Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[North America Inc]

-Renata-

Shihong Smith
'I'm sorry my life doesn't revolve around your delicate sensibilities you bipola...' Shi held her mental tongue, nodding along to Renata's plea while simultaneously replaying that scene on the plane all those months ago. The absolute gal of her to even imply that Shi should feel sorry about the trauma she was putting her through was a whole new level of self delusion. She could feel her teeth scraping each other, her usual composure maintained while internally screaming. This was the same woman, mind you, couldn't even verbalize an apology for trying to kill her until Shi pried it out of her kicking and screaming. 'God I hate everyone on this team so, so much. This assignment has been so egregiously unprofessional and mismanaged, Lucy couldn't flounder this hard.'

"It's fine, I understand. Let's just keep moving. We can talk about it later." Shi patted her shoulder a few more times before looking off towards the destination ahead. The pair made their way down a concrete stairway; the walkway missing the occasional railing or the edges of the stairs having been cracked or chipped off. Lining the way was even casings of the Major's arm canon, along with the occasional exhaust black streaks against the stairway's side. It didn't long to descend, even with the two having decided to play it safe and not rush down with a bombastic display of flight. Once they reached the reinforced steel doors, both of them began to charge their heavy attack though it wasn't necessary.

The door swung open, more so through force than a command key. A white haired meta had blasted through the door to provide an avenue of escape, however unlikely an escape was with the phalanx of armored soldiers behind them. Shi could only hazard as to guess what the room was for, but the sheer amount of supplies provided a modicum of benefit: a line of gear and equipment provided impromptu cover between them and the conspirators.

"Ugh." The man to her left side belched out as one hand operated a machine, the other gripped his thigh. Though concealed by his torn uniform with the dripping being so audible, the wound was no doubt life threatening. Doing the right thing, Shi made her way to the injured officer while Renata hypnotized by the scene of her father on the floor ran toward him. She let out a single concentrated blast right toward the man standing over him, concealing the room in a cloud of smoke. Using that time wisely, Shi warmed her hand and pressed it against the man's thigh,"Agh! What are you doing!?" The man already on high alert almost punched her before she caught his fist.

Done asking for permission, "I can only sear the top layer, internal bleeding is still an issue." She ripped the cut on his pants further just so the fabric didn't meld onto his skin.

"Right." He nodded graciously though his expression was one of discomfort. He lifted his other hand onto the command console but the pain was too much. He was able to do a little more but he had to stop and beg, "Stop, give me a second."

"If what you were doing so important that armed men wasn't enough to abandon your post, don't let me stop you." She knocked against the machine, "Get to work." The wound was almost fully closed by the time the smoke was beginning to clear, the silhouette a man unphased coming into view.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

---

---

While waiting for Yoshiro to answer her in the heat of combat, Kirisvala momentarily lost sight of the greater picture, literally - and placing her attention anywhere other than the gigantic hero turned out to be a remarkably poor decision. She only noticed the massive fist approaching because of the looming shadow at first, and as she turned to acknowledge its source, her eyes went wide in shock. There were only a few seconds until Titan's fist crashed into the ground and crushed or sent her, Yoshiro and the insurgents flying back, which could cause a lot of harm and leave them open to further attacks. Acting quickly, the Hadrian girl unhooked one of the three small azure crystal rings on her bracelet and crushed it in her fist as she slammed it against the ground. Immediately, a translucent white barrier surrounded the area around her, as notes from the Song of Sanctuary echoed faintly across the wind, as if played by glass chimes in the distance.

Titan's fist, massive as it was, could not breach the magical barrier, the Sanctuary. Instead, it slammed into it and slid downwards with great force, continuing on until it hit the ground, the sheer impact leaving it cracked. Neither the impact nor the ensuing shockwave, however, affected Kirisvala or any of the people protected by the barrier, a group that included Yoshiro and most of Amadeo's friends.

The notes faded after a few moments and the barrier disappeared, but its purpose had been accomplished. Relieved that she had managed to protect everyone, at least this time, the alien sorceress nonetheless knew that the battle was far from over. The big guy meant business, and that meant that there was no room for hesitation or half-measures anymore - everyone had to do their job in order to earn this victory and help Renata.

"Psyche! I'm countin' on ya!" She shouted at Yoshiro. Immediately afterwards, Kiris began singing a song that was different from the one before, yet all too familiar - the Chorus of Crystal. As she chanted the ancient spellsong, a sturdy wall of white crystals began growing around both of Titan's feet, encasing them completely and growing thicker and thicker as they rose, the girl aiming to encase him up to the knees to properly immobilize him.

[Bentus]

Yoshiro Namaka - Psyche
Ecuador

---

-snip-

Yoshiro hesitated as Kiris asked her to distract the giant of a man that was fighting their friends. Even in the heat of the moment, she felt a twisting in her gut at the thought of stepping into someone’s mind again. Her confidence had been knocked by the encounter at the mall. Voice had said that she needed to be willing to get violent with her abilities, but...she didn’t want to be cruel.

By this point, Yoshiro should have known better than hesitating in the middle of a fight. She did know better, but she let herself freeze anyway, and she very nearly paid the price for her indecision as a shadow was cast over her. Glancing up to see the titanic fist looming above her, the telepath was about to create one of her own shields when Kiris reacted first. Sighing in relief as the villain’s...hero’s...attack was deflected, Yoshiro tensed up as she heard the hadrian address her.

“Psyche! I’m countin’ on ya!”

Frowning at Kiris’ words, Yoshiro couldn’t back out now. She had to at least try. Steeling herself, she took a breath and closed her eyes, reaching out towards Titan’s aura. Finding a weakness, she forced herself not to hesitate as she forced herself into the hero’s mind, sending a stab of mental pain into his head as she pushed past his defences and into his mindscape.

She just had to keep him distracted. The others would take care of the rest.

Ash - Ashen Moth
Ecuador

---

-snip-

"Ash!" Blackout’s voice snapped Ash back to her senses, and she looked up from her hands to see the hero gesturing towards one of the military vehicles guarding the palace. "I need you to sneak up on that guy and take him out, I'll go up front and distract him!"

“R-right!” She called out, forcing herself to focus back on the fight at hand. But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears as the boy had already turned to draw the attention of their opponents.

Immediately, the roar of the heavy weapon barking into life filled the air as Ash tried to think of the best way to cover the distance to the gunner. Flapping her wings, she took to the air. Time wasn’t on their side, she knew this, and while she didn’t have any cover from below, she reasoned that all the attention was going to be concentrated at the unfolding brawl at ground level. By flying, she’d be able to close the distance before anyone would even know that she was upon them.

Flying over the battlefield, Ash took a moment to scan the battle from her peaceful perch above it. If their goal had been to draw the attention of the rebel forces, then they’d certainly succeeded. The signs of fighting littered the palace courtyard, with unconscious and injured bodies lying where the Young Bloods had left them, while smoke and the smell of gunpowder lifted even up to where she floated. She saw Mars and what she assumed to be a new ally taking out one of the armoured vehicles, leaving only the one that Blackout had tasked her with finishing off. Turning her attention back to her target, Ash felt her heart drop as she met the gaze of a single figure standing beside the tank. The dismounted soldier was staring wide-eyed, probably having looked up by pure chance to see the mutant quickly approaching through the air. For a moment, the two remained frozen by a shared surprise at seeing each other across the battlefield.

Before the soldier turned to yell something at the gunner that had been firing at Blackout.

Feeling a cold chill in her spine as she remembered the feeling of the sniper’s round piercing her shoulder, Ash reacted as fast as she could. Bringing her wings in close to her torso, she twisted herself into a sharp dive in an effort to avoid the barrel that was now being turned towards her. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she desperately looked around for some kind of cover. After a moment of silence, the machine gun screamed into life once more, unleashing its fury into the sky where Ash had been mere moments before. She heard the bullets whizz past her as she darted through the air, clenching her eyes shut as she desperately hoped that she could fly fast enough to get down to the ground before the soldier could correct their aim.

The few seconds of her descent seemed to last forever, but Ash’s luck held as she landed in some bushes near the armoured vehicle. Breathing heavily the mutant was ready to move once more in case her landing had been seen, but she stopped herself at the last moment. Frowning as she listened to the yelled curses from the armoured vehicle, she noticed that the sound of the firing had stopped - at least for now. Peering up from behind the bushes, she noticed that the gunner and soldier were still scanning the sky as they held their fire.

There was no way that they wouldn’t have seen her make a break for the ground, right? Confused, Ash glanced at her hands only to nearly yelp in surprise. Rather than its usual light-grey tint, her seta was nearly the exact same colour of the bush in front of her. Waving one of her arms back and forth in disbelief, Ash watched as her body did its best to match the appearance of the terrain behind it. It wasn’t perfect, especially if she knew what to look for, but it clearly must have been enough for the gunner to lose sight of her as she’d plunged from the sky.

The sound of the machine gun firing once again made Ash jump. Turning away from the revelation of her new ability, the mutant saw that the gunner had decided to concentrate on the target that was still in his sight and returned his attention to Blackout. Seeing her ally bearing the brunt of the villains’ aggression, Ash knew that he was still counting on her to carry out her part of the plan.

As the dismounted soldier was still scanning the sky for the mutant that had flown above them earlier, he heard the sound of flapping coming from beside him. Surprised, he turned to see Ash flying low across the ground with her fist raised to deliver a punch to his jaw. He didn’t have a chance to even cry out a warning as the blow connected, knocking him out cold and causing his weapon to scatter across the ground. Hearing the commotion, the gunner turned to see the new threat quickly pivot and dart towards his mount. He tried to bring his weapon to bear, but she was already too close and moving too fast.

Grabbing the pintle-mounted weapon, Ash snarled at the gunner as she ripped the machine gun free from the tank, with the sound of shearing metal accompanying her action as she tossed the hateful weapon aside. With fear in his eyes, the gunner reached for his sidearm only to get grabbed and tossed clear from the tank. Extending her stinger, Ash hoped that she still had the element of surprise as she leapt through the hatch to take care of the rest of the crew. Inside the tank, there were a few shouts of surprise, but none of the soldiers managed to get off a round before the mutant managed to get to them in the close confines of their vehicle.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

---

---

The sound of gunfire filled the air as machine gun rounds slammed into the great blue shield one after the other, the translucent construct momentarily cracking at times only to immediately be restored to prime condition. Behind it, Icarus stood his ground with a deep scowl, sweat running down his face. He could hold the shield as long as necessary - he suspected the machine gunner running out of ammo was the more likely occurrence between that and his energy running out - but it would all be for nothing if Ash did not do her part. Thankfully, it seemed she had been more than willing to play her role in his plan, taking to the skies right away in order to find a better angle from which to attack the armored vehicle's crew.

Suddenly, however, someone shouted out, and the gunner stopped shooting at him, instead turning the weapon to fire in Ash's direction. The blond boy's eyes went wide at the realization that one of his fellow heroes, Casimir's protege no less, was in danger, but even as he ran forward to try and do something about it, he found himself unable to cover the distance between himself and the vehicle in time. A burst of gunfire traced the moth girl's trajectory across the sky, and she seemed to plummet to the ground, though after a moment neither he nor the soldiers could see her anymore.

"Ash!" He shouted, but his voice did not seem to catch the mutant's attention, wherever she was - all it seemed to achieve was to make the gunner focus on him once more, giving him barely a moment to reform his shield before the bullet barrage began slamming into it anew. Angered by the potential harm caused to Ash by the coup's forces, Icarus began gathering his energy in order to charge at the vehicle and take its crew out with brute force.

This quickly proved unnecessary, however. Not only was Ash unharmed, but she had somehow managed to sneak up on the soldiers and swiftly took them out one after the other, going as far as to tear the machine gun from its mount in a show of raw strength before moving on to the soldiers on the inside of the vehicle. Going off of the lack of gunshots echoing in the air, he could only assume she was successful, which made him feel relieved.

There was no time to bask in the feeling, however. Under different circumstances, he might've told the moth girl that she had done a good job, but this time, he simply looked back to see if Mars and Marina had been successful in taking out the other gunner. A glance was enough to confirm that this was indeed the case, which meant it was time to move on. Setting his sights on the gaping hole in the palace's walls, he began running towards it, gathering energy from nearby power lines and lamp posts as he moved in order to increase his speed and strength, preparing for the battle ahead of him. He wanted this to be over, and not just for Renata's sake. The sooner this ended, the sooner his friends would be out of danger and the sooner they'd end their involvement in a foreign crisis. He would be able to return home, and things would go back to normal. Or so he hoped, at least.

But before that, he needed to fight. As he ran faster and faster towards the entrance to the palace, he saw her there again, that uncanny figure that had been so off-putting to look at earlier, before he shared his plan with Marina. She seemed to not have moved an inch since he last saw her, but whatever the case, and whatever her purpose was, he couldn't let her get in the way, not when the stakes were this high.

"Out of the way!" He shouted at her.

[New Finnish Republic]

Brianna

---

Brianna let out a loud sigh as she flicked the end of her spear away from her, sending a splatter of dark crimson liquid against a nearby wall. What had previously been a chaotic battlefield moments ago had faded into a still scene as the the only source of movement came from the swinging light above that had been impacted by a stray round earlier. All that remained now was Brianna in the midst of the abandoned warehouse, covered in the remnants of her fight against her now slain enemies.

Biting at the corner of her lips, a slight look of disgust filled her face as she glared down at the body of the man she had finished off moments ago. These men had been known human traffickers, some of the lowest of scum that Brianna dealt with. They had at least given some form of a fight for their lives, but it didn't take long for Brianna to tell that they were used to dealing with those weaker than themselves. Once they had gone up against someone who could actually fight back, their responses had been more than pitiful to watch. Valhalla would not await these men, that much she knew for sure.

I wonder if those two are feasting with Óðinn right now, Brianna thought to herself as she eventually moved her gaze away from the man towards the exit. He's probably getting yelled at for trying to smoke at the table, she mused, a small smile briefly appearing on her lips for moment before quickly fading away as a somber mood quickly replaced the emotion. She quickly buried the emotions deep within her, reminding herself that there were other things to concern herself with at the moment.

Stepping past the broken down metal door that had previously served as the entrance to the building, Brianna was prepared to dispel her equipment when out of the corner of her eye she noticed a prescience. Her eyes widened as the thought of having missed one of traffickers crossed her mind, but just as she was prepared to lunge forwards, something caught her attention.

"State your name now, stranger. If you come seeking vengeance for those slain here, I regret to inform you that you shall not receive what you desire."

[The Rebel Alliances]

Benjamin Butler-Riot-The Condemned District

Trying to find someone that doesn't want to be found can be near impossible. But when that person leaves a trail of dead bodies it tends to make it slightly easier. I've known for some time that I will need some help if I am going to make my plans to rebuild the Condemned district into anything more than a fantasy. And I can't just have anyone help with this type of thing. I need someone willing to get their hands dirty which in this town is easy enough. But that same person needs to be willing to believe that something can be made better out of a hopeless situation as well as willing to place their trust in someone else to show them how to do it. And that specific combination is much damn harder to find. The one lead I have is ironically one of the last known survivors of the now defunct Outriders. The band of murderous vigilantes who started me on this path while at the same time ending so many other paths for other people. Whoever this Vendetta was, she was no doubt charismatic as she was able to convince a strong group of followers both human and otherwise to follow her ideals without question. Not out of fear, but out of belief that it would somehow lead to something. That her hate fueled vendetta on the evil of this city would lead to a better San Diego. For better or worse...they believed her. One woman specifically that I am searching for, a warrior whom I know only as Shield Maiden believed her.

And now I am going to convince her to believe in my way.

I have been following leads to track her down as she seems intent on keeping Vendetta's legacy alive all by herself. She so far as been targeting some of the most extreme elements of crime in the city most recently human traffickers. While I have no love lost for this sort of criminal I do not need her branching out too much and she needs to be brought under heel before she throws things out of control like her mentor did. I managed to catch a break on her last escapade as I encountered a lone survivor of her attack although in truth he did not live long. The man had taken a slash from her spear and was bleeding out but managed to survive longer by playing opossum until she left. When I found him he had just minutes and managed to give me 'Shield Maiden' and her next target. After seeing that there was no saving him I ended his life quickly. The man may have been scum and a type of criminal of which made even my skin crawl but he was still a man. Death may indeed be what he deserved but needless suffering provides justice to no one.

I arrived at my destination moments too late. I could tell from the screams and gunfire coming from inside the warehouse. Rather than intervene immediately I placed myself outside where I could see the scene from a window broken by stray gunfire. It was an odd sight to say the least. Shield Maiden's weapon of choice was a spear and shield which I had known from the wounds of past victims but actually seeing her primitive arsenal clash with modern firearms was a sight to see. Her each motion showed an inherit knowledge of an economy of movement to a degree it looked second nature. As if she moved on pure instinct. But not like wild instinct rather that of a practiced and battle hardened warrior. It felt as if she had been fighting like this for centuries just from watching her of course that would be hard to believe.

As the last body fell I moved to the entrance and waited for her exit just out of sight. I did not wish for her to see me first and immediately assume I was someone she was supposed to kill. As she emerged from the warehouse and the eerie silence produced by the dead she seemed to pause a moment near the entrance. Then revealed that she had somehow detected my presence and issued a fair warning that I was seconds away from death if I was here for a fight I made sure to dispel her assumption by walking out with both hands up in a sign of 'surrender'.

"Relax, I am not here for a fight...Shield Maiden." I let the fact that I knew who she was rest a moment before I continued. Ensuring that both of my hands were in sight at all times and there were no sudden movements on my end. But at the same time keeping several paces out of reach of her spear should she decide not to hear me out. "You worked with Vendetta not long ago. Now, you fight alone...continuing the war against crime and corruption yourself. I am here to offer you a better way, that is assuming if you actually kill for more than the sake of death or battle. Assuming you do what you do for a purpose." And then I moved on to the heart of the matter, removing my mask so she could see my face and to appear more trustworthy.

"I go by Riot. My alias and face should be enough for now. I am here to convince you that my vision on how to make things better in this failing district is worth fighting for and possibly dying for. I suspect Vendetta once approached you like this, hat in hand, or maybe you found her. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that something in her convinced you to believe in her and now I am asking for the chance to show you that you can place that same trust in me." I allowed a few moments to pass for her to process everything I had said and am offering to say.

"So...will you hear me out? Or should I put this helmet back on?"

[Tomia]

Mars
Mars watched as Marina was able to successfully take out the gunner who had futilely been trying to fix his machine. She then began rummaging around the truck, leaving the teenage hero a bit confused until she pulled out a case similar in shape and size to the one Mars carried Rocket in. He managed to catch the heavy case, though he had to balance himself against the nearby vehicle to keep from falling. "Could have warned me..." He grumbled under his breath as he opened it up to see what was inside. His disgruntlement from the sudden throw soon faded as he saw the equipment within the case. This shield and specialized gun would be invaluable to Mars without Rocket at his side.

"Thanks!" He called out to Marina. "By the way, I'm Rocket. What are we supposed to do now?"

[The Republic of Atria]

Ouch

For a moment, he felt proud that his attack worked, then it set in that he had just thrown a giant rock at a giant man's head. The gash on the side of Titan's head bled quite profusely, made even worse when he clamped his hand over the wound, getting blood all over it, and it trickled down all over his head. Bael immediately felt sick to his stomach upon seeing a huge amount of blood and had to look away for just a second as not to throw up. It helped a bit, but then he heard the giant's footsteps heading his direction and he turned to see what he was doing. His eyes widened at the fact that Titan had a giant knife and probably intended to do something that involved him dying, but thankfully Titan was distracted by Miguel and the blue haired Hadrian he met earlier.

Another idea popped into his head. By now, pretty much every bit of stone or asphalt was already in tiny chunks, gathering enough to make a sphere would take minutes that he didn't have. So instead of that, Bael opted to make the unfortunate choice of taking his feet out from under him. He rushed over once he'd managed to suppress the mental images of all of Titan's blood getting everywhere and grabbed the outside of his foot, forcing his hands under Titan's foot and then lifting with all the might his legs, back and arms would allow him.

Hopefully it was enough to throw him off balance long enough for him not to just step on him.

[New Finnish Republic]

Brianna

---

"So...will you hear me out? Or should I put this helmet back on?"

Brianna kept quiet for some time, her gaze centered directly on the man before her as she kept a solid grip on her spear and shield. The fact that he knew of Vendetta was not necessarily something surprising. After all, during her short-lived time as a member of the Outriders, their names had become quite well known amongst those amongst the criminal underground. There was a possibility that this man was was one of these individuals, hoping to catch her off guard by throwing out the name of someone she was previously associated with. For all she knew, there was some unseen ambusher waiting in the shadows to take advantage of her the moment she let her guard down. She knew that the best option available would be to simply rush forwards and deliver a fatal blow that would at least remove one potential threat from the equation before things escalated.

However, there was something about the man's demeanor that gave Brianna a feeling that this was not the case. Whether it was her own intuition as a former Valkyrie or simply her buried emotions being brought up to light upon the name of someone she had cared for immensely, she could not find anything that would lead her to believe that her suspicions were correct. As much as her instincts drove her to not trust him, her heart could not allow for it. Besides, killing this man as he stood defenseless before her would be something she could forgive herself for, regardless of his true intentions.

"This vision you speak of, I hope you know that it will not come without cost. If you truly believe in this, so much in fact to approach me and invoke the name of someone who died fighting for those same ideals you claim to possess, answer me this question." Brianna's gaze narrowed as her grip around her spear tightened, her guard never letting up as she finished the remainder of her response. "Are you willing to die for it? Depending on how you answer this question, I will decide on whether or not you are worthy to battle alongside a Valkyrie."

[Finland SSR]

November 19th

---

Yoshiro Namaka - Psyche
Ecuador

---

Bael

Amadeo Obregon, the champion of liberty!

---

Thankfully, the invisibility which Mizu cast endured the stress test - even as he swept both of his shoulders, Titan could not get Amadeo off and the insurgent would just be back for more, crawling from one side to another in order to avoid the hand and striking again, rinse and repeat. Focused on the threat up close to him, the super could not focus on what was happening below - where three of the Young Bloods were focusing their efforts against him.

Suddenly, Titan grunted and hissed, stopping in his tracks and holding onto his mind. It felt as if the mother of all migraines had struck him - and yet, he could tell that this wasn't anything natural. With one hand, he held onto the tower, and while he tried stumbling back, the super suddenly realized that his feet were now glued to something - and almost lost his balance. A brief glance downwards revealed that an outgrowth of mysterious crystal was now climbing up his legs - and a girl was singing before them. If this was magic or a some sort of extremely specific superpower, then surely, she was to blame.

While Yoshi and Kiris locked Titan in place and disbalanced him, Bael finally tipped him over, forcing the gigantic hero to crash on his bottom - made further uncomfortable by his feet still being locked down by crystal, as if he was bending down for a crunch exercise. The street underneath him cracked and the asphalt broke apart, especially when Titan placed his hand down on the ground for balance.

"Damn it..." the superhero grunted under his breath and grabbed onto his knife more tightly - at the very least, he'll be able to chip the crystal away with it, and if he's lucky, maybe stab a few of the flies. Right as he was about to rise up, however, something unlike the sensation of a needle struck him right in the eye - which immediately got Titan to yell and grab the right side of his face.

"Everyone!" a voice called out - Mizu turned Amadeo's invisibility illusion off, and the Hadrian insurgent called out to his peers by the legs of the giant as he stood atop his hairline. "Do you have anything to knock him out?"

Perhaps that's how his powers can be turned off?

---

Mars

November 19th

---

---

Marina did not need to be informed about Mars' secret identity - she got to know all of Renata's young friends quite well over the past months, even if in a very one sided way - but she merely smiled and nodded along. The agent hopped out of the APC and stepped down its frame once she heard Mars ask what their next objective was.

"Your pretty friend is going to need help," Marina explained, pointing towards the Presidential Palace with her thumb over her shoulder - just in time for a scene to unfold in front of the blasted hole which was once the front entrance of the building.

The red-haired girl looked down, almost mechanically, when one of the teenagers assaulting the main square approached her - she was elevated a few steps above the blond, hardly a staircase, more of an artistic elevation designed by the architect who had designed the Palace many, many years ago. The call for her to step aside did not extract an ounce of emotion from the girl, however, and she replied in a monotone voice:

"You have stepped one meter and thirteen centimeters beyond the allowed perimeter. Prepare to die."

Instead of attacking, however, the girl placed her hand on the ground - and suddenly, stone, cement and steel alike began moving into her hand as if sucked in by an invisible vacuum and disappearing in her palm. The more matter under her feet was hoovered, the more her body began to erratically bulge, grow and change shape. New, claw-like limbs grew out of her and her existing ones transformed, turning more arachnid-like - if her original appearance was already unsettling, then the new one was ripped straight from a nightmare.

Marina watched the transformation from a distance, running towards the Palace with Mars in her tow. She could barely make out the girl from a distance - though she immediately assumed that they will deal with a powerful super, if she was tasked to defend the entrance alone - but now that the transformation unfolded, the agent could easily recognize that face.

They managed to get Bacteria on their side, too?

With a distorted grunt under her mouth - or "mouth" rather - Bacteria lunged forward, sending her gigantic claw at Icarus as the first strike.

---

Shihong Smith

---

"Here?" Renata called out, answering her father's unfinished question with one of her own, before offering him a hand to help him up to his feet. "Because I knew you were going to need help. And I can't leave you in danger, you know?" With all the liquid metal armor on him, Sergio was too heavy for the girl to lift up by herself - thankfully, he helped himself up just in time.

"What's the point in a minimal gain for my safety when it's you who throws yourself in the line..."

"Someone has to, you know?"

It took a few seconds for the smoke of the plasma blast to clear, giving Shi enough time to tend to Emanuel's wounds, for Olivia to get back to her feet and stop besides the two, and for both of the Martinezes to focus. General Torres stood almost in the same place he was before the attack, pretty much unharmed.

"I don't even know what is more soul wrenching," the General spoke up after a brief smirk, stepping forward, his heavy armor slamming down on the floor with each step. "That Aguinaldo completely failed in his mission, or that I didn't need to send him at all." Not that it was going to dissuade him from laying down one more body on the floor - and so, without any further ado, Torres lunged forward, advancing with surprising speed for an armor set as bulky as his, his hand already outstretched towards Renata.

She didn't even need to call out, however - her father already rushed in front of the strike, tanking the blow by crossing his arms and shifting his metal armor around, while the daughter fired off a second blast over his shoulder.

"I'm sure you know what's happening in the city by now, but, to quickly refresh," Emanuel spoke up after a cough - he still wasn't going to be in the best possible shape, even Renata's friend assured him of that, but at least he was able to rejoin the fight. The hero's singular hair braid grew longer, autonomously twisting around him and getting ready to strike. "Torres and his goons assaulted the Palace, we took down as many as he could, but he and those three have got us pinned-"

One of the armored soldiers behind Torres did not wait and opened fire - just in the nick of time, however, Olivia lunged forward with her shield in the front, the energy absorbant device nullifying the blast.

"-down."

"Come on, I'd rather trust Martinez and his kid to do something to Torres! We gotta make sure nobody's covering him!"

One, two, three of the most elite Torres could offer were awaiting their challenge.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 19th

---

---

Internally, Kirisvala was relieved to see that her efforts were paying off, as the gargantuan man seemed completely unable to move his legs anymore, but she did not stop there, continuing the songs in order to strengthen the crystals, so that even with his great strength he would not be able to break free. It was only after Wyatt performed some sort of maneuver to throw him off balance and send him crashing to the ground that she ceased her song, the faint echo of the magical notes fading away while the crystals remained in place. It seemed they finally had the upper hand on Titan, and the pink-haired girl let out a sigh of relief - her friends and the civilians working at the radio tower were no longer in immediate peril, at least for the time being.

There was still the question of what to do with Titan, however. The man did not seem like he intended to give up, despite being clearly on the losing side here, and she wasn't sure any of them could do anything to reduce him to a more manageable size. She was pondering this when she heard Amadeo call out.

"I don't have anythin' that can knock him out..." Kiris replied to the Hadrian boy as she rubbed the back of her head. I guess we could try hittin' his head really hard but with how big he is that would take way too long... She mused, opting not to voice those silly thoughts - with what little she knew of the insurgents perhaps they would try something even more drastic if she made a suggestion like that, so she didn't want to risk it.

Suddenly, she slammed her fist into her palm. "I know! Yoshi can put the big guy to sleep!" She asserted with the utmost confidence in her friend's abilities. "She did it to me once when we were havin' a trainin' exercise, I bet she can do it to Titan too." She explained, before turning towards Yoshiro, walking up to her and casually picking her up in a bridal carry. "Let's go, I'll get ya there in a jiffy!" She said. Then, she began running towards Titan's head, circling around his body and making sure to give his arms a wide berth in case he tried anything. It wasn't long until the Hadrian heroine arrived at her destination with Yoshiro in tow, and once there, she stepped back to let her friend do her thing.

---

---

Icarus continued running towards the red-haired girl, even as he shouted his warning. He was not surprised to see that it had served no purpose in the end, nor was he surprised that she immediately became hostile towards him - though the monotone in which she spoke and the immediate death threat served to unnerve him, not because he feared for his life, but because of how lifeless and hollow the girl appeared. Not that she continued to appear as a girl for long. All of the sudden, various materials around her got absorbed into her hand, seemingly serving as fuel for a monstrous metamorphosis that turned the already uncanny redhead into a complete abomination, barely recognizable as a former human being - assuming she had ever been one.

Now was not the time to ponder that, though.

Seeing the enormous claw moving towards him, the blond boy, empowered by all the energy he had gathered from his surroundings, used a burst of speed to rush past the monstrous appendage just in time to avoid being crushed by it. Afterwards, he harnessed all of the electricity coursing through him, the lightning marks across his face, arms and chest coming to life with an azure glow as he fashioned that energy into a massive gauntlet. Another burst of strength send his armored fist straight towards Bacteria's body - if he could take care of her quickly, then the way to the palace would be open at last.

"I already told you, out of the way!" He shouted as his fist rocketed forward.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

November 10th
“Come on, Come on. What’s taking so long?” Wendy grumbled as the cool October night air nipped at her through her costume. “Orion should have been here by now.”

In the back of her mind, a small part of her kept saying how much of a mistake this was trusting Orion to help her, and if she wasn’t desperate for any lead or edge against Ares and his band of mercenaries she would have agreed. Making the call and sneaking out of the tower had been childsplay for her, but now she was beginning to worry Orion was setting her up.

Hearing the sound of footsteps behind her, she turned around “Finally...”

“You seem impatient,” The masked man dryly stated, his light armor and array of conventional weaponry giving away his identity quickly as Legion, a senior Orion member and field commander. “Your message was a bit frantic, but had all the security that we’re used to. I figure you’re in need of some assistance, and to be fair, I expected this to be some sort of… Set up? Ambush, perhaps?” Legion glanced at his surroundings briefly, before turning his attention back to Wifi.

“Regardless, we can speak candidly. I imagine we’re both recording what the other says plainly, so it won’t do much good to lie through our teeth and beat around the bush, as well as code talk. We’re not interested in taking on or taking down the Young Bloods, you’ve likely deduced that with your worms and probes. We’re interested in adding your technological abilities to our arsenal, but we’ve had to conduct our cat and mouse game of trust for a while. Simply speaking, since you were willing to meet with us here, what do you need from us?” He didn’t seem angry or alarmed, but rather interested and attentive, wanting to know what it would take to secure Wifi’s talents for Orion.

Wendy paused for a second, having expected to need to barter or haggle for the information. This made her suspicious, if only because she knew they’d eventually ask for something back. She couldn’t afford to worry about that now though, not with all their lives still at risk. “Ares and Warhound. I need whatever information you have on them.”

Legion smirked behind his mask, tilting his head down slightly at the young heroines’ demand. “That all? Just information? I can send men and machines at Ares and his Warhounds until they’re brought to heel. Hmm.” He thought for a moment, tilting his head to the side, “I figured them to have moderate power, roughly in the same league as the Young Bloods. Surely they’re not planning something else, eh? Surely that building incident was a one-time thing?” He seemed to smile and joke about the seriousness of the situation, but reverted to deadpan.

“I’ll have Guardian transfer all of our data on Ares and his goons to you. What you do with it is your business, but I’ll need something from you afterwards. A favor, if you will. Rather than let you worry and guess what it is, I’ll be blunt. I need you to go on a mission with one of our operatives. A certain security firm made a breach on a false database we operated, and in order to keep the appearance that what was within the database is our actual intelligence, we need a hacker to scramble the contents. I wish you could sit at your tower and assist us, but it's stored on a closed system, we need physical insertion on it. I’ll give you your information as an upfront payment, and your monetary payment after the job. Deal?” He asked, extending a gloved hand to Wifi.

Wendy flinched as Legion threw her own desperate situation back at her face, reminding her just how vulnerable she and her team were right after exposing the fact that his group was suspicious of her. Even worse, they wanted her to assist them in person. She could already hear Naja scolding her for half a dozen different reasons.

She wasn’t here though, and she wasn’t the one waiting for someone to cut her head off on the way to school, or worse blow it up to kill her and all of her friends. “Deal.” She replied, shaking Legions hands. “Have whoever you’re having me work with bring the info with them on an encrypted flash drive.”

The supervillain turned on his heel and began to walk away. “Right. Meet my agent at the same time in the alley behind Giorno’s Bistro and Breakfast tomorrow, you both will do the job then. Farewell, Wifi. I’ll be in touch.” With that, Legion took a few more steps and simply vanished, discreetly expelling the clone Wendy was speaking with and leaving her to her own devices in the cold fall night.

-

The Next Night

The alley seemed a bit well-kept for a damp place between a bustling bistro and a run-down apartment complex. Still, it was the meeting point as described, and the real target was a storefront about a block from the spot, as the young heroine would soon find out. Standing unceremoniously against a brick wall, a tall, muscular man leaned steadily, his face concealed by an almost-too-tight gray hoodie. Still, his identity was well guessable for anyone in the vigilante community at this point.

“Not a lot of foot traffic this time of night.” The man growled as Wifi made her appearance, suspicious of the lone occupant of the alley. He produced a single flash drive from his sweatshirt pocket as she grew nearer. “Information, as you requested. Legion made sure that everything on it was accurate and up to date,” The long blonde-haired lifted his face and cracked a wicked smile, “Especially after the situation at the mall.”

Though the mood shifted tensely, Gaul relented and introduced himself. “Nice to see you again, Wifi.” Once the pleasantries were exchanged and the flash drive securely in Wendy’s possession, Gaul revealed a small metal object from his other pocket. Clicking a hidden side button, a simple hologram popped up, displaying the exterior of a building just across the street. “Stetson and Family Pharmaceuticals owns the building and runs a small-time prescription shop on the face. In the basement, they house servers and security for several bio-labs on the west coast. One of the towers has our stolen data, and we’re not exactly sure which since Legion said they’re all on a closed system. Our job is to breach the facility and scramble the data. Ours and everyone else’s. I’m getting you through the front door and defending you while you do your magic. Any questions?”

“I assume there must be a reason why you don’t just destroy the servers.” Wendy asked, a slight british accent in her voice. “If these morons we stupid enough to place everything on a closed system without any backups. Why be so delicate when smashing the servers and grabbing a few pieces to make sure they can’t piece it back together would be quicker.”

“Nowhere near as fun.” Gaul replied. “And besides, if they wanted the building destroyed they would have just sent Canon instead of us.”

“So I take it that the plan is for you to deal with security while I scramble the servers.” Wendy remarked, pulling up the hood on her sweatshirt. “Might take a little longer since I have to do things the old fashion way, but this is a milk run compared to what you tasked me with in New York. Give me a second to take down the security cameras and you can go knock on the door.”

[The Rebel Alliances]

Benjamin Butler-Riot-The Condemned District

It was worrisome that neither the gaze that was fixed upon me nor the grip upon the spear which threatened me loosened as I awaited my response. For a few moments it seemed that I may have made a very grave miscalculation in approaching her but it turned out she merely took her time in analyzing my offer. She spoke in a way which almost did not seem to fit in our time. But each word carried with it a great deal of weight as her voice remained very calm and rather low. I listened intently to each word not so naive as to believe I was entirely out of danger just yet but as she spoke she saw fit to inform me that my plan would involve risk. Which was a rather obvious observation, this very conversation was a risk for me. To appear hat in hand to a woman who was as likely to spear you as to speak to you was not a risk many would bet on taking.

But I am not most men.

But as she continued to speak of being willing to die in order to make one's vision a reality and imply that I was fighting for the very same goals as Vendetta I could see some, albeit fairly minor divisions between how we see things. To risk death is one thing and quite a necessary one in many cases for people like us. But to actually die is another matter entirely. The dead do not change the world, that is a job for the living. A fact I am sure Vendetta could testify to. And in her own way I suppose she is. Anything she may have accomplished while she was alive was washed away with her death. And how much the Outriders accomplished could be debated. Their impact on my life is clear but the larger picture is different. Vendetta's vision was to bring about justice through fear. But a corpse is hardly very threatening. For her vision to work she had to be alive and leading the ORs constantly to keep those who would harm others afraid of them,

But my vision, no if I am successful my plan will last far longer than my own life. I am *not* Vendetta. And if I am going to work with this Shield Maiden...this Valkyrie I need her to see that to. She needs to understand that I am not merely a replacement for a dead comrade. An imitation of the vigilante she once knew. That I am my own person with my own goals and more importantly methods.

"Am I willing to die?" I repeated. "I would say that my standing here in front of you defenseless and completely open to attack is answer enough to that question. If that is not answer enough let me say that I have been willing to die for far less than the grand ideas I have for the Condemned now." I paused a brief moment as I placed my helmet in a back pack seeing as I did not seem to need it. "But you are asking the wrong question. It is not if I am willing to die, but if I am willing to survive. Certainly for me to succeed I must be able to risk death, but risk implies reward. Something to be gained for the risk of my own life. I have no intention of throwing my life away. That...would accomplish nothing. I would have thought that you of all people would understand that. I lesson that Vendetta found out too late." I knew that she would not take the comment about Vendetta well but I also judged that she is not the person to kill an unarmed man over words. If I piss her off, I do not care. But she must hear the truth and know that working with me will not be the same as working with her.

I would love to keep answering you're questions. But I would rather simply show you something. If you come with me and are not convinced by what you have seen and heard you will not hear from me again. But if you see what I see, then I believe we can do great things together." I then started to lead her away as we walked down the sidewalk of the industrial area and into the residential areas. You could hear traffic sounds, sirens and the occasional gunshot in the distance. I allowed several minutes to pass before I said anymore but eventually broke the silence between us as I spoke up once again.

"You asked me a question not long ago. I have one for you. Since your time in coming here to now. Does this city feel safer after the work you and the Outriders performed? I allowed her time to think on and answer that question for both herself and for me. Until we reached our destination. It took about another twenty minutes of walking but we finally reached the destination as we were hitting the early morning hours of the day. The destination was a local homeless shelter which stood across the street from us. With barred windows and graffiti on the old brick walls. I allowed another ten minutes to pass until the woman and two children I wanted Shield Maiden to see emerged from the shelter having just finished the breakfast inside. I pointed the woman out with my eyes to Shield Maiden and then explained who she was.

"Her name is Kelsey and those two kids are hers. The eldest daughter is Desiree and the younger boy is Dalton. I knew the father, he died three and a half months ago....no, he was murdered three and a half months ago." I allowed another moment to pass before I explained further. "He was murdered....by you. When you were still working with the Outriders. It was in the ambush you and Vendetta launched on the restaurant. Don't misunderstand me, he was not innocent. The man was a criminal, I know this because I was too." I then turned to her so I could look her in the eyes when I spoke to her.

"Just months ago I was a man whom you would have not thought twice of killing and you would have never even remembered my name or face. I had quit the gang just days before that attack. In a way, your team was successful in that. I was afraid of you. But whatever Vendetta's intentions were she could not have ever lived a life like mine or his. Because had she done so she would have known that for most of us, this is the only way we have ever known of feeding our families. With Kelsey's husband dead the money stopped and it wasn't long before she was forced on the streets with her two young innocent kids. Now I want you to take a look around you and ask yourself what you see?" I then started pointing out the sources of income that were within sight.

"Down the street there there is a liquor store. The clerk possibly makes minimal wage. Enough to feed yourself if you enjoy raman noodles and keep you're head dry if you live in a home where the bed folds out of the wall. Across the street there, in the cap is a teen selling dope. He is doing better than the store clerk I assure you. The car passing by is a cab which is lucky to get tips in this part of town. For someone who has spent so much time killing criminals you have no understanding of us. A quick look around should be all you need to see the problem so one last question? How does killing so many people solve the problem in front of us? People need to feed themselves and you can only scare them for so long before they get hungry. Then if you are hungry enough...you will do anything. Even kill. Fear is not enough to save the Condemned Shield Maiden, they need more than fear. They need something that the Outriders could have never provided. They need an alternative. A different way of living. I was lucky, when I left I became a bouncer. Able to use my skills in beating the hell out of people to making some money. But I know from experience many simply could not find work after the ORs drove them out. So they ended up back in crime again only to be killed later." My voice then went from determination to something softer. Empathy.

"Now after seeing and hearing all of this. Will you work with me to change the Condemned? If you agree I promise I will show you a better way than endless death, The occasional death sometimes simply cannot be avoided but there has to be something more than that. Work with me, and I promise I will show you how." I then allowed many moments to pass before I pressed for an answer.

Do I have my partner or should I keep looking?"

[New Finnish Republic]

Brianna

---

Brianna stood still for several moments after the man's response. She thought over the man's words during that silence, contemplating over how he had answered her question. A brief flare of anger had erupted within her at the mention of Vendetta's name, but the remainder of what he had said had kept her from acting hastily. This was a man that while was not afraid of death, seemed unwilling to take on that risk readily. It was certainly a departure from her previous comrades, or even that of the other warrior she had kept her eyes on ever since she had learned of his existence.

However, this was not something she could necessarily say she distained. While there was no denying the glory that came from a warrior dying for his ideals, there was also no denial of the fact that a dead man cannot do anything further for the world he leaves behind. She was all too familiar with many warriors across the centuries who had held fast in their beliefs to the point where it needlessly cost them their lives, Vendetta being no exception to this. It pained her to admit it, but she knew that the strange man before her had a point.

Thus, she eventually lowered her spear, although did not dissipate neither it or the rest of her equipment. While she did not fear betrayal, she could sense an aura that came from this man that spurred her into remaining on guard. It was a familiar feeling, one she had not sensed in several decades. It both put her on guard as well as piqued her interest, leading to her agreement to follow alongside the man as they walked elsewhere.

"You asked me a question not long ago. I have one for you. Since your time in coming here to now. Does this city feel safer after the work you and the Outriders performed?"

The question took her by surprise. It was something that she knew could not be answered easily, especially given the circumstances she was currently in. Of course, her pride as a Valkyrie meant she wished to state that she was correct in her actions, but upon further self examination, she realized she could not convey this feeling out loud. Biting her tongue, she eventually forced an answer out of her mouth, her eyes not meeting his as she spoke.

"This city is like a man wounded by a barbed arrow. Left alone, it will fester and certainly kill him. Pull the wrong direction, and it will do the same. Only by going forwards is there any hope of salvation, but even then there is no guarantee that the man shall survive." She paused for a few moments, letting her words sink in for a moment before continuing. "Doing nothing and allowing the people to continue to suffer will not rid them of their problems. Acting as many of these supposed 'Heroes' do only temporarily fixes problems, but never has fixed the problems that have arisen, only transformed them into something worse. What we- what I do, I cannot say that it has done much to relive the suffering of the people here. No matter how many of these wretched individuals I put down, more come up to fill there place." For the first time since they began their journey, the two locked eyes for a brief moment as Brianna finished her response.

"So to answer your question, I cannot say whether or not the actions I and my former comrades have committed have done good. But I can assure you, it has done at least something for these people."

The man seemed to ponder her response for some time, before suddenly pointing out across the street to a family. As he explained their situation, Brianna's face hardened as she was made aware of the consequences of what had occurred that day. It came not as a surprise, but rather the unveiling of an unpleasant truth in which she was well aware of. After all, in all of the countless wars she had witnessed over the centuries of mankind, she knew that the horrors of war extended well past the battlefields.

The revelation of the man's past caused Brianna's hand to instinctively twitch, her spear raising sharply for a brief moment only to be held back as she witnessed the man's calm demeanor. Whether it was pure foolishness or pure bravery she did not know, but the man had willingly told her that he had once been an enemy of hers. She couldn't deny him on the fact that she would have thoughtlessly slaughtered him alongside the others he used to likewise call his comrades, a thought that while not upsetting held a distinct weight within her heart. She eyed the man warily as he explained his thoughts and told her of the true nature of his vision he seemed to hold onto so dearly.

Brianna paused for some time, unsure of how to respond. She wished to scream out in denial of what he had stated, which had all but spit on the very ideals she and the Outriders had fought for not too long ago. She pictured the face of Nick and Vendetta, knowing that they had both died in service of the dream of ridding not only this city, but the world of the evils that plagued it. It was something she too wished for, as having seen countless tragedies across her extended lifetime had made the idea that they could be stopped seem like a fanciful dream.

"Do I have my partner or should I keep looking?"

Brianna looked at the tip of her spear, a small quiver coming from it as her hand trembled ever so slightly. A fire burned deep within her, the source of the flame being a multitude of emotions she neither could nor wished to comprehend. After several moments, however, the fire slowly ebbed away into a dull flame, one which shone the answer she desperately yearned for clear to her.

"If what you say...if what you say is true, and you have a way to end this..."

Brianna bit at the corner of her lip, before finally letting out a sigh as both her weapon and her equipment faded away towards their unscrupulous forms.

"...then I will follow you. But only on one condition. That is if what you have told me is nothing more than a fanciful lie, that you will not curse my name when I kill you where your stand. Only then will the spear and shield of the Shield Maiden be yours to command."

Pausing, she slowly lifted her hand up towards the man, watching intently as she waited to see if he would agree to her condition.

[Tomia]

Palace stuff

Mars
Mars didn't really understand what was going on, being very much a foreigner, but things became clear enough as the person in front of them transformed into some kind of eldritch nightmare. Mars was sure he had never seen anything as gross as this in his entire life. How could this even be a person? He thought in disgust. Before he could even react, the nightmare struck out at Icarus who responded with an impressive quickness.

I'm not even sure how I can help. Mars thought, feeling frustrated as he watched the fight between the two take place. Mars started looking around, wondering if he should start considering a way for them to get around this creature if Icarus wasn't able to defeat her head on.

San Diego, November 22nd
It was deep into the night, as the only light being provided on the outskirts of the city were street lights and shining light of the moon. Two men stood outside the back door of a crowded night club that overlooked a large beach. It wasn't the most high classed insitutution, but plenty of people were lined up to try to spend their night there. The two men were large, wearing nice suits that poorly covered up the weapons hidden beneath.

"The boss seemed jumpy tonight." One of the guards said to the other.

"I've heard he's been hearing rumors, apparently Nightshade is on his tail."

"That Young Blood guy? Didn't he disappear after he got his ass kicked?"

"Rumor is he's some kind of vigilante now. No idea why he wants the boss, but we'll pop the shit out of him if he..."

The guard shouted out as suddenly he was grabbed by the leg and pulled into the darkness of the alley along with his fellow guard.

"The fuck!" The other guard shouted as he tried to pull out his gun. Before he managed to cock his weapon however he was grabbed from the shadows as well, pulled into darkness by an unseen figure. There was a loud bang and the two men would later be found unconscious in the nearby dumpster.

With that, silence fell back onto the alley as a darkly dressed figure walked quietly through the door.

The backstage area of the club was fairly unpopulated, as the figure walked past a number of dark empty rooms. The humping sound of the night club's music could be heard and felt through the walls, it would serve as a good distraction should things get messier than intended.

At the end of the hallway sat a very large office. A portly man in a fresh black suit sat at his desk. A high caliber pistol sat on his desk, as he was seemingly reading through some documents on his desk. His eyes flickered from the door to his pistol every once in a while.

After a little while, he had gotten more comfortable in his safety, the door suddenly burst open, and the man at the desk nearly fell off oh his chair as he reached for his gun and switched off the safety. Before he could get a round off however, a metal pole came flying towards him, knocking the weapon out of his hand. A startled realization set in.

"Shit, it's him, it's him! I fucking knew it. He said, desperately pulling out his phone as the dark figure approached him.

"Nestor Alvarado." Nightshade said as he lifted the man into the air by the collar.

"You recently leased out an apartment complex to a company called Helix incorporated. I want to know what they're using it for, and you're going to tell me."

"I don't know shit about..." Nestor wasn't able to finish that sentence as he found himself tossed across the room.

"I'm not here for your bullshit Nestor. I know Floyd Martin uses Helix as a shell corporation, and I know you did business with him. What I want is an address, and what they are doing with it. You can tell me, or I'll find it from your computer after I crush your skull."

Nestor paled.

"You wouldn't you're one of those goody two shoes." Roy brought his staff down hard on the floor next to where the night club owner's head was.

"Your business partner put my friends in the hospital. You really want to test that theory of yours?"

Before Alvarado could respond however, Roy tensed and quickly duck to the right, narrowly avoiding a throwing knife that stuck into the wall.

"Was hoping you would come. And I was starting to wonder if this old man was just delusional."

Roy turned and his eyes narrowed when he saw a familiar face, dawned in deep red armor and wielding a katana.

"Scarlet Sword, aren't you supposed to be with your new team? Why are you guarding this dirt bag?"

"Probing for information? Nice try, I think I'd rather kill you instead."

"Good luck with that."

The red clad assassin moved in with neck breaking speed. She was on top of Roy in an instance and he barely managed block her strike with his staff before pushing her back. He then charged in himself, not wanting to give her any opportunity to use her speed to find an opening. He swung back and force furiously, driving Scarlet Sword back towards the door. She pressed her sword against the staff, halting Roy's advance before she suddenly took to the air and slammed her right foot into Nightshade's chest. Nightshade went flying back, slamming into the desk with a groan. His foe was once again on him, striking from above as he managed to roll away. He was on the defensive now and needed to change the fight fast. There was a single source of light, a large bulb on the ceiling at the center of the room. Nightshade suddenly threw his staff straight up into the air, shattering the bulb into pieces and sending the room into darkness. The only source of light came from the hallway, and that served Roy just fine as he felt a surge of energy coursing through his body.

"Now this is over." He said confidently as he moved with nearly instantaneous speed to slam Scarlet Sword to the floor.

"Oh is that what you think?" She asked smugly, as suddenly Nightshade noticed sparks of flames below him.

"I've picked up some new skills since we last met. Fits my name don't you think." Suddenly a roaring blast of fire was heading towards Night Shade who couldn't manage to fully avoid it as it singed the armor on his left arm.

What the hell! When did she get fire powers?

He was forced to frantically roll around on the floor to put out the flame as his opponent got to her feet and stood over him, bringing her blade down into his left arm. Roy gritted his teeth and grunted in pain, but he continued focusing on the moment. If he let his guard up she would kill him. While she stood over him in a gloating fashion, he grabbed her foot with his right hand and ripped it from the ground, sending her flying onto her back.

"I don't care what tricks you and your evil friends come up with Scarlet. I won't lose to you. Now tell me, where'd you get that power?"

Scarlet Sword merely laughed as she laid underneath his staff.

"You have no idea what you're up against kid. You're a pawn in a war you can't even see. Better you give up now. But if you chose to keep it up. I'm sure I'll see you again soon enough."

With that she raised her hand and shot a massive blast of fire at the ceiling. It caught fire and instantly the alarm started blaring and the sprinklers sprang to life. Roy turned to react and in an instance Scarlet Sword was gone. Roy's right hand went to his left arm, and he went to the corner of the room to see Alvarado still cowering there.

"We're not done here Nestor. You give me what I want right now, or I'll kill you. It's that simple." Roy knew how to put on this act all too well. He was an assassin by training and he was going to use it to protect his friends.

A few minutes later, Roy left the room, the club owner was bloodied but very much alive, and Roy himself was wounded and in the need of rest. He staggered out into the alley, disappearing into the night before the police could arrive.

A little while later Roy arrived at his ramshackle home by the coast. It was a glorified warehouse parading as a loft. On the top floor was nothing but a bed and a table and on the main floor was a sparse kitchen and a couch. There were very few identifying features in the loft, other than some of Roy's equipment and a laptop. He sat down at the table, throwing his bloodied armor onto the floor as he got to stitching his own wound. He grimaced in pain as he poured a small amount of vodka on the wound before sewing it shut. Blood had splattered and fell across the table, but the wound was stable for now and Roy was left to his thoughts.

Did someone really have the ability to grant people powers? Does this have to do with that guy from the tournament? Damn it, there's so much I don't know. The one piece of good news was he was able to get what he had came for from Nestor Alvarado. He had a location of where the War Wolfs were, and he was going to finish what they started.

[Galnius]

Andrew Donovan, The Beach

Andrew waved off Zoe's lateness and looked to Tidal to tell them exactly what he had planned. Tidal however had already moved, grasping Zoe's hand gingerly and cupping it.

"Hello Impulse. Andrew never told me I'd be hurting a pretty face today. Oh well." Releasing his grasp, the ocean's tide pulled him to a small rock formation a good thirty yards out, never dragging him below three soles of his shoes and never tipping his perfect balance. The nearby ocean swelled as the aquatic hero shouted out.

"From the video that every has seen, it's clear your team has an issue with dodging. Especially Andrew here. So, we are going to work on that today! The rules for the following exercise are simple! You simply have to hit me, projectile or with your hand. However, if you are touched by water, wherever was hit is out of use! A foot or leg means you are on one leg. A hand or arm means it goes behind your back. A chest or head is game over, and you must wait until your teammate is taken down before we restart. Ill dry you off after every round. Snacks are at three. I have sandwiches for five. I can go at this for hours if I must, but I'm not going after sundown. Please beat me by then, or we are going to repeat this tomorrow, starting in the morning. Any questions?"

" Yeah, why are you going easy on us?"

In response to Andrew's taunt, the sea resided to form a large circle of water around the older hero, hundreds of tendrils growing at high speeds and stretching outward. Then, through the tendrils, an answer was given.

"I'm not."

"Oh fuck..."

The tendrils shot forward at the two Young Bloods, coming from every direction but behind. The entire ocean expanse seemed to rush at them all at once, hundreds of gallons of whip-like structures. Then suns rays reflected off them putting on a small light show, but the chance to appreciate it was far from available. Andrew dodged to the back, looking for an opening, but for every move he was just forced in a new direction, even taking to the air not stopping the pursuit. Inside the bible, Tidal deftly used the water to dodge projectiles. The game has begun.

Zoe Foster - Impulse
Some Beach, San Diego
November 20th

Zoe laughed nervously at Tidal's forward greeting and compliment, and after she finished shaking his hand she stepped back towards Andrew. "So what's the deal? You said we were here for training?" Not another moment had passed before Tidal started heading out into the bay and explaining himself fully. Zoe didn't have much in the way of rebuttal when he commented on their lack of dodging, and she didn't think that trying to tell him that she could generally take the hits would go very far. Instead, she stood there and listened, fidgeting with her feet in the sand until Tidal finished talking. Zoe didn't think it'd be as easy as Andrew thought it would be, and she was proven correct as the ocean came to life around them.

Just like Andrew, Zoe's initial movement was back. She leaped away, sending a small cloud of sand up as she retreated. "Just hit him!? I can't fly, I don't know what he thinks the plan is supposed to be!" While she complained, Zoe continued to dodge the water whips, as her mind raced to keep up with her footwork and think up a plan at the same time. He did say projectiles were allowed... Zoe glanced behind her to the rocky ridge she climbed down to reach the beach. Before another torrent of water splashed into her position, she zipped further away from the shoreline to collect a two fistfuls of throwing-sized rocks. "Hey Andrew, want some ammo?" Zoe started to race back towards him, prepared to toss a couple rocks to him and hope that he would catch them if needed.

Andrew leapt to try and catch the stones, but they were quickly snatched away by the flowing water. With that done he was back at the start. For now he had to figure out a plan. To come up with a plan, they needed time to think. To do that, well, that was the hard part.

Andrew scanned his surroundings, hoping for some form of inspiration. The beach was more of a rocky alcove, with very little sand in sight. The dark grey to black stone glistened in the sone, smoothing up to seven feet from shore signaling the average height of high tide. There were a lot of larger stone formations further from the water. The perfect place to hide. Step one was done. Now he just needed to get there. Andrew dove to the ground with a crash sending dust and gravel to temporarily obscure Tidal's view. Still, he was just as blind to Tidal as Tidal was to them. he dove behind a rock outcropping and motioned for Zoe to join him.

"Okay so... He's got a pretty good defense, and I've got nothing. He can probably dodge our projectiles, so we'll have to keep him distracted. Just like the mall, I'll run as a decoy. I'll just have to keep his attention while you try and get a bead on him. Sound good?"

---

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.

Andrew was awakened from his midday nap by the incredibly annoying sound of someone wanting something. Whole he didn't hear the knocking, the alarm to signify that someone was at the door echoed through the hands and pierced through his headphones. He was still bruised from training, and whoever woke him from the couch would face his ire. Putting the headphones around his neck, Andrew went to the front door and opened it, glancing down at the unassuming figure with disinterest and irritation. He leaned into one side of it, blocking any way way past.

"We aren't interested in cookies, we don't want people who's power is manipulating pudding spoons, and Red Princess, Frostbite, and Stella aren't here nor are they in your league. If you still have a reason to be here after that, spit it out. I've got a date with myself on about ten minutes, and I can't cancel on that again. "

---

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.

Aislinn had busied herself doing whatever research on the one she had called Liam. Not in the traditional sense, but instead using a program to get a detailed estimate of every physical feature she herself knew of, stance, and role in the Young Bloods. The first part was just to make his current stay comfortable, but what she was truly after was how he carried himself. She couldn't exactly outfit him with weapons as her guard, at least not major ones, but she could make sure he could help if it came to that.

From what she could tell, Mask was ambidextrous when it came to weaponry, so one bad arm wasn't a full loss. Perhaps a single shock baton? Or something more discreet. Unable to make up her mind, she resolved to ask for his own personal input. It irked her slightly for some reason, not being able to do it with her own mind, but if she could solve every problem she came across, she wouldn't have asked for his help in the first place, and would likely be a hero in her own right. Everyone did have their place, she guessed. For instance, her place was heading the company in Ireland in the future, Mask's was aiding people as a hero, and Lisette Avaline's was a cold, dark prison where she couldn't hurt anyone ever again and was out of Daniel's range of interest.

After some time, a bell chimed and a maid came in to let her know ot was dinner time. Bollix, I forgot to get changed. Not one for being woefully unprepared, she had at least set her outfits out for the day ahead of time. She quickly got dressed and rushed to the dining room.

"Sorry Ah'm late Aintin, Uncail. Was busy doing schoolwork."

Mr. McHarris had already begun on his food, giving a friendly nod to his niece, while Mrs. McHarris reached up to give her a hug. The madame of the house was wearing opulent sapphire and opal jewelry to contrast with a bright yellow dress whole the master was in a more plain, purple suit that looked as if it were a part of his skin.

"It's quite alright faol-in. My troublesome son doesn't seem like he's joining us at all, so it's wonderful to see your sunshiney face. Now, who is our guest?"

" Oh! Of course." Taking her seat directly to Mask, Aislinn began with the introductions. " Auntie, Uncle, this is Liam. Liam, this is Mr and Mrs. McHarris, Daniel's parents. Liam here is to be my bodyguard due to the Avaline situation going on." Mr. McHarris' eyes darkened at this, and his wife shook her head sadly. "I hopefully won't need him, however he's shown he can handle himself and is around my age, so I thought perhaps he could double as a friend in the city."

"That's very smart dear", the Mrs. said, hers eyes sparkling at Mask. "However, be sure to be careful even with him. Can't be losing your head just because a handsome face is nearby."

Mr McHarris let his eyes wander up southerly before falling on Mask's arm. "Are you sure he can handle himself? That injury doesn't look very 'handled'. If you want a friend over, just say so. You don't need to lie about it."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

November 22nd

---

It was a remarkably quiet day at Wonder Island, though perhaps not so remarkably in light of the fact that most of it denizens had been gone for the past three days, off on a vacation that had gone terribly wrong. Of course, the two people inside of the large blue van that crossed the bridge into the island were blissfully unaware of this, or at least the last part - one of them knew that the team had been planning this vacation for a while, but not that there had been complications in Ecuador. In any case, however, they were not there on that day to see the team, but rather to see the person that took care of the management behind the scenes. Reaching the small paved area amidst the grass that served as a parking spot, the van slowed to a halt, and out of it stepped two people: a young blonde girl in a light-colored blouse and jeans, and a dark-haired man wearing brown cargo pants and a blue flannel shirt.

Alexis looked at the car for several moments, then glanced up at Douglas. "Are you sure it was okay to use your van to give me a ride? There's that huge announcement for your shop on the side." She pointed out, pointing at the logo and phone number on the side of the vehicle for good measure.

"Of course it's fine. If anything, someone seeing me driving into Wonder Island might be good for business. Who doesn't want the same chair that Makeshift sits on when she makes her grand inventions?" He replied without much concern, an easy smile on his face as he did so.

"But you didn't make my chair, my dad bought it at IKEA." She remarked. Douglas shrugged.

"No, but they don't know that. We'll let the customers believe what they want to believe." He told her. "Now let's get going, I didn't set aside my afternoon just to have you slack off." He added afterwards, giving the short girl an encouraging pat on the back.

"Yeah yeah, it's just... awkward, you know? But it's fine, I'll live." She replied.

"Don't worry about it, true friends got your back no matter what. Besides, this is the easy part. Can't be too awkward talking to just one person."

As they continued their conversation, the two heroes made their way across the grassy outdoors of Wonder Island. All the while, Alexis took in the sight of her surroundings, which she hadn't visited for close to a month as she dealt with her personal issues, took a break from heroics and spent some time with her family. Though not too much time had passed in the grand scale of things, she felt strangely nostalgic as she looked at the building that housed her laboratory, the small woods where the team often practiced, the large building in the middle of everything...

...The massive horned man tending to a flowerbed near the tower's entrance while a large blue beast slumbered in the grass nearby...

"Holy shit." She mumbled under her breath, softly, though not so much that Douglas couldn't hear. Noticing her comment, he glanced in the direction she was looking at and let out a drawn out whistle as he looked in surprise at the large Hadrian man there.

"That's a big boy if I've ever seen one." He commented. "I'm guessing this isn't another new recruit, looks a little old to be hanging out with kids your age."

After getting over her momentary shock, Alexis shook her head at the implicit question. "No, he's... one of my friends texted me about him, he's kind of like her guardian." She explained, recalling what Kiris had told her, though it still struck her as odd for a hero to have a guardian. "Let's not bother him, he seems busy." She added, somewhat nervous still. When her friend had described the two new arrivals to her, she claimed that they were entirely harmless, but the blonde preferred not to take chances, especially since the pink-haired alien girl wasn't around in case something went awry.

Passing by, the two finally entered Wonder Tower, leaving behind the green outside for the tidy white interior. Once inside, it was a simple enough matter to navigate the main floor to find Naja's office, where the snake woman would be waiting. Standing out the door, Alexis hesitated for a moment. She knew on an intellectual level that she was simply overthinking things and that everything would go smoothly, but that didn't stop her stomach from churning anxiously. A part of her couldn't help but resent that for something that wasn't human, she was all too human regardless.

She could turn it off, of course, but... after everything she had learned, she really didn't want to do that.

"I'll be out here if you need me for anything, but I don't think you will. You got this, kiddo." Douglas spoke in hopes of encouraging her, noticing her lingering doubt and hesitation. A cheerful smile and a thumbs up served to accentuate the moral support he offered her.

"Yeah. Thanks, Douglas." She replied, smiling back. "Like, for everything. You've been super nice ever since the day of the incident, I really owe you."

In response, the man simply shrugged. "Don't sweat it. Heroes have to stick together, right? And you're the only one I know around these parts anymore, what with Sam and Lana becoming strangers after that whole thing with Warwolf got resolved. Anyway, get in there already."

With a nod, Alexis turned to the door and knocked twice, waiting for the snake lady to answer.

[Segral]

Carter Graystone

"Ghanta! He bhagwan..."

"It is true, Garuda-ji!" exclaimed a short, stocky man, his face absolutely dominated by the shag-covered dead caterpillar rotting on his upper lip. To all of his classmates in Diego, the man was just another weird-looking dude in a middle of a weird-looking country. To everyone he knew in India though, he was far more than that. He was the one and only Lucky Singh, star of over 75 action movies since 1985, and one of the key drivers in the renaissance of masala cinema in Bollywood. Whatever that was supposed to mean, Garuda just talked (and talked, and talked...) and he tried his best to memorize. Apparently, his name wasn't even Lucky, it was Loveen. They just called him Lucky because it sounds cooler, and because once, while filming "Sturgical Strike" (they were really going for North American crossover with that one), he fell off of a helicopter during a stunt and somehow survived with just two broken legs. It was so fucking cool...Carter wished he could break both his legs in a helicopter. Imagine how brave and heroic he would look...God, he could only dream. Either way, there was an actor who was Lucky, and it was most certainly not his blonde ass, which was sitting on the edge of the hotel roof a good fifty feet away from a throng of actors, engineers, cameramen, and makeup artists with huge clutches milling around in the center of the roof, staring down at a splotch of blue below trying not to throw up over the side. No, not a splotch, more like a raindrop. A pinprick. Whatever that little bit of water was in contact lens cases. Whatever it was, his stomach was pitching and rolling at the thought of jumping into that. He needed Lucky's guts, but he had none of it, he was closer to throwing up his own.

He couldn't even remember how many days it had been since filming started, but things were moving along at a "decent enough" pace. At least, that's what Randhawa told him. Carter felt just like he had in Baker's physics class; slow. Nothing even close to decent enough. Because of how late he had arrived on set, he was running a few weeks behind on prep and choreography compared to every other stuntman. It forced him to spend every second he wasn't filming, eating, sleeping, or pissing to practice every scene and move, study tapes, and get every detail down to a fine science. It was hard enough being any stuntman, but he was Garuda's stuntman, he was the closest there to his height and lean build. Sure, he didn't look remotely the same, but for any scene in "Ek" costume and helmet (They really named the main hero "One"? Seriously?!), he was the man for the job. It was a lot of pride, and he liked the challenge, but it was exhausting having to be perfect at every moment, especially when Garuda was intent on never stopping with the training once.

Don't get him wrong, training with Garuda was insane. He had gotten crazy good at this meditation stuff, he once spent an entire hour in his elevated state, and was even able to feel kicks coming at him without even opening his eyes. He could go blind today and still fight! And they had even gotten to the physical stuff too, real martial arts. Garuda had to tone it down so that he didn't get reduced to a puddle from friction, but he had begun walking through the basic offense and defense, and he was killing it! Well, the "it" was himself, but suicide had never felt so damn good. It was all awesome, better than any training he had done in San Diego, but...he was tired. There's was only so many snap kicks he could take before he needed a power nap. It was like he was trying to keep in the gym 24/7, trying to keep him from leaving the hotel lobby. This was practically the first breath of fresh air he had since that day he had his first breakthrough, and he was trying not to be sick over it.

How was he supposed to pull off his skills if he could barely stand up? It wasn't like he had a lot of tries to get it right. For this scene, they had built sets in four storage rooms at the top floor of the hotel, a full floor away from any guest. Fragile walls that couldn't harm you if you flew full speed into them (especially with the costume's padding), and Carter's guy, the "Ek", was dueling "Shaatir", the crazed genius villain. "Ek" was a proud Indian hero with the power to form beams of pure energy (dub some CGI over his wind blasts and you got the picture), who was working against the crazed cabal known as "Hare Patte", a group of eco-terrorists hell-bent on destroying a newly built industrial complex in Mumbai. Ek would have to fight his own sympathies for the philosophies of their cause, as well as struggle to break free from the destruction and death of his old team and his own checkered, dark past in order to do it. Shaatir was a key scientist for the movement, one who had access to important data regarding the destruction's plans and one who had holed himself up at a small hotel in Mumbai, where he had been collecting data for the mission. Ek's job was to sort the whole situation out and get access to an important hard drive with Shaatir's data. Shaatir was played by Abhoy Basak, the "Bengali bad boy" of Bollywood cinema. For a bad boy, he didn't show off much; Carter had barely heard him say a word since he had arrived, but he was one hell of an actor. Carter was creeped out just sitting on the other side of the camera. There was a lot of important people here. Randhawa, Garuda, Lucky Singh, Abhoy Basak, Alia Kakkar (the newest femme fatale), Victor Kaushal (the Bollywood-famous cinematographer), even the sound mixers had awards. He had to impress a lot of them, because he had a reputation, he was the one picked to come over from the States, and he had something to prove.

Ohhhhh, crap. Stomachache.

Four rooms, no redoes. The first time, he had messed up when he lost his footing on the balcony and went face-first into the doorframe. The second, he had almost gotten out of the hotel room, but caught the door wrong and got sent on his back. He had two tries left. No time to mess up. No opportunity.

Take 3.

---

"Action!"

Almost immediately, a spray of bullets tore the plush red carpet in front of Carter's boots to shreds, and would have torn his feet to shreds too if he hadn't immediately leapt backwards, a collection of air under his feet building in pressure and popping him away with perfect poise onto the broad desk at the side of the room. He nearly slid all the way into the side wall, but was able to grab purchase with his boots, sliding to a stop with only the fingertips of his back hand skimming the rough surface. The bullets still came, puncturing the drywall in multiple places around his body, but he was already on the move, leaping onto the queen-sized bed at the head of the room and using it as a springboard to bounce off in a 90 degree angle towards the armor-suited, gun-toting man on the other side. Bullets hugged his body and whistled through every nook and cranny, but it didn't stop him from turning in mid-air, his limbs moving through sludge as his leg unfurled and foot pointed out in a perfect kick aimed at the top of the man's head. In post-production, it would glow blue.

Everything was too much, everything was too slow and too loud. He was aware of literally EVERYTHING, aware of the pre-loaded Xplosion film rigs blowing tiny bullet holes in the wall, aware of the blanks popping out of the other stuntman's shotgun, aware of the way the potlights flickered on cue, aware of the dead air in his ears, aware of Shaatir's weaponized drones that doubled as moving cameras, their lights causing him to blink and twitch behind his reflective visor. He barely even recognized Shaatir's double whipping out the shielding gauntlet on his left arm and using it to block Carter's kick with the back of his hand, not until the shockwaves ripped up to his hip and sent him bouncing into a combat stance on the floor. Only for a second though, before he switched feet and dropped a simple front kick towards Shaatir's chest, which was blocked by the right gauntlet rising up to block the kick and responded to with a right hook, forcing Carter to duck and sweep his feet, but only one foot, because Shaatir jumped to the other and attempted to strike his head with a roundhouse. The two were caught in this dance for what felt like an eternity, unable to do anything but block and parry until Shaatir slipped right under his defenses by knocking his arms to the side, shoving the barrel right up to his chest, flipping a switch at the side, and sending an explosive round into the middle of Carter's chest. The blast was strong enough to send him flying through the air and land ass-first on the right edge of the bed closest to the wall, tumbling off the side and hitting the ground with a thump that finally forced his breath to move through his chest again.

He was staring at the ceiling now, but he didn't have much time to waste. Shaatir would get away. Flipping onto his stomach, he quickly shimmied underneath the bedframe, already creaking and groaning from the weight of Shaatir having moved up to stand on the mattress and peek over to where his foe had fallen. The move took him a few seconds at most, and by the time he rolled out on the other side, the other stuntman was in perfect position for the strike, staying stock-still and waiting for Carter's cue. A gust of wind from Carter's hand caused a small ceiling light fixture to sway in a circle, giving the other man the sign to get ready in the two-second window he had before Carter leapt with tiger-like force onto the man's back, extending his legs and launching an energy-infused strike that sent Shaatir flying into the glass screen doors that lead out to the balcony. Carter began to chase him as the doors shattered with ear-splitting chimes, but a web of transparent bungee cords on the outside that would have CGI robotic arms extending out of the villain's jetpack dubbed over them caught the stuntman's body, smoothly working to let him rock back and drop a two-footed kick into Carter's helmet as he ran through the doors. The foot never hit his face, but he felt the impact of the balcony floor on his back as his vision flipped up to the cloudless blue sky, shocking its way through his teeth so badly he let out a moan of pain. He couldn't let up though, Shaatir was about to drop his foot onto his face.

He rolled away from a certain broken nose, using his feet to walk himself up into a crouch and grabbing the man's extended leg with his free arms. Shaatir wriggled to free the limb from Ek's grasp, but the superhero wouldn't relent, running in a tight low circle around the man's frame to twist his arms into a vice before jumping up and firing an beam directly at his left robotic arm, severing the hand away and sending the stuntman twisting away from the net, ready to fall the ground. Not if Ek had something to say about it, not if his signature move had anything to say about it.

Behold...the Super Thappad.

Charging up the pressure around his palm, he whipped his arm back and delivered an open-hand SLAP to Shaatir's helmet in slow-motion, letting a sparkle of blue spray out from the sheer impact of the strike. As if on cue, the visor cracked as much as it could without breaking to pieces, only amplified as the man's feet were torn off the ground and his body took a full corkscrew spin before landing face-down on the stone surface of the balcony floor, unmoving. Carter could feel the drone hanging over his shoulder as he paused for a few seconds to catch his breath, trying to copy what he had practiced with Garuda about pausing to let the character breathe whatever stale, sour-tasting air was in his helmet. The pause couldn't last too long, and as soon as he knelt down and began to rummage through the pockets of Shaatir's costume for the drive, he could feel the drone peeling to the side and two more aligning behind him and pulling forward through the ruined room, a fourth hanging around in front of him to capture the whole scene. And then, the shock scene.

The drones shocked his whole body, forcing him to use his air powers to lift himself up and lock himself stock-still in the middle of the doorway, slightly shaking with his limbs spread out like Jesus Christ doing a jumping jack. The air made good bolts through his palms. All he could do was watch in agony as the stuntman slowly got to his feet, brushing a hand over the ankles of his boots to activate his "propulsive thrusters", which were just boots with some really sick CGI. The thought wasn't enough to distract the stuntman from readying himself back into combat stance (probably running some overdubbed dialogue through his head while he was doing it), stepping back, and launching a full dropkick to the middle of Carter's chest, causing him to get "blasted" (by his own power) through the empty doorframe and through the open bathroom door.

This was the only place in the set that wasn't a set, mostly because plumbing was an important part of the experience. With another ear-splitting chime that cut through the thick haze of atmospheric noise around his ears, he hit the mirror hanging about the vanity sink and cabinets back-first, the glass shattering on impact and sending another jolt through his spine. It was all he could feel anymore. His legs and arms and hands felt like lead, trembling and damp with sweat. The sweat coated the inside of his helmet and his hair too, leaving everything inside drenched with a smell that felt like a mixture of sweat, spit, and blood. Because he had bitten down on his tongue on the last kick, and the only thing in his mouth was metal, all of it, like he was sucking an AK's barrel. Still, he kept moving, planting his hands on the taps of the sink he had been thrown on top of and using it to push his feet back on the ground, running back for another set of blocks and jabs, occasionally throwing a random jump or duck to avoid the invisible robo-arm. Finally, after some fighting, he felt himself slip around Shaatir's defenses, throwing him off balance with a kick to the back of the leg, grabbing him just under the ribs, and wrestling the fighting form above his head in a perfect rainbow arc with the help of his wind, a rainbow that ended with a headfirst plunge into the open toilet. Shaatir writhed and bucked but Ek had him locked, throwing his head back and forth as if to shout for where the drive was. His anger got the best of him though, because in his haste, he forgot that the robo-arm strapped to the man's back was snaking on the floor, and in one move, he was forced to trip himself up with a blast of wind that ripped his feet away and was bucked into the open shower by the man flexing his legs.

Luckily, he didn't hit the polished stone wall, but the tile floor was still hard on his ass, and for a brief second, he lost his bearings, his senses suddenly going into a total blur as if a burst of static had ripped through all of them. For a moment, he couldn't hear, couldn't feel, could barely see, just slunk over to lie down on his back, trying to focus his vision. A dark shape moved in front of his eyes, Sh...the stuntman. Standing over him. Cocking the shotgun. They had already recorded the monologue in the last room they had trashed. He had three seconds to activate the shower. Now it was more like one.

The movable showerhead was lying on the floor by Carter's own head, his helmet nearly sitting on top of the metal cord. He had to be careful with how his hand moved up. Slow, shaky, nowhere near fast. His right had the cord in a tight grip, but his left subtly snaked up the wall, fingers walking their way up to a polished, silver bar in a way that wouldn't arouse the suspicion of a monologuing supervillain. His whole palm soon followed. And then, two fingers out on his right hand. The code for "you're about to take an ice-cold Super Soaker to the face". As soon as the dark blur looked up, Carter yanked the handle down, a low gurgling sound bursting and coursing through the wall for a split second before ripping out of the head with ungodly pressure and blasting all over the other man's visor, sending him stumbling back with his hands to his face. Ek wasn't done, rolling over to rise up to his knees and using the slippery wall to kick off and jump into the man's waist with enough force to leave him sprawling on the ground. He gave easily, giving Carter excess momentum and allowing him to roll over to the other end of the bathroom, just in front of a towel bar embedded in the wall. The whole process was practically unconscious by this point, the choreography was setting in. The bar gave away quickly in his hand, forming his new weapon of choice in moments. Turning around, he could see the man beginning to get up, a drone capturing his every move, but Carter was too swift, flipping the bar around in his hand as Ek would before charging the thing up with as much energy as he could muster through a tight squeeze, cocking the bar back...and swinging a goddamn home-run.

At the very moment the harmless bar made contact with the helmet, two things happened. First, the bar snapped in half as it was supposed to (at least according to Garuda), one half flying into the shower and the other half staying locked in his hands without a sound. Secondly, the stuntman pressed a button that instantly sent a few rumbling cracks through the helmet's textured black surface, a spiderweb of deep, wide rifts breaking through the glass visor as the man's head whipped around, bobbed back, and crashed to the floor, the helmet breaking away into massive shards like a cocoon to reveal a thick mane of tangled black hair and a growing pool of crimson artificial blood on the floor.

This was where he could rest. He was given ten seconds to slump over against the cabinets in between scenes they had already filmed. Right now, Garuda would be opening his own helmet to breathe, let Ek take some breaths and feel the blood seep in between his boots. Then, he would turn over the body to see Shaatir's lifeless eyes, his blood-rimmed lips. But then, Shaatir would disappear, disappear in a blink of neon blue light. Garuda would be bewildered by the sight, looking about and around for an answer, and this was the point where Carter and the stuntman peeled themselves off the floor, exchanging nods of encouragement and grins of celebration and going their own separate ways. The stuntman to hang around in the bathroom until all the drones were clear, and then exit out the set and into the nearest dressing room to grab a shower and nap. Carter, to wait three seconds for the camera drones to refocus on the entrance to the hotel room emulated in the set (where a certain ominous bang could be heard reverberating through the room) before sprinting out of the open doorway and into the hall, where the second part of the shot would take place. No cuts. Randhawa preferred fluid, full takes that kept the energy and the fluidity of the scene intact over a ton of short cuts and shots. Modern technology had made it possible, and it was the reason why he made the best action movies in India.

A blue light blinked out the door twice, giving him the signal to enter the entranceway. It was a clash from the sterile white luxury of the bathroom, all peachy drywall and carpet patterning that was kind of an eyesore to look at and heavy wood paneling. Two important details though. The white main door to the hotel room was hanging fully ajar on its hinges, and so was the closet door. With the bang and the disappearing body? Any idiot could figure it out. Two more seconds to lock his feet in, and a green light blinking to the side gave him the cue to run, firing him off like a gun at the starting blocks as he ripped out of the door in full costume. One hand on the frame helped him hit a hard 90 degree to the right down the hallway, a drone already locked in position on the ceiling to shoot his movements. His legs were practically liquid, but he was almost done, just a few more seconds to push through. He was still able to run, still able to throw himself around the next corner with perfect grace, just in time to see the door to the maintenance staircase swinging closed.

With all his effort, he leapt forward with a few inhuman skips, slipping through the slight opening in the doorway in a close enough shave to feel the heavy metal edges scraping up uncomfortably close to his head, his chest, even his back. He nearly got trapped in the crack, and wasted another exhausting take. But he didn't, and he didn't screw up like the second take again either, where he slipped trying to jump up and kick from railing to railing to get up the staircase. This time, he let his boots slide against the metal floor for a moment, jumping up from the black track marks left in the metal floor and getting proper purchase on the right railing, skipping up and up. The staircase was a swampy gray, all plated metal with white signs in foreign language, white railing, and a bit of white light shining through windows trapped in gray wire cages, but it was all a color-filled blur to Carter's eyes, who was slipping from staircase to staircase on his way up, poling around the corner rails and following the decaying hums of Shaatir's rocket boots. Every step was now sending lightning through his legs, causing his whole body to wail, but he was almost there, just to the top of these stairs, and through that door, the heavy door that was blown right off its hinges.

Carter quickly stepped through the doorway, squinting and stumbling as the bright sun hit his face through the visor. The stuntman that had taken Shaatir's place was now a dark pinprick in Carter's vision, a figure hanging suspended by a cable and wearing a metal pack that would spit rocket flames in the final cut, arms spread and laughing as the drones congregated around him like vultures circling meat. Another pause, a few seconds, and then, the sprint. They had rigged the hotel roof with small charges that would blow like landmines, belching a lot of black smoke but only sending a small shockwave that would toss him some five to ten feet for each "explosion". He had to get through the field and tackle the man in midair, keeping his head up, focused on the body that was now being pulled away from the lip of the roof and not on the blinking cameras around him. Simple shit. And so close to the end too...

He had already wasted a second or two crouching and taking it all in, leaving him with time to take just one last shaky breath to steady himself. It practically rattled in his throat on the way down, and he wanted another one, but he had to hold it back, instead directing the energy down to his calves. A yellow streamer just outside of the camera's shot let him know where the mines started, and told him exactly where to step first with a wide, obvious kick. Right. Then left, left left, center center, right to dodge the mines...that weren't blowing. Who fucked up this time? He couldn't feel any shockwaves, no smoke, not even the slightest hint o--

ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR

And then the world went dark.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

At the sound of Mr. McHarris's doubt, Red was quick to clear his throat to grab his attention. "I know I may not look like it, but I can assure your sir that I'm more than capable of handling any threat that comes across your niece's way. Besides," he paused for a moment, glancing over the Aislinn and giving her a small nod of his head, "I don't plan on putting her into any situation in which trouble could arise in the first place. After all, the entire point of a bodyguard is to keep their VIP in the safest situation at all times." Bringing his gaze back towards Mr. McHarris, he did his best to give a confident look. "I promise you, I'll keep her safe."

Eager to change the course of the conversation away from his abilities, Red decided to direct his attention back towards Aislinn as he noted her close proximity. "So out of curiosity in your stay in America, have you had a chance to watch any baseball? It's the best taste of America if you ask me, and I can imagine you'd be surprised to hear how much the Irish have contributed to the sport. Connie Mack, Mike Kelly, Peter O'Malley, all of those guys are big legends in sport."

As he spoke, he glanced over towards Mr. McHarris for a brief moment, curious as to see if the man was equally a baseball fan. Out of all his years around the world, he knew that nothing could win another man over was to talk about sports with him. While there was no telling whether or not he'd managed to hit the head of the nail here, he hoped he'd gotten lucky.

[Segral]

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

"Eh, don't worry about me, I'm too tough for death to handle. He'd get too sick of me after a few weeks." Whitney said with a chuckle, casually tilting her head to right and gazing out of the open window at the massive SoCal skyline that essentially made up her entire world. Even at this hour, when most old couples had already been asleep for hours, the world still moved on. Cargo ships the size of water bottles still belched and shuddered their way in and out of the port, surfers the size of specks of dust still flooded over the beaches, and lights still flickered from the window of every cigarette box-sized building in sight. It wasn't quite pitch black, with enough light from the moon and slightly more artificial resources to get a dim view of it all, but the shadows carelessly smudged over everything, leaving it all barely visible beyond a thick shroud of mystery. You really wouldn't know if something was going to hit you down there until it was two feet away from your face. It almost made Angelica's fears start to become very real in front of her face, but she held the thought back before it could do more than twist her stomach inside out. Crap, she wanted another eclair. Where had the first one gone?

With a slight exhale through her nostrils, Whitney made her way back to the table that Angelica was currently seated at, retaking her seat opposite to her. The coffee in her owl mug had cooled some from all the time she spent at the window, but it was still far from cold, more like a pleasant heat now. She still kind of wanted to keel over from exhaustion, but for the sake of her new friend, she tried her best to keep her eyelids firmly open through a combination of frequent sips from the mug and quick, fleeting looks around at the interesting parts of the room, usually settling around on a few colorful book spines. The silence was nice. Some people didn't like silence, claimed that silence left them too exposed to their own thoughts, but after a day where everybody was doing their very best to drive any of your own actual reflection out of your head, she was quite content with a bit of peace and quiet to work on her second eclair. Until her big mouth opened, that was.

"You know, you really don't have to worry about me." Whitney said with a slight smile, leaning forward with a fist under her cheek as she looked towards Angelica again, ignoring the slight burning caused by the pressure. "I don't ever leave the Tower anyways. I'm as safe as I could possibly be, probably safer than I would be at home. Sometimes I wish I was in the field, running past a police barrier today was the most excitement I've had in months, months!" she said, eyes wide for a second as if she was incredulous at her own lack of adventure, before narrowing again as she looked off to the side, the slight sound of air rushing against the palm clamped to her face becoming growingly audible.

"I'm almost envious of you, y'know?" she said at last, taking another sip of coffee in between words. "You can fly, you can make fire, and you can heal better than any of us aside from Jacob. They need someone like you. Ever...*yawn*, every team in the world needs you. What would a United Champions do without a Hope? You're a powerful person, and you have nothing to fear, be proud of it."

[Bentus]

Yoshiro Namaka - Psyche
Ecuador

---

Yoshiro sighed in relief as the giant came crashing down to the ground. She kept up her mental assault, with the resistance emanating from his mind being all the proof she needed that he still posed a threat. She grimaced with the effort, still focusing on keeping the hero-turned-villain distracted and dealing with a pounding migraine while Kiris and the other hadrian discussed their options. Yoshiro hoped that the pair would come up with something quickly, since it would only be a matter of time until one of Titan’s swings struck someone without the durability to take it.

But when the telepath heard Kiris exclaim her name, her eyes widened in surprise. Sure, the thought had occurred to her as well, but she’d never tried to use her powers like that on someone so large. The only other times she’d really even done what Kiris was saying - outside of training - was with Inferno and the Warhounds, and she’d ended up worse for wear on both occasions.

“Wait, Kiris. Are you sure that there’s not another - hey!”

Her words fell on deaf ears, and Yoshiro let out a yelp as the hadrian lifted her from her feet and began bounding towards the fallen giant. She felt a nervous twisting in her stomach as she saw the blade being wielded in the man’s massive hands, but it looked like he was too focused on freeing himself to notice the pair of girls racing towards him.

Swallowing nervously, Yoshiro tried to push her doubts to one side as she steeled herself. Kiris was right: if she didn’t put Titan to sleep with her powers, what else could they do to put a stop to his rampage? Remembering how hard Wyatt had been pounding the giant earlier, and the weapons that the rebels carried with them, Yoshiro could hazard a guess as to what they’d try. If she could do something to avoid that outcome, then she had to at very least try.

Getting dropped off by Titan’s head, Yoshiro didn’t waste any time before she raced to plant her hands by his temple. Trying to ignore the fear in her chest at being so close to the giant, as well as the thought that he could kill her with a simple flick of his hand, she closed her eyes and pushed herself into his mind. She immediately felt an echo of the sharp pain that would be shooting through his spine, pushing through the inevitable feeling of empathy and hesitation as she tried to temporarily push his conscience into the recesses of his brain.

Sorry, but this is better than the alternative.

Ash - Ashen Moth
Ecuador

---

Emerging from the tank hatch, Ash popped her head out to survey the continuing scene around the palace entrance. It didn’t take long for her eyes to fall upon the girl standing in Surge’s path, and the mutant’s gaze narrowed at the solitary figure. Despite their foe’s diminutive appearance, Ash’s antennae twitched as something in the air caused her seta to stand on its ends. Her stomach twisted into a knot as she instinctively felt the presence of danger, even as her ally screamed out a warning as he carried on barrelling towards the gate as fast as his legs could carry him.

“Wait, Surge! Something is very not right!”

The words had hardly left Ash’s mouth when the girl began to change. Her body twisted and contorted, with limbs fracturing and reforming into inhuman shapes as she suddenly loomed above the charging hero. It was a grotesque display, and it revealed that the team weren’t out of the woods yet.

Knowing that time was still of the essence, Ash leapt out from the turret and used her wings to carry her swiftly through the air. Surge was going to need their help, and she wasn’t about to leave her newest friend to face their foe alone. She’d have to be wary of the girl’s claws, but she’d at least have the advantage of her flight allowing her to flank her and hopefully give Surge an opening. Aiming to slam into the villain’s side and knock her off balance, Ash flew fast and low to the ground as she rapidly closed the distance.

[Finland SSR]

November 19th

---

Yoshiro Namaka - Psyche
Ecuador

---

Amadeo Obregon, the champion of liberty!

---

Using a few bursts of blue flame to slow down his descent, Miguel landed next to Amadeo, the two insurgents watching as the Hadrian girl among the Young Bloods expressed her inability to knock Titan out. With a sigh, Miguel turned around, glancing off towards the head of the gargantuan hero, and spoke:

"You know, if we have no other options, I could melt through a part of his skull to give him a lobotomy - better than just leaving him here..."

"I hope we don't need to resort to that," Amadeo blurbed under his breath - the two insurgents then turned their attention back towards Kiris, who ran past them with Yoshi in her hands and dropped the girl off by Titan's face, assuring everyone that she will be able to put the man to sleep. That was a much better option than a gruesome execution - though Amadeo couldn't discount the need to finish the job later on, once everything settlers and they separate from Martinez's friends. Hell, everything almost sounded too easy...

Wait, what about-

"Everyone, watch out!" Amadeo suddenly yelled as soon as he turned around - Titan's arms were still free, and they were raised in the air, ready to slap down on his face and crush the girl standing on his head. Without a word spoken, Miguel immediately propelled himself to blast away at the left arm, while Amadeo pointed at Wyatt and Kiris, yelling:

"Pin down the other one!"

By then, Yoshi's mental attack was already underway, and though the hero struggled against the pressure to let his consciousness fade, his bigger size did not offer any additional defenses against psionics. After some time struggling, his arms stopped pushing forward and laid down on the ground with a loud fall, and his eyes closed - then, he immediately began to shrink. Restored back to his normal size by the supernatural force, Titan now slept inside one of the crystal outgrowths which used to cover his legs, but were now empty carcasses.

Victory. For a second, the battlefield was silent - before Miguel, now standing on the deep indent into the street where Titan was laying, tapped his pocket and pulled his phone out. One of their teammates was calling. Calling!

"It worked!" Amadeo called out, striking a bright smile and turning towards the Tower. The employees there made sure to do their part of the deal, it seems. Now, not only both of the messages were sent to their destination, but thousands would rise up seeing their phones, computers, televisions once again able to connect to the outside world. "The whole world will soon know about what is happening here - and, more importantly, they will know about us."

"Until the General whom Martinez's friends called up here as a part of our trade comes and shuts everything down again," Miguel shot back with a sigh, sneering towards the Young Bloods.

"That's going to take time - by then, everyone will know, and we'll be gone," Amadeo replied, before turning towards the Young Bloods himself - his face was much brighter than before. "I suppose I should offer my thanks, I don't think we could have done this without all of you. I... don't think we'll be able to stick around for long, we came just to take the tower and escape... but if there's anything you need our help for, then I'm sure my peers and I will try to return the favor."

---

November 19th

---

Mars

Ash - Ashen Moth
Ecuador

---

---

Facing off against Bacteria's charge, Icarus lunged as well - moving past the biomechanical girl's engorged glaw and sending a gauntlet punch straight into her. The sheer force of the strike was enough to push her back - only to get struck by another blow. Ash had descended upon her from behind, a flying tackle almost topping her - Bacteria only made an another step back, however, repositioning herself.

Not only were the two hostiles stronger than initially anticipated... they openly violated the orders which the good men of the Army had given her. Don't let any unknown slip past you and enter the Palace.

The teeth-like metallic strands composing what used to be Bacteria's jaw chirped somewhat, her foot stomped on the ground, and an another heap of matter from the ground filtered into her body. This matter formed metallic tentacles from the girl's back, which suddenly shot towards Icarus, aiming to constrict themselves around his wrists and legs.

Then, Bacteria turned towards Ash, the body mass around her shoulders already starting to mutate and change form.

"You won't beat her by just punching her!" Marina yelled from afar, running alongside Mars and gathering Fox-Fire in her hand. She figured that both of the Young Bloods surrounding Bacteria could already tell what the biomechanical girl's abilities were, so she skipped the explanations and went straight to the point. "If you don't severe her access to matter she can absorb, she'll just-"

Bacteria's shoulders transformed into twin machine guns, locking and loading with their aim upon the flying Ash - Marina quit her speech and sent a Fox-Fire blast forward, a purely concussive one aimed at Ash to push her out of the way right as the machine guns opened fire.

"-keep recovering and grow stronger!"

[Galnius]

Mika, October 31st, The Losers

After a quick stop by the costume shop in an emergency rush, four girls made their way to the parking lot of the Old Loma Lighthouse. On the outside, it seemed like a small, simple building. It was kept in good condition though it was very clearly no longer lived in. The light that once led many a ship away from the rocky shore was now dark, and people milled through by the dozen for a halloween tour of the approved area.

Mika, however, had different plans. She has been planning this day long enough to not waste the trip on a boring, predictable tour of all of the "scary" bits. No, she was here to really freak it her friends. She pulled them off to the side and out of sight and rummaged through her pictures one more time, taking a swig of the alcohol to get rid of any of her own inhibitions about doing what might as well be illegal entry. Eventually she found the one she was looking for.

"You know, pulling things out of pictures isn't all I can do. Everyone grab right to me. We are going to have a real haunted tour."

Once she was sure everyone was in contact with her one way or another she concentrated on the photo of the second floor room on the left side. With a sudden feeling of weightlessness, Mika, Ava, Astrid, and Ash found themselves in a pitch black room. Mika grabbed a flashlight from her bag and lit up the area. Thick cobwebs covered the walls and decrepit furniture, with a thick coating of dust signalling that the room hadn't been entered in a couple months at the least. Somewhere nearby, a bright light illuminated through the window. Undeterred, Mika turned to her friends, shining the flashlight directly under her chin.

"Well, are you ready?"

---

Angelica Dalin, October 26th, The Library

Whitney Alvord
October 26th

"Eh, don't worry about me, I'm too tough for death to handle. He'd get too sick of me after a few weeks." Whitney said with a chuckle, casually tilting her head to right and gazing out of the open window at the massive SoCal skyline that essentially made up her entire world. Even at this hour, when most old couples had already been asleep for hours, the world still moved on. Cargo ships the size of water bottles still belched and shuddered their way in and out of the port, surfers the size of specks of dust still flooded over the beaches, and lights still flickered from the window of every cigarette box-sized building in sight. It wasn't quite pitch black, with enough light from the moon and slightly more artificial resources to get a dim view of it all, but the shadows carelessly smudged over everything, leaving it all barely visible beyond a thick shroud of mystery. You really wouldn't know if something was going to hit you down there until it was two feet away from your face. It almost made Angelica's fears start to become very real in front of her face, but she held the thought back before it could do more than twist her stomach inside out. Crap, she wanted another eclair. Where had the first one gone?

With a slight exhale through her nostrils, Whitney made her way back to the table that Angelica was currently seated at, retaking her seat opposite to her. The coffee in her owl mug had cooled some from all the time she spent at the window, but it was still far from cold, more like a pleasant heat now. She still kind of wanted to keel over from exhaustion, but for the sake of her new friend, she tried her best to keep her eyelids firmly open through a combination of frequent sips from the mug and quick, fleeting looks around at the interesting parts of the room, usually settling around on a few colorful book spines. The silence was nice. Some people didn't like silence, claimed that silence left them too exposed to their own thoughts, but after a day where everybody was doing their very best to drive any of your own actual reflection out of your head, she was quite content with a bit of peace and quiet to work on her second eclair. Until her big mouth opened, that was.

"You know, you really don't have to worry about me." Whitney said with a slight smile, leaning forward with a fist under her cheek as she looked towards Angelica again, ignoring the slight burning caused by the pressure. "I don't ever leave the Tower anyways. I'm as safe as I could possibly be, probably safer than I would be at home. Sometimes I wish I was in the field, running past a police barrier today was the most excitement I've had in months, months!" she said, eyes wide for a second as if she was incredulous at her own lack of adventure, before narrowing again as she looked off to the side, the slight sound of air rushing against the palm clamped to her face becoming growingly audible.

"I'm almost envious of you, y'know?" she said at last, taking another sip of coffee in between words. "You can fly, you can make fire, and you can heal better than any of us aside from Jacob. They need someone like you. Ever...*yawn*, every team in the world needs you. What would a United Champions do without a Hope? You're a powerful person, and you have nothing to fear, be proud of it."

Angelica gave a small chuckle at Whitney's joking and her compliments did make her feel a lot better. Her worries were far from gone, but having a friend like Whitney did make everything a little easier to handle. Her chest still hurt a little bit, and her skirt was definitely going to have to be sowed. The cool air from the open window chilled her skin to contrast with the minor burns, yet she still somehow felt a lot better. Better than being numb, out of breathe, and somewhere between sleep and consciousness.

"Thanks Whitney. You really are the best, and the team definitely needs you too. If you were in the field at first we might never have gotten out of there. I'm not sure if anyone would be as okay now as they are if you weren't here at all. I know i wouldn't be. I don't even know if I would be able to stay. The mall reminded me too much of-"

Angelica shifted, unsure whether to go on or not. "I'll tell you about it some other time, okay? I'm really, really tired. You don't have anything that can help me sleep, do you? Something that can give me some rest without any dreams. One night without dreams would be great. "

---

Aislinn, November 20th, The McHarris Household

Red

---

At the sound of Mr. McHarris's doubt, Red was quick to clear his throat to grab his attention. "I know I may not look like it, but I can assure your sir that I'm more than capable of handling any threat that comes across your niece's way. Besides," he paused for a moment, glancing over the Aislinn and giving her a small nod of his head, "I don't plan on putting her into any situation in which trouble could arise in the first place. After all, the entire point of a bodyguard is to keep their VIP in the safest situation at all times." Bringing his gaze back towards Mr. McHarris, he did his best to give a confident look. "I promise you, I'll keep her safe."

Eager to change the course of the conversation away from his abilities, Red decided to direct his attention back towards Aislinn as he noted her close proximity. "So out of curiosity in your stay in America, have you had a chance to watch any baseball? It's the best taste of America if you ask me, and I can imagine you'd be surprised to hear how much the Irish have contributed to the sport. Connie Mack, Mike Kelly, Peter O'Malley, all of those guys are big legends in sport."

As he spoke, he glanced over towards Mr. McHarris for a brief moment, curious as to see if the man was equally a baseball fan. Out of all his years around the world, he knew that nothing could win another man over was to talk about sports with him. While there was no telling whether or not he'd managed to hit the head of the nail here, he hoped he'd gotten lucky.

The table grew quiet as the man at the head of the table narrowed his eyes, studying the person closely. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "No, Aislinn doesn't seem too interested in our sports-"

"I'm more interested in football to be frank."

"That is, soccer. She's adamantly opposed to talking about football."

"Handegg."

" It's Football. Now I'm not big into baseball myself, but I can appreciate it. No, it's the Chargers that this house pay attention too. "

" By this house, he means him. "

" They may have moved to Los Angeles but they are still my team, and if I don't see any improvement I swear to you, I will buy them. Alex Spanos is going to drive them to failure even more."

Aislinn shook her head, having heard this over and over and over. " Ach, I'm sorry about this Liam. Once he gets going it's hard to stop him. Please, eat. We need to go over my itinerary for tomorrow after dinner. "

" Our niece is very headstrong young man. Keep her out of trouble, or you had better hope you bite the bullet before her."

[The Rebel Alliances]

Scott Green/Former Spectrum-Wonder Tower

It had only taken a couple of minutes before someone had answered the door. It wasn't Naja as I was expecting rather it was someone unfamiliar which led to a few assumptions about who was at the door. A seller of cookies or a fan boy hoping to get a date with one of the more popular female members of the team. My mind briefly flashed back to the debacle in the gym when I had first met Shi at the mention of the Red Princess being out of my league and I cringed inwardly ever so slightly. Regardless it was made abundantly clear that the man had no idea as to who I was. Not really a surprise as he likely joined the team after my departure and I was only involved with the Yeebees for a few weeks and on one mission which...I did not play any major part of. I took just a few moments to consider how I should explain my presence or lack thereof to the dark skinned teen hero.

"You must be a newer member so you wouldn't know. I used to be on the team here, albeit briefly. Must have left just before you joined. I used to go by Spectrum and I don't have any powers at all. I just came by hoping to catch up with some of the team if they are here. Or perhaps Naja if no one else is here." I gave a brief pause there before remembering that I forgot to actually inform me man of my name.

"Ah, forgot. I'm Scott Green...so umm could I come in or should I come back later?" The man seemed to be in a less than pleasant mood from being stirred from his nap so I really had no idea how he would react to my explanation. If he believed me at all. I stood there a moment expecting to be told to get lost or maybe summon Naja so he could confirm my story. So I simply stood there until he figured out if he bought what I was selling.

Benjamin Butler/Riot-Condemned District, San Diego

It had taken some convincing and a lot of risks but it all seemed to pay off once she had finally answered that she would be willing to follow me if I had been honest with her. I gave a internal sigh of relief as I checked the time on my phone then turned to her. "Good, because it's time to get to work." Nodding for her to follow me I led her around the block to a parking garage where two motorcycles rested. I had parked them in between two large trucks so I could avoid cameras catching my own face as I placed my 'Riot' helmet on myself and then handed a ear piece to Brianna.

"So I can explain the job on the way." With that I threw a leg over the sports bike and pulled away. Descending down two stories in the garage and flying off into the streets. Waiting until Brianna had caught up before I explained further.

"We are on our way to hijack a truck that's carrying money, weapons and just a shit ton of valuables which we are going to need to kick my plan into the next gear. It currently belongs to Maxim head of one of the largest Vulture gangs. Or well used to be one of the largest gangs. They were severely depleted by the Outriders war and after the death of Vendetta the balance of power has been kicked out of balance and smelling blood in the water his gang has taken even more losses to larger and more organized gangs. The few that remain see the writing all over the walls and I have been in contact with several of them and they want out." How I knew so much about the Vultures operations and had so many contacts I left unsaid for now. But I know it's a topic that I will have to address soon.

It was only another few minutes of driving before we came within sight of the truck which was a few cars ahead of us in traffic and was coming up on a red light. It also had two black SUV escorts one just ahead of it and one behind. I informed Brianna that these were the targets and requested for her to quickly subdue the rear SUV while I take the lead car.

"Kill as a last resort only. I am trying to keep body bags to a minimal here. The guy riding shotgun is one of my contacts to focus on taking down the driver and rear passengers." With that I sped ahead and pulled up right next to the lead SUV as the driver realizing a moment too late that he was in danger. My gloved fist gripped a crow bar and smashed the driver side window to pieces as I dropped the weapon and then slammed his face into the steering wheel. Almost as soon as I did so I heard a gunshot come from within the main truck and a quick confirmation glance revealed that my contact had shot the unsuspecting driver in the side of the head. While I was serious about not immediately resorting to death some of my contacts did not feel as strongly about that. As the two men who sat in the back of the lead SUV leapt out of the vehicle to try and take control of the heist the passenger of the truck had taken control of it and picked up the other two contacts before speeding off into the night with minutes to get the truck to the agreed upon destination.

This left me and Brianna with four remaining conscious superhuman gangsters to split between us.

[The Republic of Atria]

Homecoming, Part 6

Shi looked around at the police barricade around Jason’s home, the iconic yellow tape surrounding the perimeter. Officers were taking statements, curious onlookers watched from the distance. Brushing the side of her neck, Shi turned over to her teammates though she wasn’t exactly sure what to think. It was an unraveling mystery, one that came from one of the most unlikeliest of sources. “Do you know anything about this racket, anything a little more concrete than a feminine voice?” She looked over to Wyatt, “They could be connected to Bratva, the Russians, for all we know. Marionette is now running missions for them. This whole situation might be a little bigger than any of us could intend.”

“She definitely didn’t sound Russian. Very American accent. Possibly Midwestern but I’m not super familiar.” Jason replied. “If Marionette’s there, she’s screwed. I don’t recall her threads playing well with fire. Plus, this isn’t really her M.O. She has a murder boner for Mask, for whatever godforsaken reason.” He said and shuddered at the thought. “Also, she’s smart. I’m assuming she’s got some level of precognition or maybe telepathy. Basically told me all my personal info, and I’m pretty sure she would’ve rattled off my social security number if I let her. She insisted she just wanted to talk.”

"Sounds like an extortion racket. No one just wants to talk. She'll probably try to use your parents to blackmail you." Though the well being of her squad mate was the least of her worries, a cognitive power would be tricky to work around. Memetic agents only worked if they actually read her mind, and from the way Jason described it, there had to be more to it. She tapped her fingers against her bicep out of frustration, she really didn't want to deal with this today. "What are you thinking Wyatt? Do you think the three of us are enough to handle it?"

Bael mostly sat back and let the two hash out the details. Jason was closer to Shi than he was. At least until she turned the conversation to him. “This is a bit fishy, yeah, but I think we can handle it. She’s obviously going to have a bodyguard or two. She seems to know who we are and Jason said she just wanted to talk. Obviously, like you said Shi, this is an extortion thing. Jason’s parents are with the police. We can’t just take her word for it. But we’ve busted gang bangers before. I doubt we’re going to encounter anyone seriously dangerous. If someone had a power worth a crap, they wouldn’t be working for someone like that. I'd suggest we sneak, but by the sound of things, I don’t think that’s going to be much help.”

Shi nodded. At least she could rely on the remaining Squad Leaders. Looking back over at Jason, she added, “Whenever you’re ready, let’s go. I’ll know more when we get there.”

“Let’s meet across the street from the place so we can scout shit out. Bael, let us know if you see anything from above.” He said and his friend took to the skies. “I don’t even know what to be looking for. I know she knows we’re coming. You’re not Mask or Cosmic or Renata, so I don’t need to feel like I need to tell you to be careful. Meet you there.” He said, shooting a tendril of slime at a street light and flinging himself into the air and continued swinging towards his destination.

Watching as her two teammates took to the sky, the heroine reluctantly followed along. Stepping onto the street asphalt so as not to burn the cement, Shi flew up. Her front facing hair flickering back and forth, and her posture as perfectly straight as it could be. Her mind contemplated what role she should perform, as not to endanger the cover she had put so much effort into upholding.

Jason took a slightly longer path, mostly because he needed the extra large buildings to swing on, but arrived on where the edge of the town goes from partly decent to completely awful. He landed on top of a street light, glanced at the old refinery, thankful it wasn’t another warehouse, and slid down to the base. Overhead, he could see Bael flying circles, probably checking for an ambush and the roof for any lookouts. He couldn’t see anything, but he knew that meant absolutely nothing.

Bael flew a few more quick laps, not seeing anything that caught his attention and swooped down to meet his friend. “I didn’t see anything major. A few parked cars.” He said looking around in the air, spotting the Tower on the horizon. Damn, we’re really far away from the Tower… Would be a great view were it not for all the smog.

Shi took her place a little further away, up the hill that overlooked the site on a nearby roof. All around them the setting sun brought out the lights of the city; the cars on the adjacent highways turned on their headlights, while Midtown to the West began to shine brightly. The light blue hue of the sky was getting darker, providing the defenders a modicum of an advantage. Shi eyed intently at them below, genetic tampering and an implant giving her better sight than most; “I’m seeing a few stationary cars. Not all of them look on-site related. Don’t know if anyone is inside.”

---

“Goddammit. They’re already here...” Maria hissed under her breath. Her slightly annoyed expression immediately changed to one of happiness when she saw the gangsters she planned to buy some weapons. You assholes weren’t due for at least another hour… Great. Alright. I can fix this... “Gentlemen!” She said, in an almost retail salesperson voice. “You’re here a bit early. Anyways, this is Jack. He’s my bodyguard who will be shutting up and not doing anything stupid. Just here for protection, you know how it goes. So, what’re we looking at today?”

Jack however, looked a bit different from a standard human. One arm slightly, but noticeably, larger than the other. A patch of black tar-like skin where previous wounds had healed, His nose, rather than protruding like a normal one, was far more rounded with his nostrils flat against his face. And being told off from her, he kept quiet and back against the wall.

“Right.” Igancio remarked as he removed the clip out of his own chamber and placed it onto the white foldable table as a sign of good faith. Wiping his nose a few times, he stared at the woman then pointed towards Jack, “Um is he.. Okay?”

“Holmes isn’t looking so good.” Nacho, a fat bumbling cholo with a thumb shaped head remarked as he carried more boxes from the unassuming white trucks outside inside onto the table. These plastic black containers carried an assortment of weapons and equipment that the gang smuggled too and from the border; some of it stolen WarWolf tech ransacked after their hasty retreat, the occasional WF contraband, to a few bars of unrefined Olympium. While the occupation may have led to Ignacio losing the Chop Shop and a few other businesses of interest, the chaos afterwards had been an unrepentant goldmine of opportunities. For both his gang and the Cartel. Nacho slammed another box onto the table and gestured toward Jack, “You been hitting that Power or Wonder or some shit?”

“Something like that.” Jack replied to Nacho. “It’s a bit… Stronger than what you’d get out of Wonder.” He said, almost taking pride in his disfigurements.

Three other gangsters walked in behind him with supplies and shut the door behind them, most notably one with a brightly colored metal arm. He had spray painted it gold. Ignacio waved at Nacho to simmer down before looking over at the Lady, “He’s not going to a problem right?”

“He came in with a fucked up arm, nose was basically flat. Gave him a little pick me up. Stronger than ever. As much as I would love to chat about my other business partners, we’re here to talk about some WarWolf leftovers. I hate to rush but I’ve got another major meeting today.” She said. “Oh, and to make things a little easier, you can call me Witness if we wanna use our fun names. Maria if you don’t.” She said, taking a quick glance at the crates. “Damn, looks like you guys actually got some good stuff. Leftover Jug parts. A little Olympium… Shall we open bidding with one hundred thousand?”

“We ain’t just scavies…” The man with the golden arm remarked as he lifted a cigarette, not to his mouth, but too his throat. His throat adorned with a tattooed monstrous throat, exhaled the smoke, “We got our own improvements.” Flipping open a few of the boxes to show off the merchandise, “This here is some levitation bullshit I’ve been tinkering with. Attach it to your arm, fling people around like Quake. Some heroes out east do the same shit.” Ignacio took the lead and pulled out the modified piece that had been fastened onto a juggernaut modular arm.

“Witness...Maria.” He put a large Spanish emphasis on Maria, “What exactly are you looking for?” Ignacio held the arm toward the Witness, “We got a lot of buyers and a lot more inventory with the boys down South. How much will you be needing? This here is only a tasting.” The gang leader felt a slight apprehension about this whole situation, they had never traded with this group before, having only got in contact through a few runners running the information up the chain. Rubbing the back of his shaved head, “You have the money, who knows, maybe we make this a regular occurrence.”

“Clearly not. Tinker Tech is worth quite a shiny nickel.” She said and clasped her hands together. “I’m interested in the Grav gun. Would save quite a bit of time… Honestly, I’d take it all. I’ve got a bit more cash to work with, so let’s up the pot to about 500k. Where does that put us?” She asked. “Priorities are the unrefined Olympium, any Juggernaut parts you have, raw materials…” She said, glancing around for a moment and then up, spotting what looked like a very large bird at first glance before the realization hit. “We’re being watched. FUCK.” She feigned, though her body language indicated it was real.

“God dammit.” Jack muttered, stepping away and looking around. “You sure? I don’t see anything.”

“Ninety nine percent sure.” She said. “Nacho, Ignacio, I really hate to do this, but if you can help my friend here, I’ll throw in an extra million. Each. I’d love to help, but... scrawny 130 pound white girl does not win fights. Pretty sure it’s the Young Bloods.”

Reaching over to his pistol immediately at the sound of them being watched, his first instinct had been that this had been some fed setup. Barking some orders in Spanish, Nacho and the Golden Armed Cholo immediately began boxing things up; reloading his pistol, “Nah nah, ATF, Young Bloods, DEA, whatever we are leaving and we are leaving now. We help you but only until our asses and our inventory is out of here.” He shifted his head back to one of the unassuming gangsters guarding his back, “Gabriel! Get me my M4 now.”

Golden Armed Cholo however was much more interested in this proposition, if it was just some teenage punks rather than the Feds then why not just deal with them? If what he saw on the news about them not even going in with the police into that mall or whatever, this would be the perfect time to show off his engineering prowess. Besides because of the Young Bloods he lost his Camaro when the shop got raided. “Ignacio, let’s just take them out. The White Woman is paying so why not?”

Ignacio shook his head, “Sicarios don’t want us sticking out with this type of heat. It’s bad business.”

“Well I got somethin to say…” Nacho came back into the room after dropping off the first half of the goods.

“No, no you don’t.” Ignacio quickly shut that down.

“Come on cabrón.” The Cholo smirked and raised his head up, “Why you scared or somethin?”

“I’m not scared, I’m not a pendejo. We make paper, we don’t deal with this bullshit.” Ignacio sighed, gripping his leather jacket as he thought it over. With that mutated freak right next to him and Nacho’s own strength, maybe they can deal with the group that landed him in jail last time. Maybe being the key word. Shaking his head, he came to a compromise. “Maria, we help you then we leave. Nothing more, nothing less. Once our shit is out those gates, we’re done. You got that?”

“You know what, that’s completely fair.” She replied. “Good luck!”

Maria bolted to a nearby oil tank. It had a large puncture in it, probably due to some negligent workers, but it was empty and more than enough to keep her hidden and, relatively, protected.

Jack kept on his guard as the other two grabbed their guns. Maria told him he’d get the chance for a rematch, this time with the scale a bit more even. From what he gathered, and experienced, his body could regenerate, quickly. Not only that, it would attempt to adapt to all the damage he took, making him stronger every time. He’d wear them down eventually.

---

“I think they noticed us.” Jason said, watching as the tiny people in the distance started looking around for them. “Whatsherface definitely knew we were coming. Probably got some hired help. Bit weird for her to ambush us out in the open like this… Wait… Is that the stupid jackass I beat up… Yeah. He’s got that white button down with bloodstains. What the hell is she thinking siccing him on us? She knows what happened last time… Don’t know those three other guys though.”

“I do.” Shi interjected into the comm chat, learning her knee further over the ledge, “Ran into them prior. The first mission I led actually. The overweight one is a healing brute, don’t know much else. The other one is the gang leader.” The sight of the man with the golden arm walking out caught her attention, “Don’t recognize that third one. Can’t tell from here…” Shi squinted harder, “I can’t make out his arm’s model. Might not even be commercial. Bael you see anything up there? Sludge, for the one you know, how bad did you hurt him?”

“Yeah.” Bael replied. “Pretty sure two of them got guns. Don’t think they see me, turns out humans don’t look up very often. Can’t tell exactly, but I’m pretty sure they have rifles. Nothing serious.”

“Good to know.” Jason said. “Fat regenerator, dumbass, and an unknown with a robot arm. I beat him pretty bad. Broken nose, gash on his head, probably a concussion. Pretty sure I broke his arm. Guy seems right as rain. Lady probably has access to a healer or something. Don’t think he had powers, would’ve used them on me if he did. He was relying on a big guy in their group when they showed up.” Jason explained. “Don’t think this’ll take too long. Three on three, don’t think they’ll do much of a fight. Who wants to say hello first?”

“Someone else should go first.” Studying the situation more closely, there was an irregular hiccup. She counted at least three oil tank trucks, multiple barrels of gasoline, at least one gas line, not to mention the three giant oil tanks themselves that could be full. Her powers along with one lone shot could escalate a minor altercation to three blocks of San Diego County going off the map, “Too many flammables here. Draw them out and bring them to the open, Bael and I need to play it safe with the fire attacks here. Don’t worry about them shooting anything important, it’ll just leak.” Reiterating what she said to make sure she got through to the Dra’Qunni, “You got that Bael?”

---

With the last of the cargo in their two unmarked white vans, Ignacio dug through the boxes to pull out the gravity arm they had just showcased, the edges of the arm where the joins contorted lit up blue as he activated it with a laser on top. A M4 SOPMOD II rested against the back bumper of the truck, he gave a few momentarily glances at it as he stocked up with ammo; he knew this weapon well, back when he ran with the Rangers he used this exact model. Was support for one Corporal Pearce, Shock Troop they called him, before he almost fragged some suit or something. Never got the full story. The last item on his list wasn’t anything special, night vision goggles, with dusk turning into night they needed to play this safe. Grabbing his M4 and switching off the safety, he slammed the back door closed and banged two more times for code. The two white trucks began to drive off. The walkie talkie on his arm beeped and he answered with a command, “When you and Gabriel clear here let us know. We’ll hightail it afterwards. Make sure, I swear, that you don’t got a tail.”

“Yes, roger.” Miguel responded as he turned it off.

“Camry is ready to go boss.” Golden Arm held a thumbs up with his metallic hand, having checked their getaway vehicle so the battery didn’t die on them or anything.

Ignacio thumbed back. The sound of Jack hulking behind him, nearly got a fright out of him with how pained and laboured his breath was. Cooling his nerves, he slammed the magazine inside and banged against the side of the gun. “You got any more muscle out here? Could have Nacho run with you if you’d like.” Nacho, who was shadowing his boss, gave a respective upper nod to Jack.

“Don’t worry about me. Whatever they can dish out, I can take. These kids don’t kill. But what they don’t know is that’s gonna be what fucks them over.” He replied. “What’s the phrase? What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger? Something like that.”

---

Bael nodded for no one to see. “Alright, I guess I’ll initiate. I’ll see if I can’t get them away from the tanks.” He said, aiming his body down and began his dive bomb. He’s never struck the ground at near terminal velocity. Not that he planned to now, even if it would mean he turned one of the gangsters into hamburger. As he neared the ground, he swung his legs forward so they were underneath him, and used his wings to slow his descent. He still landed with considerable impact, pulling off the classic superhero landing. “Gentlemen. I think we all know what’s about to happen here. It’ll be a lot easier if you just put your guns down. You’ll be out of jail a lot quicker if you don’t waste your bullets.” He thought about just tearing up the ground and shoving them away from the refinery, but he wasn’t entirely sure of it’s construction and how much damage he would cause if he did that. Probably smarter to just slap them around.

The shockwave of the landing sent Ignacio stumbling back a few feet, if it wasn’t for his training he would have emptied his entire magazine onto the side of Bael; though on closer inspection, he held back, it was better not to waste his ammo. Running his hand against the underbarrel grenade launcher, he didn’t outright aim the weapon at Bael as not to escalate the situation. Golden Arm slammed the camry door shut and began making his way up towards Wyatt, the pistons in his arms loudly humming. Air Exhaust came out as the arms extended outward from its bottom half of the base revealing a barrel inside. The barrel went up while the top half retracted backwards, his hand letting out an audible ‘click’ as it connected to his ‘elbow’. Dropping his cigarette onto the ground he stepped over it while letting out some inhalation from the holes within his throat, “You ain’t the only fire breather here pendejo.”

Nacho growled as he loudly stomped his way closer to Bael, taking an almost sumo like stance. Ignacio walked back a bit and brought the night vision over his eyes, getting a clear view of the beast that lit up brightly with the heat he was letting out. “I don’t see no warrant dumbass, what crimes did we do? This is my place, and you’re a trespasser. Could put a cap in your ass and it would be legal too.” He was lying through his teeth but he knew enough stories about teenage heroes not knowing jack about the legal system; luckily he had an intimate and personal knowledge with it. He had his lawyer on speed dial. Nacho sauntered closer, overtaking Ignacio. “Why don’t you just back away and we call it even?”

“Uh huh.” He replied, crossing his arms. “Sure, tell you what. You tell me what you’re doing here without OSHA approved safety vests and helmets, and I’ll let you off the hook.” Bael said. Obviously they weren’t up to anything legal. “Also, your car is illegally parked. I can move it for you so you can avoid the tow truck. Though I won’t accept any liability for damages.”

‘Every hero is a smart ass these days.’ Ignacio chuckled at Bael’s response, this back and forth always made them more fun than cops who always say the same shit over and over again. At least heroes add some flavor. Planting his feet steady in the dry dirt, the gang leader retorted, “Well by all means, right us the ticket.”

Jason, looking around and seeing nothing he could swing to, sighed and started running towards the refinery. God dammit, why couldn’t they just meet up in the middle of an alleyway or abandoned warehouse. This looks so stupid. He groaned internally, jumping over the fence, shooting a tendril and flinging himself on top of one of the tanks, getting a better view of the gangsters they were about to fight. And a closer look at Jack. There was a pipe just overhanging them so he went for his strike. Shooting a tendril at the pipe, praying it’d hold up a skinny teenager, and swung down, shooting another with his offhand, into Jack’s back, and yanking him off his feet. “This one’s mine, you can have the other two!” He called, flinging Jack on top of the next tank and landing a few feet away. “Hey. Me again-What the fuck happened to YOU? You definitely weren’t that ugly an hour ago.”

“AAAH!” Nacho shouted as he booked it as fast as he could towards the Dra’Qunni, tackling the flying hero and giving as much of a bear hug as he could. Golden Arm took the initiative and landed a few successive electric blasts against his wing and lower back, the sensation should be familiar to Wyatt. Golden Arm got the idea of an energy gun watching that flying mech girl on TV doing it and was bored enough to try and DIY it. The first iteration may have blown his arm off, but the results speak for themselves.

“You two deal with the Dragon, I’m not wasting my shots on someone built like a tank.” Ignacio said as he walked away from the ensuing fight, looking up at the top of the oil tank where Sludge was standing over Jack “I doubt he’s bulletproof.” The distinct ticks of the bullet slamming against the top of the metal sheets alerted the hero he was taking fire. Ignacio fired three successive bursts at a time, though the black viscous made it difficult for him to confirm his shots.

Bael was caught off guard when the large man charged him and wrapped him in a bear hug. At first he felt more embarrassed than anything, but as he was about to break out, the other one had sneaked behind him and blasted him, hitting one of his wings and just above his tail. He hissed in pain, it feeling not too dissimilar from getting shot by Oberon. “Alright then...” He grunted, bringing up the lower halves of his arms to grab ahold of Nacho’s, freeing himself. Bael tossed the fat gangster away from the tanks with considerable force as Shi had requested. He really wished he could just tear the ground up and get some extra protection. “That stung.” He considered jumping at the man, but without his wings to correct mid air, there was a good chance he’d miss. The blasts hurt, but it wasn’t likely that he had enough juice inside his arm to do any real damage. “Last chance, you hit me again and I’m taking that arm off.”

“Got some upgrades. Time for round 2, asshole.” Jack said, lunging at Jason, who sidestepped him, grabbed his wrist with one hand, placed his hand on the jack of Jack’s head with the other, and the distinct sound of “human skull hitting metal railing” echoed through the area. Jason tossed him back towards the center of the tank when a few rounds struck him. “Ah!” He said, jumping away from the edge. No serious damage, the bullets pushed out by the inky tar that coated him. “Okay then. You wanna be an asshole...” He glanced over at Jack to see him struggling to his feet, the visibly gash and bruise that was his left eye socket was sealing itself right before his eyes. However, it didn’t stop, instead the orbit to his eye became visibly thicker through his skull, overtaking the eye and restricting vision slightly. “Oh… That’s… yeah, that’s fucked.”

“More you hit me, the stronger I get.”

“Too bad it doesn’t make you any smarter or better at fighting.” Jason sniped. He clearly struck a nerve, Jack lashed out, striking with his larger arm, which Jason grabbed, using the flip Shi taught him, and threw the man over the edge, hopefully landing on the bastard who shot him.

Ignacio effortlessly sidestepped four feet to the side, the flying glowing man in his reticles smacking hard against the dirt road. Jason came into view afterwards though a few shots in his general direction sent him back behind concealment. Twenty yards away in the middle of the road between the cars and tanks, Golden Arm was facing off against Bael, the Dra’Qunni approaching him staring intently at his arm. Golden Arm a little high off his own pride, as well as a few other things, reverted his arm back; though a second later the sound of his internal pistons roared to life, it was similar to a drill. “Come on.” Golden Arm dogged the man on, “Let’s see how your ass looks beating up a disabled veteran.”

Across the way Nacho had smacked against some sheet metal sending a few flying while denting the rest. “Ugh.” He groaned as he tried to stand up, only to see a sharp spike sticking through his ankle. Gritting his teeth as he pulled it out, he threw the jagged edge onto the floor as the injury prompt closed and healed. “Alright time to get serious Nacho.” He leaned up against some an assortment of pallets only to get knocked down by a concussive blast. Shi, the farthest of three, had waited for one of the gang members to get separated from the pack. Landing on top of the sheeting that functioned as a roof for parked cars, Shi stood some meters away waiting for the man to do something. “I really hate fighting kids…” Nacho complained as he stood back up.

Shi didn’t bother to respond.

Wiping the sweat off of his brow, Nacho was finally free standing only to get knocked down again by another blast. It took three more times for him to get the message, “You just gonna keep knocking me down like Imma turtle or some shit?”

Shi rolled her eyes.

“Ah fuck.” Nacho grabbed onto the side of the pallet, “Well I got no choice then.” He flung the pallet with significant strength and speed, much quicker than you would expect from a man like him. Shi got out of the way but he flung another item and another sending her back to the edge of the roof. She couldn’t help but be impressed by the man’s stamina, even if the metal sheeting would swipe her head clean off it landed. He flung a giant rock toward her face, she fell onto the ground even if it was a controlled landing. Flinging a few smaller fire blasts concentrated through her fingers, the man not reacting at all to the hits.

“Could do one controlled blast.” Shi reasoned as she skirted left and to the right from the barrage, even doing the splits to get under one. In a fluid move set she stood back and even prepared to let one large blast from both her arms and one of her legs. She took aim right at the center of his chest, the shot no doubt would have hit.

He had an oil barrel in his hands. Right in front of him. He probably didn’t even realize she was holding back because of that, he just gripped it because it was close.

At the last second she flung the shot into the air where it dissipated safely; while she may have been keeping him safe, he certainly wasn’t, he flung the barrel straight towards her, clipping her right arm. Shi shook her head, she was playing on their terms. Blasting up into the air, she scoured the area for Jason, maybe she’ll have better luck with him.

Literally patting himself on the back, it took Nacho a moment to remember that the fight wasn't over yet. Running back to his comrades, the man charged as fast as could cutting through the sheets and gates to catch back up to Bael.

Jason peaked over the edge as Golden Arm and Bael were having their staredown and leaped after Jack, who despite landing on his back, was already starting to climb back to his feet. “Hope you two don’t mind an interjection. Don’t worry, we’re just passing through.”

“Still kicking you slimy fuck.” Jack said, wiping the specks of dirt and cement off his body.

“That’s my cue guys. Enjoy your dance.” He shot a tendril at Jack’s leg, pulling it out from underneath him and dragging him along the ground. “As for you.” He said, throwing him over a large section of pipes and flipping over them. His tone took a noticeably quieter and more angry tone as he glanced over to the side, seeing some commotion not too far. “You fucked up. Fuck your regeneration. Fuck your boss.” He said, flinging Jack against some metal construction hard enough to dent it and daze him. “You don’t threaten my family. You got that?” Jason said, striking Jack in the chest, across the jaw, over and over, until he was sure that almost every bone from his and chest was broken in at least one place. “Because.” He said, shooting a tendril over both of his hands, in a Y shape and grabbing him by his legs. “If I ever, ever see you again. I’ll kill you, and I’ll sleep like a baby.” He said and watched as the poor fat guy was running in his direction. “Hey fatso, present for you!” He pulled Jack backwards, stretching the tendrils to their breaking point and shot the human missile at Nacho.

Jack side swiped Nacho as he crashed, nearly knocking the gangster off balance if it wasn’t for a convenient gate for him to lean against. Still huffing and running as he could to get back to his crew, he could see his cousin in trouble in the distance.

Bael wasn’t sure whether or not he preferred his opponent having the gun, but it was at least one less thing to worry about. Even as Golden Arm kept trying to guilt trip him into not fighting. “I think you’re vastly overestimating the pride I have in this country. It might work on someone else, but uh, A for effort. Very patriotic.” He said and approached. “You could just give up, spare me the attempts at a guilt trip, and yourself some bruises.” Right as he finished, he lunged at him, trying to grab the arm he blasted him with.

Golden Arm reflexively closed his eyes in fear as the Dra’Qunni lunged toward him, self aware now to begin regretting his decision. It wasn’t until nothing happened that his eyes crept open; there Bael was, front half stuck right there in the air. The grav-arm had got a lock on him letting out a bright purple fluorescent glow through it’s beam; both Ignacio and Golden Arm looked at each other in bewilderment, ‘That shit actually works!’ Ignacio, for his part, could hear the machine wheezing loudly and heating up as it tried to hold onto the literal monster of a man. Suckering punching Bael before Ignacio flung across the compound, Golden’s Arm elation was contagious. “You see that!”

“Yeah, good shit!” Ignacio smiled back, proud of his lackey. The stream broke off when the pull became too much to hold at the arc of the throw. “Circle up!” The two men ran after their prize, having lost track of him after he fell behind the buildings. Nacho had no such trouble from where he was, seeing the Dra’Qunni crash hard onto the uneven terrain of the outer edge of the refinery. Coughing up a pile of spit with each foot he took, he stepped on Bael’s wings prepared to come up with some threat but was instead just heaving.

Bael’s face went from one of slight confidence to genuine confusion. The purple glowing arm was holding him back. He pressed into it, putting far more force into it, cracking the ground beneath his feet from his effort and found himself struck in the head and launched into the air. His wing was still injured from earlier, and was unable to correct himself midair as he normally would, instead crashing into the ground. He was stunned for a moment, his brain still catching up to the rest of him when he saw the overweight gangster stomping on the same injured wing.

It was the one who could regenerate. He glared as he forced himself to his feet, his wing still not folding on his back correctly and then gave Nacho a hard shove. “That’s what I get for trying to be gentle…” He hissed, wincing slightly from the pain in his back.

Though knocked back, Nacho’s balance held and he came back swinging. “Yeah I get that homie.” He launched a hook onto Bael’s left cheek and then another uppercut to his jaw. Backing up in case of counter punch, he held his arms semi-crouched; despite his size he had at one time boxed. The pair of them traded blows, though Bael could see his opponent’s injuries heal in real time.

“Kick his ass Gordo!” Golden Arm demanded as the two of them ran and shot projectiles in that direction.

Across the compound Shi landed right next to Jason on the giant oil tanker, seeing a commotion off to the distance. ‘Wyatt should be fine.’ With Jack out of sight, she turned over to her squadmate, “Guessing he isn’t normal anymore? Unless you’ve been jobbing for this long.”

“Yeah. He’s definitely got powers.” Jason replied. “Definitely not jobbing. He’s got some sort of adaptive powers now. I break his bones, they just freaking heal and he gets stronger.” He said, watching as Bael got blasted away by the pair and chased by Nacho. “Looks like they got some actual tinkerer tech. Fun. Bael can take El Gordo. We should tag team Goldy before Jack recovers. I think he’s going to require a bit more effort than I thought. I’ll see if I can’t get his attention, you take him down.” After finishing, he jumped down in front of Golden arm. “El Gordo’s gonna get his ass beat. It’s okay though, you’ll be joining him right after.”

Ignacio got two shots off at Sludge as he landed next to his man, only to be blasted and flung back himself. Rolling in the dirt a bit, he got his footing and stood up searching the air for the target. “Come on where are you?” It wasn’t too hard to find bright objects in the sky, the trouble was when they ‘popped’ right in front of him. Letting out a few concussive blasts, Shi timed them to go ‘off’ right as they approached his field of view; though harmless, the sudden bright light burned his retinas. “Ah!” Ignacio screamed, flinging the goggles off.

Preoccupied and disoriented, the Red Princess landed and sweeped kicked his legs, leaving Ignacio prone on the ground. Flinging the assault rifle off of him, Shi grappled his torso to hold him in place.

Jack bounced and skidded across the ground like a ragdoll. He felt most of the bones in his body snap and crack as Jason’s words of threatening to kill him echoed throughout his mind, being one of the few things he had to focus on and keep him conscious as his body knit itself back together and made far more radical changes. His shattered legs reformed, growing thicker and the skin failing to keep the large bulbous red muscle from breaking through. His head became slightly elongated, not unlike a horse. His left arm swelled and the muscle began to break through the skin. His torso grew a secondary layer of pitch black leathery skin that began to take the place of his previously caucasion skin.

The searing pain that radiated through his body lasted only moments as his body took it’s new form. He climbed to his feet, seeing his reflection in a window. He wasn’t the skinny weakling anymore. Now he was strong. He glanced around, spotting a forklift and seeing Sludge alongside Golden Arm. He grabbed the frame of the forklift, the metal crumpling under his newfound strength. He smiled and flung the vehicle at both of them.

Struggling to pull away from Sludge’s tight grip on his arm, Golden struggled to turn the barrel toward the man’s torso. “Let go now!” Three blasts rung out directly aimed at Jason’s chest.

“Only if you ask nicely!” He replied, releasing Golden’s arm after the second blast and taking the final one to his chest and began to back away, one hand clutching the wound.

As Sludge backed away, Golden realigned himself to face him, “Why don’t you heroes ever…” A forklift, out of nowhere, smacked against his person, flinging him fifteen feet off to the side. Crashing against the bumper of a truck, it left in its place a twisted pile of bones and meat. With the faint light of the nearby street light all his friends could see was blood pouring out of him. The forklift landed not too far from him, a mangled mess as well.

“Steven!” Nacho shouted at the top of his lungs, watching in utter horror as his cousin laid there dying. Pushing Wyatt away, Nacho held onto his shorts as he ran over there as fast he could.

“Let go of me! Let go!” Ignacio demanded as he tried to reach over and help him. “I can help him, I can help him!” Shi struggled to pull off the exo-arm from him with his struggling but once she did, she let go. He wasn’t a threat anymore. He took off running as well, making to see Nacho furiously shaking him and demanding him to wake up. Ignacio pushed him off to the side, lifting his head up. “God his head was cracked open. Nacho take off your shirt, we need to apply pressure to his arm.” He took stock of the situation: concussion, mangled left arm, broken leg. No doubt a rib punctured his lung.

“Jasmine is going to kill you if you don’t wake up, Flaco.” Nacho struggled to hold back his emotions, handing his button up over to his boss. Wiping his face to get the tears off, he continued his demands, “He’s going to be alright right Ignacio? Just do that army shit.”

Bael looked to the side to see what happened. In the chaos, he barely saw what happened, only catching a glimpse at the massive mess of a human body and immediately turned to the side, throwing up all over the ground and forcing his eyes to stay shut as not to catch any more of the scene than he had to.

“Holy fuck…” Jason said. “Hold on, hold up! I can help, just give me a little room!” Why couldn’t it have been Jack that was the one crushed by a forklift? Sure, he didn’t have very positive feelings towards the gangbangers, but he definitely didn’t want this. He basically shoved his way to Golden Arm, the slime shot from his hands and sealed the outer wounds, digging in deeper to hold the rest of his body together.

Jack approached, but the sickly looking dragon boy and the Red Princess stood between him and the rest of the group. “Beat it.” He said and looked over to see that the rest were all busy administering what medical care they could to Golden Arm. “Whoops. Guess I missed. Oh well. Shit happens.”

Maria, who stayed safely in the empty holding tank, was using her power to guess what was happening outside. Unfortunately for her, things escalated far quicker than she expected. “Fuck…” She muttered and crawled out oh the tank, rolling up her sleeve to reveal what looked like a hi-tech wrist watch. She pressed a button, and began muttering something into it as she half ran over to where everyone was at. Letting out a very loud whistle. “You… Alright.” She started rushing, but her tone remained calm. “First of all. You.” She pointed at Jack. “We’re going to have a talk when this is done. You two.” She pointed at Nacho and Ignasio, pulling a card out her back pocket and basically shoved it into Nacho’s hands. “Go to this address. Tell the door guy that Witness sent you. He’s a biokinetic, his name’s Fixer. He’ll have your buddy back in one piece and gun running in two days. Go. Now. Sludge’s gunk’ll keep him alive for at least another half an hour.” ”Fuck me… It’s okay. I can fix this...” “And the Young Bloods. Let’s have a chat, preferably away from here. No fighting. Promise.”

Ignacio’s eyes darted to the card. Then to Jack. Then to Steven, Then back to Jack. ‘This man is literally melting into a horse over here and he went in there with a broken fucking arm. Fuck that shit.’ Ignoring her advice for a moment, Ignacio gestured over to Nacho, “Grab his legs.” The two of them lifted him onto the bed of the old jalopy he had smacked onto; as the two did, Nacho looked back at him for another order. “Hotwire it while I talk to her.” Making his way over to the white woman, his anger was palpable and all over his face, “If you think for a second I’m going to turn my friend into, into…” He gestured over to Jack, “That. You’re fucking stupider than I thought. We’ll take our chances, I know a healer south of the border. TJ based. A friend of the cartel.”

“No. Horseface is like that because of something completely different.” She explained. “He never went to this guy. This guy fixes people up like fucking magic. Goldy will look just as he did coming in here. Probably even a little better. On top of that, best guess is that your friend won’t MAKE it to the border. He’s being held together by slime, and that shit doesn’t last forever. I’m trying to help you here. But if you want to head that far south and let him die, go for it. I can’t and won’t stop you.”

“That’ll be too bad, for you.” Making his way back to the truck, Nacho had gotten it running. Ignacio, not in the mood, just slapped the back closed and told her, “If Steven dies and this asshole over there is still working for you by the end of the day, well…” He switched over to Spanish, “You’ll no longer be a friend of the Cartel.” He got into the truck and sped off, Nacho in the back caring for his cousin.

“Sure.” She said dismissively. Not that she was going to take responsibility if they wouldn’t listen to her. “Good luck. Don’t get caught by ICE!” She said, waving them off and rubbing the side of her head as a headache was beginning to manifest. “Idiots. I’m surrounded by idiots…” she muttered to herself and then let out a noisy exhale. “Well. That could’ve gone worse.”