker one in most exchanges up until a year ago.”

“Yield.” Condor stated plainly, “I’m beaten and can’t fight anymore. We’re both heroes, we aren’t really enemies. What makes you a hero or a villain is what you do when you have someone completely at your mercy. Surely they teach you something similar to that in the Ultra Corps, right?”

“You broke my friends’ face completely.” Cosmic replied, “At what point was that heroic? I’m a soldier of the Ultra Corps first and a hero second, you might know something about that type of situation, Condor.”

“I offered her to give and she refused. I turned to walk away and she still attacked. I ended the threat with a proper response of force. She’s tough and tenacious, but it just wasn’t enough. And if that’s the case with you and your space force, then you know just how gray our choices can be, and how whats’ right and wrong can be blurred. There’s worse I could have done.”

“Not many things are worse than that,” Cosmic said, looking over at Ava as medical teams rushed to remove her from the arena. “You need to hope that I don’t ever see you outside of this stadium, now if you excuse me, I have some fury I need to unleash against whatever remains of your team.”

[North America Inc]

Hammer Heavy

The slime on Jasons’ back wrapped around Hammer’s leg and Jason jumped to his feet throwing her off balance. “Please keep your hands and feet stuck to the vehicle at all times!” He shouted, leaping through a window with the heroine stuck to his back. He made it outside before Hammer grabbed onto his back and struck him in the head, knocking him flat on the ground.

The slime repelled her, but she landed on her feet as Jason slowly got back up. “Careful… I’ve only got so many of those left…” He muttered, rubbing the back of his head.

Crack. The sound of a nearby brick shattering caught both their attention by surprise. It just laid there on the pavement, they hadn’t done anything to cause it to fall, it just did. As Hammer gazed up to see where it fell, she saw they weren't alone. Someone else was standing there, arms crossed and a little bemused. Before she could even respond, verbally or physically, she was cut off by the figure’s own line of questioning. Not towards her, but towards Jason. “You made the same car joke with the androids. I’m almost tempted to leave you two alone.”

“I changed the words up!” He shouted back. “She’s tough by the way. I’ma try a thing. Do yours when it looks good.” He bolted straight at Hammer. The woman braced for the clash, but just before the two were within arm's reach, he jumped. The distance being too far for her to grab.

Landing behind he rolled and shot two tendrils at her. Hammer caught them with ease and yanked the smaller hero towards her. Despite his attempt to escape, she grabbed him in a bone creaking bear hug. Jason slammed his head into hers. She barely flinched until the black ooze covered her eyes and nose.

In panic, she dropped Jason to scrape her face clean. “Thing done!”

Before the fight, she had watched videos of Hammer’s earlier fights, probing for a weakness. Shi had thought of a few ideas, besides just shooting at it; but those were heavily reliant on the environment and/ Ava. As Jason blinded her, Shi saw her chance. Not having to worry about killing her, Shi slowly assumed her stance and begin to rotate and circle around with her arms. Soon enough a current built up and she aimed directly at the unsuspecting Hammer. Traveling at near the speed of light, the bolt struck the invulnerable woman square in the chest.

Hammer flew back and smacked against a brick wall, the debris becoming a seat for her. She wasn’t hurt from the kinetic force, but she could feel every single muscle of hers spasming and contracting. It was almost overwhelming, and if wasn’t her own strength probably would have knocked her out. But with super strength and nigh invulnerability, all it would take was a good few seconds for a breather.

Shi jumped down and landed next to her squadmate, switching back and forth between staring at him and the recovering hero. Saving the formalities for later, a new idea popped into her head. “How does your slime react against smoke?”

“He’s got a name! And it doesn’t bother him slash us. What’s the plan?” He replied, glancing over at the dusty woman. “Quick, before her brain starts chugging again.”

Slowly circling back and forth as she thought it over, “How much of that slime can you make? As in all at once?” Shi honed in at the downed body, “If she can take internal damage, then we will just go around her invulernability . We can suffocate her.”

Hammer slowly fought her body and as the shock slowly dissipated, her limbs returned to normal. Wiping herself off, she slowly began to pick up the pace and rush towards the two combatants.

“A good bit. Just get the smoke ready and we’ll do the rest.” Jason said looking around for something to use. A manhole cover. “Well, we had decent luck with it last time.” He shot a tendril and pulled it out of the ground. It was as real as could be. Hopefully enough to buy him an extra hit or two.

He swung the pseudo flail at the near invincible woman. Sparks from the strike erupted from her jaw for just a moment. He maintained the force and went for a second that she swatted away. He reeled the metal cover back in. A sizable dent in it from where she struck.

The manhole cover moved to his left arm as a shield, held in place by the slime. By now, Hammer had gotten completely back up, dusting herself off and approaching. Jason landed between her and Shi. “You done with your makeup?”

She swung rapidly. The first blow, Jason dipped back. The second blocked, but with sparks and a now slightly warped hunk of metal. He continued his dodging, but was slowly being pushed back.

Shi cracked a smile before thrusting forward, bringing forth not flames but smoke, thick black smoke towards Hammer’s eyes and nose. Whenever she would try to retaliate, Shi would blast backwards. She didn’t want a nigh invulnerable being anywhere near here. This went on for a good minute, but it looked like they weren’t getting anywhere.

Examining her surroundings, she eyed a relatively unscathed book store on the adjacent street. Walls seemed intact, two story building, with enough foundation to not cave on all of them if they fought inside. Shi shouted toward Jason, “Bookstore. Across the way. Target.”

All he had to do was follow the sounds of fighting, and finally the last battle was in his sights: Shi and Jason were battling Hammer Heavy, and though they made some great synergy, her invulnerability carried the remnant of the Braves. Watching as Shi moved towards a bookstore down the street, Cosmic understood that she had a bigger plan in action, and ignited his aura to follow. Blasting overhead with energy, the shirtless and battered hero skidded to a stop in front of the bookstore, looking at Shi inside, and then towards Hammer down the way.

“You finally made it.” Shi remarked as she unleashed a fire volley toward the outnumbered hero. Paying no attention to the heroes’ gaudy entrance, she instead ordered, “Sync up with me!” No reason to discuss their plan within eyeshot of Hammer.

Nodding, Cosmic charged up two orbs of energy in his hands, firing the blasts from his palms like beams, the torch-like projection doing little more to get Hammer’s attention, hitting her in sync with Shi’s own fire blasts. “We’re bait, aren’t we?” He asked Shi, not taking his eyes from the Braves’ last line of defense.

“No.” Shi said as they both unleashed their respective volleys, “Hammer still receives internal injuries. We’re trying to force her.... GET BACK!” Shi said as Hammer rushed towards the both of them, nearly catching Cosmic. As they retreated a good distance away, they began their routine, “ If she can’t breathe, she can’t fight. Jason is going to cocoon her while I suffocate.”

Stopping for a second as Jason picked up the slack, Shi pointed toward the target, “What I need you to do is simple. I need you to target her legs. We need her still if Jason is going to encase her and I can’t her rampaging back and forth.” Moving from her chest to her legs, “Here’s a tip, aim for her knees. She’s invulnerable to damage, not motion. Target that joint from behind, she isn’t moving.”

Jason springboarded back just in time for Cosmic and Shi to blast her with their respective powers. “You can still give up. You’re outnumbered.”

The smoke cleared, her costume was damaged, but the important parts were still covered. “And you’re all still outmatched.”

“Big talk for someone in smacking distance.” He shouted back. He had heard Shi say something about a bookstore, only one thing she could’ve meant by that. Hammer threw another powerful punch. Jason held up the manhole cover, putting both his arms and legs into it to match her one arm, warping the metal further. “Hey, you know what I’m feeling? Change of scenery.”

He stopped putting any force behind the cover, letting Hammer fling forward. She spun around just as Jason bashed the cover into her face, more tendrils wrapping it around her head. “Don’t lose that.”

Hammer tore the metal thing off her head, but was yanked off her feet by more of Jason’s tendrils and thrown in the general direction of the bookstore.

Shi rushed in behind Jason, charging up another electric strike as she stood there blind. She was inside the bookstore now, empty pages and out of date magazines littered the air. As Hammer thrashed about, her current built up and fired; unlike before, she wasn’t flung around. Instead she scraped against the wooden tile and etched herself into the pavement. Hammer felt the same nagging taze that went up and down her body. “Jason, Cosmic now!”

Cosmic moved first, dropping his body low and leading with his shoulder, slamming his body hard into the back of Hammer Heavy’s knee cap and twist it to the side, the young hero lifting up slightly as he made contact to fully put down her joint. As she slid down to the ground, Cosmic made sure to deliver a hammer fist to the side of her other knee, collapsing it as well, and putting the heroine down to the floor and unable to escape, allowing Jason to work his magic.

“Gotcha!” He swung down, landing in front of the bookstore, and sprayed as much of the ooze he had stored at his target. The first barrage covering her head and upper body. The second followed with tendrils as thick as tree trunks, holding her arms down. It felt like he was being drained. The “suit” portion even beginning to tear bits at the shoulder, back, and legs. “We’d better be winning!”

“We are.” Getting right in Hammer’s covered she submerged the hands into the sludge until she could feel Hammer’s bare skin. Shifting her hands slightly to the left until she felt the nose, the Red Princess looked up and said, “Hold your breath. Both of you.”

Hammer couldn’t see, she couldn’t move. Her arms were rapidly being encased, despite how much she struggled. Her knees were being blasted and all she could do with her legs was to shift her pelvis back and forth. She even tried to bite down and rip off the binds, yet the bitter, disgusting taste caused her to gag instead. Then all of a sudden, she could feel a hand was travelling around her eyes. Beyond the muffled noise from outside and sporadic light differences, she had no way to know what was coming next. Although the extreme heat and soft hand gave away exactly who was above, she didn’t see the need to worry. Beyond tazing and the odd manhole cover, what did they have on her?

Smoke started to filter out of the sludge and into the book store as a whole. Sucking in a pocket of air, Shi looked down to see the thrashing victim below. The smoke was in her lungs now, any breath she made was foul and nauseating. Thrusting her head up and down against the tile, cracking it clean open; in an act of desperation, she used the remaining force she had to slowly ascend and free her right arm. Shi turned to see the arm so slowly rising as the sticky sludge holding her down began to give out. Strand by strand. Shi pointed towards the arm and snapped her fingers, not caring who dealt with that.

Holding his lungs closed tight, Cosmic narrowed his eyes as smoke filled the room and Hammer was slowly choked out by the foul vapor. Despite all that, Mark had to give the heroine some credit, she continued to struggle despite the teams’ combined efforts. Leaping at the outstretched hand as it came mere inches from Shi’s body, Cosmic pinned it down onto the slime, coating his body with it as well as he put his weight onto the last Braves’ member. “Don’t stop.” He hissed to Shi and Jason, despite getting sticky and releasing more fumes around his body, causing his eyes to tear up and his breath to run short, “Give up already, damn.” He said with the last little bit of oxygen in his own lungs.

Thrashing her head and body as the whole team began to hear her awful, beleaguered cough, her last shred of hope was dashed as Cosmic clamped down and held it in place. At first Cosmic needed to put in everything he had in order to stop it, but as each second ticked away, he could feel the strength slowly slip away. It was only a matter of time. This was her fear incarnate, immobile and blind. She could only feel the pain of her hoarse cough, nothing else; no sights or sounds.. Just pure darkness and heat from an unseen fire. In those last few moments before she would pass out, she thought it over; until five minutes ago she was so sure that the rest of her team were winning. There was no communication, no leadership. And look at her now, pinned by three kids. She could feel it now, she was slowly slipping; it was about to happen.

Until it didn’t. Before she passed out, her hand didn’t something that caught all three of their attention. It tapped out. Then it tapped again with a much more frenetic pace. Shi immediately pulled out and blasted open the wall, clean air rushed into the building. “She’s done...we won.” She said with subdued satisfaction.

Outside, the announcer could be briefly heard declaring the winner, the crowd was palpable, yet unremarkable. It was two rather unimpressive teams fighting each other after all.

With a quick snap of her fingers, Shi incinerated away the slime and freed Hammer from her cocoon. Ultra took in multiple large breaths and sat on her knees, brushing the black vestiges from her body. Looking over at Shi, she asked “Your idea?” Before turning over to Jason, “Don’t ever try that on me again…” She said with a beleaguered laugh.

“I refuse to make a promise I probably won’t keep.” He replied. “Alright, for real. You’re actually really tough. I’ve been hit hard before, but honestly, I can say that I’ve also been hit by softer cars.”

Patting the back of Cosmic as Shi walked over to Jason, she plainly asked, “How are you doing? You held your own… rather well.” Her uncaring exterior finally cracked and admitted, “Good job.” Looking over at Cosmic, “Both of you.”

Cosmic smiled wide and clasped the defeated heroine on the shoulder, before sliding his arm under her own, and helping Hammer Heavy stand. “Thank you,” He replied, “It means a lot to us, all we want is to be looked at like serious contenders in this hero business. I got a little heated with your captain, but I hope we can get along.” He held his smile even more, “Teach me how to tank blows like that, too, it was fuckin’ badass.” Still, he broke away from the heroine as she stood on her own and joined both Shi and Jason, opening up his hands. “Sorry I came late, but I think we did pretty spectacular.”

“So I take it everything went according to plan?” Wendy said as she and Jackal stumbled toward the group.

“Wifi, welcome!” Cosmic shouted, “And you brought company, hello!” He seemed happy, glad the match was over, ready to start repairing any ill-will the match may have brought up. “I low-key wish I was against Hammer, I’d love to trade some heavy blows with someone that can take ‘em.”

More of the Baltimore Braves streamed towards them.

Shi responded to Wendy’s question, “Clear goals and communications go far. I’m happy I was able to put them to good use.” Shi looked around the arena and the rest of the team, “Where’s Ava?”

Mark changed from jovial to deadpan in an instant, looking past his teammates and at the remaining Braves. “Captain Condor broke her face.” He said bluntly, “They had to take her out of the match.”

Most of the heroes laughed at the joke. Except for one, “Good.”

[Tomia]

"Course I do." Aleta began to jump rope, only occasionally hitting her calves with a loud slap. "Who doesn't?"

As the workout continued, Aleta's patience grew thin, but she held her temper. Being told what to do never sat well with her. Even coming here was because Auntie had told her to. She didn't need any damn lackey giving her advice on shit she already knew.

"Are we done?" Aleta asked a few more workouts into the session. "I've got an appointment with a coffee cup down the street soon."

"You don't have to be here you know." Hannah said, raising an eyebrow at Aleta at her prickly request that they stop. "You paid for an hour and a half, if you want to stop its no skin off my back." She then sighed, deciding she should maybe be more understanding. "Look, you clearly have shit going on in your life, believe me I can relate. If you're angry, and don't know how to vent it, well sometimes taking that frustration out on the punching bag can do a world of good." Hannah said, gesturing towards the bags hanging from chains on the nearby ceilings.

"Besides, I'm sure that coffee can wait a little while for you."

[Galnius]

Mika
Mika was in the process of figuring out what to do next when suddenly she was thrust backwards. There's wasn't much time to respond to the statement of Mika being a meat shield (though that in of itself was a flawed idea, considering she isn't much of a shield) or even fight back. However, the angel seemed to know how to handle this as he pulled her away, keeping her suspended in the air.

When asked where she could hide, well..."I am not going back in there...I'll just get lost again. However..."

Mika thought angels were supposed to be good, and demons and those who worked for them bad. This was all well and good, but perhaps a good soul could still do harm to her in the idea of saving her. Right now she felt Like a free target for a thrown blade, and that had to be corrected.

The photographer pulled out a photograph at random. This one, it seemed, had the strange spider contraption on it. It was made to guard treasures, attacking those who tried stealing precious items with poisonous feet. Mika however had no way of knowing this, nor how it got to hell, but that very ignorance was going to be her ace in the whole. "I swear I'll drop every single of these items if you don't leave me be, and I warn you, I don't know what any of them do. Could be a bomb. Could be philosopher's stone. With me, it will come out real. So either of you want to take that chance?"

Daniel, New York
Dan's playful grin didn't last very long, but he had learned something. As a hand a bit strong for the heiress' frame tightened on his hand, a look of both pain and curiousity took over the brown haired man's face. When released, it was left with just one of utmost, undivided interest. With a low tone and massaging his still aching hand, Dan leaned in and brought up his thoughts.

"I appear to have aggravated you Lizzy, and for that I'm terribly sorry" he began melodramatically. "However, I must know, is there something I don't know about you beyond the boring teen girl stuff? That grip, well, let's just say it's been a while since I've felt this excited."

Angelica Dalin
Angelica had departed shortly after getting the information on the hero hospital. However, it had taken her days to finally make her way there. "Justice and Mercy." Standing outside of the building, the blonde wondered if they were even taking volunteers. She had come all the way here, though, so she may as well give it a shot.

Angelica entered the doors slowly. However, she was quickly greeted by the busy hustle and bustle of nurses, doctors, and others dilligently moving about on their jobs. The mere fact that this was the lobby made her wonder what the rest of the area could be like. There was one way to find out, she supposed. Approaching the front desk, she held out the card Mr. Baker had given her. "Hello, my name is Angelica Dalin. Is there...is there anything I can do to assist here? I have healing abilities."

[The Republic of Atria]

Sina

Sina, understandably, was a little disappointed that Bael wouldn't be teaching her. She seemed doubtful, but warmed up to the idea, albeit reluctantly. "Oh don't be like that. It'll be fun! Besides, you seem like the type of person who doesn't mind when something explodes." Onu commented. Though when Sina brought up needing to visit the Sandstorms, she looked a little confused and then turned to Bael for an explanation.

"Oooh, right. We did this little amateur's race, turns out there was an actual professional racing was just barely beat Sina. Turns out she's really good at flying. Like, really good."

"Ooooh! I love the Sandstorms! I've been a fan of there since I was little! I'm terrible at flying though, but they're so much fun to watch! Who'd you meet? Was it Jeigh? Hold on, tell me if I'm right." She thought for a moment. "M'zan? Aegi?" She rattled off a few more names before remembering that she was asking for help. "Oh, yes. I can show you that. The hard part is making it. What Bael does is pretty much just completing a circuit. I can set one up for you no problem. But only if you take me to meet the Sandstorms!"