Young Bloods(IC, Reboot Open)

[Tomia]

Angelica
'Uh hi..." Angelica said realizing that she didn't actually know the name of the blonde girl who had now hurriedly approached her. She didn't exactly know how to deal with a situation like this. It couldn't be surprising that given her known identity that people would start asking her to join the Young Bloods. But this girl was claiming to actually have powers and Angelica didn't know how to determine whether or not she was lying. "It's cool to see you are enthusiastic in becoming a hero, but I'm not the person who can make that type of decision. Come by the tower after school or something, our supervisor Naja will be able to determine whether or not you can join okay? Right now though, I'm kind of in the middle of something.... Can we talk about it later?" She asked, trying not to be rude but trying to get rid of her before the rest of the team showed up. Alexis had made it to their meeting place though, and unsurprisingly asked why Dalin was there.

"It's nothing Lexi, she just wanted my autograph. Nothing people haven't been asking for all day." She said, shooting her a look that said I'll tell you later. Angelica didn't want Dalin getting any idea of who else was on the team. Turning back to Dalin, whose name she had just learned thanks to her girlfriend, Angelica spoke. "So I'll see you later alright Dalin? I promise I'll answer all the questions about the team I can."

A little while later, the group had finally gathered together, Mars had appeared somewhere in the middle of the pack. Once they were all there he decided to speak up. "So what is all of this about Angelica?" He asked, curious why she had called such an urgent meeting.

Frostbite paused for a moment, trying to figure out what exactly she wanted to say. "We have to to do something about this drug." She said, having finally settling on her words. "When Cardinal was talking, I couldn't help but feel that we're responsible for this. Like look at how they're reacting to me? They're treating me like a celebrity and it feels like the reason kids around school are taking this drug is because they want to be like us. Someone could die if this keeps up, and I don't want that to be our legacy. We have to figure out where the drugs are coming from and shut it down. So, are people with me?"

"Absolutely Frostbite" Mars said in response, looking around to the others. "I think she's right. We need to stop this before anymore of our classmates or friends get hurt. But how should we start?" He asked to his teammates around him.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

Earlier That Day...

Red accepted the handshake offer, reaching out with his own hand and firmly grasping onto Makenzie's. "You're not too bad either, new blood," he replied, a small smirk appearing on his face as well as he let go of his grip on her hand. "And, er…" Red paused for a moment, scratching at the back of his head with a somewhat embarrassed look on his face. "I'm sorry for going as hard as I did there. I've had a lot of...steam to blow off, and you sort of ended up in the way there." His tone was somewhat soft and apologetic, a result of the realization he had likely gone overboard in their sparring session.

Nodding his head, Red brought his hand back down and crossed his arms across his chest. "There's not a lot of us here on the team that actually take the time to practice actual hand-to-hand combat like this, given the range of powers the team's all got. Besides me, ol' Wonder Boy and Ice Queen are down here a lot as well. Given they can do a bit more than I can in terms of mixing in powers with the fight, it'd probably be a good idea to get them on the mats with you as well."

As Red finished saying this, a question popped into his mind, one that he had been asking himself during their sparring session but hadn't had a chance to ask yet. "So now that I've gone and answered all of your questions, here's mine: Where'd you learn all of that? I can recognize a lot of your form, but something seems a bit...off. Naja hasn't been too keen to let too much information slide on us all in the reports, so if it isn't too much to ask, I'd like to satisfy my curiosity a bit." He paused for a brief moment before an mischievous look appeared on his face. "Not like I can't find out if I want to, anyways," he said with a small wink, hinting to Makenzie that he was more than capable of garnering such information.

[Galnius]

Angelica Dalin
After being dismissed by the other Angelica, Dalin set off to return to class. Still, something weighed on her. Even after such a frosty dismissal, the blond did not feel remotely deterred. What confused her was as to why. Up until recently, she was content helping people who were simply hurt, and couldn't quite understand the sudden change of heart. It couldn't be due to seeing the heroes in action. After all, she had seen something similar, with the Wonder....Warriors.

Angelica stopped in her tracks. She could feel her eyes starting to get heavy with tears as the memory of their memorial flashed in her mind. She wiped them away with her sleeve, ensuring that none fell. After all...it would be unbecoming to be caught crying over nothing.

Taking a deep breath, Angelica altered her course. She had been avoiding it before, but there was one person who might be able to help. She waited for his class to end, and popped in. "Mr. Baker, er, Steven. I want you to help me join the Young Bloods."

".....Please?"

---

Keone

In his escape, Keone flashed through a myriad of alleyways and minor streets, having expertly mapped the area through the weeks before. He did not stop moving until, finally, he turned into a doorway. He welcomed himself to a temporary home, a bottom floor studio apartment, bare outside of a bed and kitchen. Releasing a sigh and falling to his knees in exhaustion, Keone thought back to what he assumed would be his first of many encounters with the young bloods.

It was, in all intents and purposes, a wholly unimportant meeting. Keone neither received a major boon nor any severe injuries in the scuffle. If anything, he received more information that he had started with. It was the information, itself, that had him feeling less sure than before. When he felt the past of the hero, he felt the sadness and discontent of the girl's life, and a new determination sparked by something Keone couldn't place.

The first two he felt himself, constantly, but it was the unknown third part that made it so that, even if he ran into her outside of conflict, he knew he would recognize her. Keone didn't have a face, and possibly didn't even have a voice, but that feeling was too unique in what he had encountered previously. He craved to feel it again, to know the cause and have something like that himself. However, he didn't know if he could ever bring himself to try to snuff it out of the girl hero, Asp.

Why are you hesitating?

Keone's head rose to the woman's voice that rang out. Standing above him, as he was on his hands and knees, was the ghost of his mother.

Well, not ghost. Memory. He must have brushed against the brooch once again without realizing it. Keone recognized the memory, from a lifetime ago. His mother looked down on him with half distain, and half care. It was a strange combination he fault inky she could achieve. In her hand was a wooden blade, and she had knocked him down for the umpteetnth time.

If you hesitate now, you'll never be able to succeed in our goal. You need to purge such things from your mind until your mission is over. If you don't, you'll get stabbed in the back, or from the front if your enemy is more kind.

The memory faded, and Keone rose unsteadily. She was right, of course, and he doubted that the memory would be brought up without reason. He was hesitating now as well, like he had when he had to harm his mother to learn. He purged the previous doubts from his mind, and prepared for his shift that night.

The fight didn't enter his mind as he got dressed. The girl stayed from his thoughts as he made and ate a quick dinner. The hesitation hadn't reared it's ugly head on his drive to work.

"Hey Keone!" The boy turned, seeing the coworker he had saved almost a month before. "How goes things?"

She moved to hug him, a motion he generally avoided. However, today, he just needed to know something. Allowing it, he let his psychometry read her. With the rush of imprinting and her uniforms memories, he exhaled with mild disappointment. The feeling wasn't there. This normal girl didn't have it. "Alright, gonna go, uh, to work. Have a good night." Why did the normal people lack that which interested him the most, and why was it a hero that brought it to the forefront of his mind.

---

Mika

Mika had gotten a few shots throughout the fight at the cafeteria, and found herself infinitely bored for the duration of the rest of the school day. She made her way home in total solitude, ignoring the people on the transit with her. Turning the familiar blocks, she eventually arrived at her large, two bedroom house. The lights were all off, meaning her mom had found someone else's bed to share tonight.

Going into the kitchen, Mika found her suspicions confirmed. On the refrigerator a note informed her that her mother would not be back tonight, and if she wanted to eat then she should order over the phone. There was also a snide remark about not being worried about Mika throwing a party, but that was ignored as she tore the note in half.

Moving to her room, the dark haired girl changed into baggy sweatpants and a baggy sweatshirt, not even bothering to think about going anywhere. Initially, she had planned on heading after Angelica Simmons again, and discreetly tailing her, but today the perfect opportunity in the form of a rather naive seeming mutant just about fell into her lap. On top of that, there was Astrid, who seemed relatable enough. Still, the house was so quiet...

Leaning back in her desk chair, she scanned the messy room for something to do. She wasn't in the mood to play on her computer or game systems, and even the pictures seemed uninteresting. It was as if seeing the people within them would make her feel that much lonelier. Soon, however, her eyes fell on the rifle she had gained after an eventful trip to hell.

The fact that it was still there was a testament to the fact that her mother never entered her room anymore, but also how much Mika didn't seem to clean. Hiding it under her bed, just in case, she had an idea to cure her boredom. Getting on her knees and resting her elbows on her bed, she closed her eyes and began to talk.

"Hey uh...God or whoever it is? Remember the angel boy from before? I was wondering if you could, uh, maybe send him here for a bit? If you do I'll...hmm....I don't know..." Mika thought back to the day, and how stupid she must have sounded right now. Still, if this somehow provided company, it would be worth it. " I promise I'll be nicer, I guess? I'll even give him the photo of the gym teacher, maybe? That's a fair trade, right? Oh who am I kidding."

Mika rose, annoyed with herself for such a pathetic action. Besides, if there was any gods up there, they clearly didn't care about helping. Otherwise, she wouldn't be alone to begin with. "Fuck it, I'm just going to order some pizza and figure out the rest of tonight later."

[The Republic of Atria]

Bael

Well, Roy once again dodged the question about what he or even the team would do if he was forced to end someone's life, but he did say that there was no way he could possibly know every scenario and to just do the best he could. That was all they could do. "Alright Roy. Thanks for the advice." He spoke a little more relaxed and opting not to drag it on any further. They did have a meeting to get to.

The short of it was that there was an appearance of a drug that could grant superpowers, but it's incredibly unstable and that the YB were now more or less responsible for putting an end to it. If nothing else, it took his mind off of what he might have be dealing with in the future. Everyone else trusted his judgement, so he should as well. "I feel bad about that. People want powers. Having only had mine a few months, I'm pretty much at the point where I'm not sure what I'd do without them. I can understand seeing the superheroes on TV and wanting to be able to do that." He spoke as Roy brought over a massive plate of tacos.

"On top of that, the distributor is clearly a smart guy. I remember Jason telling me that Wonder Foundation had superpower juice that the Cabal stole. Maybe someone managed to reverse engineer the formula, and probably do so in a garage with dirty tools and unwashed hands." After he explained his theory, he scarfed down a nice, hot taco. He got the idea of maybe giving Kaban the idea and seeing what he could make. He did like cooking after all. "Other than that, it seems relatively straightforward. Find some of the users, get them to expose some dealers, get the dealers to expose the distributor. Take the distributor down." Easier said than done of course, all they'd have to do is wait for some if the users to pop up and they could go to work.

He then grabbed two more tacos and stood up. "I should probably get some more practice in. I'll be out back if something comes up." As he went to head outside, he came across the newest recruit to the team. A dark skinned, bright haired man who was poking around the Tower. It took a moment, but Bael recognized him from the TV. Jackrabbit. An LA Stars sidekick or protégé or whatever the word was. And now he was on the team? "Hey, uh... Jackrabbit right?" He said, slightly awkwardly, but then offered him one of the tacos. "I was about to head out back and get some training in. You wanna come?"

[Finland SSR]

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

The Choir of Virgils was somewhat removed from the rest of the Angelic choirs, if one could invoke such earthly concepts as "distance" in the afterlife. Floating within the aether of Heaven, it was the resting place of some of the most virtuous and diligent of those who entered Heaven, and thus made the decision to continue their good deeds beyond their point of expiry. That did not mean that all of the paragons who ended up in this afterlife as opposed to any other would end up as Virgils, of course - it was a duty which required specific skills, even powers they might have inherited from their mortal life, and the will to put your safety on the line if need be. Nothing in Heaven is forced upon anyone.

The Heavenly angelic hierarchy is vast and not that easy to memorize, and Virgils stand at its very bottom - technically, they are not even a separate Choir and instead belong to the supervision of the low ranking Choir of Angels, even if they act independent, for the most part. Mortals uplifted into service in the heavenly army are limited to support roles, generally escorting souls lost in the afterlife or the mortal realm to their place of rest, or tagging along with angels of superior choirs if they needed additional hands in service. A Virgil could still hold their own in a fight and potentially even overpower angels, and always had to ready themselves to fight both in and out of service, especially if they still held onto their mortal powers - but there was a lot of good reasons why Virgils deserved their ranking.

For now, the castle making up the bulk of the Choir of Virgils was calm, its halls and relief moderately crowded by returning, departing and resting ascended mortals. There was the occasional conversation about news from the rest of the afterlife, be it Purgatory or Hell, and events taking place in the mortal realm which might catch their eye.

A young, blonde Virgil made his way across the streets of the Choir, with a slightly miffed expression on his face, and eyes darting from side to side, busy in search. It felt to him as if each time he returns from the mortal realm, the amount of fellow Virgils who are able to work with swords seems to grow fewer and fewer... and he goes through swords like toothpicks these days. It makes sense, though. Times change in the mortal realm. The rapiers and arming swords he used to fight with in his time have long since been replaced by these "gunpowder" weapons, the amount of souls which arrive and bring skills in repairing or forging more of those weapons are getting rare. At that point it's fair to just ask one of the resident angels to summon a new sword, but... well, that would require the blond man to talk to new people, and someone of higher rank than him, too. And that's...

Well, he'd rather pull through without it.

What's the deal with those "rifles", anyway. Sure, they're powerful enough to take the life of an average man faster than any sword does, but doesn't relying on a ranged weapon leave your vulnerable?.. He could understand it if these riflemen took the place of bowmen in his time, fighting alongside footmen to combine their arms and thus be able to attack the enemy from up close as well as afar... but as far as his more recent Virgils have informed him, the art of the melee swordsman has vanished entirely. Humanity has been up to weird things since he's passed...

"Bowdyn!" a voice suddenly called to the blonde swordsman from behind - before he could turn around or even react, an arm suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in. For a second before letting go, at least - and now, a grinning, smiling Jan was now standing in front of him, or, rather, walking backwards and then starting to pace around the slowly moving Bowdyn. The blonde swordsman sighed and responded:

"Well, at least you're back. You've been causing some commotion by, well... not being here. If that makes sense."

"Eh?" Jan muttered, wrapping his hands behind his head.

"Well, you did vanish without a trace during your mission..."

"Ah..."

The psionic Virgil slowed down, stopped hopping around Bowdyn like usual and striking a more somber mood. "Yeah, that's true... I had to take a slight detour to the mortal realm... basically." Bowdyn turned his head towards his peer, narrowed his eyes and continued:

"Something weighing on your mind?"

"Yeah... the mission, mostly."

"Didn't go the way it should have?"

"For sure. Well..." Jan held up his hand, staring at his palm and beginning to recant his memories of what happened down in Hell. "I was on my way back towards Purgatory, when I spotted a girl lost in the fog surrounding the stairway..."

---

"...After Gating, I found myself in San Diego, the same city from which I ascended to the afterlife. I returned Mika to her home and informed her that she is going to be safe. I still believe that Beelzebub's agent is operating there, however, and I'm sure that whatever agenda he operates under, he is still going to pursue it."

The assembly of the leaders of the Choir had a visitor this time - Jan stood in the center, surrounded by angels from all sides in a circle, and finally finished his side of the story. His explanation of the events which transpired at the end of his mission to Hell was responded to with nothing more than brief nods, which prompted the young Virgil to continue:

"I-I just think something needs to be done. About that, a-and... well, San Diego in general..."

The leaders of the Choir stood silent for a few seconds - and it didn't make Jan, who was already feeling rather tense and worried just from getting to speak with angels so much higher than him in the hierarchy, feel any better. Ultimately, one of the angels, standing in a suit of thick, glimmering golden armor and sporting a short dark beard, opened up:

"Your concern has been noted, young Jan."

Maybe they will send forces of the Heavenly army down there, maybe they won't. Heaven maintained a policy of avoiding intervention in the affairs of mortals unless there was a real threat of demons or other deities interfering in mortal life. Jan wasn't going to bet on the Choirs deciding to act - the Virgil suddenly raised his finger and continued:

"A-and... Well, I wanted to ask for approval to, well, be the one sent down there to sort things out."

"Not a chance."

After one of the female form angels gave her dictat, the circle remained silent for a few seconds, before she spoke again:

"To serve as the guardian of a city or a group of mortals this large is a task only a Principality or an even higher Choir can take. Not to mention that your decision, clearly guided by lingering mortal sentiment, is in risk of violating the tenet of avoiding unnecessary intervention."

"But-I-I'm not asking for that!" Jan tried to speak back at the matter-of-factly explanation. "That girl, Mika... she doesn't have a guardian angel, correct? Else, one would have manifested itself when she confronted that agent of Beelzebub... And I'm convinced that she is still in danger. And at the same time, I'll be able to take matters to my own hands and, well, take down this agent..."

"If that agent is as powerful as you've described him as, then they are clearly to be taken seriously, and beyond the limits of an ordinary Virgil." one of the angels still played devil's advocate, ironically, but before Jan could speak, a yet another angel, once again a female form one, gave their insight:

"That does not immediately make the Virgil's task impossible. Much like the member of any other Choir of angels, he is allowed to seek the help of mortals as long as he maintains a general policy of noninterference in mortal affairs." She then turned towards Jan. "That would have to be your first task, if you choose to continue with it."

Jan stared back, then finally gave a nod. "Thanks, I... I'll know where to look for it."

The heart of the Choir of Virgils turned brighter, illuminated by rays from above. Jan and the rest of the Angels turned their eyes up to meet the light, until one of them spoke:

"Your wish has been granted, Jan."

---

"Hey uh...God or whoever it is? Remember the angel boy from before? I was wondering if you could, uh, maybe send him here for a bit? If you do I'll...hmm....I don't know... I promise I'll be nicer, I guess? I'll even give him the photo of the gym teacher, maybe? That's a fair trade, right?"

San Diego has not changed much since the last time he's Gated here. For now, however, he'll be able to take more than just a glimpse of it before departing. Jan's head already swirled with ideas on who he could gather to a strike force to hunt down the Agent of Beelzebub - but, before any of that could take place, he had to make sure that the person he was supposed to guard was still safe and sound. And if he was out to check, then visiting the place he left Mika in was a better start than any.

Figuring which house it was from memory and making his way across the skies was not difficult by any means - only a few minutes passed before Jan started to slowly descend, raise his hand to pull onto one of the windows with telekinetic powers, unlock it and silently open it, and finally land on the windowsill.

"Mika?"

[Auropa]

Mike Mathew
YB School Meeting

"Absolutely Frostbite" Mars said in response, looking around to the others. "I think she's right. We need to stop this before anymore of our classmates or friends get hurt. But how should we start?" He asked to his teammates around him.

“Brilliant contribution as ever Mars.” Mike said with an exaggerated eye roll as he lent forward and began to think, ‘people are in danger, of course they were going to help’.

While the meeting was a little impromptu and a spur of the moment decision, Mike agreed that something had to be done and he was glad to see the Frostbite and the team moving to take action so quickly. As far as he was concerned, this was a chance for them all to do some real good and get back to helping people from the get go, the fact that leaving the drug alone for any longer would probably lead to a complete disaster for everyone though certianly helped his motivation to act quickly. Of course he didn't voice any of this, after all, he couldn't risk giving Mars the satisfaction of even a partial compliment aimed at the team.

“Does anyone have a connection to Coleen?" He finally asked. "If she can point us to a local dealer, then we can start working our way up the chain. Other than that, it wouldn't hurt to get a message out to Naja in case she’s heard anything or picked up on any leads herself. And if for whatever reason neither of those work, then my vote would be to just focus on learning whatever we can about this drug. Does it come from pills, injections, can it be airborne or what? And if students can get their hands on it then how big is the operation? Are we going to be dealing with a bunch of people in a basement with a few chemicals, or a fully fleshed out, funded and armed gang?” He asked to the team. It wasn’t much, but as it was, they had an opportunity and a few options for investigating this. It would've seemed like the perfect start, but there was a nagging concern in the back of his mind. While he didn’t want to admit it, he knew these things could blow up fast and a part of him was worried about how long it would be before other groups came in to try and take control.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forge
Operation Saving Private Red

Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

After changing into his uniform and heading back to meet up with Selene, the duo made their way past the police barricade and into the building.
“Well this makes getting in so much easier than I thought it would be” Forge finally commented as they made their way inside. “So what about cameras? Could those still see us? How invisible are we right now? Like could we-wait- Have you used this before? Is this how you snuck into the taxi? …How often do you use this to mess with people?” He asked as several pieces fell into place for him and he suddenly became more aware of the girl's mischievous potential ‘now that I think about it, maybe this is something I don't want to know’ he thought quietly to himself as they continued on.

“The news showed Marionette in the main broadcasting room with her hostages.” He eventually said as they made their way further “I think, and kind of hope, Red would focus on saving them before doing anything too rash. Either way, if we find the civilians, I'm pretty sure that marionette and him won't be too far away.” He added as he paused to take another look at a copy of the building’s blueprints on his phone and tried to figure out the best way to get close.

"I know this is a bit weird for me to say, but if anything goes wrong and a fight brakes out, then we need to focus on getting the hostages out first. Red’s probably the best of us in a straight fight and I guarantee he can hold his own for bit but he’d be held back if he’s trying to cover the civilians at the same time. And however good he is, Marionette is- I mean you've seen the news. These people are in a lot of trouble and it'll be up to us to get them home. Once they’re safe though, that's when we can help properly. ” He said with a bit more confidence. "Though if that begins to go badly and the fight looks a bit too close to call, then throw up the best illusion you can and run, I'll make sure to drag Red back to the tower behind you. No matter what, we're here to make sure that we all get home safe and if we don't catch the bad guy today then we'll just get her next time."

[Absolon-7]

Casimir Herman October 2nd
Hours had passed since the bank robbery in the morning along with the recon assignment Roy had given and in the lick of time he had found the information needed so now to just wait for whatever preparations fearless leader needed. Now for the moment Casimir was on the roof of Wonder Tower overlooking the entire city blasting Metallica on his earphones as he leaned on the metal railing. He'd promised Viviana he'd play video games with her later at night but for now he felt the need for fresh air.

Along with Viviana constantly distracting him Casimir had taken longer then he wanted to finding the drug dealers as he was double checking the city for certain individuals. The first was that mysterious mummy in a suit that had attacked him several weeks ago. Each chance he'd get he wanted to find the freak but it was as if he has vanished off the face of San Diego. The other was Drakon but he was far more conspicuous to really be out and about plus there was the fact of how he was indisposed of last time.

Casimir could almost smell the charred flesh and metal from the explosion and he reflexively shook his head. Alas there was no luck there either although he could somewhere in the desert mountains behind the city which was just outside his range. They had to show up again sometime for revenge and he'd be ready for them for who else could be ready to beat death then the great Kabuto!

"I can just see the face they'll have when they fail to kick my ass," sneered Casimir as he took out his phone to look at the time, "Shit almost time to go Dunkmaster's."

Today was the day he was going to try to break his squatting record from last month so he'd better have no distractions to keep him from it.

Viviana Couture October 2nd
Several hours after Viviana had her fill of keeping Casimir from his job as well as having him promise to play video games later so now she was in her room gathering several boxes and bottles in a decorated purse. She briefly paused to take a bite out of a sandwich she has and lazily munched on it before suddenly throwing it back onto the plate. She didn't have time to dilly dawdle! Viviana hung the purse on her shoulder and just before she left through the door she stopped in her tracks and stretched out her hand to her closet. The limb was yanked back holding onto an orange beanie which she slapped onto her head before hurrying to the elevator.

She took it straight down and blitzed out of the first floor lobby to the outside area. Beyond all the benches and fancy shrubbery her eyes spotted the next much squatter building over, namely Alexis and Mars laboratory. She entered the building and looked around a bit at the entrance to spot a particular blonde but no dice. Looks like she'd have to enter deeper into the dungeon. Viviana took bigger steps walking inside with her purse held tightly in front of her.

"Oh yoohooo, anybody home?" called out Viviana, "Was wondering if there was a certain blonde girl who wants to have make up done on her. I brought Fanta for bribery."

[Galnius]

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

The Choir of Virgils was somewhat removed from the rest of the Angelic choirs, if one could invoke such earthly concepts as "distance" in the afterlife. Floating within the aether of Heaven, it was the resting place of some of the most virtuous and diligent of those who entered Heaven, and thus made the decision to continue their good deeds beyond their point of expiry. That did not mean that all of the paragons who ended up in this afterlife as opposed to any other would end up as Virgils, of course - it was a duty which required specific skills, even powers they might have inherited from their mortal life, and the will to put your safety on the line if need be. Nothing in Heaven is forced upon anyone.

The Heavenly angelic hierarchy is vast and not that easy to memorize, and Virgils stand at its very bottom - technically, they are not even a separate Choir and instead belong to the supervision of the low ranking Choir of Angels, even if they act independent, for the most part. Mortals uplifted into service in the heavenly army are limited to support roles, generally escorting souls lost in the afterlife or the mortal realm to their place of rest, or tagging along with angels of superior choirs if they needed additional hands in service. A Virgil could still hold their own in a fight and potentially even overpower angels, and always had to ready themselves to fight both in and out of service, especially if they still held onto their mortal powers - but there was a lot of good reasons why Virgils deserved their ranking.

For now, the castle making up the bulk of the Choir of Virgils was calm, its halls and relief moderately crowded by returning, departing and resting ascended mortals. There was the occasional conversation about news from the rest of the afterlife, be it Purgatory or Hell, and events taking place in the mortal realm which might catch their eye.

A young, blonde Virgil made his way across the streets of the Choir, with a slightly miffed expression on his face, and eyes darting from side to side, busy in search. It felt to him as if each time he returns from the mortal realm, the amount of fellow Virgils who are able to work with swords seems to grow fewer and fewer... and he goes through swords like toothpicks these days. It makes sense, though. Times change in the mortal realm. The rapiers and arming swords he used to fight with in his time have long since been replaced by these "gunpowder" weapons, the amount of souls which arrive and bring skills in repairing or forging more of those weapons are getting rare. At that point it's fair to just ask one of the resident angels to summon a new sword, but... well, that would require the blond man to talk to new people, and someone of higher rank than him, too. And that's...

Well, he'd rather pull through without it.

What's the deal with those "rifles", anyway. Sure, they're powerful enough to take the life of an average man faster than any sword does, but doesn't relying on a ranged weapon leave your vulnerable?.. He could understand it if these riflemen took the place of bowmen in his time, fighting alongside footmen to combine their arms and thus be able to attack the enemy from up close as well as afar... but as far as his more recent Virgils have informed him, the art of the melee swordsman has vanished entirely. Humanity has been up to weird things since he's passed...

"Bowdyn!" a voice suddenly called to the blonde swordsman from behind - before he could turn around or even react, an arm suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in. For a second before letting go, at least - and now, a grinning, smiling Jan was now standing in front of him, or, rather, walking backwards and then starting to pace around the slowly moving Bowdyn. The blonde swordsman sighed and responded:

"Well, at least you're back. You've been causing some commotion by, well... not being here. If that makes sense."

"Eh?" Jan muttered, wrapping his hands behind his head.

"Well, you did vanish without a trace during your mission..."

"Ah..."

The psionic Virgil slowed down, stopped hopping around Bowdyn like usual and striking a more somber mood. "Yeah, that's true... I had to take a slight detour to the mortal realm... basically." Bowdyn turned his head towards his peer, narrowed his eyes and continued:

"Something weighing on your mind?"

"Yeah... the mission, mostly."

"Didn't go the way it should have?"

"For sure. Well..." Jan held up his hand, staring at his palm and beginning to recant his memories of what happened down in Hell. "I was on my way back towards Purgatory, when I spotted a girl lost in the fog surrounding the stairway..."

---

"...After Gating, I found myself in San Diego, the same city from which I ascended to the afterlife. I returned Mika to her home and informed her that she is going to be safe. I still believe that Beelzebub's agent is operating there, however, and I'm sure that whatever agenda he operates under, he is still going to pursue it."

The assembly of the leaders of the Choir had a visitor this time - Jan stood in the center, surrounded by angels from all sides in a circle, and finally finished his side of the story. His explanation of the events which transpired at the end of his mission to Hell was responded to with nothing more than brief nods, which prompted the young Virgil to continue:

"I-I just think something needs to be done. About that, a-and... well, San Diego in general..."

The leaders of the Choir stood silent for a few seconds - and it didn't make Jan, who was already feeling rather tense and worried just from getting to speak with angels so much higher than him in the hierarchy, feel any better. Ultimately, one of the angels, standing in a suit of thick, glimmering golden armor and sporting a short dark beard, opened up:

"Your concern has been noted, young Jan."

Maybe they will send forces of the Heavenly army down there, maybe they won't. Heaven maintained a policy of avoiding intervention in the affairs of mortals unless there was a real threat of demons or other deities interfering in mortal life. Jan wasn't going to bet on the Choirs deciding to act - the Virgil suddenly raised his finger and continued:

"A-and... Well, I wanted to ask for approval to, well, be the one sent down there to sort things out."

"Not a chance."

After one of the female form angels gave her dictat, the circle remained silent for a few seconds, before she spoke again:

"To serve as the guardian of a city or a group of mortals this large is a task only a Principality or an even higher Choir can take. Not to mention that your decision, clearly guided by lingering mortal sentiment, is in risk of violating the tenet of avoiding unnecessary intervention."

"But-I-I'm not asking for that!" Jan tried to speak back at the matter-of-factly explanation. "That girl, Mika... she doesn't have a guardian angel, correct? Else, one would have manifested itself when she confronted that agent of Beelzebub... And I'm convinced that she is still in danger. And at the same time, I'll be able to take matters to my own hands and, well, take down this agent..."

"If that agent is as powerful as you've described him as, then they are clearly to be taken seriously, and beyond the limits of an ordinary Virgil." one of the angels still played devil's advocate, ironically, but before Jan could speak, a yet another angel, once again a female form one, gave their insight:

"That does not immediately make the Virgil's task impossible. Much like the member of any other Choir of angels, he is allowed to seek the help of mortals as long as he maintains a general policy of noninterference in mortal affairs." She then turned towards Jan. "That would have to be your first task, if you choose to continue with it."

Jan stared back, then finally gave a nod. "Thanks, I... I'll know where to look for it."

The heart of the Choir of Virgils turned brighter, illuminated by rays from above. Jan and the rest of the Angels turned their eyes up to meet the light, until one of them spoke:

"Your wish has been granted, Jan."

---

"Hey uh...God or whoever it is? Remember the angel boy from before? I was wondering if you could, uh, maybe send him here for a bit? If you do I'll...hmm....I don't know... I promise I'll be nicer, I guess? I'll even give him the photo of the gym teacher, maybe? That's a fair trade, right?"

San Diego has not changed much since the last time he's Gated here. For now, however, he'll be able to take more than just a glimpse of it before departing. Jan's head already swirled with ideas on who he could gather to a strike force to hunt down the Agent of Beelzebub - but, before any of that could take place, he had to make sure that the person he was supposed to guard was still safe and sound. And if he was out to check, then visiting the place he left Mika in was a better start than any.

Figuring which house it was from memory and making his way across the skies was not difficult by any means - only a few minutes passed before Jan started to slowly descend, raise his hand to pull onto one of the windows with telekinetic powers, unlock it and silently open it, and finally land on the windowsill.

"Mika?"

Mika

Not expecting anything to come out of saying words at night to a sky daddy, Mika grabbed wireless headphones before heading downstairs to pick up what she had ordered. It was nothing more than a medium pepperoni pizza, but it would last through the night and possibly the next few days if she rationed it out well. For now, more pressing matters needed attending to...

Using a small remote, Mika hit play and put on some music. Even with the positives that came with running into Astrid and and Ash, it was a mildly stressful day, and having felt a small connection to someone for the first time in a while she somehow felt more alone without it now. The solution? Blast music into her ear at max volume, drowning out everything but the pizza she was biting into while she shook her head and rocked out to the beat.

It was due to this that she didn't see nor hear Jan as he landed on the windowsill, though when she finally turned in his direction her eyes lit up. "Holy shit it actually worked!" Mika hurriedly removed her headphones that were causing her to yell louder than necessary as she rushed over to the window.

Hitting the remote once again, she moved the sound to the speakers so that the music filled up the room, though the music was quiet enough to easily talk over. Looking in, Jan would see a messy room with multiple set ups for various games, as well as the walls adorned with photographs and post cards.

There were a few of Mika's mother, who had a died blonde long hairstyle and high cheekbones, and who appeared altogether opposite of Mika outside of the eyes. She had a slightly fearful look to her in a few of the photographs, but the eyes remained defiant.

There were also candids of many of the students and some people around town, with the most prominent being Angelica Simmons. The rifle from her previous excursion with Jan was half-hidden under the bed, and her floor was covered in food and drink containers of every sort, alongside some pictures of the weapons from hell. It should be noted that Mika didn't seem at all uncomfortable with Jan seeing any of this, as to her knowledge the only difference between this and a normal persons room was that it was just a touch messier.

"Alright, pizza just came so for now sit down and enjoy yourself. I have so many questions." Flopping excitedly into a gaming chair near her desk, she pat the bed to emphasize her previous request. "So are you like my full time bitch now, or is this just a temporary thing? Oh, wait, I promised to give you this." Mika tossed over the single picture of the gym teacher and smiled at Jan impishly. "Sweet. Contract complete, releasing restriction 0. You ready for an interview?"

[Finland SSR]

Angelica Dalin

Steven Baker.

---

"Come in."

One after the other, lessons began and concluded - aside for the brief conversation he had with Mars over the Young Bloods and what the teacher thought of them, the rest of the way went by inconsequentially. In Baker's class, at least... not exactly so in the rest of the school, but the physics teacher avoided participating in the events transpiring. He'd raise a fuss and probably make matters worse, especially since he had incomplete information about what was taking place and why.

The person who came in through the door was Angelica Dalin. Alright, maybe he was a bit too optimistic about this day going without a hitch. Steven folded his arms, leaned on his table, and listened to the resurrected girl from twenty years past explain that she wanted his help to join the Young Bloods.

No. No. No, no, no, no, no. That's... definitely in the list of the worst things she could have possibly said upon entering Steven's classroom. Regardless, however, the teacher maintained his calm exterior, for now, and sighed.

"What makes you think I'd be of any help?" he responded. "I'm just a teacher."

---

Casimir Herman October 2nd

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

The team's meeting to receive a hearing from Fiona went... well, it simply came and went. They received the information, Casimir got assigned a recon task to help track the dealers in this new superpower drug down, and Roy moved on to invite the rest of the party to tacos. Renata spent the entire hearing wondering what made this new drug different from the Blood drug. I guess it's not proliferated by vampires this time... and I guess it's more varied in what powers it gives you... don't think Blood could give its users ice powers.

Between these two drugs and the legal stuff which Wonder Foundation is marketing, there seems to be an awfully large market for them.

Having gotten herself a taco to ease off after the rather tense mission, Renata returned back to her daily routine - only to suddenly begin scaling up Wonder Tower with a goal in mind. And for that, she needed a particular person, one who she knew was going to stand at the top. Or at least had made an educated guess.

As soon as Renata made her way to the rooftop, she saw her guess proven correct - Casimir was here, having just put an end to his recon task, starting to browse his phone and getting ready to go. If he thought he needed to be somewhere else, it was going to be entirely inconsequential. Renata suddenly hopped to the roof, walked up to Casimir from behind, grabbed him by the sleeve and started dragging him along.

---

Forge
Operation Saving Private Red

Mizuma Ishiwara, the trickstery Selene!

---

Right as the two heroes stepped through the police barricades, leaving the officers blind that heroes were now on the scene, and began to make their way towards the TV station, Forge began barraging Selene with one question after the other - it only made sense, someone who wasn't accustomed with being completely imperceptible to someone else would obviously want to figure out as much as they can about the mechanics of the ability. Before the girl could even start explaining how her illusions worked, however, the boy immediately touched a far harder topic to swallow.

"Y-yeah..." Selene muttered to respond on whether she used this ability to sneak into Mike's taxi, then froze when asked on whether she uses this power to mess with her teammates. Her face turned red and she shook her head as hard as she possibly could.

"N-no! I-I mean, yes... But not in a mean way! That's what I meant..." She really didn't feel like she managed to defend herself. The girl released a sigh and hastened her pace. "No, it's not that powerful... My illusions aren't illusions in the way you might have seen in the movies. What I can do is pick out people and mess with their senses - I can paste or crop out images in their vision, make them hear things or feel things that aren't actually there. Cameras aren't people, I can't affect them, nor can I cast illusions on people I can't see... so, if, for example, we met Marionette inside, I would need to first cast an illusion on her to erase myself from her vision before she notices me."

While Forge searched for the best way in entering the building, Selene watched it from their position - the lightly smouldering front entrance of the station and paramedics rushing in got her to lightly gulp. Apparently, two jackasses stormed straight in ignoring all warnings and started using lethal force while fighting their way to the top. Forge assured that they were here to save as many people as they can and drew up a plan of action on what they should do when the shots start firing, which got the girl more at ease.

"Sounds like a plan!" Selene exclaimed and smiled. "I sure am not planning to take on Marionette all by myself or something." As a symbolic gesture, she stepped behind Forge, peeking over his shoulder and staring at the TV station.

"Did you ever stop to wonder why Red decided to go all by himself, by the way? I mean, I get that he and Marionette have a history and everything... but he's gotta remember that he needed the help of, like, five people last time the two of them fought, right?"

---

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

The ways how Angels and Virgils picked out mortal volunteers for whatever quest they may be facing varied from individual to individual - but, wielding information about all mortals inhabiting the lower realms, they had a lot of options to choose from. Certainly, virtue and skill were both preferable, but to have both in one being while also not threatening the order of mortal society was easier to say than to find. More often than not, the Choirs would have to turn to mortals who may not necessarily be paragons, but still had some good in their hearts which could potentially be fostered if placed under the right guidance. And sometimes, angels of different Choirs simply played practical jokes on one another.

Like that time one Virgil got sent to recruit a drunken sumo wrestler...

Jan slowly descended from the skies of San Diego, towards a home he had grown accustomed to for a time which was surprisingly quite short for how grown he had become to its inhabitants. There were two people he was in search of there specifically. One was on the list of recommendations he received for possible allies in San Diego, the other... well, wasn't, he was seen as too high profile, but Jan wanted to at least give him a hi nonetheless. It'd violate Non-Interference, but Jan just wanted to make sure his friend was feeling well, surely the Choir would understand his motives.

If he was to be believed, one of those two persons, if not both of them, have a high chance of showing up in this house.

Jan landed on the windowsill, unlocked the window with his telekinetic powers, and stepped into the room he called his own ever since he was freed from Warwolf custody.

"Is anyone home?"

---

Mika

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

It took only a few moments for everything to turn really, really weird.

"...what worked?" Jan muttered under his breath, raising his eyebrow at Mika's sudden joy. The girl ran, joined by music blasting across the entire room, the combination of which instantly got the Virgil to slightly recoil. Had he not already been one foot in the room, he might have fallen out the window then and there. The initial shock got replaced by the full view of Mika's room - a complete mess in all senses of the word, with little to no place to stand over all the drinks, plates and food containers. The walls were plastered by what Jan initially assumed to be posters you'd find in the room of any teenager, including the one he used to have - but, upon closer inspection, they all turned out to be photos. Average, ordinary photos, of people various shapes and sizes, oftentimes looking like they weren't even aware of being photographed.

The few non-person photos, such as the ones Jan could only presume to be of Hell, gave the initial guess that they must be mementos of places she's visited and experiences she's had. But why are so many of them just... people? Ordinary people in ordinary situations...

It wasn't a part of his duties to ask such things. Mika must have a reason for such a collection. So, he moved on.

The girl hopped into her seat and began spinning around, offering Jan a seat, getting ready to start interviewing them and immediately starting to inquire on what the terms of their relationship were at this point.

"...I just wanted to check if you're safe." Jan tried explaining himself while scratching the back of his head - then suddenly jolted back to life when Mika finished speaking. "Wait, interview? What?"

[Galnius]

Bael

Well, Roy once again dodged the question about what he or even the team would do if he was forced to end someone's life, but he did say that there was no way he could possibly know every scenario and to just do the best he could. That was all they could do. "Alright Roy. Thanks for the advice." He spoke a little more relaxed and opting not to drag it on any further. They did have a meeting to get to.

The short of it was that there was an appearance of a drug that could grant superpowers, but it's incredibly unstable and that the YB were now more or less responsible for putting an end to it. If nothing else, it took his mind off of what he might have be dealing with in the future. Everyone else trusted his judgement, so he should as well. "I feel bad about that. People want powers. Having only had mine a few months, I'm pretty much at the point where I'm not sure what I'd do without them. I can understand seeing the superheroes on TV and wanting to be able to do that." He spoke as Roy brought over a massive plate of tacos.

"On top of that, the distributor is clearly a smart guy. I remember Jason telling me that Wonder Foundation had superpower juice that the Cabal stole. Maybe someone managed to reverse engineer the formula, and probably do so in a garage with dirty tools and unwashed hands." After he explained his theory, he scarfed down a nice, hot taco. He got the idea of maybe giving Kaban the idea and seeing what he could make. He did like cooking after all. "Other than that, it seems relatively straightforward. Find some of the users, get them to expose some dealers, get the dealers to expose the distributor. Take the distributor down." Easier said than done of course, all they'd have to do is wait for some if the users to pop up and they could go to work.

He then grabbed two more tacos and stood up. "I should probably get some more practice in. I'll be out back if something comes up." As he went to head outside, he came across the newest recruit to the team. A dark skinned, bright haired man who was poking around the Tower. It took a moment, but Bael recognized him from the TV. Jackrabbit. An LA Stars sidekick or protégé or whatever the word was. And now he was on the team? "Hey, uh... Jackrabbit right?" He said, slightly awkwardly, but then offered him one of the tacos. "I was about to head out back and get some training in. You wanna come?"

Andrew Donovan

Andrew had managed to get lost in the tower thirteen times, somehow got to the front door five, and walked in about four circles. He had counted after the third time. At least, he had hoped it was the third. It was needless to say, then, that he was incredibly grateful to see another person, having somehow avoided that as well.

"Oh thank god, Kabuto gives the worst tours. No idea where I am. Thought I might have fallen to another dimension where there wasn't anyone else." He took a taco and bit down on it, trying to stave a hunger that came from his trip over. "What kind of training? And it's Bael right? You can call me Andrew, I've never been one for the whole secret identity from teammates thing. Especially considering I'm pretty sure the media already knows who I am."

---

Dan Alpha

Dan had seen enough action movies to know how to locate a hostage. They always kept them in plain sight, usually tied very poorly. It was basic villain standards. However, before you could find them you first had to deal with the security guard that was eating burritos while failing to watch the cameras.

There was a slight issue, however, as it seemed someone had beaten Dan to the punch. However, whoever it was was far too unaware of his presence. "Well that won't do. How are they supposed to know I'm saving them?"

Standing behind the very alert other hero, he was surprised to find that his stupid plan to reveal himself had worked. They bumped into Dan's chest and turned, immediately realising who he was. Oh good, I'm a household name now!

Dan half listened to what the hero was saying as he droned on and on for what seemed like an eternity, really. Man, these other heroes really love listening to their own voices jeez. That was like, 10 seconds of him talking. Once the person finished jabbering on about nothing, Spectre did a close study of him.

"Wait you're Mask! Oh I've got a friend who's a big fan of you. Or she wants to kill you. Or maybe both? I really can't tell, she's impossible to read. A bit grumpy too. Kinda boring, actually. I had to spend a whole week with her when the tournament going on, and between you and me, I've seen better tournaments. Though hey, that one girl did maim a hero, that was fun. Oh, and the others? Umm...I know two are getting food. Assuming there's food around here. Do you know if there is? Nevermind mind that's not important. One is looking for Marionette. We have a date you see. I'm her greatest foe, we've just kept it secret so the other heroes and villains don't get jealous. So they are helping me find her. The other one is tailing this guy with a sword. I want to say his name is Frank? Maybe? Or Felicia?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 2nd

---

---

Hearing the naive moth girl question them on why they were simply standing around instead of trying to help, Astrid couldn't help but roll her eyes. "And why, do tell, would two ordinary students like Mika and I want to get involved in a fight between some powered up junkies and a pack of wannabe celebrities?" She stated, her disdain for superheroes evident in her voice as she spoke the last few words. "I don't know how to fight, at best I'd be a liability and at worst I'd get hurt, or worse." She added afterwards, only half-lying. After all, as far as anyone was concerned, Astrid Tremblay was just an ordinary student, and it was true that she wasn't trained for combat like many heroes and villains were.

"Non. It's best to leave this to the... professionals." She concluded, shaking her head at the term.

The battle dragged on and, as expected, the Young Bloods were able to keep things under control despite their rough start. Not surprising, considering they're only fighting junkies on a bad trip. She thought. Her attention was drawn back to her classmates, however, when she noticed the moth girl leaning across the table to stare at her. Not one to find herself put off by the girl's appearance, Astrid nonetheless felt unnerved by the resolute stare.

...What? Smell?" The raven-haired girl wondered, confused. It wasn't until after Ash suggested that they might have had a class together that she realized what was going on. Her nose is pretty good if she knows my scent despite having worn full body armor that day... That might be an issue. What to do now? Play along? No, the lie will fall apart quickly enough.

After what was only a brief pause to an outside observer, Astrid shook her head. "No, I don't think we've had classes together. I think I would remember if I had seen you before now, mon amie. No offense." She said. "Perhaps you were thinking of someone else?"

Before a response could be given, however, the situation began clearing up and the school's staff began ushering what few students remained in the cafeteria to their remaining classes. Bidding her new friends farewell, Astrid made her way to her next period.

---

---

---

As the rest of the Young Bloods still attending Thomsen High appeared and Angelica explained to them what this meeting was all about, there was an uncharacteristic somber look on Alexis' face. It was ironic, that the fears her girlfriend expressed were something she had already confirmed, having heard it from Coleen just minutes earlier. However, this only made her all the more determined to put a stop to the drug and make sure that nobody else was hurt by it, especially not in the name of the Young Bloods.

What was left, then, was to figure out how to proceed from here, as Mars pointed out. The blonde girl rolled her eyes as she heard Mike's snide comment towards her friend and fellow engineer, and she discreetly approached him as he went on and on discussing possible ideas for getting started with the investigation, although none of them were terribly enlightening as far as she was concerned.

As the brunet finished speaking, Alexis flicked him on the side of the head.

"Could've done without the snark, but kudos for the effort. You'll settle back in in no time." The short girl quipped before looking at the rest of the team. "Anyways, I agree that we should do something about this thing, I don't like that it's getting inside the school and who knows where else it's getting distributed, but we shouldn't be too hasty, I mean we're a team so we shouldn't just act by ourselves." She pointed out.

"Soon as we get out of here, let's head back to Wonder Tower. I heard Roy was looking into this, maybe he and the others will have some info on the drug, and we can let 'em know what we found out today. Once everyone's up to date, I'm sure we can come up with a good plan of action to get to the bottom of this." She suggested. For the time being, she opted not to mention Coleen - even if they were on good terms now, she was sure some of the others wouldn't think it was safe for her to reach out.

[New Finnish Republic]

Red

---

Later That Day...

Underneath his helmet, Red's expression turned into one of complete and utter confusion as the man in front of him rambled on and on in vague terms, seemingly uncaring at the fact that a sharp blade was still at his neck. What confused him the most, however, was the name, or rather attempt at naming, of the other individual apparently with him. Frank? Felicia? What in the hell is he... Red's eyes suddenly widened as the details slowly began to click within his mind, making him realize who Spectre was referring to.

"Oh please, for the love of Christ, tell me you don't mean Floyd Tolson," Red finally replied, a concerned tone in his voice as his eyes wandered over to the door. Red knew enough about that man to know that if he was involved in this situation, things would get very messy. While every fiber of his being wanted to take down Marionette once and for all, he knew that his main priority right now were the hostages. Even if his suspicions of the explosive devices being fakes was true, this didn't mean Marionette wouldn't take things into her own hands should she be forced into a corner. And given that Red had seen first hand what those fibers of hers could do to a regular person, he knew that he didn't have time to waste.

"Alright, here's the plan because you two assholes have just thrown a huge ass wrench in the middle of it all. We're going to have to make our way downstairs where the hostages are being held. This little thing here," Red paused as he pulled out a spherical device the size of a baseball, "should block any type of electronic triggering system that would cause the explosives to detonate. It needs to be close to the hostages to work though, so we've got to keep low until then. Once it's activated, I'll cut the power and start freeing up the hostages in the confusion. You," Red said with an emphasis as he pressed a finger against Spectre's chest, "need to get the hostages out of there. I can keep Marionette preoccupied long enough to give you enough time to cut them free and escape. Once that's done, I don't care if you want to join in on the beating. But," Red paused as he stared at the man in front of him, his blue visors seeming to emanate a malicious glow, "she's mine when we're done. I'm finding the deepest fucking hole that I can find, digging down another mile, tossing her in there, and throwing away the key."

Red remained where he was standing, his posture tensed up as he watched for a response from Spectre. "Any problems with that," he finally said, eyeing the former Outrider warily.

[The Republic of Atria]

Andrew

He waited for the new guy to inhale the taco and nodded as he introduced himself as Andrew and bemoaned Casimir's tours. "Understandable, this place is kind of a maze until you get used to it, and I can respect that. I'm honestly not a fan of the secret identity thing myself. You can call me Bael, or Wyatt. Whatever's easier for you. As for the training, I was going to go practice a little control. Make sure I have precision. I could probably level a city block or two if I tried, but something tells me that it would be a little... Wrong. Anyways, we could spar. You can never be too prepared when it comes to fighting other superhumans."

"I'm not human, but you get the point." He said, leading Andrew towards the gym. "Rooms are over there. Gym's straight ahead. Never used it much, other than than the sparring area. Probably should in all honesty. I don't know how it compares to what I imagine is the fancy gym that the Stars get." He said and turned around to face his new friend. "If we do decide on sparring, what're your powers? I'd rather not accidentally maim you if you're of the... Not invulnerable class of supers. As for me, well, you've probably seen my match with the Mountain. Superhuman stats and I can control rocks and stuff rock adjacent."

Jason

As the message hit Jason's phone, the half assed student bolted his way over to the established meeting spot set up by Angelica with Shi. Presumably, it was about the ruckus that occurred at lunch. Which the pair shared all the details they had. About the brute, the melted girl and the telepath and their fight. "So anyways, yeah. Big ass fight in the cafeteria. Other people getting superdoped and uh... Melting. Cause it's like a bad batch or something, I don't know. Definitely needs to be dealt with pretty soon." He chimed in.

"Anyways, that's our end of the story. What's up?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 2nd

---

---

The first thing Viviana would notice upon stepping out of the elevator and into the underground laboratory would be the British rock blaring through the homemade loudspeakers distributed throughout the area, very nearly drowning out the high-pitched voice of a teenage girl singing in tandem with the music. The second would be Oberon standing idle against the far wall, graceful and imposing. The third would be the army of robotic pink fairies working together to finish a half-assembled motorcycle frame over a nearby worktable, an overlaid hologram of the finished thing guiding their efforts.

As soon as the brunette called out to the lab's owner, the music stopped and Alexis' head poked out from across the table - sitting behind a computer terminal, she couldn't be seen unless she stood up or leaned to the sides. As soon as she spotted Viviana, the blonde girl jumped out of her seat and waved at her.

"Hey Vivi! Nice of you to come visit! Just let me wrap this up quick and I'll be free." She told her squadmate before returning to her terminal, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she made several adjustments to the design that her flying helpers were working on - enough that they'd be able to continue working on their own for however long she was away.

With that done, the genius girl sauntered over to Viviana. "Makeup you said? I'm in, but only if I get to pick your outfit afterwards. Now gimme that Fanta!"

---

---

For several moments, nothing happened. Faint voices could be heard downstairs, the voices of two women the Virgil was undoubtedly familiar with, but nothing in their tone seemed to indicate that they had noticed his call. After just another moment, however, the door slowly creaked open and a single violet eye peeked inside, looking every which way before finally settling on the visitor.

A few seconds passed and the door swung open to reveal a young woman of about Jan's own age before his ascension, dressed in a simple black tee and a short denim skirt. She looked much like someone the boy had seen before, with the Herman family that he had grown so attached to, with the caveat that she was quite a bit younger, with her hair in a different style. She looked at him curiously - someone sneaking into a house through the window was hardly common, moreso when the visitor had pale feathery wings coming out of his back.

"Who are you?" The girl asked, approaching the Virgil with a few long strides. While cautious at first, she no longer seemed wary of the visitor and casually circled around him while studying him, a faint smile appearing on her face even as she questioned him. "How did you get in here? Why are you here?" She asked. On a whim, she picked up a little bit of his hair and looked at it more closely, a slight frown replacing her smile. "And who does your hair? Your ends are all split! You should take better care of it, you know."

[New Neros]

Mark Nemo

It was a little past midday, and the young hero was standing at the kitchen counter crunching away on some cereal he had found in the cupboard, scrolling through his phone in some gray sweatpants and a tank top. A bit closed to the outside world, he felt the stare of his snake-lady overseer behind his head, but continued to munch and scroll, hoping she'd go on about her business and leave him be. "Mark," She began, "Thomsen called."

"Huh," He responded with, "I didn't think they knew I lived here." He didn't turn to face her, as if she wasn't a big priority to deal with. He finished his meal and sipped on the milk before placing the ceramic bowl in the sink, running a bit of water over it. Finally, he turned to look at Naja, and saw mist in her eyes - she had been crying. Mark closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and opened them once more, relaxing his aura of hostility. "There's a lot of things I could say but I don't really think you could understand them. Some times, I just want the underdog to win, you know?"

"This is real life, Mark," Naja returned, "These actions are not befitting of a hero, you did some major damage to some other teens and I could realistically kick you off the team for it." She stared at him hard, clenching her teeth slightly and waiting to calm a bit before continuing. "All that would do is drive you away and I don't want that to happen. You belong here and are wanted here, but not if you decide to do things recklessly like that ever again. This is your second strike, Mark, the first was with Ashy, and it's getting hard to keep you under control."

Mark looked to the side for a moment, leaning his back to the counter, then spoke back to Naja. "Yeah, it wasn't right." He admitted, "I did it because it felt good to be in control for once. To not be on the receiving end of that kind of stuff. I didn't use my powers, it was just me, and it won't happen again because I got it out of my system. I'm sorry."

Naja took a sharp inhale, "I know what it's like to be bullied and teased, Mark, and it isn't fun. There was a lot of times I wanted to break and cut loose, but I held back. Every time I wanted to scream, I grabbed a pillow. Every punch I wanted to throw landed on a bag. You need to get your emotions under control in order for this not to happen again. I can't trust your word after these past two incidents, I've taken the liberty of signing you up for some therapy in order to work through your problems. Your medication helps, but these events all have a build up that we need addressed."

"I don't want to go to fuckin' therapy," Mark replied quickly, "I just want to beat up bad guys to get the anger out of my system. Why can't I just drop down in the middle of a villain's lair and just go wild to blow off some steam?"

Naja shot back quickly, "You either go to therapy or get out, Mark, and that's final." With that, Naja slapped down a sticky note with a name, number, address, and time for Mark to go see a professional. He glanced down at the paper with a gaped mouth, looking up as Naja stormed off. He raised his finger and pointed at her, and took a deep breath to yell, but he fell through at the last moment. He closed his eyes and shook his head, snatching the piece of paper and storming out of the kitchen in a huff.

---

His fist slammed hard against the alien's torso, the larger humanoid buckling slightly under the immense force and falling backward, but Mark's attack was returned with a brutal backhanded slap by Champion Thurmond. Mark's eyes shook slightly before cutting back to look at the Thraxian, unleashing a brutal flurry of combination attacks as his anger rose higher and higher. To his credit, Champion Thurmond was able to withstand the onslaught and return the strikes when appropriate, silently helping the Corpsman better himself and blow off steam, as the humans would say.

"Corpsman," Thurmond declared suddenly as he grabbed Marks energized fist, "Your caretaker has a point."

"Yeah?" He said, yanking his arm free and throwing a harsh kick, the Thraxian catching that blow as well and tucking it close to his side. "What does that mean, exactly?"

"When your emotions flare, your form disappears. In a calm state, you are fluid and able to move and respond like a stream of water. When angry, you become like a boulder, powerful, hard hitting, but predictable and avoidable. It is a weakness any formidable opponent will pick up on and exploit to the very end. Go to this therapy and rid yourself of emotions." The two warriors stopped the sparring, Mark sitting on the floor of the alien's spaceship and sighing, wiping the sweat that covered his face and hair. "Return to me as an even stronger combatant."

"You're such a great teacher, Champ." Mark said with a laugh.

"Hm? We're training to defeat the Corpsman who destroyed my planet. We are teaching each other in small parts every day."

"That's true. I guess I do have some trauma I need to resolve. I figure foster care, being an orphan, and a bullied kid with mental issues all wrapped together make a beautiful mess that a professional needs to sort out. I'm just a teenager, after all."

Champion Thurmond agreed, "We are the products of our upbringing, and it isn't our fault what happened in our early stages. Moving forward on your own is all up to you, all so that you may become a stronger warrior in the end."

Mark smirked and shook his head, enjoying his ally and how everything in life comes back to fighting in some way. He slid open his phone and dialed the number Naja had given him, setting up an appointment that same day in just a few minutes. "Alright Champion, I gotta head out. They had a no-show at the therapist so I'm going to fill in, gotta be there in a few minutes." He grabbed his training bag and headed for the door, his ally calling out, "Safe traveling, Mark Nemo." He exited the spaceship, taking a deep breath of air before he did so in order to fly back down to the planet from orbit, slowing to a crawl as he appeared in front of a small shopping mall in downtown San Diego.

"Midway Garden Plaza..." Cosmic said as he read the shopping mall's name, ducking his head in the door and briefly speaking with the receptionist who he had just spoke to a few minutes prior. He was quickly led to the back room through a few thinly walled hallways, sitting himself on a very cliche therapists' chair as the secretary promised his therapist will be in shortly. "Thank you, I'll be here waiting." He said as she exited, glancing up at the certifications and neutral-looking room around him. Without warning, a large, well-built man slid open the door and excused himself for his lateness.

"Thank you for your patience, I'm glad you were able to make it on such short notice, I am looking forward to working with you, Mr. Nemo." The man turned around, revealing a well-dressed, well-built figure with a full beard and bald head. He reached out his tremendous hand for Mark to shake, further explaining, "I am Doctor Konrad Murray, pleased to meet you."

[Absolon-7]

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

Casimir Herman October 2nd
Casimir's hopes of breaking his multi-ton squatting record that afternoon were to be unceremoniously dashed by the timely intervention of Renata dragging him into the Tower by the sleeve without so much as a word. The suddenness of the recruitment stunned him silent for a few moments as he looked at the back of Renata with scrunched up eyebrows and a frown. Who the hell does she think she is? As they walked back into the Tower and before they could take the elevator or stairs Casimir swung his arm in a semi circle around Renata to release himself from her grasp. He then took a step back to cross his arms in indignation.

"Going from the silent treatment to dragging me around like a dog? Can't say I'm used to whiplash like that," scoffed Casimir as he stopped dead in his track refusing to move before he got answers, "So what's up? Need someone beat up?"

Alexis

Viviana Couture October 2nd
The sight inside the workshop looked to be from some mechanical Wonderland with British rock acting as an oddly appropriate background noise and a swarm of robotic pink fairies swirling all about. She stared wide eyed at the imposing giant mechanical being that stood straight against the wall like an unwavering sentry. She almost didn't notice the diminutive blonde girl waving and then coming over towards her. She couldn't really help but admire at all the work put into such a grand machine. Must've taken ages to put together sorta like when she and her uncle tried putting together a canoe together that didn't go so well.

"You're in? Neato!" said Viviana nodding enthusiastically at Alexis agreement. She handed off the bottles of Fanta from her purse before looking around for a stool to have Alexis sit on, "Hmmm well you choosing my outfit sounds like a good trade."

Dratz. Thought the Fanta would be enough of a bribe. Viviana set her purse down on a table and took our her make up kits along with all secondary equipment. With her leg she extended her foot to wrap around a stool some distance away and contracted it to bring it back for Alexis to sit on. Viviana patted the seat and prompted for Alexis to sit on it with a smile.

"Okay so your skin is pretty fair so I'm thinking emphasizing the eyeliner is gonna look great but lets start with some foundation," said Viviana undoing the latches on the first makeup box, "Say what's that motorcycle frame there for? Looking to go vroom vroom yourself?"

[Tomia]

School
Mars sent a grateful smile Alexis' way when she told of Mike in her own patented style. Mike still had a problem with him even weeks after their fight. Mars really didn't understand the guy. Meanwhile Angelica nodded at her girlfriend's suggestion. "You're right Lexi, we shouldn't do anything without talking to the others. So, let's just finish the day and we'll talk again later tonight. For now we should head back before people get suspicious." With that, the group dispersed and returned to the assembly. Soon after the team's gathering school had come to an end. Angelica did not delay in heading back to the tower, doing her best to avoid the crowds of people trying to surround her.

Back at the Tower, Mars
Mars had taken the bus back to the tower, and upon his arrival he decided to take a shower and relax for a bit. Once he finally returned to the living room he came upon the squad leaders departing what seemed likely to be a meeting. He figured that they were debriefing each other about what they knew regarding this new super powered drug. He saw Alexis walking through the living room and decided to catch up with her as the others dispersed. "Hey Alexis, how did things go in there? I just wanted to thank you for before, you know with Mike. I don't know what I'm supposed to do to get that guy to trust me. He disappeared and then when he comes back he's still holding grudges."

Roy
After the meeting Roy had decided to take Quinn on a quick walk before giving him his dinner. It seemed that the school had become the latest victim of the drug crisis and his teammates who were students were eager to fix the problem on their end. Him and the other squad leaders decided they would meet up latter tonight and discuss their plans to deal with the crisis with the entire team. For now, people needed time after school to relax and distress. For Roy, he decided he'd spend sometime hanging out with Quinn, who was currently asleep with his head resting on Roy's shoulder. But he also wanted to check in on Wendy, since he knew this was a big day for her. He was worried it likely didn't go well so he wanted to be supportive. And so he stood up from the couch with Quinn in his arms and headed upstairs to Wendy's room. When he arrived he knocked on the door, "Wendy? You in here?" He called to her.

[Galnius]

Angelica Dalin
Angelica entered the classroom for what would be the third time this year. She realized she should probably try to visit when she didn't have something to ask, but she also didn't want anyone to get suspicious of what may be transpiring. Then there was the fact that there was a chance that the Steven she remembered may not be who he was now, as it seemed from the last conversations, and from how he started this one.

Angelica wasn't too surprised by this. After all, he lived through a massacre of his friends, and her. Just having that memory seemed to change her. Still, she hoped it was for the better, while Steven's answer to her (in the form of a dismissive question) showed me may be trying to hide from it.

"Well, you're a teacher now, but before you were a hero. You were...my hero. I was hoping to be able to help people in a way that these powers could, and you've done the formalities before..." She twisted her hair, hoping she wasn't coming off too cruelly or too pushy. It then struck her that maybe the issue was in the past conversations was that she wasn't pushy enough. "Or, if you're afraid too....then tell me how to contact Bev. I doubt she's pretending like the past never happened."

---

Mika

Jan entered a bit too timidly for Mika, who was hoping for a reaction or something major. Instead, it seemed to her like he didn't know if he wanted to be there. He claimed to just be checking on her too, which meant he was planning on just a short visit. That wouldn't do.

"Yes, an interview. Now sit your ass down angel boy. Alright, first question. I don't hold back, so I hope you are ready for some fun times...for me."

Holding out a slice of pizza like it was a microphone, she asked her question. "You said last time we meet that you knew some of our wonderful city's heroes. Thus, you were alive before. How did you die? What did it feel like? Were they involved? Give me all the gory details...Oh, and just for you, I'll keep it off the record."

Mika brought the slice back to her and took a bite, all the while muttering under her breath. "It's not like anyone would believe me anyway.." Pausing for a moment, she motioned for him to stop talking, whether or not he had started. "Wait, first some wine. I know you christian peeps are all about the blood of christ or whatever, and it goes great with both interviews and pizza."

[Finland SSR]

Casimir Herman October 2nd

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

---

Of course, expecting of Casimir to stay silent throughout the whole journey, until she finally led the two of them somewhere where nobody could spy on them, was perhaps too much to ask. They barely managed to go down two floors before Casimir finally deflected Renata's hand away, stepped back, and forced the pink-haired girl to stop with a sigh. The bug-themed superhero was obviously unaware of what he was needed for, so he stopped the two of them in the middle of the corridor to confront her.

Thankfully, not somewhere where Red or Yoshi would be able to see the two of them... Renata placed her hands on her hips and shot back:

"Look, Casimir - if I'm reaching out to you of all people for help, then you should treat it that it's for something important." Having expressed her dissatisfaction with having been stopped so abruptly, Renata sighed again and turned her eyes towards the floor, tapping with her foot a bit.

"I, well... I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt for once and assume you have general awareness sometimes. Do you, perhaps... believe that something happened to Red?"

---

October 2nd

---

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

Immediately, Jan's psionic senses went into full awareness, answering his own question before he could even get any response - a couple or so mind signatures were scattered across the home, some familiar, some not so much. He couldn't be sure if Casimir was here and a hunch gave him a no, but Jadwiga certainly was... A feeling of regret began washing over the boy - surely, she must have already been made aware of his death a long time ago, how could she possibly take the return of someone dead lightly?

For a second, Jan began to reach for the handle of the window behind him, but suddenly froze.

Someone was watching him. An eye of violet, peeking from behind the door, followed by a purple-haired girl stepping out and staring at him. She clearly was unfamiliar with Jan and neither was he with her, even if she appeared somewhat familiar. Not in a deja vu kind of way, more in an... uncanny resemblance with someone else he knew.

The girl stepped forward with surprising courage and, understandably, had questions to ask, but they grew increasingly irrational as time went - Jan could understand worrying over his identity or why he suddenly snuck into the Herman home, but how he made his way in when the window was right behind him, or why his hair was so messy and who was going it? Well...

"...Nobody does my hair, it just kind of falls like that. Is it... really that catastrophic?" Jan defended himself and made a step back after the girl's sudden reach forward, unintentionally pressing his winged back against the window. "I, well... I climbed here through the window, my name is Jan, and I'm searching for-"

Suddenly, the young Virgil stopped and took a second glance at the girl's face. Slowly, he pulled out a small strip of paper attached to his belt, no larger than a fortune from a fortune cookie - within his fingertips, however, it suddenly transformed into a long parchment manuscript, reaching to the floor. "You must be..."

Jan took a yet another glance at the girl, then back at his parchment, then back at her.

"Megan?"

[Zarkenis Ultima]

October 2nd

---

---

And just like that, it seemed, the team's impromptu meeting at school came to an end. A little while later, so did the assembly, and with Cardinal's intervention over the students of Thomsen High began heading home for the day. Alexis didn't waste any time in leaving the campus. Normally she - as well as others such as Angelica and Coleen - would've had to attend track and field practice once regular classes were over, but given the events of the day, the teacher in charge had opted to give the club's members the day off so they could rest. Thus instead of heading to the gym once more, Alexis ran off into the streets, forgoing the bus in favor of heading towards her destination on foot. It was faster, if you knew the right path to take.

About fifteen minutes later, the blonde girl arrived at a house in a quiet area of the suburbs. It wasn't large, but it was obvious that a lot of care went into its lovely facade. Smiling to herself, she walked up the steps of the front porch and knocked on the door. After a few moments, it opened, revealing a bespectacled blond man in his forties, in good shape but a little shorter than average. Alexis didn't need to look at him to notice all of that, however - she knew his appearance by heart. Instead, she ran forward and hugged him.

"Daddy!" She squealed cheerfully, the man responding in kind and wrapping his arms around his daughter.

"Hey! How's my little superhero doing?" He asked affably while affectionately ruffling her hair. "I wasn't expecting a visit today!"

While at first Alexis had used the same excuse Mars had given his grandparents to cover up his involvement with the team, she wasn't blind to the fact that it wouldn't last forever, especially if the team was to last - come the end of summer it'd become almost impossible to keep the secret from her parents, and the deadline was shortened by a lot when she found out that they had been invited to the BAST. So towards the end of August, she had decided to come clean: she told her parents everything aside from the identities of most of the others, from her participation in the founding of the Young Bloods and in their many adventures - including one count of breaking into a prison - to her budding relationship with one of her teammates, Angelica.

It wasn't easy. She had been terrified of whether or not they would accept everything she had told them, but her fears were, at least partially, unfounded. Both of them were very proud of having a daughter brave enough to fight the good fight and smart enough to lead others into the fray, nevermind the tragedies of the past. As far as her relationship went, things were a little dicier. Her father, though surprised, accepted it with little issue. Her mother would need some time to come to terms with it.

"I'm doing fine, dad. Where's mom?" The genius girl replied, peeking past her father's frame and into the house, only to see no one there.

"Oh, she's at work. You know how it is. She's been breaking her back over some new project the office guys put her in charge of." Harry Callaghan spoke as he stepped aside and gave Alexis a little push - she walked into the house and he closed the door behind her.

"I'm not surprised. Us Callaghan girls just can't keep still, right?" Alexis joked as she made a beeline towards the kitchen, where a fat silver tabby was asleep next to its food bowl. The girl stealthily approached and leaned over to pet it. "Hey there buddy." She said. As soon as the cat noticed her presence, however, it meowed loudly and ran upstairs to hide. She sighed, though by now she was used to it. "Love you too."

"That cat is a terrible judge of character. The neighbor's kid is a little rascal but he has no qualms playing with her." Harry shook his head as he walked into the kitchen behind his daughter. "So what brings one of San Diego's most important heroes to my humble house?"

"The most important, dad! Don't forget that part!" Alexis said with faux indignation before smiling broadly. "Anyways, the boss cancelled practice today so I figured I could drop by for a hug." She explained. Harry's face lit up.

"That's great! If you can stay a while, I can call your mom and we can go to that place you like so much, what was it-" He started eagerly.

"Actually..." Alexis interrupted. "I can't stay too long. Some bad stuff happened at school, and the team's gonna have a meeting soon to see what we can do about it."

"Oh..." Her dad mumbled, crestfallen. Still, he bounced back quite quickly and walked up to the cupboard. "Then, maybe you can stay for a drink and tell me how your first day back in school went. I can make you that tea you like so much."

At this, the blonde girl smiled brightly. "Sure!"

---

After her brief visit to her parents' house, Alexis had made her way back to the tower just in time for a brief meeting between squad leaders, where Roy and Wyatt shared what they had discovered from the bank robbery and Casimir's subsequent investigation, while she and Shi shared what had transpired at school. The debriefing was over quickly enough, and aside from plans to hold a team meeting later to discuss how to address the power drug issue and another minor topic, there was nothing else to talk about. So when the meeting concluded, Alexis began making her way towards the kitchen, only to be stopped as a friendly face walked up to her.

"Oh hey Rocket-boy!" She greeted his fellow techie. "Things went, good I guess? We didn't really form a plan yet, Roy was just catching us up on what he found out and vice-versa." She explained with a light shrug. As the incident with Mike earlier was brought up, the blonde girl grinned. "Hey, no need to thank me about that, just one nerd looking out for another." She joked. She then gestured at him to follow as she went to the kitchen.

"I don't know what's his deal, honestly - I mean I do, but I don't know why he makes such a big deal out of it." She said as she opened the fridge and fished a can of soda out of it. "It's like the guy doesn't realize people can make dumb choices for the right reasons sometimes - no offense - and I mean we're talking about the guy who went in to try and stop Hex completely alone and without telling anyone else. Like, only Red would know about messing up more than he does, you know?"

She took a sip from her can before continuing. "I don't know, have you tried to talk things out with him, set the record straight? I know you probably don't like the idea, but I've talked to him a few times, before he disappeared again obviously, and he's not as stubborn as he sounds sometimes." She paused for a moment, tilting her head and looking up as in thought. "Failing that, I guess you could talk to Wyatt. That's another thing we talked about, actually. They put Cas and Mizu in Roy's team, and Mike in Wyatt's. So you're going to be working together from now on."

---

---

"It's a deal then!" Alexis cheerfully proclaimed as she grabbed the bottles of Fanta that Viviana handed her, taking one for herself and using one of her gauntlets to place the rest by her cooler. With that done, she uncapped the bottle and took a big gulp from it, letting out a delighted sigh afterwards. All the while, she watched with curiosity as Viviana took out all the tools of her trade and set them down on a nearby table. Wow, she really came here prepared. The blonde girl thought as she sat down on the stool her friend procured. As Viv asked about the bike frame, she smiled.

"Oh that? Yeah, it's my new pet project, now that I know Oberon can do the heavy lifting I built her for - not that certain boys on the team are giving me an easy time." She remarked. Being the one in charge of most of the maintenance work for the team's gadgets wasn't easy by any means, but it was a fair trade - she wouldn't want to be stuck regularly delving into the bowels of the tower's defense systems like Mars. "A girl has to travel in style you know? And I can't always be taking Oberon to work, a big ass robot showing up to stop a purse snatcher is a bit over the top don't you think?" The girl joked.

"So why'd you decide to come down here today, Vivi? Practicing for something?"

---

---

As the winged boy answered her last question, the girl put a finger against her chin thoughtfully. "I wouldn't say catastrophic but you could really be doing better, mister." She stated with a smile that quickly turned mischievous as she saw him fall back towards the window when faced by something as innocuous as a little proximity - he was clearly of the shy sort.

Hearing Jan explain himself, however, the girl couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Normally if someone climbed in through the window and claimed to be looking for something, that was a red flag and you should be calling 911 immediately. But Jan didn't seem like the type to do anything of the sort. He didn't look like he would hurt a fly, really. So she continued to stare at him curiously, leaning in closer as he unfurled what appeared to be a magical scroll and read from it.

Her surprise was evident in her face when, after checking and double checking the scroll, he said her name.

"Yes, that would be me. Megan Salem, pleasure to meet you." She said with a playful curtsy. "So you were looking for little old me? And why would God send one of his angels to come looking for a humble hair stylist?" She asked, putting a finger to her chin once again before suddenly going wide-eyed and taking a single large step back, away from the Virgil. "Oh, I sure hope your duty is not to take me away." She said, now feigning terror for a short-lived moment. "I'm afraid that won't be easy for you."

[Finland SSR]

Angelica Dalin

Steven Baker.

---

Angelica's words left the teacher in deep thought. He immediately got the easy thought out of his way - she was still as stubborn as he remembered her to be before her death. Just the last moment he got to saw her was proof enough of that - she's decided that she wants to pursue a life of selfless sacrifice to others, and so she's pursuing it. Steven is saying that he's just a teacher and he cannot offer any help - that's fine, she'll just go down her list of alternatives. How about Voice? Surely, Voice would help...

"I'm not sure if you should talk to Bev, she didn't really take the massacre... well." Steven stated, faintly. She knew of Angelica's resurrection, but he really wasn't sure if she would agree training an another teenage superheroine, especially one from her time in the Wonder Warriors, after what happened to Yoshiro. Steven never heard back from Bev whether they managed to figure something out regarding her, but Yoshiro returned to school this year, so he could only assume everything went fine.

The former hero let out a sigh. "If you want help with the paperwork, I suppose I can help you get through the procedure. Maybe. I don't know how much the system has changed in the last two decades, but I can only assume the answer is "a lot" - and I haven't exactly been trying to get up to date with the procedure." Staring through the window, towards the shore in the far off distance, behind the city panorama, he rest his head back on his seat. "Naja would probably know more, I suppose."

---

October 2nd

---

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

Alright, so, good news and bad news for Jan. The good news is that he was clearly not mistaken - the girl he named Megan introduced herself as such, even going as far as to give her full name, accurate to the one in the Virgil's manuscript. The bad news were... well, it was hard to tell whether the girl was serious or not, she certainly did not appear like the type to act serious, but she didn't seem to take the news well. The mere thought of being whisked away to the afterlife got her defensive and threatening to retaliate.

In a situation where Jan wasn't sure whether the person he's talking to was actually feeling off or simply playing around, his instincts always acted the same. Assume the former, just suck it up if it turns out to be the latter.

"W-wait! That's not what I meant! I-I'm not going to take you away or something!" Jan immediately began to defend himself, frantically flailing his arms around. "If anything, that's what I'm trying to stop..."

Taking a few seconds to calm down and take a breath, the boy finally continued. "...I suppose you've figured out by now, but I'm not from this world like you. I'm, well... I am from Heaven, the real one. When forces beyond the dimension of mortals threaten this one, we go down here and do something about it - but we can't stop everything ourselves. That's where powerful mortals - like you - come in, and... we have to ask for help."

Jan looked to the side, scratching the back of his head. "I suppose what I'm asking is... you don't have any important commitments this weekend, right?"

---

Mika

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

Jan sat down exactly as he was told, but it didn't mean he was going to be satisfied with the fate Mika chose to strangle him with.

"When did I ever agree to that?" he protested immediately upon the start of the interview, even if his words had about as much impact as a wall of cardboard trying to stop a crashing wave at this point. Mika had a lot of questions, and all of them centered around his personal life, growing increasingly in-depth and demanding.

He was a guardian angel now, he couldn't just step away and ignore those questions. As long as it is not a violation of non-interference policy in affecting the course of mortal history, nor discloses information about the afterlife, someone in his role has to provide the one they guard with answers.

Even before he could start answering, Mika started reaching for wine. Trying to get him drunk, too? How far was she going to go with this? "Please, fine, I'll try to answer... you don't have to reach for the wine so soon." the Virgil spoke up, raising his hand to push away anything which the girl might be pushing towards him, be it pizza or drinks. He didn't even know if alcohol works on him, anyway - the Choir has made him aware that Virgils, like all inhabitants of the afterlife, have no need for food to sustain themselves, but he wasn't sure if this extended to getting drunk or not...

Jan sighed and continued. "I was... friends with some of the Young Bloods, to put it that way, and I died helping them in battle. How I died... well, it's complicated, and the experience isn't relevant to someone like you, I imagine, but it wasn't gory, no. My mind got destroyed, not my body."

The Virgil reached towards the pizza for a second, then immediately withdrew his hand back in hesitation. "You seem awfully quick to turn this personal."

---

Jan Sorok, Champion of Heaven!

---

If the directions he had in the manuscript he dragged in his hands were correct... this must be the one. A rather large, comfy looking house drowned in the vastness of San Diego, light filtering through its windows and indicating that its inhabitants are home at a moment when Jan needs them to be.

Thankfully, the street nearby was empty, devoid of either cars or passing pedestrians, so nobody was going to point out the boy with wings landing from the sky and making his way to the front porch.

This couldn't possibly be any dumber. How could he possibly convince someone to join him in this task by showing up on their front door and declaring that they're on a mission from God? They'll throw him out as a lunatic...

But hey, it doesn't hurt to try, right? Jan stopped before the door, took a breath to calm himself down, and knocked.

[United Kingdom of Poland]

School
Roy
After the meeting Roy had decided to take Quinn on a quick walk before giving him his dinner. It seemed that the school had become the latest victim of the drug crisis and his teammates who were students were eager to fix the problem on their end. Him and the other squad leaders decided they would meet up latter tonight and discuss their plans to deal with the crisis with the entire team. For now, people needed time after school to relax and distress. For Roy, he decided he'd spend sometime hanging out with Quinn, who was currently asleep with his head resting on Roy's shoulder. But he also wanted to check in on Wendy, since he knew this was a big day for her. He was worried it likely didn't go well so he wanted to be supportive. And so he stood up from the couch with Quinn in his arms and headed upstairs to Wendy's room. When he arrived he knocked on the door, "Wendy? You in here?" He called to her.

"Just a minute!" Wendy called from her bathroom, touching up the last few spots of makeup she was using to cover the black eye that had started to form from the attack earlier that day. She promised herself she'd see Jacob as soon as she got the chance, but she couldn't risk Roy seeing it before she got the chance. She loved Roy... but he did a very poor job of hiding how overprotective he was around her. Right now, the team needed him hunting down leads to the drugs she'd run into at school, not stalking her at Thompson looking to scare the living daylights out of any would be bullies. Satisfied he wouldn't notice, she made her way to the door.

"Hey Roy." SHe said, reaching out to scratch Quinn behind his ear. "How was your day?"

[Galnius]

Jackrabbit
Andrew followed the dragon looking boy through the tower to the gym. It seemed to be a mostly standard gym. The layout was extensive, but the area didn't seem too suited to superhumans. Still, if he turned his powers off, he could get some usage from these.

"It...doesn't really stack up to what the Stars have, yeah, but I can make due. And you don't have to worry about holding back against me. I can handle it. I redirect force, so go as hard as you want. It just lets me go harder."

While doing some pre-fight preparation, Andrew took some type to study his opponent. He seems to be a Dra'Quinni, but he looks beefier than most of them. On top of that, he said something about Terrakinesis. Combined with his wings...I think I'll try to keep him in the air.

Finishing his prep, Andrew lowered his goggles and tightened wrappings on his hand. "Alright big guy, I have a better idea. Let's take this outside, and we can go all out. I didn't get to show off in the tournament, so I need this. Er....assuming you guys have a healer."

---

[The Republic of Atria]

Jan

Vince

It'd been a rough night on the couch, but when he snapped awake, still smelling the resin of the chemicals from his bombs and dry mouth, he figured that what happened last night wasn't in fact, a dream. He did indeed go blow up some mobsters and met a weird dragon lady who happened to be doing the same thing. He didn't see her around, so he figured she had either left to go her own way or was sleeping somewhere. The nature of their relationship was still foggy, but he wasn't opposed to it.

No point in wasting valuable brain space thinking about details that don't really matter. He went into the master bathroom and took a nice hot shower, rinsing off most of the chemical and alcohol smell. The plan being to get something to eat, at which point he hoped that he still had food in the pantry or fridge since he couldn't remember the last time he went grocery shopping for something that wasn't bomb adjacent. Worst case scenario, he went out to grab something to go. It wasn't as if he didn't have the money.

His eyes widened when he opened the pantry to see that he did have food: An entire box of unopened sugar cereal and the fridge even had a half full gallon of milk a few days off from actually expiring. After pouring himself a bowl and was just about to sit down to eat, he heard a thud from upstairs. It was probably Zayda, but that didn't stop him from grabbing a few bombs he'd made out of tin cans. He didn't quite remember what they did, but it was probably lethal. He had to stop making stuff when he got drunk. Or at least label it better. Last thing he needed was to accidentally build a neutron bomb and forget about it, or worse, set it off.

Then he remembered that he'd need some very specific radioactive material for that, most of which was probably out of his reach. As he chewed on his bowl of fruit loops with a side of scotch, he heard a knock at the door. At first he thought it could be the police, but he was certain no one followed or saw him after he and Zayda knocked over that mob meeting spot. He crept over to the door and looked through the peephole, tin can bomb in hand ready to go when... Well it wasn't what he expected.

He unlocked the door and opened it. "...Yeah? Oh. Girl scouts. Right. Y'all changed the look up a bit. Not sure how I feel about the wings, but whatever." He muttered, dropping the tin can on the floor and pulled out his wallet. "Or are you one'a them salvation army chicks? Whatever, if you're the girl scouts, I'll uh... You got those coconut cookies? Fu-Freaking love those. Even if y'all charge an arm and a leg for 'em." He muttered with a half smile. "How much per box?"

[Absolon-7]

Renata Martinez, the heroic Stella!

Casimir Herman October 2nd
Casimir eyed Renata with the same fascination a mantis would have a wandering beetle as she seemed to struggle to state a direct point. Although she did have a point since ff she came to him of all people it must be something big. Casimir rolled his eyes at the last minute insult but otherwise showed no sign of being affected by it as Renata finally revealed her cause. He brought up a hand to rub his chin as he brought himself to recollect memories of his friend.

"Actually yeah I do. I was hanging with him in his room earlier in the morning and a trashcan filled with empty beer bottles ended well getting spilled. Really didn't take me finding out too well," admitted Casimir putting his hands into his hoodie's pockets, "I know he likes to drink but it was like he was some middle aged man drinking himself to death after his midlife crisis backfired."

The truth was he had wanted to know more but Red wasn't having any of it. If he had picked more Red would've probably come to blows which considering Casimir had superdurability wouldn't have been that bad. But the last thing he wanted was for his friend to get more hurt then he already was.

"Actually, I mentioned Yoshi once and the dude went ballistic on me," said Casimir before pausing for a moment, "First guess of mine is some lover's spat. Nastier then usual though."

Alexis

Viviana Couture October 2nd
"Sure might be overkill but can't say it wouldn't be effective either," giggled Viviana as she got the first wave of makeup,"But a motorcycle is pretty rad too. Always loved it whenever Casi took me out on rides on his. Too bad its kinda all six feet under now with that whole metal dra'qunni thing back in August. Woo!"

Viviana got to work in skillfully applying the first layer of makeup on Alexis' face as this would the crucial base for the rest of it. Alexis face was pretty smooth so emphasizing some contours would make it pop really well. The whole activity simply went mechanical for Viviana as she was by no means an amateur when practicing someone else's make up as she was practically in charge of it in her friend group back in her hometown. It was sorta like her own art form that was just relaxing to the umpteenth degree. Its was funny really how adverse she was to it when she was little but it sure did wonders in being fun now. Vivina decided to take a quick breather for own chug at a Fanta bottle for herself.

"Just thought it would be fun to hang out with you. My brain turns to oatmeal mush without entertainment and not the good kind of oatmeal. I mean the bad kind like grandma who never learned how too cook level bad oatmeal. Uggh now I'm hungry," rambled on Viviana closing up her soda bottle to get back to work, "Alrighty. Let's got eyelashes dolled up now. Although it is a teensy weensy bit selfish practise since the class I'm taking at the college is sorta doing the make up for the drama club."