Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Galnius]

Steven Baker.

August 7th

Angelica Dalin
Angelica was visibly shaken now. The teacher had called out her amnesia like it was nothing, and kept referring to her personally. And what was this about the massacre? "The....huh?"

Her head began throbbing and heating up, as if a sudden high fever had emerged. She placed a hand on her scalp, covering her upper face. Every light seemed like railroad spikes being drilled into her head, and her mind was suddenly overcome with flashes of...screaming and fire and...blood. So much blood.

"I...I need to sit down", she stated, placing her head on a cold desk trying futily to soothe her ever burning skull. It just seemed to grow hotter despite her best efforts however, and she just became more and more confused. "I'm...I'm just 16. That was before I would've been born, right? Why...why are you saying this? Why would you say that? What are you trying to do to me?"

Hot tears fell from Angelica's eyes and onto her cheeks and the desk, slightly burning her skin. Angry sparks flashed just above her hair, threatening to ignite anything it touched. "Mr. Baker...help...." She pleaded, her voice shaking violently. She was so confused. So lost. So...scared. She shouldn't have come here, shouldn't have followed the invisible lure. She should've listened to her doubts. For the first time in her short memory she had regrets. For the first time, SOMETHING seemed to be coming back. But that something, that was impossible right?

[Bentus]

A Villainous Night Out!
The Mall

Adrian was no stranger to struggle. Much of his childhood had been a backbreaking climb up the mountain of adversity, and it was only his ambition and drive that had allowed him to overcome all the insurmountable obstacles that lay in his path. He had toiled for hours, hunched over half-indecipherable tomes just to glean a flicker or two of lost knowledge. He had pushed himself physically in worlds and planes of existence that his mortal form was never meant to endure, and he had bucked the commands of others in order to forge his own path. But in all that time, he had never encountered an activity as soul-draining, as demoralising, as what he was being forced to endure now. Truly, he was facing his greatest trial.

“Oh. My. God. I have to try this one on too!” Lisette said excitedly, practically hopping from foot-to-foot as she pulled another dress from the rack. Standing behind her, Adrian couldn’t help but roll his eyes before he was broken out of his reverie as Lisette tossed the dress over her shoulder without even a backwards glance. Maneuvering the already substantial pile of clothes he was holding into the piece of attire’s flight path, Adrian sighed as he felt relegated to the existence of a pack mule.

“Do you really need all of these?” He asked in exasperation, stretching out his arms towards his companion to accentuate his point. Already the pile was about halfway up his chest, and at the rate that Lisette was combing through the department store, it would be up to his nose in no time at all. Glancing back over her shoulder, the girl smirked as she rolled her eyes.

“I’m not going to buy all of them, silly. But I need to try them on to figure out which ones I actually want. Seriously, you sound like you’ve never gone shopping before.” Lisette paused for a second. “You have gone shopping before, right?”

Not even looking at the girl, Adrian was scanning the department store, keeping a close eye on the other shoppers meandering their way through the aisles in case any of them turned out to be a hidden threat. A few cast the hoodie-wearing teen sideways glances, running their eyes over his out-of-place and dishevelled appearance amidst the expensive, luxury brand items of the upper-class store. “Of course I have.” He snapped. “Just not in a place like this. I prefer to focus on the practicality of my attire, and all of this just seems overpriced for what it is.” He didn’t make any effort to hide his boredom, although didn’t feel that it was worth mentioning to Lisette that he could never afford to shop at a place like this even if he wanted to.

Unless he cheated, anyway.

Unprepared as Lisette suddenly stopped in her tracks, Adrian stopped himself mid-step as the girl turned around. Letting out a sigh, she placed a hand on her hip as she looked at the sorcerer with an amused expression. Eventually rolling her eyes, she reached out to pluck the pile from his open arms. “Ergh, fiiine. I’ll just go try these on and come back later. You wanted a hat or something, right? They should be just over there.” She gestured with her head before swinging around on her heels and striding off towards the change rooms. Without looking back towards the sorcerer, she called out over her shoulder. “You’re not allowed to run off anywhere though! I might need help picking something out, ‘kay?”

“Yeah, yeah.” The young man said, dismissing Lisette’s cautioning words with a shrug before wandering off in the direction the girl had pointed to, relieved from the weight off all those useless piles of cloth. It was not that they were heavy - the burdens he’d been forced to carry over the course of his life easily dwarfed a few dresses - but he did take issue with being relegated to a simple carrier. And yet, he admitted to himself as he let out an amused smile, he couldn’t say he was having an awful time. Putting up with the airy villainess’ whims was not exactly his idea of a fun night, but it was a welcome break from his twisted daily existence.

“Now let’s see here…” He thought aloud as he reached an area of the luxurious clothing store across from the changing rooms, where various racks full of hats could be seen. The sorcerer found himself impressed by the variety: from fedoras and trilbies, to bowler hats and boaters, and that was only for the selection that was marketed towards men. Glancing over the selection, he found himself hesitating at the options before him and furrowed his brow in confusion as he recognized his own indecision. Shaking away the strange feeling, he quickly dashed any thoughts of going for something too mundane and idly grabbed a flat-brimmed black hat with a flat top and a silver band around the base of the crown.

Looking at a nearby mirror, he placed the accessory on his head and appraised his reflection, not quite convinced about his stylistic choice - there was something amiss, though he couldn’t quite place his finger on it just yet. Before he could give the matter much thought, however, Lisette’s voice suddenly pulled his attention away.

“Hey, Adrian: Ta-daa!” Grinning as the sorcerer looked over towards her, the girl performed a quick twirl to show off the elegant, mid length cocktail dress that ended just part-way below her knee. Giggling at her quick performance and clearly proud of the find, Marionette planted a hand on her hip as she struck a pose for her companion. “Didn’t I tell you this one would look great?”

Adrian didn’t respond immediately - even if he had wanted to, he suddenly found himself incapable of doing so. His breath got caught in his throat as he looked at the flattering dress draped over the girl’s curves, which were much more noticeable than when he saw her in her pajamas, or when he had first met her in her every day villain uniform. A part of him was upset at this display of self-control, but he couldn’t deny his appreciation for the outfit. “I’ll admit, you do look gorgeous.” The sorcerer said afterwards with a confident smile on his face, making a swift recovery from his moment of pause. “Not that I ever questioned your sense of fashion - only the practicality of trying on dozens of these.”

Not showing any indication that she noticed the boy’s initial reaction to her appearance, Lisette’s grin widened at the praise. Turning to look at the side-on image of herself in the mirror, the girl was increasingly satisfied with her selection. “Oh, I wasn’t going to try on all of them. I can do that at home and just throw out any that I don’t like, anyway.” Lisette spoke with the blissful obliviousness to the luxury brands’ price tags that only her upbringing could have allowed. “I just could not wait to see how this one looked. Plus, I wanted to make sure that it matched my necklace.”

Raising an eyebrow, Hex looked down at the girl’s neck to see a small pendant resting on her chest. He supposed that it did seem to complement the dress, though it was the intricate carving etched into its surface that caused him to pause. Catching his surprise, his mouth twitched upwards into a faint smile as he found himself having once again underestimated the figure standing before him.

“Ah. So that’s why you’re so comfortable wandering around public spaces.” He concluded as he continued to analyze the necklace - easy to see through, but quite hard to detect. “I take it that’s been under your shirt this whole time?”

“Yep.” Marionette replied, offering Hex a wink as the glamour charm rested gently around her neck. However she paused as she noticed the hat sitting on his head. Smirking, the girl couldn’t help but chuckle at the sight. “Wait, are you thinking of buying that?”

Suddenly, Adrian’s smile evaporated as he took off the accessory and looked at it again. For a moment, he felt a childish urge to respond defensively, but he quickly brushed it off and put on a smirk. “As a matter of fact, yes, I am. What about it?”

Still trying to stop herself from laughing, Lisette offered the sorcerer a sympathetic smile. “I mean, it looks alright - but you can’t just mix and match outfits like that. Were you planning on just wearing it with that hoodie you’re always in?”

“...Hm.” Hex interjected, the only sound to come out of him for a few moments as he turned to look at the mirror once again. “I wasn’t planning on that, no.” He stated, though he neglected to mention that he hadn’t planned on an alternative either. Still, as he looked at the reflection some more, he came to a realization about why the image had seemed off earlier, and smiled. “Yeah, I suppose… might as well.” He nodded to himself before suddenly stalking off towards the men’s section without directing a word or even a glance to Marionette.

Raising an eyebrow as the sorcerer’s attention suddenly seemed to drift away, the villainess watched curiously as her companion strode off like a man on a mission. Interested in whatever it was that seemed to have sparked in Hex’s mind, Lisette used a thread to lock the change room door before she made to follow him. With a spring in her step betraying her enjoyment of their outing so far, the girl’s heels clapped regularly on the store’s tiled floors as she trailed a few steps behind her strange companion, following him to the men’s section and watching with amusement as he picked out various clothes.

“That jacket does not go with that shirt you dummy. Don’t you know how to match clothes?” The villainess playfully told him, though the sorcerer simply let out a grunt and grabbed a different shirt, seemingly too focused on his task to bother responding. After a few more moments, he marched back to the changerooms, with Marionette in tow. He spent only a minute or three inside before coming back out, clad in black slacks, dress shirt and a matching suit jacket, with his hat completing the ensemble.

“Much better.” The young man stated with a pleased smile before glancing at Marionette. “I suppose we’re done here. You’re paying, right?” He smiled wider.

Rolling her eyes, the girl wore an amused smirk. Despite his best efforts, the other villain seemed to be enjoying himself. “Urgh, fine. But only because you look cute in the new look, okay?” Without waiting for a response, Lisette twirled around on her toes before striding towards the cashier. Waving dismissively, she called out to Adrian without quite offering him a backwards glance. “Though this better count as my good deed for the week, or something. Sheesh.”

Approaching the register, Lisette was practically grinning ear-to-ear when she planted her pile of items on the counter. She made no effort to hide her excitement at the little impromptu shopping spree. “I’d like all of this, along with the dress.” Pausing, the villain glanced over her shoulder to see Hex approaching from behind. “Oh, and all of his stuff too. You can just put whatever it ends up at on my card.”

Looking up at the over-excited teenager, the clerk appraised the haphazardly bundled pile of items with a raised eyebrow. Glancing to the sorcerer standing just behind her customer, her gaze narrowed as she noted his cheaply bought outfit and unkempt hair. Immediately suspicious, she forced herself to offer the teen at her counter an apologetic smile. “I am deeply sorry ma’am, but that dress is actually reserved for one of our Diamond members.”

Freezing, Marionette’s smile immediately fell into a frown at the unexpected response. “Reserved?” For a moment, she felt a surge of irritation rising in her chest, but she bit back an immediate retort with a scoff. “Fine, I’ll pay double the original price.”

The clerk responded calmly, although she already felt the alarm bells ringing in her head. Looking at the company that this girl kept, and how willing she was to throw around her money, she suspected that they may have just stolen the card. “I am sorry, but our policy for Diamond members is pretty clear on this issue. It should have been clear on the item’s tag that it had been reserved.”

Scowling, Marionette was becoming increasingly annoyed at the woman’s intransigence. “Oh come on, I never bother to look at the tag. And I’ve been looking for something to go with my necklace for ages! This is totally unfair!” The girl’s voice was quickly rising, and the clerk shot a hidden glance towards one of the store’s security officers standing not too far from the developing scene.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to calm down, or else I will have to request that you be removed from the store.”

“Removed from the store? Are you serious?!” Marionette exclaimed, seething at the insult. However, she suddenly paused - an idea popping into the back of her mind. Glowering at the clerk that was daring to stand between her and the best dress she’d found all month, the girl leaned forward across the counter. “Do you even know who I am?”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes at another stuck-up brat with a silver spoon up their rear, the clerk let out a mental sigh as she braced herself for the inevitable rant about what oh-so-powerful-Daddy was going to do to her. She’d seen the type plenty of times before, although they were a dime-a-dozen with the clientele that the high-end store usually courted. Looking the self-centered brat up-and-down, the clerk responded calmly.

“No, I don’t.”

Blinking, Marionette didn’t respond immediately. For a second, there was an uneasy silence between the pair as it seemed like they were at an impasse, until Lisette’s smile slowly twisted upwards into a pleased grin. “Great!”

Before the clerk even had an opportunity to verbalise her surprise at the response, Marionette’s hand darted forward and grabbed onto the other woman’s collar. With a single, fluid movement, the villainess pulled the woman’s head down and slammed it into the counter with a satisfying thud, knocking her out and leaving a splatter of red on the regularly-cleaned glass. Turning as the watching security guard’s jaw dropped in shock, Lisette grabbed onto Hex’s hand as she raced towards the store’s emergency exit.

“Come on, time to leave!”

[Auropa]

Mike Mathews
August 4th, team 4 raid

‘Ouchhh’ Mike thought as he winced at the sight of Casimir being caught by the purple figure’s vicious kick ‘that’s gonna leave a mark.’
So far the battle didn’t seem to be leaning either way, while Tadeo was able to hold the man in place long enough for Casimir to get in a few good shots, their unknown enemy promptly returned the favor after breaking free. At least now they knew that the person they were fighting against had strength, skill and some sort of barrier power at his disposal, none of which boded well for Bugboy now that he was locked in melee with him. Issues with his character aside, Mike wasn’t dumb enough to underestimate his teammate’s abilities, he knew that if anyone could withstand the armored fighter’s onslaught, it’d be him. At the same time though, he didn’t want to risk letting this devolve into a war of attrition, especially since their enemy was in a literal suit of armor.

Pausing for a second, Mike considered his options. Their enemy was strong, fast and well protected but also nearly animistic in his attacks. Seeming to be only growling, charging and smashing instead of planning or maneuvering. Mizu’s illusions looked to be working but they couldn't do much in the way of damage and while Tadeo had some of his own attacks he would probably needed time or room to use them. Thinking quick, Mike came to a decision and drew out his batons as he thumbed open his communicator. “Hechicero, get something strong and accurate ready then help Bugboy however you can. The moment you see an opening, hit the purple guy with everything you got. Selene, whatever you did, do it to Hech too then get ready to help me because I’m about to do something very stupid and I’m gonna need as many copies of me running around our friend over there as possible.”

Before he could so much as check to see if the others were ready, Mike made his move. He broke into a sprint, focused his powers and surged towards the back of the armored figure just as Casimir made his own grab for its head. After seeing his teammates’ previous attacks bounce off the hardened metal, he knew he needed to take a more surgical approach to get past the man's defenses and with him held in in place, even if only for a moment, it gave him the chance he needed. ‘Now or never…’ he decided as he closed the last few steps.

In a one practiced motion, he brought his weapon down against his target’s back. Instead of going for vital organs or exposed slits in the armor, he struck hard against the dominant shoulder joint. Beneath the combined power of his blow’s force and his own abilities’ effect, he was happy to see the metal dent and deform under the strike. At the same time though, he felt his weapon snap at the handle partway through leaving the main bludgeoning section lodged in the joint's remains.

‘Well crap’ he figured as he shifted plans and swapped focus to his remaining weapon and the ground behind him ‘how the hell does Roy keep these things intact?’. Suddenly, a deeply disturbing feeling of deja-vu washed over him. The bat monster on the island, Thunderstruck, Hex and even the WW juggernaut, had all gotten the better of him after he overstayed his welcome and carelessly tried to retreat. Whether it was experience or a much overdue sense of self-preservation, Mike realized he needed to get some distance and he needed to do it carefully. Seeing a simple backtrack as practically suicide against his opponent’s speed, he decided to take one more risk as he spun the snapped baton in his hand and went in for a second strike.

This time he went low. His remaining baton hit first and struck against the metal protecting his enemy’s leg and while causing it to dent, it did little in the way of damage. Following the blow close behind was the true attack. Slamming the jagged edge of the snapped baton against the weakened metal caused an unmistakable tearing noise to ring out as the makeshift blade bore through. It didn’t get too much further before Mike had
to let go and step back, but he didn’t doubt its effects for a second.

The whole attack barely lasted a moment and at first glance didn’t even come close to the level of previous attacks. A strike to the shoulder armor then a strike to the leg platting followed up by a stab to the outer thigh. It was a rehearsed and simple move but if all proved well, then it should be more than enough to cut their enemy’s movement down. With luck, Mike figured, their attacker would find their own defenses restricting their punches and while he knew it wouldn’t do much in the long run, he couldn’t imagine him being able to chasing anyone down after even the small stab wound to the leg. As he took a quick few steps back to re-asses the fight and better defend himself, he couldn’t help but feel some inkling of pride as he waited to see his work’s effects.

[Union Princes]

Fahcelkel

“Here we are, Arin!” Her father said, “Our new home sweet home.” The family truck pulled into the garage that was located left of the house.

It was a modest one-story house with a humble backyard and a plain frontyard. There was three bedrooms and three bathrooms, a living room, a spacious kitchen, and a couple offices if her father wanted to work at home. Red Brick walls, redwood floor, and red ceramic roof made up the general appearance of their new home. The small garden in the front grew aloe vera and rosemaries.

Barney immediately hopped off of Arin’s lap when she opened the car door in order to relieve himself in the backyard.

“I’m gonna go unload my suitcases in the master bedroom.” her father said to her as he opened the trunk and pulled out his luggage. “Go find the room you’re most comfortable to sleep in.”

“And make sure its safe and secure.” he also added.

While her dad was off unpacking, Arin explored her options for her bedroom while Barney followed behind her; his nails clicking on the wooden floor. The first bedroom she entered faced the backyard with a window overlooking the brick wall that separated her home from her neighbors.

Arin got closer to the windowsill as her eyes scanned for any potential escape routes or hiding places in case of a home invasion. The brick wall was low enough for her to quickly climb over incase of a breach. Only problem was the backyard was pretty exposed except for that one big tree planted in the middle. It was a mulberry tree with its mulberries fresh and plump handing off its overarching branches that cover the backyard under a pleasant shade.

She then moved onto the next bedroom. This one faced the frontyard. Unlike the backyard, the frontyard was really exposed except for the row of hedges that separated the houses from the main street. It wasn’t heavily dense so Arin could squeeze through the branches and leaves and be on the sidewalk on the other side.

‘Finally picked out your room?” Her dad asked as he showed up at the doorway.

“Mmmmm. I’ll take the room facing the backyard.” Arin answered before turning away from the window to drag her suitcase to her new bedroom.

“Not the front?” he inquires.

“Nah.” she shook her head.

“Alright then. Now for the hardest part: furniture.” Her father sighs as he sees the home moving truck parking in front of the house. A small crew came out to carry the beds, tables, sofas, and other heavy possessions. After a many hours, everything was set up and cleaned before Arin’s dad collapsed on the couch in exhaustion. Arin herself cuddled next to him with his arm over her shoulder. Even Barney too, big as he is, hopped on the sofa as well and lied down next to tired father.

“Arin,” he whispered, “I’m gonna go install a doggy door next and then we can take a tour of your new school. Is that okay with you?”

“Sure dad.” his daughter smiled. “Just don’t break your back.”

[Northwest Slobovia]

Sam Croft/Blizzard
Old Bloods/Young Bloods Mixer: Hello, Wolfie!
1 August

“Wi-fi's not coming?” The ice scientist asked, and Alexis shrugged. “I guess we'll have to manage without her. I'd like to catch Wolfie while they're still recovering from the last bit of fun and games.”

“Let's take a look at the nitty-gritty of our visit to the Wolf Lair.” He brought up a map on a one of the large computer screens. “This is Wolfie's communications hub, the second floor. That's where our objectives are: the archives, and the email servers. The front of the Wolf Lair is far off to the right of the map, and we'll have the truck parked over in that direction, a block back from the entrance.

“The P's mark power suppressors I spotted the last time. Green is the gaps in their coverage. Teleporting into the one between the comm hub and the armory seems like the best bet. The power suppressor coverage is only really good in their 'citadel'. Everywhere else, it's just around key buildings and their fenceline. So, should we for some reason be unable to get back out via these coverage gaps, we just need to get out of the citadel.

“Anyway, back to the comm hub. Cameras cover the doors in and the hallways. They'll know Major Davis and Major Schmidt are in the building, but so long as we're careful, they won't suspect anything.

“We have two goals: get Mars' email sniffer onto their network and check out things from their library. The mail server room seems like the best place for the sniffer, since we know their email has to pass through that wire. Worst case, we put it in their archives.

“These uniforms have hidden inner pockets. We should be able to make off with disks, flash drives, or whatever they've got their archives on pretty easily. The guns are mostly for show, but if we have to use them, Wolfie will find out that the guns are theirs. A couple of grunts got drunk and disorderly, and their guns somehow never got back to the Wolf Lair.”

“We'll have coverage from the camera and parabolic mic across from from the entrance, which is why the truck will be there: if everything goes completely wrong, we'll be running in that direction as fast as we can. Black Arrow will be on the roof with his bow, and that ought to keep the Wolfies busy.”

Douglas raised his bow and gave the room a sheepish smile to accentuate his role.

“We'll have mics and earpieces for everybody, so we'll be in touch. Warp's mic and mine will be hot, so Makeshift and Black Arrow can hear what's going on around us. Oh, Naja is getting a live feed as well. That was part of the deal we worked out for this mission to happen. So let's make this look good.

Sam clapped his hands, about to wrap up. “So, the plan's pretty simple: get in, get the goods, get out. Barring interference, it should only take a few minutes. Once we've got the stuff, we'll teleport back to the truck. We'll drive someplace else, then Makeshift will take a crack at what we got from the archives. Questions?”

Alexis raised her hand. “Yeah, just one. Did Mars give you the sniffer last time you talked?” She smirked, and after a brief pause in which none of the older people in the room said a word, she pulled a small device out of her pocket and tossed it at Sam. “Thought so.” She said with a wink.

Sam shook his head and jokingly shook his fist at her. Score one for the kid. “Right! Next time we work on the coordination issues.”

Getting the truck, now holographically disguised as an A/C repair company vehicle, into place behind the office building opposite the Wolf Lair’s main gate went with barely a hitch: the group was waved through a roadblock without a second glance. Warwolf was looking for the Young Bloods, not the adults in the cab.

Sam ad-libbed getting Doug to the roof the building: he led the archer -- now in his civilian clothes -- up to guard desk, and simply ordered the man behind it, letting his Warwolf uniform and the brass on his shoulders do most of the talking. “I’m Davis, this is Jones, Readi-Cool tech. Drones say something happened on your roof just after dark. We’re going to check it out.”

He didn’t stop for a reply, simply took the elevator up to the top floor, then handed Doug a copy of Readi-Cool’s key that he’d used when he set the camera up the first time.

On his way down, he passed the guard desk without stopping. “False alarm: HVAC chiller #7 sprung a big leak. Jones is fixing it.”

“I’m in position.” Black Arrow’s casual voice came in through the comms moments later.

Lana’s portal brought her and Sam exactly to where they expected, though Sam found the abrupt change disconcerting. They crossed the short distance to the comm hub's back door. It was difficult for Lana to make out the details of Sam's electronic key; in his final version, it fit snugly into his palm. However, she could see tissue thin sheets of something slide into the tiny gaps between the keypad's keys and the keypad itself. After a second, there was a distinct snick!, and Sam turned the handle easily.

They climbed the stairs to the second floor and Sam whispered an answer to Lana's unspoken question. “Superconductive inductance. Slip a tiny cryo-chiller in, add some power, and the bolt mechanism throws itself. Only downside is the batteries die quickly; it uses a lot of juice.”

As the two of them entered the second floor hallway, two people talking in the hall came to and saluted. “Major, Major. We we were just, uh, cross-checking what recon got on the superperps.” They scurried down the hall and disappeared into separate rooms, trying to look busy. As Sam crossed to the email server den, he flashed Lana a big grin: everything's going according to plan.

Entering the server den was as easy as getting through the back door, and Sam quietly closed the door behind them. “Let's get this sniffer in place. Look for a network jack or cable or something like that.” He started to look behind the rack-mounted servers lining the walls. The cables were in a dense web, all tangled up over each other and connecting to a thousand different sources, but they were color-coded in a deep shade of blue, which made finding them easy among the cluster of wires. The plastic jacks at the ends helped identify them as well.

“Found ‘em.” Lana grunted, yanking one free from its port. “How many free jacks do you need?” Hopefully it wasn’t too many, it was an absolute mess in here, especially trying to navigate around the wires. They were like snakes that tied around your fingers and wrists quickly, especially with the plastic zip-ties haphazardly bunching some together. The fewer wires they needed to inconspicuously unplug, the better. It would probably help with detection as well, it would look kind of strange to have so many disconnected wires.

Sam pulled the sniffer out of a cavernous pocket, and looked it over. “Looks like two: one in, one out.” He passed it to Lana, who got the unit jacked into Warwolf’s network.

“Aaand I’m inside! Everything looks pretty tidy. Just what I’d expect from Warwolf.” A teenage girl’s voice came in through the comms. “Good job with the sniffer, guys.”

“Wait, what’s going on there?” Douglas’ voice asked. He sounded like he was chewing on something.

“Oh nothing important. I just toyed a bit with the sniffer to give me access to the building’s camera feeds instead of just some boring email.”

“Huh. Nice.”

Sam shook his head, annoyed. Another point for the kid. “Y’hear that, Naja? You’re going soft on those kids. They need to work to grow into proper adults.” He hoped he threaded the needle between subtle, mocking humor and seriousness to keep Alexis guessing.

He returned to the business at hand. “Makeshift, anybody in the hallway?”

“Nope.”

Lana and Sam took the corridor at a brisk walk, looking busy but not hurried. The door to the archives swung open at Sam’s key’s superconducting touch. He pulled the door closed behind them, then marvelled at the room’s contents: rows of shelves stacked high with miniature disk drives. He ran his eyes along one shelf. “They’re running weekly full backups. Those are the disks we want.” He led by example, grabbing disks from a recent backup set and slipping them into his pockets.

Less than a minute passed before a woman appeared on camera, emerging from the staircase closer to the archives, and headed right the archives’ door.

“Whoops, looks like there’s someone coming your way, guys!” Makeshift’s voice warned. “She’s all by herself, but she’s heading straight towards you.”

[OOC: Collab with Seg and Zark]

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Sam Croft/Blizzard
Old Bloods/Young Bloods Mixer: Hello, Wolfie!
1 August

“Shit!” Lana hissed, whirling around to face the door just as it swung open, the woman behind it completely busting them in the act. The blonde woman was fully decked out in Wolf gear, right from her stupid-looking hat to her boots, boots that were so polished you could see little half-moons in them. And her face was written all over with a very dense mixture of surprise and irritation. Thankfully, the disks were all in Sam’s pockets, but it still wasn’t a pretty picture to find them snooping around the archival room.

“Commander Schmidt, what is the meaning of this?” the woman asked, green eyes as sharp as daggers. “Why are lower-level subordinates in the Citadel? We’re in a vulnerable state right now, I don’t want our security being compromised.”

“I don’t recall asking for your opinion….Major.” she stuttered slightly, not being able to put a name to the face of the woman. The only clue she could get was from the special insignias on her sleeves that identified her as a Major, something she had read through while pursuing the research dossiers for their little stunt. Besides, Schmidt was enough of a bitch to not call a high-ranking Major by their real name. Especially if they were part of her battallion. “For your information,” she began, striding towards the woman. “I brought Major Davis into the Citadel because of an issue with the radio system. There has been malfunctioning with our communication signals and it’s critical we get them repaired.

“Then why-” the woman started before Lana/Schmidt cut her off with a hand. “Because, I didn’t want Major Davis going in unattended, who knows what could happen? So I personally escorted him. As for the archives, we’re taking the discs to see if there has been tampering on them. After all, the radio issues could very well be the result of hacking or outside influence, so who knows what they’ve done to our software, or even...our e-mail servers.” she said, voice growing more and more confident as she went along, descending from her own slightly squeakier voice to Schmidt’s lower register. It was clear that the other woman feared Schmidt, so all she had to do was intimidate her into submission.

“Commander Schmidt, we have policy regarding this. The Commander of the Heavy Weapons Battalion shouldn’t be escorting a repairman, that should be conducted by a lower level-”

“Listen to me.” she said, zeroing in on the woman with an evil sneer and a new venom in her voice. “The city is in shambles right now, we have riots going on, we have negative press coming in from all angles thanks to these...pesky Young Blood brats and their stupid alien friend, and forces are struggling to keep up. I don’t want a single mistake being made in the Citadel, for it could bring down our entire defense system. So if I have to personally escort a repairman to get that job done, you know damn well that I’ll do it! Now, I think it’s best that you leave now and let us carry out our search. If you have objections about this, I’m sure the higher-ups will be more than happy to hear why you’ve decided to question the authority of a Commander-in-Chief. Now, do we have any objections?”

It did the trick. The woman, staring aggressively at the floor, shook her head and mumbled a meek “no ma’am”, looking defeated. Lana almost felt bad for her, but they had a job to do. And if she had to be a Cruella De Vil in paramilitary clothes, then she would damn well do it...god, Trisha Schmidt was starting to rub off on her.

“Good.” she said nodding, gesturing out the open door. “Now hop to it.” she finished, employing one of Schmidt’s signature catchphrases for extra authenticity. With a nod, the woman straightened her posture and left the room, shutting the door behind her. But it wasn’t until a good five seconds after the sounds of her footsteps had retreated that she finally dared to make noise again, letting out a relieved sigh.

“Let’s finish this quickly,” she said, striding across the floor and beginning to swipe as many disks as she could fit inside her pockets. The pockets were even more spacious than she remembered, enough to carry a good half a dozen disks and still have room for other goodies. Hopefully they could swipe enough so that if that Major came around again, they wouldn’t have to make a getaway. She really didn’t want to have to shoot anybody during this.

Sam paused his ‘data-gathering’ long enough to give Lana a thumbs up and approving smile. “Thanks! That was a pretty good portrayal. Ever considered acting as a hobby?” He grabbed another stack of back-up disks. “Yeah, we should move fast.” He looked around, checking for other things that might be worth stealing. Spotting a group of file cabinets tucked into a far corner, he went to take a look at them.

The woman Lana had browbeaten slunk back towards the stairs as Alexis watched, hunched over, head down. She re-appeared on Alexis’ screen on the first floor looking little better. But after taking a few steps, she slowed, stopped, and looked up in the direction of the archives on the floor above.

After a couple of seconds of staring upward, she pulled something from a leg pocket: a big phone or a small walkie-talkie. She was facing the wrong direction for Alexis to have any shot at reading her lips when she spoke into it. She then hurried down the hall, knocked on a door, opened it, and leaned into the room, apparently talking to whoever was inside.

Moments later, Doug could spot movement in the citadel on his monitor: three Warwolf soldiers emerged from the nearest guard shack, one locking the gate to the rest of the base, and the other two hustling for the comm hub. Other small groups in the citadel started running in that direction as well.

“Uh, guys? I don’t want to alarm you, but that chick Warp just told off? I think she’s off to snitch on you two. I wouldn’t stay much longer if I could help it.” The blonde girl’s voice announced.

“There’s movement at the base: the front gate’s locked and there’s guards heading for the hub. I’ll get ready in case you need that distraction, just say the word.” Douglas stated moments later.

“Warp, Blizzard, get outta there now. I don’t see any guards on the building’s cameras yet, but they’ll be there any second now.”

Sam stopped in his tracks, turned around, and started for the door. “Thanks, guys! Time for Plan B! Unless somebody has a better idea, we’ll swap insignia in the stairwell, and then blend into the confusion as they look for Davis and Schmidt.” Then to Lana: “We’ll take the corridor double-time, but not running, like we don’t know we’re busted.”

“S-sounds good,” Lana weakly replied, still in a state of panic from the news. Forget wolves, these people were goddamn rats! She couldn’t believe that practically browbeating the woman hard enough to nearly make her cry hadn’t worked, especially with how high-ranking Schmidt was. Her throat felt dry as she cleared it, heading through the door behind Sam. It took all of her self-restraint not to sprint for the stairs, forcing herself into a quick, unsteady walk, nearly lurching.

As soon as they hit the stairwell, Lana/Trisha began to swap her insignias as quickly as possible, ripping the symbols off of her sleeves and shoving the cap low down her face to hide the Trisha Schmidt mask. It was tricky, especially with how much her hands were trembling in fear, but she managed to work everything off, turning her from a high-ranking Alpha Wolf to a grunt Omega.

Sam started pulling off his own insignia, then caught Lana’s tone and posture. “Hey, relax. We’re ready for this. We have a Plan B, and we’re doing it.”

Just above the ripping of the velcro backing on his signals company patch, Sam heard something on the audio link. His hand stopped as he listened: voices being caught by the high-gain microphone across the street. Doug had no problem using the phone app to lock on the source: the radios the Warwolf MPs were carrying. A woman's voice spoke. “...remain outside the comms building, and stand by for further orders.”

Neither the MPs nor the heroes had to wait long for those orders. A man's voice came on: “This is Captain Moore.”

“Shit!” Shaking his head, Sam explained, “He reports to Davis.”

Moore's voice went on. “We have an imposter. Major Davis is in the field, investigating interception of our communications. He's also inside, in the east stairwell, accompanied by Major Schmidt, 3rd battalion COS. One of the Davises isn't real. The one in the field is being escorted back to base. The communications hub is being locked down.

“Orders, people! You will detain the Davis inside, along with Major Schmidt. White, Sanchez: hold the west door. Jackson, Kowalski: enter through the west door, take the west staircase up to two, hold there. Jones, Greer: hold the east door. Juliet Squad, when you've all reached to the comm hub, prepare for entry and stand by.”

Pairs of people sprang into motion: one pair by each door drawing their guns and taking guard positions, and a third pair breaking into a run from near the east door, starting to head around the communications building. That left three people milling around.

Swiping between display options on the camera/mic app, Douglas noticed that two of them were within the gap that the power suppressors didn't cover.

Now Sam started to sound worried. “Looks like we need a Plan C, and maybe a D and E, too.” He looked in the direction of the hallway they’d just came from, thinking quickly, and snapping his fingers.

“Warp, Blizzard, run to the east door as fast as you can, I can take care of the guards just outside and you can use the gap nearby to teleport back to safety.” Douglas’ voice interrupted Sam’s train of thought suddenly.

Back at the rooftop, the archer summoned his bow, his all black armor manifesting around him as he took aim. A corporeal, swirling darkness coalesced into the loose shape of an arrow when he pulled back the bowstring, steadily growing in size.

“Girl, can you see them? Are they about to reach the exit?” He asked, careful not to reveal Alexis’ real name or implicate the Young Bloods by using her alias. “If I shoot too quickly they’ll be on high alert.”

“Right, not yet… almost… there!” The young techie spoke through the comms. As soon as he got his cue, Douglas let loose the dark ‘arrow’, which bolted through the air and impacted the ground at the feet of the two Warwolf MPs who were standing by the power-suppressor gap, bursting with enough force to knock both of them off their feet just seconds before Sam and Lana reached the door.

One of the MPs guarding the comm hub’s east entrance shouted “Incoming!” as he dropped to the ground; the other wasn’t far behind. The last guard was a little slower, hitting the ground just as Lana and Sam burst through the door at a dead run. A moment too late, Sam thought to pull down the bill of his cap; the door camera probably got a glimpse of Davis’ face (and Schmidt’s) as they ran by. Just before Lana teleported them out, he finally remembered his gun, and fired a literal parting shot into the air to keep Wolfie’s heads down.

“Too close! Way too close!” Sam found his voice as both of the heroes stood panting in the back of the truck. “Give ‘em another couple of shots! Keep them busy!”

“Don’t need to ask twice.” The archer replied as he pulled back the bowstring for another shot, releasing a volley of shadow bolts directed at the gap on the western side of the citadel. Several petered out before reaching their target due to the interference of the magic suppressors laid out throughout the citadel, but a few hit a patrol vehicle stationed there, leaving it useless. Satisfied with this, Douglas continued firing, this time at the humvees parked outside of the citadel, until Warwolf caught on to his antics and began returning the fire.

“Alright, I’m getting out of here!” He said as he ducked under a few bullets that whizzed right where his head was and then scurried off, using his chains to swing from one rooftop to the next.

“We’ll pick you up on 17th and Beech, okay? Just don’t show up in cosplay or we’re going to have a lot of trouble.” Alexis said through the comms, before nodding at Sam and Lana, who had arrived at the truck just a few moments ago.

“Well, who’s driving? I’d do it, but that’d get us in trouble.” She smiled.

Grabbing her left hand with her right to hide their shaking, Lana quietly said, “I will.” Driving was familiar and familiar was distracting. “Oh, before I do that…” She unloaded her pockets onto Alexis’ table. “Something to keep you busy while I drive.” Sam did the same, though he stayed in the back to see what the tech genius could make of their haul.

The pick-up went smoothly, and after hopping into the truck’s cab, Doug cycled to the next holographic disguise for the truck: a plumbing company with the motto “Leaks? Just call us!”

“More like ‘Leaks: we got ‘em’ am I right?” Douglas quipped, only to hear a groan from the back of the truck.

[OOC: Collab with Seg and Slo]

[Tomia]

Viv

As the confused and disoriented guards were thrown onto the roof, Angelica sprang into action fulfilling her part of the plan. She knocked the nearest one onto the ground with her batons before holding out her hand as she placed ice onto his back. The solider was frozen to the ground but the still standing one raised his gun at Frostbite and was about to fire until Yoshi jumped on his back and put her hands on his temples. He suddenly slacked and dropped his gun looking relaxed and in a daze.

"Thanks Psyche" Frostbite said, a little mad at herself that she wasn't quick enough to keep herself from danger but was glad that her team had her back.

Suddenly she heard a loud crash from downstairs, she guessed that was team 3 busting through the building. "Makeshift there's our opening. The guards on the stairwell are going to be rushing downstairs. We should make our way to the Mayor's office."

Wyatt

Mars nodded confidently when Wyatt encouraged them to move quickly. Wyatt was right, they had something to prove and this was their best chance to do it. Still he couldn't help but be nervous, they would be dealing with a lot of bullets here. That was something Mars wasn't too used to yet but he figured it was part of being a hero. Before Bael went through the door, Mars pressed a button and activated Rocket which came to expand around him. The helmet snapped into place and Mars was ready to fight when Bael broke through. The sound of gun hire was overwhelming but Mars did his best to stay focused. The guards were separated into two groups and were still concentrating their fire on Bael. Mars needed to give him cover so he decided to try out one of his newer innovations. Rocket raised his right hand and suddenly it began to shake as it moved forward and separated from the rest of the suit. The fist shot at the group of soldiers on the right like a massive bullet. It smashed their make shift cover and sent two soldiers flying against the wall. Suddenly the fist turned around and reconnected itself to Rocket. He was now taking heavy fire himself but Rocket was taking it, which made Mars happy. He didn't need another bullet wound from Warwolf.

Soon however he saw Warwolf setting up a heavy machine gun and a rocket launcher, they really weren't playing around. "Machine gun and rocket launcher! Someone take them out!" Mars shouted as he prepared a shield just in case.

[New Rob Halfordia]

“Hey Miranda, can I ask you a question?”

“Yes, what is it Joseph?”

“What is the tensile strength of my armor, again, exactly?”

“Approximately 150,000 lbs per square inch.”

“Really? Because this feels like more than that.”

As Joseph and his AI conversed, the mechanized behemoth that was the Juggernaut began gripping his helmet tighter and tighter, the creaking of his tungsten alloy armor screeching as the hold tightened. The beast had him in effectively a full nelson while gripping Joseph’s head, rendering the hero’s arms basically useless.

“Alright.”, Joseph said to himself, obvious strain in his voice, “Time to take this very seriously.”

The fusion powered suit’s calve thrusters suddenly opened, with maximum available power being diverted to their operation. As this occurred, Joseph did his best to jump his legs into the air, still effectively attached to the Juggernaut. The thrusters fitted to his lower legs roared to life like a Saturn V rocket, hitting a 90 degree angle as they did. As his entire body made an arc around the Juggernaut his head came loose, and suddenly the thrusters on his arms came on at a similar intensity to the one’s on his legs, freeing them from the behemoth’s grasp as it toppled towards the ground on it’s back. Now free from the mech’s grasp, Joseph’s thrusters returned to their normal position, and he spun around to face the mech.

Before the Juggernaut could arise, he angled his propulsion system to fire himself right foot first directly into the mech’s throat, keeping mass amounts of power directed towards his thrusters as the mechanized suit now slid across the ground, sparks and debris flying through the air as metal met asphalt. Facing his open palms towards his opponent as he pushed the mech, Joseph unleashed a perpetual blue beam of electromagnetic energy into the helm of the metallic golem, the residual heat coloring the metal on both it’s helmet and Joseph’s arms a burnt blue hue.

But before he could come close to melting the head of the Juggernaut, it grabbed Joseph’s leg with it’s right hand, slamming him into the ground as they now both slid at speed. The mech used it’s available hand to grip the pavement, grinding it’s fingers through the tar in an attempt to regain control, using Joseph’s head to similar effect. As the two finally ground to a halt, the Juggernaut arose, still gripping the hero’s head, taking no time at all to once more hurl him into the ground back first. Trying again to catch his breath after having it knocked out of him, there was little Joseph could do as the titan placed its massive boot on his chest. Each breath he took, he could feel his lung capacity getting smaller and smaller as the Juggernaut’s foot began to exert more and more pressure.

“Hey, uh, Miranda, where are we currently at in the fusion process before I go boom?”, Joseph asked in a barely contained panic.

“The core is currently producing a combination of silicon and sulfur.”, the AI responded promptly.

“Ah, I see. That means I have some time to push it a little harder?”, Joseph said, heavily breathing as he did.

“I can’t say for sure.”, Miranda responded, “This is uncharted territory.”

“Well.”, Joseph responded, “We didn’t get this far on chances untaken.”

As the Juggernaut’s foot pressed harder and harder upon the suit’s chest, Joseph raised his hands towards it. But unlike the last times, this time they glowed bright red, like a star primed to burst. In a moment, a bright, red hot stream of energy engulfed the behemoth’s helm, causing it to stagger backwards as Joseph rose to his feet. A faint red glow still emanated from the hulking mech’s helmet as Joseph spoke.

“You know, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Fusion”, he said, the nuclear core at the center of his chest now glowing red, “And I’m about to give you a lesson in pragmatic naming schemes.”

[New Neros]

August 4th
Darklight and Cosmic

Inspiration filled the young heroine as Cosmic spoke, the girl seeing him as the hero he had always wanted to be, not as the goofy classmate she had eaten lunch with more times than she cared to admit. He had really changed in his ten month absence, and judging by his display of power, had grown incredibly strong in that time. She nodded vigorously, Cosmic looking at her for confirmation and then back towards the villains that accosted them. "Darklight, I'm going in, watch my back and handle the extras while I work my magic." He said with a confident smile, Ava sighing as her admiration quickly faded.

Still, the Ultra Corps soldier launched himself forward with enough force to seriously blow back Darklight's barrier, energy encasing his body as he led with his right fist, slamming it hard into the ice man's rib cage, engulfing him and his cohorts in a large explosion. Emerging from the fireball was the superhuman armed with wings, who flew straight up and away from the danger, his wings protecting him from the blast. A straight line of pure energy shot forth from the place he escaped from, striking the man hard in the knee and badly burning it, but not affecting his flight one bit. The man let out a screech, and as the dust settled from the impact of Cosmic's charge, the bat-winged mutant dive-bombed the hero.

With the frost-generating rioter mostly taken care of for now, Cosmic turned his attention to the armor-plated girl to the side of him, grappling her quickly in the confusion presented by the heroes' explosion. Pulling her close and hoisting her over his shoulder, the hero planted her hard into the concrete, splitting the sidewalk and driving a punch into her face, both the strike and the throw making dull, metallic thuds that echoed up and down the street. Darklight rushed forward, nowhere near Cosmic's speed, in an attempt to save Cosmic from the flying rioters' power dive. As she did, though, the other group made their entrance, turning the entire fight into a massive brawl.

Ducking down on instinct, Darklight dodged a thrown dagger, and upon realizing the danger she was in, appropriately covered herself in a white light to protect herself. Watching Cosmic handle his own fight, she learned and adapted, extending her hand outward and pointing at the other mob of powered rioters. They paused for a moment, waiting to see what the heroine was about to do, Darklight also wondering if she could even fire an energy blast like Cosmic could. Forming a ball of energy around her fist, the girl expelled it forward, slamming the moonlight orb deep into the stomach of a shirtless rioter, exploding on contact and knocking him back a ways. "Whoa," She commented, clenching her fist and imagining a bear, watching devilishly as a hardlight grizzly bear formed from her body. "Let's do this."

Cosmic couldn't help but smile as the metallic clad girl lobbed a haymaker right into his face, striking the corpsman something fierce but producing no reaction from him, he was too busy being proud of Ava and her coming to turns with her powers. Cosmic remembered her showing them to him right before he left, and though he hoped she had become some master at them, it was clear that she held back until he was by her side once more. Still, Cosmic re-focused his energy, literally, and began to pummel his opponents.

Grabbing the flying rioters' wing, Cosmic yanked down hard, snapping it out of place from his shoulder blades as the man yelped in pain. Pivoting around on his ankle, charging up tremendous amounts of Ultra Force energy, Cosmic stared at the metallic woman who had punched him repeatedly with his powered eyes, carefully plotting out the lines and fissures tracing across her body. In a single punch, Cosmic flooded the cracks with energy, abruptly breaking them apart and shattering the armored epidermis of the woman, revealing her normal skin beneath. Though, the blow knocked her several yards away and made her lose consciousness, the only rioters left were the crippled flight-based villain and the mob Darklight was facing.

Handling well, the girl couldn't seem to bring out the raw power Cosmic could, which meant a lot of her own counter-attacks and attempts at immobilizing her foes were shrugged off or amounted to nothing. She was facing too many opponents, and wished Cosmic would leap in and destroy the rest of these goons. Casting a glance to her partner, she screamed furiously as he stood by and watched her struggle. "What in the goddamn fuck! Why are you just standing there?!"

"Huh?" Cosmic asked, "You need to get these guys on your own, find the inner strength to prevail and overcome." He crossed his arms and stood on the leg of the bat-winged rioter, stopping his own attempt at escape. "When I was training with the Ultra Corps, they would drop me in random, absolutely dangerous situations in order to force me into using my powers wisely and without restraint. Stop holding back and win, you don't need to kill them, but you do need to make sure you walk away."

"I thought we faced our foes head on!" She cried in response, sending a few weak energy blasts to keep her mob at bay, the rioters either taking the blows or dodging them effortlessly, Darklights only saving grace being her barrier and the grizzly construct she had created, which seemed to keep two rioters busy with ease. "I'm not strong enough to win! Please, help me!"

Cosmic let out a deep sigh, pressing hard into the downed rioters' shin, leaving a deep imprint, which kept him in place enough for the hero to leave him be. Walking toward Darklight casually, the girl thanked him relentlessly. "Focus all of your energy," He began, Darklight screaming at him that she needed physical help, not advice in the fight. "Focus all of it," He said again, raising his voice louder. "Get it all together and explode it out in all directions. Get as mad as you can and bring as much into you as you can, and then just explode."

"Why won't you help me, damnit?!" She screamed through clenched teeth.

"Explode." He repeated, stern, Darklight glaring at him and baring her teeth at him, dropping her barrier and construct entirely, following Cosmic's instructions and building as much energy as she could in herself, her body suddenly glowing a brilliant white light. The rioters seemed concerned, but they moved closer cautiously, trying to figure out what exactly the young heroine was up to. Cosmic gave a goofy smile and continued, "Not so hard, was it? Now just-"

"Shut up!" She screamed, doing just what Cosmic had said once more, and exploding all of her gathered energy at once in all directions, bathing the street in a glorious white light. The hardlight explosion sent everyone flying save Ava, the epicenter of the blast, leaving the heroine out of breath in the middle of a crater. Thrown hard into a wall several yards from where he stood, Cosmic picked himself out of the rubble, noticing none of the rioters arose from the wreckage on the other side of Darklight. "Oh man..." Ava said quietly, "Since when could I do that?"

Cosmic looked around the sky intently, seeing distant lights flashing and slight vibrations rocking the air all around. "There's probably more of these superpowered bad guys close by. We need to search the other side streets, some other groups might have civilians trapped, cornered, or worse. Let's go." He said, lifting himself in the air, Ava staying put on the ground and looking at him with a crazed look. "Something wrong?"

"I don't know if I can fly." She admitted, crossing her arms. "Why don't we just walk there?"

"Have you tried?"

"Huh?"

"Flying. Just put energy around your body and move it up and down. That's what I do. Try it."

"I'm done trying new things today. I'm walking down to the end of the street then crossing over to the next one, we'll do flight lessons some other time." She spat, turning around and storming off, Cosmic sighing and following her lead at a steady pace, keeping his distance from the heroine as they went searching for more villains to confront, civilians to save, or allies to assist.

[Galnius]

Aug. 6th, 9 pm
The strobes were set, the pond was filled, the alcohol delivered, the contraband arriving shortly, and flyers and posts covered the seedier streets and the dark web. A party was to be held by the heir of the McHarris line, tailored to a specific group of people.

Money could not find them, and his influence could not reach them for normal contact. However, an idea occured. Something so insane it was perfect. After all, how could they refuse such a direct invitation? A direct...challenge?

The Outriders had interested Daniel McHarris for a while now, but after they became bigger he decided that he had to be one of them. Direct contact was out of the question, so he made one of his parties specifically for them.

The disco ball and strobe lights were outfitted with facial recognition software, the grounds and house coverred in surveillance accessible by his phone alone. The sky was a no fly zone, with any defenses he could afford, from superhuman bodyguards to anti air missiles in the woods. He normally wouldn't bother with this, but attacking a party that asked anyone claiming to be an outrider to come was too tempting a target.

Every glass and every napkin and all the trash would be saved and sifted through for DNA and fingerprints. The DJ, a bot able to play anything online. All he needed was to show up in 6 hours. The party started at midnight, but he didn't want to show up until 2.

First though, he had some people to invite and different party to go to earlier. He dressed in an open suit with black gloves, black shoes, and black glasses. And of course, just like the party later tonight, he would be fashionably late, about two hours in.

[Finland SSR]

Angelica Dalin

Steven Baker.

August 7th

---

Seeing the way how Angelica reacted to his statement really nailed one thing into Steven's head - he definitely could have handled this situation with a lot more tact. It doesn't matter how surprising, confusing or amazing it is that Angelica somehow survived the Young Bloods Massacre and is now standing before him - it simply isn't right to dump so much information on someone who has lost their memory and clearly doesn't wish to remember it. The teenage girl sat down, her body unnaturally heating up, a sign of her pyrokinetic powers slowly starting to activate, and muttered in panic.

Saying anything brash, trying to get her to remember anything else, would all be a mistake. She was clearly not taking it well, and Steven could not let himself see a student suffer. And especially not Angelica. And especially when she was already starting to build up power - if her fright were to somehow project itself as anger towards him, he'd be on the back foot for sure. Lacking few other options, Steven walked up to his table, pulled out a remote from a drawer and pressed one of its buttons to call up school security. It was a measure reserved to times when an uppity student were to start lashing out with his superpowers, and while, hopefully, this does not end up as one of those times, the teacher figured that he could not be too sure here.

"Ms. Dalin..." Steven spoke. Even the term "Angie" had left Angelica shocked earlier, so the teacher figured to resort to her adoptive surname for now. "Everything will be alright. Don't panic. If you... have any questions, I'll try to explain to the best of my ability."

[The Rebel Alliances]

Alexis Cain/Vendetta-Condemned District, August 9th

The monstrous creature stepped closer towards me and I was just about to fire at him out of instinct when something else entered my peripheral vision. I turned my head ever so slightly just to make certain I was not under another attack and it seemed that there was someone piloting some exosuit which started a battle against the WW Jugg. Enemy of my enemy. I couldn't be certain that he was a ally but it was enough for the moment that whoever was inside that suit was no friend to Domineer. I of course as I saw the chain gun on the mutants arm begin to spin I quickly threw myself behind one of the junked cars as large calibur bullets shredded through the sheets of metal. Glass spilled everywhere landing atop of me as I combat crawled on all fours from the front to the back end of the car. I am under no desire to test the full capabilities of my rgeneration. Things did not improve as I was forced to listen to Domineer play some damned radio announcer of the battle.

"13 is strong enough to be outfitted with weapons that it would normally take several men to operate! Miniguns or anti tank rockets are nothing for him to carry into a fight and as you can see with all of that firepower there are few who can stand face to face with him!" That smug son of a...I needed a way to get around this mutherfucka without being turned into swiss cheese.

It took a couple moments but I finally remembered what Walt had mentioned of some of my new...capabilities. I closed my eyes to focus and when I opened them I saw that I could no longer see my hands...or my gun for that matter. Switching my vision back to thermal I was able to see that I did in fact still exist.

So, I really can turn invisible. Let's see how ugly likes this shit.

I wont even pretend to understand how the science works here but the important thing is that this mutant should not be able to see me. Throwing myself out from behind the car I aimed my rifle dead center of his chest and let loose a six round burst of fire. My eyes widened and my hands were beginning to sweat as the only response I received was a gutteral growl from 13 as he readjusted his gun to aim for where my shots came from.

"Oh fuck." I uttered to myself as I quickly started to break off into a run.

"13 is nearly impervious to small arms fire. Able to withstand weathering amounts of gunfire and keep on the attack. His senses are also far more advanced than that of any human. If he cannot see a target, well....I'll just let everyone watch."

Wait a sec, is he saying that he can still. Then it happened. A bullet tore through my leg as I fell down and let loose a sharp cry.

"He can smell and hear a prey even if he cannot see them." Oh well that's just bullshit.

Oh come on Alexis. Do the city a service Alexis. All you have to do is take out one arms dealer Alexis. How hard could that be Alexis? I'll even send a fucking computer kitty to help you Alexis. Well what a fucking help she's been so far asshole!

I could feel that the nanites were already hard at work repairing the damage in my thigh. I had managed to pull myself behind the corner of the building and fully expected 13 to just continue firing and blast right through the brick and mortor. Instead, it sounded as if he was actually walking around. It's obvious he is quite a bit slower than I am. But he seemed to fix that shit real good by taking out my leg, for a minute, if that was intentional or just dumb ass luck I don't actually know. With my leg good as new and 13 just about to turn the corner I decided to once again try and use my superior speed and agility against him. I jumped up on a dumpster and from there I ascended up the fire escape to the top of the building. I made my way over to the edge of the building and dropped an incendiery grenade right next to 13 as I switched my sight to standard vision and let loose a barrage of gunfire. This time firing dozens of rounds into him as the grenade exploded at his feet and covered him in flames.

"How do ya like that shit?!" I kept firing although something felt off as I did not hear the barrage of cries that I expected to. Rather, the beast simply readjusted aim again as his master explained.

"13 feels no pain, meaning that no matter the enemy he will never tire nor relent until his targets are dead. Observe." I could confirm, because despite the damage I was inflicting it seemed as if I was only pissing this thing off. I needed to find a way to end this fight quickly. So I instead opted to cast a cryo grenade as 13 moved away from the flames in it's newest pursuit of me. Casting the cryo grenade at him the bomb exploded and covered him partially in ice slowing his movements but covering his weapon in sheets of ice. I knew that my time to make my move was now, so I jumped from the top of the building and brought my forearm down upon his ice covered weapon breaking it in half.

Take that muthafu-

I had little time to celebrate though as several tendrils wrapped around my arms and chest and his fat large hand around my neck. At first all he did was constrain me as he broke free from his frozen restraints. After that however he freely started to slam me against the pavement as a rag doll. Before slamming me with enough force through the brick wall that it completely fell through.

"Obviously 13 posseses super strength, and well...you can see the results of that here."

Fuck you man I can feel the results of it. I thought mentally as my eyes cought sight of the battle between the Jugg and the exosuit. It seemed my maybe ally is faring far better than I. It was weird feeling your bones snap apart and then be reattached moments later. But I was grateful as it was the only thing keeping me alive right now.

I continued to struggle against the beast as it constricted around my neck and chest and arms. With only my legs free as I was held suspended in front of him several feet in the air. So I channeled all of my might into my legs as I swung them upwards and kicked him in the face with both legs at once. It was strong enough for him to stumble and loosen his grip enough for me to snatch my pulse blade up and then duck around back of him.

I ignored the pain as I savagely slashed at the bases of his tendrils all around his back and shoulders severing one rapidly after the other. He may not be able to feel pain, but he was not going to grip me like that again. In retaliation he took a wide gorilla swing at me but being a much faster, smaller and agile target I easily ducked under the blow and kept myself behind him. After cleaving the last tendrl from it's place I leapt upon his back and stabbed the blade sharply into his single eye and then cutting into his nose and ears as well. I intended to comepletly blind this son of a bitch because frankly I fucking enjoy being alive. My work done I jumped off of him as I watched him flail randomly something resembling blood oozing from his wounds as he tried desperately to find me. He even slammed a fist into the building again and effortlessly smashed away a section of the wall.

And this was the first time and probably the only time I felt pity for this...thing. Because in a way. We are the same. We were both human at one point, until we were experimented on by powers beyond us. And...what Domineer has made this man. It's no life at all. He was dead long ago. Hell, I have not quite decided yet if I am not as much a monster as he. I slowly started to arm the last of my grenades all standard fragmentation and toss them one by one at the feet of the creature to the sounds of Domineer's protests.

"No, dammit! 13 is my work! You bitch stop it! I can still save him!"

I spoke not to Domineer, but rather to whatever was left of the man who was now 13."I'm sorry. Looks like we have both been played." And a instant later, the bombs went off and 13 having finally sustained too much damage. Fell with a heavy limp to the ground. I payed a moment of respect to the fallen adversary before turning a very cold stare to Domineer.

This man. Was filth. He turned a human being...into that. I then slowly approached him wielding my sidearm in one hand as the scientist fell backwards among some of the stolen cases of weapons. The battle was over now both 13 and his guards were defeated. And there was nowhere for him to run. As my mind raced with what to do with him he offered his own unwanted suggestions.

"Alright you win alright! I'll tell you whatever you want to know about Walt! Ok? Anything!" I answered only with silence as he continued.

"Fine! Arrest me!" I again said nothing as I just stared blankly at him. As a sudden flash of images played in my mind. A father who beat his daughter. A rapist who had escaped court room justice. I wasn't sure where these images were coming from. But...they felt...as if I knew them...as if I...killed them.

"Your...just like them. Just as rotten...and evil...as everyone else I killed. You'll never stop, will ya?" Looking at this man, this example of human evil seemed to make me remember all the other evil men and women I have met...before I became this. I still didn't remember everything. But I remember what I used to do.

And I am so fuckin tempted to do it again.

"Give me one...good reason...why I should spare your worthless life. Why this world would not be better off without you?" I commanded him with venom in my voice.

And just as the fightened scientist was about to speak to his defense. A red laser shot through the back of his head and nearly hit me. Leaving Domineer slumped over, dead. Calypso then leapt from a metal shelf behind him. Having snuck in while we were talking.

"Where the hell were you five minutes ago?" The cat simply pranced past me.

"You neverrr gave the signal Vendetta."

"About that, you never told me what the fucking signal was." I swear the cat laughed.

"Good thing to, did you see how big that thing was? Besides, you had everything under control." This cat...is evil. I thought to myself. But let it go. As we both walked back out into the parking lot which now resembled a battlefield and spotted our unknown ally. If he had not shown up and taken out the Jugg and guards, I may actually be dead right now. So, I thought it best to at least introduce myself. Walking over I greeted him as I approached.

"Name's Vendetta. Thanks for the hand back there by the way. Did Walt send you as back up? Or was this something personel?" I asked, actually curious to which it was.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

August 2nd

Red stood in his open doorway, looking up and down the dark empty hallway to see if anyone was still up and about. Given the time of night it was, he doubted anyone would, but he couldn't take the risk of anyone seeing him leave. Once he was sure he was alone, he stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind him. A small hand written note was placed on the front of the door, a simple message written out on it.

Going to be gone for a few days. Don't worry.
-Red

Placing his hand on the side of his duffel bag so it wouldn't bounce around, he quietly made his way down the stairwell to the main floor of the Tower. Poking his head around the corner of the stairwell, he saw that there weren't any lights on, pushing him to start heading over to the garage. Along the way, he spotted Harley curled up on one of the couches, his loud snores indicating he was sound asleep. A small smile appeared on Red's face as he saw Harley's legs kick back and forth as he chased after whatever he was dreaming about.

"Go get 'em, boy," Red whispered to himself before shaking his head to clear his thoughts.

Walking into the garage, Red quickly went to work by securing his bag to the back of his bike. It was a bit awkward to put on, but after a bit of fidgeting with some straps he was able to get it tied down enough that he wasn't going to have to worry about the thing falling off while he was driving. The last thing he needed was for his underwear to go flying onto someone's windshield and causing an accident.

Placing his helmet on his head, Red took a deep breath as he hopped on top of his motorcycle. Using the door opener on his keys, he prompted the garage door to begin to slowly lift upwards. It was a bit loud, but by the time anyone noticed, he'd be long go. At least, that's what he thought until he saw a figure waiting for him on the other side of the door.

"Going off on your own again, Red?"

Red's eyebrows furrowed, a small whispered curse escaping from him as he saw the team's overseer, Naja, standing in front of him. Her arms were crossed, and her face showed she was far from pleased to find Red sitting on top of his motorcycle in the middle of the night.

"Yeah," Red simply replied, not wanting to discuss this with Naja in the least. However, she appeared to have other ideas as she started to walk up to him. Red's hands tensed up, the key only a small twist away from starting up his motorcycle.

"And you didn't plan on telling anyone on the team, including me, the person in charge of making sure we don't have a repeat of what happened last time you went off on your own?" Naja asked harshly, her words a mixture of anger and disappointment.

"I left a note," Red answered with a small shrug, which caused Naja to let out a small groan.

"Just like you left Roy a text message." Bringing one hand up to her face, she rubbed her forehead for a few moments. If reptiles could actually have wrinkles, Red was sure she'd probably have enough of them simply from dealing with the stress of people like himself. After a few moments of awkward silence, she finally let out a small defeated sigh.

"Go. I know that even if I tell you not to, you're going to go anyways. If you're anything like him, I know better than to try and persuade you to listen to common sense," Naja said reluctantly in reference to Red's former mentor, Quick Shot. Red felt mixed about the comparison, but for now it didn't matter. He was free to leave, even though as she had said, even if she had told Wendy to lock down the island he would have still found a way out.

"Thanks," Red said with a nod. However, before he could twist the key, Naja's voice took his attention once more.

"This is about Yoshi, isn't it?" she asked, her tone of voice much softer than it was before. Red sat there quietly for a few moments, contemplating on what to say. Finally, he found the words, or rather word, to say.

"Yeah."

Before Naja could ask anything further, Red turned the key, causing the engine below him to roar to life. Kicking the pedastal below him, he floored his motorcycle, leaving a concerned Naja behind him as he sped over the bridge towards the city. He gave a nervous glance at the security systems that lined the exit of the island, waiting for Naja to have a sudden change of heart about his departure. But as he made it to other side, it became clear to him that for whatever reason she had decided to trust him.

He hoped that he didn't waste that trust.

---

August 5th

---

Red wiped the bead of sweat from his forehead as he looked over at the piece of paper laying in front of him. A small map was also placed next to it, detailing the precise area in which the coordinates lead to. According to the map, it was located in an uninhabited region deep within the desert, so deep that he would only be able to take a car for the first half of the journey and the rest likely requiring a camel or something along those lines.

Cursing under his breath at the heat, he pushed the shirt down into the front pocket of his loose flannel shirt, sweat already dampening the piece of clothing. His pale legs were shown beneath his cargo shorts, no doubt about to feel the wrath of the Egyptian sun when he began his journey. A pair of aviator sunglasses rested on top of his head, which he promptly placed down over his eyes as he got up from his seat.

Reaching inside of the small desk drawer of the small hotel shack he was staying in, he retrieved the necessary items for his journey. His wallet, a large water canteen, phone, extra sunscreen, and a seven inch KA-BAR knife. The last item was his only means of protection on this journey, given that traveling with his exosuit and other equipment was neither possible nor practical. It remained sheathed and tucked away under his waistband, making it both hidden to observers yet easily reachable if needed.

But since he looked like any other standard American tourist, he hadn't ran into any trouble so far during his stay minus a few stares from the locals. He didn't blame them, as with both his military-style haircut as well as overall body language, he probably appeared to be one of the many American agents that were often embedded in these regions. The thought was a bit humorous, given his actual status, but nothing besides the occasional glances and hushed mumbling had happened.

Exiting the room, he reached for his keys and began to close the door behind him. He paused for a moment before shutting it, however, reaching into his front shirt pocket to retrieve an unsharpened pencil. Slipping it through the crack in his door, he placed it as close and parallel against the inside edge of the door. It was a crude trick he had learned throughout the years that would let him know if anyone besides himself had entered where he was staying, as any sort of entry would cause the pencil to be pushed away from where he had placed it. He turned the do not disturb sign over the doorknob, which would keep away any cleaning personnel from his room while he was away.

With that done, he went down to the street below him, hailing a taxi driver as he did. As he approached, the driver's eyes widened slightly as he began to try and speak in broken English to Red. Red smiled for a moment, waving his hand before speaking Arabic to the man, instructing him on where he needed to go. The driver was surprised at first, but then let out a sigh of relief as he nodded.

As the car began to pull away, Red suddenly felt the sensation that someone's eyes were on him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a large crowd of people walking around, nothing noteworthy being seen among them. However, after a few moments, Red saw a pair of golden eyes that seemed to be watching him intensely. The figure wore robes as well as a cloth mask which covered the majority of their figure, yet Red could see through the slits in the mask that whoever this person was nearly as pale as he was. In addition to this, something seemed disturbingly familiar about those eyes, yet Red could not recall from where.

Before Red could get a better look, the figure turned around, disappearing into the rest of the crowd as the taxi drove off down the street. Red continued to stare at where the figure had vanished, his eyebrows furrowed as an unsettling feeling rested in the back of his mind. Warwolf? A U.S spy? Someone...else? Red didn't know who this person was, but he could tell one thing.

He was being watched.

---

Red eye's narrowed as he glanced down at the satellite navigation app on his phone, making sure his direction were correct. Seeing that they were, he returned his eyes back to what lay in front of him.

A rather large set of ruins scattered the area around him, their architecture indicating they were likely belonging to the time of the ancient Egyptians which dominated this part of the world thousands of years prior. The majority of the ruins possessed only the crumbled remains of what had likely been the living quarters and shops of the ancient residents.

However, one building immediately caught Red's eyes, that being a large temple-like structure that rested in the center of the ruins. It was remarkably large, with massive stone pillars holding up the slanted ceiling above it. What was also noteworthy was that even though the structure was massive and appeared to have been well built considering it was in far better condition than the ruined buildings around it, was that it was lacking the noticeable roman influence that normally permeated many of the still standing ruins of ancient Egypt. That meant that this structure was built well over two thousand years prior, which only made matters even more confusing for Red.

Hopping off of the camel he had been riding for the last few dozen miles, Red tied the beast to a nearby rocky formation that would keep the animal in place for the time being. He noticed the animal seemed extremely agitated, already beginning to struggle against its restraints as Red was tying it down, forcing him to tie an even tighter knot around the rocks. Red pet the side of the animal's flank, talking to the creature in a hushed voice in an attempt to calm it down. After some time, it finally settled down, albeit its legs continued to twitch nervously in the sand below. Red took a long pull from his water canteen he had slung across his chest and resting on his hip before he turned to face towards the crumbling structures.

Making his way inside the ruins, he briefly glanced inside some of the smaller structures first to see if anything was inside. Finding nothing more than dirt inside of them, he headed towards the stone steps that led to the entrance of the ruined temple. He noticed the carved hieroglyphics that decorated the walls above the entrance. Scanning back and forth, he had no idea on what kind of message they tried to convey. That was at least until he saw it.

"Is that...Holy shit..." Red's words trailed off as he stared at the large carving of what was a large scarab-creature. It seemed to have rays of light emanating from it that cast down onto figures below who all held their heads bowed down towards it. Whether or not this was out of worship or out of fear, Red couldn't tell, but what he did know was that he had found what he was looking for. Poking his head into the entrance, he noticed how dark it was inside, only small rays of light peaking through the cracks in the roof above. He cursed under his breath, realizing he had forgotten to bring a flashlight with him.

Before he could look any further, Red suddenly heard a loud protesting groan erupt from behind him before the sound of rapid heavy footsteps quickly becoming distant. Turning around, Red's eyes went wide as he saw his camel rushing away from the ruins back from where they had came from, the creature running as fast as its legs could carry it across the desert landscape. Red let out a string of curses as he chased back towards it, but as he reached the edge of the ruins it was clear that his only means of transportation was gone.

Catching his breath, Red turned his head towards where he had tied the animal down. He immediately froze in between breaths as he looked to see the end of the rope dangling loosely from the rock, its end cleanly cut from the portion that had secured the camel. Red knew this wasn't the result of the beast's struggles. No, it was clearly the result of a sharp object slicing through the fibers, meaning that someone else was here.

Reaching for his knife, Red scanned the surrounding environment in hopes of finding the culprit. Surely enough, a pair of footprints were pressed against the sand below, already being quickly swept away by the desert winds. He wouldn't have much time before they were erased, and given that his only mean of escape was long gone, he had no other option than to follow where they led.

Keeping a tight grip on his exposed knife, Red cautiously began to follow the tracks, going all the way around the ruined buildings that surrounded the temple. He continued to keep scanning around him, waiting for whoever the culprit was to appear. However, the tracks simply continued to weave their way throughout the sandy pathways, before eventually the began to go in a single direction towards the temple. Red's eyes narrowed as he saw them lead up towards the steps, only to disappear once they hit the stone. Whoever had done this was waiting for him there, and they probably knew that Red wasn't going to simply let them go after what they had done.

As he slowly made his way back to the entrance, he noticed a small unlit cloth wrapped torch awaiting him for him at the top of the steps. A modern lighter was set next to it, making it clear that whoever he was chasing was wanting him to be able to see whatever was inside. Picking up the torch, Red paused as he noticed something about the cloth that was wrapped around the head of the torch. It was the same color of cloth that the figure with the golden eyes had been wearing around their face.

Whoever the fuck this is, it was the same person who had been watching me before, Red thought worryingly to himself. If they wanted to kill me, they sure as hell wouldn't have given me a chance to see them coming. But if they're not here to kill me, then what they hell do they want? The idea brought more questions than answers for Red, and he didn't know if he wanted to find out or not.

Shaking his head, Red decided to put his concerns aside for the moment, flicking the lighter to life and allowing the flame to light the torch on fire. After a few moments the cloth roared to life, providing enough life for Red to see a dozen feet or so around him in the darkness. His knife reflected the light with a small shimmer beside him, Red nervously twirling the object in his hands before settling back into a comfortable grip as he headed deeper inside the temple.

The building was just a large inside as it had appeared outside, with most of the interior being devoid of anything with the exception of dust covered tables that were propped up seemingly randomly around. Upon closer inspection, the wood that they were built out of them were horribly rotten, but not so much as to indicate they were nearly as ancient as the building they were inside. No, they were likely only probably a few dozen years old at best, leading Red to think that they were placed here during what must have been the initial excavations of these ruins. This would explain why there seemed to not be any artifacts remaining inside, as they had likely long been carted away to some museum some time ago.

Aside from faded painting that lined the cracked walls, nothing of interest could be seen inside the main area of the temple he was in, so Red decided to go and explore further inside. His eyes continued to scan around him for any sign of the golden eyed stranger, but there was also no indications of his presence in here as well. Red first considered the possibility that whoever it was had escaped out of the temple, but given that thus far the only way out of the temple seemed to be from where he had entered, he doubted this. Besides, there had to be a reason this person had led him here, or else everything else thus far would have made no sense.

After some time walking through the hallways of the temple, Red found himself at what appeared to be the last remaining room of the building at the end of the hallway. A massive door stood in front of him, a large stone block noticeably removed from the entrance indicating it had been moved from its place some time ago to gain entry. Red's grip on his knife tightened as he slowly made his way inside, waiting to finally figure out who the hell this golden eyed stranger was and what he wanted.

A small glint out of the corner of his eye made Red ducked down instinctively and reach up with his knife to block whatever what coming towards him. A flash of sparks erupted as his blade met that of another before suddenly Red felt a massive kick hit him in his other hand, sending his torch sprawling across the ground. Before Red could see his attacker, he felt the other blade slip from his, sending him rolling forwards as he evaded another slash from his assailant.

Getting back onto his feet, Red's breathing was heavy as he squinted his eyes at the sight of a shadowed figure standing just outside the light of the torch. The figure did not move from where it stood, merely seeming to watch him from the shadows. After a few moments of neither it nor Red moving, a voice suddenly spoke out from the dark figure.

"I see your reflexes are just as good as they were years ago, Red."

Red's eyes shot open as the voice caused him to let out an involuntary gasp.

"G...Gene?"

A small chuckle could be heard before the figure stepped out from the shadows, revealing a white-haired boy the same age as Red who held a malicious grin on his face. "Да. Although I'm surprised you didn't recognize me earlier when you saw me in the city. I suppose these," he said, pointing to his golden eyes, "aren't what you're used to, so I'll forgive you for that."

Red stood there, frozen as his brain tried to understand what it was seeing. "No, you can't be Gene. I fucking saw you get shot! All of you! And then-"
Evgeni held his hand up, causing Red to go silent. "You're not wrong. Reaper did indeed shoot all of us that night. However, it was only you who he tried to kill." He crossed his arms, closing his eyes and shaking his head almost as if in disappointment. "Unfortunately, he didn't seem to finish the job, given we are currently having this conversation." Snapping his eyes back open, Evgeni slowly began to walk towards Red, who was still in complete shock at what he was seeing.

"But...why?"

The question caused the white haired boy to pause, it obviously holding plenty of weight behind it.

"Truthfully, I do not know. Lycan decided that you could not be trusted anymore, given what you knew about them and what we had all done. We were made aware of this prior to that night, but we weren't expecting such..." He paused for a few moments, his expression turning sour. "...drastic actions to be taken. We were told that you had been dealt with, and we moved on. Well... some of us better than others..."

Red's eyes narrowed at the answer having been given to him. "But I survived. Surely Lycan had to be aware of this."

Evgeni lifted an eyebrow at the reply, shrugging his shoulders before answering. "To be honest, we didn't know you were still alive until just recently. I'm certain Lycan was well aware, but my best guess is that they didn't see you as a threat any longer. I'm not sure how, given the facts stated before, but you know how it is with them. I'm sure they had you under tight watch this entire time, as well as the two heroes aware of your past as well. If you would have tried to tell anyone else, well, we would have been having our reunion much sooner I suppose."

Before Red could try and absorb what his former teammate had just said, he saw the back leg of Evgeni suddenly tense up, followed immediately by an explosive leap forward as the white haired boy lunged once more at Red with his knife. He barely had enough time to deflect the attack, only to see the malicious grin of Evgeni appear again before he suddenly drove his free hand into Red's stomach, causing him to go flying backwards into the stone wall behind him. Red gasped for air as his entire body shook from the impact, all the strength in him seemingly nullified by the single powerful strike. Forcing himself to look up, he saw the grin appear once more as a kick was delivered into Red's ribs, causing him to once more go rolling across the stone floors.

Stopping on his side, Red let out a series of overwhelmingly painful coughs as dark maroon liquid escaped his mouth. His vision blurred heavily as he watched the boots of Evgeni approach him from the darkness, stopping directly in front of him. He let out a pained grunt as he was lifted up by his hair with strength he never had felt from his former teammate before. Red tried to thrust forward with his knife, hoping to catch his assailant by surprise, but the knife was easily knocked out of his hands by the white haired boy, who's grin was now replaced by a disappointed frown.

"You've gotten sloppy, Red. How you were ever considered strong enough to lead all of us, well, pisses me off." Rocking his head backwards, Evgeni slammed his forehead into Red's, causing his vision to nearly go black as he hung limply in the air, completely at the mercy of his former teammate. Red tried to stare at the blur in front of him, but as time went on this became harder and harder to do. He thought he could hear a disappointed tsk before he was suddenly dropped onto his back.

"Are you going...to...kill me?" Red softly mumbled, the blood in his mouth nearly choking him as he stared up at the blurry figure above him, the only thing he could see clearly being the shining golden eyes that looked down at him. A small pause occurred, before a slight chuckle.

"No, I'm not here to kill you. I could have done that long ago if that's what I was here for. I just wanted to see if you've grown at all since I've last seen you." His eyes narrowed as he stared harshly down at Red below him. "To say I'm disappointed is an understatement."

The sound of crinkling papers could be heard as the white haired boy seemed to reach for something in his pocket. Finding what he wanted, he knelt down to place a bundle of folded papers into Red's front shirt pocket, tucking it in so it wouldn't fall out. Through his blurry eyes, Red tried to reach for it, but he soon felt a strong hand grab onto his wrist.

"Don't look at them yet. Wait until you can actually see, so that way you can appreciate our gift that much more." Getting back up to his feet, Evgeni slid his knife into a sheath located on the side of his waist. Before Red could try and mumble out any further questions, he suddenly began to walk away from where Red lay nearly at the point of blacking out. Red could barely see his blurred figure out of the corner of his eye, but he noticed him stopping just short of the doorway.

"We'll make sure you get back to your room. When you wake up, it would be wise of you to keep our little 'reunion' a private matter. Lycan is not pleased with your involvement with that little team of yours, so if you care for their safety at all, you will not speak of either your past nor our existence. If you do, well, we will be seeing you much sooner than we have planned."

And with that, Evgeni disappeared into the darkness, footsteps echoing in the distance. A few moments later, he heard his distant voice once more, answered by a female voice recognized as well.

"He's yours now. The helicopter will be waiting for us outside. Don't take too long."

"How is he?"

"See for yourself, Isabella. Just don't do anything that you'll regret."

"You don't have to worry about that, Gene."

"Sure I don't. I'll see you soon."

With that said, Red could hear the sound of approaching footsteps. He tried to turn around to face where they were coming from, but the last ounce of strength within him seemed to disappear, causing the darkness surrounding his vision to fill in more and more, until all he saw was the blurred sight of a figure walking towards him.

---

The next day...

Light slowly filled Red's vision as his eyes fluttered open. The sight of the familiar wooden ceiling of his hotel room met him, causing him to be filled with a sense of confusion. Why am I...

Suddenly his eyes snapped open as he reached down to where his knife had been. The movement caused his body to scream in protest as the pain from his still fresh injuries. Cursing, Red went back down to his back, breathing heavily as he tried to regain his senses. His memory was hazy at best, but the last thing he had remembered was Evgeni walking away from him and Isabella's voice ringing in his ears.

Glancing down, he noticed he was laying in only his briefs, his clothes from before missing from him. A large purple and green bruise filled up his abdomen including his side where he had been kicked, any kind of movement causing him to wince in pain. Turning his head over to look at the rest of his room, he saw all of the items he had carried with him laying on the small desk in front of him, with an additional pile of papers resting beside the other objects.

"The papers..." Red said with a moan, the memory of Evgeni shoving them into his pocket before he left returning to him. Moving much slower this time, he eventually managed to get himself upright from his bed so that his feet were on the floor. His body still protested the movements, but he put their complaints into the back of his mind as he got and walked over to see what was before him. Unfolding the papers, all thoughts of pain and soreness left him as his eyes went wide while reading what was written down before him.

In them were various photographs old black and white photographs from what appeared to be from the early twentieth century. A quick scan downwards revealed the exact date, March 13th of 1908. A group of men were huddled around what Red recognized as the room at the end of the temple he had visited, a man with thick circular glasses and an even thicker mustache holding an item in his hands. Red recognized the object immediately, as he had seen it first hand not even a month prior.

It was the small container in which the scarab creature, thanks to Marionette releasing it, had appeared from. Based on the various sarcophaguses and chests that surrounded the men, it was clear that they had found this along with the other treasures when they had first discovered the tomb.

Glancing further down the documents, he found further photos paintings on the walls that had lined the tomb, which when Red had visited had long faded when Red had gotten there. Based on how relatively well preserved they were in the photos, it must have been the reopening of the final room that allowed for them to deteriorate so much. Various painted images displaying hieroglyphs were shown, one of which immediately drew Red's attention.

It showed a scene of a figure of a man with a scarab's head replacing its human one pointing at a group of what had to be Egyptians, all of whom were seen kneeling towards it. Further down the line it was shown how the scarab man was placed on top of a throne, where an army of soldiers with identical expressions were being sent off towards what must have been another group of Egyptians. A bloody battle is depicted, with what appeared to be the survivors being sent off to work on various shrines and such built in honor of the known crowned scarab man.

The next photo shows another portion of the wall which was a continuation of the previous section. It showed a group of the survivors huddled together, apparently discussing something. A long series of hieroglyphics filled a long section of the wall, but the final portion showed two final scenes. The first showed a man holding what appeared to be a scepter and pointing it towards the scarab man, who seemed to be cowering from the effects. The second and final scene showed the scarab head replaced back with a normal head on the scarab man, as well as a small container which held a logo of a scarab on it being brought to what was no doubt the very temple the images were painted within. After these photographs was a single line of text, the final clue in which Red was given.

Edward Reed, Keeper of the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan

Red stared at the name for what seemed like an eternity, before finally letting out a small sigh.

"London, here I fucking come."

[Union Princes]

Fahcelkel
“Hey dad?” Arin said after she got out of the cop car her father was driving.

“Yeah, sweetie?” he replied nonchalantly as he got out of the car.

“Are you sure you’re allowed to wear those clothes?” she asked pointing at his clothes as he walked close to her.

Her dad looked down at himself. His beige trench coat stained with old splatters of unknown origin and a couple bullet holes. Underneath the coat was a light blue buttoned shirt minus a tie paired up with a dark brown pants.

“What’s wrong with it?” he scoffs, “I like this coat. It was money well spent; it just went through some places.”

“Okaaay then.” Arin shrugs, still skeptical of her dad’s interpretation of police professionalism.

‘Besides,” he laughs, “We’re not at my workspace, we’re here to check out your high school.”

Arin can only sigh.

Thomsen High School was empty for now aside from a few cars in the deserted parking lot. The pair is relatively left alone to navigate the halls and explore the classrooms.

---

“Hey dad, what you doing?” Arin stared at her father as he sneaked at every corner and peeked into every classroom through the doorway.

“Hiding spots, Arin.” her dad answered as his fingers tapped on the lockers all lined up in the hallway.

“Hiding spots? From what?” Arin said, being slightly confused by his bizarre response.

“School shooters, dear.” he growled as he pushed open the door to the boy’s bathroom, “or a crazy person or whatever scum that takes pleasure in attacking a building like this.”

“Dad!” she groans, “Isn’t this a school for superheroes? Isn’t that why I’m enrolled? I’m totally safe here. You can stop being cared.”

“I’m being cautious, Arin!” he roared as he turned to face her.

Arin was taken quite back; a bit scared at his sudden fury.

Her father took a few deep breaths to calm himself: “I know this school has superheroes or people with superpowers like you, but it changes nothing. Whenever there’s a man that lives in a castle, there’s another that has a battering ram in his back pocket.”

“Believe me, Arin.” he continued speaking in a softer tone, “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that whatever keeps someone from entering prevents people from leaving. If you can’t fight or hide, you’ll - well, you know.”

The redhead girl can only nod along.

“Let’s move on and find more potential hiding spots.” her dad moved away from the boys bathroom before Arin interrupted him.

“Aren’t we here to find my classes?” she cleared her throat.

“Oh, right. Let’s go.”

---

“Finally. Found it.” Arin said as she dragged her father over to the bulletin board.

“Let’s see who your teachers are.” he quipped as he got closer for examination.

Frank Fraser, English IV

Steven Baker, Physics

Raymond Grant, Calculus

Rachel Lawson, US Government

James Philson, Art IV

Claire Jenkins, Music (Voice)

“Quite a full house you got there.” Arin’s dad mumbled. “You sure you’re up for the challenge of Calculus and Physics?”

“I’m not that dumb, dad. I’ll manage.” she shrugs.

“You’re already doing better than me when I was your age.” he chuckles.

“Was there ever a subject that you did perform well in, dad?” Arin wonders aloud.

“Of course!” he said enthusiastically, “P.E.!”

[Zarkenis Ultima]

August 4th

---

---

---

After approving Viviana's plan, Alexis took some distance from the rooftop access and prepared to attack the guards as soon as the rubber girl fished them out of their hideout. Fortunately, the plan went off without a hitch, and it seemed like her intervention wasn't even necessary: Angelica immediately struck one and froze him to the ground before he could react, and while the other had nearly posed a threat, he was quickly subdued by Yoshiro in the same way she had subdued Inferno during their raid on San Pharma. Admiring their handiwork, the blonde girl clapped twice. "Good work, girls."

Before she could say anything else, she heard the same noise as Angelica and nodded at her. "RIght you are, Frosty. Let's go, girls!" Makeshift spoke before leading the way down the stairs. They thankfully met no opposition during their descent, but as soon as the tech wizard turned a corner to head to the mayor's office, she was met with the sight of six Warwolf guards, all on high alert after they ceased to receive transmissions from the guards at the stairwell. "Hostiles!" The girl hissed into her comms so that the members of her squad who were less protected against bullets would be warned.

"Hostiles!" The cry of one of the guards echoed her own as he noticed her and immediately trained his weapon on her. Naturally, she was confident that her shield generator could take a few shots, but even so, best not to waste its juice on something like this. So instead of just waiting and taking it, she extended her arms, palms pointing at the guard, and then retracted them - the guard was immediately flung straight towards Alexis, and the girl quickly activated her left rocket boot. The kick she delivered to the guard's head sent him crashing right through the nearest wall in a display that left both her and the other guards with their jaws agape.

"Wowzers." She managed to say after a few moments, only to immediately dive out of the way as a hail of bullets struck the place she'd been standing in moments ago.

---

---

---

---

Kabuto's opponent did not let up even after he dodged the blow to his face and backed off, charging towards him once more. Alas, where the hero once stood, now there was absolutely nothing. The superhuman looked around frantically, looking for the foe that had vanished all of the sudden, when something seemed to draw his attention, a strange rippling right in front of him. It was too close and too quick, and so he found himself unable to react - Casimir's maneuver worked as intended, bringing the superhuman's armored face into his fist. He staggered back, dazed, and that was when Mike struck: first at the shoulder, though this only elicited a grunt of pain from the superhuman, and then at the leg. The material the armor was made of - not quite metal, but just as durable or perhaps more so - was able to hold against the two first blows despite the interference from Mike's powers, but the moment the broken baton stabbed into his leg, he let out a roar, his voice clearly human, yet thundering and in pain.

Suddenly, the foe turned around, bearing with the pain of his newfound injury as he spotted the one who had caused it. Without delay, he used his one good leg to launch himself straight towards Mike. The pain and fury clouding him made his accuracy less than perfect, and he almost missed Mike, only to unnaturally extend the reach of the gauntlet that covered his arm and grab the teen hero's face and slam him head first into the ground. Then, before he could retaliate, the superhuman grabbed his leg and blindly tossed him away as if he was no heavier than a chair. Unbeknownst to him, the throw put Mike directly on a collision course with Mizu.

Having exacted his vengeance, the armored man reached to his back and removed the broken baton from it, before reaching down and doing the same with the piece lodged in his leg - the pain caused him to growl, but as soon as the object was removed, the armor quickly reformed where it had been pierced, and the same happened with the dented shoulder joint. With his armor reformed, but still wounded, the superhuman shakily stood up, supporting most of his weight on his uninjured leg, and carefully looked around for any signs of more incoming enemies.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Planning Meeting, Wonder Tower
August 4

As the meeting broke up, Sam looked around for the teams who were ordered to take on Warwolf. A few seemed to be deep in discussions, but Captain Quake and Star Queen seemed to be alone at the Stars' table. A couple of the Stars were getting seconds at the buffet, and the last one was staring at his phone as he headed for the door. Right. Might as well try Quaker.

He made his way over to the NASL team leaders'. “'Morning, Captain, Star Queen. I'm Blizzard. I've been working with Warp on taking Warwolf down.”

Quake just gave him a hard stare, but Star Queen skeptically said, “Yeah, she might have mentioned something about that.”

“I'd hope so. We've been to their HQ, right in their nerve center. Made off with some of the good dirt that got them kicked off.”

Quake's expression read mild interest; Star Queen was the one who spoke, again. “OK, you've got my attention. What's on your mind?”

“I know where their power supressors are. And their backup power. The city will cut their lights if we ask. No power, no power suppressors. We can hit them where they live, make it impossible for them to hang on.

Now Quake spoke. “You think you have a plan?”

“Oh, yeah. I know where we can hit their perimeter and take out a power suppressor or two doing it. That'll get us close to where we need to be to go after the backup generators. With a big enough earthquake, you might be able to take them out yourself.” Play to his ego. Make him the star. Always works on divas.

Quake nodded thoughtfully, thinking it over. “I'd need some time to build up to it, but as big as we need.” He turned to Star Queen. “Let's get the team back together, turn that into a real plan.” Then to Sam, “Alright, you got yourself an invitation."

[OOC: with Zark's assistance and approval]

[Aidannadia]

[...]

El Hechicero winced as he watched the ongoing fight, then became worried as their orders updated.

"Hechicero, get something strong and accurate ready then help Bugboy however you can." He heard Forge speak over the radio.

Tadeo considered his options. I can't break open any portals like the Burning Lands or the Great Sea here. The chance for collateral damage would be too great.

The magician lowered his stance, grounding himself solidly to the concrete below. Even a punch from Kabuto barely dented him, and most of our attacks seem to be doing more damage to us that to him.... El Hechicero began calling upon deeper power, into his reserves of energy as a fae-kin; violet-hued wispy growths of energy formed on his back like wings spread out into the night air.

I guess my only choice is to call upon the Well's strength.

"Keep him distracted." He called over his transceiver. "I only get one shot at this."

His voice took on an otherworldly tone, and he traced a pattern in the air with two of his fingers on each hand before pointing one at the moon and another as his target. A first, there was absolute silence. Then, popping in the air like fireworks bursting around him. The energy from his wings collected into a point on his fingertips.

Then it happened; a narrow beam of pure magical energy shot through the his opponent. It seemed to ignore any physical boundaries, like a beacon of light more than the force from a bullet.

The energy faded. The magician caught himself, genuflecting from the sheer exertion that weighed on his form. His breaths were heavy and he chuckled a bit to himself.

[Absolon-7]

Squad 3 and the Hostages

Viviana Couture August 4th
Viviana watched in amazement at how professionally and swiftly Angelica and Yoshi took out both Warwolf grunts. It was like the two had done it a thousand times before! She wished she could do the same just as well but her powers really weren't suited for taking out these armored foes. Incapacitating and messing with their business maybe but not giving them the ol one-two KO but that would be good enough for her as long as she helped. Viviana followed behind Alexis as the squad leader took point in leading them downstairs and no problems at all thankfully most of the way up until they neared the mayor's office where a group of half a dozen soldiers were waiting. Alexis took the initiative in taking one out but retreated under a hail of fire. Alrighty then! Time for Chicle to step up to the occasion! Viviana stepped in front of her squad and extended her arms outwards not fazed by the soldiers threatening to shoot at least not outwardly.

"Bullet-Be-Gone-Beam!" yelled Viviana as her hands extended outwards, and morphed to an interlocking square plate that filled the hallway from wall to wall and was the same height as her.

The soldiers opened fire thinking it was an attack and a series of bullets pelted her rubbery construct but they harmlessly bounced back right in the soldiers direction. Meanwhile, Viviana stood there patiently not noticing her breathing had begun to be more erratic slightly. She bit her lip and swallowed before a deep breath escaped her mouth. Was it just her or does the hallway look a bit bigger then it should be? And was there always some drum in the background? Wait that's her heart. Her heart. She turned her head back to her squad with her voice carrying a slightly nervous tone.

"We're safe with this handy dandy thing but someone otta use it as cover for an attack right quick!," said Viviana to her squadmates.

The Armored Meta

El Hechicero

Casimir Herman August 4th
Kabuto panted like a wild beast below his helmet as he stood back and watched his foe throw Mike around like a ragdoll. He had jumped back after his own attack right before Mike jumped but that appeared to have been an obvious mistake as it had led to the armored meta throwing Mike around like a meat puppet. He couldn't move fast or else Mizu's illusion would break but to hell with it if it meant letting someone die under his watch. Although from the looks of it he didn't need to worry about it anymore since Mike and been thrown at Mizu. Shit, shit, shit! Good thing Mike had seemingly wounded its leg as its posture and stance were horribly uneven. Perfect prey. Tadeo called over on the comm device to keep him distracted. That should be easy enough.

"I've been under too much stress lately. Kicking your ass should be a good remedy," barked Kabuto.

He leaped several of his own body-lengths in the air before flicking his wrists out to shoot webbing at the spots left and right of the meta before pulling downwards. The movement and the webbing's elasticity pulled him downwards like a slingshot at the foe's shoulder. Once the powerful blow was made he flipped backwards and rushed at the meta delivering a series of left and right hooks at faster rate then his initial volley. Suddenly his swarm began to feel a great amount of heat from behind and turning back it looked like Tadeo was right about to fire some attack. He somersaulted to the side out of the attack's trajectory and from his new spot he fired webbing at the armored meta's feet to keep him place.

"Warn me before you fucking fire you prissy dandelion!," yelled Kabuto at Tadeo but he turned his head to see the results of Tadeo's attack. Each pant perfectly timed with a movement meant to go back to a boxing stance. He turned on the comm device, "Selene if you're still in fighting shape. I need you to create around a dozen illusion copies of me. Have em all go at the meta if he's still kicking."

[Solisian Union]

August ?


Catarina didn't try to pretend that things were okay.

As her chest heaved and as her eyes grew sore from weeping, she had taken the time to isolate herself from the world.

From the Outriders.

From everyone else.

She didn't like what she was and what she is now. She thought that she was a dangerous thing, not a person, a thing.

Things don't behave as people do. If she was a person, a true person, then she would not have eaten other people.

Yet she did.

The huntress whimpered as she stopped walking through the darkness.

She said, "Stop following me, I don't you to follow me anymore so please stop, just stop."

"I can't." said a voice that belonged to the demon that gave her the powers over flesh and over blood and over bones.

The huntress turned around and saw the demon. To ordinary men, the demon appeared to them as any other man. To Catarina, he appeared in his true form. He had wings that stayed behind him and he wore robes that were dark, as dark as the dirty night over the city.

She told the demon, "Why not? I don't want it anymore."

"What is it that you do not want?"

"You."

Silence. A cat wandered into the alley but fled almost immediately when it detected the demon. It went away, hissing and meowing angrily as it did.

The huntress came close to the demon and told him to his face, "I don't want you to follow me again. I don't want you to tell me what to do. I don't want you to tell me that it's still okay for me to eat," she bit her lip before she even got a chance to say it. She bit hard, tasted blood, and spat it out of her mouth. She wiped the wound with her right hand and dropped it to her side as she raised her voice at the demon, "I don't want it anymore. I don't want to do it anymore. Leave me alone and never make me do it again."

The demon shrugged at her and told her, "I never made you do anything. That is a part of the curse. The curse gives you powers but it also demands blood from you."

"Blood, flesh, and bones." she answered him. The demon fell silent and folded his arms at the rebellious Catarina. She glared at him and she laid her hands on him. She took him by the shoulders and shouted into his face, "This is making me look like a monster! And only now, I realize what I have transformed into, what I have done."

"It's too late for you." the demon told her. She let go of him and the demon stepped around her as he continued to talk to her. "If you didn't want to become a monster, then you should have rejected my offer, the one that saved your life, your tribe, and so many people."

"I—"

The demon stopped her with a finger to her lips. She pulled her lips away from it and she slapped his hand away. Yet the demon told her, "And if you don't like being a monster, then why didn't you say so before tonight? Why didn't you change according to your own will? What drove you to keep going until you suddenly decided that tonight was the night?"

Now, it was her turn to be silenced. The demon went on to say just as he stood behind Catarina, his voice flooding her ears, "I know what your answer is. It's the hunger. The hunger from the curse. The hunger consumes you as it consumes life from others. The hunger takes as it gives. The hunger captures as it frees."

"I am not free." Catarina replied. The demon sadly nodded to what she said. Then Catarina, having noticed that, said, "So there is no hope?"

"No hope? There is hope. Hope always exists. You always hoped."

"And I will continue to hope."

"It is silly."

"And yet I dare to keep doing what I've done before. What I don't want to carry on doing is this. Not this."

The demon looked at her. The Colombian stared at him. The two stood against each other in the darkness until the demon sighed and said, "Well, I can't force you, and I can't say that I warned you. But I promise you," as he stepped towards her and lowered his voice, "that I will punish you."

---

DMI HQ

'Wake up, Yasha.'

Yasha, the Filipino-American soldier, stirred in her bed. She groaned as she embraced her blankets.

'Wake up, Yasha.' the voice repeated in her ears.

The soldier groaned as she sat up immediately and tossed the blankets to the floor, angrily saying: "Yes, Sir? What the fuck, Sir?" because apparently, she thought it was her sergeant saying that shit in her ears again. It wasn't. Right before her eyes, there was someone dressed in glowing clothes standing in her room. She immediately rose to her feet, grabbed her pistol from the holster that was hanging above her bed, and aimed it at the center mass of the motherfucker who got into her room dressed like some kind of prophet. She could tell that it was a woman because of the clothes hugged her form and made her look slender. It would have made her jealous but that didn't matter when this intruder woke her up.

She yelled: "HANDS! SHOW ME YOUR HANDS!"

The woman, the mysterious one that was staring at the sweaty, shocked Filipino grunt, showed her hands as ordered and she told her: "You have to go into the city. Find Catarina. She's---"

"How the fuck do you know Catarina, ma'am?! Who are you?"

"My name does not matter. Catarina does."

But before the soldier could even say another word towards this stranger, a bright light blinded her temporarily and that made her growl in pain as she closed her eyes and crouched. She shielded her eyes with her free arm and when the light was gone, she looked and saw nobody in front of her. The room was empty of life except for her.

Yasha blinked several times as she searched the room for any sign of the woman. The closet was empty, the bathroom was empty, the hallway was empty, the woman was just...not there. Vanished.

She cursed her as she hurriedly turned on the lights, grabbed a pair of cargo pants, took a sleeveless top, put some socks on, wore her boots, shortened her pants, and then rushed out of her room to race towards the nearest armory. She was busy slapping a fresh magazine into her pistol --- a magazine which she hid from the rest of the DMI as a precaution --- and she was too focused on getting to the armory to bother noticing one of her fellow agents walking down the hallway.

She made it to the armory, talked for a few minutes with the manager --- lying to her was easy thanks to the clearance Firefly got her a day before--- before she grabbed three things:

An M11 pistol, an M4, and an Ithaca.

Ammunition wasn't a problem. Three minutes later, she got out of the DMI headquarters and rushed to borrow a motorcycle.

---

Catarina gasped for breath as she felt the heat spiking inside of her. She groaned after she tried to walk ten more steps towards the other end of the alley, legs unsteady as she leaned on the wall for support. She tried to step one more time towards the end, to leave the alley, but instead she fell to the ground, pants messed up by the filthy water collecting in a hole, as she whimpered and teared up.

The Colombian felt hungry. Everywhere in her body, the hunger worsened. Her stomach growled like there was no tomorrow. Her hands trembled like she was on withdrawal. Her face contorted as pain stole her own mastery over her own body. She felt a monstrous instinct developing again inside of her.

She groaned again as she lifted herself up and leaned against a dumpster, a low one, just as she watched the demon walking away from her. She narrowed her eyes as the white pain surrounded her vision. And she swore: 'I am changing...whether....you will like me...or not....whether...I live...or die."

A minute later, a great screech escaped into the San Diego air.

---

Though Mary may not know it minutes ago, she realized that something was up when she watched Emma walk into her office with a look that definitely confirmed that something was wrong. Three minutes later, Mary was out of the office, putting on fingerless gloves of black and white. She had discarded her favorite jacket and tossed away her heels in favor of wearing a load bearing vest containing four empty pockets enough to hold 19-round detachable box magazines and a pair of boots.

Emma followed after her as Mary's secretary spoke into her earpiece. Her words: "All agents, Firefly is on the move. Repeat, Firefly is on the move. Firefly is requesting assistance. Surveillance on Marksman now. Deploy a team to her target location."

The Director, though high enough to certainly shrug this off and leave it to her agents, wasn't someone who did that all the time.

The Director, after all, was interested to see where Marksman went. If her contacts in the CIA and Homeland Security were correct, then she should lead them to 'Huntress.'

But, though it is in her interest to bring the Colombian in, she knew it was better to cut her loose and see what she can do.

She and her team marched down to the parking lot and found her car. They got in. As they drove out of the compound, Mary said: "Let's keep this quiet. If Warwolf comes around, we can't let them get there first."

[United Kingdom of Poland]

“Probably all off dealing with the other hero teams. Plus, juggs aren’t all that ideal for close range indoor fights.” Wendy responded as she continued hunter for the other hacker. Even with her administrator access to the security system, she was still running into roadblocks every few connections.

“So this is what everyone else feels when dealing with my powers.” She grumbled to herself as she made her way through the digital corridors, going from camera to camera. “On the other hand, it’s kind of nice to actually have a challenge for once.” Checking the cameras again, she caught a scruffy looking male furiously working on a computer in the basement. Meanwhile as soldiers began taking up defensive positions in the mayors office. “Hey Makeshift, whatever you just did kicked up a hornet’s nest. They guys in the mayors office just got real jumpy.”

[Finland SSR]

Mike Mathews
August 4th, team 4 raid

August 4th

---

Casimir Herman August 4

Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

August 4th

---

So... the fight is being complete chaos, and the best thing which Mizu is able to do is to either stand by the car and watch or to cast a few illusions in order to try to sway the fight in their favor. Let Casimir, Mike and even Tadeo dish out the damage - she sure as hell won't try to even come closer to the villain. Any single one of those punches and she is going to be toast. Like, look at how Mike's fighting - if she got slammed to the ground like that, her skull and spine would have definitely gotten broken, and she wouldn't survive the following throw either, especially since he was heading straight at-

"Aaaah!" Mizu exclaimed, instinctively shapeshifting into a cardboard box and plopping down on the ground while Mike flew over her, then popped back into her normal form as soon as the danger passed. Tadeo was taking the reins in the fight with Mike's departure, charging a some sort of magic beam to strike the villain with, while Mizu offered a glance and a hand towards her fallen comrade.

"You... you okay? You got hit pretty hard there..." There was no time for small talk, however - Casimir's voice suddenly blared into Mizu's earpiece, the hero requesting her to cast an illusion of dozens of Casimirs appearing around their opponent. Hm, that's pretty simple...

"A-are you sure, Kabuto? You're still supposed to be invisible..." the heroine protested for a second, but opted to go with the plan regardless. "Alright, here goes." Snap.

"KIELBASA!" "KABANOSY!" "PIEROGI!" "SOBIESKI VODKA!" all suddenly roared across the battlefield. From the villain's point of view, all the windows in the area would suddenly appear to burst and let Kabutoses one after the other - each one cracking their knuckles, flexing their muscles and showing off increasingly awkward poses, before all of them got into formation around the villain.

"URA!!!" all of them would yell in unison and charge forward as a gigantic mass of over a hundred Kabutoses, each one extending their fists in preparation to strike, only to vanish into sparkles as soon as they were supposed to touch the villain.

---

Mars

Renata Martinez, the heroic Spectrum!

August 4th

---

Renata's ranged support would quickly start yielding fruit - while Wyatt and Mars took on many Warwolf soldiers head-on and drew away their attention, many of them, upon trying to pull their triggers, would see that their weapons simply started working, leaving them easy to take down for her rampaging allies. Renata remained in the air for a few more seconds, scanning the battlefield, then touched down on the ground right as Mars exclaimed that a machine gun and a rocket launcher were in the fray.

A disarmed Warwolf soldier behind her figured that the heroine would be easily to take out and swung with the butt of his fried assault rifle - only for the weapon to hit Renata's construct armor and bounce off without leaving even a dent, and basically only alarmed the pink-haired teen that an enemy was behind her. An elbow suddenly struck the soldier straight in the kidney and Renata moved around the soldier with a spin while he was dazed from the blow. The method of operations then was simple - place her hand on the soldier's back, apply a little bit of radiation and watch the man get blasted off by a burst of suddenly expanding hot air.

Renata waved across the air and summoned a riot shield in her left hand in place of the arm cannon to defend herself from a sudden machine gun barrage. A flurry of bullets stormed across the room - Renata's shield construct was able to withstand the fire, but the bullet-saturated air meant that she couldn't even peek out to retaliate, lest her head gets turned into mush.

Maybe I can walk up to their position... but they have a rocket launcher, too, I'm not sure if this shield will withstand them both... Darn...

"Renata!" a voice suddenly called out to the heroine from the side. Before she could check who that was, a powerful torrent of air roared across the room, picking up the path of the bullets and redirecting it to the ceiling. It was Carter, who was hiding behind a tipped over table and staring towards Renata, before offering a faint thumbs-up. "Take him out, now!"

"Right!" Renata responded, peeked out from behind her shield and aimed her finger, firing a laser shot which burned straight through the machine gun's barrel. The extreme heat of the beam left much of the weapon slowly melting away and the Warwolf soldier operating it stepping away while shaking his hands from the sudden scorching heat. Renata gave a thumbs-up back and Carter stepped out of cover, sending a couple more blasts of air forward while grinning - only to suddenly receive a construct fist straight into his torso, which sent him sliding to the floor.

"WHAT THE HELL, YOU-" Carter was about to yell, only to stop when a rocket zoomed past the exact spot where he had been carelessly standing before, shutting him down instantly. Renata sighed, dropped her shield and charged forward at maximum flight speed while the soldier was still reloading. She tackled the opponent by grabbing his shoulders and cartwheeling in the air to plant him face-first to the ground. The other soldier nearby, who had been piloting the machine gun earlier, swung at her with the butt end of his assault rifle while she was still distracted, only to receive a blast of compressed air whizzling by and slamming him straight into the nearest wall.

"Almost hit me there," Renata yelled towards Carter as she stopped to take a look across the battlefield. The response she received was simple:

"You say that as if it wasn't my plan all along!"

[Bentus]

Voice
Midtown, San Diego

---

Beverly stood silently outside the apartment, her gaze studying the faded number on the door. The corridor was out on an exposed balcony, with each of the individual flats’ entrances opening out directly into the open air, leaving the former heroine largely exposed to the pounding california sun. She could make out the sound of some passer-bys conversing on the street, and somewhere she could’ve sworn she heard a guitar being played. Sighing, she glanced down at the scrunched-up piece of paper in her hand. Narrowing her gaze to try and make out the scribbled address past the glass stain on the page, the telepath compared the apartment number to the three digits on the door before her one last time.

Rolling her eyes at her own nervous hesitation, the telepath crumpled up the paper in her hand before shoving it into the rear pocket of her jeans. Coming here had been a mistake, a stupid and impulsive decision that was little more than a waste of time. And yet, now that she’d made the trip to the residential district she couldn’t come up with a believable excuse to walk away. In the aftermath of the massacre, she had spent plenty of time with the sole other survivor. As teammates, she and Steven had become friends, but after losing so much together, their relationship evolved into something that can only be forged through shared trauma. While the rest of the world offered their sympathy and apologies, Beverly was always cursed to see the hollowness behind their words. The two former heroes could lean on each other for support and try to help each other rebuild their lives, or at least that had been the idea.

Eventually, Steven seemed to have been able to pick up the pieces. He got a job doing something he loved, doing something which he genuinely believed helped others. Beverly tried something similar, for a time, but it all felt shallow in light of what they’d all been through before. Soon enough, Steven just became another reminder that she decided that she could do without. That had been a few years ago. The prodigy had apparently moved here in that time, and Beverly couldn’t believe that she now found herself standing in front of his door once again.

Just get this over with. If anyone can help, it’s going to be him.

Before she could second-guess herself, Beverly reached up and rapped on the door with her knuckles. The knocks echoed through the apartment, announcing her presence to anyone who might have been inside. For the first time, the thought occurred to the telepath that her former teammate might not be home - although she definitely felt at least some sort of a presence inside the flat. Pausing, Beverly only half-realised that she couldn’t hear the guitar anymore when the door was suddenly being pulled open before her. Meeting the surprised expression that greeted her, the telepath offered Steven a simple nod.

Hi Steven, it’s been a while. Do you have a moment to talk?

[Tomia]

Viv

"Thanks Chicle!" Frostbite said as she used her teammate for cover. She proceeded to create balls of ice and toss them at the warwolf troops that were firing at them. She hit two of them who dropped hard to the ground, the attack wasn't lethal and at worst would break a rib or two, but should keep them out for a while. Then however another half dozen troops came out of the mayor's office and the enemy fire intensified. A lot of them were targeting Frost Bite and she ducked behind a desk for cover. Like Viv her heart was racing, and she was having trouble thinking straight. This was a new feeling for her, maybe it was because the stakes were so high or because people she cared about were in harm's way.

"Makeshift we need a plan!" She shouted into the comms over the gunfire. Just then a plan came to her mind. "I got it! I can freeze the floor if I can get behind Chicle!"

"Go for it Frostie!" Makeshift shouted in response.

With that the ice hero rolled past gunfire until she was standing behind Viv. Once she was protected, Frost Bite placed her hands on the ground and concentrated. Once a thin but slippery layer of ice covered the floors and shots suddenly were aimed at the ceiling as the soldiers began slipping and losing their balance.

"Now's our chance, let's get to the office!" She shouted to her teammates.

[The Republic of Atria]

Jason

Jason kicked a metal pipe out of another rioter's hand, who quickly lost all the fight he had after that. "Floor, face down." Jason spoke, shooting a tendril at the man's chest and yanking him down onto the ground. If there was any deception or fight left, it was gone as he gasped for breath. "Just knocked the wind out of you, relax. Don't get anymore ideas or I'll knock out more than some wind." As he turned to go ensure Roy and Kiris were safe for whatever their plan was, he instinctively shot his head to the side as a blue bolt of something shot by and struck the ground, freezing an area about the size of a human torso. "Buddy, you had one shot to take me out-" Another blast came at his feet, but Jason had already flipped backwards, avoiding it. "-and you blew it."

The man threw more and more punches, each punch sending out an ice blast. Jason dodged, dipped, dived, ducked, and dodged with incredible amounts of finesse. "Stop moving so friggin' fast!" He hissed, sending out more wildly inaccurate ice blasts, one whiffed shot striking another rioter.

"Nice shot! Thanks for the help by the way. Saved me a few seconds." Jason shot back, rolling forward and landing on his chest, resting his head on his hand, an amused expression on his face. "I'd show you how to aim better if you... Well, weren't in the middle of causing a riot. And trying to hit me, but honestly, even if you do it'll probably be an accident."

The man let out a grunt and fired another. Jason pushed himself into the air, missing the shot by a slightly closer margin and retaliated by shooting a bit of gunk into the man's face. Jason trotted over, threw him to the ground, face first and shot a few more bits of gunk at his shoulders to hold him down. The gunk on his face dissolved to let him catch his breath. "Doesn't matter what happens to us. Once they get here, you're all doomed."

"Can we skip the pronoun game please? On second thought, I don't really care what some drugged up loony has to say." Jason muttered and jumped back into trying to disable the rioters in the most effective and least deadly way he could.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

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Wounded and on high alert, the superhuman quickly noticed the ripple from before, and then the figure of the hero who had first attacked him leaping into the air, shooting something sticky into the ground and using it to push himself towards him. In response, he quickly set his wounded foot back, reinforcing the armor around it so that it would hold up - he was about to raise his arms to defend himself, but his opponent was faster and he let out a grunt as he staggered back a few paces from the powerful blow to his shoulder, already in pain from Mike's earlier blow. Falling to one knee, the superhuman could only hold his arms up around his head, which allowed him to block most of Kabuto's attacks.

Sensing a lull in the onslaught, he suddenly lashed out, his fist violently displacing the air around it. However, it was too late. Kabuto leaped to the other side just in time to dodge the attack, and as he tried to turn around, the armored man found that his feet were glued to the ground by the same webbing the hero had used earlier.

Before any further action could be taken, the beam of light fired by El Hechicero struck the superhuman in the chest, effortlessly phasing through his armor and his body alike and flying past for a few meters before abruptly vanishing. As soon as the beam struck him, he let out a howl of pain - it was a strange pain, one where he couldn't pinpoint an origin in his body, but it was there nonetheless. He fell to his hands and knees, panting, and as he did so his armor suddenly began to move and shift, some of the apparently solid plates of glowing purple material melting away and leaving various parts of his body exposed. Blood flowing from the wound in his leg seeped into the ground as the armor around it dissipated, and it could be seen that the superhuman's skin was crisscrossed by strange fern-like pattern that glowed the same color as his armor.

Suddenly, he moved again, as if having overcome the pain and the loss caused by the arcane beam that had struck him. First supporting himself on his good leg, he stood up and looked at the horde of suddenly approaching Kabutos - as he stood up, it became noticeable that the pattern on his skin seemed to originate from a large glowing circle in his chest. With a defiant roar, the superhuman seemingly shed what was left of his armor, only keeping the helmet and a greave on his injured leg to protect it and help him remain stable. Instead of reforming his armor, the rest of the strange matter was used to create two sets of arms protruding from his back. As the onslaught of Kabutos approached, he lashed out with all six arms, punching through illusion after illusion.

It soon became apparent that there was nothing to be gained from this, however, and as the superhuman realized this, he leaped away from the crowd of Kabutos instead of continuing to fight them, jumping onto a now useless Warwolf vehicle and sweeping the area with his gaze, spotting Mizu. The superhuman immediately leapt towards the Lunarian, narrowly missing her and slamming his fist into the ground instead, cracking the concrete all around it. Rising from his failed attack, he prepared to press on, this time with all six arms.