Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

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Taking a mental note of the Lunarian's offer, Kirisvala made no attempt to acknowledge her in order to avoid raising the other Hadrian's suspicions, instead keeping her eyes on him as she waited for an answer. Luckily, though he seemed to be against the compromise she offered at first, ultimately he relented and agreed to it for the sake of avoiding a fight. Hearing this, the alien girl breathed out, feeling more at ease now that she knew that she wouldn't have to raise her claw against someone not affiliated with Torres' coup, much less a fellow Hadrian. He didn't seem thrilled, but... given the circumstances and the claims he made about Renata and her father, she didn't expect him to be. She was just glad he took the compromise.

Next, rather than begin heading towards the tower, the Hadrian boy took a moment to respond to Wyatt's question, the answer of which left her very surprised. A Hadrian who had lived his whole life here on Earth? It was not unheard of, by any means, but... she had the feeling that most such individuals were still children at this point. This boy appeared to be about her age, or perhaps just a bit older, certainly not one of the toddlers of New Adai's early settlers or something like that - which made no sense anyway, seeing how he was here, on the other side of the world practically. Was he orphaned in the early days of Hadrian-human interaction or something to that effect? Was he kidnapped and dumped here all by himself?

All these questions ran through the pink-haired heroine's mind, but she was brought out of her thoughts when the other Hadrian glanced over his shoulder at her, mentioning that she must have been luckier than he had been, and that he'd like to ask her some questions once this was all done.

"Um, sure, I don't mind answerin' any questions you might have. I don't think I can tell ya who you are or why you're here... but if you wanna know anythin' about myself or Adai, I'd be happy to help." She said with her usual kindness, though the words came a bit more awkward than usual, understandably.

Suddenly, Kiris' communicator came alive with Wendy's voice - she had clearly noticed the incoming insurgents and was concerned about them. "Oh, Wendy! We came across another group with their own agenda, but they're not with Torres and they're not gonna stop us from sendin' our message, so don't worry, just get everythin' up and runnin'." She spoke, hoping to reassure her teammate. "We'll be there shortly with the slip of paper Renata handed us."

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With Renata and Shi having left, Icarus maintained the barrier for a bit more in anticipation for another attack, but it seemed that none was forthcoming, perhaps as a result of the Red Princess' counterattack. Concluding that no more attacks were inbound, the blond boy turned to face his allies. "Alright, let's go. We can't let them follow those t-" He spoke, only to find himself interrupted as a pair of cars suddenly slammed against his barrier with tremendous force, surprising and even dazing him as he found himself only barely able to stop them from breaking through and possibly turning one of them into paste.

"Shit!" Surge exclaimed through gritted teeth, looking up to see his assailant, one of the five superhuman task force members who had floated into the air above the square, his visage concealed by his armor. There seemed to be a strong gust converging around him as if to protect him as he loomed threateningly over the group of young heroes.

"That guy's too dangerous to leave alone. I'll take him out." The young hero stated, before dropping the barrier and running towards the flying superhuman, a suit of construct armor appearing around him to protect him from harm. The powerful winds seemed to pick up several benches, streetlights and the like, hurling them against the boy, but he weathered every blow, pushing on until he judged he was close enough and used all of his strength to jump towards his enemy. However, he had misjudged the intensity of the gusts that surrounded the man - they kept him from reaching his foe at all, and after a moment of watching him struggle, the soldier flicked his wrist, and the winds converged on Icarus all at once, sending him crashing into the side of a nearby building.

"Dammit..." He cursed as he struggled to his feet, his body sore from the impact despite the armor he wore.

"Hey, let me help!" Mars called out to Icarus, shouting across the wind. "Run at him again while I distract him, I think I have a way to even the playing field!" Mars called out to Icarus before turning to the wind manipulator. Mars didn't have much in the terms of offensive capacity but he had enough to be annoying. He grabbed one of the make shift grenades that he had created and tossed it at his target. The soldier saw it of course and tossed it aside as it exploded into a foam like substance in the air. Mars wasn't deterred as he merely followed it up with another grenade, forcing the soldier to keep his eyes on him. He tried to blast Mars away as well but Mars' rocket boots were working overtime to keep him in place.

"Surge now!"

Barely hearing the other boy's words through the howling of the winds that picked up as his enemy exerted his powers, Icarus nonetheless nodded and waited for an opening to be made. His wait was not too long, as the wind manipulator seemed to assume he was down for the count and instead focused his efforts on taking down Rocket. While the genius didn't seem to have too much firepower on him, the distraction was effective.

As soon as he heard the call, the blond boy jumped into action, once more sprinting towards the wind-powered soldier and using all of his strength to leap towards him in an attempt to tackle him to the ground. Once more, however, it seemed his attempts would be foiled. Despite focusing on Mars, the task force member noticed him approaching and turned around to deal with him. He had gotten much closer than the first time, but again he could feel the winds converging on him and beginning to push him back.

This time, however, he reacted quickly and created a construct that shackled him and his foe together. As he went off flying in the direction of a nearby building, so did the unsuspecting soldier, the two of them crashing into it with violence. Once more shaken by the blow, Icarus struggled to his feet again.

Whatever it is you wanted to do to even the playing field, you better do it now, Rocket.

Rocket ran forward as fast as he could, he needed to get as close as possible to make sure this worked. I hope my aim is good enough, he thought to himself as he pushed towards Icarus and the soldier. Surge was clearly battered, and they likely wouldn't get another shot at this. With a determined look on his face Mars launched a spherical disk in between the two. The disk suddenly expanded into a field of energy that separated the two of the them from the rest of the world. This would hopefully cut off the soldier's ability to summon powerful gusts of wind, Icarus just needed to keep him inside.

Needless to say, the blond boy was surprised to suddenly find that there was an invisible barrier isolating him and his foe. For a moment, he couldn't help but doubt the effectiveness of Rocket's gambit, but as the soldier stood up and attempted to retaliate by hurling a car towards him, he realized just how effective it was - not only did the car bounce off of the force field harmlessly, the wind itself didn't seem to be able to penetrate it. Seeing the opportunity that this provided, Icarus wasted no time in moving towards his foe. Getting over his momentary surprise, the man used the air inside the bubble to slow him down and hurl various objects inside against him, but these attacks weren't nearly as effective as they had been before and soon enough the electric hero was in front of him, throwing one strike after another.

"Not so tough now, are you?" He taunted the wind manipulator, who struggled to keep up with the assault. Finally, Icarus broke through his guard and delivered a powerful right hook that left the man disoriented. He pressed on with a barrage of kicks and punches until the man finally fell to the ground, defeated. With that done, he stood back and let out a sigh of relief, knowing that one of the larger threats had been neutralized.

"That's one down for the count. Good job, Rocket." He told the genius boy as he picked up the disk, removing the force field around him, and threw it back to him. With that done, he looked around to see how the others were holding up against the superhuman task force.

[The Republic of Atria]

Jason goes to N'Toak

Jason followed Bael and Tahni to a table and sat down across from them, with another Draq who sat next to Tahni. Jason couldn't quite tell, but he looked to be around Bael's age, maybe older, shorter and with a much more normal build than his friend. He made the assumption that he was with Tahni. "Welcome to the best table in the city, I'm Jason, I will be teaching you how to play, and then beating you all, at children's games. Maybe one more if we're not too drunk." He said, pulling his backpack around and pulled out a two boxes, one that had Uno and the other Jenga.

Bael took one glance and sighed. "I'm going to get us some drinks..." He muttered, got up and left.

"He's just mad I made him draw 14 cards last time we played. That'll make sense later." Jason said to the two clueless Draq. "So, I know you're Tahni, and you are..."

"Utren." He replied curiously. "What game do you play with the wooden blocks?" He asked.

"It's called Jenga and it's great. Easy too." He said, opening the box, flipping it upside down and then slowly lifted the box off, revealing the tower. "Game's real simple. You take a block from anywhere on the Tower..." he said, carefully taking one from just above the bottom. "And then place it on the top." He said, doing just that. "Everyone takes a turn and the one who knocks it down loses. And for an added penalty, you have to finish your drink." He finished just in time for Bael to return with two large pitchers of glowing booze and a few glasses.

"Seems simple enough." Utren said. "Bael, your friend was just explaining how to play... Jen-ga."

"Oh good. Maybe the drinking will soften us up for Uno." Bael said, pouring himself one

"Utren, you can go next. Then Tahni, and since Bael's a sore loser he can go last." Jason said, a shit-eating grin on his face with Bael glaring at him.

Utren nodded and carefully pulled out a piece from the opposite side and stacked it. The tower remained stable.

Tahni went next, pulling out a piece, as did Bael, then Jason. It continued until there was multiple levels with only one piece, and Jason very slowly and carefully, placed his piece at the top of the now incredibly wobbly tower.

Utren and Tahni were both halfway on the table, scanning the tower for any piece they could take out while their tails were thwacking against their chairs.

"It's your turn Tahni." Jason reminded her. Bael sat back, knowing that by now if Tahni didn't make it fall, Utren definitely would.

"Stop talking!" She hissed, going to reach for a piece hesitating and pulling her hand away.

"Man, if you're taking this that seriously, I can't wait until I see you two playing Uno." Jason said, leaning back and putting a little pressure on the underside of the table as Tahni finally decided on a piece, pulled it out and the tower immediately fell over which led to a sigh of relief from Utren and Bael, a smug look from Jason and a frustrated groan from Tahni as she dutifully followed the rules and finished off her drink. "Not bad for your first game."

"This game will kill me." She muttered.

"I'll be a good sport." Jason said, downing his glass and making a face the indicated that it was his first strong drink. "Ugh, I can taste the alcohol, and... It's like, sweet? Not what I expected. Next time I'm just gonna bring a bottle of Everclear. Everyone will do a single shot and if you take it like a man, you win... Anyways, let's go again!"

[North America Inc]

-snip-

Shihong Smith

Shi's fists instantly lit up at the sound of Gabriel's sudden appearance. While Renata may have known him, she kept herself readied; Renata wasn't the best judge of character and neither of them could be so sure of loyalty so early. Shi backed away as the other two spoke, however brief that may have been. Keeping a passive eye in the area around them, though her flickering flames provided little here. As he spoke, Shi interjected, "Stare where you are. What's goi..."

Only moments later, the distinct sound of propulsion came screeching behind Boulder him, a woman. Boulder's comment cemented his loyalty, a traitor wouldn't have gone with charade. Tired of playing games, Shi summoned a large burst of heat from the environment around her, coalescing into one large blast that shook the walls as it hit. With the noose tightening around them, they needed to be aggressive. Rushing towards her, Shi shouted back at Renata, "Flank her left!" Before she jump kicked another a successive blast at the incredibly mobile target.

[Galnius]

Angelica Dalin
October 26th

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

It was like her words had stepped over a landmine on Angelica's heart, blowing off the seal and letting every feeling inside gush out like blood. In all honesty, Whitney wasn't quite sure what response she had been expecting to her question. 'I'm too worried about Mars and everyone else to go to sleep.'? 'I can't stop thinking about what happened in there.', maybe? Nightmares probably would've been the logical answer, and it was the only one she wasn't prepared for. It wasn't that she was scared or creeped out, it wasn't like whatever she was hearing was that descriptive, it was that she felt...awkward. Guilty, guilty for causing this, like she had been caught red-handed at SOMETHING, something she didn't really know. All she could really do was stare at her own hands clasped up on the table with a growing heat creeping into her neck and face as Angelica continued to look right over her shoulder, explaining how she couldn't stop watching people die at night to the world's worst therapist.

She looked up at the sound of the sparking though, just in time to watch charred holes begin to expand across Angelica's skirt, at least wherever they weren't covered by her hands clenching the fabric in a deathly vice grip. The resulting mental alarm bell was enough to make her keep looking up, all the way up to a face that bore no trace of movement aside from the flow of tears streaming down two cheeks in perfectly equal viscosity, perfectly equal depth. Whitney had to say something, anything to calm her new friend down. It was her fault that they were even in this mess. If only she had kept her stupid eyelids open...

"Hey, hey, hey..." Whitney stuttered out, leaning forward in her chair to gently put a hand on the crying girl's shoulder, silently hoping that she wouldn't shrug or push it away. A second hand moved to Angelica's knee in an attempt to gently tug her hand away from her knee and prevent any further cigarette-burn-type marks, but they were met with incredibly tough resistance from the sheer strength of the hand's grip, leading her to simply relent and allow the hand to be something comforting. "Relax. No one's dying, nobody here anyways. You're safe, A-Angie, you're...okay. You're okay. I'm...I'm going to crack a window." she said as gently as possible, patting the girl on the shoulder as she stood up and zombie-shuffle-walked to the window at the side of the room, going through the process of cracking a pane open. It was surprisingly difficult to get the latches open, her fingers refusing to cooperate with the slightly rusted metal, but after what felt like slightly too much effort, she was able to push the whole thing outwards, letting it swing open and a fast gush of cold air replace it, a welcome jolt for her drooping eyelids. She even reached for a smoke out of instinct, before realizing that she had none in her pocket.

"There. Fresh air always helps me when I get upset, or lose my senses." Whitney said in her best attempt at 'soothing' possible, leaning between the wall and the window frame as a long silence began to lapse between the two. "I have watched someone die before, y'know." she continued at last, her voice taking on a wistful quality as her eyes drifted towards the ceiling. My dad's side has always had clean bills of health, but my mom's had a history of cancer. My grandmother on her side died when I was...eleven, I wanna say. Ovarian, Stage 4. It wasn't pretty. They were draining fluid like a fountain out of her. She was in palliative care for a while, and one day, my parents...my mom, actually, she just...pulled the plug. Decided to cease treatment. I was so scared, I kept asking the nurse if she was in any pain, if she could feel anything. She must've felt something, I'm sure of it, but whatever it was, it wasn't, y'know, painful or begging, it was...quiet. Peaceful. She just stopped breathing, stopped moving, her body just went...limp. Like...when you pull an all-nighter to study, and you finally collapse in bed at 3:00 PM after taking that stupid exam. You just soften, slip away. It was like that. Over in a second. No light, no begging for second chances, just...gone."

"For a long time, I was upset, upset that she had died, and upset at my parents for letting her die. But now...I don't know, I think she wanted to go like that. I think she was happy to finally not have to live with her kidneys and her glands destroyed, her muscles not obeying her brain. She didn't want a second chance. She was too much of a stubborn old bitch for it." Whitney said with a slight giggle, before her tone and face sobered up again. "People always die, Angie. They die, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Sometimes it's unfair, sometimes they get what they deserve. It just happens. But you know Roy would burn San Diego to the ground before letting one of us die on his watch, and you know Mars would do the same in a heartbeat. We would've stopped them, I know we would've. And it'll never happen again, because we know better now, and we'll do better now. Okay?"

As a gentle hand touched Angelica's shoulder she found herself jolted back into reality. She tensed up sharply, as if struck in the face, but her eyes gained a bit more focus. Her breathing, previously shallow and gasping, both quickened and deepened as the cool outside air rushed over her face. Her hands slacked and the burning stopped as the tenseness was replaced with weakness, and pain. Still, even though she could no longer being her hand to clutch her pained chest, she knew that she was getting better.

"Th-.... Th-...." Angelica took a deep labored breath, trying to get enough feeling back in her tongue and jaw to speak. "Thanks."

It took some time, but eventually she came out of her stupor long enough to build a proper conversation. She took a long drink to soothe her throat and mouth, that felt like she had been eating cotton balls the last ten minutes. The tears that had stopped momentarily started again, out of both joy for having found a friend like Whitney and shame for having been so weak in front of her.

"Thank you Whitney. Really, thank you. I-... I know we will probably be okay. We are surrounded by such strong, caring people who would put their lives out there to make sure we didn't. You would. You did. It's just... Even if I know that, I can't just stop picturing it. I can't stop thinking about how history repeats itself. I can't let that happen to you."

---

Aislinn

Conversation With Aislinn

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Red eyed Aislinn cautiously as she gave her response to his question. While she didn't give an answer he wanted, what she said at least seemed genuine. Whether or not there was any further rationale behind her getting involved in what was arguably one of the more deranged villains the Young Bloods had was yet to be seen, but for the moment at least Red chose to believe her.

Leaning back on his seat, Red let out a small sigh as before he decided to answer her question.

"I suppose I'm your man then. If it means that cold hearted bi- I mean villain can't cause any further than what she's already done, I'd take help from the Devil himself."

Red's mind wandered back to his many encounters with Marionette, recalling everything from his first initial encounter with her at the zoo to their latest fight at the gala. For better or worse, the girl had proven to be the largest thorn in his side thus far in his short time as a hero. While he hated to use such corny words to describe situations, she was certainly the main nemesis to himself, if not the team as a whole. She was dangerous, with her combination of intellect and powers having proven to be more than enough to cause serious harm to even the likes of Casimir. She needed to be taken out, and Red was willing to do whatever it took to make sure it happened.

"I'm sure you're likely already aware of my...relationship with Marionette," Red continued, his eyebrows furrowed as the memories still continued to flash across his mind. "Out of anyone on the team besides possibly Kabuto, I'm the most familiar with her. How she acts, how she fights, and how to beat her. The only thing I don't know at this point is why she does it. If you ask me, that's the key to the whole situation," saying the final portion with a small shake of his head. "Every single time I think I have her cornered, she finds a way to get out of it. She's unpredictable, which is what makes her so hard to make a decisive move against. If you can give me what I need to take her down, I can promise I'll do everything I can to make sure she never gets the chance to hurt anyone else again."

Red looked up at Aislinn, giving her a small grin in the process.

"Just don't expect it to be as heroic of a process as others on the team would deliver."

" Slow down there cowboy. Let's find out what she's up to first, aye? Then we can figure out how to handle her. Besides, if we rush this I won't have you for company as long, and you are proving to be quite the entertaining person to converse with. "

The rest of the short ride was filled mostly with Aislinn talking about her younger years in Ireland, and attempting to convince Mask to visit one day. When the limo finally pulled up the long, winding driveway Aislinn gathered her things and checked to make sure she still passed her own inspection. As the driver opened the door to let the pair out, the mansion towered over them and stretched on for hundreds of feet in both directions. What looked large from the distance now proved to make such a word quite the understatement. The royal blue walls wrapped around the land, claiming dominion over the entire hill, with the entrance sitting perfectly in the middle, dividing the entire building into perfect symmetry. Three stories rose, with hundreds of large windows signifying hundreds of rooms, most of which had such little consequence that many of the denizens inside weren't even sure what they were for.

As Aislinn made her way to the thick, rosewood doors, she was greeted by an usher, who then turned to Mask and offered him a small variety of indoor shoes, to "not scruff the wood." From there, Aislinn led him to the second floor and past a great many closed doors, before finally arriving at their destination. Aislinn pulled out a key ring, that seemed to be color coded in some manner, and stopped at one in a light shade of blue.

As it opened a large curtained bed could be seen in the middle, and the walls were covered with clippings and articles pertaining to Lisette or Marionette in some way or another, though others seemed unrelated. In the back of the room, illuminated by a large curtained window, was a large desk with three separate computers on it. "This will be your room to work in, and sleep in if you do stay the night. As my bodyguard by name, I do hope you decide to. Not only will it sell it, but if I am up late or early with a student idea I want to be able to let you know, lest I forget. I'm the only one with this key, and had to just about bribe the servants to show me to use this room uninterrupted. Please, make yourself at home. I need to change into my dinner clothes, and gather anything else I may have for you by then."

Aislinn left with a wave, closing the door part way. Thinking, she stopped and peeked back through. "Oh, and if you need anything, anything at all, or think of something, my room is right across the way. I also left a second key for both on your desk. Just please, knock before entering. I'll try and do the same. " With a coy smile, she shut the door, leaving him to his own devices.

[Finland SSR]

November 19th

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Wendy

Amadeo Obregon, champion of liberty!

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Miguel and his party were advancing from floor to floor, only to be suddenly stopped by the entrance to the higher floors getting freshly blocked and barricaded. The double door was shut, while a knock and a pull revealed that something was haphazardly tossed to block the entrance. Nothing impossible to break through, of course - the other Anticondoristas readied their guns, while Miguel stood back and amped up the blue fire cracking in between his fingers.

"Ama?" one of the insurgents suddenly called out from behind, getting the rest of the party to turn around. The blue haired Hadrian was back, calmly making his way up the stairwell to catch up to his peers. "We've got a problem - some of their friends seem to have slipped by before you stopped the rest, they're barricaded up there and we don't know if-"

"It's fine. They're on our side now."

"Huh?" Miguel called out immediately.

Amadeo stopped in front of the door and pushed it open, through the chairs and tables placed in front of it to barricade it. "The Hadrian, the dragon and their friends... they ended up in this situation by circumstance, not by any allegiance other than friendship. We made a deal by which we won't have to fight."

"What kind of deal?"

"Well... we'll send two messages."

The floor in which Amadeo offered the Young Bloods to meet him again was only one story up from here - there, with his fellow resistance fighters making their way behind him, he met the same teenagers as in the street, with two new faces. "I suppose you've already informed your friends about what we've... discussed outside, but just to be clear, I apologize for the hostility from all of us initially. We had our reasons to suspect the worst, and we live in a society where it's always best to do so..."

Two of the Anticondoristas meticulously pushed away the chairs and heavy boxes blocking a reinforced door in the back of the expansive room, displaying their superhuman strength in the process, then pulled the door open - it was a small blocky storage room, and just as expected, dozens of tied and gagged tower staff were rather brutishly placed here one after the other - many of them were already drowsy, but those who were still awake immediately began muffling and twitching.

"It's almost an act of kindness that they're all still in one piece," Amadeo muttered under his breath, standing next to Kiris, as he watched the clerks being lifted out of the room and set free from their ropes. "Your friend's father would have probably left a few casualties on the way, you know."

Before any of the clerks could leave the room after getting freed, however, the Anticondoristas and the Young Bloods were in the way - and the blue haired Hadrian stepped forward, speaking:

"We're going to let you go, but before that, we'll have you restore all communications in the city and broadcast two messages - one from us and one from..." he gestured towards the Young Bloods with his left claw, giving them the floor to hand over their paper or offer any say - all while gesturing towards one of his comrades, a darker and more overweight one, who immediately began searching his pockets and pulled out a flash drive.

"This one is ours. I trust you'll do your job," Amadeo stated as he placed the device on the table - the other workers and clerks were already rushing to their posts in the tower in order to get communications functioning again, while a glassed lady with ruffled hair and a stout stature, clearly the director of the building, sighed under her breath. Already, from the conflicting orders and messages, she could tell that this wasn't going to end well...

"...why didn't I choose neurosurgery when I still had a choice..."

---

"I leave you alone for one hour and you end up in a ditch..."

A hero in a blue jumpsuit, kneeling before Shadowbolt to inspect her condition, rose back to his feet and turned towards the tower. An empty jeep stood by the entrance, and the door was left wide open. All of the Colorados were either knocked out or they were missing - whatever happened here, which of the four teens was responsible for the team screwing up, and what would be the due punishment for this failure, no longer mattered. That all will be answered in due time, for now, what he had to do was fix their mistakes.

Titan made his way through the street, passing by the empty jeep and stopping right in front of the Tower. The action was quite a few floors up, if there was anyone still inside. It would be a chore to scale it up, the lift was almost certainly disabled and the stairs could easily be covered.

The hero placed his hand on the wall - and then suddenly started growing. Massively, passing one floor after another, and holding onto the tower as he grew, leaving everything inside trembling as if they were caught in an earthquake.

Inside, Amadeo jumped back to his feet - getting the tower back online and sending their messages was taking a bit of time, but in a fit of misfortune, it seems like the break wasn't going to be peaceful.

"Get ready!"

---

November 19th

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---

Cars flying across the street and crashing across buildings, a torrent of wind rushing through the Square powerful enough to pick up everything in sight, were all really hard to miss - be it for enemies, or for allies. With a faint smirk on her face, Marina watched the familiar electricity manipulator clash against one of the lead Task Force supers in the square, then turned her head around and spoke:

"Promise to me you'll stay safe out here, Irene, I have to go."

"I'll... try," the purple-haired Bakeneko muttered from the back of the pastry shop. "I should be fine if I just stay under the counter, right? They don't really need me for anything..."

"That's the plan. Or, hope, rather..."

Leaving the safety of the shop, Marina stepped straight into the square and its embattled atmosphere, her right hand reaching out to the side and building up a bolt of Fox-Fire by her fingertips. With a sweeping motion, she tossed it forward, and the magical technique sped past Icarus's shoulder before whizzing into the trees - then slammed into an another Task Force super already on the way towards the Young Bloods.

"I'm surprised to see you here," the Bakeneko called out and stopped besides Icarus and Mars. She looked like she had seen much better days - a small trickle of blood was running down her cheek, one of her sleeves was ripped and a few scorch marks were scattered across the other. It wasn't going to dissuade her from throwing her metaphorical hat into the ring, however. While her right hand was free, her left was holding a pistol - the same one she had once threatened Icarus with.

"If you're looking for a way to breach into the Palace, I can help you out. You'll need all the firepower you can get, after all." With the barrel of her pistol, she pointed towards the gaping exploded entrance of the building on the other side. From the farthest reaches of the Square, it appeared as if there was nobody there, save for maybe one or a few soldiers filtering in or out, but now that they were closer, a singular figure could be seen standing in the center, stationary, practically frozen.

---

Shihong Smith

---

Renata could tell that Shi was hesitant to follow, and from the brief demand which escaped her in the heat of the moment, it wasn't hard to guess why. Though the pink-haired girl couldn't fault her for doubting her judgment, thankfully, Gabriel turned out to be as steadfastly loyal as he always was - it was one of Torres's goons which he called them to stay away from.

Shi immediately jumped into the fray, and Renata, gathering plasma in between her palms, ran right after her. The armored woman turned towards them, light filtering towards her from the side catching her attention, just in time to be struck both by Shi's blast of fire and Boulder's shoulder slam. She yelled, grunted, and landed on the floor painfully.

"On it!" Renata yelled out as soon as she heard her teammate's orders, and suddenly slid to the left. The armored woman hissed under her breath and spoke up:

"You... insolent..." In response to Shi's second blast, she activated her jetpack to leap over it and popped a wrist strapped miniature machine gun. The officer aimed it and fired the first few shots before getting struck again - from one side, Boulder rammed a full force blow into her neck, and from the other, Renata smashed the plasma blast in her hands into the officer's back. At point blank range, the blast did some lasting damage - overheating the circuits in her jetpack and forcing its computer to turn the device off before something detonated. The flame died down and the officer dropped to the floor - even more frustrated.

"We can't spend any more time dealing with her - the hole she and Gabriel came from will lead us to where we need to go, so all that's left is to take her down," Renata called out as she backed away next to Shi. The officer, grunting, grabbed Gabriel by the collar and slammed him to the nearest wall, easily bending the reinforced steel plating. "If that jetpack proves anything... we can shut down that suit if we blast it really hard and from really close. Maybe."

[The Republic of Atria]

Titan shows up

Thankfully Kiris helped talk the other Hadrian down, who radioed to the rest of his team to not attack the rest of the Young bloods since they happened to be here purely by bad timing and serve no real political intent other than helping a friend. Which let him relax a little. The rest of the group in the radio tower should wrap up within the next few minutes and they could go reinforce the rest of the team. "Honestly." He said to Kiris. "I think we handled that as best we could." Though he was still keeping an eye on Amadeo and being more than ready to start kicking their asses if they tried anything

The group headed inside, a few of the supers with enhanced strength getting through the barricades without issue. Though they put some chairs in from of the door to block it. Bael couldn't help but wonder what that was supposed to do. It's unlikely that it would slow down any half decent super for any length of time. Maybe just to make them feel better? He found a window that oversaw the entrance, giving him a good look at the damage that the fights between the respective teams. Scorch marks, large chunks of stone and asphalt all over the place. For a moment, he contemplated how much damage he could cause if he really wanted to.

His train of thought was interrupted shortly after when in his peripheral, he spotted a costumed man approaching the building. One of Ama's men, maybe? Bael lost sight of him when he walked to the base of the building, albeit only for a few moments until he watched the man erupt in size, so much so that he was looking at the man's head from the top floor of the building. He pulled out his communicator as fast as he could. "Guys! We have a huge problem, if you're not working on the radio, get outside, NOW!" Without even thinking, he found himself leaping through the window, shattering it, and immediately taking flight, gaining as much altitude as he could.

He circled the titanic man and the radio tower. His first through was to start launching rocks at him, but wasn't sure if they'd be big enough to do any actual damage. That and he'd need a few seconds to get it ready, which would leave him open to attack. Hitting him might works, but he was the size of an insect compared to him, and would likely get him swatted. So he dove, gaining as much speed as he could, opened his mouth and spat a fire ball at the huge man's neck.

[Tomia]

Angelica, November 22nd
Angelica had spent the rest of the previous day, after she had gotten off the phone with her father's assistant, pacing around the tower, hitting punching bags, and whatever else she could do to keep her mind off of her father until she finally agreed to go see him. However, she dreaded the idea of going alone. The team was gone, and asking Alexis was... very much off the table and so she turned to Katie and Cora, her new mentors. Thankfully they agreed, and after a relatively short flight on a private plane that was arranged by the Stars, the three of them arrived at the large private hospital in Los Angeles where her father was being cared for. They definitely got a few looks as they entered the building, it was clear the controversy surrounding her viral video had not fully blown over. At least they aren't fawning over me. Angelica thought grimly as they approached Dwayne's room. Outside his room in a nearby waiting room there were a number of people with cameras who took notice of Angelica's presents. They started taking pictures as they frantically asked her questions that she couldn't completely make out given that they were talking over each other. The frost hero scowled as she approached.

"Can't you just leave us alone!" She shouted at them, before Cora stepped in front of her.

"Miss Simmons, is not taking questions. This is a private affair. Please leave." She said a she pushed through the small group and led Katie and Angelica inside. Angelica let out a sigh once the door was shut behind them.

"I'm sorry, they're just so annoying. This is a god damn hospital and they're outside like vultures."

"You don't need to apologize." Katie told her with a soft smile. "I'd like to say you get used to it... but you really just learn to let it bother you less."

Angelica took a step into the room and the first thing she noticed wasn't even her father lying in bed, it was that the room was completely empty. Well not completely empty, there was of course a bed, chairs, machines, and everything else you'd expect in a hospital room. However there were no flowers, cards, or any of the things you expect when a famous person was in the hospital. Angelica imagined the Stars were doing their best to keep people as far from Captain Quake as possible.

He really is alone. She felt a swell of pity for a moment but that only served to make her angrier. Why do I care? He never cared about anyone, so isn't this what he deserves?

That was when Angelica realized that, for the first time in a while she actually related to her father. She wasn't in a coma, but she felt as alone as she had before she joined the team. Her friends were off on vacation, her girlfriend wasn't speaking to her, and her family was in shambles. If I don't care about him no one will, and I know what its like to be alone. No one deserves that.

She turned to Katie and Cora, doing her best not to let tears fall down her face. "I'm gonna stay here for a while, do you think...." she paused, trying to work up the ability to ask.

Katie picked up on what Angelica was trying to ask, "We'll be to check on you in a little while Angie. Call us if you need anything." With that Katie lead Cora out of the room, leaving Angelica alone with her father. She took the empty seat next to him and looked at him intently. She barely recognized him. He was always so strong and commanding, and now he looked sickly and so... vulnerable. She hated seeing him like this, even more than she hated seeing him normally. He was a jerk yes, but he was the strongest person Angelica knew. As a child she worshiped him.

If he couldn't handle this life, what chance did she have?

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 26th

---

Previous part

The room looked just as she remembered it: colorful, cozy, and dominated by organized chaos, with clothes, stuffed toys and the odd electronics component strewn around seemingly haphazardly, though in fact each object had its own designated area. Of course, it wasn't exactly the same as before the Young Bloods formed. A computer was missing from the desk in the corner, there were fewer stuffies in the area than there had been in the past, and some comic books and magazines were missing from the shelves. Despite its apparent state of abandon, however, it was remarkably clean, lacking that characteristic coating of dust that tended to appear in places not often visited. Alexis could only conclude that her father had been keeping her room clean while she was away, while also keeping the orderly disorder in it intact. Why, if not for a sense of longing, of nostalgia? The answer was clear, but the implications only made her feel worse about herself and the events that had transpired that night. About the lie that had been revealed to her at last.

Walking inside, she didn't bother to turn on the lights, instead lurking in the dark as if she feared what the light might show her. She looked around, taking in the sight of her old room before shuffling towards the bed, running a hand over its covers. She remembered she loved jumping on the bed when she was little, to the point her mother had needed to give her a stern talk to get her to stop doing it. Of course, she now understood perfectly why her mother had been irked and what the results of this abuse were for the mattress, which wasn't cheap to begin with, but back then she was very confused and upset.

At least, that's how she remembered it, but now she knew she had no way of knowing that such a thing had happened at all. Was she even who she thought she was? Had she ever been a child at all? And if that memory was false, how many others were false as well? The fire that caused them to move from San Francisco to San Diego? Her time at Thomsen High? Her first few superhero escapades with her friends, with the Young Bloods?

She sighed as she sat down on the side of the bed. Questions that were impossible to answer, she was smart enough to know that at least. Resigning herself to the uncertainty and doubt, she spied her reflection in the mirror of a nearby dresser. It was clear that she'd had better days. There were no bags under her eyes, no scars or blemishes on her skin, but her hair was very messy after the fight and everything that had happened afterwards, and the sullen look on her face did nothing to help her appearance. She had made no attempt to cover the missing skin on her cheek, either, instead leaving the pulsating metal beneath in plain sight. There was no way to run from that truth anymore, so what reason did she have to bother concealing it?

As she continued to sit and observe herself, her thoughts wandered back to her mother. She had often been told that she was a splitting image of her mother when the latter was younger, but now she found it hard to believe that they were that similar. It was obvious that she had not been born of her mother's womb after all, though perhaps she had been created in her image. The two had not spoken much recently, not after she had revealed that she was dating Angelica. It seemed so silly in hindsight to drift apart because of that, now that there was a much bigger, more problematic revelation to share.

The thought was frightening, really. She wasn't sure anyone would accept this truth, and her mother especially had reason to feel conflicted about it, so who was to say what would happen when she inevitably found out? A part of her considered that perhaps there was something she could do to help lessen the impact. Even though her father would tell her the truth, if she wasn't there when it happened, perhaps it would be easier on everyone involved.

If she just disappeared, then-

"Pumpkin pie, are you here?" Her father's voice could be heard as the door was pushed open and a crack of light broke the uninterrupted darkness of the room, steadily growing as the figure of a blond man appeared on the doorway. The girl jumped from her seat in surprise before stuttering out something to confirm her presence. Harry smiled, he had two cups of something hot in his hands. "Come with me, alright? I want to have a chat with you."

Then, the man backed out of the room and, after an agonizingly long moment spent deliberating, Alexis followed.

[The Republic of Atria]

Homecoming

"Hey Bael... I've got a quick favor to ask." Jason said. Bael was relaxing on the couch playing a video game. "Just for like an hour or so."

"Sure." He replied, turning his game off, though he noticed his strange quiet and somber tone as opposed to his usual lighthearted one. "Is everything alright? You sound kind of off."

"Yeah... It's something I've been procrastinating on and I figured that I need to tear the bandaid off now rather than later. I've been trying to psyche myself up for it all day, and failing. Anyways, uh, you mind putting on your hologuise for a bit and, at the risk of sounding weird, walk me home?" He asked. "I thought it was weird I got to see your home before mine." He said with a small chuckle followed by an equally small sigh.

"Of course. You want to talk about it?" He asked, walking to his room to snag the gift Alexis had gotten for his birthday. He flicked it on and walked out the door with his friend. "So, I'm guessing this is about you and your parents?"

"Yeeeah..." He replied. "We... Kind of never really got along. Got my powers a bit before the whole Young Bloods thing. Spent more and more time away from home, figuring them out and just not wanting to go home. It's why I spend so much time at the Tower. But you know. Things were looking pretty up since I joined. I don't mean to be a dick, but yeah. When I first met you, kinda saw that you weren't really... Fitting in. Obviously I never did either so I saw an opportunity to make a friend. I took it. You were having a bad day, figured the worst thing that could be said was you telling me off."

Bael remembered the night and nodded. "Yeah. I was having a bad day. Glad I didn't get mad at you."

"You and me both." He said as they rounded the block. stopping at an empty crosswalk. Bael went to press the button only to hear Jason snicker. "What?"

"Fun fact." Jason replied, glancing around to see no one paying attention, and popped the hard plastic casing off to reveal nothing inside. "They're just there to make people feel better. They operate on the timers the stoplights use. Most of them, anyways." He put it back, crudely, but it didn't matter. "...As you can tell, I'm clearly the epitome of a well adjusted child."

"And you joined the team to try to make friends?"

"That was part of it... Honestly, it was just an excuse to take out my frustrations in a quasi productive way. I don't think anyone's going to complain about a superhero roughing up some thugs. Made me feel strong. Like I finally had some freaking control over my life. Power and a friend. Still only the one friend though, but quality over quantity."

"How are things with your squad? I swear I'm the only one on mine most of the time."

"My condolences for being stuck with Deadweight. And uh... It's fine. Pretty sure I told you we gave the leadership thing to Shi. Who I'm ninety-five percent sure tolerates me at best. I don't even know if Wendy and I have acknowledged each other. Mark's got a used boxing glove for a brain and Ava is the one making sure he's aimed in the general direction of the bad guy. As you'd expected, I'm on the best terms with Mark. I think. Shi's hard to get a read off of. I'd say she doesn't respect me, but I honestly don't think she respects anyone."

"Can't say, I don't think we've said much to each other. " Bael replied. "She does feel a bit stiff around people I guess."

"It's better than actively being an asshole." He replied as they arrived a block away from his old home: A somewhat old and rundown apartment complex filled with identical gray-brown buildings laid out in rows. "And here we are. Thanks for walking me here man. Really needed the moral support."

"You need me to come with you?"

"Thanks, but I definitely need to do this on my own. Pretty sure showing up with you is only going to cause more problems than it'll solve. I'll call you if I need help though." He said and was pulled by Bael's large arm into his side.

"Don't do something stupid."

Jason nodded. "Yeah. This is probably in the top five most mature things I'll ever do. I think I can resist the impulses for an hour or two."

[North America Inc]

-Renata-

Shihong Smith
A glance down the tunnel confirmed her suspicions, it was the quickest path into the deeper echelons of the Palace. Renata verbally reiterated, adding, how short on time they were. The sound of metal bending backwards brought their attention back to the officer; while Shi had to admire her tenacity, trying to take a hostage now was outright stupid. Blasting her until she stayed dead was the easiest solution, it's not like she was that agile without the pack. Still Renata liked this Gabriel so best not burn him. The two heroines circled around their stationary opponent, each of them capable of landing a shot on her exposed head.

The traitor's eyes darted back and forth, her glare revealing a palpable anxiety about her worsening situation. She didn't have many options: either retreat back into the tunnel to regroup with the collaborators or up towards the surface, neither of them promising. Her hostage may be strong, but even that had its limits. But then what? Bracing herself against the dented steel foundation, she aimed the barrel of her arm cannon directly onto his temple. I can't let them leave my field of view. Directly facing Silver's spawn, she taunted and probed her. "You will not win." She stated plainly, "For every one of us you kill, we kill a hundred more." She shuffled closer and closer to the the outside entrance.

Neither of the girls spoke.

A single beep changed her entire thought process. Unbeknownst to the others, her earpiece let out a single, solitary beep. Her pack wasn't totaled, it was rebooting. If she could buy herself a few more seconds, than maybe she could kill this Condorian filth and flee. Her desperation turned into defiance, "What we do, no matter how cruel, how amoral, is for the good. Of our people. You and your father never understood that." Most of her words laced in vitriol, taken verbatim from Torres himself.

Shi skirted off to the right, the sensation of heat and electricity within her pack alerting the heroine to her plan. Renata had suggested that they simple overload her suit, however, with Gabriel in the crossfire, they needed a more delicate touch. Shifting to the edge of the traitor's field of view, Shi readied herself. Come on, do it.

"You're weak Martinez. You, you whore yourself out with foreigners and have the audacity to call this place home. You're no more Ecuadorian than that Chinita." Her jetpack audibly roared back to life, loud enough for everyone to hear. "You don't even have the strength of character to do this!" While she may have had the character, she didn't have the speed. Right as she pressed down her grip to end Gabriel's life, a plasma blast flew across the room and into her arm, knocking it back. Gabriel seeing his opportunity, elbowed her side. Trying her best to hold onto her trump card, she held him as tightly as she could as they took to the air.

"Not so fast." Shi muttered as she got in as close as she could before the traitor could escape. Performing a quick motion next to the jetpack's exhaust, she bended out it's heat and latched herself onto the girl. The three flew back down, Shi holding her palm right above the woman's face. She gave back her supposed avenue of escape, right above her eyes. The flame in a matter of seconds burnt away her vision, the woman screaming and lashing out in pain. Thrashing back and forth, Gabriel was able to slip away easily, while Shi regrouped with the three of them. The two girls helped the man onto his feet, "How are your injuries? Can you keep going?"

"This! This isn't over!" The traitor wailed. She threw out a few more profanities gripping her charred face, before her words morphed into deafening cries.

Shi spoke over her and asked Renata, "Should we continue?" Her expression absolutely unfazed by the maiming.

[The Republic of Atria]

Homecoming, Part 2

Jason glanced back to see his friend walking away, and then back at the building. "Too late for cold feet..." He sighed and walked up the stairs as he had many times previously. In some way, it felt almost nostalgic, probably for a time when he was younger and more innocent. He looked at the numbers as he had hundreds of times before: 221. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the key, but decided that it was smarter to just knock. So he did, the cheap aluminum door made plenty of noise when he did. The few seconds it took for the door to be opened felt like hours as the Hispanic man opened the door, seeing his son who'd been gone for months. "...Jason?"

"Hey dad..." He said. "I'm here. Is mom home?"

"She is." He replied, the two standing where they were for a few seconds. "Come in, I guess." He said leaving the door open for Jason. He entered and it looked and smelled just how he remembered it. Moldy, the stain and stink of cigarette smoke all hitting him at once, only reinforcing his decision to run away.

The Caucasian woman sitting and watching some of the news, glanced over to see him, and then back at the television. More awkward silence came until his dad spoke up. "Honey... It's our son. Why don't we all take a seat at the table and get something to eat and talk?" He said.

She replied by pulling a cigarette and lighter from seemingly nowhere, lightning it and begrudgingly walking over to the table in the kitchen.

"Glad to see a warm welcome." Jason said, his brain way behind his mouth.

"You ran away. We figured you didn't want to come back."

"Can't imagine-" He caught himself before more sarcasm could inflame everything more. "Look. I'm sorry, but no offense, no, actually. Full offense. this place is awful. I hate to say it but you're awful. Look at this place. It looks like shit. It SMELLS like a skunk sprayed, smoked forty fucking cartons, and then died. And oh boy, let's get started on-"

"Jason!" He dad shouted. "I understand you're upset. I understand why you ran away, but please-"

"Oh, NOW he grows a fucking spine." His mother said. "Want us to roll out a welcome mat for you? Well here you go!" She flicked the cigarette butt at him, it bouncing off his shirt and leaving some ashes.

Jason felt his face get hot, heart rate began to spike, and gripped his hand into a tight fist, hiding it behind his back as the sludge covered it for a second before receding once he got ahold of himself. She just needed to let it all out, and so did he. "Did you even CALL the fucking police? Either of you? Didn't see any missing persons reports with my name so obviously not. It's pretty fucking clear I was an unwanted accident." He said, stomping out the cigarette on the floor. "Can't take care of anything. Not an apartment, not a child."

"Why don't you just run away again? You seem like you're having a good time out there, or did you just miss having a roof over your head?"

"I came back BECAUSE I wanted to try to apologize!" He shouted. "Obviously, much like my conception, a fucking mistake. Kind of like you."

Jason's mother stood and and lunged across the table, but failed to even make it halfway as his dad caught her and held her back for a few seconds while she futilely tried to get out of his grip until she ran out of breath and was released. "Alright, we get it. You hate us and came to gloat about how much better your life is without us." His mom spat.

"No. I came because I saw what a real family looked like." Jason said, grabbing a chair and sitting down. "You know, the ones where the the mom and the dad love the kid, and likewise. Despite everything, I managed to, by some miracle, make a goddamn friend. Like, an actual friend." He resisted the urge to make another scathing remark, breathed out and continued. "Met his parents. They were really nice. Treated me really nice. Figured I'd at least try, even though failure seems to be a common theme." He muttered.

His dad sat down once things had calmed a bit. "And we really appreciate that." He said. "I definitely could have done a better job, and so could your mother." He said, trying to keep both sides mediated. "Things have been difficult and I'm certain a lot of the frustration that came with it fell onto you. You had every right to try and find a life we couldn't give you. And we're both so incredibly happy that you came home to try to make amends." He looked at Jason, seeing that he was wearing clothes that were clean and relatively new. His hair looked washed and taken care of as well. "Do you have a job? A place you're living? That friend you mentioned?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "It's a lot to explain. And it's legal most importantly. I got myself established mostly. Wanted to see if... You know, the situation here had improved any."

His mother remained silent for a few moments before finally breaking down sobbing, with his dad comforting her by putting his hand on her back. "Jason..." She said, wiping her face. "I'm sorry. I've been a terrible mother. I'm sorry for all the things I said." She said.

"It's okay." Jason replied, slinking into his chair. "Can't say I've ever been perfect. I've got some money... Maybe we could clean up a bit and go out to get something to eat? Maybe start cleaning this place up a little bit? It's not gonna fix everything overnight, but I think it'd be a start. We can at least try to be a family."

"Jason..." his dad started. "We'd love to, but... I said things have been difficult, and I wasn't lying. We had to borrow a lot of money from some less than ethical people. We haven't been able to pay them back, and they're looking for us."

"Huh." He said. "Alright. Well. I guess I should tell you what I've been up to." He said, standing up from his chair, the black sludge coating his entire body, with the exception of his face. "I'm... Well. A superhero."

His mother almost fell back out of her chair and his dad's eyes widened. "I've-I've..." She stammered as the realization that one of the superheroes she saw on the TV was actually her son. "You're with the Young Bloods? Oh my god..."

"Yeeeeah..." He said. "It's... Kind of what prompted me to run away in the first place. I didn't really know how to tell you, and to be honest, I was pretty angry. And it let me beat the crap out of people. Which made me feel better. Got in over my head. A lot, but I made it through. Made a friend or two. Anyways." He said, with the black ooze receding back into his body. "Don't worry about those guys, but if you're still a little afraid, I'll call for some Door Dash or something. Alright? In the meantime... Lets start cleaning this place up a bit."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

---

---

---

Thankfully, the Young Bloods' chance meeting with the Anticondoristas did not end in bloodshed - though their objectives were more or less in conflict, they had worked out a compromise that would satisfy both groups. Thanks to that, Kiris found herself inside the radio building alongside Wyatt, Yoshiro and Wendy, as well as Amadeo and his friends, who were no longer acting with hostility. In fact, most of them were hard at work trying to get through a door that, as it turned out, led into a storage room of sorts where the radio tower staff had been left, bound and gagged, by Torres' troops. Standing next to her, Amadeo pointed out that it was fortunate that Renata's father hadn't been involved. She would've liked to point out that he wasn't the one who had taken over the radio tower and taken hostage all of its staff, but for the sake of cooperation, she decided to say nothing about it.

As the other Hadrian explained the situation and prompted the Young Bloods to give the radio staff the message they needed to deliver, Kiris nodded and took out the piece of paper Mizu had handed her, giving it to the bespectacled woman who seemed to be in charge. "Here ya go. Our friend said ya would know what all of this means and how to get it to where it needs to go, so we're countin' on ya." She said, offering her and the rest of the staff a sweet smile in encouragement. She couldn't imagine how stressful this whole situation had been for them, so the least she could do was to speak politely, treat them with respect and offer a friendly face. She doubted it would be enough to soothe them after being tied up and left for dead, but it was something.

Watching the staff run from place to place as they took over where Wendy left off and continued getting the place up and running, the alien girl allowed herself to relax for a moment. They had more or less accomplished the objective and they weren't in danger here as far as she could tell, so there was nothing left to do but sit still until the message was sent. It was a welcome break in the chaotic haze that had become of the team's first night vacationing in Ecuador, but her respite was short-lived - as soon as she stopped focusing on her goals and on making sure everyone was safe, her thoughts turned to her friends who had gone to the palace. To Renata, who was desperate to know if her father was alright. To Mars, who had gone with her to try and help as he always did. It made her very anxious to be separated from them and the rest of the team in a territory that had suddenly become hostile.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, something came along that once more demanded her full attention. The entire building began to shake as if the earth was trembling, and she was about to begin grabbing people to teleport them to safety when Amadeo and Wyatt started shouting. A moment later, she saw through one of the windows the cause of all this - a truly enormous man in a blue outfit, some forty feet tall. Wyatt immediately jumped out to try to fend him off, perhaps a little hastily, though she reasoned that even if they had no confirmation that this was an enemy, they shouldn't run any risks. With that in mind, she turned to the panicked staff and spoke up, loud enough to be heard over the chaos.

"We need those messages sent but as soon as it's done I can get ya out of here safely! In the meantime, if there's anyone that doesn't need to be here, come with me and I can teleport ya down to safety!" She stated, before glancing at Wendy and Yoshiro. "Psyche, Wi-Fi, get over here." She told them. She didn't know if there was anything they could do against the giant man, but she reasoned that in any case they would be better off down on the street.

---

---

As the battle raged on around him, Icarus tried to find a new target to go after in order to continue to turn the tide in their favor, but as he looked around, he instead caught sight of a familiar cat-eared figure approaching. Scowling as he remembered the circumstances of their previous meeting, he watched her intently and saw as she created a fireball of sorts in her hand and tossed it in his direction. He stayed put, however, quickly noticing that it wasn't aimed towards him. Sure enough, it whizzed past him, and as he looked back, he noticed that it had struck a member of the superhuman task force instead, leaving him out of commission - clearly their strength varied greatly between members.

Looking back at the blonde woman, he noticed that she seemed roughed up and even had some blood on her mouth. Given that she worked for Renata's father, he could only guess that she had been doing her part to fight off Torres' forces. This meant that, at least for the time being, they were on the same side, as undesirable as the idea seemed to him given his first impressions of her. At least this time she's not pretending.

The Diluvian hero simply shrugged at her comment and then listened as she offered to help with breaking through Torres' siege and getting into the palace. He doubted this was a trap, and having some extra help wouldn't be amiss. Looking in the direction she pointed, he saw the hole that had been opened on the side of the palace by Torres' troops earlier, as well as the lone figure that stood in front of it. A young redhead, with pale skin and pigtails... she was much too thin and there was something clearly off about her, but even so she bore a faint resemblance to someone else that unnerved him.

He looked away. Even if he wanted to head inside and see if he couldn't rendezvous with Renata, he couldn't simply walk up to that girl - whoever she was. There were other things to take care of first. It was his turn to point, and he pointed at the two armored transports on the sides of the plaza, near the palace. The machine gunners seemed to refrain from firing directly into the fray to avoid friendly fire, but he was sure they were prepared to turn anything that approached the entrance to the palace into Swiss cheese. "We have to take care of those things first, or trying to enter the palace will be too risky. If you can take care of the one on the left, I can take out the one on the right." He told Marina. "Does that sound like a good plan?"

[Finland SSR]

Wyatt

November 19th

---

Amadeo Obregon, champion of liberty!

---

The Young Bloods went to action almost immediately - the dragon-man called out to the rest to seek cover and get outside before jumping out the nearest window to circle Titan, the Hadrian girl told the tower workers to hurry up all while calling to her teammates to get closer to her so she could get them to safety - she was able to...

"Teleport," Amadeo repeated the word under his breath, then he turned back towards his fellow insurgents. Miguel had already ran off towards the window, following where Bael had gone and watched the ensuing battle through the gaping hole. The Hadrian motioned towards the powerless rest, speaking:

"Go with her, you'll be safer on the ground." Though hesitant at first, Amadeo's team nodded one after the other and hurried towards the pink-haired Hadrian to take their spot in the impending teleportation. The blue-haired alien himself stayed, however - and with a determined frown, he turned towards the windows, the battle outside unfolding before his eyes.

Circling around Titan, Bael attacked with fire breath - Miguel, meanwhile, leapt out of the window and propelled himself across the air with blasts of blue fire, taking the opportunity to join the Dra'Quinni in blasting the gigantic superhero. Unfortunately, however, though the fire rolled across Titan's neck, it merely left several scorch marks and got the hero's attention. He stepped away from the tower and raised his hand, waving it across the air like a giant swatter in Wyatt's direction.

Amadeo stopped in front of the window previously broken by the Dra'Quinni, but his attention got caught by a purple-haired girl standing by the side. It was one of the Young Bloods - she was watching Titan through another window and focusing with her finger pressed on her forehead, but with the constant shaking and battling outside, she couldn't concentrate on anything meaningful.

"Darn it..." Mizu muttered under her breath and hissed.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Oh, uh..." the girl mumbled and turned towards Amadeo as soon as she heard his voice. "I... can cast illusions. All sorts of things, it's how I was able to escort our team through the city without getting noticed - and I was hoping to pull something to trip him over, but... that man's so big that I need to concentrate a lot more to fool his brain, and..."

"Would you be able to do something to cover me, then?" Amadeo suddenly interjected, getting Mizu to freeze for a second and her voice to crack before she answered:

"I-I mean, the same issue applies, but I think making you invisible in his eyes should be easier than-"

"Then do that."

"Wait-"

Without any further ado, Amadeo leapt, soaring through the sky and landing on Titan's leg, his claws grabbing onto the enlarged and thickened fabric and ripping through for a good meter or so before the Hadrian finally came to a full stop.

---

November 19th

---

---

Icarus did not refuse the selfless offer of support, and as it turns out, he even had a target to deploy Marina against - one of the armored vehicles, standing in the corners on the square and waiting for the Young Bloods to get in range. The Bakeneko got to witness the armored core of Torres' forces deployed alongside the rest when they first arrived to Independence Square, and forced her to hide in her sister's shop - they were intimidating back then and they weren't much less threatening now.

"Understood," Marina stated calmly and turned towards her designated target. "I wouldn't mind if a few of your friends cover me, though. And... make sure you don't get hurt. I know someone won't like that."

Without any further ado, the catgirl ran forward, shapeshifting as she went and transforming into a cat. The gunner waiting on the top of the tank quickly caught what was going on and aimed his machine gun, but the nimble feline ducked out of the way before the first bullet could hit her. The barrage left a trail across the asphalt, trailing after her before she leapt into the air, reverted back to her normal form, and unleashed several blasts of Fox-Fire.

---

Shihong Smith

---

The high-speed battle in the corridors turned into a standoff - holding Boulder with her arm cannon aimed at his skull, the armored officer turned directly at Renata, all while Shi slowly circled around the scene, waiting for an opportunity to strike. With one of her father's teammates moments away from getting their brain splattered on the floor, Shi was all she could rely on - and so, Renata waited, her teeth gritted, and maintained the standoff.

The woman's words were venomous. One after another, she listed grievances about the regime and about her. About their weakness. About their lack of stomach. About their whoring out to foreigners...

That wasn't directed at the Condor regime, was it? That was directed at her.

"T-that's not true..." Renata muttered, weakly. How much did General Torres' coup did know about her, and how much did her actions cause everything to crash down in the first place? Was she at fault for everything, not merely bringing her friends to Quito? The mere thought sent Renata's spirit faltering, and only the near execution of Gabriel and Shi's sudden intervention returned her back to reality. Taken down to the ground and losing her grip over the Condor, the traitor was finally down for the count. "Alright, we can-"

Shi was burning her eyes. Screams of agonizing pain filled the air, and immediately got Renata to stop in her tracks. Then, as if nothing happened, her fellow Young Blood tossed the charred officer aside and helped Gabriel up to rendezvous back to the pink-haired girl. She didn't even know how to respond, but she sure as hell knew that she had to say something.

"Did-did you-"

"I... could be a lot better, of course, but I suppose I should be thankful," Gabriel interjected and answered the question posed to him, slowly stepping back from both of the girls helping him up, all while breathing heavily. "I... still don't think you should be on the battlefield, Renata, but there's not much I can do to stop you now..."

"I know... but I can't just let Dad be in danger, no matter what happens," Renata replied after a long sigh. "Should we escort you somewhere so you can rest up?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll manage," Gabriel assured back, trying to strike a smile, but only managing the faintest one. "Your father is two floors down, at the laboratories - he and the rest are facing off against Torres himself - so, if you really want to lend him a hand... be careful."

"Of course, I-"

"And I mean, really, be careful. You can have trouble with that concept sometimes." Just hearing that got Renata to glance away in embarrassment, before gesturing towards Shi to follow her with a hand wave - they leapt down the hole opened by Gabriel and the armored officer's battle to drop down to the floor below, one of reinforced corridors like the prior one. In this floor, however, the spaces were wider and doors were infrequent - those which were around were wide open double doors, leading towards training grounds, sparring arenas, and gyms.

It was a rather familiar floor to Renata - here, before the fateful move to the United States, she first trained and harnessed her abilities, fired off her first lasers and threw her first energy blasts. That's not what was on her mind, though.

"Did you... really have to take that extra mile up there?" she spoke up, breaking up the silence previously only disrupted by thuds and something exploding in the floor below. "I mean, when you took down that officer... Knocking them out would have been fine, killing them would have been... terrible, but you just burned their eyes out for the sake of it. What part of that was necessary?!"

[Bentus]

Yoshiro Namaka - Psyche
Ecuador

---

Making her way beside Kiris as the radio tower shook beneath them, Yoshiro cast a wary glance towards the rebels that were accompanying them. Even if Kiris said that they had reached some kind of understanding, she didn’t trust the armed guerillas any more than she trusted the soldiers they’d encountered on the street. Fundamentally, their goals were opposed, and that meant that sooner or later things would end up coming to a head. The telepath frowned towards one of the youths’ guns, tensing up as Wyatt leapt out of the building to fight the giant outside. With Kiris focused on her teleportation spell, if those guns were suddenly turned on her and Wendy, would she be able to react in time?

Despite Mars’ attempts to put her worries at ease back at the hotel, Yoshiro’s gut still twisted itself into knots. Was it really the right thing for them to be getting involved in this? People were fighting and dying in this city, and Yoshiro could feel the tension emanating from the auras of both the hostages and the guerillas. They knew what was at stake here, and she couldn’t help but feel like they were stumbling in blindly.

Torn from her thoughts as she saw a giant hand swing towards Wyatt through the window, Yoshiro pushed her concerns from her mind. She couldn’t afford to be second guessing herself right now. She had to focus on doing what she could to help her friends. They could figure out how to deal with whatever came next once they were back to safety. But against the giant hero outside, what could she even hope to do?

Biting her lip, Yoshiro hesitated for a moment before she attempted the obvious. Recently, she’d been nervous about trying to use her powers more than necessary. Voice’s words echoed in her head, and memories of when she’d engaged with the gunslinger in the mall surface like fresh wounds. But sitting idly by and doing nothing wasn’t an option either. Taking a breath, Yoshiro silently reached out to start to mentally poke at the edges of their opponents mind, psychically looking for any kind of weakness that she could exploit.

Ash - Ashen Moth
Ecuador

---

The fist that flew over Ash’s head slammed into the lamp post behind her, ripping through the metal and causing the structure to get ripped from its foundations. Blinking in surprise at the agile movements of his opponent, the super left himself wide open as the mutant launched herself upwards from her courched position, slamming one of her elbows into his face with enough force to send him reeling backwards. Crying out in pain, the man clutched at his bloodied nose before casting a look of fury towards Ash. His eyes widened though as he saw that the mutant was already barrelling towards him.

Hastily throwing up his arms to block the flurry of strikes that assailed him, he winced as the strength behind each blow sent him sliding back a few inches on the pavement. Ash snarled at her opponent, determined to give this fight her all as she lashed out with all four of her arms so as not to give the super even a moment to recollect himself. She could say that she was fighting this hard since she was protecting her friends, and that she was determined to do everything she could to make sure that Renata would be able to save her family, but that was only part of the truth.

Since Casimir and Red had helped her find out the truth about her origins, Ash had felt lost and adrift. She hadn’t known how to react to the news, other than through a sadness that had driven her to largely keep to herself as she’d processed what she’d learned. But now, it was different. In the midst of the fight, as she felt each of her swings land against her foe or draw blood from his injuries, Ash didn’t feel sad. She felt angry, and that anger had been felt by each of the supers that she’d already fought so far. She couldn’t make anyone pay for what had happened to her parents, but she could make these people pay for what they were trying to do to her friend’s. And that made her feel good.

Extending her stinger from her wrist, Ash plunged its sharp tip into her opponent’s forearm, causing him to yelp at the quick, sharp pain. The effects didn’t take long to appear, as the man felt the strength retreating from his limb. His eyes widened, for a moment wondering if he’d just been poisoned by the ferocious creature before him. Ash didn’t give him long to dwell on his thoughts though, instead stepping in to brush aside his weakened arm and slam her own fist into the side of his head. The blow dazed the super and effectively ended the fight, but the mutant wasn’t done with her foe quite yet. Gripping onto the super, she let out a roar as she ripped herself around and swung with all her might, sending the nearly unconscious super flying through the air and into the nearest building.

Surprised at her own strength, Ash stumbled forward under her own momentum. Blinking as she tried to regain her balance with a few flaps of her wings, the mutant glanced at her bloodied hands. She’d never tried to throw someone like that before...she’d never thought that she was strong enough to even try. Turning, the mutant looked towards the lamp post that lay brutalised on the ground from her opponent’s attack. Even the thought of being hit by that much force made her feel queasy. It was the kind of blow that Casimir would have shrugged off without a second thought. In the middle of the fight, Ash felt like she was under a bit of a haze, and even now she found herself struggling to remember any specifics. She was certain that she hadn’t been able to avoid every attack. But how could she even still be standing after getting hit by something like that?

[The Republic of Atria]

Homecoming, Part 3

Jason pulled out his phone and quickly ordered some pizza and turned to look at the mess of an apartment that used to be his home. Nothing special, a simple, inoffensive pepperoni pizza. "Food's ordered... So I think we should clean up a little bit." He said, looking over at the mess of cigarette butts, old junk food bags, mystery stains and loose debris. "I guess I'll start with the junk all over the floor. Do we have any trash bags?" He asked.

His dad went into one of the old, paint chipping, wooden cabinets, and pulled out an unopened box of contractor bags. He tossed it to Jason who wasn't sure how to feel. His mother still sat at the table, probably spaced out or attempting to process how to feel about everything. "I suppose I'll get the vacuum." His dad said, quietly heading to grab it while Jason started grabbing trash and throwing it into the bag. Though rather than grab all the trash by hand, the sludge covered his arm and he swung it across the floor, picking up a large swath of the garbage and detached the tendril into the bag. It always disintegrated less than an hour after leaving his body, so it shouldn't a problem for the trash pickup. By the time his dad returned with the vaccum cleaner, Jason had gotten all the large bits of garbage off the floor.

"You work fast." He said. "How... How long have you been able to do that? The slime thing."

"Since... June." Jason replied. "About a month or so before I left. Funny part is, it found me. Practiced with it for a bit then went out to try to do the superhero thing. Turns out finding crimes isn't as easy as looking down an alleyway. Wound up joining the Young Bloods. Made a couple friends. Became a superhero, all that jazz. Figured with the holiday season coming up that I should at least try to come home and see if I couldn't get some closure on... This. Worst case scenario, I figured I'd just wind up going back to the team. Best case, we make up." He said, coming clean. "Glad it's the latter, honestly."

"I-We, appreciate that. Really. You didn't have to." He said, plugging the vacuum in. "You want to give me a hand with the couch? I'm sure it's probably got to be the worst." He asked, watching the the black slime coated one of his arms, like a tight fitting glove, he grabbed one end of the couch and lifted it with what appeared to be almost no effort.

"I'd be lying if I said it wasn't really freaking cool to be able to do this. Get the bag, I'll get the big stuff." He said, the sludge covering his other arm and repeating what he did earlier. "It's also super sticky when I want it to be." The tendril covered in even more cigarette butts, large dust bunnies and torn wrappers was deposited into the bag. "It's also super biodegradable, so the hippies can't get mad at me." He said in attempt o lighten the mood a tad. After he picked up the large debris, his dad turned on the vacuum and it immediately began to make the loud noise associated with sucking up large amounts of crumbs. It didn't take too long for him to finish and Jason put the couch back down and glanced over to see his mom still sitting at the table, so he walked over and sat across from her. "So. Did we both get the screaming and name calling out?" He asked

"I think so." She said quietly. "I guess I should have treated you a little better."

Jason felt some anger begin to rise and bit his tongue to refrain from saying something he'd regret. "Yeah. I think I would've liked that."

"Do you forgive me?"

Jason thought for a moment. "I could say I do, but I don't know if I really have. I can't just undo the last entirety of my life. I want to, but at the same time... I'm not sure. I think giving it some time, and maybe we can work past at least some of it. I wish I could just flick a switch and everything go back to being nice and carefree, but that's just not how it works. I want to make sure that we're both really in this to try and make things better. I don't want to waste my time or your time if we're just going to relapse back into ignoring each other." He said.

There was more silence for a few moments. "I understand."

"Think about it this way. Do you think it'll be worth the time for us to start having a respectable mother/son relationship?" He asked.

"I do!" She said. "I just... I don't know how."

"Well. When the food gets here, we can have a better chat and try to clear the air a bit more. I think we've gotten most of the anger out by now. We just need to... You know. Talk. Be around each other more often, that kind of stuff. See where it goes from there." He said and about a second after he finished, they all heard a loud pounding at the door. His dad turned off the vacuum and it heard again, louder, and with people trying to force open the door. "Fuck." Jason said under his breath. He silently stood up, and pointed to the back of the apartment and hurried them along while he headed towards the door. Looking through the peep hole, he saw three burly men, one with a baseball bat. Jason unlocked the door and the men shoved him over and immediately began to look at each other, confused. "I think you guys have the wrong place."

"Nah, we've been here before." Said the middle man, who looked to be in charge of the others. "Don't know who you are, but you're going to want to get out. Some people in here owe us a lot of money and they need to come with us."

"I see." Jason said, standing back up. "Here's an alternative: All three of you get the fuck out of my apartment, or there's going to be some pretty awful consequences, because I am not in the mood."

Right after he finished, all three men burst out laughing for a good thirty seconds.

"Kid. Kid. Listen. We don't have any trouble with you. On top of that... come on. Look at us. Larry over there has at least a hundred pounds and six inches on you. Drop the tough guy act before it gets you hurt." He pointed at the large African man who looked as if he spent every moment of his life in the gym. The leader himself looked to be unremarkable. Caucasian, fit, long black hair he kept tied in a ponytail, clearly trying too hard to be edgy. The last was Hispanic, but appeared as if he just joined for the gangster lifestyle, and brought the bat to look hard.

"Alright. I'm tired of warning people." Within a second, the ooze covered his entire body. "Shame you broke in. You're all about to be Castle Doctrine'd."

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

Red watched the girl leave, a curious eyebrow raised in respect to her last statement. Calm down, Red. Nothing but trouble there, he thought after a moment, shaking his head as he attempted to clear up his mind. He had bigger things to worry about than the teasing parting words of a girl at that moment.

Glancing down at his feet, Red lifted up his right foot and eyed the footwear that had been provided to him. Styled as moccasins, the exterior portion of the shoe was a softened leather that practically screamed exotic, and the interior of it was lined with a soft white fur that cushioned every single step he took. Although he hadn't even considered it making it known to Aislinn as it would have been rude even for his standards, he couldn't help but think they were a bit over the top given his current role. They even fit perfectly, almost like she knew exactly what size to give me. Makes me wonder how she managed to pull that off, Red thought to himself briefly before deciding not to ponder too deeply on it.

Eyeing the computer station set up in front of him, Red couldn't help but be a bit impressed at what she had given him. While far from being as tech savvy as someone like Alexis or Mars, Red could recognize that the hardware before him was top of the line. In fact, he knew that he had no way of actually using said devices to their full potential, which made him feel a slight pinch of guilt knowing that he was practically wasting their true capabilities.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Red reluctantly made his way over towards the main desktop, bringing the computer screen to life with the click of a button. In practically the blink of an eye the computer was already up and running. His fingers hovered over the keys as he hesitated to touch them. In terms of security, there was no way of knowing whether what he did would be monitored. In fact, it would be strange for it not to be. While he doubted Aislinn would do anything nefarious with such information given what she had stated her goals were, his old habits made him nervous to attempt to dive in too deeply.

After some time of internal debate, Red finally conceded to doing at least a bare minimum of research that he had been working on back at his own computer at the Tower. While he wouldn't have the ability to get into some of the more secured information that he otherwise could thanks to a certain gift from an old friend, he could at least attempt to look through what information was out publicly.

Unfortunately, this option soon went nowhere, as there had been no reports regarding the whereabouts of Marionette ever since the events of the Gala. Granted there were plenty of articles detailing the scandal that was the daughter of a prominent family turning out to be a villain, said articles were filled with information Red had long since collected and studied over. In fact, much of what he read over seemed laughably short of the actual truth, with much of the information provided being either second-hand information or pure speculation. He supposed that this was likely for the better, as what the girl known as Marionette truly was was something better kept hidden from the general public.

Eventually the sound of someone knocking at his door caused Red to pause in his efforts. Closing out of his tabs, he got up from his seat and made his way over towards the door. Opening it just enough that he could view whoever was on the other side, Red's eyes narrowed slightly as he saw a man dressed in a suit and tie waiting outside with a large rolling carriage behind him.

"What do you- Ahem, I mean, what can I do for you?"

Red caught himself just in time before he could say something rude. He reminded himself that as bizarre as a scenario that he had landed himself in, he still was technically a guest right now. Or rather, an employee in service to someone who held a lot more prestige than he was used to.

"I'm here to present your wardrobe for the evening dinner, good sir."

Red was taken aback at the man's declaration, glancing up and down the hallway with the expectation that this was some sort of joke that Aislinn was pulling on him. However, after seeing the expecting look on the man's face, Red realized that what was happening was far from some sort of prank. He briefly considered outright refusing but quickly dashed away the idea, understanding that for at least tonight he would have to play the role provided to him.

"Sure. Just...leave it out there. I can do it myself, you know?"

The butler gave a small courteous bow towards Red and quickly departed, leaving Red alone with the cart of fresh clothes neatly pressed and ironed awaiting him. Red paused for a few moments before reluctantly letting out a small defeated sigh, wheeling in the cart before shutting the door behind him with a little more force than he had intended.

---

Sitting down at the clothed table, Red's leg quickly bounced up and down as he waited anxiously for Aislinn to arrive. His attire consisted of a rather extravagant looking navy blue suit matched with matching dress pants, complimented with a yellow pocket square and yellow tie. He had hadn't had an opportunity to shower, thus forcing him to do his best to comb his hair with his fingers in as best of a manner that he could. The only oddity that came with his attire was the fact that he wore a domino mask over the upper portion of his face, one that seemed identical to the one he normally wore. While he didn't quite mistrust Aislinn, it was a matter of procedure to ensure that his identity still remain obscure in front of civilians.

Staring at the preparations before him, Red couldn't help but be impressed at the polished silverware and flatware before him. There was practically no difference in their shine compared to a mirror as the light from the candles provided a warm glow in his reflection. Folded neatly to the side of his plate were a pair of fresh napkins embroidered with what appeared to be a golden lace, its intricate yet unique patterns indicating that they were likely handmade by someone of extreme talent. Those that have money really know how to show they have it, Red thought to himself with a small grimace before collecting himself.

The sound of doors opening in front of him caused him to snap out of his thoughts as he looked to see Aislinn walk into the dining room.

[The Republic of Atria]

Homecoming, Part 4

"Fuck!" The leader hissed and backed up. "Larry, Hugo, fuck him up." He commanded and pointed at Jason who, even with his face completely covered, looked thoroughly unimpressed. Larry looked over at Jason and then back towards his "boss".

"Yeah, no." He said, putting his hands up. "I'm gonna wait outside." He said, then turned his head towards Jason. "You ain't gonna kill them, right?"

"Probably not." Jason replied. "Enough that there's going to be lots of regret."

"Aight. Cool. I gotta make a phone call anyways." He said and left, leaving Hugo and Jack.

"LARRY YOU FUC-" Jack was immediately interrupted by Jason striking him square in the nose. The audible cracking of his nose made Larry wince, even if he didn't see it. Jack's face turned red, he hissed and staggered back, barely standing as his eyes filled with burning tears. "Gonna... Gonna fucking kill you."

"Dude. Just stop." Jason muttered, taking a step forward until Hugo took a swing. Jason offhandedly caught his hands holding the bat, the forced the bat backwards, making Hugo hit himself in the forehead. Then repeated it again, and again, and again until the man fell over, his forehead bloody, purple, and swollen. He turned to jack who was struggling to keep his eyes clear, but had fought through the pain and pulled out a large knife. "Please stop. I get you're trying to look hard and be tough, but this can't be worth the broken bones."

---

Larry stepped outside and pulled his cellphone out. selecting the contact and letting it ring. "Hey there big guy." Came the female voice on the other end. "You're calling, so I'm assuming Jack and Hugo pissed someone off they shouldn't have."

"Yeah. They ain't gonna die though. We went to do the pickup like you wanted, but uh, turns out that they had a kid. Kid's got powers. Kids' pissed off and currently beating the shit out of them."

"Hmmm... Gonna make an educated guess here. Full body, slimy black suit?"

"Yup."

"Alright. Then we need to have a change of plans. That's Sludge. He's a Young Blood. Probably has mommy and daddy issues, and we just got screwed with timing of him coming home. That's fine, I'll work something out... Alright. So he's probably going to try to get some information out of you three. To spare you and our resident idiots some more broken bones, give him the address. He's probably going to call for reinforcements fromt he rest of his team, probably the cops too. That'll buy us some time. When he's done, bring Jack to me. And take Hugo to Fixer."

"You know I don't think that's a good idea."

"Yeah, but you and Hugo didn't want to."

"Aight, fine. But when he fucks up again..."

"The one thing we can count on Jack to do, is fuck up. He's been nagging the shit out of me about it since we started, figured I should give him what he wants. It'll prove my point. Probably." She said. Right as she finished, Larry looked to see Jack thrown from the apartment, and roll across the concrete, bleeding and writhing. Sludge walked out a second later, dragging a thrashing Hugo, by his leg, with him and then looked like he was about to start smacking Jack, with Hugo's body. "I don't like the sound of that. Might wanna stop him."

"Hey Kid." Larry said, interrupting Jason. "I think they got the idea. Ain't gonna do anything now that you won't regret later."

Jason was silent for a moment and then dropped him. Both men writhing, bleeding and groaning. "...Yeah." He sighed.

"Oh, you know what. Let me talk to him." She said and Larry complied.

"It's our boss. She wants to talk to you."

"Huh." Jason said, taking the phone. "All threats to you will be implied. What?"

"Woah, easy. Look, I'm real sorry about the two morons. They get carried away sometimes. I get you're mad, that's fine, I'd be mad too. I already know you're going to try to interrogate them for where I'm at, don't worry, I'll just give it to you. I know you're gonna think it's a trap, but, and again, I know it sounds incredibly fucky, and you have literally no reason to trust me."

"Especially since you don't even know who I am."

"You're Jason Reynolds. 18 years old. Superhero Alias is Sludge. You're on the Young Bloods." She said.

Jason was silent for a moment before speaking back up, flabbergasted. "Uh..."

"If you want, I can keep going."

"No, no. I get it. If you know all that, then you know-"

"Yeah. I've got some pretty educated guesses on what you're gonna do and even who you're gonna call to come with you to my little hidey hole. Just let Larry take the idiots away, call the cops, put your folks in their custody for protection if you want. I promise that they won't be bothered by me or anyone I know."

"Alright, I'm missing something here. You're clearly doing something illegal, and... You're just inviting me and my team to your hideout..."

"Look, you kind of threw a wrench into things here. There's a LOT going on at the moment. And I'd rather not explain it all over the phone. I gotta go, I'll text you the address. Bye!"

"Wait!" He tried, but it was too later as she had already hung up. He looked over at Larry who had picked up Jack and slung him over his back and was in the process of pulling Hugo to his feet. Before he could even speak, his phone buzzed, an unknown number had texted him an address. "How the fuck?"

"Yeah. She does that a lot." He said, sticking his hand out for his phone. "Probably don't mean shit coming from me, but she's good for whatever she says. Don't piss her off though."

"I think I get why... Fuck." He said and gave him back his phone at which point he just left, carrying the two men like they weighed nothing. He then called the police, gave them his address and informed them that there had been a break in and a gang fight. The police said that they'd be there soon, so he called up Bael.

"Hey Jason."

"Hey... Alright, so I need you to come over. I have a lot to explain, but I think I might have fucked up big."

"Dude! I was gone for an hour, what the hell happened?"

"Just get over here, I'll explain when you get here. Also, get Shi to come with you."

"Shi? Alright."

"Actually, I'll just call her. Just get here ASAP." He said, hung up, and called his squad leader.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

---

---

---

Not one moment after Kirisvala had issued her instructions, she began working, her soft voice reciting an ancient spellsong that was calm and mesmerizing to hear. As rebels, non-essential radio staff and even her fellow Young Bloods gathered around her, the alien girl continued singing until the melody reached a crescendo. Then, after a moment, reality around her and the others seemed to fade into a blur before suddenly returning in greater clarity, with the sole caveat that instead of the radio tower, those who had chosen to go with her now found themselves on the street below - behind the building of course, and far enough from the giant man that they were not at risk of getting stomped on accident or anything of the sort. Still, it wouldn't do to get careless in the middle of what was essentially a warzone, and so after successfully teleporting everyone out, she turned to address the civilians.

"Go find somewhere to hide while we take care of this! The further away the better, we don't know how much collateral damage the big guy is gonna cause." She cautioned them, and in response they promptly scattered into the adjacent streets, trying to get away from the coup and the soldiers and the warring superheroes and everything else. She could hardly blame them - she knew what it was like to be frightened and helpless.

After seeing them off, she glanced at the rebels, but opted to say nothing to them. They were not her friends and likely had a chain of command to follow, so they'd be able to sort themselves out. Instead, she approached Yoshiro, who had teleported down with her and was standing nearby. An idea was already starting to form in her head - she didn't have Wyatt's sheer strength, so it didn't make any sense to try using brute force against the giant, and hurling her white flames at him would be redundant seeing as both Wyatt and one of the insurgents were doing so already, to negligible effect. There was something else she could do, but to be successful she would need some assistance.

Which is where Yoshiro came in.

"Psyche, I think I can immobilize the big guy with crystals, but I need somethin' to distract him while my magic takes hold or the crystals won't be strong enough. Do ya think ya can help me out with that?" She said, hoping the telepath would be able to fulfill that part of the plan.

---

---

---

Hearing the blonde woman's parting comment, Icarus frowned. "As if I didn't know that already." He muttered under his breath as Marina began heading towards her target. I just hope that she knows that the same goes for her... He thought, for a moment wondering how Renata was faring.

Only for a moment, however. In as dire a situation as this, that was all that he had to spare before once more turning his thoughts to the battle at hand. Marina wanted someone to provide some backup while she tried to take out the gunner, a reasonable request. He couldn't exactly cover her himself, however - if he left the other gunner unattended, then the two of them, and anyone else who attempted to approach the palace, would be sitting ducks. Fortunately, Mars was still nearby after helping out with the wind manipulator, and he was sure that, with his gadgets, he would have something to offer.

"Rocket, go with her. She'll need help to get to the gunner." He told the younger boy briefly. He trusted that Mars had the wits and the tools to get the job done, but there was no time to lose, so, without saying anything more, he turned to the armored vehicle he needed to deal with. Disabling it on his own would be tough - he could move quickly and protect himself from machine gun fire, but it would take a lot of energy, energy that he had a feeling he would need later on to help out with whatever was going on inside of the palace. Leaving the gunner alone is not an option, though...

A sudden crash nearby caught his attention and he hastily turned around, ready to fight - but it turned out to be the limp body of another task force member brutally tossed aside, down for the count. His eyes retraced the man's trajectory and he quickly spotted Casimir's so called protege standing there. The moth girl was bloodied, though it did not seem to be hers, and appeared to be in a daze. This was a bad thing in the middle of a battlefield, but on the whole it was quite fortunate that she was here right now - she could provide him with some cover.

Or the other way around, rather.

"Ash!" He called out to her, pointing at the gunner atop the armored vehicle. "I need you to sneak up on that guy and take him out, I'll go up front and distract him!" He spoke. As soon as he noticed her acknowledging his words, he turned around without giving her time to refuse or back out, hoping it would force her into action. Immediately, he formed a blue construct shield, large enough to cover his whole body, and began advancing towards the gunner. His movement did not go unnoticed and bullets soon began bouncing off the shield, slowing him down - but as long as he was the sole focus of the gunner's attention, neither Ash nor anyone else nearby would be at risk.

[The Republic of Atria]

Someone ate his Spinach

It was even worse than he expected. His fire breath basically just singed the hair on the back of his neck. He tried to dodge Titan swinging at him, but with his lack of maneuverability, he failed and Titan's massive hand made contact, and not unlike a human slapping a big bug, Bael was sent crashing into the ground, a little dazed and covered in dirt and now realizing that this was something he probably wouldn't be able to brute force. He stood back up, his tail instinctively switching to balance his weight as he stumbled and finally got his bearings. He looked around and considered his options.

He could try flying and hitting him, but with the size difference the injuries would be negligible and he'd be in range to get struck even harder. He could probably take it, but there was no point, too much risk, not nearly enough reward. So his only option left was to use the remaining asphalt and do something with that. There wasn't a whole lot left, may enough to cover parts of his legs, but that wouldn't do much more than slow him down, maybe. Another, more brutal idea popped into his head. He frowned at the prospect of doing it, but he wasn't sure how out for blood Titan was...

Well, it was Titan or him and his team. He pointed his hands at that parking lot and for a few moments, felt pretty bad about what he was doing to the property, but things could be fixed and replaced. Parking lots could be repaved. He amassed as much of it as he could and forced it all into a sphere above his head, forming a massive round hunk of asphalt and concrete almost twice in diameter as Bael was tall, let it sink into his hands, tried to suppress the urge to think about the Dragon Ball Z reference, and with a combination of his own massive strength and his terrakinetic powers, launched the massive stone at Titan's head.

[North America Inc]

Jason

---

Shihong Smith
La Jolla, San Diego
When Jason called his team captain, she wasn't back at the Wonder Tower, instead a few miles north of the island at a upper class gated community. High above the jagged cliffs, the villa overlooked the ocean and sandy beaches below. Though the Autumn weather made any aquatic excursions outright unpleasant, a heated pool in its patio was more than enough to satisfy any urge. Staffed with servants eager to serve, the three teenage girls basked in just the sunlight, but the attention.

April floated motionless in the water, while her two other compatriots seated near by on a patio table. Bored out of her mind waiting for her friends to actually get in, she had swam back and forth, end to end, at least three dozen times. She finally took the hint and stopped prodding them, choosing to stare up at the blue sky and make items out of the clouds. "That one is so...poufy." Olivia wearing an all black ensemble, was passing the time painting her nails. Five in a dark black and five in a slightly darker black. Shi was sipping some tea while flipping through a fashion magazine. She wouldn't be able to finish it before heading to Ecuador; if it was a good enough read maybe she'll bring it.

Her phone began to vibrate and beep, she answered. The conversation was short and to the point, though Jason was obviously anxious about something. Something about his dead beat parents or something. Rolling her eyes as she put the phone down, Shi stood up from the table. On her ring finger by now, Olivia asked, "Oh is the fun over already?" Her remark dripping with deadpan.

"An asset from the team, apparently, needs my help." Shi grabbed her robe beside her.

"Wait, what's happening?" April swam to the edge of the pool.

"Shi got called into work." Olivia reiterated for April to hear.

Tying the robe around her waist, Shi shook her head just annoyed, "I swear I can't wait for the vacation so I don't have to deal with this."

---

-Renata-

Presidential Palace, Quito

"I don't do anything for the sake of it." Shi remarked, her head swinging back and forth to make sure that the area was clear. She knew that this question was coming though she didn't understand why. She personally didn't understand the need to explain her actions to anyone; there was a hostile and she dealt with them while staying true to the core tenets of the their code. The code is very black and white; if sight such an important sense to them then they should of included it during their squad meetings. Regardless of what she preferred, she understood that she had to respond. Renata wasn't above attacking her teammates in the line of fire after all, and this whole endeavor hadn't exactly left her in the best emotional state. Turning back to face the heroine, Shi composed herself into a facsimile of a friend, "She won't die if that is what you are scared about. One of her packs contains medi-gel, that should buy her enough time until the conspirators or loyalists to find and treat her wounds."

Renata's face made it clear that wasn't what she was looking for.

"In case you haven't noticed, we are on our own here. No police to arrest them. No one to hold them. We can hope that Silver wins and takes her in but..." The area around them shook, "But we can't plan on that. Did you want me to tie her up? She'll free herself with that suit of hers a minute after we leave. Knock her out? You do know that people only stay unconscious for about five minutes at most? But beyond that..."Shi walked up placing on hand on her hip and the other on Renata's shoulders, "I know it's brutal. Trust me, I was right there, staring into her eyes. But this is war. We haven't been superheroes since we all agreed to stay and help. Without her eyes she can't use her suit anymore. She's a nonfactor now. She won't be shooting at any other Condors, you've saved those lives. And the best part is, she isn't dead. Do you think if the situation was switched she would of been as merciful as me? "

She wasn't sure if she had gotten through Renata's big head but their time was running short and the enemy was making their move. "You love your father don't you? Wouldn't you do everything in your power to keep him safe? I know I would."

---

Site Avalon | June 25th 2017 | 6:00 A.M.| Part 1

Part 2

part 3

Lucilla 'Lucy' Giannini

Site Avalon
3:30 P.M.

The two stepped out, Father holding the door for Lucy though he took the lead. She had no idea where he was taking her nor did she care. As long as got to spend time with him, that's all she cared about. Quality time together though they weren't exactly alone. From balconies overlooking the grounds to the shrubs besides them, this whole area was filled to the brim with activity. Though this area was peaceful, it definitely wasn't desolate. Lacking any pockets to sink her hands into, she wrapped her arms around her waist. She didn't realize it, but her body expression along with her worried glare made her anxiety pretty clear. The Sovereign, looking back every other step, gave her an inquisitive look. "Do I frighten you?" He asked plainly.

"No, of course not, Father." She looked off to the side, "Though if I was to be a little honest, I am still a little scared."

"Now why was that?" He asked.

"I...don't know. It's because... What I am trying to say." A hundred different reasons compounded with a thousand different variations came spewing out her head and into her mouth, choking her tongue. Articulating herself correctly had always been a chore, one that she had yet to conquer since childhood. In many respects it may have gotten worse, a slight fluster morphing into outright agitation. "I'm just nervous, is all." She nodded, having finally settled on a response.

"Well that is always disheartening to hear, a child apprehensive around their parent." He paused there, as if the full realization of that statement had finally hit him. He raised his eyebrow for a second before looking down, contemplating on a thought beyond her reach. She could only guess as to inquire what he was thinking, she hoped that maybe he wished to have spent more time with them. As a child he had always been there for her in body but not in mind. All the doctors and teachers would proudly show the class off, whether that be a new move-set or their mastery of certain subjects. Yet it was from afar never once was a connection established, though the desire was engrained onto her. Deprived of even the most basic paternal relationship most of the children turned inward towards their own cliques or into an outright infatuation with the organization as a whole. The Sovereign morphed from an individual to an ideal, something they wanted to impress rather than someone they expected to see. She contemplated on that, had her isolation stemmed from that? If she had excelled to the same extent as the others, she wouldn't be in this situation today. Love was after all earned, not given. If she wanted to be with father, she should of fought harder for it. This was really on all on her. As usual. For what had felt like a minute, had only been a moment; he looked back and faced her, "Well I hope to make rectify that."

"Thank you." She murmured, her mouth made no audible sound.

Stepping onto gravel where an convoy of vehicles were parked, Lucy finally understood that she was being led out the grounds and towards somewhere else. At first they stayed close to the edge of the villa, an assortment of different statues lined her left while her Father walked beside her on her right. She eyed a few of them, each in it's own pose that accentuated their chiseled physiques. An ideal that she would one day have to embody as well. The Sovereign cleared his throat and slid his hands into his pockets before speaking up, "Tell me, my Lucilla, do you know what Akrasia is?"

Lucilla responded quickly, offering up a long and lengthy exposition on the Aristotlian concept with the same certainty as child reiterating what they had just learned from class. It was concise though it represented only a surface level understanding.

"Good answer." The Sovereign encouraged, "Pathos can be the death of logic. No matter how sweet and beloved that emotion can be, we can not let it get in the way of what is rational. What is right. You may have never have experienced yourself, but too often in the world beyond the oceans, people fail to grow. No matter how much they understand why they mustn't fall into the same trap that had ensnared them before, they give in. Regardless of how much we teach them. They may never be able to control their more baser instincts whether due to impulsiveness or outright weakness. One of my hopes was that one day you'll be a beacon for them. Being the symbol they looked towards for guidance."

Lucy had heard the same sentiment before but she never truly accepted it, "If all this pathos, all this emotion, is so bad then why do we even keep it around? Some of the technicians, teachers, and Shi always go on and on how emotional connection is weak. How you are suppose to exploit them so you can win at all costs That's the rational thing isn't it?" She motioned with her arms trying to prevent her train of thought from getting derailed. "At this point why don't we just let those robots from the sky just replace us and become these perfectly rational beings. I'm exhausted by these feelings, why don't we just remove them if they're so horrible?" She said, a little more aggressive then she ever meant to.

The Sovereign shook his head a little before smiling, "Then those teachers are failing you. You don't learn to control yourself through their removal but through the struggle. To be virtuous. To be kind. To be humble. To be the ideal you have to have your emotions in balance, it's no different than your mental or your physical fortitude. When people give in, they're giving into the excesses of their passion; going as far as to deprive yourself of them is as intelligent as sowing your mouth shut to prevent gluttony. You aren't learning self control, you're denying the lesson. It's no more than willful ignorance." He stopped their walk, pausing the two in place. They had since left the gravel and stepped onto the wet grass, a small lake coming into view, "What I was trying to say prior is that while I may have wished to be with each of you and help you grow, I couldn't. You couldn't. We couldn't. I had to deny myself, my greatest devotion needed to be with every single person out there. Or I would of failed. And we can't fail them. But just because I was never really there, doesn't mean I never stopped loving each of you."

The tone of the conversation had shifted from education to solemn, Lucy tried to get a word out but her Father held his hand up. "Let me finish before you respond." He started to walk again, and she followed suit. This time closer. "The Guild doesn't take humanity not as we hope but as it is. The Promised Day is upon us, where you'll take your rightful place with the rest of my children to guide the world into a more virtuous self. The end of these petty nation-states and their other obsolescent structures..." He sounded especially annoyed, "No more sleeping slaves to fate, our will will bend destiny, not the other way around."

He finally led them to their destination: a gazebo overlooking the lake. Not far from the chateau, the father and daughter sat down next to the other. A certain disappointment hung over her father's face, his eyes stared intently at edge of the lake. "Is everything alright Father?"

"I won't be able be there to see it come into fruition. I've always understood that from the moment I stepped on his path." His head listing to the right, "Though I am glad that you will be there to enjoy it. Our sacrifice will not be in vain."

"Thank you Father." Her words more palpable then before. She knew very little of the Promised Day, even if her siblings and her had been groomed for it since the operation came into fruition. It was as conceptual as it was vague, though she understood it's importance. But she didn't care about that right now, she cared that he finally opened up. While she wasn't naïve to believe that other's hadn't been told the same, hearing it now meant the world to her. She smiled at him, a tear or two ran down her cheek, "Thank you for telling me that. Was that your gift?"

He shook his head, "No." He laughed, "I wouldn't dare be that cheap. No, on second that, I'll give you the gift after dinner. I just wanted to show you the view out here, I know how much you love to bird watch."

Its true, she had such a fascination with them. A natural affinity. She loved to sing and whistle along with their ever present melodies. As if on que, a few birds of different sizes and shapes flocked their way over to them. She covered her mouth to hide her smile. A small blue jay perched itself on her finger and began chirping away, looking straight up at her as if it was trying to put a show on for her. While it's species may have included blue in its tile, in reality it was a bright vibrant pink; no doubt another product of genetic tampering that occurs on a daily basis on Avalon. "Did you make these ones two?" She asked without turning back to stare at him face to face.

She felt him shift his weight on the bench both of them sat, his hands resting on his knees. "Yes. I do hope you like it."

"I do, sir." She affirmed. She pulled it closer to her face, the blue jay undaunted, continued to sing. "Thank you Papa." Was all she could get out.

"My end draws near. While I doubt this one moment will ever make up for the hundreds of missed opportunities, I hope that we can at least begin here. Rationalization is just a poor excuse, contextualization however, is necessary. The world didn't need another father, it needed a Sovereign. In the same way it didn't need another baby girl, it needed a Lucilla Giannini. I didn't even realize it all those decades back. I was so callous then, so focused on the results regardless of the actions to see it. From my perspective, I saw the need and took the steps to fill it. It wasn't until I held him for the first time in my hands..." The mighty Sovereign chocked on his words, "I knew this road would be painful. Never did I imagine I would be the one inflicting it on myself."

Should I be angry? It was a grotesque thought, however heavily justified. She had every right to be. If she was going to let out her frustration now would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. It felt so vulgar, so unfair to him. It pained her how selfish was being, not thinking about the other's at there, only thinking about herself. The world needed him and she expected it just revolve around her. But for some reason, the resentment held onto the outer edges of her persona; refusing to ever truly leave. He had opened up to her, could she ever do the same? The blue jay had fallen silent, but she continued to hold it up and play with it. It rubbed against her cheek, tickling her immensely. Maybe right now wasn't the time for that. Right now I just want to enjoy the moment.. "I understand."

He tilted his head back and smiled, "Thank you."

There were no more words needed to be said. She laid down, rested her head on his thigh, and stared off into the lake. His hands ran through her extensive pink locks, scratching her scalp which soothed her immensely. She closed her eyes to the sounds of birds chirping overhead, enjoying the moment regardless of however fleeting it really was.

[Tomia]

"Rocket, go with her. She'll need help to get to the gunner." He told the younger boy briefly. He trusted that Mars had the wits and the tools to get the job done, but there was no time to lose, so, without saying anything more, he turned to the armored vehicle he needed to deal with. Disabling it on his own would be tough - he could move quickly and protect himself from machine gun fire, but it would take a lot of energy, energy that he had a feeling he would need later on to help out with whatever was going on inside of the palace. Leaving the gunner alone is not an option, though...

"On it!" Mars replied, he didn't exactly know much about Marina, but he understood why Icarus was asking him. It was clear the gunner was a problem and Mirana would need cover. He watched as the girl transformed into a cat and charged forward before changing her appearance to attack. He was worried that this would give the shooter time to respond. Mars had to think about what gadgets he still had left, and one such thing he had was the hand full of grenades he still had. He grabbed one, hoping it was actually the he wanted and tossed it at the machine gun. It activated, opening to reveal a flashing machine that emitted a buzzing noise before the gun began twisting and contorting until it was pulled towards the grenade itself. A powerful magnet. Mars thought it would be worth it to build something that would help him to disarm attackers. With the gun taken care of, Marina was able to focus on the soldiers themselves.

[The Republic of Atria]

Shi

Homecoming, Part 5

"Hey Shi. Meet me at the address I'm gonna text you." Jason said, in a rather rushed voice. "Already got in contact with Bael, long story short, we're probably going to wind up raiding a gang hideout... It's a long story, I'll get you the details once you arrive. Thanks." He said and hung up about as quickly as he called. Barely containing his frustration, he sighed and waited for everyone to show up. Not long after, his parents descended from the apartment and watched as several police cars were arrive and Jason waved them down. "Stay with the cops." He told them. He felt that they could be compromised, but also that it wasn't likely. Clearly the caller had some sort of cognitive power. Meaning it was likely she knew what was going to happen.

He explained what happened to the police, and they agreed to take the two into custody until the problem was dealt with. He kept an eye on the police car and it left and a few minutes later, he saw Bael flying overhead, and as he dove, glided and landed, not perfectly, a little skidding and off balance, but on his feet. "Oh thank god." Jason said, breathing a sigh of relief as his best friend landed. "Hey, I'll explain everything the second Shi gets here. The short version is we're probably wiping out a gang lair real quick... Wow, it's almost like the first night we met. Except your girlfriend isn't here."

"She-" He paused, realizing that Sina, was in fact, his girlfriend. "Kind of off topic."

"Yeah... Just a little frazzled." He admitted.

"I get it, this stuff normally doesn't strike close to home. I'm here if you need to talk."

"Thanks, really." He said, waiting a few seconds before talking again. "I know I've played up being the "funny" guy. The one who tries to keep everyone's morale up. Got a stupid grin and comment for every situation... I just..." He voice trembled a bit. "It's hard, man."

"Hey." Bael said, pulling his friend close. "You were there for me when I was having a crap few weeks. Don't beat yourself up. I'm gonna be here for you. I promise. We're going to get you through this. We're your friends." He said, hearing the telltale engine whirring of Shi's custom motorcycle.

Jason looked towards the entrance, and as expected, Shi entered, drove over, parked and hopped off with the same practiced elegance with which she performed pretty much everything. "Hey Red Princess." He said, his voice clearing up slightly. "I'll be quick. Came to try to fix things with my parents. Went... I'm going to say it went and leave it at that. Turns out they in trouble with some gang or mob or whatever. Said gang is clearly connected. Run by some lady apparently, and she's got some sort of cognitive power. Basically rattled off all my personal information despite this the first time we'd ever met. She even gave me, her supposed, address. Googled it, it looks like an old office building about 7 blocks from here. She sent three thugs, one had the right mind to not fight me. I... May have been a bit rougher than I needed to-Anyways. I got no clue what to expect." He said, the mental exhaustion clear in his voice. "This just hit me so close to home and I... I... I got scared, okay?"

Bael looked, he wasn't sure how much sympathy he'd get out of Shi. "Don't worry about it. The whole point of a team is that you CAN ask for help."

"I'm sorry. Let's just deal with this real quick." He said, pulling out his phone and rapidly sending both of them the address the woman on the phone gave him. "Lets take it slow. Lady's expecting us, she said as much. Probably going to have a fight on our hands. Any questions?"

[The Rebel Alliances]

Scott Green-Former Spectrum-San Diego

The aroma of coffee had hit me as I sat at the local Starbucks and worked on the latest project. Coloring comic panels of fictional heroic characters which were loosely inspired by our very own Young Bloods. I wasn't writing the story and was thankful for that. I personally do not find the writing to be all that great. The work is predictable and quite cheesy. In fact that is part of what drew me in to the project. Some part of me when I colored in these pages and drew the characters saw a piece of myself in the work. All artists see this kind of thing to some extent but for me it was different. This one character, Danny, was like staring into a mirror at the past me. The guy was just so clueless and cheesy it reminded me of the day that I humiliated myself in front of Shi when I was trying to come up with an alias to impress her. The returning memory caused a audible laugh to slip from me drawing the attention of a couple girls who sat at a table near me and glanced in my direction to which I gave just a slight nod. And they gave a polite smile back and returned to their own conversation.

My attention then returned to the work that I was putting the finishing touches on. There was another character whose loud and direct determination reminded me of Casimir. Then the memory of our battle on top of the Tower was brought to mind. It was not a pleasant memory but it had the effect of a domino falling to which I was reminded of the birthday party for Wyatt and my conversations with Renata, the sparring matches and the fear I felt in that first mission I was with them on. And as I closed the laptop and leaned back in my seat with my eyes closed as I focused on the memories I had known for a time that I missed it all. The comic was just something which I felt connected me to the team in someway.

I have wanted to visit the team for some time but I always made some sort of excuse not to go. And that's all they were. I am too busy at work. They are probably too busy saving people.

Casimir would kill me.

I smiled at the last one. I had recently heard reports that most of the team was off in Ecuador. But apparently some had stayed behind although who I could not say. I also had realized some time ago that Renata was not using the gauntlet I had given her. Which struck me as odd...was she perhaps waiting for me to come back? Or does she even have it anymore? I remember her using it in one mission but not since Warwolf. My eyes snapped to check the time and I realized I had a clear afternoon and so acting on a whim I decided to just go and visit the tower. If nothing else I could talk with Naja again. And I could always come back later when everyone has returned to say hello to anyone I had missed.

As I prepared to leave by taking the last sips from my coffee the girls who sat near me had stepped over striking up a conversation. "Hey, sorry to disturb you but we were just talking and both agree you look somewhat familiar from somewhere. Would we know you from anywhere or something?" I gave the question a brief thought then shrugged.

"I don't know. I could have been a Young Blood." At that we all laughed as they dismissed the initial question.

"You're pretty funny, sorry to ask maybe you just have one of those faces." And with that they were back to their own conversation. I placed the laptop in a bag and then stepped out of the Starbucks onto a busy sidewalk as pedestrians buzzed around me without a thought as I waved down a cab. The checker patterned car pulled up as a middle aged man leaned over to the passenger window as he asked where I was headed.

"Wonder Tower." I answered simply and his response was simply a look of initial surprise and then a hand motion to get in.

I sat down in the back seat and it wasn't too long before we were chatting to pass the time in traffic.

"So kid, you planning on joining? I must say I have lost track of some of the new additions. You must be pretty confident if you think you can get in now. It's not how it used to be a few months back when they were just starting out. I imagine all sorts of applications flood the Tower these days. So what powers do you have?" My eyes averted just slightly to the storefronts outside as I gave an answer.

"I make a pretty mean power point presentation."

The man gave a chuckle then pressed on. "No seriously, I am curious. What can you do?"

"You would not believe me if I told you."

"Look man this is four o'clock traffic in downtown San Diego. We have time...try me." I inhaled deeply and then exhaled in preparation.

Fuck it.

"Well I used to be on the team a while back. But I don't have any powers. I used an alien gauntlet which allowed me to form constructs from energy drawn from the emotional spectrum but I had issues with anxiety so I quit the team after my first real mission and gave the gauntlet to a teammate and now I am just going back to visit and maybe see if the gauntlet still fits." A long enough pause followed after that to where I thought for just a moment that he may have actually believed me.

"You were right...I don't believe you." Well, it was worth a shot.

The next hour went by in mostly silence as we finally arrived and I payed my fare and waved farewell as he drove off and I looked ahead at the Tower. Even after that long trip here I was partly surprised I actually came. Well I am here now so may as well follow through. I then approached the front gate and finally made it to the front gate where the cameras must have recognized me as I was allowed in until I reached the front doors where I knocked knowing that by now either Naja or another YB was aware of my presence assuming the security systems alerted them to my arrival and would be opening the door any moment now. Leaving me with nothing to do but wait to find out who would be greeting me after a couple months of absence.

[Finland SSR]

November 19th

---

Bael

Amadeo Obregon, champion of liberty!

---

The swatting, as inaccurate as it was, helped - Bael got swatted away and slammed to the ground, and Miguel followed thereafter, slammed far to the air and falling to the distance before he finally stabilized himself dozens of meters away. Now that the first wave got tossed aside, Titan could get back to tearing through the Tower to find whoever is trying to restore communications.

Right as the hero was about to grab onto the tower again, something flashed in the corner of his vision, before a massive ball of rock slammed straight into the side of his head. Where did it come from, and how did that Dra'Quinni manage to collect so much ground and rock in a single place, no longer mattered. The ball split and broke apart upon impact, and Titan stepped back, yelling in pain - which, thanks to his far enlarged vocal chords, came out as a monstrous roar. Not long after, a second equally powerful attack struck - Miguel was back, and fired off a beam of blue flame from both of his hands as he flew past, the attack slamming directly in between Titan's legs.

Both of the attacks got the gigantic hero to step back, one arm holding onto the tower for support and another holding onto his forehead, where a constant stream of blood was now flowing, drops trickling across the cheek.

"All right!" Miguel called out, his feet landing on a nearby roof with a quick slide. Unfortunately, the combination was not enough to take Titan down, and as he opened his eyes again, hunched over somewhat while still holding onto the tower, he saw little people running around not far from his feet. How did the terrorists inside manage to get down so quickly? It didn't matter - the larger group, clearly the weaker ones, were moving away, searching for places to hide, while the rest stayed. One could only assume they were about to pull something against him.

So, Titan figured to put a stop to it in advance - sending a fist crashing down, cracking the ground as it struck. As for the dragon-man flying around and throwing rocks at him...

From his belt, the hero pulled out a knife - enlarged much like the rest of his body and so now several meters long - and slashed across the air with it, getting a few swings in before he had to stop. Someone was poking him.

When Titan's fist first crashed down on the ground, Amadeo jumped from the legs to the arm - and ran across the limb up to the shoulder, where he struck the gigantic super's neck with his claws. Against Titan's thickened skin, it only managed to get hand-deep and puncture a few smaller blood vessels, but it got the hero's attention regardless. He stopped, pressed on the wound to see the blood, and began sweeping around his shoulder to get the annoying Hadrian off.

---

Mars

---

Even without his characteristic suit of armor, requesting Mars's support paid off - a grenade suddenly whizzed by Marina as soon as she landed on her feet, and sticked to the barrel of the machine gun. Inside it was a powerful magnet which immediately activated and began to contort the metal construction of the weapon.

"God damn it!" the soldier called out as soon as the firing ceased, slapping the machine gun in a futile attempt to get it working again, before a kick landed straight in his throat. Thrown out of his seat atop the armored vehicle, the soldier slid across the plating and fell to the ground, while Marina began working her way inside. There were two other soldiers inside - one after the other, they got punched down and thrown out into the open.

"Now, what do we have here..."

As tempting as it was to try firing up the engine of the vehicle and storm the Palace with a tankette's firepower, she put the idea aside. You need to have gone through special courses just to pilot it, and Marina's agent training only included the very basics on what the inside of an armored vehicle looks like - you know, just in case. And even then, you can't drive it alone, she would need to bring the kid...

"Although..." Speaking of him... weren't most APC crews in the Army provided with backup anti-super equipment in case they break down? It was usually tucked away in... "Ah, right next to the hatch..." Marina ripped out a boxy suitcase from inside and tossed it out, yelling:

"Hey, kid, catch!" A plethora of tools were inside - a retractable energy shield much like the ones wielded by the soldiers in the hotel, and a pistol with several labelled types of rounds - stun, freeze, explosive and more, for all kinds of supers which the Army may get to face. The Bakeneko's head peeked out from the hatch afterwards, and she spoke:

"I know you know how to work these," She didn't even need her dossier on the Young Bloods for that one. "This'll help you stand your ground a bit."

---

Presidential Palace, Quito

---

"That's pretty much what he would say..." Renata muttered under her breath after Shi's long winded defense - a hint of venom in her voice, but mostly mere resignation. A lot of what she said, in fact - that she knows it's brutal, that this is war, that giving one person such agonizing pain is worth it if it means that a lot more people are saved... And what was worse, she didn't really have a good argument against it. There were times when acting like a hero is more a game of calculation than... actual heroism.

"Even if all of that is true, it doesn't mean I can't hate it," the pink-haired girl continued, looking away. "I'd rather not have that be a part of my life - I'm sure you understand that."

Maybe she should be thankful that she's with Shi so her teammate can jump that bridge without the hesitation... on the other hand, Renata could not deny that she'd gotten vicious at times herself, in ways which Shi herself could attest. But that's even worse, isn't it?

Pushing her inner thoughts aside, Renata led the way through the rest of the floor - the stairwell to the floor below stopped the two girls in front of a reinforced steel door. Streaks of plasma immediately began to swirl around her hand, ready to blow it open - if Gabriel was right about the main battle happening two floors below his, then they had to get ready in advance.

Someone was speaking on the other side, the voice coming out too muffled past the walls to figure out what was saying - then, suddenly, the door swung wide open. Olivia, alias RADAR, now stood before them, one hand holding an energy shield and the other a pistol. A destroyed scene unfolded behind her - from the shards of glass scattered across the floor, computers and massive machines shooting electric sparks, and walls plastered with wires going in and out, Renata could only guess that this was the compound's laboratories. Here, new equipment and tools were designed for Ecuador's supers, the army, and the Condors themselves.

It has seen better days. Emanuel, alias Goldilocks, was holding onto a centrifuge machine, panting and keeping one hand on his hip, trying to stop the blood flowing. Sergio, alias Silver, was on the ground - he was covered in metal from head to toes, and slowly pulling himself off a crack in the floor.

Followed by a handful of armored soldiers, an another man was approaching Silver. The General himself, and with a large, impressive, shining suit donned. RADAR lowered her shield in shock as soon as she realized that it was Renata and a friend of hers standing in front of her, only for the girl to suddenly push her aside and lunge forward. With a spirited yell, Renata unloaded her gathered plasma, firing off an energy blast straight into Torres' chest - it detonated flashing brightly for a second before covering much of the room in smoke.

"Why are you..." her father mumbled under his breath, glancing to the side to see who had just joined the fray.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 26th

---

Previous part

Alexis found herself standing on the small balcony that overlooked the street, located just above the front porch. She held in her hands a cup full of hot cinnamon honey tea, which had been her favorite non-carbonated drink for as long as she could... 'remember', and one her father was always happy to make for her. That much hadn't changed yet, it seemed, though she could not help wondering how much longer that would continue to be the case. As he stood next to her, gazing out at the tranquil suburban landscape, his gentle demeanor seemed unchanged, though the air around him was uncharacteristically solemn. Between him and her mother, he had always been the more carefree and fun-loving of the two, leaving the seriousness for his wife, so seeing him like this was rare, and only made her all the more worried about whatever it was that he wanted to say to her.

For what felt like the longest time, however, he did not say anything. He simply stood there in the cool night breeze, sipping on his own tea and staring off into the night. Lacking the courage to speak up first, the blonde girl could only stare down at the cup in her hands, staring at the steaming hot liquid as though it might hold some sort of answer. It was all in vain, of course, and after a few more seconds of helpless staring, she brought the beverage up to her lips. Immediately the sweet taste filled her mouth, reminding her of simpler times, fictitious or not. It was a much needed comfort for the girl, who let the warmth flow through her body and ease her frayed nerves a little bit. It wasn't much, but a taste of home helped her keep her wits about her.

Finally, she worked up the courage to speak first. "Daddy..." She began, though she cut herself short before she could continue. 'What did you want to talk about?' was a stupid question, they both knew what this was going to be about, it was painfully obvious. Before the silence became too awkward, however, she settled on an alternative. "What did you want to say?" She asked him as he sipped on his cup and finally turned to look at his daughter. Her first impulse was to look away, but she resisted it and held his gaze. It too seemed unchanged, his eyes full of kindness as always.

"Well..." He took a deep breath. "I wanted to say some things that I've thought of, some things I believe. About you and me, and our family. The first and perhaps the most obvious is that I don't know what you are, or where you came from." He said calmly, the words stabbing deep into Alexis, who gave in and averted her gaze, trying to resist the urge to run and hide. It hurt to hear it, but it needed to happen, and she knew that. Harry noticed her reaction, but rather than say anything about it, he simply continued. "I think the signs were always there, you know? Some memories I have from years ago didn't quite seem to line up with the rest, some old documents didn't make a lot of sense. But whenever I thought about it, it seemed easier to just ignore it. There was no reason to think something was wrong, after all. You've also always been special, though we did not think much of that either. In a country full of superheroes, how out of place could that be?" He explained, pausing to drink some of his tea.

"I don't know what you are or where you came from... but I know who you are. You're my daughter, Alexis." He told her with the same calm tone he had used throughout. Such a statement came as a shock, and as she turned to look at him again, she noticed he had smiled softly after uttering those words. "I'm not sure how long you've been with us, but everything I remember, everything I know, and everything I feel tells me that you're my daughter, and tonight doesn't change that at all." He stated. "I know you're scared, so I wanted to tell you this so that you know you can count on me. I'm your father, after all."

Alexis looked up at him, tears already welling up in her eyes. "Aren't you... aren't you afraid of me? Of what I could do? I-I mean, I'm... some sort of robot. I could be... p-programmed to do bad things, like the one that attacked New York! I..." She trailed off, her lips quivering at the thought of all the sorts of horrible things she could unknowingly do. To her family, to her teammates, to her friends...

Noticing her distress, Harry reached out and affectionately ruffled her hair, hoping to comfort her. "Little biscuit, I think the only one afraid of you is... well, you." He said. "You're the sweetest thing I've ever seen, I just can't picture you serving some evil design. Besides, you're the smartest person I know. If there is someone who can figure that out, it's you, and if there really is some sort of danger that could threaten us, I know you'll protect us. You're a superhero after all, aren't you?" He spoke softly, still smiling at his daughter. "With Makeshift here, how could I be afraid?"

At this, Alexis could not help but smile, even in spite of her teary eyes. Every word of love and support filled her with more warmth than her cinnamon honey tea ever could, giving her a sense of security that she desperately needed after the events of that night. "Thanks, daddy."

Hearing her, he simply chuckled. "You don't have to thank me, sweetie. What kind of father would I be if I did any less than this?" He stated, pausing again to drink his tea as he looked out at the streets once more. "You know, your mother has always wanted a big family. I've known as much... basically since I met her." He laughed. "She comes from a big family herself you see, and even after she became estranged from them, she always said she wanted to have one again. But... well, I'm sure you've noticed it's just the three of us so far. You have no siblings. There's a reason for that, surely." He stated, and for a moment found himself at a loss for words before deciding to leave the rest unspoken. This was not about him and his wife, after all, it was about the little girl next to him. "Whatever you are, wherever you come from, you're a part of our family, Alexis, and for us, having you here with us is a miracle."

At that moment the blonde girl could no longer hold back her tears, but they were not of sadness anymore, they were tears of joy. Carefully placing her cup on the balcony's railing, she hugged her father. Harry chuckled and held her close, running his hand through her short hair. He could feel her tears soaking into his shirt, but that was alright. Comforting his little miracle was the only thing that mattered right now.

After a while, Alexis finally broke up the embrace, wiping away the few tears still in her eyes and smiling up at her father. "I feel much better now." She said, and then, more softly, "I love you, dad."

"I love you too, bubble gum. I'm glad you're feeling better." He replied, before attempting - and failing - to stifle a yawn. "Now, it's been a long night and daddy needs some sleep, alright? Oh, and about your mother, I'll explain everything to her, so you don't need to worry. Just remember she loves you very much, just like I do." He smiled softly at his daughter, patting her head one last time before heading indoors.

"Dad?" Alexis called out to him before he left, and he stopped in his tracks, glancing back with curiosity.

"Yes?"

"Can I... stay here for a few weeks?" She asked awkwardly. After everything that had happened, she didn't want to go back to Wonder Tower right away.

"Of course you can. This is and will always be your home." He replied with a smile, before turning back and heading to his room. "Good night, sweetie."

"Good night, dad."

The door to her parents' bedroom opened and then closed, and Alexis found herself on her own, just like every night. Feeling much more at ease than when the night had begun, she grabbed her cup of tea, now lukewarm due to the cooling breeze, and sat down on the balcony, looking up at the night sky.

---

Hours passed, but the sky did not lighten up, and would not do so for several hours yet. Thus the bored Alexis took to wandering around her childhood home... if she could even be said to have had a childhood. For every part of the house there were several precious memories, and though she did not know how many of them were real and how many were fabricated, she opted to cherish them all the same. They were still a part of her life and a part of her family, after all. But after some time spent pondering her past, she found herself sitting on the stairwell, an empty cup in her hands. It was going to be a long night, but at least she could do some thinking on how she was going to tackle this in the coming weeks.

Out of nowhere, a small figure moved across the hallway, stopping halfway through and turning to look at her. It was her mother's cat, Matt. Matt the Cat, she liked to say. A fat silver tabby that always ran away from her whenever she approached him. Suddenly, it all made sense.

"No wonder you don't like me." The blonde girl spoke, mostly to herself, as she knew that the cat couldn't understand her. "You're happy in your home and suddenly a stranger appears and acts as if she's been here all along... you must have been very scared." She continued, the feline simply staring at her in return. After a pause, she let out a resigned sigh. "I guess that makes two of us, then..."

There was a noise at the door. Matt ran off to hide under the furniture, startled, but Alexis knew that it was simply the sound of a key turning inside the lock. That in itself was concerning, however. Her father hadn't yet spoken to her, and the genius girl didn't feel prepared to explain things on her own terms. Before she could think of moving elsewhere to avoid being seen, however, the door opened, and a slender figure stood in the moonlight, a slightly tall woman with long blonde hair, wearing a fancy blue coat and dragging a roller bag behind her. Seeing Alexis sitting on the stairs, she froze for a moment before closing the door behind her and running towards the girl, crouching to her level and throwing her arms around her.

"Baby girl! I'm so glad you're alright!" Madison Callaghan said as she smothered her daughter in hugs and kisses. "I was so worried about you. When I heard about what happened at the mall, I cancelled my flight and came straight back home! I had some issues, but-" She spoke, only to interrupt herself and shake her head. "That doesn't matter. How do you feel? Are you in pain? Did those villains hurt you anywhere?" She asked hastily.

"Only my pride." Alexis replied with a weak chuckle, returning her mother's embrace. "I'm fine mom, really. It was scary, but... well, I'm here now, right?"

At this, Madison smiled. "That's my girl, always standing up when life kicks you down. You're right, you're here now and that's all that matters." She said. "I'm proud of you for standing up for what's right, but if it gets too scary, remember you can always come home with us where it's safe." She added before standing up, starting to take off her coat as she walked towards the kitchen. "Are you hungry? Did your father make dinner for you? Do you-" She began, firing one question after another again, but before she could continue, Alexis' voice interrupted her.

"No no no, I'm not hungry, don't worry. I'm a little shaken, but I'm going to be fine, I don't need anything." She replied hastily, standing up as well and moving away from the stairwell. "It's late, aren't you tired? You should rest, mom. I'll be fine." She suggested. In response, Madison seemed to slow down and walked back out of the kitchen, placing her coat on a coat rack near the door and leaving her roller bag just below it.

"Yes, I'm a little tired. I just wanted to make sure you're alright, but if you are, then I can rest easy knowing that." She said, before walking up to Alexis and tenderly kissing her forehead. "I love you, Alexis." She said with a soft smile before beginning to head up the stairs.

"I love you too mom." The blonde girl replied. She waited until the bedroom door opened and closed before letting out a sigh of relief.

She never noticed the wound on her cheek, or the metal underneath.

Alexis knew it was only a matter of hours until the three of them had to talk things out, but for now, at least, she could relax. And with everything that had been said that night... she had begun to harbor hopes that things wouldn't be as bad as she had imagined. One thing was certain, however.

"It's going to be a long week." Alexis told herself with a sigh.